"I don't get paid, I will send your boy back in pieces. I will do a Van Gogh on him.
You can avoid that. All you gotta do is pay me, right?-"
Edith opened the window and snuck into the room, not making a sound. Saya, Maria And Marcus followed.
"Just let go of the green and save Chad from my mean machine. You hear me? I'll just keep the rest of my dirty business a secret. You'll go to your grave just wondering what I did.-"
As Marcus came through the window he fell, making an obnoxiously loud thud. Edith quickly hid, unlike the others who panicked.
"-Ah. Come to have the fun, sweet pickles?" Zane questioned Saya and Maria.
"There's nothing sweet about us." Maria seethed.
"Oh, sweet pickles, I'm gonna have you in a sandwich pie. Gonna run my-" Saya charged at Zane.
Maria lunged, only to be kicked in the stomach and falling onto the floor. Zane punched Marcus in the face as Edith slowly made her way to Juan, who was tied to the chair she pulled out her small pocket knife and began to cut the ropes.
The guy was on top of Marcus, repeatedly punching him. Edith glanced to the phone on the table, Marcus saw, grabbed the phone and wrapped the chord around Zane's neck. Zane tapped Marcus, who released him instantly.
"Now, class, as you just witnessed, sometimes you gotta fight with bare hands like the guru of white karate, Chuck Norris, "Firewalker." Scoom! Skam! Wham-dam! Other times, you gotta improvise." Zane explained as he punched the air.
"You are twice our size." Saya lamely defended.
"Size, schmize. When I was a bouncer at Chest of Drawers AKA Check for Sores On the Jersey Shore, every Italian from Seaside to Sicily tried to take a swing at ole Master Zane, and I knocked the Drakkar Noir right off 'em with nothing but a brick. Atypical combat skills save your keisters, meisters. Now, you two You two are losers." Zane pointed to Saya and Maria.
"Well, his swan dive kind of fucked up our entrance." Saya defended.
"Nothing ever happens according to plan.
Uh, hobo kid here, he still nailed it with the skimmy-scam-shabaldam!" Marcus smiled proudly. "And Edith, she didn't make one sound when she set Juan free." Zane chuckled.
~
Edith hated dances, so she had no clue why she was actually here. She sat on a table all alone watching everyone dance.
She drank the vodka that she brought, hoping that would make this more interesting. Edith smiled at Petra, who was probably the only one here that she could tolerate.
She would've gone to stand with her, if Viktor wasn't there. She stirred the straw around the cup, bored out of her mind.
Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves, Edith wished she could just let loose like the others, but she couldn't.
When she had glanced back at where Petra had been sat she was only faced with a blank chair. She groaned and ran her hand over her face, suddenly being snapped back up when the microphone was tapped upon stage.
"Listen up everybody." Brandy said as she stood on stage. Juan, who was the dj cut off the music. "Y'all might know her as the dark cloud that haunts the halls of King's, but tonight thanks to the lovely ladies of the Cheer Death Squad, she's gone from wasteoid to passable."
A group of girls from the cheer squad brought Petra out, clutching to her arms as she flailed.
Only she didn't look like Petra.
She wore a bright yellow dress and a blonde wig, nothing like her usual attire.
"Please put your hands together for the belle of the ball, the new and improved Miss Rat 1987." People laughed and applauded.
They were humiliating Petra, she didn't deserve that. Edith got up with her fist clenched and almost sprinted towards the stage where she slammed her hands into the chest of a girl who had a tight grip on Petra.
The girl let go immediately but the rest of them fell into giggles. Edith would've hurt every single one of them if she hadn't felt like she needed to run after Petra in the opposite direction.
But when she glanced around the girl was gone.
~
Edith despised slow songs, but that's what was playing. She fiddled with the ends of her long brown hair.
Monks had began to circle around the edges of the room, until they all advanced into the middle. Edith furrowed her brows completely confused but yet alert for anything to happen at any time.
She looked over and saw Marcus under the hood of the monks clothes. He brought his finger up to his lips with a small smirk.
