The Lesser Lord George would bring the cotton bales on wooden boats into Zilby. If the weather had been clear throughout the journey the boats entered the harbour at seven thirty on Monday morning. At the docks they were greeted by dock workers who were working off their personal debt to the Lesser Lord George.

The bales were then loaded on to carts before being taken to factories where the material would be cut by machinery in preprogramed patterns. Huge clamps came down to do the stitching. The completed products would then be taken to market.

Meanwhile at the island's school, the children would line up every morning for inspection. Their shirts and skirts were examined for any sign of disregarding school uniform. Signs of thinning material were immediately flagged and the student would have to replace the uniform in a week or less.

Annabelle looked at the plan, written in Phoenix's rough handwritten and knew that justice was coming to the Lesser Lord George. She had every plan to make sure that he didn't reach his weekly quota. Annabelle took aim and let off the firecracker.

'Hey" came a scream from one of the dock unloaders 'Who do you think you are? Don't you know you are putting us in danger?" The man came running towards her, but he looked ridiculous with a fat belly overhanging. "They are eating a diet just made of pap" thought Annabelle as she ducked underneath a fence and jumped over a wave breaker. "When we get rid of the Mamlish, we will be able to use our land for more than just oranges, he is a victim too, despite the fact that he is defending the enemy's goods."

She jumped in the air and when she was at the turning point of the parabola she shot again, this time it was not a warning shot and the firecracker's aim was true. It went across the bay and landed precisely on its target, the ships masks. The masks immediately went up in flames. Workers could be seen scrambling around the decks of the ships. Some of them attempted to pull water up from the side of the ship to dose the flames with.

"Don't you care about anyone but yourself" screamed the worker. "Don't you know that they can't swim lady?"

Annabelle shot out a third firework, that hit the side of the ship, causing wood to fly into the air on all sides. She ducked her head as the statue of an angel that graced the front of the boat almost took out her head. She then dived into the water. Apparently, there were innocents slave working on the boat that didn't know how to swim.

Her strokes were graceful and powerful and in few short seconds she was at the sinking vessels side. She grabbed one particularly hapless man and threw his body (lifeless but still alive) over her one shoulder. She then dived to see whether anybody had been caught underneath the deck. She grabbed a hand and pulled the man up.

She swam back to the shore and deposited them on the ground going back for more. She did this routine four times, saving every person on board. By the time she came back to shore, she found the original survivors had made a campfire and were circled around it singing camp songs.

"We thought we were dead, we thought that our education had led us to our doom, but then Phoenix's spirit rose up and saved us. She took us by the hand, she took us by the waist. We turned around and though our livelihoods were gone, our lives were spared." It was a terrible song that didn't rhyme but Annabelle felt touched to the core.

Alicia got into far more trouble growing up than James did. Mostly it was getting called out for talking too much. Sometimes she was made to go sit outside. Other girls would say bad things about her, and she would complain about these girls to her parents, who would then reprimand her for speaking ill of others.

One time she heard a classmate called Lerona talking "Have you seen that little boy that Alicia keeps talking about. You'd think that she has the best brother in the world."

Alicia didn't mind this too much because she assumed that Lerona would naturally go on to talk about how wonderful her own little brother is. It filled her heart with joy whenever she thought about sibling living in harmony. Sibling rivalry was a foreign concept to her.

"But he is a whiny little brat. His jokes are so lame. Alicia laughed, I swear for five minutes after he told that joke about the elephant and the fridge, but I saw that joke in a joke book and I bet her little brother did too, or if he didn't then somebody else told it to him."

"It's not a funny joke" agreed her friend.

"If told right, it can be amusing, but he is not a funny person. Probably because he is not very intelligent"

Alicia had heard enough and now she knew that she needed to get her revenge. Nobody spoke ill of James. Not when she was around, nor behind her back either.

