ă€ŠPadding the Gradeă€‹


 First Day Back

    Ever been dreaming like an out of body experience?  No? Well I don''t recommend it.  Waking up is a bitch.  I heard the bell ring, damn thing is louder than fuck cause my table was right under one of the PA speakers.  Then there was this weird flying feeling when I got shot back into my own head and woke up.  Just as I was realizing where I was, I got slapped on the back.

    "Move your ass man!"  God, I knew that voice anywhere.  My buddy Trent.  He was kind of an asshole, but then so am I

    "I got time bro, screw off," I waved him away as my eyes continued to readjust.

    "Nah dude, that was the second bell.  Your dumbass is supposed to be in a desk right now."

    Shit, I was already five minutes late to class on the first day.  It was last period which explains why I no longer had enough fucks to stay awake after my fourth period spare.  However I had a new teacher for this English class, and while  I don''t particularly care about the grand mess that is school, making a crap impression wont get you anywhere inn the world.

    "Yea well so is yours."  I grabbed my bag and jogged to catch up to him.  "Why  aren''t you already  there anyway?"

    "Because much like you, I don''t give a flying fuck, and if I did, I sure wouldn''t waste it on a high school English class.   C''mon Mitch, I thought you knew me better."  Something about Trent''s voice and word choice always made him sound like a sarcastic philosopher.

    "I call bull, not about your lack of fucks and where you wouldn''t spend them.  But you''d rather watch me sink than swim.  What''s the occasion?"

    He laughed a bit.  "Truth be told man?  I feel like I look super sketchy when I walk alone."  This kind of surprised me.  Trent was the most un sketchy guy I knew. He was downright photogenic.  Short brown hair that he really didn''t need to do anything with.  Glasses that actually made him look better, green eyes, a thin body but not skinny and he was always wearing a button-up shirt, like....literally always. Wait.. what the fuck?  I shook the weirdly detailed image of my friend out of my head and just agreed to whatever he''d been saying while I apparently fantasized about him.

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    "Isn''t there a new guy doing this class?" I asked, trying to permanently derail that train of thought.

    "Yea." He fished his transcript out of his binder. "K.Green, room 157."

    "Ohh great, the portables." See now this was sketchy.  A half assed hallway with four rooms plastered to the back of the school when the student population turned out  to be way higher than anticipated.  I had envisioned many horror movie scenes happening out here.  We got to 157 and entered quickly.  There was a guy pacing the front of the room who couldn''t have even been in his thirties yet.

    "And you gentlemen would be?"

    "Mitch Townsend."

    "Trent Millar."

    "Excellent. That makes everyone.  You are aware you are..." he trailed off as he turned to look at the clock. "Eight minutes late?"  Trent and I both said yes and took two of the remaining few desks, surprisingly near the door.  "My name is Kevin by the way, I would prefer it if you didn''t call me Mr. Green, I''m not old enough for that yet."  As he continued on some senseless shit about something called alliteration I leaned over to Trent.

    "This guy is such a blowhard."

 Easy Choice

    "No kidding dude, the whole I''m one of you ,schtick is so played out."

    "Late for class and talkative, will you continue to be this disruptive throughout the semester?  It was  almost impressive how quickly he was able to switch from....whatever crap he was teaching, to calling us out.

    "Probably."  Getting called on by teachers wasn''t something I was used to, but then,  I also didn''t care

    "Do you think you''re funny Mitch?"

    "Heck yea man, I''m hilarious."

    "Then why is no one laughing?"  At this point. I was pleasantly surprised. Half the teachers in the school would have kicked my ass out by now. Probably Trent too. The other half simply wouldn''t have acknowledged me.  The fact that he was dealing with my crap this way was about to make me respect him.

    "Probably because we''re all half asleep from your winning combination of clich¨¦s and bulllshit." I almost respected him...not yet though. That crack got me some chuckles and a few scattered smirks.  I canvased the room with my hands as if to say "told ya bitch."

    "Hmm, very well. Perhaps we move on to something a bit more interesting."  As Green walked back to his desk I decided to scan the room and see just which jerkoffs I had to tolerate for the next few months.  They were just that.  I had somehow wound up in Satan''s daycare.  I didn''t really know any of my fellow students, but I knew faces and histories.  Several regular pot smokers, most of which with conviction records.  A few well known thieves, car accessories mostly.  Surprisingly, no arrests there.  The rest were just nameless, faceless pieces of crap who couldn''t be bothered.  There were a few I did recognize however.  A few rows from the front in the middle was Nate, his last name starts with an L I think.  He''s a renowned prep, from what  I''ve seen he doesn''t know how to have fun, he consistently scores eighty five plus on, well everything though so that''s nice.  The next face I recognized was Jessica Warren.  A full on stick up the ass, piss in the cheerios bitch.  Unless you wanted a reason to put a gun to someone''s head....most likely your own.  Talking her was a no-go zone.   I had the unpleasant experience of working with her in tenth grade chemistry.  Nothing has made me desire a mouthful of harmful chemicals more.  Maybe Francium.  Anywho.  Lastly was Riley.  I didn''t know her as she was a new transfer.  This was in and of itself newsworthy however as...well no one transfers for their last senior semester.  She apparently had brutal anxiety issues, but appeared to be keeping it in check today.  By this time Green or Kevin, had returned to the centre of the room with a stack of papers.

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    "Here is where I like to do a little social experiment."  There was a strange excitement in his voice.

    "You sure you''re in the right class bro?"  One of the stoners called out.  Some of his friends, clearly baked. Laughed along with him.

    "Please save the jokes for someone who can actually deliver them properly."  He smirked and the glanced at me.  Oh God...was he calling me out or trying to be my friend?  "Moving on.  Here I hold contracts, these contracts give you a choice.  I am offering you the chance, to decide your final grade right here and now."  Everyone''s jaws hit the floor. Including the guys who were baked off their asses.

    "You''re screwing with us!"  It was Jessica, I wasn''t surprised.  Her tolerance for bullshit was nonexistent.

    "No, although I suppose I should mention the catch."

    "There it is."  Jessica again.

    "You have two choices."  He began handing the papers out via the ''Take one and pass it back system''.  "You can choose a sixty percent and enjoy this class every day, heck you may even look forward to it.  The other option is a high ninety.  Be warned, if you choose the high grade you will loathe my class, and skipping will not be tolerated."

    As I received my contract I quickly read it over.  It was very simply written.  Green had pretty much quoted it.

    "You are to sign in correspondence with your chosen grade.  You are to make your choice by the end of class.  If you have not made a choice by then, you will receive the sixty percent option."  With that, Green sat at his desk and began working on his computer.  I just looked over at Trent.

    "We already hate wasting our time here."

    "You said it man."   With that, we signed on to receive a nice buff to our averages.

 Earning The Grade

    Green looked up from his desk about ten minutes later and saw that everyone appeared to have signed their contracts.  After asking us to send the papers forward to be collected, he was silent.  Like, really silent. I don''t even think his steps made a sound.  He sorted out the papers into two piles.  There was just enough random teacher crap on his desk, along with about ten people''s heads in my way for me to see accurately, but one pile seemed to be a lot bigger.

    "Wow, just wow.  How the hell am I supposed to work with this?"  I knew the sound of disappointment all to  well, and his voice was thick with it.  "I have never seen results this staggering."  As he walked back to the center of the class he held one of the stacks.  It couldn''t have been more than six pages thick.  "Here I hold contracts signed to receive the high grade, there are six of you.."  He paused as if he was choking something back.  "Is no one willing to work anymore?"  Whatever he was holding back, he didn''t contain it well.  "This is fucking pathetic!"  He went to slam the papers down but since there were so few, they just kind of fell everywhere.  I would have laughed but I was still a little shocked that a teacher would drop an F-bomb like that.  Sure he''s a younger guy but aren''t they supposed to maintain professionalism or something.  "Mitch Townsend, Trent Millar, Jessica Warren, Nate Lance, Riley White and Ethan Wall-"

    "Whoa hold up!"  A male voice about four desks to my left,  I recognized him from elementary school. A notorious douche back then.  " I must have signed the wrong line.  Fuck this  man, I''m here for the easy ride."

    "Oh for the love of-"  Green threw his hands up, clearly pissed now.  He then knelt down and found Ethan''s contract and ripped it to pieces.  "I''ll write you a new one!"  Ethan just shrugged it off.  "Five, fucking five.  What the actual hell happened to the world?"

    "Dude chill out."  It was Trent.  I''m glad he said something, his voice had a way of defusing people.

    "Yea," I added.  "Like you said, it''s a little social experiment.  You were never actually going to give us those marks."

    "Actually I am.  Provided you meet my expectations and complete the work assigned to you, yes.  These contracts are legally binding.  Green was calm again.  His ability to go from one end of the spectrum to the other so quickly was starting to weird me out.  "You''ll have to work hard to earn it, but I am a man of my word."  Trent and I shared a glance quickly.  We couldn''t quite believe this. We were only half serious when we signed.  Both of us figuring that this was some kind of test of character. "Now then."  Green had gathered up the remaining high grade contracts.  "Let''s get started."

    ''Soo, what''s our first assignment?"  I didn''t recognize the voice, so I guessed it was Riley.

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    "I''m getting to that."  Kevin was sitting in his desk now.  He suddenly had a very calm and collected posture.  He pulled a seriously fancy pen out of a drawer and started to write.  I was kind of fascinated by the pen. Then it happened.  My hand fucking exploded.  Or at least, it felt like it.  God I don''t know what this felt like.  Like my left hand was melting from the inside out.  I grabbed at it to see if anything was happening, nothing.  The pain wouldn''t let up, fuck it was getting worse.  I started to get frantic, when I realized. Was Kevin doing this?  No, how could he?  What is this?  Why was it just in my left hand?  I had dozens of thoughts and questions. They were all shredded by the pain though.  How much time had gone by?  Five minutes according to the class clock.  Then, it stopped.  My hand felt fine.

    "What the shit was that?"  I screamed.  I couldn''t feel it anymore, but I remembered it.  "What the hell did you just do?"

    "The same thing I''m about to do to the rest of them."  Green''s voice wasn''t just calm anymore, it was....happy?  No, amused.  He was entertained by that.  Trent, Jessica, Nate and Riley all looked at  me, eyes wide with worry.  "Unless.."  We all snapped back to him as he trailed off.  "Of course you take the heat for them."

    "What?"

    ""It''s quite simple really, I believe in fairness."  He started to flip his pen through his fingers.  "So I''m going to have them suffer the way you just did.  But I''m giving you an opportunity.  Having experienced the heat first hand, surely you wouldn''t wish it on someone else?"  He flashed me the sickest grin I''d ever seen.  "So?  How noble, and how tough do you feel Mitch?"

    I looked out at them.  Trent well, no discussion needed.  Nate, well he pissed me off just by being him...but he''s never done anything to me, hell  he helped me with a History project lest year.  Riley was easily the most terrified but I didn''t know her, let alone have a reason to out her.  Jessica was the only one I could imagine throwing under the bus.  But that pain was so much worse than a few lowball comments on my hair, clothes and lifestyle choice.  Plus I doubt he''d let me single...

    "You''re running out of time Mitch."

    "Leave them alone."  I mumbled.  Halfway regretting the words as I heard them.

