When Abby, her boys and Anna go to the car Callahan has to grab Abby and lift her off the ground to keep her from attacking another woman. Callahan quickly explains to her that the woman is a reporter named Rebecca.
"She's writing an article for Wall Street Journal about our game!" Callahan explains before putting Abby back on the ground.
Abby punches his arm. Hard.
"You know I hate it when you do that!"
"That's why I do it, lil Abs!" Callahan teases her.
They get into the car and go to Abby's place so she could pack and shower. As she showers Abby thinks about the good old times, when they were young and in love. A tear falls down her cheek, but she wipes it away, refusing to cry over the past. She dries herself and puts on black, ripped jeans, a tank top and her leather jacket. She quickly braids her hair into two dutch braids and puts on some makeup.
She packs some clothes and a few fancy outfits, as well as her makeup bags and toilet necessities.
In the car, Rebecca wants to interview her for the article. She's also curious about this Abby, who somehow all the boys obeyed.
"How did you meet the boys?"
"Another kid was bullying Sable for being different. I stepped in and fought off the bully. Jerry wasn't there to help Sable like he usually does since he was sick. Sable introduced me to Hoagie, Chilli and Bob. When Jerry came back 2 days later he found his friends playing with a girl. We were introduced to each other and we instantly hated each other. However, we were forced to play together by the fact we had common friends.
The boys grew tired of our fighting and an agreement was made. Jerry and I were to face off in a few challenges and if I won Jerry had to accept me in the group and if Jerry won I had to leave. The challenges were mostly about speed and strength, but we also had a dance-off. I lost the dance-off, won the running, lost the climbing challenge. After 20 minutes I won arm wrestle and the wrestling match took about 45 minutes before an adult found out and broke it up.
We were made to sit alone in a room to talk it out. We shouted and insulted each other for 15 minutes and physically fought for another 20 minutes before we started talking civilly. By then we both had black eyes and bruises everywhere. I was sporting a busted lip and he had both a nose bleed and a busted lip.
I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was something along the lines of just wanting to have a friend, which made Jerry stop. He recognized the feeling because he felt the same. We shared insecurities and we both apologized. This made us friends and when we found out we had common interests we quickly became best friends. We met when we were 6 but became friends when we were 7."
"How come the no-girls-rule don't apply to you?"
"We were 9. By this point, we were as thick as thieves. This was challenged by another girl in our class. She fancied Jerry and tried to destroy our friendship. She started spreading rumours about me and the other kids in our class believed her. No one wanted anything to do with me. Except for these 5 boys. It got to the point where Bob had to lift me off the ground to keep me from attacking the other girl. Jerry was in between us girls and trying to get her to back off. After this whole ordeal, we decided that no girls allowed, and since I 1. already was in the group and 2. basically was one of the boys, it didn't include me."
"The boys told me you were dating Jerry until the end of high school. How did that happen?"
"The fight with the other girl actually started it. I was very upset and had gone home so I could break something. I told the boys I wanted to be alone, but when I got home Jerry was already in my room, waiting for me. That was the first time he spent the night at my place. He spent the rest of the day and evening comforting me and just listening.
During the night he heard me crying and crawled into my bed, letting me cuddle and hug him. That's when I knew I liked him. Only 3 weeks later we got together. No one thought it would last since we were only 9. But we were strong and in love and stuck together.
When we finished high school at the age of 18 we were faced with a challenge. He wanted to stay close to home and study business and training. I wanted to move across the country to study math, history, photographing, fashion and gymnastics. This caused us to end our relationship.
I stayed in touch with the boys and even joined the game a couple of times, but I only spoke to Jerry in May a few times over the phone until I didn't speak to him at all. Last time I saw him was 7 years ago in August. My mother had gotten sick and I moved back home. He came to the funeral, but after that, I didn't speak to him again, nor did I see him. After her death, I moved to the next town over. I didn't wanna leave, but the incident was still fresh and I couldn't be home. Work didn't let me settle down and I travelled all over for 6 years before last year when I could finally relax."
"Speaking of work, what is it you do for a living?"
Abby smiles at this.
"Well! Officially, I'm a model and personal training. But it goes a little deeper than that. I design the clothes I model and sometimes I put the clothes on other models and take the pictures myself. I teach both Taekwondo and Karate, as well as simple self-defence. And like I said I'm a personal trainer so I help others get in shape.
On my travels, I competed in Tawk Wan Do, Karate, boxing, gymnastics and wrestling. I've participated in a few marathons. 5 years ago I was approached by a zoo to do some ads for them and I agreed, making the zoo quite famous. This made me curious about the whole thing and I expanded my education and took studies in animal training. I finished them and started to train animals in zoos and aquariums. Even going so far to help others with their pets and teaching them how to train their dogs."
Rebecca is silent for a moment.
"Do you know why the boys just didn't come and get you from the beginning?"
Abby laughs.
"I reckon it's because they didn't think about it before something special happened."
Bob and Chilli blush.
"Ah. Jerry used Cheryl as a distraction and it worked?"
Rebecca nods.
"That means they go the idea from Jerry. These guys wouldn't think of it themselves. They can be quite thick." Abby teases them.
Shouts of protests can be heard from all the boys and they shove and pinch her. Since Hoagie is next to her, Abby shoves him back and that starts a shoving fight between them. it's only when Abby is pressing Hoagie's face against the window and he's pulling her hair that Bob breaks them apart.
They all look at each other and starts laughing.
"From what I've seen and from what you've told me, Bob breaks up the fights you get in. Why is that?"
"Simple. He's the tallest and the only one who can pick her up without getting something broken." Sable answers.
"Also, if we don't count Jerry, Abby was always the closest to Bob. He became a big brother for her when her dad passed when she was just a kid." Chilli adds.
Abby huffs and punches both Chilli and Sable. Bob gives her a stern look and she stops, causing the boys to start laughing again.
For the rest of the car ride, they all chat happily. The boys updates Abby on what's going on with Jerry and she finds out he got his gym. She smiles, knowing it was his biggest dream. After an hour they get back into the town where they all grew up. With a mischievous look in her eyes and a smirk on her lips, Abby steps out of the vehicle.
"Let's get that bastard!"
~~~~
So chapter 2 is finished. I have chapter 3 ready, just need to edit it and chapter 4 is almost finished. This won't be a very long book and for that I apologize, but after this I can focus on finishing my first story.