To Live Again, For the First Time!

Emilin walked around doing her window shopping and picked up anything that interested her.

She filled her tote bags with cute but miscellaneous items. This included everything from cute notebooks and stickers along with tapes and small plushies.

She convinced herself that she would use the notebooks during her journey and the stickers and sticky notes would make things more memorable.

Her mind was filled with thoughts such as the following:

'Yeah, I'm going to need this…'

'and this…'

'I don't think I've seen one of these before…'

'Oh, and I definitely don't have one of these…'

'I should probably take two or three since I've never bought any of these…'

'Wow, they're much cuter than I thought…'

'Yeah, you can't go wrong with a dozen or so of these.'

Emilin loved to go on such shopping sprees but seeing as she wouldn't use most of what she bought, she would first store them away.

She bought a warehouse a couple of years ago when she noticed that things were piling up and then later, she started donating everything.

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Though she loved buying things with her own money she wasn't particularly interested in hogging. Everything was then slowly donated to charities for children who needed these things more than her.

Toys and plushies were donated during Christmas, food and treats were donated as soon as possible along with the cute household appliances that she would buy.

Everything depended really on what she bought and what holidays were around the corner.

Emilin's logic was quite simple.

Her shopping sprees were not to indulge in her desires to spend money, but rather to help the economy as a whole. Not only did she help sustain some businesses and industries with her spending she was also helping the less fortunate.

Thinking like this was helpful for the economy, society, and Emilin herself.

See. Simple.

Emilin stopped when her hands were full and sore. She dropped everything off at the rented lockers at the mall and headed to the food court for lunch. It was already getting late, so she decided to just pick something up to eat on the way.

She took a taxi to her warehouse and left the bags in a large container filled with similar bags. Whenever a holiday neared, or if Emilin had bought quantities of something that couldn't be conserved, she would call for people to come to sort the items and donate the sections that she wanted to give away.

Seeing that the container was filling up she made a call for the things to be organized and sent off for the beginning of a new school year to public schools in this country.

Emilin didn't delay her trip home anymore. She got home and the first thing she would say would always be, "I'm home." To which her parents would always respond with a hum.

Elena was cooking dinner and Gabriel was working in the living room. Emilin noticed that the only one missing in the picture was Theo.

"Where'd Brother Theo go?" She asked casually as she changed into her slippers.

"Oh, he's working out downstairs," Elena responded, a little absentmindedly as she concentrated on her cooking.

"Can you go check how he's doing and call him up to eat?" She added and Emilin just nodded her head and hummed an affirmation.

She walked downstairs to reach the basement floor where the home gym was located and opened the door.

From the outside, she could already see her brother who was on the treadmill. She knocked on the glass door before letting herself in without waiting for a response.

Theo stepped off the treadmill which automatically stopped and used the towel around his neck to wipe his sweat.

"I see you're working hard. Do you plan on going into sports in college?" Emilin passed him his water bottle.

He drank as if he had been in the desert for the past two days surviving off of his sweat alone for hydration.

"No. I think Brother Nathen has that base fully covered. I am considering taking psychology classes though. I noticed recently that I'm sourly lacking in that aspect." Theo sounded a little depressed when he spoke of this topic.

"Didn't I tell you when you were slacking off that you would regret it one day?" Emilin chuckled at her brother's misery. [I guess they were normal siblings after all]

"This is not an 'I told you so' moment. I thought you were trying to use reverse psychology on me, and I didn't want to fall for it." Theo complained. [Pushing the blame was always the way to go].

"Now really? Then I guess you really do need psychology classes." Emilin replied.

"Don't mock me now. Yes, I get it, I get it. I'm not sure how to go about it though. Which classes should I take?" Theo wanted to hear a professional opinion to see what his options were.

Emilin thought for a bit and gave her brother a one over.

"Hmm, how do you feel about going into the entertainment industry?" Emilin asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What does that even have to do with my question?" Theo tilted his head.

"Just answer the question." Emilin rubbed her chin as she thought about the endless possibilities for her brother's future.

Theo didn't really like the way he was looked at. Gave him the chills, but he just shrugged it off because it was his sister.

He is the type of person who would be sold off by Emilin and still sit there counting the money for her.

Of course, that would never actually happen… Yeah, never.

"Wouldn't the entertainment industry be a waste of time? Why would I do that when I could spend my time strengthening my firewalls?" He wondered what his little sister was planning.

"Not at all actually. There would be many pros to going into that industry. First, it would serve as a cover for your actual focus. Most would just think you're a wannabe celebrity."

"Change that to a rising star" Theo corrected. He didn't realize that he was talking as if he had already agreed to become a celebrity.

"Yes, yes. Rising star. Second, more people would try to look into you and so you'll have more practice making believable falsified information. It's a good chance to practice."

Theo was already nodding his head in agreement at this point.

"But how does this have to do with the psychology classes we were talking about?" Theo finally noticed what the main issue at hand was.

"Big Brother, don't you know? The entertainment industry is the stage where the biggest psychological warfare occurs, it is also where all the most willing actors gather." Emilin explained. She just conveniently forgot about the sly foxes in the business industry, and the politicians and everywhere else really.

It was true that the entertainment industry was the most obvious choice as well as the best one considering Theo's age and the fact that he was still going to school.

"Left and right, you have to worry about what others are planning and scheming and what they think of you and what you think of them. Not to mention what you want them to think of you and what they want you to think of them."

"If that wasn't enough, if you go into acting, then you can even explore the psychology of different characters and you'll have the directors as well as everyone else in the world to judge you."

"This is the perfect real-life psychology class in real-time."

By then, Theodore was already thoroughly convinced.

He was about to nod his head to agree when he felt that something was off. He scratched his head while pondering on that realization.

Suddenly, the lightbulb was lit.

"Damn, I can't believe I was so easily tricked. Do you really have to do this to your big brother?" Theo sighed when he realized how easily he was convinced with this small speech.

He was one step away from throwing himself into a pit of snakes. Emilin laughed.

"Which goes to say how much more you need the classes. But I mean it. I think this would make your skill sets more well-rounded."

Seeing that Theo was still hesitating, Emilin knew that she had to take the hammer and hit the last nail on the coffin.

"The most important reason is also due to the changing of the times. Now, everyone's following their stars. The media have the greatest influence on the thoughts of the people. One word is enough to build an image and one more is enough to break that reputation. It's important that we also have some influence in this field. This would be the perfect opportunity."

Theo gave his sigh of resignation after hearing the last point and so he nodded his head signaling his agreement.

Emilin smiled. "If you really don't like it, you can always leave the industry after giving it a try. We have enough power to go without it. If you like it, then even better. Don't force yourself okay?"

"I got it. Let's go eat already, I'm famished."

And so, the two siblings left the gym and headed towards dinner.