Lee, still with his head lowered, says, “I’m just acting trying to get Sakura to take part in the commercial.” He says then looks over his shoulders and notices that Rexan is still on the call, now with more than one person.

  Sue places a comforting hand on his shoulder. “But why are you like that? And how can you give your sister a part?”

  “First you and dad will need to allow her to take part,” Lee says looking at his parents. “And as she can’t ride the bike fast like me, I asked Miss Rexan to see if Saki takes part, will she too gain a bike and uniform?”

  “Lee!” Lee turns around alongside Sue and Kenji to find Rexan approaching them. “I only hope that I never have to bargain with you,” she says in Japanese, shaking her head. “My bosses agreed that any child that takes part in the commercial will be allowed to keep their uniform from the recordings. And if they select the commercial, each child will be gifted the same way: a new bike, branded with the Blue Wolf and Blue Wolf Junior logos and emblems, alongside a riding safety uniform.”

  “Thank you,” Lee, alongside Sue and Kenji, say taking a deep bow in gratitude.

  “No need to thank us,” says Alice in Japanese as she approaches. “Now Lee, what do you have in mind for the commercial? We still need to show a rough sketch to our bosses.”

  Lee then goes with the crew members alongside his family to a nearby restaurant where Lee explains his idea.

  Rexan and Alice rub their chins as they contemplate Lee’s idea; then a man that Alice introduced as a script manager says in Japanese, “I don’t think anyone does this kind of cinematic commercials any more.” Then after thinking for a second, he says, “So I guess as it’s something new... well, old style, it could attract more views, and we are trying to captivate the kids.” He then looks at Rexan. “I will need ten to twenty minutes to make a sketch.” Then without waiting for a response, he stands up and walks out of the restaurant.

  An hour later, they are all back in the park; Rexan is explaining how the commercial will be recorded, and the recording technician shows the plan that the script manager gave him.

  “So does everyone know what they have to do?” Alice asks in Japanese, and the children nod; the crew sets a perimeter as Alice pilots the drones into position, and each child goes to their markers. Then reaching into her earpiece, she says, “Is everyone set?” She gets confirmations from everyone. “In that case, action!”

  Three weeks go by in a flash; Lee every morning goes into the woods, but after lunch he stays at home, as per the agreement with Kenji. Secretly, he only allows Lee to go into the woods as, when he goes back home, he two out of three times takes some meat and Kenji and Sue don’t mind the saved money.

  Then one Friday, Lee has just gotten back home when the doorbell rings; Kenji is about to get up from his office chair, but Lee waves at him signalling that he will open it.

  “Good afternoon,” Lee says with a smile as he opens the door to the two men standing there.

  “Good afternoon, young one,” says one of the men. “Sorry, we are a bit lost; we are looking for Lee Watson.”

  Lee’s mind starts to think fast. “Okay, he lives here,” Lee says, his body getting ready to bolt out, not sure who these men are.

  “Oh, that is good; so do you know Lee?” the other man inquires.

  “Yes, I do,” Lee says then looks over his shoulders, then back at the two men. “Would you like for me to get my dad?”

  “Yes, please, young one,” the first man says with a smile.

  “Okay, just give me a second,” Lee says and closes the door; the two men look at one another confused, as they were expecting for Lee to scream for his dad.

  “Who was that?” Kenji inquires as Lee gets into his office.

  Lee shakes his head. “Two lost men, looking for me, but they don’t know who I am.” Lee shrugs before adding, “They did not say their names or give any business card; they are dressed like you.”

  Kenji looks at himself and sees his office attire and understands that Lee is trying to say that they are dressed professionally. “Okay, I’ll go and see what they want.”

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  As Kenji opens the door, the first man smiles brightly. “Hello, Mr Lee, it’s a pleasure to see you,” the man says extending his hand forward towards Kenji.

  Before anyone can say anything else, a crushed can smacks into the man’s head. “You idiot, Lee is the kid!” says a female voice in broken Japanese; Lee peeks from behind his dad only to find Alice marching straight at the two men. “Good thing I came ahead expecting for you guys from the office to pull something like this.”

  “Miss Alice, what an honour it is to have you grace us with your presence,” says the second man in English, blocking Alice’s path and caressing her face; Alice leans her face into his touch and offers a soft gentle smile, then she lifts her knee and the man’s body trembles before he falls onto his knees on the ground.

