Wendy tiptoed into the kitchen, her feet gliding across the white tiles of the kitchen as she snuck up on her brother, completely in his own world as he prepared dinner.

  Today would be a rather generic looking  spaghetti bolognaise but Alvin knew how to turn run of the mill dishes into something that approached divine. Wendy paused when she was just behind Alvin, failing to notice the shadow falling over him. She pulled her arms back before letting them spring forward into Alvin’s back.

 “ You think you’re really big eh punk!” Wendy’s voice blared from behind Alvin, followed by a sudden shove. Alvin toppled towards the hot stove but managed to use the counter to steady himself. His hands were inches from the metallic stove , relaying to his brain how lucky he was that he hadn’t landed slightly to the left or he’d be grilling human flesh.

“ What the hell Wendy?” Alvin let rip as he did a one eighty degree turn, his step sister glowering at him, her anger masking bluer emotions.He didn’t need to be a psychic to know why but even so, this was still pushing it when compared to what his sibling had done in the past.

 “ What else?” Wendy winced as she grabbed his shoulders with both hands, her muscles screaming at her to take it easy. She would give them that but only after she dealt with the source of her grouse.

 “ You humiliated me in front of the entire school. No, not you,” Wendy picked him up by the shoulders, her biceps flexing as his feet lost contact with the ground. Behind him, a pot of water began to boil, bubbles of dissolved air breaking through the surface.

 “ Your big bitch. Bet it felt good to watch? Wendy shook Alvin hard like a ragdoll, her body shaking as she thought of the ways she could hit back at Cassie. Since she declared Alvin a close friend, he’d make for a good appetizer before she took down Babezilla.

 “ I remember it very well,” Wendy grunted while starting to elucidate the events after lunch.

******

 The hallways were saturated with the laughter of the three Titans as they strode down, Alvin in tow as he sat on Cassie’s shoulder, his new friend telling them a funny joke. Alvin had began to feel more like he belonged to the group as they gobbled about everything and anything that cross their minds.

 The only person who wasn’t liking any of this was trapped in Cassie’s shoe. Wendy had felt the blows Cassie returned and once her captor went mobile, each reverberation from her footfalls made her lose hope in getting out. Either Cassie had conveniently forgotten about her or she had more planned once she got home.

  “ Cass, you forgot about Wendy,” Jamila tapped Cassie on her shoulder to remind her of the little girl in her shoe.

 “ Wha-oh right!” Cassie exclaimed, Wendy had slipped her mind. In part this was due to Wendy’s taciturn acceptance of her fate but also because she and her pals were so engrossed in their small talk, pushing Wendy out of sight and out of mind.

 Letting Alvin climb on to Jamila’s hand, she bent down and slid her foot out of her shoe before overturning the bus sized footwear, Wendy hitting the ground with a painful thud.

 “ Oh god…” She mouthed, having had the wind knocked out of her as her arms pushed her off the ground. Her clothes were soaked in her own perspiration, Cassie’s sock also bearing traces of Wendy’s sweat.

 Beads of perspiration cascaded down her cheeks, her ebony locks glued to her face.

 “ I’ll get you for this Cassie,” She wailed at her assailant, pointing a finger up at her.

Cassie just smirked and crossed her arms over her chest, “ Sorry, its kind of hard to take you so seriously from up here.” She was hardly threatened by Wendy and to make her point, trapped the girl under her big toe, the little appendage enough to overwhelm Wendy.

 “ I’ll let you go and I really hope this is the time I’ll see you like this,” Cassie said with a stern voice, removing her toe from Wendy. The latter got up and ran off  without turning back.

********

 “ Your girlfriend has some really rancid feet there, hope you can handle them or you guys will never hit it off,” Wendy’s noise wrinkled at the mere thought of it. Sour milk sprang to mind, as did stale sweat when she thought back to those moments.

 “ She’s just a friend, I don’t date girls whom I’ve known for less than forty eight hours,” Alvin rebutted her. Wendy pressed herself against Alvin.

 “ Whatever she is to you, it changes nothing. Unless she finds a way to squeeze herself under this roof, I’m in charge and this means, everything is still the same,” Wendy said but she felt uncomfortable even mentioning Cassie, the

 “ So, you better learn to take it like a man,” Wendy reinforced her point by slapping Alvin across the face. She wasn’t using all of her strength but it was enough to throw him to the floor. If she had done it any harder Alvin would probably have to deal with whiplash.

 “ I-I am dealing with it like a man. If I weren’t, you’d have some slap marks on your face too.”

