The night went by pretty quickly after Risa called the cops. She and Abby had taken refuge in the Uno household while the police took statements and searched the Lincoln house. While all that was going on, Mr. and Mrs. Uno had given the pair tea and fussed over them both. Risa felt incredibly guilty for lying to them (less so about lying to cops) about the house being robbed but that's how the Teen Ninja's made it look. The truth would have sounded insane anyways.

And Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were very kind to Risa and had each given her a big tip. Especially Mr. Lincoln, who Risa had known for years, he'd been her sister Myra's doctor before she...passed.

Thinking about Myra was becoming less of a thing but it always hit Risa like a ton of bricks when it did happen. Myra was probably the reason Risa didn't hate kids, unlike the other teenagers who had a lot of (frankly disturbing) vitriol towards them. Risa got older but Myra would always be eleven years old and seeing kids reminded her of that.

The whole KND thing reminded her of Myra too, she would have LOVED knowing that existed. Abby had promised to explain more the coming Friday since The Lincoln's had a date night but it was hard for Risa, she was so curious-

"How are you holding up after the break in Risa? That must have been sooooo scary!"

Risa closed her locker and turned to Cree, a bandage across the latter's nose. Ignoring her all day was, apparently, not an option.

`"I'm doing alright. How's your nose? Sorry to hear you broke it on a door, pretty clumsy of you."

Cree gave her a forced smile and said through gritted teeth, "It's fine, thank you SO MUCH for asking! And it isn't your fault it's broken, is it?"

Risa replied shortly, "No, it's actually your fault since you can't watch where you're going."

"You little- you're lucky we're at school Gardner! I'd beat you the length of the hallway if I could!"

Something popped up into Risa's head, a younger Cree attacking her with a mustard gun, Risa going down by a mop, twirling off the end and beating the other girl back. The memory seemed like they were having fun...as if Risa would ever have fun with Cree. Cree was the worst person Risa ever met, followed closely by Steve Johnson and half the football team.

Risa shook her head and smiled in spite of herself, "As if you ever could. I think I remember being the best at our 'play fights' we had as kids."

Cree froze for a moment and then snapped, "Those times were all flukes! And we aren't kids anymore Risa, we're teenagers and we aren't friends anymore" Cree said this last part with something like regret in her voice, "So...don't talk to me like we are!"

"Do you wish we'd stayed friends?"

"No! I'm going to class, stay away from me!"

Risa called after Cree, "You decided to talk to me! You stay away!"

School was awkward the rest of the day, at least more so than usual. Most of the teens either avoided her or made snide comments about her liking kids. The only exception was the teens who worked with her on the school paper but they were equally confused by her liking kids, albeit for different reasons, they all came from big families and had to babysit constantly. They loved their siblings a lot but would never choose childcare as a job.

"How are you holding up?"

Risa looked up from her 'desk' at Nicky 'Red' Green the paper's editor and shrugged, "I'm okay I guess. I'm glad nobody got seriously hurt but I still feel unsafe." He was slightly taller than her, despite being the same age, and had a long ugly burn scar across his face, a leftover from an accident with a campfire. His hair was Red, hence the nickname, and it was slightly long and pulled back out of his face. He made people feel safer.

This was especially true considering the culprits were still walking around and had a real reason to hate her now.

The redheaded boy nodded, "That makes sense. I saw Cree talking to you, was she giving you a hard time?"

The girl lied, "Not really, I think she was genuinely worried at first but I had to go and make fun of her breaking her nose. I should apologize but honestly...I dunno."

"I get it, it's Cree. You guys have history."

Risa didn't remember this history, no matter how many times people at the paper brought it up, but she was sure it had something to do with the KND. People said the same thing about her and Chad but trying to remember either one under the age of thirteen just made her frustrated and vaguely miserable.

Speaking of the Devil...

Chad came in and up to the front desk, where Tove, a permanently unimpressed junior, who seemed to hate everyone equally, was sitting. She was the secretary but didn't dress the part or act it, mostly because she hated everyone. She was wearing a black tank top and jeans, her hair chopped off so short she almost looked like a boy.

"I have an appointment for an interview on last weeks game."

Tove continued tapping aimlessly into her crappy laptop and sighed heavily, emphasizing the first part of his name "What's the reporter's name Dickinson?"

"Greg Yamada, he's literally the only sports reporter in school Tove."

"He's in a meeting in the attic-

Red snapped at her, "The meeting Room Nieminen! We don't call it an attic!"

Tove ignored him magnificently, "-but you can head to his desk in the back. Don't touch anything and don't talk to me again until you come back here. Or not at all, I don't like you. Nice bruise by the way, your girlfriend give you a weird hickey?"

Chad glared at her and stormed by the older girl, rubbing the bruise on his temple and muttering to himself.

He slowed down as he passed Risa's desk and smirked. She wanted to hit him so bad.

"Gardner."

"Dickinson."

The boy leaned on her desk and asked with false concern dripping in his voice, "How are you holding up?"

Red lightly shoved Chad back and placed himself between him and Risa, "Don't you have an interview to get to? Greg doesn't like latecomers"

"Relax Green, I'm just asking a question. This must seem really familiar to you Risa, Red putting himself between you and somebody else..."

"Shut up Chad."

Risa and Chad both stared at Red. That was new to Risa, he never sounded this angry.

"Get to the desk and leave everyone alone."

Chad stood slightly taller than Red and snarled, "You telling me what to do?"

"This is my garage, hell yeah I'm telling you what to do! Move. Your. Ass."

"Yessir. See you later Gardner."

After Chad left Risa looked up at Red and asked incredulously, "What was that about?"

Red was looking where Chad was sitting, jaw ticking.

"We have history" Red shrugged and went back to his old kind self, "You should take the day off, I'll cover your fashion club interview."

Going to try and update every saturday now that my life is back on track