Iii.

"I am SO glad that's over with," Artemis sighed, turning off the shower.

She must have been a bit too loud; Aimee answered, "Ditto. If we keep this up, we'll die from sheer exhaustion!"

"YOU'RE going to die if you used up all of my body wash," she threatened with a smile. "I think the entire locker room smells like vanilla!"

"I saved you half the bottle," said bottle came flying up and over the shower stall next to hers and she caught it before it smacked her in the head. "Great. Now one of my teammates is trying to kill me."

Somehow, she and the other girls managed to get dressed. The very match that could put them in the city finals was coming up in a few weeks. Ok, maybe two months--it did not matter to Coach Sera. They were having their best season--even better than the last one--but this just seemed to make their coach work them even harder. Two points was all that kept them from nationals the year before. It seemed as if all of them were going the extra mile this time, so at first no one really minded the addition of extra practice time--until they found out what the extra time was for.

"Ok, ladies, look alive!" Coach Sera shouted (despite that they were not as noisy as usual).

"Sir, yes, Sir!" the ones with energy to spare responded.

Coach sighed. "You'd think you girls would be too tired to mess around."

"What?! And break tradition?" Aimee appeared shocked.

"Perish the thought," Artemis agreed.

"Can we just sit around for this post-briefing?" the blond named Nina pleaded. Everyone else nodded their approval.

"You've all been working harder than ever, so you deserve a break, anyway. I was planning on taking you all to Tammy's for a treat, but you probably just want to go home and sleep…"

"Say WHAT?!"

"After at least an hour in the weight room besides our usual practice--"

"--you are SO not getting rid of us without some form of compensation!" The twins Mari and Kari often finished each others' sentences; this time, though, they spoke for the entire team, or at least the girls who didn't vocally add their own opinions.

Coach Sera held up a hand for silence. "All right, then. All in favor of gaining weight with a large sundae, on me, say "aye." Of course, you'll all owe me a few bucks if we don't win this--"

"AYE!!!"

"At this rate, we CAN'T lose!" someone exclaimed.

This bought on an enthusiastic cheer from everyone. Except:

"You know, for a star-member, you're pretty quiet, Artemis," the coach raised an eyebrow. "You ARE coming, right?"

"Nay," was her answer. "I'd rather go home and sleep for a few days. I still have to go to the mall, too. Besides, Vari's going to go postal when she finds out how many orders she's going to have to take!" Autumn took her school bag out of her locker along with her roller blades; to save an arm, she put it inside her gym bag. Her folded uniform went on top of this (more to protect her laptop than anything else), and she stuffed her sneakers in on the sides. She'd just walk around in socks until she got outside. "See you all later; don't get fat before the big match!"

"You're sure you're not coming, Autumn?" Aimee was disappointed.

"It's not like they'll draft you as soon as you show up," her coach joked.

Artemis shook her head. "I'm off this week. I need to get going before The Electronics Store closes, so I can pick up my camera. Adí os, everyone."

Amidst the girls' farewells, Coach Sera smiled. 'Her and that video camera. At least I can go home with a few dollars in my wallet!'

*************

Artemis barely made it to the shop before it closed. She didn't know how she would have lasted another day without her video camera. It had shorted out when she was loading some pictures into her home computer during a storm. Granted, it was not the smartest thing to do at the moment, but she had promised to send them to Hitomi ASAP. The computer itself was OK, since it was on a surge protector when the power went out, but her camera didn't even turn on afterwards. So, she sent the pictures to Hitomi the next day, then sent the camera to Zeke to see if he could fix it, which he did.

She waited until she was out of the store before kissing the silver, hand-held device. The sun was beginning to go down, turning the sky a dusky shade of orange. "Now for a test-run." Putting in a brand new disk, she flipped open the side-screen and turned on the camera. Seeing the green "on" light illuminated made her jump for joy; turning the screen itself on, she took off the lens cap and faced the shop with the camera. Zeke could be seen through the window, closing up for the night. "Behold! The picture of a hero!"

Laughing, she was spinning around in a circle (she still had on her roller blades) when a streak of light on the screen caught her attention.

"Woah!" Artemis turned in the direction she had seen the beam, but there was nothing there. Pausing, she kept staring at the sky in front of her while cars went by on the street to her right. She moved to the side of the sidewalk, still gazing, for a mother and her small son, who was sucking on a peppermint stick.

'That was near the school," she thought. 'It could have been a car's headlight, but that beam was vertical, not horizontal. Oh, man, if our school was zapped by a UFO, I didn't even have my camera on record!' "Rats." she muttered out loud. "It was probably a glare, anyway." Pushing up her glasses, Artemis skated towards the mall. Instead of going the long way, she decided to cut through the park. Which reminded her…

"Gotta put on my helmet. No elbow pads. ¡ Maldito sea! Oh, well, that cop at the park will get over it someday. Better put my camera away, though." she stopped shortly on the corner to dig through her gym bag and exchange the camcorder for the safety gear. Then she continued on her way.