Pocket Change

Chapter Music

Change

Today's been pretty rough at school. I've been sore all over after what happened last night, but at least I had a few icepacks to stop the swelling. I skipped P.E., instead, choosing to use that time resting in the nurse's office. Nurse Redheart was pretty understanding and let me in without any questions.

As I laid on the itchy cot, my phone suddenly began ringing, pulling me out of my thoughts. Taking my phone out, I sighed upon seeing who the caller was, Aria. Reluctantly, I took my phone out and checked the door to make sure it was closed. Pressing the accept button, I put the phone up to my ear, feeling tense with anxiety.

"I'm ready, where's the meet-up point?" Aria inquired.

I sighed under my breath. "Aria, I'm at school right now."

She paused for a few seconds. "Did I ask?"

I almost groaned in frustration until I remembered who exactly it was I was talking to. She has too much leverage over me for me to piss her off.

"Okay, fine. You know the abandoned laundry mat over at West Hoof, Dusty's?"

Aria hummed to herself as if deep in thought. "Yeah, no. Where is that?"

"I'll text you the location. Go to that building's roof and wait there. School should get out in three hours."

"Three hours?! Are you kidding me?!" Aria screamed, causing me to jump a little.

"Chill out. You'll probably take like two and a half hours getting there anyway, so you won't be waiting that long."

A few seconds after saying this, the five-minute bell went off, telling me that I had to get to class soon.

"Wait, that bell... you go to CHS, don't you?"

I felt a knot form in my throat. On impulse, I ended the call, grabbed my backpack, and began heading to my next class.

Sometime Later...

Once school got out, I stopped by my apartment to switch my loadout before heading over to the rendezvous point. Upon reaching Dusty's Laundry Mat, I used the dumpster and fire escape to parkour to the ledge of the roof, pulling myself up and over it.

I was relieved to find that all of my training equipment was still scattered all over the roof under various tarps; it was a huge pain getting all of it up here.

Aria was sitting in a sun lounging chair that was actually up here for longer than I can remember; she was staring up at the sky wearing sunglasses.

Without saying anything, I began taking the tarps off the stashes of equipment where I then proceeded to meticulously pile the equipment toward the center of the roof. Most of it was broken percussion instruments, ornaments, and metal objects.

At some point, Aria had come over to see what I was doing, wearing a somewhat disappointed expression. "Come on, man. What is this?"

I answered her question with another. "You ever played Soundbite?"

"No?'

"It's a game where you have to clear the stack of items as quietly as possible. I'll be spectating, you'll be playing. If at any point I think you made a noise too loud, you have to start over: footsteps, breathing, objects themselves, and so on can count toward noise."

"You can't be serious, how is this supposed to teach me anything?" Aria complained.

Without saying anything, I walked over to the pile and snatched out a set of wind chimes from the center without making a noise. "Sleight of hand and situational awareness; these are basic skills that any decent thief must possess."

Aria stormed up to me snatching the wind chimes out of my hand noisily, only to inspect them and see that they were indeed made of metal. I chuckled to myself at this. "Better get to it."

Aria's actually pretty impressive. In just under an hour, not only did she clear the pile quietly, she went back and did it multiple times, improving with each attempt. She might actually become better than me in no time.

I clapped my hands together, catching Aria's attention. "That's it for today, although, I do have a homework assignment for you."

I pulled out a lockpicking set alongside a few locks, handing them over to Aria.

"Until we meet up again, work on opening these lock in under forty seconds each."

She took the items, looking at them like they were some priceless jewels. "Thanks, I guess."

I turned to walk away, it was about that time I hit Downtown again, just to stay ahead of the bills.

"See you at school," Aria stated coyly.

What?

A few hours later...

I'm not sure what Aria meant by "See you at school," but for my sake, I hope she was just talking about the lessons in thieving.

Downtown's the place that's best for my line of work: large crowds of people, upper-class folk, and everyone's self-concerning. Right now, I have my sights set on an unsuspecting businessman. He's holding a suitcase, that's good; that means one of his hands is occupied. Stepping out into the crowd, I made my way toward the man as he exited some kind of fashion store. Reaching into his left-hand pocket, I snatched a thin metallic wallet. After doing so, I cut through a back alley and stopped behind a dumpster, but I didn't stop of my own will. I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried.

It wasn't until I calmed down a bit that noticed something strange. In the air around me was a faint shimmer of sparkling blue light. It felt strange being encompassed in it, I felt...safe, I think. Though, that obscure sense of security quickly left me as I heard someone begin speaking from behind me.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," a stern feminine voice said from behind me.

The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place my finger on who it belonged to.

"What is this?" I stammered out.

"The nerve to steal from one of my clients. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"No, not really. I don't even know who you are," I stated flatly.

