Patrick taught me how to tie lassos today. I caught the hang of that quickly since I'd been using my grapple gun since I was five, and it's a pretty similar handling. But my problem is that I'm learning everything too quickly. Patrick keeps telling me he's shocked at how quickly I'm catching on to everything. Maybe I should start doing some shitty takes before I really start trying.

Still, so far I'm loving rodeo. I've got the hang of the lasso and I can ride around on Dallas pretty well, sometimes she gives me a hard time and trips me up, but for the most part I can ride her. I couldn't wait until he taught me something really kick ass like bull riding or something. But when I brought it up he pretty much dashed all of those hopes.

"Bull riding is really dangerous, Mindy. In fact none of the competitions around here even have women bronc riding, let alone bull riding." He said.

"What? Why the hell not?" I asked indignantly. Is this some southern misogynistic bullshit?

"It's really dangerous, that's why. Besides you have to be eighteen to do it even as a guy." He said.

Bull Shit. I bet I could beat everyone's ass off if I were able to try it. But I can't cause I'm a wittle hopewess girl.

Cock suckers.

Nonetheless I still went on training with Patrick learning all the terms for rodeo and running drills. I've got some pretty good times according to not only Patrick but his father and two brothers who came to watch me run the barrel race a few times. His father even recommended I compete. He said I was the fastest learner he'd ever seen, and I still don't think be believes I just learned to ride a horse a couple weeks ago.

But now that I've learned how to tie lassos I can start learning the really fun stuff like cattle roping. Since evidentially that's as far as I'm going to get due to my gender. Of course I should probably act a little more feminine, and ugh, dare I say it, frail. Since down here most girls are like that.

But then, according to Patrick he likes me for that. I went on my first real date last week and I actually liked it. For one thing, he didn't ditch me in the middle of the woods so that's good.

Of course when I told Kim and Kaylee that he'd asked me on a date they squealed for a whole minute. I timed it. And though it doesn't sound like it, a whole sixty seconds is actually a long time. But then they started bouncing around asking about what I was going to wear and where he was taking me. Of course I didn't know the answer to either of those things at the time. But they helped me with the first part.

Kaylee leant me one of her sundresses and I used some of the money from Marcus to buy my first pair of cowboy boots. Patrick said I needed some anyway if I was going to be serious about rodeo, and from the beat up and dusty red look of my tennis shoes I knew he was right.

Still I felt really weird going into the western wear store and trying on boots. I felt really out of place and everything had 'bling' on it. I finally found a pair of boots without 'bling' and purchased the brown leather boots at what Kim and Kaylee assured me was a great price. Although I can't imagine spending this much on shoes on a regular basis.

But Patrick told me the boots were great and even though I felt like a total dork throughout the whole date from what I was wearing, I still had fun. He wound up taking me on a picnic and fishing. Yes fishing. Evidentially he's really good at it, and I believe it since our picnic was actually him cooking the fish he caught. It was kind of cute, I guess, if you're into that mountain man kind of thing. Which Kim and Kaylee are because when I came back they were beside themselves.

But it was kind of fun nonetheless. He taught me how to bait a hook and everything. I guess he thinks I'm into being taught new things. Kim and Kaylee said it had to be the most romantic thing they've ever heard of but it was just him skewering a worm onto a metal hook. It wasn't like we gazed deeply into each other's eyes or anything. We just fished and talked and ate.

But he did tell me something on the date that made it pretty memorable. He signed me up for a rodeo competition next month.

"Are you sure I'll be ready to compete by next month?" I asked him unsure about it. I'm the kind of girl who wants to know she's going to annihilate her competitors before she even signs up, after all.

"Of course, Mindy, You're the quickest learner I've ever seen and I know the competition 'round these parts. By next month you're a shoe in to place." He told me. I smiled, I really enjoyed his praise, it's been so long since I've learned anything new or been told that I'm good at it. Not since daddy taught me how to escape zip ties anyway.

That night after coming home and going up to bed, I couldn't sleep and I crawled back up in the attic to do some more gun maintenance. Mostly I was thinking back on Kim and Kaylee's reactions to how my date went, since they were both waiting with bated breath for me to come home and tell them how it went. I smiled thinking of them, their faces bright and wide with emotion.

I especially enjoyed the moment when I told them that he'd kissed me goodnight. I think Kaylee was on the verge of fainting at that point. I did like the kiss, but it was different from when I kissed Dave. But maybe that was because I kissed Dave whereas this time, Patrick had kissed me.

Either way I couldn't help but compare the two to each other, which I've noticed I've been doing a lot of lately. Somehow I just feel like if I had to choose between the two Dave would win, not that that's likely to ever happen, since Dave lives in New York and Patrick lives here in Cooper. Plus I doubt Dave would ever want to be with me anyway, I'm younger than he is and much less 'developed' than his last girlfriend.

But tonight I'm too worn out from training with Patrick to crawl up in the attic and fuck around with my guns. I'm going to have some serious bruises from that damn goat he had me tying up. But I did get it done so I'm feeling pretty optimistic about my upcoming competition, and of course I'm going to do everything in my power to win it.


I can't believe I'm being forced to take therapy. Like I'm a crazy person. I feel pretty justified in losing my shit on Todd at work today. Pretty fucking justified.

