For Tee, her first session of double English that Friday had just let out. The only reason she was smiling was that a tiny little prank she played on Joey had gone off without a hitch. She'd always wondered what it would be like to fill someone's pencil case with warm custard - though it was a strange thing to wonder - and today she got her answer: It was grossly humorous.
"That look on his face…" she smirked inwardly, shaking her head. "He's such a nub…"
Thankfully for her, it was lunch, and custard was off the menu. He stomach had been moaning to her all class, since she'd skipped breakfast. She figured she'd sneak out of school for a few minutes and run around to the Quiznos around the corner, but first she'd have to try and hustle up some money from somewhere.
"I think I have $5 in my locker," she said to herself, taking the next left down the hall to the vast row of lockers. Before she could twist in the combination, her eye was immediately drawn to the white envelope sticking out at her.
After yanking the note from her locker, she tore it open. It read:
"If you don't want to see your sister harmed, meet me behind the science block at 12:45. Unarmed."
It had Amethyst's signature scrawled at the bottom.
"Like Hell unarmed…" Tee growled, throwing her locker open with so much force it nearly broke off its hinges. Hunger forgotten, she took her standard issue paintball gun and placed it in her holster, along with a sly back-up she concealed in her back pocket.
Amethyst and Lia sat awkwardly on a couple of milk crates, Lia twiddling her thumbs and Amethyst holding her gun anxiously in her palms.
"You know this is ridiculous, don't you?" Lia said, sighing. She'd grown to expect as much from Amethyst. "Using me to get to her is not going to win your silly game."
"It's not a game," Amethyst snapped back before managing to control herself. "Sorry to bring you into this, but I have to try. I want to win this game. It's nothing personal."
"She'll kill you, you know that?" Lia informed, shaking her head. "If you shoot me, anyways. Would you shoot me to win this game?"
Amethyst bit her lip but remained silent.
At that moment, loud, stomping footsteps pummelled the ground around the corner from them. "COOK!" Tee yelled, storming around the corner.
Amethyst pulled Lia to her feet and held the gun at her head.
Too many crime dramas. Too many action movies…
Seeing this, Tee froze dead in her tracks. She floated her hand Western-style in the air surrounding her holster.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Amethyst warned, quietly. She was shaking. "Put it on the ground."
Tee didn't move.
"Tee, sis…" Lia bit her lip, stared at her twin with helpless eyes. "I know these are only paintballs, but it's going to hurt like heck if she fires, so…"
Keeping her cold eyes locked on Amethyst, she slowly took the gun out of her holster and placed it on the ground. Then, she smiled. "Nehw I yas kcud, evom tuo fo eht yaw."
Lia's ears pricked up and she smiled in return. The quiet, soft words were heard by Amethyst, but the girl just shook her head and shrugged them off as nonsense.
With her free hand, she pulled out her second paintball gun from her back pocket and levelled it to Tee's chest.
Tee prepared to do the same, only stopping once she'd wrapped her hands around the plastic handle.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, friend," Amethyst tried not to let the gun slip out of her grasp due to sweating hands.
"I'm sorry too," Tee smiled, composed, calm, ready. "One…"
"Two…" Amethyst pulled back the hammer.
"KCUD!"
It all happened in a fraction of a second.
Just before Amethyst could pull the trigger, Tee and Lia dodged out of the way of both the guns, Tee falling to one knee, drawing her weapon and taking two shots at Amethyst's gut.
The girl winced in pain, dropped her firearms and clutched at her stomach. She fell to the floor, staring up at the sky and groaning.
Tee towered over her crumpled body, said simply, "This is our game, not hers. You got off lightly this time, because nobody messes with my sister, understand?"
Amethyst nodded, rolled onto her side as Tee and Lia walked away.
After school, Ash and Lorelai were walking home together. Ash had informed Lorelai of her 'dastardly' plan to win the game and Lorelai seemed more than willing to oblige.
"You want to borrow the long-range sniper rifle?" she checked.
Ash nodded. "It will shoot across the distance, right?"
"With ease," Lorelai assured.
"So, why do you want to help me?"
"Tee was the one who ambushed me as I was walking home, ruining my scarf," Lorelai reminded through gritted teeth. "Whereas you saved me from one of her first attacks. I owe it to you."
"Debt repaid," Ash chuckled.
Lorelai took out her keys as she turned into her driveway. It was a quaint, modern two story house on Rosebud Lane with a nice flower garden at the front.
"Wow," Ash marvelled up and around her. "I never pictured you living in an actual house."
"Well where did you think I lived?"
"In a burrow by a riverbank somewhere…" Ash replied, absentmindedly.
Ash followed Lorelai up the stairs and into her bedroom. Her bedroom seemed pretty standard for a girl like her. An elegant white dressing table with fancy brands one could barely pronounce. Flower pots and antique vases spread perfectly across the width of the large room. Three closets along one of the walls.
"Oh my…" Ash wondered in, started observing. "This is, like, four of my rooms."
Lorelai unlocked the paintball closet and motioned for Ash to enter.
As she did, the girl gasped at the contrast. Six machine guns lined up military-style on one rack, several pistols and two differently sized sniper rifles on the other. A rocket launcher took up an entire wall in all its glory. On the floor was a box of hand grenades and a crate full of ammunition.
"I'm in heaven," Ash stood at the doorway, dumbstruck. "This must have cost you a fortune."
"It was near enough three thousand," Lorelai subtly bragged. "My Pa doesn't particularly approve of my new-found hobby but he bought them for me anyway. He swears he'll take them all away again if I mention this to anyone at the country club."
"Your Pa must be loaded," Ash guessed. "Who is he, the Monopoly man?"
Lorelai chuckled, softly. "Close enough. He's the head of a large insurance company."
She walked over to the sniper rack, picked up the biggest and placed it in Ash's hands.
Marvelling over the gun like she was holding the Holy Grail, Ash began to smile. "This'll do just fine…"
That weekend, Ash began scheming. She needed to iron out any little kinks in her otherwise perfect plan if she wanted a chance at winning.
The way she saw it, there were three major issues that needed to be addressed pronto.
Firstly, she needed to be able to bring the sniper rifle into school without it being confiscated. Her worry wasn't so much the school or Kayley taking it off her hands, but the police.
Luckily, it broke into several manageable pieces that could be brought in daily.
One issue could be checked off the list, but soon enough another had to be dealt with. That one Ash took care of on Monday…