    "What?"  Green wasn''t just surprised.  I''d swear I heard disappointment again.  He wanted me to save my own ass there.

    "Leave them alone!"  I don''t know where I got the balls to say it again.   But I did.

    "Your call."  Everything went slow motion as he touched that pen to the paper.  When suddenly everything went white.

    <hr />

    Sorry I took so long posting. Ideally I want to have a chapter up every day or two

 The Reveal

    My first coherent thought in what was apparently......ten minutes.   "How?"  It felt like so much longer.  I couldn''t make a sound, I couldn''t move, I couldn''t do anything.  When I could finally bring myself to  get off my desk, I looked right at Kevin.

    "What. The hell. Are you doing?"  My breaths were deep and ragged now.  I couldn''t feel the burning anymore, but  I remembered it.

    "Allow me to explain."  He was amused.   He had just put me in excruciating pain, and he was amused.  I was terrified.

    "Please do!"  Trent was pissed.  He wasn''t even curious anymore, at least that''s not what it sounded like.

    "When you signed for the high grades, you effectively sold me your souls."  He chuckled a little.  "And before you ask if that makes me the devil...." That chuckle again, god it was sick how much fun he was having.  "I am not, although I have been called such before."

    "You''ve done this before?!"  Jessica was freaking out now, I would have thought it was strange as I had never seen her lose her cool. But I was a little preoccupied.

    "Six times to be exact, and my crews keep getting smaller."

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    "Crew?"  I haven''t heard that term in a while.

    "Yes, you are now my crew, and your assignments will be less school related than you may think."  As Kevin explained I was getting more and more nervous.  "As you may know, teaching careers pay dick all.  You''re going to help me change that."

    "How?" Nate was finally speaking up, I appreciated how na?ve he was.

    "We''re going to steal him the money."  I hated saying it.  Memories I wanted to stay buried came flooding back, but now my suspicions had been confirmed.

    "What are you talking about?"  Nate had spun on his heels now and was aiming at me now.

    "Yes Mitch, what are you talking about?"  Curiosity in Kevin''s voice....I didn''t like it.

    I sighed hard.  "Kevin want''s money.  If we steal it for him...it can''t be traced back."  I hated what I was saying.  No, I  hated who was saying it.  "I''ve seen it before......I''ve done it before."  Eyes went wide across the room and I realized how deep a hole I was in.

    "What the actual fuck Mitch?"

 The First Assignment

    Go figure, it was Nate calling me out.

    "I was a thief when I was a kid ok?  Normal dads took their kids to the park and raced to the jungle gym, well mine raced me to see who could steal five hundred dollars first."  All five faces looking at me had the same look on their face.  All it said was What. The. Fuck?  And then I realized.  There were only five faces looking at me.  "Hey what''s up with the rest of the  class?"  Everyone who didn''t sign the ninety seemed to be completely zoned out.

    "The simplest way to say it is hypnotized.  While what I actually do to them is much more complex and effective, saying that they''re hypnotized works best."  Kevin had wandered from his desk to a guy sitting in the second row.  His name was Stephan.  We hung out a couple times in the ninth grade but the dude was pretty fucked up so  I kinda just let him be.  "As long as they are in this classroom, they are oblivious to the world around them as their minds play out whatever fantasy they wish."  God, his voice was really starting to piss me off.  "This is how I keep my word in saying that they''ll love the  class..  They don''t remember anything outside of it other than they enjoyed themselves.  In fact, watch this."

    What happened next was....well this was all pretty freaking unbelievable but this took it out of the  park.  Kevin wound up and slugged Stephan in the face .  Like, there''s hitting a guy, then there''s punching a guy, and then there''s putting everything you have into one shot.  This was an all or nothing punch.  Stephan just kind of flopped out of his desk.  He didn''t react, nothing.

    "See?  Totally unaware."

    "What the  actual fuck dude?"  Trent had stood up as soon as the punch landed.

    "Relax, he''ll be fine."  Kevin repositioned Stephan in the desk,  "He wont have so  much as a bruise when he snaps out of the trance.  Now sit down."  His voice was suddenly very commanding, Trent obeyed.  "Now  back to where we were before, Mitch you said you have some experience in this field?"

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    "As a pickpocket, nothing else.  Even if my dad''s crew ran bigger hits  I would have been excluded cause I was a kid."

    "Pickpocketing!  What a perfect benchmark test!"  As he strode to the  middle of the class he got this eerily excited look on his face.  "By tomorrow I want all of you to bring me three wallets, or purses or whatever the hell it is women keep their things in.  And if you  have any questions you can talk to Mitch over there."

    I caught different looks from each of them.  Trent was worried, and I knew why.  Jessica was...confused.  I think she was still trying to decide if this was real or not.  Nate was shooting me a glare that almost hurt.  Riley was worried, she could only look more afraid if she was shaking.  Kevin was the worst of all.  He was ecstatic.

    "You can all leave now."  His voice shook me out of my zone out.  "Get going!"  We all kind of jumped as he yelled.  As the first out the door Trent and I waited for the others.  We made a circle in the middle of the hallway.

    "Ok what you want to look for  in a pick is."

    "What the fuck are you  talking about?"  I wasn''t surprised that it was Nate who cut me off.  I knew he would be difficult.

    "I''m teaching you  the basics."

    "Of committing a crime!   What part of that has yet to sink in for you Mitch?"

    "The part stuck behind remembering how much pain he put me in!"  I lost it.  I prided myself on my ability to keep cool, but this was it.  "And if you''ll remember, I  took that heat for you!  For all of you!"

    "We never asked you too."  He was much more meek now.  The others gave him a questioning look.

    ''Well if you want I''m pretty sure he''ll get his damn rocks off if  I go back in there and ask him to burn you!"  Through the rectangular window in the class door I could see Kevin chuckling to himself.  "Fuck it, I wont help people who don''t want to  be helped."  I walked out the door at the  end of the portable hallway and headed home.

 Homework

    The walk home was brutal.  The weather was gorgeous.  Moderate temperature, a few wispy clouds in the sky and just enough breeze to make my shirt billow a bit.  Inside my head though, now that was a storm.  Every memory, every rule, everything I had repressed over the last five years was flooding back.  My dad''s and uncle''s voices were ringing in my ears.  I tried to shut it out by blasting music trough my phone, but it only worked partway.  I got home about fifteen minutes later.  There weren''t any cars out front.  Mom was still at work and my sister would be out of town for another week at least.  That was good, I needed to  be alone.  Heading straight to my room I grabbed the wooden box from the shelf in my closet.

    "Fuck me."  I sighed as I looked at it.  It was gross.  I made the  box in ninth grade woodshop.  The lid was on crooked,  the pieces were cut uneven and excess glue had seeped down the sides.  I know I was thirteen when I made this thing, but God I hated it.  The only high point of the box was the lightning bolt that Danica had burnt in the top.  She was really good with that burning needle.  Unfortunately the bolt was no  longer visible as I had set the box on fire when I was sixteen.  I hated my dad and everything in this box, but somehow I couldn''t get rid of it..  As I  lifted open the lid I saw all my old trophies.  My first lifted wallet, my first hundred dollar bill, the key to a ''70 Sunbird, and lastly, a Swiss army knife.

    "Forty four dollars."   As I  flipped open the wallet I was greeted by a twenty, two seriously crumpled tens and four loonies in the little change flap.  As I  traded the wallet for the hundo I remembered the  guy I stole it from.  An older guy, receding hairline and mostly bald.  He had just cashed a paycheck and I lifted it before he was ten feet from the bank doors.  I picked the key and the knife up together. I laughed a little because this story very accurately described my luck as a thief.  For my thirteenth birthday my uncle Raymond gave me the knife and challenged me to bring home the new red car at the  end of the block.  It took me almost twenty minutes to just open the door and then after I spent about an hour and fucked the steering column to hell.  I found a spare key under the seat.  I tossed the stuff back in the box, slammed it closed and threw it on the shelf.  Sitting on my bed, I sighed hard.  I did not want to go back to this life.  Just remembering my dad was hard enough, but every time I tied to say no,  remembered that heat.  I remembered being paralysed, wanting to cry, wanting to die, anything to make it stop.  Before I knew it.  I was walking up  the stairs and out the door.

    "Picking it is then.  But I''m doing it my way."  Getting downtown by foot took me about an hour, that was a good thing though because I needed to clear my head.  Music worked this time.  According to my phone it was quarter to five as I approached one of the big event centres in the city.  Something had just wrapped up inside as a couple hundred people started to flock to the sidewalk.  This was a pickpockets dream.  A crowded walk and everyone was wearing jackets.

    As I started it was like......like I''d been holding my breath  for the last five years.  I was breathing new air, but I still knew exactly what I was doing.  As I deked and sidestepped the widening group of people I made three seamless grabs. Two were as thick as my hand, the third however felt brand new and unused.  I broke rule number one when I ducked into the  mall and ran to  the washroom to check my take.  The first of the thick wallets was a jackpot, four hundred dollars and change with nothing bigger than a twenty.

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    "Beautiful," I heard my uncle Ray''s voice.  The second was a letdown.  Something I didn''t even consider,  cards.  Nothing but cards.  Credit cards, membership cards, discount cards, frequent flyer.....this was the worst kind of person.  As I opened the thin wallet I had no clue what to expect, but I didn''t expect nothing.  No cards, no I.D no nothing.  Then I saw something small and white tucked into the billfold.  It was a cheque. Five thousand two hundred and forty five dollars.  My eyes darted to the bottom and my jaw dropped.  It was signed.  I held the easiest five grand I had ever seen in my hand,  I don''t know why I looked at the recipient line.  Louise Carlyle School.

    "Shit."   I realized I was stealing from a school.  This was probably to pay for...ok I didn''t  know what a school need a five thousand dollar donation for, but fuck I couldn''t use this.

    "Even a thief can have morals."  It was my uncle''s voice again.  I pocketed the other two wallets, ditched my hoodie and sprinted hard.  I remembered the mark perfectly.  Male, grey shirt, navy blazer and matching pants. I saw him a ways out in front of me.   I caught up quick and tapped on his shoulder.  He whipped around and demanded to know who I was.  Out of breath I just handed him the wallet.  Realizing what it was he frantically flipped it open and searched the billfold.  He sighed with relief when he saw the cheque.

    "Some one....tried to....take it."  I panted.

    "Thank you so much!"  There was a tear in his eye as he hugged me.

    "You really shouldn''t pre-sign cheques dude."  I regretted saying it as he gave me and accusing look.  "Hey, when you see a pickpocket drop a wallet you get curious.

    "I suppose."  As he pocketed the  wallet in his pants pocket this time, he pulled out a twenty.  "Here kid."

    "I can''t."  I''m not sure why I declined.  Wasn''t taking money why I was out here?

    "Please,  You  just saved a second grade class''s field trip.

    "Dude, I  brought back a pre-signed five thousand dollar cheque, why would I  know take your twenty?''

    "Because I wont let you say no."  And with that he shoved the bill into my pocket.

    "Ok, that was weird.  Ummm have a good one."  I turned around and started to walk away.

    "I will now kid!  Thanks again!"

    About half an hour later afer grabbing my hoodie again, I made another easy lift off of some guy who dropped a couple loonies in a street performer''s guitar case.  There was a little over ninety bucks in the wallet so  went back and dropped the performer a five.  He was doing a pretty cool rendition of "Hey There Delilah."