 “ Oh really? You can’t even reach the top of the shelf without a stepladder and you’re talking about hitting moi?” Wendy said sarcastically, a little amused by his threat.

“ How about this?”  Wendy aimed a backhand at Alvin but he was ready for this and dodged it, Wendy acknowledging his action with a dismissive grunt.

 “ So much for being a man,” She huffed.

 “ I’m man enough to evade your oversized paws,” Alvin shot back.

 “ Okay, I’ve had enough of this. Call me when you’re done with making dinner, Cinderalvin,” Wendy stormed off in a huff.

 Her feet stamped the floor as she barged upstairs, stumbling briefly but emotionally, the little trip hurt her a lot more than it should have. Getting to her feet, she tumbled into her room before flinging herself at her bed, head buried in a pillow where the softest of sobs began to emit.

*****

 Patricia reclined against the ubiquitous office chair, its blue felt exterior fitting snugly against her body’s natural shape while her boss, a ten and a half foot Amazon by the name of Lucy sat across the glass desk , keyboard embedded into it with the monitor sitting nicely on top of it.

Lucy was a blonde green eyed caucasian woman two years older than Patricia and despite the odd wrinkle, revealing the onset of middle age, she’d kept herself in tip top condition with her uniform wrapping itself nicely around her curvaceous body. She’d combined it with her business acumen to rise up relatively quickly but the recent upheaval had put paid to any plans she had of making it to the next rank before forty five.

Harvey Johnson was easier to play to, as long as the man had his ego stroked and the ventures made enough cash to keep the company afloat, you were more or less guaranteed secure employment. Linda Beaumont would be different, most of the sweeping changes being made to SilkTech or as it had been rechristened, Bonheur. Lucy felt the new name was both ostentatious and unnecessary. Other changes, less cosmetic and more harrowing had to be carried out by middle management.

 “ Patricia,” Lucy cooed as she beamed down at her subordinate. Patricia was a bag of nerves at this point, she had seen her coworkers being given the pink slip, all because of this need to reorganise Bonheur into a healthier company, one that wasn’t up to its neck in debt.

“ You’ve heard the rumours? I’ve heard a few but with all that’s been happening ,” She stopped to pour herself a drink of ice cold water from a pitcher.  

“   It’s so difficult to keep track of it. Anyway, what have you heard?” Lucy asked, not so much a direct question as it was a  probe into what people at Patricia’s level heard.

 “ Nothing really out of the ordinary,” Patricia shrugged.

 “ Mostly retrenchments and reshuffling although I heard Abe from finance was supposed to take your place while you were booted out on to the street,” Patricia remarked, drawing a chuckle from Lucy. That one she had heard off the grapevine herself but there was no grain of truth of there, the man himself got the sack while she was promised further employment. In her opinion he deserved it too, the company’s finances were in the toilet when Harvey was in charge and he’d played no part in trying to keep the place afloat.

“ Biggest laugh I got was when that model tried to step on her boss after he axed her. From what I heard, he wet himself although they still don’t know if its from fear or excitement since the girl, Sierra or something went commando when she tried to do it,” Both women laughed heartily.

 “ I’d tell you more Lucy but I think we both know why we’re here. Linda-I mean, Ms. Beaumont wants to throw out the deadwood and get this place ship shape again, which means firing people,” Patricia slashed through the banter, getting straight to the point.

Lucy turned serious, clearing her throat loudly and leaning in closer.

“I’ll be frank. You’re being fired,” Lucy announced, no punches pulled nor did she beat around the bush.

 Patricia felt the world grow cold, she’d given the last seventeen years of her life to the company. She’d survived greater scandals than this, the ignominy of a former CEO embezzling billions of dollars in 2008 to the product recalls of 2014, nearly bankrupting the company but Harvey  had steered it to safety. He may have been a philanderer but he did have a mind for business.

 “ You must be joking, SilkTech has survived worse! You were there when it happened and- and you’re firing me over this!” Patricia stood up, aghast at how easily she’d been discarded.

“ I am a senior manager, you can’t just throw me out like some stale piece of bread, I’m an asset to this company!” Patricia railed against the perceived injustice of this while Lucy watched, her pokerface on. She had seen worse, much worse than verbal abuse and when it escalated beyond words, she was glad she had a size advantage.

“ Calm down Patricia,” Lucy herself stood up, the five feet she had over her subordinate shutting her up.

“ I don’t want this to get any messier than it has to be, I hate firing people but…” Her fingers tapped on the glass table, nails rattling against the clear material while she composed herself, formulating what to say next.

