It was just meant to be a prank. Ness didn't mean for anyone to get hurt.
He was standing in a hospital room in Onett, where his sister Tracy lay on a hospital bed, her skin burnt and hair singed. Her normal outfit, a pink jumper over a white blouse, was replaced with a drab hospital gown, teal and clean. Wires and machines were hooked up to her. Monitors blinked and beeped around her.
Ness turned to the girl next to him, a Girl Scout with slightly tan skin and black hair done into 2 pigtails. "This was all your fault!" Ness yelled. "I wish I had never met you!" Ness ran out of the room, dashed through the halls of the hospital and headed outside.
Ness sat on the sidewalk and buried his head in his hands. "Don't cry," he said to himself. "Don't cry." Suddenly, the young Girl Scout who was with him earlier walked up to him, and sat next to him. Ness moved away.
"Look.. I'm sorry, Ness.." The girl, who now had some explosives in tow, started. "I don't care. My sister's hurt thanks to you," Ness said, anger lacing his voice.
It had all started with a bundle of fireworks and a chance encounter. It was a hot, sunny, summer day. Ness was walking down the dirt path from his home, in the suburbs of Onett to the more urban part of Onett when he heard a loud bang from inside the trees. Wondering what had taken place, he investigated around the thick, green forest surrounding the messy, crumbling dirt path. Finally he chose to enter the forest.
Ness was surprised by what he saw next. There was a girl, the same one who was next to him in the present, setting off fireworks. Ness was afraid of this girl, after all, she could end up burning the forest down. "Hey! Stop!" he yelped, rushing towards her. The girl would quickly turn around. She was about to light a firecracker.
The girl would quickly extinguish the match she was going to light the explosive with. "What's the big deal?!" she nearly yelled, clearly annoyed by the sudden interruption. "You can't set off a firework here! You're in a forest for Pete's sake!" Ness would shout, the volume of his voice scaring off a few crows that had been perched in the trees.
The girl would roll her eyes as she irresponsibly slid the firecracker into a pocket in her Girl Scout sash. "Who are you anyway, and how'd you find me?"
"I'm Ness, and you were making such a ruckus that it would be hard not to notice you were here," Ness spoke. "And I should be asking who you are instead of you asking me."
The young Girl Scout would stick her hand out. "The name's Sandra," she said proudly, a smirk on her face.
Ness would just stare at Sandra's hand.
"What? You don't know how to greet a new friend?" Sandra said, grabbing Ness's hand and giving it a shake.
"Friend?! I barely know anything about you!" Ness quickly said, unsure if he could trust Sandra, with her explosives and all. Examining her a little closer, he noticed she had several explosives tucked into her sash, an explosive or two sticking out from her hat, and even explosives in her pockets. This girl was literally a walking bomb. How had she even gotten all these fireworks?
Sandra would let go of Ness's hand and sharply slapped him on the back as she laughed, causing him to flinch. "It's pretty obvious I like fireworks, I'm a Girl Scout, and my name is Sandra," she said.
"Because you told me all that!" said Ness, getting slightly annoyed with Sandra.
"Well at least I told you some stuff about me," Sandra said with a playful tone. "After all, you haven't told me anything about you." Sandra would continue to ask Ness about his family, his favorite food, and his interests.
Ness was almost shocked. Was this girl who he had caught setting off explosives in the forest trying to be his friend? It was unbelievable. Ness finally caved in to Sandra's questions. "Okay, fine! I live with my mom and little sister Tracy, my favorite food is steak, and I like baseball!" Ness would say quickly in an attempt to stop the questions.
"You have a sister, eh?" Sandra would say. "What if we pulled a prank on her?"
Ness would become tense. "How?"
"We'll scare her with fireworks!" Sandra said with a laugh.
Ness wasn't sure this was safe. "Is it safe?"
"Yeah, if we just scare her!"
Sandra immediately started setting up a plan to prank Tracy, with Ness having very little say in the plans. Almost an hour later, she had set up a rig that would set off some firecrackers when Tracy got close. Ness would lead Tracy to the rig. As Tracy walked onto the trigger plate of the rig, concealed under some dirt, Ness had a rush of anxiety, especially when the firecrackers didn't go off when they should've. They did go off when Tracy was very close to them. She ended up being burnt badly.
The rest of the hour was a blur in Ness's memory, though he did remember that Sandra had called an ambulance. Now, as he sat on the sidewalk, he realized maybe this wasn't entirely Sandra's fault. He had done nothing to stop Sandra from hurting Tracy. Plus, Sandra had called an ambulance while Ness had stood there in shock. He was at fault. Just as he was about to say 'I forgive you', a police officer approached them. "Sandra Peters?" she asked.
Sandra would snap to attention. "Yeah?"
"I'm afraid you're under arrest for underage possession of fireworks."
Time almost seemed to stop as Sandra frowned, as if she knew this would happen sooner or later. The officer would snap metal handcuffs around Sandra's wrists as she confiscated her fireworks, placing them all into evidence bags. As she walked away with Sandra, Ness suddenly stood up. "Wait! Sandra!"
Sandra would stop walking for a moment, annoying the officer.
"I forgive you."
Sandra would smile as the officer nudged her forward into her police car before getting into the driver's seat and driving away.
Ness would stand there, his final words to Sandra lingering in the hot summer air.
Maybe Sandra was a good person after all.