    "Looking at  my overall take of just  over five hundred dollars I wondered in Kevin would be pissed at the all cards wallet.  I debated whether or not I should divvy the money up but decided against it.  If he asked if these had been salted I didn''t want to have to use my dad''s lying tricks.  Anything to avoid that burning again.  "Oh fuck."  I realized Kevin would most likely burn anyone who didn''t meet their quota, and I''m the only one capable of making it.  "Fuck me."

 The Only One

    "Twelve more wallets, I don''t even have that kind of pocket space.  Not to mention the fact that I''ve never brought that much heat on myself in one day."  Another rule came back, one of the few dad and Raymond agreed on.

    "You can always steal another day, be happy with a take and go home."

    Depending on my picks, twelve wallets could add up fast, and there''s no real way to appraise a person''s cash value.  This...this was going to be interesting.  Just then, I started to laugh a bit.  I hated group projects in school, because nine times out of ten, I wound up being the shmuck who did all the work for a fraction of the credit.  The irony was just too damn funny, especially cause not a few hours earlier...what did I say again?  "I won''t help people who don''t want to be helped"  I laughed again, out loud this time.  "Fuck."

    I hailed myself a cab and decided I might as well get started, I was running out of light after all.  "The corner store on Pendle Avenue" I told the guy.  A vague description but Pendle was a pretty well known area and the cabbie started on his way without his GPS.  The fare came to eight something so I tossed a ten from the jackpot wallet and said the rest was a tip.  As he drove away I looked around.  Pendle and the surrounding area was a shithole, almost literally.  A residential area immediately off one of the city''s main streets, Pendle saw a lot of traffic for all reasons.  Problem is, no one gave a shit about it.  Half the houses this side of 22nd street looked like drug dens and the rest looked like they knew they lived around a drug den.  It was a sad sight considering how many kids played baseball on any of the three diamonds in the school grounds.  As I made that observation and kicked a pleasantly large rock, I saw another grace from the thief gods.  A ball team was just unwinding from a game.  The same corner store I''d been dropped off at operated a small pizza joint.  It wasn''t great pizza, but it was close.  Cash was a common currency choice thanks to their kickass two for one slice deal.

    I took a moment to thank the several angels on my shoulder before doubling around behind the team, apparently called the Manta Rays...not exactly my first choice for a team animal.

    "Develop a gay persona."  I had to laugh as I heard Ray''s joking voice.  "You''ll be checking out a lot of dude''s asses so you may as well act the part."  It worked too damn well here as I quickly pinned a half a dozen easy grabs in my mind.  I had to stop myself before I preyed on this team though.  I was the only one around who wasn''t on the team and if that many wallets disappeared before they even got their pizza, well I''m pretty sure a few saw me earlier.  I pretended to answer a phone call as I peeled away.

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    "What the fuck do I do?"  I repeated it about ten times, hoping that eventually I would magically learn the answer.  I didn''t have time to be choosy, but I didn''t want to make this neighbourhood a hotspot.  As I saw the team coming out of the pizza place about ten minutes later, I heard a voice in my head again, I didn''t like it, but I listened to it.

    "Clean house."

    "Thanks dad."  And with that I grudgingly started a jog.  They were headed back towards me which worked in my favour, that is, it would until I started to barrel through them.  As I quickly closed the gap I called up dad''s lessons.  Uncle Ray believed in pure stealth and what I was about to do would probably sicken him.  All the tips on picks while running hit me hard and I just hoped I could make this worthwhile, after all, these were baseball players, every one of them needs to know how to run.  With the last five meters between us, and some of the guys trying to get out of my way, I started to get weird looks, this was the time to start sprinting.  Taking a deep breath, I started to bump shoulders.  I made one immediately, two, nope lost it. Shit.

    "Don''t count, it makes you cocky and lose focus."  Dad again.  My back pockets soon had occupants, same with the two on my hoodie.  Before I knew it, there were even a couple in my sleeves.

    "Done, now run," I commanded myself.  There were some curses and shouts as I broke through the last guys.  As soon as I saw open sidewalk I poured everything into one powerful clip.  I knew I''d regret it later but I needed to put distance between me and them fast.  I ducked into an alley, then through a catwalk, over a fence, and another, across the street and down another alley again.  A solid minute went by before my asthma finally said "fuck you" and I desperately fumbled through my bulging pocket for my inhaler.  Three puffs later my breathing was finally catching up.

    "Two in the back pockets, two in the hoodie, and three in my sleeves.  Seven,  plus my three makes ten.  Five more covers everyone.  Fuck me."

 All the work. All the credit

    After finally collecting my bearings and bringing my heart rate way back down again,  I started walking.  No real destination in mind, but hanging around in alleys tends to look sketchy.  I decided I may as well examine my new take.  Every one of the wallets was pretty much the exact same. Typical guy style.  A simple piece of folded black or brown leather, one of them was white though, it had a cool space helmet picture sewn on.  Just as I''d hoped, every one of these would be worth giving to Kevin.  None had less than forty dollars, a couple even broke two hundred.  As I walked down a street called Louadem Place and wondered how I''d find my last five picks as it got later, a thought crossed my mind.  What if the others actually pulled this off? I mean Nate had no chance, he was way too good a guy to even imagine trying, Trent was, well he was clever enough to maybe make it work.  Jessica and Riley I didn''t know well enough to guess.  The question still remained, what if I only needed six extras, or even just three?  What if I was painting a target on every six foot tall eighteen year old with short dark hair for no reason?  I beat myself up with questions like that for a while, I mean come on I''m the only thief in the group.

    "Wait, I''m the only thief in the group!"  I suddenly realized that my curse had become my salvation.  Kevin would probably be more suspicious of everyone meeting his quota than if only I brought anything back.  If I divided the extras up though, and gave everybody two, except someone would only get one.  Well then it would look like the party of amateurs that we are.

    I took a deep breath of relief and called for another cab.  As I got home I saw my mom''s car out front.  She was apparently home early today.

    "Twenty two sixty."

    "Huh? Oh right, sorry."  I grabbed the jackpot again to pay for my fare.  I didn''t want to shave off any of the players'' wallets because some of them were already kinda small.  I tossed the cabbie two twenties.

    "How much change you want kid?"

    "Call it square, Rheniel."  I had to crane my neck to see his name card.

    "Are you serious?"

    "Yea man, I''m in a good mood."

    "Well shit now I am too."  We shared a quick laugh as I got out and I quickly got to my front door.  The house smelled like food, mom had probably microwaved the leftovers from last night.

    "Mitch? That you?"  She called from the living room.

    "Yo!"  I yelled back.  "You nuke last night''s lasagna?"

    "Yup,"  from the sound of it she was in the middle of chewing.  "I can''t believe I made this while I was drunk!"

    "I can''t believe you were as drunk as you were."  I got to the kitchen, tossed some cold lasagna in the microwave for myself, set it to five minutes and wandered into the living room.

    "Was that a cab out front?"

    "Yea."

    "Where''d you go?"

    "I went for a walk.  Wound up at Hollen Park."  She gave me a questioning look.  "It''s at the  end of Louadem Place."  I watched her draw the mental map in her head for a minute.

    "What were you doing down there?"

    "Just turned my music on and walked."  She was satisfied with the answer and took another bite of food.  My mom could be very absent minded with music playing so I learned I could get away with a lot with that excuse.  When the microwave beeped there was still a cold spot in the middle of my food but I was too hungry to give a shit, so I just went downstairs with it.

    "Remember to bring your plate back up!"

    "Will do!"  She and I both knew I''d forget it down here for about a week, yet that quick exchange had become something of a ritual between us.

    I watched TV on my computer for a bit before I started to feel tired.  I looked at the system clock in the corner.  "Nine thirty?  What the hell?"  I''m the kind of guy who stays up late and bitches about waking up early, so feeling genuine sleepiness before eleven PM was strange to me.  I held out for one more episode before showering and heading to bed.  As I laid there, I no longer felt tired, typical.  I grabbed my phone, being careful as to not disturb the charging cable and opened a game that I played way too much, it had no right to be as fun as it was.  Two or three hours later I finally said to hell with it, put my phone down and rolled over.  Sleep came pretty quickly and I was gone.

    As I started the ten minute walk to school, I let myself feel confident.  Yesterday had been successful, by all accounts.  Ten lifts my mentors would be proud of and a master plan to deal with my asshole English teacher.  I may hate the lifestyle, but there is a certain amount of pride I was able to feel in doing it well.

    I found Trent in the commons area of the school around eight forty five.  "How was yesterday?"

    "Meaning, did I do my homework?"

    "Basically."

    "No.  I kinda thought about it, but I couldn''t."

    "I know man.  That''s why.."  I let myself trail off as I opened and showed him my backpack.

    "You motherfucker."  He cursed quietly, but loud enough.

    "Look Trent, I know what you''re thinking, and what you want to say.  I agree with it, with all of it, you know that.  I didn''t have a choice this time."

    "How much is that?"

    "There''s ten of them, I don''t know how much they all add up to."  His eyes went wide.  "Now take two."

    "Green said three."

    "Yes but you aren''t a pro like I am."  He was about to argue but my logic made sense.  He carefully grabbed two wallets and stuffed them in his own bag.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "This fucking sucks man."

    "Tell me about it."  The entire day, I was preoccupied with making sure I met up with the other three in my group. I had second period History with Jessica.  After the hour of boring useless information I caught her at the door.  She didn''t make much argument, in fact she seemed a little bit scared after what happened yesterday.  As for Riley, I literally bumped into her in a hallway during lunch.  I definitely saw proof of her anxiety, keeping distance from everyone, no eye contact, nothing, until I almost accidentally knocked her over that is.  She accepted my offer without question and went on her way.  As fourth period let out I was beginning to think I wouldn''t be able to find Nate in time.  Then I did.  I saw his fairly iconic hoodie, seriously the thing is smoke grey with a highlighter yellow hood.

    "Fuck no!"

    "It''s just one, and believe me, you don''t want this prick mad at you."  That must have resonated in his self preservation instinct because he silently grabbed and pocketed the remaining wallet.

    "I fucking hate you for this."

    "Good, I do too."  With that we headed to class.

    As everyone took their seats Kevin looked pleased.  Immediately after the second bell sounded, the class went silent.  He wasn''t wasting any time.

    "Assignments out everyone."  Everything about his voice irritated me now.  Hell everything about him in general.  As we all grabbed the wallets we had, Kevin had a pleasantly surprised look on his face.  "Wow.  Well Mitch, what say we start with you?"  I dropped my three on the desk.  The jackpot, the cards, and the one from in front of the street performer.  Kevin grabbed the last one first.  "Not bad."  Next he grabbed the jackpot.  I had hoped he would take it last so it could smooth out the potential problems the card wallet would cause.  "Holy shit! What is this? Five hundred?"

    "Just over four."

    "All small bills too, very nice Mitch."  That struck a cord.  He sounded exactly like my dad right there, I almost lost it.  "And last but hopefully not least."  As he thumbed the card wallet, Kevin''s expression turned.  "Mitch what the fuck is this?"

    "A wallet, one of three.  Like you asked for."  What the fuck was I doing?  Why did I think being a smartass was a good idea?

    "That''s true, however.  Most wallets have fucking money in them!"  Kevin didn''t just yell, he roared.

