With regard to Eugenia and her knives, it's not that they didn't talk about it after Hibiki had left with the others. They did, but not as you might think, with Miranda reading Eugenia the riot act. It was more like, "As your superior you need to keep me informed of such things. I'll look like a total idiot if it came out that you were carrying knives, and I didn't know. Not to mention that if someone at school were to spot one of them and report it to a teacher or the headmaster, dealing with the aftermath would be more than difficult."

Then she smiled, one of those "you're not going to like it if I have to stop smiling" kinds. "Your primary job right now is to study and, hopefully, to have fun now and then. You've been through enough already. Normally you'd have to be quite a bit older before you'd need to de-stress after an assignment. Understanding how important that is, well, you're not there yet.

"Let's make it simple, shall we? Both as your 'boss' and your mother, I'm ordering you to have fun. You can start by spending more time with Mario before he leaves town on Friday."

She followed with smirk and added, "Besides, this may be one of the few times in your life that you WANT to do something I've told you to do."

Then she grinned at Genie. "Just don't get in the habit of expecting it. It'll be for your own good of course. One must learn to roll with the punches, to take the bad with the good, to go with the flow, and to separate the wheat from the chaff. All of which take a lot of experience. Once you have that experience, you too will be able to fill your sentences with silly sayings without repeating yourself."

During all this, Genie had stood in one place, trying to flog her mind into keeping up with what her mother was saying. It was rather difficult seeing as she'd much rather be thinking about Mario. Once her eyes began to glaze over, Miranda stopped speaking, stepped forward and hugged her impetuous offspring. She held her gently until Genie began to fidget. Miranda stepped back, put her hands on Genie's shoulders, and looked at her lovingly for a few seconds. Then she turned Genie around and gave her a gentle push toward the door, after which she thwapped her on the bottom, as hard as she could.

"Mother! That hurt!"

"I felt two of the knives when I was hugging you. You need to do a much better job of concealing them. What if someone bumps into you at a ball and notices? It's going to be awfully hard for you to play the role of an empty-headed ingenue if that happens.

"Now get going. I expect that you're going to be very busy after dinner tonight picking out what you want to wear tomorrow afternoon. If you need help, call me...or Mimi. She has impeccable taste."

Genie turned around and, for a moment, stared at her mother. After all these years together, she still didn't understand what she was thinking most of the time. She shrugged inwardly. Perhaps she never would. Various emotions flowed across her face and finally settled on a combination of love and gratitude with just a touch of exasperation. Then she smiled, bowed slightly, and exited Miranda's office. It was still a while until dinner.

Her mother had been wrong about one thing. She was going to need all the time available between now and tomorrow to make sure that she looked just right, not just the hours after dinner. Not overly formal -- it was just Sunday dinner with the family. Yet, at the same time, she didn't want to look like a slob either, which, she had to admit, she occasionally did when it was only family. She figured that she had just enough time to make a preliminary survey of her wardrobe and dresser before it was time to eat. Then, if it turned out that what she already had wouldn't work for the look she wanted, she'd still have time to go shopping that evening for any needed accessories.

------------

Professor Ptica continued, "Speaking of which, Genie's problem was one that the twins never had any more..." She stopped there and consulted her datapad. "All right. I see that we're actually several hours ahead of schedule this semester."

She glared at the class, "It's probably because I've managed to get you to understand what will happen to you if you interrupt me for trivialities. Some classes in the past have been much too dense to understand even after I'd 'disciplined' a few of them."

Hearing that, a number of students began to shudder violently. Ptica, apparently, ignored them, shrugged her shoulders, and added, "At any rate, I'll explain my statement about the twins since we do have time. It will give you some more useful background about The City.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I'll start with this: For several hundred years, The City of The Bells had been THE center of commerce for an area extending for at least three hundred kilometers to the west and east -- excluding Venice of course -- and almost 400 kilometers to the north. The concept that 'making money is a good thing' was graven in the heart of every child in The City by the time they were four, especially the twins, given that their father was a banker. In fact, it wouldn't be exaggerating to say that for the Macklin children "profit" was one of their favorite words.