Suddenly I was pinched by my left ear and dragged through the alley, my arms restricted by some invisible force. Finally able to see my captor, it all suddenly made sense, kind of. It was Rarity, the fashionista that hangs out with those other magical girls, allegedly. Although, I'm starting to think those allegations aren't just allegations. Eventually, after being led by the ear, I found that I had been dragged inside the fashion store the man walked out of earlier.

Once inside, Rarity let go before sticking her left hand out expectantly. Reluctantly, I pulled the wallet I had stolen earlier and placed it in her hand. She retracted her hand back, eyeing me vindictively, pushing me onto a couch with her free hand with a shocking amount of force.

She walked behind a counter, placing the wallet inside a drawer before walking back over to me, arms crossed and not particularly pleased. Again, she stuck one of her hands out towards me.

I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What?"

"Your phone, I'm calling your parents."

Really? My parents? I couldn't help but smile to myself under my mask. I pulled my phone out, opening the contacts, and searching for my mom. I called the number and handed the phone over to Rarity.

She stood there listening to the phone ringing before it went straight to voice mail, my mother's deceptively sobber voice coming from the phone. "This is Purse Pockets, leave a message after the beep, and I'll get back to you when I can."

Rarity was about to start speaking when I interrupted her. "Don't bother, she won't actually get back to you," I said, looking down at my shoes and feeling somewhat conflicted.

I can't even remember how many times I've called her and got nothing; sometimes it feels like I live by myself, to be honest. Rarity began searching through my phone for other guardians she could contact, but once she found nothing, she gave the phone back.

"What was that back there, magic?" I said as I pocketed my phone.

Rarity's eyes widened a bit as if taken aback. "No, no, darling. You simply must have been imagining things," she said, stumbling over her words.

"I know what I saw."

Rarity sighed. "As do I. Just why were you going around stealing?"

"Survival."

Rarity cocked an eyebrow. "Survival? Couldn't you have just gotten a job, relied on friends?"

I shook my head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Pray tell."

I bit my lip at this, a tinge of frustration forming at myself for even getting caught. I clasped my hands together as I looked down at my shoes. "You don't get it, work isn't particularly easy to find in my part of town. The jobs that are available are far more...questionable than what I'm doing now. I've tried looking in different districts, but a lot of the businesses either weren't looking to hire or thought I didn't have the skill sets required. The jobs that I was able to find were too far away from my home to transit to consistently. As far as friends go... I'd rather not bother them with my issues."

"Darling...I'm sorry, I didn't know," Rarity placated.

I shook my head. "How could you? We all lead different lives after all."

It was quiet in the store for a while, quieter than I would have expected from a store Downtown. Where were all the customers? Is this one of those designer fashion stores?

"Wait here, I'll be right back," Rarity said as she walked out of sight.

I contemplated making a run for it, but after what happened in the back alley, I decided against it. There's no point in making things worse for myself. After a few minutes, Rarity came back with multiple articles of worn clothing, setting them down on a table.

"Come over here, won't you?"

Getting up from the couch, I walked over to the table. Rarity had opened a sewing kit, pulling out a thread and needle as she adeptly closed several holes shut. I knew how to sew too, but not nearly as well as this. I'm used to repairing my clothes and adding extra pockets to my jackets and hoodies.

"See what I'm doing? I want you to close all of the remaining holes in these clothes. If you do that, I might be willing to forgive your transgression earlier," Rarity said as she walked away to inspect a few racks of clothes.

That's it? She's not calling the police, and all I have to do is fix these clothes? A bit unsure about the experience, I took the thread and needle in hand and got to work.

It took a little under an hour for me to finish the job, but I was pretty proud of my work once I finished. As if on queue, Rarity showed up beside me just as I finished.

"Nicely done, I expected you to take far longer. Now that I think about it, I never did quite catch your name."

Really dissecting me for information here, huh? That's fine, I just need to stay on her good side. "It's Change."

Rarity abruptly stuck her hand out, beckoning me for a handshake. I returned the gesture with a semi-firm grip. This whole ordeal was making me nervous.

"Rarity. Oh, I almost forgot, this is for you. Don't open it here though," Rarity stated as she handed me an envelope.

"Thank you?"

"It's no problem at all, darling. And please, refrain from such activities in the future. You may go now."

I nodded before turning to leave.

Sometime Later...

I laid on my bed thinking about all that had happened. Upon opening the envelope, there was $240 inside, a "see you soon," card, and a schedule detailing various work shifts. All of Rarity's shifts were highlighted, but I'm not sure what any of that meant. On top of this: she didn't turn me in, paid me, and shook my hand. None of this is making sense. That's not exactly the normal approach to dealing with a thief. She's so absurdly generous, it's unnerving.

I'm also training the girl who kicked my ass to become a thief like me. I feel like I just got caught in the middle of two completely different worlds here. I...need sleep.