Chapter 1: Idol with 3 Kids

     It had been 15 months since his unfortunate death in an explosion. A child's developmental cycle was a tricky thing to navigate. It took 6 months before he could remember everything that happened to him. It was information overload. All the memories poured in. It was sort of infuriating being so limited by the situation but there it was. Plus, the limitation did not only affect mental capacity and thought it also limited physical capabilities. Hand-eye coordination was greatly diminished. Motor skill also did not work as well. She didn't even have the honor of being the same biological sex which compounded her annoyance. That is when she felt herself being lifted.

     "Ruby, what are you thinking about?" The woman asked, almost absent-minded.

     She just stared blankly at the woman, "The only thing I understood from that was Ruby, and I am pretty sure she called me Amethyst the other day."

      It was true that she was a bit odd, but that is only if you compared her behavior to that of her siblings. Yes, she had two other siblings. One was a boy by what she could gather, and the other was also a girl. The boy was nicknamed Aqua, and the girl was named Ruby. Those two were always clamoring for attention from the woman while she was stuck trying to understand what was going on.

     It took another couple weeks for her to realize that the purple haired woman was actually her mother. It was sort of embarrassing that it took this long but it was still kind of hard to parse her past memories with the current events playing out in front of her. It was like watching a very boring movie except she was actually living it.

    "It was odd how quickly the other two were able to talk." She thought to herself as she tried to decipher the nonsensical sounds around her. For some reason they did not speak in front of the adults but when they were alone, they would converse.

     It was odd that Aqua would sometimes look at her with something like regret in his eyes. That is when she knew, they were all freaks of nature. Aqua and Ruby were probably people that were reincarnated as well. It was just that they knew the language and she did not.

     One night their mother was away doing who knows what. The woman that was supposed to be babysitting them had fallen asleep on the couch. That is when Aqua crawled up to the TV and turned the channel to a live performance.

     "Shit, our mother is in the entertainment industry. I hope she has a good retirement plan. Please, don't wash out." Amethyst thought to herself as she watched the flashing colors on screen.

     During the interview part Aqua suddenly reacted nearly doing a spit take. "What did she say that got him so riled up?" She thought as she continued observing the scene unfold.

     It was only after the interview did the real show start. Amethyst was almost captivated by the performance. She had to admit that her mother was a very good lead on stage, and as the center she did exceptionally well. However, Amethyst liked to look at the full picture so instead of being enraptured by her mother's performance, she was hopefully optimistic. Aqua on the other hand was fully entranced by the performance.

      That is when Ruby crawled out of her crib and started yelling about something. Amethyst still had no idea what was going on. She just sighed to herself and continued watching while ignoring her siblings' bickering.

     A couple weeks had passed. One day the woman that was their babysitter seemed a lot happier. "I wonder what happened to her." Amethyst thought to herself as she watched her hum to herself as she worked. "She hated babysitting."

      Amethyst just let the time pass by. She decided that in order to grow strong and capable she would devote most of her lime to sleeping and eating. Let her body processes kick into high gear before she decided to do anything else. Aqua and Ruby could do their weird things on their own; she wanted no part in any of it.

      Amethyst did enjoy the company of her mother. It was a strange motivating factor knowing that your mother worked in a cutthroat industry and yet is still trying her best to provide. I guess on some level she was happy to have a family once again. The memories of loneliness in her previous life must have hit harder than she first thought.

      "Good thing nothing bad is going to happen." She thought to herself.

     Apparently, Aqua and Ruby got their babysitter to take them all to see a live mini-concert. It was a very loud and obnoxious place. If she knew how to decline, she would have but alas her mind was still hard wired to English which made it hard to pick up the new language. The raucous from the crowd was nearly unbearable but the loudspeakers were going to be crazy. She did not want to lose her eardrums so early in her new life.

     Her mother took the stage along with the other idols. The speakers did their work while Amethyst tried her best to shield her ears as much as possible. If she was a little older, she would have enjoyed the performance, but right now everything was still too underdeveloped to suffer this kind of abuse.

     "This is all their fault." Amethyst thought as she stared daggers into Aqua and Ruby.

     That is when she saw something that bends logic and universal consistency. Aqua and Ruby pulled out glow sticks from nowhere and performed some sort of cheer with it. Honestly, she did not want to face palm, but she did inadvertently. She would later find out that a video of the event had gathered some attention on the internet.