"Now, we shall resume."

------------------

Within two months of starting to go out with Jason, the twins had discovered that one of his talents was essentially infallable. Show him any girl's or woman's clothing and accessories, and he always chose the combination that would look best on them. It didn't matter if it was for casual wear or a formal party. As with the present for Mira, he simply never was wrong. Give him a free hand at a shop, and he'd always find some item or combination that looked far better than what the twins would have chosen, even working together.

At first they'd gone along with Jason's suggestions now and then, just to avoid hurting his feelings. It wasn't until they began to get compliments from multiple classmates and friends that the idea that they had a property of great value on their hands percolated into their minds.

Once they'd finished gloating over how much money they were going to make, they did the intelligent thing and started small. They let just two of their friends know their secret. These particular friends were the most outgoing and least likely to refuse due to modesty issues when the process was explained. The incentive of "half-price since you're special" didn't hurt either.

What was required was that the twins and Jason visit their "client" at home. The girl in question had been told in advance that she was to wear only a chemise during the "consultation." Then, while Jason observed, the twins would briefly hold every single piece of the girl's clothing up against her, followed by every brooch, ring, hair clip, and any other accessory they owned. Then all they had to do was say, "casual," "date," "formal" and such. Jason would then select the ideal combinations, HIbiki would write down the particulars of each ensemble, and the girl would try them on.

After leaving two ecstatic young women behind, word got around fairly quickly. Enough of their classmates were willing to undergo the "ordeal" of a boy who wasn't family seeing them in their underclothes that they were moderately busy. Then the unexpected happened.

One of their clients, Senra Krause, had an older sister at home the day of the consultation. Like many older sibs, Serena walked into her little sister's room without knocking. Seeing her sister in only a chemise, and with a boy in the room, she'd probably have beaten Jason silly had she not also seen clothes everywhere and that both Yoko and Hibiki were present and acting like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

After explanations were completed, she'd sat and told them that she still reserved the right to "turn him into a eunuch" if she didn't like how things turned out. Then she told them to "get on with it."

When they were finished with the sorting, she supervised her sister's changing into each of the outfits, and then had surprised everyone by paying the fee herself. "Consider it an early birthday present.

"All right then. It's Hibiki, Yoko, and Jason, correct?" Without waiting for a response she'd said, "Come with me," and had led them to her room. She opened her wardrobe, spread all her jewelry on the bed and said, "Well, get started."

As she was wearing only the equivalent of what one would now call a "t-shirt" and a pair of shorts, Jason nodded his acceptance. Then the girls got to work. As expected with an eldest child, she had substantially more clothing than her sib. When they were finished, and everything and been recorded and tried on, Serena paid them, 50% more than her sister had. "I assume that, even given the extra work, this will be adequate?"

Yoko nodded, Hibiki wrote out a receipt, and Jason smiled. He'd always liked being praised, and both the girls had told him, several times over their "twin channel", that what he had just done was a "good thing." Even though he wasn't a banker's child, he still had the normal appreciation of cash that all children in The City did.

Business had fairly exploded after that as Serena rapidly spread the word to her friends. It soon got to the point that, once their parents noticed how busy they were, limits were put on their "consultations." The children were told that while money was all well and good, school came first. Blair and Hiroshi were pleased as punch at their daughters' "entrepreneurial enterprise." Akane nearly burst with pride. Her Jason, whom everyone had been telling her for years would never amount to anything, had proven them wrong. The hefty deposits to his bank account were a vindication.

After Serena they'd changed their procedure with a sigh of relief. The twins hadn't really liked Jason seeing other girls wearing so little, even if he wasn't interested in them "that way." A t-shirt and shorts helped them keep their "jealousy antennas" under better control. It also substantially expanded their potential client list at the same time, since many more girls were now willing to have consultations.

As time went by, the girls discovered that they had a talent as well. It was, perhaps, not as overtly impressive as Jason's, but it was one that was just as important to their clients. They had realized that they could work out the perfect way for a client to wear her hair with each outfit. In addition to effusive thanks from the clients, they were also able to increase their fees by 15%.