    "All you asked for were wallets, contents were never specified."  I guess I''m committing to this.  Kevin did, well exactly what I would do.  He took a deep breath, calmed down, and smiled.

    "Alrighty then. Moving on.  Riley, your turn." I was worried now, I had no idea how well the others could lie.  Riley however, looked fine.  She displayed the wallets on her desk and looked Kevin right in the eye.

    "Have at them." As Kevin picked up one of the baseball wallets all I could think was, "what the shit?"  Suddenly she was calm, collected, confident.  Where was the nervous wreck who was afraid to make eye contact?

    "I only see two here Riley, I believe I asked for three."

    "Yea well two was all I could manage, and to be fair, even the prodigy over there really only brought two."  Bitch!  What the hell was that?  Kevin laughed.

    "Very well, I suppose I can lower my standards for those of you who aren''t professionals."  I silently cheered as my hopes came true, I wondered if Riley throwing me under the bus like that had helped cement Kevin''s change in attitude.  "On to Jessica."  She had nowhere near the composure Riley had,  I could see she was anxious.  Then, she impressed me.   Jessica tossed one of her two wallets at Kevin who was still about a desk and a half away.

    "Not bad."  I thought.  Suddenly he had to focus on the thing flying at his face and not how increasingly freaked out she was getting.  Now, whether Kevin saw right through it, or he was just curious, the gamble didn''t pay off.

    "Who did you get this from?"  Fuck.  That was the perfect question to ask.  I knew the white wallet came from a tall lanky kid who played baseball.  Jessica didn''t.  After Kevin had pocketed the hundred and some dollars Jessica still hadn''t made a sound.  "Well?"

    "I got it from Mitch" she spoke quietly.

    "So?  You, picked the pocket, of the pickpocket?" I was getting all set to help dig her out of it with a fake that''s where it went!  When Nate fucking burned us.

    "Mitch gave it to her!.  Both of them.  Mine too, probably Trent''s and Riley''s too."  In that moment I contemplated killing him.  Kevin''s eyes darted to Trent, who just kind of sat there, unaware of what to do.

    "Motherfucker I earned mine!"  Thank god,  I reminded myself to later apologize to Riley for calling her a bitch.  What happened next started to terrify me.  Kevin walked back to his desk, and picked up his fancy ass pen.

    "So,  Nate, Trent and Jessica all accepted work and potential credit for work they weren''t willing to do themselves.  Mitch, you did complete your assignment however I will not permit enabling laziness in your classmates.  Congratulations Riley on being the only student to not piss me off today."  With that, he brought the pen down, and we all screamed, well, not Riley.  Amidst the white hot pain I could only form one coherent thought.

    "Fuck me!"

 Taking the Plunge

    The pain was intense, but, I think I was starting to get used to it.  I mean it''s still paralysing, but I can think now.  No matter what I tried to focus on though, it always came back to one question.

    "Why is it just my left hand?"  Every time Kevin had done this, whatever this was, it was my left hand.  I saw Trent and the others grasping at their hands as well, so it seemed like that was the way he had to do it.  I wondered how long Kevin would keep it up this time.  The first couple times were to send a message, but this, this was punishment for failure.  Then, it stopped.  I immediately looked to Kevin.  Riley was talking to him.  They were side by side and whispering, I suppose our screaming made that difficult.  I didn''t like it.  Well I loved the fact that whatever she said had caused Kevin to stop burning me, but I didn''t like the thought of Kevin having secret discussions with someone I was supposed to work with.  As they talked no one made a sound, until Jessica tried to but in, Kevin quickly silenced her the best way he knew how.  After a short while, Riley nodded and Kevin smiled.  She started walking towards the door.

    "Come on."  Riley motioned with her hand for us to follow her.  Given the fact that she had just spent some one on one time with Kevin, I wasn''t about to argue.  The others made similar decisions and we were soon in the hall walking outside.  Immediately after getting outside I snapped.

    "OK! What the hell is going on?"

    "He wants.."

    "No no no, that can wait.  What''s with you?"  Everyone looked at me like I was nuts.  "You walk around the halls like a nervous wreck, you claim to be incredibly anxious and now, now you''re the most chill person on the planet.  What''s  the deal?"  As Riley thought of a way to answer I saw the others adding up what I''d said in their own heads.

    "Alright, the anxiety is bogus."

    "Why?"

    "Because people suck, and there''s a shining example back there."

    "Ok, I can understand that,"  Trent chimed in.  "But how?  Extreme anxiety could hinder class performances and schools would check in on something like that, it''s not just something you can lie about."

    "I''ve got a cousin who''s a shrink.  He owed me big from when we were kids.  He didn''t prescribe me a medication or anything but I go to his office twice a week for treatment.  Can we at least walk and talk?"  We all kind of shrugged "sure" and headed away from the school, there was an overpass in front of us that we wound up taking.  Still curious, I looked at Riley again.

    "So? by treatment you mean?"

    "We play video games in his office."

    "Sweet deal," with that I gave her a little fist bump.

    "Back to the problem at hand!"  Nate''s voice.  Oh yea, I''m still pissed at him.

    "Are you referring to whatever the hell Kevin wants us to do now or to the fact that you''re willing to throw me under the bus at a moment''s notice?"  Everyone stopped as I snapped at Nate.  "That was some low ball shit back there Nate.  I was all set to try and help Jessica out."

    "Do you really think you could have convinced him that a rookie outplayed the pro?"

    "I have no fucking clue!  But I''m a damn good liar and it was at least worth a shot!  Besides, being a kissass got you burned anyway!

    "I am not.."

    "Shut the fuck up Nate."  Jessica literally took the words out of my mouth.  "You thought that by outing Mitch you could spare the rest of us, or at least yourself."

    "Well it seemed better than the alternative."

    "Was it?"  I wasn''t even close to being done with him.

    "You only gave me one anyway!  After Riley, he said he''d drop it to two, but I only had one!  I was fucked either way!"

    "Oh please!  You''re the fucker with an angel on both shoulders, he probably would have been impressed that you even got one, plus there was almost two hundred dollars in it."  I turned and started walking again, as I heard the group start catching up I hollered back.  "So what are we supposed to be doing right now?"

    "Well not necessarily right now, before Thursday we''re supposed to rob a convenience store."  Again, we stopped.

    "That leaves us one good day.  Ok well a good one to knock over needs to have access to.."

    "Are you fucking serious Mitch?  We can''t"  I was done with Nate at this point.  I spun around and slugged him in the face.  My fist connected square with his nose and he staggered backward.  Trent managed to catch him but Nate quickly shook off.

    "How fucking stupid can you be Nate?  Seriously!  I''m genuinely curious now!  Even you got burned back there!  That''s not going to stop unless we do what he wants!"

    "But we can''t just.."

    "Ok Nate, here''s the deal.  Here''s what''s happening."  I took a breath and calmed down.  "First off, I wanna say, I respect you."  He gave me a questioning look.  "I''m serious man.  You work hard to get what you want, and honestly, there aren''t people as good as you any more."  He accepted that silently.  "But that same innocent good guy nature makes you useless to me, to all of us.  So whatever projects he gives me, I''m going to do, with or without you.  If he asks if you were there, I''m gonna tell the truth.  I don''t know how much worse he can make that burning bullshit, but I for one am going to make sure I don''t find out."  We all just stood in silence for a while, waiting for what Nate would say.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    "You don''t, don''t hurt anyone do you?"

    "Other than you just now and whenever my life is in danger?  No.  Violence just makes you a bigger blip on cops radar."

    "Ok."

    "You''re in?"

    "I guess."

    "Good."

    We started walking again.  As we cleared the overpass I explained that since we had a day to prepare, we should case the store we would hit.

    "What about the one by your place Mitch?  Luke''s Joint."  For a second I was curious as to how Trent knew that, but then I remembered that we had hung out at my place fairly often.

    "Could work, it''s close and I know the layout, but he gets ripped off a lot and just upgraded his security a couple months back."

    "Upgraded how?  And what do you mean ripped off?"  It was Riley. I was, I guess glad that the others were starting to get on board.

    "New security cameras and locks that trigger after midnight.  It''s a twenty four hour place but you need to be let in after that.  And when I say ripped off I mean he gets stolen from a lot.  Not like what we''re gonna do.  Right now their biggest issue is kids going in and running out without paying"

    "Makes sense."

    "Yea."  As we walked towards Luke''s Joint we briefly tossed around other potential locations, well Nate didn''t.  I didn''t mind his silence though.  He''d agreed to be compliant and that was all I really needed from a guy like him. "Luke''s I guess it is then."  The others agreed.

    "Anything you can tell us off the top of your head?"  Jessica this time.

    "Five cameras to be sure, they''re all around the perimeter walls and kinda point towards the centre.  So there aren''t really any blind spots, none we can use anyway."

    "One behind the counter?"

    "Of course.  Everyone''s got a hoodie or a good hat I''m guessing?"  I turned around to look at the group, everyone was wearing a hooded sweater or jacket.  "Aces."  By this point we had cleared the over pass and wandered into the last residential area before we''d see Luke''s Joint.  "So I''ve got two ideas for how we do this."

    "Let''s hear em."  Trent''s turn.  I wondered if they were intentionally cycling through who talked to the criminal.

    "One involves hostages and the other, well doesn''t"

    "You just said we weren''t gonna hurt people!"  I knew Nate would jump on me there.

    "Number one, talk a lot quieter, the last thing we need is anyone hearing us.   Number two, hostages don''t immediately imply violence.  Number three, we''re the hostages."

    "What?"  They asked collectively.

    "One or two of us go in ahead of the group.  Walk around, grab a chocolate bar or a pack of gum, then the rest rush in and grab them.  It immediately makes us look serious and we don''t put anyone at risk."

    "And the other is just the five of us kick the door in and demand cash?"

    "Exactly Riley."

    "Well option one seems like it could have a higher success rate, plus, two of us can have slightly cleaner consciences than the rest."  I couldn''t tell if she was taking a stab at Nate or not.

    "By the way Riley, I owe you an apology."

    "For what?"

    "Calling you a bitch."

    "What?  When?"

    "Immediately after the heavily sarcastic way you called me a prodigy and my pickpocketing skills into question."

    "It was to get Green off my back."

    "Yes I made that connection immediately after, also the way you reinforced yourself after Nate went turncoat probably saved me a few hundred degrees worth of whatever the fuck it is Kevin does with that pen.  So, sorry."

    "Meh, we''re cool, I probably would have done the same as you anyway."  I liked un-anxious Riley.

    For a while we pitched other ideas as to what Kevin''s power over us was.  We didn''t come up with anything concrete but we did get some laughs out of it.  As we approached Luke''s, I looked at my crew.

    "Seeing as how we''re gonna use Nate and Jessica as hostages, we don''t need to case the place, at least not as carefully as if we were all going douchebag in there, but I could really go for a Kicker, and after today I feel like I owe you all a drink or something."

    "Kicker?" Jessica laughed.  "You drink that bull piss?"

    "For the last four years."  Trent and I both grabbed a Kicker Cola along with a bag of chips each.  Riley found a green tea drink or some crap, Jessica made herself a slushie and Nate grabbed a couple two for one bottles of coke.  As we left I immediately turned to Nate.  "I have a job that paid for these."  He raised his hands defensively.  "You were thinking it."

    "Whatever."  He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

    "Yea we should all get out of here.  I still have a couple things to set up."  We all said goodbye and walked our separate ways, well I did, everyone else made their way to the bus stop.  Once I was out of earshot I grabbed my phone and punched in speed dial  nine.

    "What up kid?"

    "Uncle Ray, I need a favour."

    "Well fuck."

 The First Job

    "Do you need me to come to you?"  Raymond lived about ten minutes out of town.

    "Nah I''ll be out there soon.  You''re home right?"

    "Course."  With that I hung up and finished walking to my garage.  I had my own car, the same kind every guy gets as a first car.  I didn''t like driving though.  My mind always plays out the worst possible scenarios, and lots of them.  People call me a pessimist, I say realist.  Plus seeing Trent get hit by a car back in the tenth grade hadn''t reinforced my confidence either.

    "Hey Cobie."  Yea, I''m the kind of guy who talks to his car.  Backing out, I quickly cycled through radio stations.  My mom had driven Cobie last when her car was in the shop.  Unfortunately most of the radio stations in this city catered to an older demographic, and really only one played songs from my generation.  Of course, we don''t have a whole lot of great music to be proud of but a guy can only listen to so much  Elvis and Bobby Darren.  Yea, when I said older, I meant older. The town Uncle Raymond lived in was a quick ten minute sprint away, if you followed the speed limit anyway.  I pulled up to his house just as the sixth minute ticked over.

    "Jesus Christ kiddo."  He was waiting for me on the front step.  "I thought you were a nervous wreck behind the wheel?"

    "Just cause I don''t like it, doesn''t mean I''m not good at it."

    "In more ways than one."

    "Actually, that''s why I called you."

    "Oh?"  As he raised an eyebrow questioningly, I debated with myself how much I should tell him.  Ray was one of the most trustworthy people on the planet, but with a guy like Kevin, outsiders could prove very bad.  "I was sure you were done with the game."

    "I am, I''m just,  I''m sorting something out."  There, that was good.

    "I heard your dad say that a lot Mitch."

    "I am not my dad."

    "I know."  With that he stood up and motioned for me to follow to the back yard.  "What do you need?"

    "Just a car."  As I spoke, he made a hard right into his garage door.

    "Pick one."  Before me were two cars I knew all to well.  Lynette, the Porsche Cayenne was one of Ray''s trophies.  Some asshole three blocks down had a reputation for beating his wife.  After she finally took him to court he won, he spent the money on this car.  Ray got a little bit pissed at that and took it.  I have no idea how he''s kept it hidden so close to the prick for the last three years.  Next to her was Josie. Josie was the bitch who taught me to drive.  A 1970 Valiant that Ray and my dad had spent most of their twenties restoring.

    "These are the two most prestigious ladies you''ve got Ray."

    "Yea and they''re the only ones available right now."

    This was a tough decision for me. Josie had the power.  I needed a getaway ride and she was it.  She stood out though,  it was still a little early for guys to be breaking out their classic cars.  Lynette blended in a lot better.  Black SUV''s are far more common on the streets.

    "Josie."  Ray grabbed a key off the wall and tossed it to me.

    "When do I report it stolen?"

    "Tomorrow morning.  I''ll be doing the thing around five."

    "Gotcha, take care kid."  He fist bumped me and I climbed in the car.  She started loud and then settled to a low growl.  It had been a long time since I''d heard that noise.  As Ray opened the door for me and I backed out, I looked right at the console.

    "Don''t be too much of a bitch, ok?"  Josie had dangled my death in front of me a few times before.  Once, the brakes failed as I almost careened into the river, and there were many other times.

    "She doesn''t like you cause you don''t treat her right!"

    "What''s that mean?"  I yelled back.

    "Easy Mitch.  With a woman like that.  You gotta drive it like you stole it!"  I laughed and said fuck it as I got on the street.  Maybe he was right, I''d always driven Josie like I was handling a baby, I mean, she kinda was.  I gunned the gas hard as I shifted.  The car responded perfectly,  by pitching me into the seat and launching down the block.  I set a new record getting home.  Parking in the garage I hurried inside because I starving.  As I grabbed another helping of the lasagna in the fridge I decided I was patient enough to be picky this time.  I sat around the microwave until it was heated all the way through.  Walking downstairs with a plate growing hotter by the second, my night seemed like it would follow the same pattern as yesterday.  That is, until I saw Trent.

    "What''s up dude?"

    "Trent?  Jesus man, scare the fuck outta me why don''t you?"

    "I think I just did."

    "Well yea.  Fuck, how long have you been here?"  I set the plate down as I was losing feeling in my hand now.

    "I dunno, fifteen minutes.  Dude we need to talk."

    "About wha..Oh."

    "Yea."

    "You don''t have to worry about anything."

    "Fuck that!  I have a shit ton to worry about!   And so do the others.  You''ve seen the looks they give you!"  He slumped down in my computer chair.  "And they haven''t even skimmed the surface."

    "You''re thinking about that day five years ago."

    "Yea man, I mean,  I know you preach that you''re not the same guy as your dad.  God knows I want that to be true.  But I can''t shake it."

    "Trent, even if I was, I''ve got you and the others in my way.  So chill."  It didn''t seem to reassure him.  Now how about we forget this shit until tomorrow and instead, we slaughter a few thousand lines of code.  He laughed a little and we broke out the most violent game I had and set high scores all night.  Trent crashed on my couch around midnight but I didn''t want to sleep.  With the job I had to do tomorrow coming up, and the brutal reminder Trent had just thrown at me, I knew that dream was going to happen.  The perfect neighbourhood, the white house, the eerie silence, and the explosion.  I hated it, I hated it because I lived it and because I knew exactly what had happened.  I knew it was one of the best things that could have happened for me, and I hated that.  Eventually I let sleep happen, and I was right.  I was damn happy when I woke up in the morning.

    "Twenty after eight. Fuck."  Technically late by my own schedule, I unfortunately wouldn''t be able to shower this morning.  Trent wasn''t on the couch.  "Yo!"

    "What do you want asshole?"

    "Nutella bagels!"  I hollered back.

    "Screw off!"  I knew he was going to do it anyway.  He''d at least put them in the toaster.  I splashed water on my face, got dressed without caring a whole lot and took the stairs two at a time.  Rounding the corner into the kitchen, sure enough, there were bagels in the toaster.

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    "Awe you''re such a good little bitch."  I laughed.

    "Yea, but you don''t know what I did to them."  He got me there, I for some reason couldn''t get a good come back.  We ate quickly and got on our way.  As we walked we talked about any and everything.  Trent and I comically fed off each other.  We could create a bit from one thing and seamlessly transition to something else, one minute we''re trying to outdo each other with racist jokes and the next we''re talking about the likelihood of politics running the Olympics.  Before I knew it we were at the school.

    From then, the day kind of faded by.  As fifth period drew closer, the feeling of dread became more and more prevalent. It felt like forever, and yet it seemed to happen in an instant, when I was in Kevin''s classroom.

    "Well?"  he asked.

    "We''re on our way now."  I answered coolly.

    "Then why the fuck did you show up?"

    "Attendance."  I was surprised at the calmness in Nate''s voice.

    "Funny.  Now get the hell out."  And we did.  We made our way to my house.  I treated everyone to a bottle of coke and a bandanna as we sat in the kitchen, still a little unsure of all this.  Attempting to calm everyone down I suggested a game, everyone agreed.  After a couple hours went by Jessica finally stood up and announced that we should just get it over with.  We shut down the console and went over our game plan one last time.  Nate and Jessica would walk in, ask a cashier where to find something and just kind of wander for a few minutes.  By that time Riley, Trent and I would be sitting in the parking lot.  With hoods drawn we would burst in, grab our hostages and immediately demand the money.  Whoever didn''t grab Nate or Jessica was to secure any other customers and watch the door.  We decided this would be Riley.  After I got the money we jump in my car and hopefully we''re gone before anyone even calls the police.  It felt foolproof, at least as much as it could be.  My team hurried to my car and quickly got into the parking lot.

    "I see three aside from our two."  Riley announced from the back seat."  I corrected her.

    ''Wrong, there''s two kids and their incredibly short mom getting little bag candies on the other side of that rack."  As I pointed, sure enough three more people came into view.

    "Damn, you are good at this."

    "I''d rather not receive compliments for it.  Let''s see if we can wait for the kids to leave at least."  Everyone agreed to that.  One of the kids made a fuss, probably because he wanted more candy or something, but the mom had a good amount of control, she said something and he listened.  In only a few minutes they were gone.  "Ok, now!"  We all burst from the car and threw open the doors.

    "Everybody hands up!"  Riley had an impressively loud voice.  The remaining customers were immediately terrified.  Nate and Jessica played the victims very well as Trent and I grabbed them like human shields.  "You three, in the middle and on the floor!"  My turn I guess.  Jessica was surprisingly light as I spun around to face the cashiers.

    "Registers!  Open them now!"  They looked startled and didn''t comply.  "I am not even close to kidding assholes!"  I tightened my arm around Jessica''s neck, something I would apologize for later as I knew I was cutting off some air flow now.  They received the message and began emptying cash onto the counter.  "Pack it up!"  I yelled.  Trent backed over to Riley''s little group and she came forward to pack the money into an empty backpack.  Riley moved quick, and soon had almost all the money.

    "Soooo,"  I froze.  Partly because the voice that was talking to me was directly behind me and I was too far from the other hostages for it to be one of them, but also because I knew the voice.  I spun around and found myself to be correct.  It was Stephan!  How had I not seen him?  "Should I just give you guys the money?  Or?"  In his hands I saw a bag of tortilla chips and a five dollar bill.  A million thoughts and questions raced through my mind, but I kept coming back to the same one.  Why didn''t he run?  His voice snapped me back again.  "Cause I don''t wanna be a thief here, but if I give them the money, you''ll just take it anyway.  So what''s the protocol here?"  I told Jessica to take the money from Stephan and then ordered him to get on the floor with the others.  I couldn''t believe what just happened.  Then Riley grabbed me and we headed out the door.  We, almost literally, threw Nate and Jessica in the back with Riley before Trent and I got in the front seats.  I peeled out and headed for a place to hide.

    "What the fuck?"  Almost everyone burst at the same time.  "Isn''t that guy in our class?"

    "Yea that''s Stephan, the guy Kevin punched on the first day, Jesus, we should count our blessings there."  I made a hard right onto a residential crescent.  "Jessica, by the way I''m sorry I choked you a little there."

    "I''ll be fine.  Now what?"

    "Now we hide."  I made several turns onto other crescents and into alleyways.

    "What''s with all the double backing dude?"  It was Nate.

    "Confusing witness reports.  If the police ask about the car, everyone is gonna say they saw it go this way then that way.  Even if it all lines up it will take them forever to sort it out."  I made another hard left and Riley almost hit her head on the ceiling.  "Trent, grab my phone."  He fished it out of the ashtray and I told him a number to call.  A male voice answered almost instantly.

    "Hello?"

    "Vince DeWalt,  Mitch Townsend here, if you wanna clear that debt you have with my dad, have your garage open and cleared in the next five minutes."

    "Fuck, fine!"  The phone clicked off and I made another left.

    "The fuck was that Mitch?"  Nate''s voice again.

