Chapter 21: Terrorists
After a moment of being stuck for words, Emily began to stammer, "Ah, y-yes ma'am. My name is Emily, and I... believe that I'm his girlfriend."
My mom looked Emily up and down before slowly approaching me. Placing her palm on my cold cheek, she gently caressed it. I tried to resist, feeling embarrassed, but the cold had slowed my movements. Anyway, I started to shift to get out of the barrel.
"I want you to promise not to hurt him, Emily." My mom said, looking over at Emily.
Emily looked unsure of how to respond to this.
I got out of the barrel, wearing only my shorts and looked at my mom.
"It's usually the other way around." I quipped.
Emily came over and hugged me, not minding that I was totally wet.
"I promise, ma'am," she said.
"My name is Laura," my mom said, putting her hand out for a handshake. Emily shook it gently.
As Emily began training with Coach Olivia, I noticed Rick and Damien standing off to the side, giving us space all this time.
It reminded me that I had something to ask Rick.
"Rick!" I called out to him, trying to get his attention.
"Yeah? What's up?"
I leaned in and lowered my voice slightly. "I was planning to go camping with some friends, but they want to camp somewhere to the west of Boston. It seems that it's Clown Mafia's territory?"
Rick chuckled.
"What is it?"
"No. Nothing. Their name just always gets me," he said with a grin. "But yeah, we have a decent relationship with them. However, Jack can't go with you. We'll have someone of higher rank protect you quietly."
"So... can I go?"
"Yeah, no problem."
Leader Damien seemed to have overheard our conversation, despite my attempts to keep it quiet.
He interjected, "I can follow you there. I don't have anything better to do anyway at the moment."
After our conversation, I turned my attention back to Emily's training. I helped her with some techniques and then I did my final warm-downs, waiting for her to finish.
Then, to loosen up our muscles, we started stretching together. Our feet touched, and we pulled each other's hands.
I kept my cool even though her tight yoga pants made my eyes jump all over the place.
We were just finishing our stretches when a man in a tracksuit rushed in with a grave expression in his eyes. He immediately turned his attention to Leader Damien.
"I just received a request for support from the militia members on Lincoln Street!" he reported like a military officer.
"Did they tell you what's going on there?" Damien asked.
"It's a terrorist attack!" the man replied urgently.
Leader Damien wasted no time and immediately dashed out of the room, with the man following closely behind him.
After they left, Rick was going to follow, but he looked over at me, "You can go ahead with your camping plans. Leader Damien will probably be busy, so I will make plans for someone else to follow you."
With that, Rick hurried after Leader Damien.
'A terrorist attack?' I thought. 'What the hell did that mean?'
Someone was resorting to violence to achieve their goals, and I was left in the dark about what was happening.
I looked at Emily and hoped she could help me understand what was going on.
"Do you know anything about this?"
"This kind of attack has not happened in a long time," she said softly. "I have heard that someone doesn't agree with the current system and is trying to abolish it, but no one really knows much about it."
After we finished our stretching routine, Emily and I left the training building. The limousine was waiting outside.
First, we drove up to Emily's place.
As she was about to leave, I leaned in and reminded her, "I'll pick you up in around 2 hours, so get prepared. Don't worry about shopping or anything; I'll take care of everything we need."
"Thanks, Graham. I'll be ready." she smiled.
With that, she closed the car door, and I drove away to my house.
After getting home, I quickly changed into some clothes more suitable for camping in the summer and gathered all the necessary supplies. I made a list of what we needed and headed out to the store.
At the supermarket, I picked up some sausages, drinks, and snacks for our camping trip. The legal age for alcohol seemed to be 18, so I grabbed a variety of beverages, including lemonade, cola, at least a dozen beer cans, and a bottle of wine.
I didn't really drink alcohol, but I thought that the others might want to.
I also bought a cooler to keep the drinks cold.
Realizing that I didn't have any camping gear, I purchased a tent, sleeping bags, a blanket, and towels.
With the shopping done, I called Emily to let her know I was on my way to pick her up.
She got into the car and we took off for the camping area after getting the address from Ashley.
Emily wore a warm black jersey hooded sweatshirt and tight blue cut-off jeans.
Along the way, I realized I forgot to mention that she might need a swimsuit. We had to turn back to her apartment to grab it.
By the way, Rick delivered a new car to me—a silver Ford truck to be exact—because driving into Clown Mafia's territory with the scarlet wings insignia on the front of the car would get me into trouble.
As we drove towards the border, we encountered numerous Mafia members walking around, but they didn't stop us. It seemed that the borders were relatively relaxed for people moving back and forth, at least at this particular border.
About 20 minutes later, we reached a more rural street surrounded by trees and greenery. After a couple more minutes of slow driving, we spotted the pond Ashley had mentioned.
A fire was already crackling, and two trucks were parked along the short lane leading from the road to the small field by the pond. Two decently sized dome tents were set up under the trees, away from the water.
As we parked the car, a tall guy with curly blonde hair approached us with a friendly smile.
He introduced himself as Jared and mentioned he was Ruby's boyfriend.
After exchanging greetings with me and Emily, Jared helped me move the cooler with drinks closer to where everyone was gathered around the fire.
Near the campfire, there was another girl I hadn't met before, but I quickly got to know her.
Her name was Anna, and she had long brown hair and blue eyes, similar to Emily's. She mentioned she was part of the cheerleading squad for the basketball team at our school and she definitely had the build one would expect.
This also made me think about how the basketball league worked without the United States.
Anna shared a class with Jared, who invited her to go camping.
And of course Ashley was there, her long red hair catching the fire's glow as she sat with a ready smile, enjoying her lemonade.
"What about Jack? Is he coming?" Ashley turned to me with a curious expression.
I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. "Sorry, but he couldn't make it."
The boys-to-girls ratio definitely wasn't perfect, but hey, I didn't mind.
Jared settled next to Ruby, who was now dressed in more girlish clothes, sporting a loose top shirt hanging off her shoulders on narrow strings and thin white shorts. I could see the nipples of her small but firm breasts pushing against the fabric of her shirt.
She was a lot more open than she was at school. "Did you bring anything fun?" she asked.
"Just some soda and beer," I said.
"Who wants some marshmallows for the fire?" Anna asked, taking out a bag of marshmellows.
"Yum! Marshmallows!" Emily said, taking the bag from her. "Gray, could you get me a stick to roast a marshmallow on? I can roast one for you too if you do."
"I will get one for everyone."
"I will go with you," Ashley proposed, standing up from the blanket.
She wore loose khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt with flip-flops on her feet. I don't know why, but in the evening light and glow from the fire, somehow I found myself looking at her for a bit too long.
Finally, I nodded. We headed for the trees and soon found some suitable branches before heading to their track for a knife to sharpen them into sticks.
As soon as I finished sharpening them, Ashley did something that I didn't expect. She gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for coming."
"My pleasure," I said and we went back to the fire.
When we got there, I saw Ruby sitting on Jared's lap, drinking a beer. Anna was also sipping on a beer and Emily was downing a can of soda.
Until then, I still didn't know why Jared specifically invited Anna. Maybe she was just a friend, but my questions were quickly answered. Anna, it turned out, was the mastermind behind throwing parties, and she always knew how to get people going.
As we took our places again, Anna spoke up. "Guys, I have an idea for a little game. The rules are simple. The first girl to roast three perfect marshmallows gets to ask whoever they want for a kiss, while a girl who burns the marshmallow has to drink beer. Also, the one who gets asked for a kiss gets to decide if the marshmellow is perfect."
Well, there was no "losing" in this game.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone