WICKED REFLEX

Chapter 3: The Girl Needs Convincing

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She sat in the near empty bleachers of the gym in her cut-off sweats, headband, and sneakers with ten other similarly attired cheerleaders while only half-taking in Crystal's ideas for the event.

"Okay, soo... We enter to Madonna's - Dress U Up and do 'honor roll' peel out splits. Then divide up and chant this!" said Crystal, the brunette whose hair was teased to unnatural heights via Aquanet hairspray.

As captain of the cheer squad, she passed out papers with the chant helpfully printed out.  The pep rally was all about inspiring extra effort for holiday chocolate bar sales.

"Hey! We always enter to Madonna! What about Duran Duran or Prince?" one of the other girls complained.

"-Because Madonna is the fucking raddest!" Crystal piped up, clearly her #1 fan.

Sam rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.  They always stretched out practice longer than it needed to be, by being nit-picky over shit that didn't matter.

"Bored yet?"

That was so clear a voice in her head that she nearly fell off her bleacher.  Somehow, she gave nothing away.

She tried answering back in the same way.

"What is this?"

"Excuse yourself from practice and I'll explain everything... But you can't be scared like you were last time."

"Wait, -is this that burn-out boy?"

"Nick. " he corrected.

She could actually feel his amusement in his head. Cool as ice. It angered her that he wasn't at all rattled by any of this and that he clearly knew more than she did...even about her own self.

"I told you not to get scared."

"I'm not scared. I'm angry!"

"-Anger based in fear.  Besides, I can feel it.  You can't lie to me when we're communicating like this.-"

"-Hello?  Anyone home?  Sam? I said, I want you to do a tumble run at the end of the rally." Crystal said, as she stood in front in her.

"YES! OKAY -FINE!" she said a bit over-loudly.  "I mean... I'm sorry.  I have really bad cramps. I'm gonna go...  Harmony can catch me up on the deets later, okay?"

Harmony looked at her like she'd grown two heads and shrugged in confusion. Their cycles were synced up. She knew for sure that Sam wasn't on her period.

"Please, Harmony. I'll talk to you later, when I'm feeling better." she said, hoping her friend got her meaning and wouldn't follow her.

"Yeah, sure. Rest. Call me when you're feeling better." Harmony replied, though she still looked dubious.

Sam feigned a big cramp and grabbed her gut.  "Ooooh. I've gotta go. I'm sorry you guys!!"  

She did a quick walk out of the gym and leaned against the closed double-doors in relief.

"Okay. Where are you?"

"Liberty Park.  At the swing-set."

///

As Sam walked up to the park, she spotted him slumped in a swing, smoking again.

"-Oh no, you're putting that out." she said, as she approached Nick.  

"Helps sometimes.-" he tapped his head with his finger. "It's pot, if it matters. "

"-It really doesn't. I can't go home smelling like any kind of smoke."

He took a really deep drag and pinched it out, stashing the rest for later.

"So, Sam. I'm all ears. I'm sure you have several questions for me. What do you want to know?"

"Everything. Why do you think you know me?  How did you get into my head?  What is that tattoo and why did you think I had one?"

"I think you should sit first."  He patted the swing next to himself as if it were a chair.

She was reluctant, because of that lingering fear that she really didn't want to know what he had to say, but she still sat down next to him.

He turned towards her, the chains above him twisting audibly.  "So, about what happened today... When we were both kids, we were property of the government.  We were hidden away from the world and kept deep within a secret federal facility with the goal of eventually using us to 'serve our country' using what we could do.  We were kept together for awhile, because those things that we could do, worked better when we were both in the same room, -when we worked together...  And you, -back then you were just 'Four'-, you helped me get through it... We helped each other get through it.  They beat us and tortured us and made us do terrible things...  And Sam.  You were all that I had, though it all."