    "Don''t ask questions you don''t want the answers to Nate!"  As I made my way down another alley I saw a car pulling out of a garage.  "Just in time."  As I parked and we cleared out I got the bag from Riley.  A man met us in the backyard.

    "We''re clear then?"

    "We''ll forget you by tonight."

    "That''s all you need?"

    "Yea, someone will be by for the car, either tonight or tomorrow morning."

    "Then you best clear out."

    "We will."  The man went inside and I sighed hard.  We had done it.  I turned to look at my crew, it was official now.  It was weird.  This was the first time I properly noticed who these people were, and what they looked like.  Trent had bypassed my filter years ago.  But the others were finally coming into focus.  Nate was average height and kind of thin.  His hair was a bit like mine, short and naturally messy, but a much lighter colour.  His eyes were a pale green.  He couldn''t have weighed more than a hundred seventy pounds and his body shape was almost rectangular.  Jessica was a lot the same, tall and thin but with shoulder length black hair and almost yellow eyes.  Riley was, well shit Riley actually took me back a bit.  A little bit shorter than my six foot frame she had, well I guess you''d call it strawberry blonde hair and seriously blue eyes.  A few freckles dotted across her face, dammit, was I getting attracted to her?  That can''t happen in a crew.  "We need to get out of here."  No one made an argument as we scattered.

    When I got home I headed straight to my shower.  I really just stood under the water for a while.  As I towelled off I just stared into the mirror as the fog faded off it.  I saw too much of my dad in my face.  The short dark brown hair, the brown eyes, fuck our noses were the exact same.  All I had was facial hair.  My dad hated it and shaved every day religiously,  I however maintained a shadow that appeared a few days old.  As I grabbed my electric razor to trim my beard I saw the backpack from the robbery.

    Finally dry and cleaned up I grabbed the bag.  I didn''t count it.  As I opened the zipper I saw way to much.  No convenience store should have this much cash on hand.  I considered the chance that we caught them just before they would have dropped some in their safe, but that was tossed out the window when a handful of bills I was flipping released some white powder into the air.

    "Fuck me!"

 Too Much Money

    **Quick author''s note here.  I''m really sorry a month and change has gone by without any word from me.  Straight up, I fell out of routine and laziness set in.  My bad, and I''m sorry.  I realize there are only thirteen of you, but you took the time to hit the follow button so I feel bad.  I''m going to get back in my routine as I miss doing this.  Also, you may have seen the one review I have which grants me 5 stars.  That is from my now ex-girlfriend, and I pretty much paid for it with sex.  That being said, I would love honest reviews.  I know I''m not making the weekly top with this and I don''t expect to, but I would like outside, unbiased opinions.**

    *Back to the story*

    My first instinct was to sniff or taste the powder, I immediately caught myself though.  I didn''t know how to identify any drugs.

    "Fuck, what''s Green gonna say?"  I knew he''d probably pop a rod to see this much cash.  The drugs posed a whole new level of problems however.  This was a shit ton of money supposed to go to a cash house, and it didn''t.  I watched enough t.v and movies to know what happened to the guys like me who did things like this.  I contemplated fixing the cash amount.  It made sense in my head.  Leave, a couple hundred in the bag and then use the excess to salt any bad jobs in the future.  Multiple problems arose from this possibility though.  First off, I didn''t trust myself with money for shit.  Second, the others saw how much Riley packed into the bag, they''d suspect me of stealing from Kevin, and them.  Not to mention my mom.  While the basement had essentially become my part of the house, she occasionally did come down here and the chance of her stumbling on my load of highly illegal cash was something I didn''t want to have to account for.  Thumbing a handful of bills, another little plume of powder escaped.  "Oh yea, and the drugs."  I was seeing more and more, almost lacing the bills.  I started to get curious, and then I got an idea.  Wondering just how much of this junk was actually in the bag, I stuck my head in.  I couldn''t see worth a damn so I yanked on the ends to try and let more light in.  I immediately regretted it as a cloud of the unknown powder hit me in the face just as I happened to be taking a breath.  I started coughing instantly,  I stumbled away from the bag as fast as possible and fumbled for my inhaler.  I doubted it would help but I was panicking, I needed something, anything to work.  The problems caused by whatever drug I just inhaled would have to wait until I could properly breath again.  I had trouble actually using the inhaler properly, every deep breath caused me to cough up a cloud of the shit.

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    "Mitch?  You ok down there?"  It was mom.  She didn''t sound overly concerned, but then again, these kind of coughing fits were uncommon with me at best.

    "Yea, all clear."  I coughed.  "Just drank something wrong.  It was the best excuse I had, mainly because I knew it would work.  By this point, much of my coughed up clouds had settled in my mouth, drying it out like crazy, I dreaded whatever insane side effects were on their way.  Then, the taste registered,  it didn''t really taste like anything, maybe, flour.  I had a sudden moment of clarity.  The thing that put Luke''s on the map, hand made doughnuts.  Every morning they''d put out some of the best damn doughnuts I''d ever had, and there was a bakery in the back.  "Thank christ."  I sighed hard, well, I did whatever was closest to a sigh, given I still had lungs full of dust.  I knew Luke''s made mad money off those doughnuts, but the few thousand dollars in my backpack still seemed like a lot.  Raymond and my dad were fighting in my head now.  My dad''s mantra was essentially, more, more, more.  Raymond on the other hand didn''t believe anything came without a catch.  I had taught myself that a proper thief should find a spot somewhere between the two.

    I kept telling myself that the safe must have been open when we got there, maybe they were mid cash drop when we showed up, I didn''t see the teller duck under the counter, I was too busy with the hostages, also, Stephan inadvertently made himself into a solid distraction.  I decided to run with that,  I needed to stop thinking about it.  Kevin would get all of it, hopefully he''d cut us some slack or something from such a solid payout.

    Halfway through binging my way around the internet Trent texts me.

    "What did we make?  Well, what did he make?"

    "A lot, we musta hit em mid cash dump or some shit."

    "Awesome...kinda, maybe he''ll toss us a bone."

    "I''m duckin hoping so.  Catchya round man."

    With that I plugged in my phone, fell onto my bed and rolled into my blankets.

    "Fuuuuuuuck."

 The Good Haul and The Reveal

    I''m pretty sure I didn''t sleep at all that night. My eyes were closed and my body was still, but I didn''t rest at all. When my quarter-to-eight alarm finally went off I headed straight to the bathroom. I decided againt shaving and climbed into the shower. I made it hot, I wasn''t sure why, I just felt like it needed to hurt. Getting dressed, all I could see were the cashiers'' faces from yesterday. They were a mix of surprised and terrified, I felt like crap knowing I had instilled those feelings in another person. Without making any version of breakfast I grabbed my bag and headed out the door.

    I met the gang outside the school, by the overpass. They were clearly waiting for me huddled into a little group. "You''re all here early, normally I have to hound you guys down." I called. Nate was the first to approach me.

    "Well?"

    "Well what?"

    "Do you have it?" He was suddenly aggressive and grabbed me. I pushed him back gently.

    "Easy, the bag is at home. This is my regular backpack, since you know, I have three regular classes still. I have fourth spare so at lunch I go home, get the cash bag and come back for fifth. Not even you could screw that up with two hours." He didn''t relax, but then again I didn''t expect him to. He had placed a lot of faith in me, the former thief. I could see it in his eyes. Believing I would sell them all short and keep a bunch of the money for myself. I considered it, I was still pissed about the pickpocket betrayal. It would be so easy to tell Kevin that Nate just didn''t show. I couldn''t though. I had become a leader to this band of idiots.

    For the rest of the day Nate was tense. I tried telling him to relax but he wasn''t having it. The others appeared to have accepted it, that is until I talked with Jessica during History. She had more or less resigned to the situation. She confessed to being as scared as Nate was. When Kevin burned everyone but Riley after the pickpocket assignmet, it all became terrifyingly real.

    I saw my mom''s car out front as I got home from lunch.

    "Half day?" I called as I entered.

    "More like a quarter." I heard her over the living room tv. "Sewer pipe burst, I probably got home right after you left."

    "Nasty...and that''s the rest of the leftovers too isn''t it?"

    "Yup, definitely only had a shelf life of two days, nasty is right." We wound up walking into the kitchen together as she tossed what was left of her food. I ended up making a couple sandwiches and went to watch whatever was already playing. It was some crappy reality show that my mom was naturally, totally buying into. After sitting through as much as I could tolerate I headed downstairs to grab the cash backpack.

    "That''s not your bag is it?" Crap, mom had caught me on my way out.

    "Nah it''s Trent''s. He crashed here a couple days ago and forgot it."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    "Oh ok."

    On my way back I chastised myself for how natural it felt to lie to my mom''s face. I heard one of dad''s lessons playing back. "A straight up lie will go over much easier if you can toss a half truth in there somewhere." Then I started thinking of how often dad told mom lies like that. To my knowledge she was and is blissfully unaware of her brother and late husband''s former part time job.

    "That bag have my money in it?" Sudddenly I was in Kevin''s classroom, when the hell did that happen?

    "Yea." I walked the bag to Kevin''s desk. "There''s a bunch of flour in there."

    "Flour? Why the fuck is my money covered in flour?" Kevin flipped through a bunch of bills spilling the powder everywhere. I explained the in-house bakery and that we believed they were about to move the money to a different safe. "Ah, yes, that addresses why there''s so much more here than I expected. Definitely not a bad thing." He put the bills back into the bag and stuffed it under his desk. Tell you all what, for pleasantly surprising me." He paused to think for a moment, I feared for the worst. "You can all have the day off." With that he sent us away.

    On our way out we decided to head to a nearby coffee shop that was within walking distance, but barely. Sitting down with our various drinks Trent gave me a stern look. "Mitch we''ve been talking."

    "What does that mean?"

    "It means they want to know the story, all of it."

    "Fuck, really?" I sipped on my coffee. "Now?"

    "Why not now?" Riley looked antsy, which I found funny for a moment.

    "Fine, but it''s shit. I''m talking about a roller coaster designed to make you puke at the top of a loop and run you through it on the bottom."

    "Yea, man. I told them."

    I took a deep breath and a deep swig of coffee which burned my mouth. "So you know my dad had been teaching me to do this since I was a kid, it started when I was about eight. My uncle was also in on it. They had been literal partners in crime for years before my parents even got married." As I took a breath I saw that everyone was fixated on me. "I learned when I was twelve, something I shouldn''t have. My dad had been getting more aggressive, originally the two of them had a pure stealth creed, but around the time I came into the picture he would hit places solo, without scoping them out first and sometimes attacking people." I paused to let that sink in, also to decide if I would give the final detail. "He even killed a few people." Sure enough, shocked looks all around. Thankfully they kept quiet.

    "Dude?! Really?"

    "Yea Nate, really. He and my uncle Ray fought about it a lot apparently. We don''t know why he got like that, maybe he wanted more of a challenge or something but it was bringing too much heat onto the crew. Ray tried kicking my dad out, it didn''t work."

    "So did your dad get arrested or..."

    "Nah, Ray told dad that since he wouldn''t leave on his own they would do the sterotypicalone last heist and call it quits."

    "What was the heist?" Jessica had completely polished off her iced whatever the heck by now.

    "A house on the other end of the city. Some guy had just cashed a massive inheritance, mostly cash. One day, one hit, a few duffel bags and that would be that."