Edith shook her head with a smile and leaned back in her chair, waiting to see what was about to unfold in front of her.
Marcus pulled out a blowgun from his sleeve and aimed it at Viktor. Viktor winced as the dart hit his neck, he pulled it out immediately but not even seconds later he fell to the floor screaming.
"The Baba Yaga, she eats my loins!" Viktor screamed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mellow Yellow!" Lex shouted. Edith sat back and relaxed as she watched the legacies run out of the dance.
"Compa, what the fuck, man?" Chico questioned Juan, not sure what was going on.
Edith watched as he walked up to Marcus, she couldn't hear what they were saying. Marcus picked up a tin lid as a defence and threw it at Chico, not that it was much help as it bounced straight off of him.
Chico brought his fingers into a tight clench and began to repeatedly punch him in the stomach before pulling them both to the floor.
Willie walked over and shoved Chico back, a complete shock to anyone witnessing.
"Step off!" He instructed angrily.
"You want a taste, bitch?" Chico came face to face with Willie, who casually threw his toothpick from his mouth.
"Bounce." Willie said as Edith walked over to them.
"And miss the disco?" Marcus questioned smirking.
"It's been a while since the Soto Vatos cleaned the house." Chico said.
"Yeah?"
"Throw in the Rat for free. Eh?" Chico smacked Willie across the face making him stumble back.
"Chico!" Lin shouted.
Edith lunged for Chico, but Marcus wrapped both his forearms around her waist and pulled her back into his chest.
"No." He whispered. She took a deep breath before relaxing into his grip.
Lin hit Chico in the stomach with his cane making him double over.
"This dance is over. Everybody return to their rooms." Lin instructed.
~
Edith decided to put pen to paper after her guilty conscience had gotten to her after everything. She addressed the letter to Petra and let the ink take her onwards.
'Dear Petra,
I'm sorry I didn't help you at the dance. If I had saw their intentions earlier, I would've done something, I promise you that. You're strong, I admire that, don't let them take that from you.
-Edith'
She had made sure to wait until Petra left her room to leave it on her bed. For some reason Edith was embarrassed to leave the note, it was the most she would've communicated with someone other than Master Lin while she had been there.
~
"Come on, man. Guard your left. Your left!" Willie chuckled, once again the three were in Marcus' room.
"Hey, what you did tonight, thanks for having my back." Marcus said not taking his eyes off the game.
"I got to thinking on what you said earlier."
Edith wondered what Marcus would've said. She looked up to the boy, his hair fell in front of his eyes ever so slightly. She wanted to reach up and move it from out of his face, but she didn't want to overstep her boundaries.
"Which part?" Marcus questioned, he quickly glanced at Edith. She turned red as he caught her staring. A small smile formed upon Marcus' face. "I say so many smart things."
"About patriotism, and it wasn't so smart." Willie shrugged.
"Mm, you must've misunderstood it." Marcus smirked.
"You said patriotism was about self-interest, but back in Watts, we had a different kind. The pride wasn't in the government, 'cause they never earned no loyalty from us. It's about community.
It's about taking care of your people." Marcus let Willie's words sink it.
"You saying I'm your people?" He smiled slightly as he looked to Willie. Both the boys turned to look at each other.
"Not if you can't guard your left." A huge smile formed on Marcus face. "Come one, Arguello, carry your weight, man."
"Hey, E, what did you leave on Petra's bed earlier?" Marcus questioned glancing to the girl who was laid on her back looking up at the ceiling.
She glanced to Marcus, anxiously and bit her lip, she wanted to talk to him, but she couldn't. She shrugged.
"Was it a letter?" Edith blushed with a nod. "How come I don't get letters?"
"Edith Fell wrote a letter?" Willie questioned pausing the game to look at the girl. "You never do that."
"You felt bad didn't you? For not being able to help Petra?" Marcus questioned.
It was as if he could read her like she was an open book. Edith nodded shamefully.
"It wasn't your fault, E." Marcus placed his hand on top of hers, reassuringly.