Mako's Message: ...well, I've gone longer without updating...

Getting into your characters mindset can be counter productive sometimes. Fortunately I managed to get around that little block and, while this didn't go as planned, I think I like it.

Also, I am seriously considering disabling anonymous reviews. You know who you are.

And finally, the qualifying period for the Ch200 Bonus is closed. Qualifiers will be announced next chapter.


It's only July.

Even after all the shit that's happened, it's still only July. It's like the summer from hell or something.

At least this year from hell is more than half over. Though I'm kinda worried what the rest of the year has in store. I'd like to wish the worst was over, but I seem to have bad luck with things like that.

I tried to enjoy Marcus' annual barbeque, even wore a dress without Marcus asking me to, but... everything just feels like it sucks now.

Dave sat down across from me to eat, and he even held my hand a little, which normally would be awesome but now all I can think about is that he wasn't sitting NEXT to me.

And Riley was there, which... had it's ups and downs.

I mean, I would have rather her NOT been there, but after my stupid pant and stocking stunt I'm not surprised he felt like he should remind me he's taken. He hasn't brought it up though for some reason. Not that I'm complaining.

And there was this one moment that shows that things aren't quite perfect with them, which gives a girl hope.

Dave and I were sitting there, on opposite sides of a table, talking, and he had his hand resting on mine, well, his fingers at least, and Riley came over after talking to the other people and sat down with Dave, and asked how we were doing.

Dave said, "Well, I saw you flirting with Marcus."

And she got offended and said, "I was NOT flirting with Marcus!"

And Dave just sorta looked at her, and then raised his eyebrow, and she blushed and said, "Okay, maybe I was. A little. There's only one letter difference between 'tits' and 'tips' ya know. Sometimes it's hard to turn it off."

Dave just laughed at her and she punched him in the shoulder.

I've been spending a lot more time than usual at JF HQ. Playing with the puppy has been fun. Except the problem is that I was supposed to be helping John TRAIN the puppy. He hasn't named him yet, but he's leaning towards Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy at home, Roosevelt in the field.

It's probably going to be his name, but John says he's still thinking about it.

Anyway, I ended up playing with the little fluff ball more than training him, so eventually John kicked me out and said we could arrange a playdate for later if I wanted.

I'm considering it.

Angela calls it "fuzz therapy"

Angela has a strange idea of therapy though. When she saw how tense I was she suggested I go with her to hang out at the pool. So, I've been going with her after our morning jogs for a couple hours.

She seems pretty popular. All the guys I've seen more than once know her by name. She flirts shamelessly.

Which is where her other suggestion came from.

To get laid.

It hasn't been a secret that I want Dave for longer than I knew, but once I did Angela and I would talk about... well, sex sometimes. So, she knew I really wanted to fuck Dave. She said that all that sexual tension wasn't good for me on top of everything else and that I really shouldn't hold out for Dave since it looked like it would be awhile before we got together if it even happened.

She said this because she cares about me.

But I told her I wasn't interested in guys in general, I mean, yeah, I admit there are some pretty cute guys at our school, but I don't want Dave just for sex. That's a bonus. So I told her that I didn't just want dick, I wanted DAVE's dick.

She said, "I wasn't thinking about just some guy, I was thinking of Dillon. He's a great guy and you like him."

I told her that if liking a guy was enough for me to want to fuck them I could get laid just by asking Marty or Todd. Well, maybe not Marty. And even if I wanted to, Dillon is with Lexi.

She just smirked at me and said, "You say that like it's a problem."

I rolled my eyes at her and said, "If you want him to cheat on Lexi why don't you just seduce him yourself or whatever?"

She said, "First, Dillon is too good a guy a cheat on his girlfriend, I'd need to make him leave her and he never showed any interest in me. Second, I don't want a boyfriend anyway. I'm perfectly happy to nail and bail. No attachments. Just a night of fun and then on to the next one."

That's when I asked just how many guys she'd been with. She actually had to count on her fingers. Finally she came up with, "Ten or twelve"

And I was like, "You don't know?"

And she said, "Well, I've had a couple quickies in the locker room here and they kinda blend together. I know it's not more than a dozen though."

When she saw me staring at her like, "Are you fucking serious?"

She just stared right back at me and said, "What? I bet if you ever land Dave you'll have sex more than that in the first WEEK. I just happen to have a policy against having sex with the same guy twice. And I always use condoms. I carry two with me all the time just in case."

I said, "I think your logic about this whole thing is flawed but whatever."

And we just sat there on our towels in silence for awhile before she said, "So, did you see that The Grey Guard has been confirmed?"

I had no idea who she was talking about, so she told me about this rumored hero patrolling Central Park, but nobody had gotten a good look at him, so they didn't know if he was a new hero or not, and since people kept saying he stuck to the trees, people who hadn't seen him thought they were just making it up.

Then she asked why I didn't know any of this.

I explained that I'd been kinda busy.

So then she asked if we were going to invite him to join Justice Forever.

And I was like, "What? Because Biker Knight is dead? She's not a fucking GOLDFISH! We can't just replace her!"

And she looked all horrified and was like, "I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that you'll need all the help you can get taking Chris out, right? And now that we know for sure he's out there won't you want his help?"

She did have a point unfortunately. But I'm not interested in inviting mysterious heroes into the group anymore. No more unknowns. If they're with us, they're with us. If they're not, they're not.

Which was why I decided I needed to start training Angela. And Katie. Seriously.

I don't WANT either of them out there. Especially not Angela... but we might need her, and I know I can trust her. And Katie. Sorta. I think. At least when it comes to this.

So I'm gonna train them hard. Really, really fucking hard. They'll either give up, or be as good as me and Dave. Either way I win.

Sure, the new training center isn't finished, but it's together enough to use it. I can get things a little more put together myself, and if I give up the plan of having different contractors working separately I can have it finished even faster.

It'll be nice to finally have it together. And getting the rest of Justice Forever toughened up will be nice too.

There's still the whole conspiracy with the serial killings to figure out though. And the fiend in black. Hopefully we can stay out of his way until Chris is dead, one way or another.

And here I was looking forward to the summer because it would be relaxing.