Chapter 3 – Play Fair

Her alarm buzzed the next morning; followed by Lucas bursting into the room.

"Cassie!" He jumped on her bed and started jumping around her. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" he chanted with each jump. Cassandra groaned as she smacked her alarm. "Wake up!" Lucas jumped to the floor. "We're going to be late to the park!" He watched his sister intently as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

She trotted over to her closet. "You can't be late to the park."

"I want to get there before the big kids do. They don't let me play." He crossed his arms in a huff.

"What do you mean?" Cassandra sifted through her closet.

"They pushed me off the slide and told me not to come back." His voice fell into a low whimper. Cassandra stopped and looked over at her brother's sulking form.

"Did you go by yourself yesterday?"

"Mom was busy, so I thought I'd take my bike, like you!"

"Lucas, you can't just go places by yourself."

"You do it! Why can't I?"

"Because I'm older than you. If you would've gotten hurt, how would we have known?"

"Yeah," he sighed "you're right."

"C'mon, lets get you to the park."

"But what about the big kids?"

"Don't worry, big sis here will take care of them." She grabbed some clothes and headed off to the bathroom.

Cassandra finished locking their bikes to the rack before following Lucas to the playground. She perched herself upon one of the benches as her little brother found a boy his age to play with. Pulling out her sketchpad, Cassandra started sketching what she could remember of the day before.

Every now and then she looked up from her work to check on her brother before sticking her nose back into her sketchbook. She was working diligently on the scene of utter destruction that she had stumbled upon. Her work stopped when she heard three more bikes roll up. Three boys around her age tossed their bikes to the ground beside the rack and made their way to the playground.

The parents of the little boy Lucas had been playing with pulled their son from the playground as the boys approached. Lucas didn't notice their approach and climbed back onto the playground equipment. Cassandra sat her pencil and pad beside her as she watched the boys climb up where Lucas was playing.

"Hey little man." One of the boys said, "I thought we told you to stay out of our playground?" Lucas flinched. "Do we have to teach you another lesson?" One of the boys jumped behind Lucas from a higher ledge while the third sat in front of the slide opening, blocking all escape routes.

"Well, what are you going to do little man? You've got no where to go." He stepped closer. Lucas began to panic; where was Cassie?

"Hey!" Yelled Cassandra to the back of the boy that impeded Lucas. "Playground rules are twelve and under."

"Hah!" Balked the boy. He turned to Cassandra "Says who?"

"This sign." She pointed at the sign that she had pulled from a pole nearby and quirked her eyebrow before slamming in into the side of his face. He fell onto one of the ledges holding his cheek. The other boys stood in defense. Lucas threw his hands over his mouth in astonishment. Did his sister really do that? After darting his eyes from his sister to the boy and back, he ran behind Cassandra.

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed, unable to contain himself. "You just took him out with a sign!" He giggled as the boy exposed the bruise that was quickly forming on his face.

"You can't just do that to our friend without paying for it." The blonde boy from the slide said.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Asked Lucas as Cassandra prepped herself. The blonde boy charged and Cassandra swung; he caught the sign.

"That wasn't very smart of you, was it?" The boy smirked.

"I was just going to say the same to you." Cassandra smiled wickedly. She kicked her foot up hard to hit his groin with a solid thud. His back arched immediately in pain. Lucas cringed in sympathy as the boy fell to the ground. Cassandra firmly planted her foot in the center of his chest when he hit his knees and pushed him to the ground. She glared at the last boy as the one in front of her fell. "You next?" She pointed at him with her sign.

"Uhm." He glanced around frantically. Cassandra chucked the sign as he started to run and thumped him on the back of the head. He fell to the ground but picked himself up soon after. He rubbed the back of his head and looked back at Cassandra who stood watching his every move.

"Now, you get off of my playground." Cassandra asserted herself; no one would bully her brother.

"That was so cool!" yelled Lucas as they walked back to the bench. "I can't believe you took them all out with a sign!" he pranced as he spoke, his arms open wide for emphasis.

"Someone has to show them who's boss." Cassandra picked up her sketch pad. Lucas kept talking and reenacting the scene behind her, oblivious to the world around him.

A familiar whoosh of hydraulics made the hairs on her neck stand on end. The park was shrouded in trees making it hard for her to see where the noise came from.

"Let's go Lucas." She collected herself and eyed the woods. "We should get home just in time for lunch." Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She shook it off to her imagination after a long moment of silence. She had just spent two hours sketching the robot in question, after all.

"…and she went WHAP! This sign!" Lucas exclaimed to his mother. Cassandra already knew what she was in for. "And then she threw it and hit him in the back of the head! It was funny. Cassie is so cool! She beat them up so fast." He pretended to punch and kick as he exited the kitchen.

"Care to explain?" Her mother turned to her with crossed arms.

"They were going to beat him up, what did you want me to do?" Cassandra exclaimed.

"Not beat them up would've been a start."

"They had already pushed him off the slide yesterday; he left while you were busy."

Monica's arms dropped "He went by himself?"

"Yes, he thought he could be like me and take his bike. I already told him it wasn't okay." She sighed. "I just got so mad; they were kids I knew from school. They bully everyone and when they came after Lucas for no reason other than he was too little to fight back, I just lost it. I didn't hurt them that bad; just some bruises to their pride."

Her mother pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay." She sighed. "You're off the hook for now. I don't want to see anymore violent behavior from you, understand?"

"Yes, mom." She smiled.

"Now, help me get these sandwiches ready before your brother punches a hole through the couch pillows."

Cassandra laughed as she looked into the living room to see her brother wailing on a pillow much like she did to those boys.