Meeting Gum

For most of her teenage years, the peroxide-blonde-dyed young woman whose friends (and "friends") only knew as Gum had wasted her time working in convenience stores and movie theaters, bored and miserable the entire time while her controlling, status-conscious parents kept her virtually a prisoner in her own home. But somehow they hadn't been able to stop her from discovering hip-hop, or skating, or, eventually, other vices. When she turned 18, she'd left them behind for good spent the last several years couch-surfing. She was the closest thing the GGs had to a leader, being the only one of the original founding three who wasn't in jail.

Gum hated words like 'responsibility' but all the same she felt like she had to keep things going and build up a nice little group house for the gang, so that when the other guys did eventually get out, they could go back to being one happy circle of friends, chilling by day and doing crazy stunts and partying by night. So what if they were all 27 or 30 or whatever when the gang was finally fully reunited? They'd pick right back up where they left off and it'd be awesome. Not, like, in a sentimental way or anything like that, that wasn't what being a delinquent was about. Just because, it'd be cool.

As she weaved through the crowded streets in the late afternoon, she got more than a few stares for reasons aside from just her reckless conduct. The neck-length blonde hair poking out from under her bulky helmet was wild, looking like it hadn't seen a comb in ages. Her trademark attire was a white dress barely even long enough to reach her hips - her lime-green panties were pretty much visible any time she so much as lifted her arms. While her arms were completely covered, with long sleeves sporting green stripes and a pair of thick, flared white gloves ideal for grabbing onto railings and protecting her hands from spray paint, under the edge of her dress, she wore nothing except for tennis shoes or skates, depending on what she was doing at the moment. Her name wasn't for nothing either - she went through about two packs a day of her namesake habit, and a never got tired of blowing bubbles.

On the front of her dress, right at chest level, was her nickname, written in thick green characters - and, likewise, there was a tattoo of the same on her inner thigh. It was good she had the latter as a backup, because her downright massive breasts tended to make her personal logo bounce and wobble too much to be legible when she was on the move, which she almost always was. Even though she wore a sports bra, somehow giving her chest such support only seemed to make it swingier. There were times that Gum actually regretted being so well-endowed - much like with her friend Piranha, she had trouble keeping up with the more petite girls of the GGs like Mew or Cube, much less their dwindling male membership, doing fancier stunts. But her thighs were powerful, and she could really move in a flat-out race when she wanted to.

And, if nothing else, having a pair of hillocks like that on her chest made it easier to pay the bills, considering how much competition there was for a girl trying to 'make a living' on the streets in this city. If you've got it, you might as well flaunt it. Gum had banged at least 20 guys this week alone, and she didn't even have to get **** enough to accept just anybody who talked her up. Weirdoes and losers were okay, if not ideal - but stuck-up suit-wearing salaryman types were a red line for her.

But in spite of herself, Gum ended up getting distracted, herself, by one particularly cute young man in a track jacket pacing merrily along the sidewalk. With a smirk, she planned to breeze past so close by him that he was left staring in astonishment at her backside as she went past... but, as the student tried to step out of her way, she ended up crashing right into him instead.

The ensuing tumble was a lot more painful for the boy, who landed hard on his backside, than it was for Gum - who landed on top of him, with her hefty chest squished up against his. Well, oops - sorry, not sorry, Gum said to herself.

Instead of apologizing, she smacked a few times and blew a big pink bubble in the confused, blushing kid's face. Only after it popped did she shift the wad into her cheek and speak. "Oops. Sorry man. Didn't see you there." she said in a very cool, affectedly apathetic voice. "But, these are the GG's streets, you know. Haven't you seen my tags?" She nonchalantly flicked her head in the direction of a nearby brick wall where her name was tagged up in big balloon-like lime-green letters.

"Ohhhh..." the boy groaned, pushing his chest up against hers - allowing Gum to feel that he was quite fit and toned under that track jacket. "Wonderful... it feels... Oh!! I mean, that's wonderful, that's exactly where I meant to go! Do you know a girl called 'Mew'? Blue hair, wears a dress kinda like yours but with leggings? She, uhh, oh yeah! She... dropped something the other day, and I need to return it to her!"

"Uh-huh." Gum said blandly, staring at him with a bemused expression and rolling her eyes. What made that silly girl so talented at picking up guys, anyway, despite being probably the least curvaceous out of their little group? "That's funny, because I saw Mew just this morning and she didn't mention having dropped anything important. You sure she wasn't just littering? Because I do that shit all the time."

