Almost a week went by before there was any news about Panic. A week of driving Emily to and from school without either one of them speaking – not about Panic or their not-a-relationship or the mutant thing. Not about anything.

In fact, when Emily finally broke down and spoke, it very nearly caused Alex to veer into oncoming traffic in her surprise. "You coming to Panic tonight?" Emily asked. She seemed blissfully aware of having almost given Alex a heart attack...either that or she was pretending she hadn't seen.

Once Alex's heart rate returned to normal and she could once again breathe, she said, "D-do you know where you're supposed to meet?" Maybe it was selfish of her, but she'd kind of been hoping Emily wouldn't have noticed to signals...

"That abandoned construction project in the warehouse district," she said, definitely unaware of Alex's ulterior motives.

"Do you know what the game will be?" Alex asked. There was a definite strategy when it came to winning Panic and she was curious to know exactly how strategic and cunning Emily actually was...

Emily shrugged. If she was picking up on Alex's not-so-subtle prying, she didn't say anything about it. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said.

And as much as she hated helping Emily pursue Panic, she knew that Emily was coming in at a disadvantage having not grown up on rumours of the game the way everyone else competing had. So, she swallowed down her barbs about Panic being idiotic and dangerous and downright insane and explained, "This game will probably be a crossing. Points will be for speed."

"A crossing?" Emily repeated, trying to hide the slight tremble of fear in her voice.

Alex nodded. "Last year, the crossing challenge was walking across the freeway blindfolded. One of the players was hit by an eighteen wheeler."

Emily thought on that for several long moments. Then, she repeated her earlier question, "So, are you coming or what?"

The next day at school, Panic was all anyone could talk about. Well, Panic and Alex's huge public blow out with James...

Alex hated being the centre of attention. Almost as much as she hated Panic, which was the reason she'd had the argument with James in the first place.

It was becoming increasingly apparent to her that James was in some way threatened by Emily. Maybe because she was quickly becoming a fan favourite to win Panic where he'd previously been the likely winner. Maybe it was because Alex was spending so much time with her...he was the jealous type, afterall. Or maybe it was just that he was kind of a dick. Either way, tensions were rising between them.

They'd come to a head last night when Alex arrived at the abandoned construction project where the second game was being held to find James downing cheap tequila like there was a fire sale on bad decisions...

She had snatched the bottle from his hands and poured it out on the ground to a chorus of, "Hey!"

"What the fuck, James!?" she demanded.

"What?" he whined, sounding genuinely confused. "Why'd you take my t-teq-...my drink?"

Alex, on the other hand, seemed genuinely confounded by his confusion. "You're about to be literally three stories off the ground, walking across an I-beam! What part of that sounds like it would be a good idea to mix with alcohol?"

"Chill out, Alex," James scoffed. "You always worry way too much – no wonder you're not playing Panic... You're a chicken."

"Oh, fuck off, James!" she snapped. "Maybe I'm a little cautious, but you're a dick!" A beat. "And a shitty kisser, by the way," she added without stopping to think about her words.

Without missing a beat, James said, "That's not what Haley Brooks said..." He grinned smugly.

There was a chorus of oooooooh's from the assembled crowd who had been quick to realize something juicy was happening. Alex knew they were all waiting for her to slap him or say something cruel...to give them some kind of show. But she wasn't going to give them – or James – the satisfaction of overreacting. She simply turned on her heel and walked away.

"Don't give them the satisfaction of looking at them," Alex said quietly when she approached Emily, snatching the beer out of Emily's hand. "And don't make me lecture you about playing Panic under the influence."

Emily wisely said nothing about her stolen drink. "I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling somehow responsible for the fight she'd just witnessed.

"Don't be," Alex said, pouring out the beer. "He always does this. He throws a tantrum when I outsmart him in public. He'll come crawling back – he always does."

"And you keep forgiving him?" Emily asked skeptically, finding it hard to believe Alex would put up with that from anyone.

She nodded, glanced about for eavesdroppers, then whispered, "Some of us need a beard to stay in the closet." She gave her a pointed look.

"Right," she said dryly. She wasn't entirely certain whether she intended that to be a dig at Alex or whether she was genuinely agreeing with her. Either way, it landed a little short.

And, given Alex's already frayed nerves after the blow-out with James, a more or less innocent remark that might ordinarily have rolled right off her back had her biting Emily's head off... "You know what, Emily?" she hissed under her breath, "You love to be smug and sanctimonious about my relationship with James and you're constantly judging me for cheating on him, but you always always come running when I call... It takes two to cheat, you know, so you're hardly innocent in all this."

Much as Emily would have liked to have had the last word on all of this, she was prevented from doing so by the game's MC pulling her name from the hat, declaring it her turn to compete and forcing her to leave the argument before she had the opportunity to use any of the really excellent comebacks she'd formulated in the last few seconds...