Chapter 14: Tag! You're It!

Juno isn't necessarily crazy. She just can't resist herself when she wants to get back at people. But this time, I was on her side when she wanted to get back at Zoey Pierson. We would ensure that she would know what it meant to cross us.

A night off meant a video game marathon. But almost the second I turned on my Xbox, I got a knock at the door.

"Coming." I called. I opened the door, and was soon laughing.

Juno was dressed head to toe in black, with a black hoodie and it's hood pulled up. She also was holding a bag out for me.

"Let's go."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"We're gonna do our part to stop Pierson. Hood up!"

"Uh, Juno, when I said we're taking Pierson down, I meant something a little less...well, crazy."

"This is not crazy. People tag stuff all the time in New York."

"I'm sorry? You're tagging something?"

"Correction. WE are tagging the Arcadian." She gave me an evil grin.

"Not happening." I replied simply.

"Aw, c'mon!" She whined.

"Juno, this is my night off." I walked back into the apartment, sitting on my couch. "I'm not gonna waste it spraying up the Arcadian with you."

Juno laughed. "Not even after you see what Zoey's said about you to me?"

"Wait, you've talked to her? How? Why?"

"I believe in spying on the enemy. Zoey thinks I'm just a regular protestor to save the Arcadian. She keeps talking about some 'dickhead bartender' at a place she's been going to recently. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that's you."

I thought back to it. Ever since my face off with Zoey, she'd been giving me dirty looks from the booth. She should be thankful I haven't picked up a bow in months.

"In any case, I heard she's been trying to get the head of the bar to fire you." Said Juno.

"J, c'mon. For what possible reason would Carl fire me?"

"You'd be surprised what I heard from Zoey. She's got some sort of crazy influence over other people. She could do a lot worse than get you fired."

I grabbed the bag from her. "Let's take that bitch down."

We didn't leave for the Arcadian until close to midnight. There were nightly protestors camping out around the building to stop GNB. As soon as we were almost positive there were no protestors around, we headed out. We were soon walking down an alley beside the building.. Finally I would be getting back at Zoey for bad mouthing me. I had always heard the saying "Revenge solves nothing", but I didn't see this as revenge. I saw this as showing Zoey what kind of people she was dealing with.

"Shit! Get down!" Juno whispered.

I jumped behind a dumpster while Juno kept walking.

"Zoey! How's it going?" I heard.

Dammit. Zoey was here. At least Juno was there to warn me.

"Hey, Juno. Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. I got a tip off that there are a bunch of taggers coming here sent by GNB."

"Damn. I should stay here to stop them."

"Zoey, you're using all your energy to save this place. Take a night off."

"You might be right. Have you heard about what's happened with the bar I'm hanging out at?"

"No. What's going on?"

"This jackass, Oliver, is saying rude things to me about the Arcadian. I'm only doing my job."

I almost screamed in fury at her. She's not doing her job, unless if it's sabotaging others' jobs. But I kept silent to maintain my cover.

"Yeah. I can tell this place means a lot to you." Said Juno. "But you need to get some rest. I'll wait out for the taggers."

"Thanks, Juno. You're a great ally in this fight. I can tell we're gonna win and save this place."

After a few minutes of silence, Juno came to my hiding spot.

"She's gone. Let's go."

We walked up to the Arcadian, spray cans in hand. I pulled my green hood up, and we headed into the lobby.

I had never been in the Arcadian; I had only seen it from the street. But when I walked into it, it brought up the dreaded thought of the number of homeless people that had stayed in here.

"I can't believe Zoey wants to save this shithole." I said.

"I heard something about it being 'nostalgic'. I don't see how this would be special." Agreed Juno.

"So where do we start?" I asked.

"I guess we start on the walls. Let's do this, Blake."

I took a deep breath, and pulled my sweater over my mouth, shaking the clicking can. Juno and I went to town on the walls, writing as much "Anti-Arcadian" graffiti as we could. I remembered a good line from the end of Ferris Bueller that I then sprayed all over the area that used to have the front desk:"Pierson Eats It!"

"Nice!" Said Juno. "I got this!" She pointed at a large X she had tagged on the ground. Beside it said "Wrecking ball goes here".

"We're so doing this another night, too." I said. We kept up the tagging on walls and floors throughout the Arcadian.

"Zoey's gonna be so pissed if she sees this!" I said.

"Payback's a bitch."

We left the Arcadian after an hour of tagging. Juno agreed we'd come back another time to keep it up. But we'd have to be careful. No doubt if Zoey found this she'd think that this could have been prevented if she was there.

Juno came over a few days later.

"Our tagging worked. Zoey's pissed, and now hates us, without even knowing who the taggers are."

I grinned. "But we gotta be careful. If we aren't, we could get caught."

The only option from now on would be to keep tagging while laying low. But part of me felt something: regret. Zoey's anger inducing protesting had made me sink to her level. But then again, did that make me any better than the corporate assholes?