"Oh, you DO know her!" the boy seemed excited - and looked disappointed when Gum eventually stood up off him and staggered back to her feet. "Um, do you know her phone number or anything...?"

Gum gave a huff sigh and rolled her eyes again. "One," she raised fingers one at a time as she rattled off her points, "Mew doesn't have a phone. Two, I don't have a phone either. Why would I waste my money on that corporate crap? And three, if she did, I wouldn't give Mew's phone number to some random guy who claims to know her. You some kind of stalker or something?"

"No!" the boy looked mortified, and perhaps a bit guilty. "My name is Asahina Yuta, and we're just, uhh, acquaintances... Mew said that there are, like, some unofficial athletic events going on down here sometimes and, aside from returning the.... thing she dropped, I was going to see if I'm allowed to participate. I love track, swimming, biking... I've even started trying this French sport called 'free-running' lately. I don't mind competing against girls at all, um, not to say that I would object if I have to take a little handicap to make it fair. Not that I'm saying you, or she, would need it! Uh, whatever option you think is more fair and sporting, I'm fine with it."

"I see." Gum said flatly, reaching down to help pull Yuta to his feet (otherwise he was gonna keep lying there staring up at her panties, and looking down over him she could hardly see his face past her own boobs). "You may not realize this, but not just ANYBODY gets to challenge the GGs, not for free, anyway." She poked a finger in his chest rudely. "And besides, Mew is our current 'freestyle queen'. I don't think you could handle her on the streets that she knows. You can call me Gum, by the way."

"Well... is there any way I could convince you to let me try?" Yuta gave her his best set of puppy-dog eyes.

Gum found herself getting a little annoyed - even after she ran into him like that, this kid was still focused on meeting her skinny friend? Maybe he really DID want to just compete with Mew or something? Gum knew that she liked to skate and bike for fun everywhere, not just in this district - for some reason the cops didn't hassle Mew the way they did the rest of the gang.

Letting out a long lingering sigh, the blonde put her hands on her hips and smacked her gum loudly a few more times before spitting it out on the sidewalk at Yuta's feet. "I think I know your type. You came out here to lose, I'm sure of it. Well. Either way it's a 9000 yen challenge fee. And I don't know where Mew is right now, so it's just me. I'm reeeeeally more of an artist than a racer or technician," Gum said, drawing her words out with a roll of her head to the side, "but against a twerp like you, I think I would still be more than you could handle. In case you don't know how it works, you pay in advance. Win and you get the money back, plus a 1000Y prize, and we put your name up on the board back at home base. Lose and I keep the money, and you have to settle for the consolation prize."

"Wow, that's..." Yuta swallowed. "That's kind of expensive. Don't you usually get, like, double your money back if you win a bet?"

"This isn't a BET, twerp," Gum said, blowing air through her lips and folding her arms over her chest. "Betting's illegal. Just like selling 'certain things' is illegal. It's a CHALLENGE. And nobody who's challenged me for, like, the past year has asked for their money back, after seeing my skills in action. Do you get it now?"

"Um... kinda... That's more than half of the money I have left..." Yuta dug his hands in his pockets and looked conflicted for a moment, but then his eyes traced their way back up Gum's alluring, curvaceous bombshell body. "Well... if I do win, I'll be recognized by your gang and you'll definitely help me meet back up with Mew, right?"

"Shit, you actually have the money?" Gum swallowed, looking a little discomfited for the first time and feeling a heat rising in her cheeks before she regained her cool demeanor. Well... it was a good thing she'd raided Piranha's supplies a few days ago after all, she supposed (having been banned from most of the convenience stores in easy walking or skating distance on account of being by far the most aggressive among the GGs when it came to vandalizing property). The kid was a little on the short side - he would probably be an inch or two shorter than her even if she weren't towering over him thanks to her skates. But he was definitely good-looking, with his tan and his well-defined abs barely visible through his shirt, even sporting a cute, kissable face.

She didn't really need another 'challenge' to pay the bills right now. Gum could easily turn him down and skate off along on her way, without risking the possibility that he was too dense to grasp the system at play here and really did want to beat her just to be able to brag and make an easy 1000 yen. But, being nervous just because of some confident boy... well, that wouldn't be very cool, would it?

"Alright... you said you like to bike? I do a little of that, when I feel like it, hmph... Follow me, I have one you can borrow, though you better not bust it up or you're gonna be paying for that on top of the challenge fee..."