A/N- if you haven't already read the bio, hop to it, kid! 

FIRST CHAPTER FROM SPAZ!!!

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Chapter 1:

A bug flew past her ear, and she instinctively slapped herself in the side of the head. "Owwww." She said under her breath as she smiled at her own mistake.

She looked up at the night sky, where a few stars were starting to wake up for the night. It wasn't very far in the daytime to her friend Emily's house, but it was the walk back in the dark that killed ya.

Squinting in the half light, she pulled a hanging branch out of her way, and continued down the path. She stopped suddenly as she heard a melody playing. Cocking her head towards the sound, she concluded that is was probably on the way home, if she passed the musician, she would compliment them on the beautiful sound.

As she went around a bend in the path, she noticed the soft glow from a campfire, as the music got louder. ~Clarinet!~ She said to herself with a smile.

She stepped into the firelight, and all three of the girls sitting around the fire stared at her as the music stopped. Two of the girls looked like they were about sixteen or seventeen, and the other looked like she was a bit older. One of them was shooting daggers at with her eyes, obviously defensive. The one holding the instrument was paused, with her clarinet hovering near her lips, like she was taking a long breath.

"Medda Larksen." The woman introduced herself to the girls.

"What are you doing here?" the blonde one demanded.

"I heard your music… You are very good!" Medda told her.

"Calm yourself Eight. She can't harm us."

Medda focused her gaze on the speaker, the older girl, who was casually leaning on a large rock, and whittling into a chunk of wood, before pausing to push her glasses farther up on her nose. Her hair was short, and looked uneven, but she couldn't be sure, since she was wearing a hat. Her tan leather hat had embroidered flowers onto the front of it. The flowers were the only ladylike part of her outfit. Her grey suspenders were hanging at her sides, instead of on her shoulders, her green shirt was patched at the elbows, and her pants had a patch on one knee, and. Medda suspected that if they weren't already dark brown, they would be stained.

Medda refocused her attention on the defensive one, a blonde girl with, oddly enough, a bright purple hat and matching suspenders. Her blonde hair skimmed the shoulders of her grimy grey shirt, which happened to be only half tucked in.

"If you're gonna continue to stare at us, you might as well sit and make yourself comfortable" the bespectacled one told her.

As Medda settled herself on a moss covered log, the musician finally decided to speak. The only thing was, Medda couldn't understand her.

"Hiyo!" she said happily.

While she was adjusting her skirt, which was her favorite shade of pink, Medda asked, "Come again?"

"Hiyo." She repeated.

"Um… hello.

"What brings you to our campsite?" the musician asked.

"I always cut through here on my way home from my friends house, it's just not usually dark out. Your fire was like a beacon. It's a wonderful fire" she added.

"That's why dey call me Pyro!" she beamed as she carefully set her clarinet aside. She tucked a strand of he long dark brown hair behind her ear, and pulled her knees up to her chest, tugging the cuff of her pant leg back down over her shoe, as it started riding up. ~What's with these girls, and wearing pants?~ Medda silently asked herself. Looking at Pyro, she noticed that there was a small scorch mark on the sleeve of her red shirt.

"Pyro? And who are you two?" she asked, nodding towards the others.

"I'm Spaz." The older one stated.

"Spaz? Why did they call you Spaz?" she asked, confused. "I would think that you would take offence to such a name."

"A friend of mine once looked at me and told me I was 'a complete spastic loser' and it stuck. I think it suits me fine."

"I'll take your word for it." Medda said as she couldn't help but smile.

"What about you… What did she call you, was it Eight?"

"Yeah, it's short for Eight of Nine."

"Eight of Nine… you have nine lives perhaps?" Medda asked.

Snickering, she answered back, "No, I'm child number eight out of nine."

Looking surprised, Medda commented, "That's a lot of children."

Eight smiled at her, "I bet they don't even notice I'm gone."

"How sad." Medda said, with a concerned look on her face. "Where is the rest of your family? Are you three sisters?"

