Young Writers Society

I won't be here the rest of today or tommorow. Keep this going. If you run out of plot ideas:

One of you can find the gun. A couple of the others who have been dieing to do something exciting can go on a little heist. Problem is, your going to have to do a lot of lieing to explain what your doing to Mr. and Mrs. Evans.

i wont be here for the next week, keep me involved

Alis

I walked quietly into Bree's room. It's dark, and empty. I grin. Riley would SO owe me for this. I lift up the matress on her bed. An assortment of guns lie under it. Bree was so predictable it was almost funny. I grab as many as my hands can take and run downstairs.

Riley see's what I have and grins. "Your a lifesaver." She says. I toss her one. James gives me a look and I grudgingly toss him one too. Maitea gives me a look that tells me not to give her one. I toss one to Reg as well. Bree storms up to me, tkaes the remaining guns, and walks upstiars. I grab one for myself before I do anything else.

"Who wants to have a little fun?" I ask. Mr. and Mrs. Evans look at me with shock. Screw them. James walks outside, along with Riley. Reg shrugs, and walks outside as well. What him and Bree had in common, I have no idea.

"Where we goin'?" Reg asks. I shrug.

"Feels good to have a gun again." James comments.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." I repond.

Ace

I poked my head out of my bedroom door to see the handing out of weapons. I sighed; I wasn't in the mood. The blackout had exhausted me, and also had brought back to my attention the fact that...

Maitea re-entered my room and sat back down on the bed. "Do I have to keep babysitting you? You're a year older than me."

"Mm...no. You didn't have to in the first place," I answered, lying back on the pillows and resting my eyes. "You can, you know, go with them if you want. I'm just going to stay here, maybe take a nap."

She didn't move.

I wished I could tell her and the rest of the gang my deepest secret. But, well, they'd figure it out in time. I wasn't supposed to live past about twenty or so anyway. I hid it very well, I thought, but it was painful to hide. It created a rift between me and anyone else I might have been able to call a friend, and it shouldn't have had to be that way, but it was. And...the way things were going lately was just making me feel like I was wasting time.

"I have to stop wasting my life, Maitea."

"Are you leaving the gang?" She asked, fearful.

"No," I answered. "I'm going to start putting more of my heart into it."

Patting my shoulder, she replied, "That's a good resolution."

"Yeah, but I need to rest today."

I heard her laugh. "Why do anything today that you can put off until tomorrow, huh? You're such a procrastinator."

"Yep. And just so you know, you can still go with them if you want."

-----------

((Stupid Ace, you do have a friend, dork! ))

Reg Carter

"Well, since none of us really know what to do, I guess I'll suggest we go to the Posh region 'round here and just help ourselves instead of stayin' out here in the fresh air toying with our gun's triggers," I said.

Alis grinned, but stopped and put on her cold face as I looked up. She didn't want me to see that she'd enjoyed the little piece of dialogue that had come spurting out'a my mouth.

"Okay, which bit of the posh region?" Riley asks.

James nods in agreement.

"That's upto you. Let's do some free roaming, just get what we can, y'know?" I say.

Riley

I so owed Alis for this. Bree was going to hate me, but, she could deal with it.

"Hey, hows 'bout a little bet, Riles?" Reg asks.

"What?" I ask. I think I knew what he was about to say.

"We can do you an' James 'gainst me and Alis. Group who gets th' most money wins."

"And the one who doesn't?"

"Can't use a gun for the rest of the two weeks." Alis interjected, then grinned an evil smile.

"Your on." I say. We shake hands.

"Ready." Alis says, getting in her car.

"Set." James adds.

"Go." Reg yells. We take off. Alis and Reg go left at the fork, me and James go right.

"Where we going?" He yells.

"Just follow me." I respond.

Bree

Life wasn't fair. Why did Alis have to go looking for the guns and give one to Reg and...

Maitea interups my train of thought, walking coolly down the stairs.

"Cool down Bree, you look like you are about to have a heart attack." She says.