“ It has to be done. The decision to terminate your employment wasn’t mine, I’d have kept you and fired someone more expendable,” Lucy sighed, her cheeks flushed with colour. It never got easier, no matter how often she’d done it, more so when she had to be the bearer of bad news to a friend of hers.

 “ How? How did they choose me? Me! I’ve been one of your best employees, the results don’t lie!” Patricia got agitated, beating her hand against her chest as she demanded an answer.

 Lucy sighed, it really hurt to see her friend like this but the decision was final, she wouldn’t be able to reverse it. She wondered if Patricia ought to know the truth but decided there would be no point in hiding the truth.

 “ Your department designed the chips we tagged on to the Luxom dresses and while I admire the little devil you made, Linda was less than enthused about it. She personally made this one, you and most of the key players are being removed so it isn’t personal, Linda doesn’t even know you.”

 Patricia grabbed Lucy’s hand, gripping it hard, “ Please, you got to keep me, I’m a single mother.”

The Amazon retracted her hand, “ Please...I’d rather not do it like this,” Lucy said and helped Patricia up.

 “ If it helps, Linda has agreed to give all of those affected by the retrenchments double the severance pay stipulated,” Lucy said, her blue eyes swollen with grief.

 “ T-that is mighty generous of her, suppose I should kiss her finger or something,” Patricia spat as she composed herself for the walk out. Her hair was messy and since she was lacking a comb, Patricia used her hand to push it back against her head, returning it to a much neater formation.

 “ I’ll be going now,” Patricia said. She walked out, as cool as when she went in but below, her body sore from her dismissal but that was the least of her issues.

*****

Alvin’s phone buzzed excitedly, interrupting the steady stream of jazz flowing into his eardrum. He grasped it and slid his pointer finger across. His eyes fluttered as he read the message, from Cassie.

It was a brief but simple message: How was your day? She even threw in a little smiling emoji  to convey her emotions.

 He knew exactly what to say, she only needed to know the turn of events after they said goodbye for the day. He typed it out, the pitter patter of the touchscreen stabbing through the music.

Once Alvin sent it, he expected a measured response from Cassie so when the phone buzzed but this time with his chosen ringtone, a series of bells, overrode his tunes, he withdrew his earphones and answered.

 “ Alvin, are you ok? You hurt?” Cassie asked, sounding agitated and if he didn’t know better, also sounding miffed.

 “ I’m fine although if I misjudged that catch, I’d probably be serving my stepfamily my flesh, well done,” He added a laugh into it, wanting to try and placate Cassie.

 “ No!” Cassie’s voice rang. Alvin thanked his lucky stars he wasn’t in the same room as Cassie, she probably would have blown his eardrums out  if he was.

“She can’t do things like that and get away with it,” Cassie grumbled.

 Alvin didn’t disagree with Cassie but Wendy’s rung in his ears, Cassie couldn’t protect him twenty four  seven. In school Cassie was the queen bee but in the confines of his own house, not even a grub.

 “ What can you do?” Alvin asked, praying for  a solution. She was the first ray of hope in his life and he wasn’t about to slam the door on her.

 “ I have ways Alvin,” Cassie replied while twirling a lock of her hair.

 “ Just don’t hurt Wendy too much, I don’t want you getting into trouble over me, I don’t think I’m worth it. It’s not like she’s  Al-Karabar or something” Alvin cautioned her, leaning forward until he was splayed out on bed, arms and legs everywhere.

Cassie giggled on the other end, the static crackling as she did so.

 “ Oh you’re right, she isn’t a murderer but she came very close today, remember that.Gosh this is depressing, lets talk about something less bleak. Are you free tomorrow?” Cassie purred into the phone.

 “ I have track practice and after that, I got to make dinner for Wendy and Patricia,” Alvin replied instantly. It had become his standard reply, he didn’t need to make up excuses when he had concrete reasons not to go.

 Alvin thought he heard a sigh, the gentle exhalation of air from Cassie’s lungs but he couldn’t be sure as the line fell silent.

 “ That’s fine, your family is important. Anyway, you enjoy the rest of your evening okay? I’ll see you around. Bye Alvin,” Cassie hung up before Alvin could say his part.

 She threw her phone against her pillow before burying her head in it. She had failed to get Wendy off her back, the bitch even dared to fight back. She felt some tenderness about Alvin’s track practice, she hadn’t been to one since she broke up with Eric.

 “ Well, guess I should drop by, pay Alvin a visit,” She said to herself. Yeah, it sounded great and she’d need to take it up a notch if she wanted to free him from what she dubbed a very oppressive regime.