  Alice then approaches the other man. “Are you going to remain there, or are you going to run back into the office?” she says in English and at this the man takes a few steps back as he covers his manhood. “That’s what I thought,” she says glaring at the first man that was about to shake Kenji’s hand. Then her eyes turn soft as she looks at Kenji and Lee. “Sorry for these two; they had no right coming over to talk to you,” she says, her Japanese slightly better than before.

  Then a silver sports car drops to the ground, its bluish light turning off as the car goes from hover to terrain; even before the car comes to a full stop, the door flies open and Rexan exits the car bound for the Watsons' house.

  “Don’t worry, I managed to get here just in time,” says Alice looking at Rexan.

  “Hello, what is going on?” asks Sue arriving home for lunch.

  “Hello, love; I don’t know either,” says Kenji with a shrug.

  Sue looks immediately at Lee. “This time I had nothing to do with it,” Lee says lifting his hands in surrender.

  “Actually, you did, Lee,” says Rexan as the Watsons look at her; they notice the other two men leaving in defeat. “May we talk in the privacy of your home?”

  “Sure, come in,” says Kenji stepping into the house so Rexan and Alice may enter. Once they are seated in the living room, Kenji asks, “What happened? Why were the men looking for our son?”

  “First of all, sorry for that; they had no right to come looking for you,” says Rexan in Japanese. “And normally the company sends three or four groups to create adverts or make publicity. Those two belong to another group.”

  “Then in the event of having to create commercials, there is a casting vote on the best video by other internal members of the company,” continues Alice.

  Sue and Kenji look at one another still not understanding. “Okay, so why were they after Lee?”

  “Normally, winning videos get a small percentage of votes more than the runner-up,” says Rexan. “This time, the winning video won with eighty-five per cent of the votes.”

  “And how is Lee involved in this?” inquires Sue.

  “The winning video had Lee as the idea director,” says Alice. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but the two…” She stops casting a glance at Lee and coughs having swallowed the words she was about to say. “The two rats tried to get Lee to create a video for them.”

  Rexan shakes her head. “After making a video, we give credit where credit is due, and as in the video we made, it was Lee who gave the idea… well, we named him on the video as sub-director.” Rexan looks at Lee. “Congratulations! Your idea was the one with the most votes and will be the one we will use in the commercial for Blue Wolf Junior.”

  “Yay!!” Lee shouts jumping off the couch pumping his fist in the air.

  They let Lee celebrate for a bit. “Now Lee,” says Rexan calling Lee over. “We need to ask you to calm down and not tell your friends; we will be going to your school this Monday the tenth of September, just as school starts.” She then looks at Sue and Kenji who can’t prevent a smile from forming on their faces. “We have already spoken with the school and they agreed to it; we will be going in early in the morning. As per the Earth Alliance agreement, every school has their two weeks of military exercise to get the children moving again after the month-long holidays.”

  Sue and Kenji nod. As when the world united on a single front at the start of communication with aliens, they notice how different the schools were; so afterwards there was no going back to the way things were before. So, creating the Earth Alliance Equality Treatment Agreement—a sort of peace treaty that saw for the first time Earth becoming almost equal depending on their country—was necessary.

  So with that agreement were the school rules; children start at the age of two in preparation school to learn the basics of how school works. Then, in the first year, they will have a simple military training week, as kids normally lay back and just hardly move during their summer holidays. After the second year, they get two weeks of military workout cardio, but always keeping an eye on individual children.

  “So this year, we asked the school if it was possible to present the children with the drink, for free, to see if there was any difference in their performance,” says Rexan, continuing with her explanation. “I don't know if you had a read of the pamphlet, but the electrolytes are what the human body loses when exercising, so our drink will refuel the body with them.”

  “And as seven out of the eight children that participated in the commercial go to the same school...” adds Alice, looking at Lee. “We will show it at the start and call each child to get their new bikes and uniforms after the commercial ends.”

  “Also, we will invite the parents and guardians to attend the awarding of the children; the commercial will be live on the following day. We were going to get in contact tomorrow as the children are in school,” adds Rexan to conclude.

  “Thank you for informing us, and we will be there,” says Kenji, looking at Sue who nods in confirmation. Then looking at Rexan, he asks, “But why did the two men come looking for Lee? If it's already confirmed that your commercial is the winner, what could they gain from it?”

  “They would trap Lee in a contract where he could only provide ideas to make videos for them,” says Alice, her hands clenching into fists.