"Maybe I am." I retort sharply. She shrugs and walks back upstairs. Suzie comes up to me.

"You know Reg. If he is seperated from his gun, or any wepon for that matter, for more than a minute he goes crazy. James is even worse. He usually allways has a gun, or two, or three, and a knife, on him at all times. Riley..." She says.

"Is just Riley." I finish her sentence.

"Yeah. Everyone is so tense lately. I wish you people would all just smile every once in a while." Suzie says. I foce a smile.

"Thats better." She approves.

"I try."

Ace

I hugged my arms to myself, thinking of how chilly it was in there. Or at least for me, a very cold-natured person. Heading for the kitchen, I put on a pot of coffee and started rummaging through the refrigerator for the groceries I'd picked up for myself. They were all labeled AF in permanent marker, though I really couldn't have cared less if someone else ate them.

"Veggie fried rice," I sang as I snagged the ingredients and started making my favorite comfort food. Thinking again, I decided to make some tofu as well. I wasn't sure when the rest of the gang was going to eat, as they were still gone. All except a few of them, I think Suzie, Bree, Maitea, and the parents. I drank coffee as I made my food, catching myself a few times talking to the ingredients.

"What have you got against water chestnuts?" I heard as I was telling said chestnuts to die a horrible, painful, boiling watery death. Startling, hitting my head on the top of the stove, I turned to see Bree standing in the doorway. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. I thought Riley was going to make the Chinese."

"Oh? I didn't hear anything about any Chinese." I pointed to the agedashi tofu on the stove. "That's Japanese, anyway."

"You can cook Asian food?" she asked.

"I am Asian. Of course I can. Well, half, anyway. So maybe I can only cook it halfway. That's why I make sushi."

She laughed. "So...mind making enough rice for everyone? We'll let Riley cook the rest, but since you're already doing it, and rice is..."

"Really easy to mess up," I finished. "Yeah, I suppose I can make some rice. Coffee?" I went to get a mug, filled it, and handed it to her. "By the way, I'm so sorry about what I said to your parents. I didn't realize I'd said it until...yeah. But how in the world do you ever put up with them?"

Bree

I looked at Ace a second, "About what you said, I totally understand. And to answer your question, well, there are two parts to my answer. First of all, there is a reason I left once I was old enough." I start. Ace laughs.

"I see why." He says.

"And the second part is, that, I understand them better than any of the rest of you could, because they are my parents. As for Riley, well, she was always a rebel. Have I ever told you haw many detentions Riley got in school. That is, when she felt like going." I said, laughing again.

"Thats shocking." Ace said sarcasitacally.

"Yeah, she brought a knife to school once. She called it insurance. The principal called it two weeks detention." I say, he laughs again.

"Where's Maitea?" I ask. He shrugs.

"I don't know."

"I thought you two were allways together. Your lucky to have a friend like her." I say with a sigh. Ace seems deep in thought for a minute. I let him think.

Sorry, I have been busy lately.

Maitea

I run down to the kitchen where Bree and Ace are.

"Where's Maitea?" Bree asks.

"I don't know." Ace reponds.

"I thought you two were allways together. Your lucky to have a friend like her." Bree again. That was nice of her. I wish Ace would notice all he has going for him. I walk into the kitchen.

"Hey!" I say, "Something smells awesome." I grin.

"That's sushi." Bree says, then leaves. Probably off to go talk to her parents. I sigh.

"Is there going to be enough for me?" I ask.

"Probably." Ace responds.

"Try adding a bit of ginger, and pepper." I say, looking over at what he's making. My mom used to make something simlar.

"What?"

"Yeah, if you use a bit of giner, it adds a bit of punch to it. The pepper adds flavor. And cut the peppers smaller, the taste will be more evenly spread. And if you..."

"Why don't you just make them yourself then." He says. He makes an annoyed huff and walks upstairs.

"Ace, it was just a suggestion!" I call. I run after him. I stop him halfway upstairs. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Go away Maitea." He says coldly.

