Never Judge



Al was surprised when Andres and Angelica's identities remained hidden even after class ended. 

"Dad said we could go?" Andres asked as he tried to keep in step with Al as they walked away from the school building.

"Keep your voice down." Al whispered as he walked faster. 

"But dad said yes?" Andres asked again.

"Yes. He was in the clinic earlier, dealing out judgment on Fred and his friends." Al explained to his younger brother. 

"You didn't tell us he was coming." Andres told Al. 

"I didn't know either. He told me he would deal with the matter, I thought he would send his assistants or Uncle Ian at most." Al told his brother. "Look, stop dwelling on it, dad isn't mad."

Andres nodded, of course Al knew that Andres was worried that his father would be mad, what child wouldn't.

Al stopped and sighed. 

He turned to face Andres and he placed his hands on his younger brother's shoulders. 

Andres wasn't as tall as Al yet, he was a few inches shorter, but Al could tell that they would become the same height eventually. 

He glanced to see if he could be overheard by the others, when he was Cara and Eric delaying them, he looked his brother in the eyes and sighed.

"Andres, dad was proud." Al told Andres as honestly as he could. 

"Proud?" Andres asked. "We got bullied."

"You got bullied because those guys were assholes." Al chuckled, Ray knew his children weren't to blame, that much was clear to Al. "Dad was so happy when he heard me say Angelica bit Fred and that you beat up his two friends, so relax."

Andres nodded as he processed his brother's words.

"Look, let's go out, enjoy being normal kids for today." Al told his brother. "We only get one chance to do this."

Andres smiled and nodded as everyone else caught up to them.

"What were you two talking about?" Ismail asked as he looked at the odd pair.

"Oh we were getting too ahead of you guys so we decided to stop and wait." Al said with a shrug. "Plus Andres was asking what happened to Fred and his friends."

"Oh I heard a nasty rumor about that." One of Ismail's friends whispered. "I heard they were expelled."

"I doubt they would be expelled, they bullied us before too." Cara pointed out. "That's just an exaggeration."

"Well, some students saw them being walked out of the building by the security guards and some teachers." The girl told Cara. "If it were true, then that is great news! Fred and his friends have done nothing but bully us."

"They were Al's friends too." Ismail pointed out as he looked cautiously at Al.

"I was friends with them just so that I wouldn't be bullied. I didn't know that they physically abused people." Sighed as they came to the bus stop. "Had I know, I wouldn't have been friends with them from the start."

No one in their group had a driver or was old enough to drive yet, so they would have to take the bus to the closest mall.

Andres and Angelica, who had never taken public transportation in their lives, were excited to get on the bus.

Al shook his head as saw the biggest smiles on their faces as they all climbed up on the bus.

Their father had given him extra money to spend on his siblings, but it wasn't too much. Ray wanted his children to appreciate its value.

When Al split it between his siblings they were surprised to see how little it was.

Afterall, most of the shopping trips they had been on were with their mother and aunts, all of whom could rack up hundreds of thousands in one shopping trip.

It was a ten minute bus ride to the closest mall, which just so happened to be owned by the Reyes family as well.

As a matter of fact, this was the very mall that the family visited most often.

It was the flagship Elisia Mall with the most shops and the best amenities. Because of this there were also much more people. 

Al was hoping that because of the sheer amount of people, none of the staff would recognize them. 

Even if the staff of the mall were trained to not react when they saw Al or Emilio, seeing Eric, Angelica, or Andres would come as a shock to them.

"What should we do first?" Cara asked.

Al thought of where they were least likely to be recognized.

"Movie!" Al exclaimed.

He knew that no one there would recognize them. They never went to the movie houses there, it was pointless since they had their own at home.

"Alright." Ismail said, nodding in agreement.

The cinemas were at the top of the building, Al was shocked to find multiple executives of the Reyes Group gathered outside the cinema.

"This way please." An usher said as they were guided to the side.

"What's going on?" One of the girls asked.

"It's an inspection by the Reyes Heir, of course all the executives wanted to be here." The usher explained, clearly unhappy about the inspection.

Al quickly pulled his siblings and Eric as far as possible from the executives. 

They all knew how they looked, they had to. It would be a crime not to know the CEO's nephews and nieces. 

Their mother also still worked at the Reyes Group and was the second largest stakeholder in Elisia Malls. 

"How do you like it, sir? Mrs. Lawrence always insists that we only have the highest quality here in the flagship mall." Al heard one of the executives say, probably speaking to Emilio.

"Seven tickets." Cara told the person in the counter as the group of executives began to walk towards their direction.

"Turn around." Al hissed.

Luckily his siblings and Eric managed to turn away.

"This is the ticket booth, we try to make transactions as fast as possible. Our current turnaround time is an average of two minutes." 

"Which seats, miss?" The woman at the counter asked Cara.

"Just pick them, we have to get in." Al whispered.

"Those seven." Cara quickly pointed out the middle back row.

"Ah, there is an ongoing transaction right now, hello young man, you aren't skipping school are you?" Al heard the executive ask him.

Al sighed and turned around.

The executive's eye went wide with shock, while Emilio, who was standing behind the executive suppressed the urge to laugh.