Conversations

Rae Tucker shivered as she walked home with her best friend Emily Mackenzie. She was a Texas girl, and still was not used to the cold of New York.

Emily for her part didn’t seem all that bothered by the weather, having grown up here her entire life. When Rae and her Mom moved here last year, the girl had been quick to befriend her. They had been unseperatable ever since, though this did not mean their homilies were all that good.

For Rae, her father still wanted custody over her, even though she was long past the age were a parent actually had any say in who she would stay with. She wanted to stay with her Mom and that was it as far as she was concerned.

For Emily, well her parents had been downright abusive, and she had been taken away from them by CPS when she was 5. That unfortunately didn’t mean anything since her foster parents were just as abusive, if not more so, and she sought to be out of their house whenever she could.

“I’m just saying, your old enough, you could move in with us”, Rae said to her friend as they walked down the snow laden sidewalk.

“I mean I want to, I just… I don’t know if I can” Emily replied dejectedly.

“You’ve aged out of the system, and there not getting checks for you anymore. The only reason they haven’t kicked you out is pure laziness on their part.”

Emily sighed. “I know. Part of me is happy, but the other part of me doesn’t like that I’ve grown up already.”

Rae scoffed. “Please you have college still. You and I can do all the things you missed in a normal childhood there.”

Emily raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it be weird to see two girls our age on a see-saw?”

“Have you seen Tik-Tok?”

Both girls laughed at this.

“So I heard you got the new Spider-man game?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, it was my Mom’s birthday present to me.

“You think we could play it?”

“Well it’s a single player game”, Rae replied.

“O.K, you think you could play it and I can watch while providing witty commentary.”

Rae smiled and put her arm around her friends neck. “I think that can be arranged.”

With that both would head to Rae’s house, not expecting that their entire destinies were about to change.

***

Nadia Lawrence smiled, thinking how she was getting the best of Ashley Donovan. Sure she was technically driving her brother around for free like a glorified Uber, but it meant he would like her better than that bitch. Plus she needed to go to that area anyway to visit her boyfriend Mitch. Things were starting to get real serious between them, and she couldn’t wait to see what came next. Little did she know that a frozen Jason Quinn was currently sitting folded up in her trunk.

For their part, Mark and Katie were in the back seat, whispering a conversation so Nadia didn’t hear.

“Did you really need to have oral sex with Haley Bailey?” Katie asked.

“What? She’s hot!” Mark defended himself.

“I know that!” Katie exclaimed. “Even I asked her out before, but she turned me down.”

“Really, I didn’t know she swung that way.”

“I don’t know if she does or not, but I had to try. She did say I wasn’t her type though.”

“I’ve had a crush on her since Kindergarten, but we don’t exactly hang around in the same circles.”

“Well perhaps she’ll cross the code for ethics I created for presently freezing someone”, Katie added.

“What code of ethics?”, Mark asked, genuinely curious.

Making sure Nadia couldn’t hear, Katie leaned into Mark’s ear. “I’ve been thinking about it since bringing Dawn home yesterday. The idea is that you only freeze someone for three reasons. Either they deserve it, they would be better off frozen, or because you need to.”

“That seems awfully vague”, Mark stated.

“Well it gives a lot of wiggle room, and still cuts down on unnecessary freezing.”

“Point”, Mark conceded.

The two didn’t have time to continue the conversation ad they pulled into Mark’s neighborhood. Nadia parked the car across the street from his house, in front of Mitch’s house.

“O.K, this is your stop. Your going to have to walk the rest of the way.”

“Really” Mark whined sarcastically. Nadia simply rolled her eyes.

“Hey I like you, but with your sister there, I’m staying as far away as I can. Even here is probably too close.”

“Hey Regina’s not all that bad”, Mark said, continuing his sarcasm.

“Hardy, har, har’, Nadia said before all three of them got out of the car.

Nadia soon turned and headed up the walkway to the Buchannan household when suddenly she stopped in place. Mark smiled at this, and felt the girls rear before grabbing her car keys and unfreezing Katie.

“You ready”, Katie asked, the excitement evident on her voice.

“As I ever will be”, Mark said, jingling the keys. He then unfrozen the car, and Katie got in the drivers seat since she had a license and he didn’t (Plus she knew how to drive, and he didn’t either).

Together, the two headed of to find their target, one Mary Tucker.