"No, Ace, come on. We can make it together, or you could just make it the way you want. I was just only giving you the same ideas my mom used when she made them. Let's go make some sushi!" I say, starting to walk down the stairs. He shakes his head, and walks back upstairs.

"I can't make them myself, you know. I don't know how. They would end up looking like jello." I say. He almost smiles.

Ace

Between her earlier comment about babysitting me and her telling me how to make my own specialty dishes...I rolled my eyes and sighed as I pulled away from her and started back to my room. I wasn't even hungry anymore.

"I can't make them myself, you know. I don't know how. They would end up looking like jello," she said, her voice pleading.

I smirked. "Well, if you were making uni--sea urchin--and it looked like jello, that wouldn't be such a bad thing. I'm not too fond of uni, though." I realized then that she merely cared for me, and I shouldn't have gotten mad at her for that. I cared for her--probably more than she knew--and had likely hurt her. I had to fix this. "Okay, let's teach you how to make sushi."

Back in the kitchen, I finished cooking the sushi rice and added veggies to the fried rice. I flipped the tofu squares in their pan before getting out the fish. "Hamachi, maguro, and unagi," I told her, showing her the yellowtail, tuna, and eel. She nodded and looked over the selection.

I got started on broiling the eel and I had Maitea chop the peppers and ginger. Soon, the kitchen was a mess with our projects sitting on large plates on a separate counter. "You try," I said, putting out a seaweed wrap, some rice, and the mixture of chopped yellowtail, ginger, and peppers. She spread the rice over the wrap and put the fish on top before trying to roll it up as I'd showed her. "No," I whispered as I looked over her shoulder. I took her hands in mine and guided them in making the roll. "There you go. It looks good," I complimented as she turned to smile at me. She cut it in half and then cut each half into three pieces, and it was finished.

We stood there looking at it, and then she picked one up and tried it. She then held one up for me. I was honestly glad that I'd changed my mind and taken her advice.

"I like it," she said, "though I feel a bit bad for completely hijacking the kitchen when it was supposed to be Chinese tonight." She tried to take the roll to the plate that held the others, and we noticed that she was still trapped in the space between the counter and my arms. I blushed, and reluctantly let her go. Then I started again with the food on the stove, mentally kicking myself. But this time, it wasn't for being myself. No, for once, it was for not letting me do what I'd wanted to do.

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Sorry for long post. It apparently takes Ace a while to have an epiphany.

Maitea

I mentaly congratulate myself for making food that didn't look like an elephant had steped on it.

I hold up another roll, "This look okay?" I ask Ace.

"Uh, kind of, here...." he says. He comes over, and takes my hands, showing me how to roll it right, again. For a second he freezes, then drops my hands. I sigh.

"It's been a long day." I comment. He just shrugs. We finish up the last of the rolls.

"Do you think Riley will mind?" Ace asks.

"Nah, she didn't look like she really wanted to make the food anyway. It was more to make her mom happy." I respond.

"In that case, she owes us big time." Ace laughs. I laugh along.

"This was a lot of fun, you know."

"Yeah-it was..for me." He stutters a little. I surpress a laugh.

"I'll clean up here, why don't you go check with Bree and see if fifteen rolls will be enough."

"Okay." he walks out of the room. We had been so close, to something, before. I think he was just a friend, right? I mean, he couldn't be anything more, could he?

I throw the dishrag down in frustration. Why did life have to be so confusing? I strt sining a little part of a song I made up when I was ten.

I'm sick of this life
In a two foot trailer.
Wanna get out
Beyond the sunset.
Sick of a life
That don't make sense to me...

I add on some new lines.

Sick of guys
Who can't make up their mind
Who are your friends for a second
Then they hate you.

I pause when Ace walks in.

Ace

"Bree!" I called when I got into the hallway.

"What is it, Ace?" she asked, peering out of a doorway.

"Um...we made sushi. Oh, you know that. I mean, uh, is fifteen rolls and some rice and tofu enough?"

"Should be," she replied, nodding.

