Dagger absent-mindedly jotted notes in history class. He knew that soon, the bell would ring, and he’d be obligated to hang out with the girls. That, and the history was really boring. It was all sorts of things about the creation of the United Fedderation and how it came to be. All it was were a bunch of wars and laws and negotiations. Dagger didn’t understand in the slightest why it was important, but he didn’t really want the period to end either. “After the attack, the government sent the millitary out to what is now Emerald City and staged another attack on the rebels there. This initially led to—” Mr. Farbrace was cut off by the ringing of the bell. His students quickly got up and left the classroom. Except for Dagger. Mr. Farbrace stared him down. “Hey, you gonna leave? I’ve got stuff to do.” “I’ll stay for extra bordum if it means I can get away from those girls. Please let me stay!” “Girls? Can’t you just tell them to give you some time to yourself?” Dagger sighed. “No. They’re the only reason I’m not on the street. If I can’t count on them for a place to stay and food, then Nutty and I won’t stand a chance here.” Mr Farbrace started for the door. “Well, you can’t stay here. I’d recommend asking them, but if they refuse, simply try to put up with them. They can’t be that bad.” With that, he went through the door and left Dagger sitting in the classroom with the lights off. Dagger sighed and stood in resignation. He had said he would meet up with the girls, and whether he liked it or not, he had to go through with this. He walked down the nearly empty hallways and towards the front entrance of the school. The closer he got to the door, the more people were around, heading there so they could get home. Dagger got to the exit and threw the doors open. Just as he passed, the door started closing on one of the other people in a hury to leave, so Dagger stuck out his foot and held the door open. “Go right ahead.” “Thanks, man.” Just as he had gone through the doorway, more people came up behind him. Dagger continued to hold in place as a long line of people came through. Most of them glanced at him and left, but a handful of people thanked him for using his time for something like that. Once the final person went through the door, Dagger moved his foot and let it shut behind him. Just as he moved out into the parking lot, the girls appeared in front of him. “Why’d you hold the door for them?” Lucy asked. Dagger shrugged. “Why not?” “Because you have better things to do, like hang out with us! You did say we were hanging out after school.” “Yeah, yeah. I’d better get Nutty from Grace’s place. Let’s go.” With that, the group headed down the road and towards the Lagopus house. . . . “It’s about time you showed up!” Nutty said when Dagger walked through the door. “These girls have been driving me crazy! All day they’ve been watching me like hawks. When I asked them why, they said it’s because you told them to keep an eye on me!” Dagger laughed. “Is it my fault they took ‘keep an eye on him’ too literally?” He grinned towards Grace’s older sisters that were out of school and had been watching Nutty all day. “Thanks guys. Catch you around.” Dagger grabbed Nutty by the arm and the two of them headed for the door. “Bye!” Ellie called as they left. “Come back sometime!” Dagger and Nutty rejoined the girls outside. Nutty went around greeting the girls while Dagger thought about what they could do. He knew he didn’t want to do a bunch of talking all night, so he needed to find some activity they could all participate in. “You guys know anything we could do with a group this size?” Dagger asked when Nutty was done making his presence known. “We could go to the park again,” Harper replied. “It was really nice there the last time.” “We could, but I’d rather do something new.” Dagger said, trying not to make it obvious that he wanted to avoid the storm of conversations he would need to put up with there. “How about we go bowling?” Mackenzie asked. “That’s an activity for large groups.” “What about paying for it?” Raelyn countered. “I could run into the house and grab some money to pay for it.” Grace replied. “Cool, you do that,” Nutty said while he tried to get mud out of the creases in his shoe’s soul. The girls looked at Dagger. “What he said,” he said, pointing to Nutty. Grace walked up a path of stones and to the front door. She went into the house and to her room. A few minutes later, she came back with her wallet. She smiled and the group headed towards the bowling alley. (Continue to N&C)
. . . Dagger threw his hands into the air as his bowling ball smashed into the centre pin and caused a chain reaction knocking down the rest. The scoreboard updated by putting an “x” in the next column in Dagger’s row. Dagger walked over and sat back down on the couch. On the lane beside the one he was just at, Zoey sent the ball to the left side and knocked down half of her pins. Grace stood up and brought her ball into the lane that Dagger was in before. “What do you think of bowling?” Lucy asked Dagger. “It’s pretty fun. It takes enough skill to be challenging, and it takes enough luck to make it so the same person doesn’t win every time.” Zoey came back from the lane and motioned to Lucy to take her turn. She stood and Zoey took her seat. “Hey,” Zoey said. “Hi. Nice spare you got there,” Dagger replied. Zoey blushed. “Thanks. You’re pretty good at this. You play often?” “It’s my first time.” Zoey stared at him wide-eyed. “Nobody hits five strikes and two spares on their first time playing!” Dagger shrugged.”I’ve done lots of things nobody else can. I’m not really surprised.” Lucy walked back from the lane and stared at her twin. Her eyes fell on Dagger. Her expression changed and she sat on his other side. She was just about to say something when the screens changed to show that their time was up. Dagger looked outside and saw that it was getting dark. “Hey Nutty, still got those straws?” Dagger called to his friend who was watching the ball he just rolled sail into the pins after the time had run out. Nutty searched himself. “Nah, they’re gone. I can get more for tomorrow though. Why don’t we just go with those two next to you?” Zoey and Lucy shared an expression that was a mix of jealousy and pure delight. They glared at each other and the jealousy took full control. “Uh, sure.” Dagger said. He had already gotten up and was heading for the door. “Let’s get moving, shall we?” Zoey and Lucy got up instantly and ran to catch up with Dagger, shoving each other to the side and bickering under their breath. Nutty looked at them, waved to the others, and took off after them. To Be Continued... Song: Starlight Carnival Act 1 from Sonic Colors.