"Nah, we's decided to be cousins. I hopped on a trans continental train in Utah." Eight told her.

"I see, and where did you come from?" she asked Spaz

"I'm from a city dat's small enough that you've never heard of it. My father tried to marry me off to some ugly, old rich guy. He wanted the money the guy offered. I bought a ticket on the next train outta there. Since I bought the cheapest ticket, I got ta sit with the baggage, and oh man, there was this guy in there, an he stunk SO bad, that I had to go get some air, so I wandered into the carriage compartment. Eight was sleepin under one of the carriages."

Eight interrupted "She disturbed my precious beauty sleep."

"I was bored!"

"I guess dat's a good enough excuse, I woulda woke you up." Eight said with a nod.

Spaz continued the story "We talked, and decided that wherever we got off, we would stick together. And when we got off, we ran into Pyro."

"Technically, I ran into you…." Pyro interrupted.

"Yeah, I still got bruises…" Eight commented, rubbing her shoulder.

"I was runnin from some people that were… mad at me." Pyro told Medda

"Why were they mad at you?" Medda asked her

"I kinda… set the bank on fire in Yonkers."

Medda burst out laughing. "I read about that in the paper!" Medda said, wiping her eyes.

"Dey had me waitin in line for a long time… I got bored! You know, it wouldn't have gotten out of hand if they wouldn't have all freaked out, and knocked the fire out of my hands! I was about to blow it out, I took a deep breath, and then someone slapped it out of my hand! Stupid bank manager, it's his fault!"

Hardly controlling her laughter, Medda asked, "So, you are all running away, but have nowhere to go."

"Nah, we decided that this would be our castle, we are gonna let Pyro torch these pesky woods, and, Spaz and I were gonna walk all the way to Norway, so we could have some good Norwegian wood, and we were gonna build us a house, right here in central park. At least until something better comes along." Eight said sarcastically.

"Isn't Pyro going to help you carry the wood?" Medda asked

"I figured she's stay here and play her clarinet for money, so we have enough money to buy the land before we desecrate it." Eight said, without missing a beat.

"How long have you been playing?" Medda asked Pyro.

"Since it was taller than I was." Pyro said with a giggle. "I used to have to stand on a chair to play it."

"Wow, can you read sheet music?"

"Of course! I can play anything too!" she boasted.

"Great!" Medda beamed, "You're hired!"

All three of them looked at Medda like she was crazy.

"What?" Pyro asked her, her jaw dropped.

"I own Irving hall, the theatre across the park, and just last week, the clarinet player from my orchestra ran away with my ticket girl." She explained. "Oh, and I've heard enough out of you, you could convince a starving man on his way to a restaurant, to give up his last nickel to see a show, you'll make a wonderful ticket girl." She beamed at Eight.

It was Eight's turn to stare at her open mouthed, but before she could say anything, Medda started talking again. "How tall are you?" she asked Spaz. "Please stand."

Spaz, still surprised at her previous announcement, just did what she was told, and slowly got to her feet.

Medda stood next to her, measuring her height. "Plenty tall enough to reach the cord to pull the curtain open. And you look strong enough to be able to handle helping with the sets." Since the three of them were still dazed from the surprise, Medda kept talking. We will have to have a discussion on your wages, of course, which might not be the highest, but that is because some of that will cover the apartment off the stage that you will be occupying."

"You're… giving us jobs?" Spaz asked her.

"It's an opportunity I can't pass up." Medda shrugged. "I need three employees, and there are three of you."

"And you're giving us a place to live too?" Pyro asked, to make sure.

"Of course. I can't have my employees coming in to work dressed in dirty clothing from sleeping on the ground, can I?" She asked them with a smile.

"Then what are we still sittin on the ground for?" Eight exclaimed, jumping to her feet, and grabbing her bag, piling her stuff back in it.

"Can we move in tonight?" Pyro asked her?

"I don't see why not." Medda shrugged.

"YAY!" Spaz whooped, punching the air with her fist.