Alicia pulled out her pencil and started to draw Lerona. She was actually a pretty good artist and it was easy to see who she meant by the picture, but just in case there was any doubt in the viewer's mind, she wrote in capital letters below the picture "LERONA MARAIS" She gave Lerona a pig's snout and bats' ear. The resultant picture was ridiculous, the face of the girl looked hideous.

She stood up and walked to the photocopy room. Where the light cast an unnatural blue over everything. She lay the page on the glass pane and then increased the number of copies to 100. The sound of the machine was soothing as she thought to herself where she would hang the pictures for maximum impact. She laughed to herself. Lerona would feel sorry for what she had said and done.

Alicia shuddered when she remembered the punishment that she received, but the episode was satisfying as Aesop moral tale. Pettiness seldom gives the revenge that is intended. The teachers quickly figured out who had drawn the picture and most of the students sided with Lerona.

Even James became cross with her, because he claimed that he didn't need his older sister going around picking fights on his behalf. He thought that he could defend his own honour. (How wrong he was, the older Alicia chuckled to herself).

"Look Alicia" he said at the time "Nobody cared what Lerona thought or what she was saying, that is, until you put those pictures on the wall. Now everybody knows that there is someone, who doesn't think my jokes are funny. The boys in my class now have started surrounding me to get me to tell jokes. Then they don't laugh, then they start laughing at the fact that nobody is laughing. I'm not meta enough yet to appreciate their bullying." He paused to wonder where he learnt the word meta "And besides Jonty drew a picture of me with bats' ears."

"I saw the picture that Jonty drew" said Alicia "And it looks nothing like you. You are the most handsome boy in your class and that drawing had poorly placed eyeballs. Nobody would have recognised you. It might have even been another picture of Lerona. She has poorly placed eyes."

"That's not the point" screamed James as he stormed off.

Most of the adult on the island had debt to pay off. This left the children often unsupervised and unmentored.

"Look" said a tall slender girl with pixie like face and long hair "My mom brought me these stupid friendship bracelets instead of paying the electricity bill." The group passed around the brightly coloured ornament each one touching the charms of the dolphin, the skull and the scale.

"The lights went off" continued the girl whose name was Veronique "while we were cooking, and I didn't manage to study for the geography test"

The children looked across the sea. "I hate that we have to spend so much time memorising and repeating the names of town's in the Mamlish's homeland" said another of the teenager "I've never been there and unless one comes over as a travel agent, I will never go there, but still I still I know – " the teenager named Sophie started parroting," that in Carnak, there is a paper mill, it's a very good location for a paper mill because of the large pine forests The large pine forests are all watered by a series of streams called the Delta. These streams come off the cloudy mountain range which lies far to the south of the Mamlish's mainland"

"Aliens, all of them" said Veronique "They are descended from Lizards, but they don't teach us that"

"Haven't you gotten into enough trouble by going on about that" said Sophie in distress to Veronique.

"I did and then I went to detention for it. The teacher made me read a hundred years of journal articles that all found definitively that the Mamlish are not descended from lizards. No, not even a trace of crocodile either"

There was a paused for dramatic effect "Not that I believe any of that. Nobody has ever commissioned a DNA test for the natives of Zilby because nobody has really wondered whether or not we are descended from fish. – It's lies, all lies, one look at the Lesser Lord George's face and you can tell that his father was a snake"

"What do you think about Annabelle" said one of the boys who was sitting on the rocks with them. It was Ferne'. 'Did you know that she beat up one of the burly guards and now says that she will get rid of the Lesser Lord George'

"Annabelle is doing well" said Veronique, Veronique was always on top of the news. "She is the first good thing that this island has seen in a hundred years" she paused and looked at Ferne' "Well except for maybe Phoenix, I know that you liked Phoenix, Ferne'. May his soul rest in peace and may the rebels cause rise and all that. May my parents' self-worth rest in peace too, but if Annabelle called me to fight on her side, I wouldn't read the terms and conditions"