But my manager is telling me I have to go to therapy. At least it's covered by the insurance I just got into last week. But still, it's not like Todd was just some random customer, which is how my manager is viewing it. Which, how did I ever think I wanted to be with her, just because she's got huge tits? Fuck her.

See what happened was it was a Wednesday and it was pretty slow so my manager wasn't even in to see what went down. It was just Brad and me in the front since he'd gotten well enough to work again. But Todd and Marty were going to have an all night game-a-thon so they ordered the pizza, but were too cheap to pay delivery so Todd came in to pick it up.

Well, Todd actually came and ordered it and waited around for it to be ready. So he was sitting in the front bull shitting with Brad and I. And since Brad knows about me being Kick Ass now the subject comes up a lot, especially after Brad found out Todd and Marty were a part of the warehouse fight too. Well we were talking about that infamous fight again when Brad asked Todd a really fucking interesting question.

"Wait, you weren't a part of Justice Forever, right? So how'd you know to be there for the fight?" Brad asked Todd, confused.

Todd grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I was kind of a part of the Mother Fucker's team." He said, looking down at the floor.

"What?!" Both Brad and I asked him in unison. Both Brad and I turned to look at each other.

"Wait, you didn't know this either?" Brad asked me.

"No. I just thought Marty told him about it." I said, turning back to Todd. "Are you fucking serious dude? You actually joined the Toxic Mega Cunts when Marty and I made fun of you?" I asked him, incredulous.

"Well, yeah, when I first joined we didn't do anything and we all just hung around in his awesome warehouse lair." Todd said.

"Wait, how long were you a part of his… His… Operation?" I asked him getting heated.

"It wasn't long, actually just like, right before…" And he trailed off, looking strait at me.

"How fucking long, Todd?!" I asked him, pulling him up by the front of his shirt and starting to get pissed.

"Well…" He stammered.

"Dude, what's the big deal?" Brad asked me, trying to calm me down. "So he accidentally joined the bad guys. If you guys were making fun of him, what's the big deal?" He asked. I just stared down at Todd and he cringed.

"Okay, man! It was right before your dad died." He said and held up his hands in defeat. I threw Todd back into his chair and paced back and forth in anger.

"Your dad died?" Brad asked me. I never realized I hadn't told Brad about my dad dying, but then again it's an issue I don't like to talk about.

"Yes. Chris Fucking D'Amico killed him in prison." I told Brad, but looked strait at Todd. Todd shrunk back in his chair and looked like he was pondering making a run for it.

"Holy shit." Brad said. "I had no idea, dude, I'm…" Todd cut off what Brad was about to say next.

"I'm sorry, man. I didn't know. I just, I didn't know." Todd said, starting to sniffle.

"Didn't know what?" I asked him, now more intrigued than ever.

"I didn't know he was so… Evil." Todd answered, meekly. Then it clicked in my head.

"You fucking told him he was my dad?!" I screamed at Todd, and I didn't notice it at the time, but when I was forced to watch the security camera footage afterwards this was when Tony came out from the back with Todd and Marty's Pizza.

I don't remember it honestly, after lunging at Todd the next thing I remember was Tony grabbing me and literally throwing me behind the counter to knock the fight out of me so I'd calm down. Todd was a bloody mess, and Brad was running back from the bathroom with a wad of paper towels to soak up the blood gushing out of Todd's nose. I lay on the floor behind the counter for a few minutes before I got back up again. Not because Tony had really hurt me or even stopped me, cause if I wanted to I probably could have fought to the death. But the reason I stayed was because the shock was hitting me.

Todd was the reason. Chris would have never known who I was if Todd hadn't told him. I was still pissed at Todd, but now the unbearable sadness was taking over. I actually crawled up into the fetal position behind the counter, on the floor, and cried.

My best friend had betrayed me. Now I know the real reason Mindy doesn't let anyone know her secret identity, it's not because she's afraid of other people getting hurt, it's because she's afraid of people hurting her.

Tony called in our manager and she sorted the mess out, made me watch the security tapes, went through with guidebook protocol and has now told me I have to take therapy since Brad spoke up and said it was a personal issue, and not just that I lost my fucking mind and went ape shit on a random customer for no reason.

Marty tried calling me about twenty times before he actually came over to the house and tried to talk to me in person, but I didn't even let him in the house. He then got a hold of Brad and both of them started beating on the front door before the neighbors told them they'd call the cops if they didn't stop. So they left.

I've never wanted to talk to Mindy more in my life than right now. I even contemplated calling Marcus to see if he could help me get a hold of her, but I knew that would only hurt her and myself in terms of the police looking for Hit Girl and Kick Ass.

So I've resigned myself to staring at the ceiling above my bed until I pass out from exhaustion or until the tears make it too hard to see anything.


Well, things took a turn for the worse for Dave. But on the bright side, things are looking up for Mindy. I almost had Dave's part happen last chapter, but I wanted to space out more of Mindy's story first.

It's something I always wondered about in the movie since in the comics it has Chris finding out about it all on his own (since Dave told him everything in his torture scene), whereas in the movie Todd just goes and tells Chris about it. Now, I know that Todd is just being dumb and unaware, so don't go hating me about Dave hating Todd, it's just a part of Dave's dealing with everything, I guess. I have nothing against Todd.

Please let me know what you think, reviews are always appreciated!