The children spoke up, getting louder and louder, each one wanting to be picked by Zeina to show off their stuff. But glancing over towards Eli, and realizing what was happening, she knew she had to make this short. So she spoke and the kids got quiet again. "Ah, I'm afraid I'm actually going to have to show you lovely devils a trick today." She knew they wouldn't complain.
Pulling a small ball out of her lovely skirt, Zeina showed it to the gathered children. "A simple trick, today: I'm going to make this ball disappear!" Clapping her hands together so that the ball was in the middle, she closed her eyes and twirled her hands around three times, her loose sleeves falling down around her elbow. Then she suddenly opened both her eyes and her hands. The ball was gone. A couple of the kids gasped.
After holding up her hands for a couple of seconds so that the kids could see that they were, in fact, empty, Zeina pulled down her sleeves and let her arms rest back by her sides. Then, with a theatrical gasp, she lifted her hand up again, this time with the ball in it. She looked at it with wonder, as if she truly didn't know how it got there. Then a sly smile spread across her face, and it was clear that she did, in fact, know how it got there.
"Anybody know how I did this trick?" she asked the kids. The older and taller ones shook their heads. They couldn't figure it out.
But one of the shorter ones replied, "You slid the ball down your arm just before you clasped your hands, didn't you? So it fell in the crook of your elbow. And then you grabbed it again when you pretended to fix your sleeves!" He smiled proudly, happy he figured it out.
Zeina flicked a silver coin his way, and he caught it with ease. "Exactly!" she said. "You see, I need to make sure you guys don't forget that being short is an advantage in this business. Now only do you look more innocent and get away with the crying act more easily, you also have a good viewpoint for tricks like this." Directing her eyes to some of the older kids, she added, "However, there are also advantages to being taller. People more commonly accept you as adults and don't question that you're alone. You also seem more intimidating, and can catch a different set of tricks."
Even the kids that had seen the trick and heard the speech before still liked her performance. Leaving the kids to discuss among themselves, Zeina made her way over to Eli and Lilly. He had just sprayed his fancy glue stuff on her. With no intention of being discreet, she reached into the hidden pocket that was on his bottom left, compared to the hidden pocket that he had grabbed the previous vial out of on his top right, and pulled out the microorganism. She pulled the top off and scattered it over everything covered in glue.
"I'm sure you could have done that, Lilly. Don't take any offense on me stopping Eli's trick," Zeina said with a light smile. Then, turning to Eli, she asked, "Didn't I tell you not to waste that stuff? It's expensive." Not that price really mattered. She stopped him because she could tell that Lilly wasn't enjoying Eli's company. Or, in other words, Zeina got the feeling that the boy with make Lilly more rebellious instead of teaching her respect. "And showing off isn't a very good way to get attention. If you want people to fear you, Eli, you have to do it in a more subtle and less planned way. Right now you just seem like a desperate—lovely, but desperate—little boy fishing for attention." Normally she didn't mind this. Eli was still one of her favorite kids. But in situations like this, it wasn't very good.
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OOC: Sorry for the mega-long post. But I don't want this thread to die out so I was hoping to stir it up a little... ?