After a while, training was over. With this, neither Lewis or Alice had any reason to stay.
"So..." Lewis started, "... got any plans for tonight?"
Alice seemed surprised: "Are you asking me out on a date?"
"No." Lewis replied, too quickly, almost giving her the wrong idea, "I mean... we were just getting started on our conversation, I just thought it would be too bad if it ended already."
Alice looked away, thinking about it: "Well, I suppose it has been a while since I talked like this to anyone."
"Good." Lewis sounded relieved, "Er... I need to use the bathroom, so..."
"I'll wait outside." Alice assured him.
Lewis nodded, and left the gym. Alice was about to follow him, but the sound of the coach's voice stopped her: "Alice, wasn't it?"
Alice turned around: "Yes, Mr. Powell?"
"I've seen you sitting here quite a few times." the coach, Powell, started, "Why aren't you practicing along with everyone else?"
"I'm just not interested in this." Alice explained.
"Now that I don't believe." he said, "If you're not interested, you wouldn't be sitting here at all. Maybe you just need to try it once."
"That's alright, I don't need it." Alice assured him.
"Sharon and Linda volunteered themselves to spar with you already." Powell wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, "You don't want to disappoint them now, do you?"
There seemed to be no way out of this. Alice thought of using the old 'I have someone waiting for me' trick, but she didn't think the coach would fall for that. However, if she waited long enough for Lewis to show up, she'd have more credibility, and she can make her excuse to leave. So for the moment, she humored him.
"Alright." she said, with obvious protest.
"Great." Powell said, after which he turned to the two girls, "She's all yours."
"Yes, Mr. Powell." both girls said in unison, as Powell left the gym.
One of the two talked to the other: "Why won't you keep an eye on her, while I get my stuff from my locker."
The other girl nodded, waited for the former to leave, before she addressed Alice herself: "Say, you might want to need a stick of your own. Let me get you one."
She motioned to Alice to follow her, which she did. At the far corner of the gym, all of the sticks were gathered, and Alice randomly picked one up. Shortly after that, the other girl returned, with what appeared to be two more sticks, both of which wrapped up in a cloth for some reason, and a portable record-player.
"What's that for?" Alice asked, pointing to the record-player.
"Music helps us concentrate." was the answer.
The girls set up the player, put in a record, placed the needle on it as it started turning. As it played the music, the two girls were unwrapping the two other sticks, while Alice said: "Bring it on."
As the two sticks were unwrapped, Alice realized soon enough they weren't sticks at all. They were real swords, which they unsheathed, twirled around, as the two of them surrounded her.
"What are you doing?" Alice tried to make sense out of this.
"We tried so hard to ignore you." one of them answered.
"And you just keep getting on our nerves." the other added.
As they closed in on her, Alice still tried to reason with them: "Are you insane?"
All she received as a reply was a giggle. How could she not have seen that coming? The two freely offering themselves to "spar" with her, the music playing so loudly nobody could hear her, the rumors about stealing swords,...
Lewis, meanwhile, took his time in the bathroom. Schools weren't particularly notorious for their cuisine, so it came as no surprise that the lunch he had didn't quite agree with his intestines. It took him some time, but he eventually recovered, so he could leave the bathroom. As he left, he found two surprises: Alice wasn't waiting for him outside, and music was playing in the gym.
Alice tried to defend herself with the stick, but the girls' swords were sharp enough to cut it into pieces. One sword got dangerously close to cutting Alice. The girl who managed that giggled, but that soon faded as she felt something holding a grip on her wrist. To her astonishment, it was Alice.
"Hey!" the other girl shouted, "You leave her alone!"
She raised her sword, only to strike it down. As she did, Alice pulled the girl's arm in front of her, so the other girl accidentally cut off her arm instead of Alice. This way, Alice had this girl's sword, used it to slice her rib-cage open, upon which, with one swift move, she cut off the other girl's head. Once both of them were down, Alice looked down at what she just did. She just killed two girls. But what was worse, was the fact that she seemed to have no problem doing so, it came out so naturally, as if she had done it before. She looked at her own hands, trying to make sense out of this. In the corner of her eye, she spotted someone. She turned her head to take a closer look, and saw Lewis. There was a look on his face which she couldn't place. It must be the look anyone would have on their face after witnessing a murder. The shock of killing two people, and having her new friend know about this, it all became too much for her, so she fainted.
In a way, Lewis was glad that she fainted, as it would save him a difficult explanation later. He left the gym, looking for a phone. When he found one, he immediately dialed a number. Once someone on the other side picked up, he spoke: "Michael? You better send the twins over... Yes, now!"