"Uh. Okay." I waved at her, and then growled. "Stupid nervous tics," I murmured, turning around so that I no longer felt the need to wave at anything. ID-10-T Error, Ace, I thought to myself. You are such an idiot. I'd been unable to control myself, if just for a moment, and Maitea had noticed. You're just going to get hurt.

Maitea wouldn't hurt you. It was true; all I ever did was follow her around like a lost puppy, and she seemed to enjoy it.

I heard her singing as I got closer to the kitchen--just a snippet:

Sick of guys
Who can't make up their mind
Who are your friends for a second
Then they hate you.

"Is that what you think of me?" I asked her upon entering. My eyes burned and my heart went limp in my chest for just a second.

I saw her look up at me, giving me a single glance that spoke volumes.

"I don't hate you," I said, sniffling. Don't cry. Don't worry. Just jump. "Maitea, I...I love you."

The words were, for the second time that day, out of my mouth before my brain had time to register what I was about to say, and I couldn't take them back. But unlike the comment about Mrs. Evans being obese, a declaration of love was life-changing. And she probably didn't return my feelings. I tried to turn away so she wouldn't see me cry.

"Ace," she sighed, starting to come toward me.

Riley

"James, turn left here!" I yell, pointing to the left. He nodds, and turns his motorcycle down a long, wooden path. I follow after him.

We pull up at a large mansion. I take my gun out if my pocket.

"Ready to roll?" James laughs.

"Nice to have a gun again." I say, as if that would answer his question. We walk up to the large, bronze doors.

"I feel like I should knock." I observe.

"Just blow open the door." James replies, and puts his gun to the lock. With one shot it is open. He re-loads his gun, then we go inside.

"You check upstiars, I'll check down. Don't kill unless your threatened, just knock them out long enough so they wont wake up any time soon." I say. He nodds and walks up the long, narrow, staircase.

I walk around, gun in one hand, ready to shoot anyone who jumps at me. I find a long jewelry box, stuffed to the brim with jewels. I take as many as will fit into my messenger bag.

Maitea

"Ace," I said, starting to walk towards him, "I love you too." He looks at me in somewhat in shock for a minute, then comes and pulls me into a hug.


"I didn't want to sayanything. I was worried..." I start.

"That I would freak out." Ace finished my sentence.

"Not exac-- well, yeah." I say in an atempt to be honest.

"Well, before I probably would have."

"Your stronger than you know, Ace."

"No I'm not."

"You just got to find it in you, thats all. You could do absolutely anything you want to. I know you can."

Bree would pick that minute to come in. She come in, then bites her bottom lip to keep from laughing.

"Don't comment." I say to her, "But the sushi are on the stove, if you want to check them out. You can tell which ones are mine." I am talking to ease the slight amount of embaresment I feel, and the even greater amount Ace must feel.

"Uh, Ace, would you mind going to my room and grabbing the little vial underneath my matress." I say, trying to give him an excuse to leave. as he does, Bree turns to me.

"If your going to poison my parents..." She starts.

"No worries, I am out of nightshade. This does the oppisite, actually. I have a feeling ther'll be a lot of drinking, this will reverse the effects."

Bree

I consider what Maitea said.

"But your eating the first pikece." I retort.

"You don't trust me?" She asks.

"Well, after what Mrs. Evans said to Ace, I wouldn't put it past you."

"Please, if I wanted them dead I would just kill them up front. The only purpose of the nightshade is to put someone to sleep, not kill them." She says coldy. With that, Ace walked back into the room. I watched Maitea take the bottle from Ace, and put two drops on each sushi.

"It's tasteless." She assured me, or maybe Ace.

"Good, we wouldn't wnat it to leave a flavor." Ace says. So it was directed at aCe then. Feeling very out of place, I leave the room. I walk over to Suzie and my parents. Suzie seems the most comftroable around them, and is laughing at my dads corny jokes.

"Hi guys." I say, sitting down.

"Where were all your friends going with the guns?" My mom asks.