The Story

"My brother can beat you up" squeaked a frail boy.

"Oh yeah? Well, my brother can beat your brother up with his eyes closed" shot Lyuba's reply; she was facing him with her hands on her hips.

Hearing this he stomped off, teary eyed, to find a teacher.

Seeing a glimpse of this, Valery calmly walked up to her sister and sighed, "why is Timmy crying again?" she asked.

"Oh, he's just being a little bitch" replied the five year old as-a-matter-of-factly, "as always"

A teacher upon hearing her flushed red, "language!" she shot with a stern voice, "you, young lady, are going to the time-out chair until you learn how to get ahold of that potty mouth of yours!"

"Sorry miss," Lyuba turned to her with an innocent and tearful expression, "m-my older sister says lots of words," she said in a baby accent, "I-I thought they were cool"

The teacher's stern expression cracked, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so stern"

Lyuba covered her face with her hands, her shoulders quivering; making her tiny body look almost completely fragile.

"Well I suppose one cannot be blamed for the actions of older siblings," she gently stroked Lyuba's head, "After all, you were only learning," the teacher knelt down so she could be eye level to Lyuba (who innocently revealed her pink face), "just be sure not to say the 'B' word again"

Lyuba nodded with a teary smile.

The teacher gave her a hug then got up and went to help the other teachers with Timmy, who was throwing a tantrum in the bathroom.

"Great acting," said Valery nonchalantly, "I almost clapped"

Lyuba rolled her eyes, "these teachers are so elementary"

Valery nodded, "yeah, you'd think you were in elementary school or something"

"Yup," said Lyuba sarcastically, "shocking"

"Like lightning," smiled Valery.

Lyuba giggled and went to find another kid to 'play' with.

Valery was the only person in the room (and one of the few in the world) that she respected.

The two sisters were in a bright green classroom surrounded by huge posters of letters from different alphabets. The room was shaped like a strange square that was almost spherical. In the middle of the classroom floor was a large circular, light blue rug. The wall to the right of the rug was glass and faced a playground made of cement. The sun would occasionally shine through the windows and incase the flat screen TV that was hanging on two nails on the opposite wall (making it difficult to see anything that was being displayed). Every inch of the other walls was covered with shelves that were crammed with games, toys, or children's books.

There were thirteen kids in the class. They ranged around five to seven years of age. Three teachers overlooked them.

It was near lunch time so the rest of the children began tidying up their activities which consisted of language learning and detective inspection games.

Valery and Lyuba weren't in a normal preschool. They were in the 'Prestigious language learning' school, otherwise known as the 'P.L.L.' school.

This school excelled at raising quick thinking detectives and was founded by one who believed it was not a talent, but a product of special learning at an early age. The acquiring of these skills began with learning multiple languages which the learning methodology claimed would allow the mind a type of flexibility when it came to solving problems. Both of the girls already knew Russian and English so they seemed to have a head start in the art of observing and solving.