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Chapter 0
Into
This all happened during the mid 2010s. Sheiny didn't come to her Grandfather's funeral. Neither did her mother, who hated the Grandfather deeply. Her mother was upset and nervous. A lone mother, bright woman in her own right, but too afraid of admitting it. She was a young gal, still not earning enough to keep up with the bills. Grandfather felt ashamed of his past actions and supported his daughter monetarily, by sending her bank transfers of support every month. It's was not a lot of money per say. They could not try and keep the living only relying on it. But now, since he is deceased, mother had to find yet another source of income. For a very long time they have received those gifts and started to grow addicted to them. And since the mother is not willing to admit that she is infect smart. She is acting stupidly while completely realizing it. Thus she sabotages every opportunity given to her to survive.
Sheiny didn't like school. While other kids felt that school was boring since keeping with the education was hard for them. And simply engaging in light-minded activities is considered more fun. It doesn't require to flex a singe brain-muscle. Sheiny on the other hand didn't like school for the sole reason of it being too simple for her. Being a daughter of her mother, Sheiny inherited a bright-brain. But unlike her mother, Sheiny does not have an imposter syndrome. She is not afraid of using her brain.
Being a child in the 2010s Sheiny is well educated in all things eighteen plus. Her mother made a stupid mistake of gifting her a surveillance device, through which she and her friends in school learned a lot about the world and how it operates. In her 9 years of age she already knew about things Mom didn't think she knew about. The beautiful irony here is that kids like Sheiny do not reveal to adults the full list of knowledge that they know. They know to cover up some things, because otherwise it could result in punishment. Sheiny is not an exception. Her mother, even though loving and acting stupidly, is a smart woman after all. So Sheiny learned to lie quite remarkably.
After filling an empty stomach for some while, Sheiny couldn't help but visit ideas of helping her mother to gain a few bucks. But the frustration of Sheiny about the world grew even more when she realized that there was nothing legal that she could do to help. She was trying to convince the mother about a few ideas. But mother felt those ideas to be too clever for her liking. And said something stupid like "You're just a child" to Sheiny on each such offering.
Without the mother there was an obvious and only choice to sell lemonade. A very good way to make enough money for a whole another lemon. She tried selling other things, like candy and chocolate bars. Adding a bit to their price to gain a little, but this was unsuccessful. Kids didn't want to spend more of their lunch money than necessary. And they could buy the same items for cheaper in the school's cafeteria. She sold one chocolate bar to Brandy. But he was ridiculed for that by other children. So she could not sell to him anymore.
Sheiny realized that her inability to make legal money only meant one thing. She had to make the money somehow illegally. Going to work was illegal enough, but since directors of businesses didn't want problems with the law themselves, they all would've denied her. Selling weapons was not possible because of how would have she obtained them in the first place. Selling drugs was more possible, but there was a competition with Richie and his gang that were already doing it in the school and they were also carrying knives. She didn't have anything to sell, legal or illegal, until she realized something. She is a 9 years old girl with a camera in her pocket. She can try and produce something to sell.
Sheiny wasn't just simply smart, she was exceptional. It's just that she never had any experience with business, which lead to her failures in this endeavour. But she did have plenty of experience with all thing that could be learned in the school and beyond. A lot of teachers, such a Mrs. Dantonwood just hated her and her wit, that would always put them to shame. Mrs. Dantonwood was a math teacher that could not analyze any of the equations that she would give to the students. She would simply tell them to use some equation because she herself remembered it to be the right one to use. Sheiny, on other hand could prove all of those equations. She was well versed in how math worked. She was fascinated with numbers and figures. And when she was asked by Mrs. Dantonwood occasionally, Sheiny always was able to entertain the class with her explanation of any given equation or math problem. She was not only good in understanding it, but also good in communicating it.
One person that was outright scared of Sheiny was Mr. Hambleton. He was a teacher of informational technology. Or in today's slang, a computer teacher. He was, as the school policy required, teaching all kids to use proprietary, nasty software. They would sit lesson by lesson and do tasks in Microsoft this or Microsoft that. The only one who denied those tasks was Sheiny. She argued with the principal of the school to donate her a computer last spring. It was still standing in the class with the other computers but was totally under control of Sheiny. She, in her then 8 years of age, removed the operating system it had on it and installed GNU / Linux on it instead. All the tasks required by the school policies on the information technology classes she was doing in LibreOffice or Gimp.
Mr. Hambleton was respecting her computer abilities, but was not necessarily afraid of her until one incident. Using Windows on his computer he left a vulnerability. His primary mistake was to use the school's WIFI. It was meant for casual telephone uses of children but all the computers in the school were also connected to it. Including the now, personal, Sheiny's computer. That day Sheiny was doing something of her own. While the class was learning some basic tasks in Microsoft Paint. When the lesson ended it was already the end of the school day, since there was no more lessons to come after it. Kids packed up and ran to the parents waiting for them outside. Sheiny informed her mother that she would come much later that day. She had something to do on the computer. Mr. Hambleton didn't pack. He had to save all the sessions and check for hardware malfunctions on some of the computers. And while he was dealing with his usual deed, his own, personal laptop was still connected to the school's WIFI.
Suddenly Mr. Hambleton caught a glimpse of a very familiar image on Sheiny's screen. It was a file from his computer. An image of a naked little girl. Sheiny closed the picture immediately, but it was too late. Mr. Hambleton's true nature was revealed. He wasn't a bad person per say. He was perhaps one of the nicest teachers in the school. But now it was on Sheiny's choosing if he would stay being a teacher in that school. From that point on, without any negotiation or exchange between them, they both knew that she is now in control over him. And now, when she is looking for people to buy her new stuff, Mr. Hambleton is the first man she would be talking to as a potential customer.
"What is your salary?" asked Sheiny from Mr. Hambleton once on a lesson. He gave her the figure. "Do you have any kids? Are you married?" she asked more. He told her all the information as if being under a police interrogation. She plotted the numbers into an equation written in a program source code on her screen. "This is..." Sheiny is pointing to the result of the program "... how much spare money you have every month.". Mr. Hambleton didn't know how to react to it, but other kids were in the class, so to avoid suspicion he gave her the regular "Nice Work!" expression. He raised the thumb and gave her a pad on her back. But he already knew that something sinister would come out of it. And indeed, Sheiny was calculating how much should she charge to the stuff.
Afterwards she asked Mr. Hambleton to chat a little after school. He was nervous about it, but still waited her after the school ended. She took him away from the school into a place where there is not too many people. And there they spoke about what kind of images excite him. She didn't simply want to get money from him. It was not interesting. Too stupid. Her mother would've done that. But Sheiny is instead doing a rather interesting research project. She is trying to answer whether she could produce stuff that people gonna pay for. She already knew his budget, she just needed to know what he would pay for. Mr. Hambleton could not believe what he was hearing. It was too good to be true. She found out about his secret thoughts and didn't just want to take advantage from it. She wanted to make an offering to him. To which he felt morally obligated to agree.
So the deal was done. She would produce some of the illegal stuff for him in exchange for money. And that's how Sheiny did her first real sell. But she didn't stop there. She wanted to learn more about this. For example, the image that she found on his computer should have been gotten there in some way. Is there a competition? How do they spread their stuff? What is the quality of their stuff? How can she produce better stuff? How can she sell more? These were the question on her mind now. Dead Grandfather and an empty stomach turned a little girl into a criminal mastermind.