Leslie and her family was having dinner together while watching the TV.The news then went to the business world:
"SNN Beginnings Tech. Company suddenly rose in popularity for their first product known as PS. It was a security software where the target was the schools and university."
"It was a complete set with its own anti virus. Just like the iOS, these was a closed system giving it more security and only SNN could change the details in it. It"s stocks were still on the rise despite this being the second week of its release."
"It suddenly rose to popularity due to the fact that so many hackers were pulled in to try and penetrate it but none of them were able to do so."
"With this, every school"s database could be termed as impenetratable. Together with it was the fact that even people who could be known as beginners when it comes to programming, could use it with ease."
"It has the function of two b.u.t.tons, activate and deactivate. There is also an instruction manual, which was very detailed, to give the user the chance to understand it in a more indepth manner."
"And the top reason for its rise in popularity was because "Pianist" himself has given word that it was among the best."
"Pianist was a well known personnel within the IT world and a lot of people have challenged him only to lose without much fight."
As the news kept going, Leslie could only stare wide eyed.
It was only just a month since that talk.
"No wonder she was so sure of her product, it was not something anyone could just penetrate," her mind was in a blur.
She didn"t expect this kind of outcome from the offer Amber have given back then.
"What"s wrong? You stopped eating," her mother asked.
"Hmmm... Oh, it"s nothing."
It was after dinner when she was finally on bed did she try to contact Amber.
"Have you seen the news?" was Amber"s first question upon answering the phone.
"I have and I couldn"t believe my eyes and ears. Even Pianist approved of it."
On the other side, Amber had an evil grin.
"Since I have the means, why can"t I use my own popularity to approve of my own product?" she thought as Ashton shakes his head on her.
"Shameless."
She wanted to retort but couldn"t do so, she was still on the phone.
She decided to ignore him for the time being.
"What do you think?" she turned her attention to her phone and asked.
"I want to see it for myself before giving my decision."
It"s not that she didn"t believe in it, but she"ll just be more convinced if she could check just how amazing it is.
"Okay then, I"ll meet you at the student council president"s office tomorrow afternoon."
After that the two of them said their goodbyes.
"Why here?" Ashton had a raised eyebrow after hearing her decide on her own.
"This is better, the office has its own privacy and it is already within the building. We didn"t need to walk too far, plus you already told me that you have nothing going on during the afternoon till evening."
He was speechless, she knew that Leslie would ask her tonight. She knew that she would want to see the finished product. She was able to foretell all of these and asked him in advance.
"Why are you treating this place like your own?"
"I am planning on asking you for this place once you all leave the next year."
Blake and Devon was also there, they just remained silent and couldn"t help but reevaluate Amber after hearing everything that she have done.
They already knew that she was the "Pianist" as well.
But after hearing her last sentence, all three of them looked at her.
That"s right, after this year, once they finish the school year on July. She would be left alone in this place.
"Don"t look at me like that, since I chose this path. I shall walk through it until the end," seeing their look, she could only say this.
"So can I just stay here? If we rent out the penthouse of the hotel, then that would be another income right?" her jolly att.i.tude was in full play and she was in all smiles as she looked at Ashton.
"Do as you please," he has no qualms over her staying here.
This was a temporary place for them after all.
"Then its decided, Leslie and I will have our meeting in this office tomorrow."
"Seriously Amber, you really do know how to use everything you have at hand don"t you? It was already a shock to find out that "Pianist" was just a young girl. But it was more of a shock to see her this shameless," Blake commented.
"Since I have such ident.i.ty, why not use it? It was still Pianist"s product after all. If he just agreed I would have s.h.i.+eld to promote it as well," she even complained.
Of course she had asked Ashton, to which he vehemently declined.
"Well, this is still a business after all. If his family found out that he had promoted another product then they would surely have some complaint," Devon explained seeing her look as if she was wronged.
"So it was only less than ten months left. Getting used to this is a bit bad,"
She fell silent upon realizing her own words since a while ago. She was so used on answering straight away that she didn"t even realize the words she blurted out.
Only after hearing the word "family" did it dawn on her that she no longer has any family.
The other three suddenly felt distressed, her expression slowly changed and she somehow turned pale.
"Amber, are you okay?" Blake waved his hand in front of her.
She snapped out of her thoughts, "Oh did you say something. I was just thinking about all the income I"m receiving."
"Hmmm since it"s quite late already, I suppose I should return to the hotel now."
"Let Carl bring you home," Ashton said after hearing her.
"No need. I want to take a walk. A forty minute walk is a good exercise," she shook her hand and waved them goodbye with a smile.
She didn"t let any of them speak as she speedily left the office.
This baffled the other three even more, though it"s night it is still around 7 so there are still quite a lot of people walking around.
So they are not worried of her walking back, but instead the sudden change in her. She seemed quite fine even after saying that they would leave. And that she chose this path.
Yet why did she suddenly looked so down?
They were left wondering while Amber inhaled the air of the night. The street was not so busy but it was not so idle either.
From time to time she would come across a family, at times it would only be a couple.
Somehow even though it was not yet that cold she couldn"t help but to hug her jacket tighter to her body, she felt cold.
A sad smile lingered on her face as she kept walking, at times she would take a deep breath as if trying to calm her nerves.
It was because she met the Coleman family then she became acquainted with Ashton and the others, that the past three months after the tragic end of her family, didn"t feel so heavy to her.
Because she had companions, that even when she needed to just cry without anyone asking her what"s wrong, she could just cry.
She never had much thought but now, she was feeling empty somehow.
"I just wish I would be able to get pa.s.s through this within ten months. I have to stand strong if I want to be successful."
The air of the night allowed her to reign in all her emotions that almost broke out. She was able to calm down upon arriving to the hotel.
She still gave a sigh upon entry to her room before taking out a set of daggers. Standing on her living room she faced the dart board.
In attempt to clear her mind, this is how she always did it. Practicing her dagger shooting.
"Those guys didn"t bring it up, but they must be curious as to how I manage to become this good. Even with the gun."
For a sickly person such as her, all her training was not easy. At times during the middle of the training she would suddenly suffer an attack.
Her parents wanted her to stop but she wanted to become better. She wanted to have the means of protecting them as well. So even if she felt so weak after having an attack she would still push through with her training.
After the last dagger hit the board, she stood still staring at the board.
"But all the trainings were of no use, you still died right in front of me. I couldn"t even do anything but just be protected by you."