    "Well what fucking happened Mitch?!" Jessica snapped, with nothing to drink her anticipation was apparently building.

    "There was no inheritance, the people who owned the place were gone on a vacation. I had snuck into the trunk of Ray''s car, the Valiant we used yesterday. I wanted to see them in action together. Ray came out the front door, alone. I wondered what he was doing, he didn''t have a bag, nothing. He just lit a cigarette..." I trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought. "And then the house exploded."

    Now everyone was leaned in as much as physically possible.

    "You mean Ray..." I didn''t know who it was, I was just looking at the ceiling, remembering the explosion.

    "Yea, Ray killed my dad. He was afraid my dad would influence me, Ray didn''t want me growing up to be a killer."

    "Holy fuck dude."

    "I told you it was shitty."

 Class Outside

    A good fifteen minutes went by silently. I expected as much, but that didn''t make it any easier. A few times, one of them tried to say something, but they kept pulling back at the last second.

    "All right, screw this." I finally said. "I''m going for a walk." Offering no resistance the rest quickly follwed. "So are you guys going to listen to me now?"

    "We did yesterday didn''t we?"

    "Fair enough, alright Nate, you''re up first." I spun around to face him. "Take my wallet from me." Everyone stopped in their tracks and began looking around. I sensed their nervousness, we were still in a fairly public place. "Look, if anyone asks, and they wont....we just say we''re settling a bet or something." That calmed them down a bit and Nate stepped forward.

    "There''s no way I could make a lift off of you."

    "Under normal circumstances? You''re absolutely right, I''d see, hear and probably smell you from blocks away. This isn''t normal though. I just want to see if you are even capable of performing a pick." The light jab I made appeared to have worked, Nate began walking towards me and preparing himself. It was hard to not correct him. He was making it painfully obvious. When he finally got to me Nate bumped into my shoulder, clearly something he''d seen on tv. It could have worked, instead he just fumbled around my back and ass for a second before falling over. "First things first, know where the wallet is." I pulled my own black fold-open from my front left pocket. "That body check was a half decent idea...but it wasn''t even back there." Pocketing it again I turned back to the remaining three. "Anyone else want to try?" It wasn''t a question, I was simply letting them decide who would try next.

    Riley took the initiative and came almost immediately. Again she was blatantly obvious, not quite as bad as Nate, but still bad. Instead of contact, she opted for a sidestep, something I prefer as well. She was surprisingly dextrous, getting her hand into my pocket and hooking a finger in the fold, but quickly losing her grip. "Nice try, you I might be able to teach."

    "Hey fuck off!"

    "Easy Nate," I turned to face him. "Maybe that was a little more harsh than intended." Suddenly and arm was draped around my right side and there was a firm grip on my wallet. I caught the slender wrist as it left my pocket, definitetly not Trent. "Nice one Jess, on a regular shmuck you would probably get away with that." I let her go and she handed it back. "If you''re going for touchy feely though, go all in. Make it as awkward as possible for you and them, by the time they realise it''s gone you can have spent it all."

    "Well, you ready for one more?" I turned to meet Trent''s challenge.

    "Always." I called back. Instead of walking towards me however, Trent just reached into one of his own back pockets and produced his own wallet.

    "Do I get bonus points for swapping mine and yours earlier?" Doubting his claim I immediately pulled the wallet from my own pocket and flipped it open. Sure enough, Trent''s ID was the first thig I saw.

    "When the hell?"

    "In line when we were getting our drinks, Ideally I wanted to get you to pull it out while we were all sitting there but I never got a chance." He threw me the one he was holding and motioned for me to toss his as well. "Thanks for buying by the way." He laughed, the others snickered from behind me as well.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Before I returned Trent''s wallet I opened it and pulled a five dollar note and placed it in my own. "Thanks for paying me back so quickly."

    "I should have seen that coming, but then so should you." We all laughed and began to head back to the school. On the way back I noticed the others, mainly Jessica, Nate and Riley trying to pick each other every now and then. They would laugh at their failed attempts and cheer if they succeeded. I had pulled ahead about five feet at this point and started walking backwards to see if I could witness another attempt.

    "Looks like your lesson was effective." Trent was beside me and looking back over his shoulder. "They look like you did when we were kids.

    "That''s because it''s only a game right now..." I stopped myself as I saw Nate creeping behind Riley. He was noticeably more calm but still only managed to get close. "Kevin is going to make us pick again, and when there''s a real risk I don''t know if they''ll be good enough."

    "So make them better."

    "You don''t think I want to?"

    "I know you don''t. I know you and I both wish this all could have stayed buried." He was right. I shrugged my shoulders in acceptance. "Also what the hell?!"

    ''What?"

    "You never told me Ray killed your dad, you just said it was a gas leak or some shit."

    "Yea, that''s the story Ray told me to tell."

    "You lied to me Mitch."

    "Oh. I''m sorry." I stopped to look him dead in the eyes. "Real quick, what do you think twelve year old you would have done if I had told you the truth?! If I said that I watched my uncle lead my dad to his death while I watched?" I didn''t give him time to answer. "Well, let me tell you. You would have told your parents, Ray would be in prison for God only knows how much shit, I might be in juvie and fuck knows what else!" Trent had shut down, that was my goal, of course I felt like crap for doing it. Sensing our hostility the other three stopped messing around and asked what was wrong.

    "Nothing," Trent tried to tell them.

    "No it is something." I sighed hard. "That''s what Trent and I are afraid of, and now Ray might be again too." I got confused looks all around. "Despite what Ray did, I take after my dad in a lot of ways. I avidly try not too, but I''m definitely his kid. Like you just saw I''m real easy to piss off. And there are other similarities."

    "Sure, but you haven''t killed or hurt anyone."

    "And you have no idea how much solace I take in that fact, but my dad didn''t start till he was thirty, I''m only eighteen." I could feel the mood falling as I said that. "Right now I chalk it up to being pragmatic. Like I said, violence just makes you a bigger target. I hope I can keep that level of practical thinking, but Ray most likely thought the same thing about my dad."

    "Was there any reason we came back to the school?" Riley''s question caught me off guard. I turned around to see that I had apparently been walking backwards and we were now almost at the doors we had left from.

    "Not that I can think of. Hey, did you guys have any plans today?" The unanimous response was "No," aside from times that people should be home.

    "Got something in mind Mitch?"

    "Yea Jess I do, considering we''re going to have to do this a lot more, and for a while still. I want to run you guys through some stuff. Trent, you have a big basement right?"

    "It''s bigger than yours."

    "Good. Let''s get going then."

    "What are you planning on using my house for?"

    "Relax, it''s not going to be Seven Bells, but anything is better than nothing."

    As we passed the school I saw Kevin''s classroom window. Of course he happened to look outside as we passed. The rest of the crew was engrossed in their own conversation, but Kevin and I made eye contact. It was uncomfortable and felt longer than it was, not caring about the staring contest I quickly looked away. It was in that moment though that I learned something. I was the real teacher here, and Kevin was just a really shitty principal or something.

    I was brought back from my thoughts by the feel of a hand reaching around my waist. "Don''t make contact until you have to Riley."

    "Fuck!"

 Natural Talent

    The better part of the day was spent in the basement of Trent''s house. I was a little unsure of just how to teach someone how to do what I could do, let alone three others. Trent didn''t really need the practice, as kids I had shared a lot of my dad''s lessons with him, sometimes even just hours after learning them myself. Riley, Jessica and Nate on the other hand, all worked differently. Jess was a natural grifter, or face as I often heard it from Ray. She appeared to have zero inhibitions or reservations when it came to talking to people, or even contacting them physically. She used this to her advantage and could easily work into a favourable angle on me to pick anything she wanted. The problem was clearly in her confidence while under pressure. As soon as she got a hold of a wallet, watch, phone...anything, she would immediately lose her cool and drop her pick.

    Riley was on the other end of the spectrum, her laserlike focus guided her straight to her target, and after some dynamic practice she could even lift off me while maintaining pace. I couldn''t help but think she had the potential to be better than me, if only her focus wasn''t also her weakness. I noticed that after choosing her pick, Riley would turn off her reactions to anything she deemed unnecessary. Admittedly it was a skill I envied, but at the same time this could be a serious problem on a real mark. I imagined her being run into by other pedestrians, or worse, getting greedy and taking her first chance as opposed to her best.

    The girls must have been aware of their synergistic talents, because they truly shone as I was taking Nate through some paces. I wasn''t as all surprised by his inability. While we were goofing around, Nate showed promise. Walking to Trent''s I had moved my wallet around my pockets as the others tried to pick me, but Nate always aimed true with every attempt, even when I made efforts to move the wallet when I was sure he was looking away. Now though, as I was telling him to imagine me as a real mark, his morality was getting in the way. Just like the genius he probably was, Nate didn''t see pickpocketing in the moment, like one needs to. He saw it five steps ahead, when his mark wouldn''t be able to pay for something important, or when the heirloom watch once gifted by a dying grandfather, was now sitting in a pawn shop display case for twenty five bucks.

    "Alright, let''s take five," I waved Nate off. "A guy can only get felt up so many times in one day." I had hoped to get more laughs than I did, Nate was clearly demoralised. Jessica soon went over to him and asked him if he was ok while hugging him from the side. The action surprised me a little as she still registered in my mind as the piss in your cheerios bitch I had always thought of her. Nate tried to talk tough but ultimately admitted to feeling inferior to her and Riley. During this Trent and I were talking shop, trying to plan for anything else we might have to do for Kevin. Then, in my peripheral vision I saw Riley in her zone, creeping towards Nate and Jess. "Dude," I interrupted whatever Trent had been saying. "Check this out." The tone of Jessica and Nate''s voices had shifted to something more positive, but I didn''t hear the words. Riley had zeroed in on Nate, as Jessica moved him around in ways that seemed innocent she opened up perfect opportunities for Riley. Soon she had not only lifted Nate''s phone, wallet and keys from various pockets, but she replaced them in different ones. When satisfied with her work she immediately departed and called to her partner.

    "Hey Jess, you thirsty?"

    "Yea kinda."

    "Trent, you got anything to drink?"

    "Water and the soy milk my mom keeps buying even though no one drinks it."

    "Good enough for me." The two of them went upstairs and I soon heard water running.

    "What do you think?" Nate sounded incredibly innocent as he asked. As if he sought validation in my response.

    "I don''t know what to think. I was trained to do this every day, for years." Nate shrugged at my response, clearly not what he wanted to hear. "Riley and Jess seem pretty good for day one, but they''re still making a lot of mistakes, ones we probably won''t be able to fix for a couple weeks." He tensed up as I praised the girls'' skill, but relaxed as I offered the criticism. "Hey, what gen is your phone again? I''m thinking I should upgrade soon."The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Oh yea? The G6 is pretty coo...what the hell?" As Nate went for where he believed his phone to be, only to find his keys, his expression became hilariously clueless.

    "Back right." I told him simply. Immediately he checked all of his pockets and returned the objects to their respective homes.

    "When the hell did you?"

    "Mitch did you fucking ruin it?!" Riley yelled at me from the stairs as she and Jess came down with a round of glasses between them.

    "The two of you made him your bitch, I couldn''t let you rip him apart like we all know you would have."

