"Zoe! Zack! " I shouted as I climbed up the last step that would lead me to the kids floor.
I got no reply and frowned, walking further down the hallway and looked in the first place I thought they could possibly be.

I worked six days of the week, with Sunday being my off day and I was allowed to report an hour layer than I normally did during the week as it was a weekend. At least my boss was lenient. And no despite what you might think, I reported directly to Valarie, which basically saved asshole's life because I highly doubt I had enough patience to tolerate him.
The amount of hatred I felt towards him was actually scary as I had only ever felt such intense hate for one person. I should have probably worried about my hatred for him as he was still my boss but I just didn't give a fuck at the moment.

Despite it being a weekend, Valarie had told me that the kids still woke up at eight am, which was shocking because who in the world would fucking wake up that early on their free day? These kids apparently. I wish I had such an opportunity and was slightly envious of them, though their miserable lives, sorry to say, made me thankful for my always busy adventurous life.

When I didn't find any of them in their bedrooms, I went to the game room which was the only other room they enjoyed hanging out and I found them watching the spider man animated series.
I walked in trying to be as silent as possible though I had a feeling they had already felt my presence.
"Hey guys!" I greeted them as I sat down, putting the shopping bag besides my legs.
"Hey weirdo." Greeted Zoe with a smile which I returned with a playful glare. Zack waved at me, smiling at me, his cute dimples coming to play. I had noticed that Zack never talked out loud and would whisper when he wanted to say something into a person's ear. I figured something had happened to make him that way and although I was tempted to ask questions I felt we hadn't established that kind of trust.
"What you got there?" Asked Zoe her eyes already on the bag.
"Oh nothing special. Just something I thought of getting yesterday." I replied trying to contain my excitement.
"And you brought it here why?" She asked, and although it sounded rude, she was actually just curious.
"Well, yeah. Cause they aren't exactly mine." I said smiling smugly.
"Can you cut to the chase already?" She said her impatient self getting frustrated, something i noted we had in common.
"Can't you just be a normal kid for once and play along?" I asked her back, frowning.
"Well, that's just a dumb question coming from you, of all people. We both know that my IQ doesn't exactly to be classified as normal. Two, there is a saying that goes like, normal is overrated or something like that." She replied and I rolled my eyes at her blunt comment. The more I got to know her the more she sounded like Sheldon from the series Big Bang Theory.
"Wouldn't hurt you to act like one once in a while though." I replied lowly my gaze moving from her to Zack who I noticed had subtly increased the volume of the TV and had completely ignored us, paying attention to the series.
"Exactly. Once in a while. Today is not one of those days. Besides its too early and my brain is resting." She replied sassily. Okay I change my mind, she's more like a sassy version of Sheldon which was even scarier.
"Does a genius 's brain ever rest?" I asked lowly sarcastically.
"Actually..."she started but I cut her off. She clearly didn't get that it was a rhetoric question.
"Never mind. Its a gift for you two." I said extending the bag for her to take.
"Ill let the fact that you were rude to me slide because I actually love gifts and you gave me a peace offering." She said as she opened the bag and I felt anxious for some unknown reason again.
She slowly took the items in the bag out and I hated how she took her time when doing things. I felt like she enjoyed making me nervous as I waited for her to give me a feedback.
She took the ball out first and I saw her eyes widen in shock and happiness, her lips widening as a smile took over her face, making her glow. At that moment she was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen.
Zack had by then paused his series, his attention on us as his green eyes watched our interaction closely.

"You bought us a ball?" She asked excited.
"Yep. Check inside the bag, there's more." I said.
She dug inside the bag again, pulling the two Jerseys that had been neatly folded together out. She looked at them, putting the one meant for her over her pajama clad body as she bounced excitedly with the balls of her feet.
"Oh look Zack, there's one for you too."She said passing Zack his jersey and I had never felt more achieved in my life than when I saw his eyes light up with happiness as he wore his excitedly over his navy blue batman pajamas.

However, just as fast as their happy mood came, it disappeared, replaced with a sad look that had me frowning in confusion.
"Don't you like it?" I asked them.
"No. We.. We love them. Its just that, we won't exactly get the chance to wear them."replied Zoe.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, we don't exactly have a place to play with the ball and besides, we aren't exactly allowed to wear this as its not appropriate." She replied sighing as they both sat down, the shoulders sagging in defeat.
"Okay, first of all, you have a huge backyard that is more than enough space for you two to play. Two, who the hell has told you the nonsense that those aren't appropriate attire?" I asked slowly fuming.
"Well, my tutor told me that a proper lady never takes part in such rowdy activities." She replied and she too rolled her eyes at how ridiculous that statement was.
"So we aren't allowed to play such games here." She added.
"That's just stupid. Whoever came up with such a rule? I swear the more I get to see what your life is like the more I thank God for mine." I said.
"Sorry... "I quickly added when I rethought my statement and saw how rude it sounded.
"Its okay. Besides, I sometimes wish that my life wasn't as boring or monotonous as it is." She complained.

I looked closely at her and I could tell that she did need some excitement in her life. She was a child after all. Even though she had taken charge of hers and her brother's lives and acted more like an adult than a child. Suddenly, I got another brilliant idea.
"What do you kids have planned for the day?" I asked them.
"Nothing. We will probably watch TV all day then play chess afterwards." Replied Zoe.
"Well, I was thinking, since you have nothing better to do,  why don't we go out for the day?" I asked them.
Their eyes lit up again but just as fast their moods dropped and I was amazed at how fast their moods changed. In fact it should be a world phenomena.
"We aren't allowed to leave the compound unless when we are with Eddie, Valarie or my dad." Said Zoe, releasing a deep sigh.
At her reply, all I could think was seriously?! How sad can these kids lives be?
"Well, what if I told you that I could get us out of here?" I asked them and their eyes lit up again.
"Can you?" She asked excited.
"Yeah. In fact go get ready guys, we have a long day of exploration and fun. The big city awaits us." I replied with a smile that seemed to fuel their excitement.

They both ran to me and wrapped their tiny arms around me so fast that had I been standing, I would have lost my balance and my ass would probably be on the maroon carpeted floor, with the two little figures on top of me.

"Thank you so much!" Said Zoe, their heads on either side of my neck, and I felt my heart tug at their gesture. Its funny how we barely talked to each other a few hours ago but here we were hugging like I had known them their whole lives.
"Zack, let's go get ready. You can help him dress while I get out of this dress." She instructed me, her nose wiggling in disgust as she looked at her pink frozen pajamas.
She ran off to her room right after, leaving me with Zack in the room.
"Shall we?" I asked extending my hand to him. He took it almost instantly, nodding at me in reply.
I think by then I had already grown on him and I was happy that all was turning out well.
One hour thirty minutes later, Zoe and Zack were dressed each in the white jerseys, pairing them with a pair of blue jeans for Zoe and a pair of black sweats for Zack and a pair of sneakers.
Zoe had decided to let her hair down for once, which made her even more beautiful and I complimented her on her beautiful waist length hair. I also noted that her roots weren't brown but scarlet red and I knew she had dyed her hair. All I could ask myself was why would she do that to such beautiful hair?
Since I was dressed in a pair of grey sweats, black band T-shirt and sneakers, I matched the dress code perfectly. With our ball in my hand and our attire set, we excitedly went into my car, preparing for a day that we would all remember.

Getting out of the compound wasn't as easy as I thought. Greg, the guard at the main gate had been acting like a bitch, adamantly refusing to let us go until Felix, the other reasonable guard came to see what was going on. I figured he was in charge as Greg moved back and let him handle my stubborn ass according to him.
After begging and pleading that no harm would come to the kids and promising to call him every one hour with the feedback, he let us go. I was relieved but not as much as the kids behind me.
We sang songs that played from the slightly functioning radio, and despite having bad horrible voices, our bad singing seemed to only add to the syke we had while singing.
It wasn't long before I drove into the huge car park next to the park. The whole time, Zoe and Zack had their eyes glued to the Windows, pointing out different things they had read from books and educational magazines.
As soon as I had unbuckled my seat belt, I heard the car doors open and swiftly close as Zoe and Zack quickly got out, waiting for me to come out.
"You guys are pretty pumped up." I teased them and Zoe rolled her eyes at me while Zack just looked around excitedly.
"Let's go play already." She said getting impatient and I chuckled, enjoying her get frustrated.
"Okay okay, let's go then." I told them when she sent a death glare my way and I led them towards the huge field in the middle of the park.

We tossed the ball a couple of times, Zoe attempting to dribble and do tricks she saw on you tube and failing miserably which Zack and I laughed at. Especially when she got angry as to why she couldn't do it since she was a genius.
We decided to take a break when Zack saw an ice cream truck just next to the field, by the bench and pointed excitedly at it. I bought each one of us a cone, with Zack getting three huge scoops of three different flavors which I was surprised didn't fall down.
We decided to rest under a huge tree and I would be lying if I said I didn't welcome the much needed shade and back rest.
Zack was the first one to finish and soon after, he whispered into Zoe's ear that he wanted to go play on the swings with the other kids. I allowed him too, telling him to be careful not to hurt himself or break his glasses for I didn't have a good excuse to give his dad.
Zoe decided to sit with me and we enjoyed the comfortable silence until I had to break it with my curious questions.

"What's your IQ grade?" I asked her.
"169." She replied.
"Wow! That's high!" I exclaimed
"Yeah its alright. There are people out there smarter than me though which makes me average." She replied and I looked at her trying to see if she was just trying to be humble. But again I was shocked at the lack of emotion on her face.
"You must have intimidated kids in school I bet."
"For the short time I attended it yes. And some of the teachers too. Though most were just fascinated by me."
"Is that why you stopped going to regular school? Because you were scared and hated the attention?"
"On the contrary, I loved going to school. As scary as it was at times, I enjoyed watching normal people interact. Even though I would not take part in the social activities."
"Oh? Why did you then?" I asked sitting up and turning my face towards hers.
"My father thought it would be wiser to be homeschooled. He had always been for the idea but his decision was cemented when Zack stopped talking. We would both have been out casts anyway so its better this way. "She replied and although what she said made sense, a little part of me still felt like they were missing a huge part of growing up.
"You don't have to go to regular schools you know? There are special schools that can cater to you and Zack's case." I added after a few minutes of silence passed between us.
"I know. But that would mean that we would get separated. And Zack doesn't exactly adapt well to a new environment if am not there. We are a package deal so to say." She said sounding so mature.

Speaking of Zack, my eyes looked towards the playground to find that he wasn't there. Panicking I looked around to see if I could spot him without alarming Zoe but I guess my poker face was weak cause she immediately caught on to my panicked state and without even asking started helping me search for her brother.
We heard some cheering coming from the other end of the park, a crowd had surrounded one of the chess players bench and where busy chanting cheering and we both looked at each other, our eyes portraying the same message. Without another word, we both got up and rushed to the crowd, the whole time I was praying that I was right and that the little munchkin was a part of the crowd or else,someone would be having my head before the end of the night.