     One year has passed since that disaster, and Amethyst was wrong. She did not lose her hearing. Her brother and sister were now talking without being discreet. She on the other hand remained silent. She did not trust herself to pronounce the words correctly so she would hold off for now. However, she did enjoy walking around the house looking at different things.

     "Mommy mommy! Give me pats!" Ruby cried for their mother's attention.

     "I am glad I am not such a handful," she thought to herself, as she watched the scene play out in front of her. Honestly, it seems that Aqua is thinking the same thing.

     "Aaaah, paradise found!" Ruby exclaimed as she got her head-pats.

     Amethyst snorted a little as she heard the phrase. It reminded her of a book she heard about in her previous life "Paradise Lost." It was a funny little fanfiction about the Bible and man's fall to darkness and evil.

     "Now where did you learn a word like paradise?" Their mother asked curiously. "I guess you're a mindblowing genius." Ai continued.

     One day Aqua and Ruby had once again dragged her into another one of their wild rides. They were apparently going to a TV shoot. Their mother had reached some level of fame and had been getting more and more jobs lightly and this was one of the many. Amethyst was just along for the ride. This was the circumstance where she said her first words.

     "I never said I wanted to go." Her voice was a strange unfamiliar pitch.

     "Was that Amethyst?" Aqua asked inquisitively.

      "I was not going to leave you home if I took the other two." Her mother said.

     "Amethyst, don't you want to see mom perform?" Ruby jabbed slightly.

      "I said what I said." Amethyst said then refused to elaborate any further by staring out the window.

      As they got to the location, they all piled out of the van. Ai went ahead of everyone and introduced herself to the director. Ruby, Aqua, and Amethyst all hung back waiting to see what would happen. After they got settled Amethyst watched as Aqua and Ruby got pampered by the other women on set that day. She on the other hand was leaning against a wall with a disapproving look on her face.

     "These people are vapid, and soul sucking." Amethyst thought as she continued to dodge the fake affection the other two were bathing in.

      Finally, the atmosphere in the waiting room was too much for her, and she slipped out of the room. She walked around the place listening to the conversations of the other people there. It was not long until she ran into the director talking with Aqua.

     "Oh, the idol. Right." The director said unenthused.

     This is when she cut into the conversation. "Do people watch this stuff?" Amethyst asked, gesturing at everything around her.

    "What do you mean?" The director turned to face her.

     "I mean is there really a market for school drama television shows?"

     "We would not be here if there wasn't." The director replied.

     Amethyst looked again while saying, "I don't think this is getting a season 2 though. Cheap set."

     "Smart. Usually, things like these are one and done. If they are successful then a second season is green lit. However, that all depends on ratings, and returns on investment." The director asked, surprised.

      "Wait, sis you can't just go from silent kid to this overnight." Aqua said suspiciously.

     Amethyst eyes drilled into his soul. "It's your fault for teaching me." She then turned to the director and smiled slightly. "Anyways, mind if I join you."

     "I don't mind, just behave yourself."

     Amethyst did not respond and just followed the director and Aqua as they walked up to a small window that opened up into one of the rooms where the shoot would take place. The director stopped and leaned against the wall.

     "As I was saying there are three different types of actors. The audience magnet is the one that draws the views. It is a rating booster. This comes in two forms. A pretty face or big-name recognition. The next type of actor is a supporting actor. This individual does everything humanly possible to elevate the project to a quality standard. They have the most complicated job which is to make everything believable. Then there is the new blood. Their only job is to not ruin anything and gain name recognition while doing so. If one new blood succeeds, then that's a win for the whole industry because they will become either an audience magnet or a supporting actor." The director finished his long-winded explanation.

     That is when the clapperboard rang out. The scene had started. It was a pretty underwhelming scene in Amethyst's opinion but their mother gotta start somewhere. The idol job is not permanent and if she becomes a very good actor she can survive in the industry for a very long time. She had seen actors in their old age still be an audience magnet, so she just had to wish her mom all the luck and success in the world.

     A month later and the entire family was crowded around the television to watch their mother's performance on the show. Unfortunately, most of her performance was cut out of the final work. Amethyst was not surprised. This was office politics but on a whole other level. Amethyst saw Aqua calling someone. It was obvious that he was calling the director to complain. She had seen him take his business card a month ago. She decided to wait and see. If Aqua could deal with the situation there was no need for her to get involved.

     Aqua came back into the room under Amethyst's watchful gaze. "So, what was that about?"

     "I complained about screen time." Aqua replied.

     "Just don't drag me to another shoot."

1973 words

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