    "Oh come the fuck on!" Nate began pacing. "Really?! That wholeyou''ll get it eventually bit was just a way to mess with me eh Jess?"

    "No, I just saw a way to kill two birds with one stone."

    "And that''s all I am to you guys, all of you! An idiot to practice on and dead weight to drag around!"

    "Oh shut the fuck up." My nonchalance appeared to have defused him. "We''re not patronising or victimising you, or whatever you want to call it. We all have inherent talent here, even you. It''s not actually hard to do, it''s hard to master." Nate was still seething. "The only difference is how much of a good guy you are Nate."

    "Not this crap again," he groaned.

    "I''m not done!" I yelled louder than I wanted to. "I mean it. You were clearly raised right." He nodded slightly, despite being unclear about where I was headed with this. "Your moral compass genetically points north, you can''t do much about it and that''s not a bad thing. Riley and Jess are a harder read, but the gravity of the situation with Kevin has fortunately allowed them toignore certain things they were taught as kids." By now Nate had received a glass of water and was drinking it slowly. "Me, well I don''t really point anywhere anymore, I just turn it off when I need to. And Trent, well he learned from me, and I learned from the best." Grabbing my water, I took a long swig. "It''s fine that you are the way you are. Every crew needs someone to keep them in check, and we have two." Everyone kind of looked around as to who else I was referring to.

    "He means me," I knew it wouldn''t take my friend very long to figure it out. "I can keep up with him on a thieving level and you Nate, you''ll question everything we do, whether it''s necessary, if maybe we can take half instead of everything, so on, so forth. Kevin''s...whatever power he has over us is going to make us get greedy to avoid ever feeling that again. You need to make sure you''re the one person who doesn''t get that way."

    Everyone was silent after the speech. No one really knew what to say. Finally, my patience wore out. "May as well peel out, we''ve been at this for almost three hours. I have no idea what our next assignment is going to be, but we''re a thousand percent more ready for it than were for Luke''s." What I said made enough sense and everyone grabbed their things to file upstairs. Nate and Jessica ran to catch a bus that they saw reaching a stop nearby, while Riley waved goodbye and started walking the other way.

    "Thousand percent huh?"

    "Well, nine eighty five for sure."

    "Take care man."

    "You too, seeya tomorrow."

    Walking home all I could think about was how well the girls worked together. It seemed flawless. They would need loads more practice to work that well, and that fast on a real mark, one they hadn''t been examining for almost two hours. All the same I kept coming back to what it could be like with someone running interference for me, the way Jess did for Riley, and the fact that I ranked Riley near myself, with the possibility of even being better. As long as Kevin didn''t have us do something insane like rob a bank, I was confident he''d never have reason to use that pen again.

    As I was coming down from the high of imagining never being burned again, I noticed my phone buzzing as I received a text, from my mom.

    "Where are you?"

    "Walking home from T"

    "OK going to be long?"

    "Nah, maybe 10...why?"

    "Ray is here, says he wants to catch up."

    "Cool"

    It was anything but cool, I was immediately worried. He would undoubtedly ask whether or not I managed to sort things out the other day. Admittedly it was a flimsy excuse, but he was one of few people I had trouble lying to, most liikely from dealing with my dad''s crap for years. The remaining ten or so minutes of walking were spent thinking of what exactly I would tell him when i got there.

 The First of Many Bad Ideas

    Walking in the door I heard Raymond talking with mom. For brother and sister, the two were somewhat awkward together. I had asked my mom about it but she just told me it had to do with when they were kids.

    "Hey boss, what''s up?" I almost cringed. Boss was a nickname I hadn''t heard in years.

    "Not much big man." I tossed my bag to the floor and responded in our little code.

    "It''s a good thing you showed up when you did, I''m dying for a light." Ray pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Another small, but crucial sign that I recognised instantly.

    "Well, lets hit the garage then."

    "You two have fun." Mom waved us out, clearly annoyed at our intrusion.

    Getting into the garage I felt tense. Ray calling me "Boss" meant he either knew, or at least strongly suspected I was thieving again. The cigarette meant he was pissed about something. On their own I wouldn''t be worried, but I had witnessed Ray use this combo on my dad once, he died the next day.

    "What''s on your mind?" I asked, trying to sound more calm then I was. Ray had already lit the smoke and taken a puff.

    "You. What the hell have you been up to Mitch?"

    "Just sorting some.."

    "Cut the shit kid!" He spat in my face a little. "I tried to leave you your privacy, but the last time a Townsend told me he wassorting some stuff out, I found out he''d been killing people behind my back!"

    "Quiet the fuck down!" I motioned agressively for him to actually enter the garage and followed close behind. "I''m not my dad Ray. I may look, walk and talk like him...but I do not work like him." Ray took a long drag and exhaled slowly.

    "I know, and I want to believe you Mitch, I really do. I''m not your mom though, blind faith isn''t something I''m capable of."

    I thought hard about what exactly to tell him, knowing full well that the longer I took, the worse it would look. I trusted Ray with my life, but Kevin, he was a different story. Not to mention the weird shit going on with my hand, that was easily something I could ignore. Suddenly, the perfect explanation came to me.

    "I found someone, someone like dad." Ray''s eyes widened at that. "I can''t let him get away with what he''s doing."

    "And that''s why you knocked over a convenience store? Why you''ve been picking your way across the city?"

    "You of all people know that you need to earn someone''s trust before they let you lead them into a trap." As I said it, I realised how cruel my words were. Ray walked over and clapped his hand on my shoulder, hard.

    "That was a low blow kid." He exhaled some more smoke. "But you''re right. I guess that will tie me over for now." He walked over and inspected a wooden chair. "You make this?" I explained that it was my final project in Woodshop last year. "You missed some spots sanding, and this cut is a little rough."

    "Hey I got an eighty something, I know it''s not perfect."

    "Just know that if I catch wind of you doing something colossally stupid again, I will be back."Stolen story; please report.

    "I know."

    "So how''s the crew?"

    "What?"

    "Can it, you stole the hostage play from me." Finished with his cigarette, Ray flicked it across the garage''s concrete floor. "Four? Five?"

    "Five," I sighed. "Including me. Amatuers, but they have potential."

    "Any experience?"

    "None whatsoever." This got a shocked expression from my uncle. He and I talked shop for a while longer. I told him a little about each of my new friends and their respective talents. He told a few stories about previous partners he had been reminded of. After a while he grabbed another smoke, and offered me one.

    "Nah," I declined. "Your sister would kill me."

    "Yea, hell you should have seen what she did when she saw me with one."

    "Was that before or after the asteroid killed the dinosaurs?"

    "After, you little shit. Before you chopped the steering wheel out of a Sunbird though." I recoiled a little after his shot back. "Well, I think I''m going to clear out. Oh, one more thing though."

    "What''s that?"

    "I ran into a certain, Vince DeWalt the other day, he said he was glad to be clear of his debt to me and my partner."

    "I bet he is."

    "Be a little more careful spending my money eh? That guy was worth keeping in pocket."

    "There was no one else close enough."

    "I realise that, but still. You could''ve abadoned the car in a field or something." I shot him a "really?" look and he just shrugged. "I restored Josie once, plus I could use a new project. Another thing, you borrow four hundred horses and take them five blocks?"

    "I saw myself running from a lot more."

    "For Luke''s? Really?" I just shrugged. "Whatever kid. Seeya round."

    After he left, I stayed in the garage for a while. Ray had made some good points. The way I had been working had been stupid, too much too soon, but Kevin wasn''t giving me an option. I wondered just how greedy he was. His surprise at my previous experience meant it was likelythat either he''d tried this before, with little success due to an inexperienced crew, or he just didn''t expect an eighteen year old to be a practiced pro. My next problem, regardless of Kevin''s greed, was how hot the city would be in a couple months. Even if we maintained one job a week, we''d run out of corner stores quick, pickpocket awareness campaigns would ruin even my chances...and bigger hits, well I didn''t want to think about that. I had this nasty feeling in my gut that Kevin would have eyes bigger than our pockets.

    I went inside to do anything else before I let myself start thinking like that. I played music as loud as my mom would tolerate and spent the next few hours on my computer, eventually I crashed.

    Following my morning routine I was soon ready to leave for school. As I exited my front door, I saw someone on my front step, someone I quickly realised was Riley.

    "Riley? What..what are you doing?"

    "Nice to see you too."

    "Uh yea, hi. But really...what''s up?"

    "Found myself a few blocks away, figured we could walk together." I noticed she didn''t have a bag or anything that resembled what one would need for school. "Can we get going?"

    "Uh, sure." After we started, I again asked about how she wound up here. From what she had told me, her house was practically on the other side of the city.

    "Sometimes I just walk. The city is quiet at night, I enjoy quiet." That satisfied my curiosity. I had a similar habit when I was younger.

    "Think about anything while you walk?"

    "Hmm?"

    "I did the same thing a few years back. I would ride my bike from two till four in the morning sometimes. Clear my head, write, whatever."

    "You write?"

    "Used to, sometimes I tried getting it down on paper, but I always wound up hating it. Now I just leave them in my head where I enjoy them."

    "Oh cool, I don''t know if I think about much. It''s about the walk for me..." as Riley continued I waved ''hi'' at someone I saw each morning. All I knew was that he took a bus at the stop near my house. He tried to step around Riley but ended up bumping into her left arm. I only noticed because she winced loudly after.

    "You good?"

    "Yea, just did something stupid with my brother yesterday, nasty bruise."

    The rest of the walk was uneventful. Having new company was refreshing, and Riley seemed to have a similar taste in humour as we soon began pulling out our raunchiest jokes.

    Much like the walk to, school was routine. That is until fifth period. I never knew what to expect anymore, but this was a complete blindside.

    "You want us to rob a what?"

    "Did I fucking stutter?"

    "No, but why a hotel suite?"

    "For what''s in it dipshit!" As Kevin began outlining what we''d be going in for, my mind went back to the night before, more specifically, what Ray had said to me. This was definitely stupid.

 The First Time Everything Goes Wrong

    As Kevin went on about his newest project for us, I stopped listening.

    "Why are you making us do this now?!" I finally burst.

    "Excuse you?"

    "Look, we''re going too hard too fast. Luke''s was a violent crime, on top of my picking spree the cops will be getting off their asses. Doing anything right now is twice as risky." He stopped and seemed to think about what I had said.

    "Mitch, the next time I want your opinion on something." He pulled the pen from his pocket. "I''m going to use this. Am I understood?" I wasn''t sure how to respond so I kept quiet. He wouldn''t listen either way so I might as well excercise self preservation. "Excellent, now, where was I?"

    "You were telling us why we''re doing this."

    "Ah yes, thank you Jessica." Kevin glanced at me quickly, making sure I''d stay in line. A small part of me took solace in knowing he thought I was unpredictable. "A certain...former partner of mine will be staying in the Ander''s Hotel tonight. Among his posessions will be one item of particular value, to me that is." He paused to make sure we were all listening. "Unlike Luke''s unfortunately, you won''t have a day to prepare. He''s here for the night and on a plane tomorrow morning. How you obtain the item is of course up to you, ideally I would like him to board that plane still believing it is in his posession but, well I won''t be picky this time."

    "What even is it?"

    "An astute question Nathan, thank you for asking." Kevin''s smile of fake pride was sickening. "You will specifically be looking for an SD card. