The ABC's of Perfect Mistakes

Chapter Sixteen: P is for Pearls

Her fingers where like an icicles, chilled to the bone but she could still move them and feel the slick grass beneath her. Parker opened her eyes and stared at Jak. A smirk spread across her face. He slept on his scarf, crumbled into a ball under his head. In between them was his pack, including his morph gun that his left held on to but his right was holding her hand. She gave it a squeeze and whispered, "Jak… Jak wake up."

For a second Parker considered shaking him when his eyes opened, he blinked a couple of times before sitting up and running his hands through his hair. "What time is it?"

She pulled out her communicator. "7:43…" She blew out a breath. "Please tell me you have a million and one messages Torn, Lena, The Shadow and an unknown caller."

He chuckled. "I have several messages, including a voicemail from Lena." He pressed a button and waited.

"Jak! Where the Hell are you?! And where did you take Parker? I don't know what happened in that bathroom but I'm not cleaning it up!"

Parker laughed, "We forgot to clean up the blood!"

"There's no we in this. It's your blood." Jak snapped back but with a smirk. "I had nothing to do with it."

She yawned. "Very true. C'mon, let's go before Lena puts out a kidnapping alert on me." She stood and stretched on to her tip toes before scooping up the blanket. She folded it over her arm and walked down to the stream. She laid it on a rock and scooped up a handful of water, she splashed it on her face and sighed. She loved that feeling. Beside her, Jak was doing the same but staring off into space. "What are you thinking about?"

"Stuff."

"Metal Head stuff?"

He smirked. "Kind of."

"Did you have a fight with Keira?" Parker smirked, she took his silence as a 'yes'. "Whatever you did just apologize, remember she works on your racer." She took another handful of water, but paused when she saw a glittering stone in her palm. She drained the water through her fingers and cupped the small stone in her hand. "Here," She said holding it out to him. "Give this to her."

Jak gave her a quizzical look. "What is it?"

"A pearl." She said dropping it into his open palm. "I've only seen a few in this stream, I know Lena owns one and she found it here. Give it to Keira, put it on a bracelet or a ring…" She blushed when Jak stared at her with a stunned expression. "Or not…"

"Do you think Lena can make it into something for me?"

Parker stood grabbing the blanket. "Most likely."

"Parker!" Amberly screamed when Parker emerged from the bathroom back in her work clothes, expect for her tank top that Erol throw out after silting her throat. Lena lent her one of her many black t-shirt, Parker tied a knot in the back so it wouldn't slide off during any fights but she didn't expect an attack from Amberly. Parker tugged her shirt up as Amberly sobbed into her bare shoulder. "I thought Jak killed you!"

Parker rolled her eyes, she was getting tired of this Jak-bashing. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?!"

"Yes!" Parker snapped as she walked and half dragged Amberly to Torn's table. The man smirked and slid her weaponry across the table. The KG had taken all her weapons, including her family's knife. She missed the weight of it against her leg. These were new weapons, a pistol, a knife and a morph gun but she didn't complain. "What's on your agenda today?"

"I don't have any missions for you," Torn said going back to his map, he motioned to the stadium area. "I know Lena's waiting for you, I heard your racer is ready." He pointed to her safe house. "Also, we've moved you guys again from your old safe house. You're now closer to the Hideout."

"Awesome." Parker looked down to Amberly. "Are you coming with me to Lena's?"

"Yes."

"I can't drive if you're hanging off of me like this."

"Fine." Amberly mumbled letting her go as Parker turned and walked out. She found a two person Zoomer down the street, she took the driver's seat while Amberly struggled to get in. After lowering the vehicle to her level, Amberly got in easily and smiled sweetly at her friend. They drove in silence until they were block away from Lena's place. "So where did you go last night?"

"I asked Jak to take me to the forest." She glanced to her friend. "I needed to connect to nature. Erol never let me go outside, not even on the balcony. I needed fresh air."

"Couldn't u get it standing outside?"

Parker shrugged. "Maybe, but I really wanted to go to the forest."

"I don't like you alone with Jak."

"You've made that very clear," Parker answered while parking the zoomer. She jumped out and walked up the stairs to Keira's garage, she could hear Amberly's heels clicking on the steps behind her. Parker paused just outside of Keira's garage, she could hear Lena laughing.

"It's not funny!" Keira shouted.

"What's not funny?" Amberly asked walking in, Parker followed looking down at Lena who was crying on the floor.

"Nothing." Keira snapped. "Lena's just being mean."

"Clearly something is making Lena piss herself in laughter." Parker said motioning to her grounded friend.

Lena, still giggling pointed at Keira. "She's convinced that Jak is having an affair with Ashelin!"

Parker covered her mouth, hiding the smirk underneath. Although it wasn't so funny she'd fall into a hysterics she could feel a small giggle forming in her chest. She looked to Keira, the anger was clear on her face, glared at Lena. "Keira, Jak is not having an affair with Ashelin."

"But how do you know!" Keira asked shouting at her.

"Because she was with him all last night." Amberly answered before Parker could say anything, she glared at blonde before looking back at Keira. The teal-haired girl's face was red not from embarrassment but from anger.

"You're with Jak?!" Keira shouted.

"No," She answered glaring at Amberly. "I'm not with Jak."

"What were you two doing last night?" Lena asked getting off the floor.

"I was sick. He brought offered to take me anywhere, I asked him to take me to the forest so I could relax." She looked to Lena. "Whatever The Shadow gave me it threw me for a whirlwind. I couldn't even breath last night without feeling like my heart was going to explode," She pointed to her face. "Also my face started bleeding!"

"Is what the blood in the bathroom was from?" Amberly gasped.

"Hold the damn phone," Lena said staring at Parker. "Your face was bleeding? How? Where?"

"Nose, mouth, ears, eyes-"

"OH MY GOD?!" Lena screeched. "Your eyes were bleeding?!"

"And that's why Jak was there to help me." Parker grumbled scratching her arm. "I didn't want to hear your reactions."

"So you're not with Jak?" Keira asked.

"Yes, Keira. I just throw my cat at everyone."

"See," Amberly said motioning to herself and Lena. "We know you're joking but Keira doesn't."

Parker groaned. "For the love of –, Keira, I'm not having sex with Jak nor am I dating him. God, I have more class then that."

"Okay," Lena said clapping her hands together. "I'm totally done with this conversation. Parker, you have a racer to test out!"

"Why?" Keira asked looking between the girls.

"Because, Parker's racing for my team in the First Class Race!" Lena cheered hugging Parker from behind. "She didn't get to race last time because of the Underground attacks."

"No one got to race because of those attacks." Keira grumbled glaring at Amberly.

She just shrugged her shoulders. "We wanted to get our point across."

"Couldn't you have written a strongly worded letter instead?!"

"Are you two coming or what?!" Lena shouted back at the three. Parker rolled her eyes and followed Lena, she ignored Amberly and Keira as they argued about what happened a year and a half ago.

There were other people in the stadium, all cleaning or testing their own NYFE racer. A couple racers were even driving on a fake course, their team recording their times. Lena skipped over to her team, she jumped on the three men that were working on the several NYFEs that lined their section. Lena squealed and hugged one of the boys.

"All my racers are up to standards!" Lena cheered. "Two of my boys placed in the race! So I'll have three people on the tracks from my team!" She pointed to Keira. "Tell Jak he can suck my lady balls! I'm going to let him win this one!" She turned to Parker. "Get your fine Drake ass on that track and race the way I taught ya'!"

Parker grumbled to herself, cursing Lena for teaching her how to race. Lined up perfectly were four racers, including her black and white glory she named Sucker Punch. She jumped onto the checkered seat and revved her engine, she loved how it purred underneath her.

A sign dropped down in front of her declaring that a practice race between Parker, Jinx and two computers were starting. Parker nodded to Jinx as the system counted them down, when the light hit green she left the computers behind. She took the corner in a slide, grabbing two boosters. She hit the gas and kept going, following the curve of the course. A bump from one of the computer driven NYFE's dropped her back into reality, even though she found this course pretty simple when it was time for the real race she'd be racing against real people like Erol and Jak. She knew how aggressive Erol was on the track, he'd knock his mother into a pit if it helped him win. To win this race, like all the others she raced in, she'd have to be mean. She revved the gas and sped past the computers, she caught up with Jinx as he took the shortcut. Parker considered it but chose to take the long route, sadly the computers followed Jinx's lead. She cursed under her breath as she followed them up the small hill and past the checkered line.

Parker hopped off Sucker Punch, she could already hear Lena cursing her out. She only did one lap and she currently sucked at it. She looked up to her friends, Amberly was frowning at her while Lena was shouting at her as she could hear her through the glass dome that protected the bystanders.

"Hey girlie," Jinx chuckled pulling up beside her. "If ya wanna beat your boyfriend ya' gotta bump up your badass level some more!"

She glared at him but knew he was right. She jumped back on her racer and looked up to Lena giving her the motion to time her. Lena nodded and Parker sped off, flooring the gas.

TBC…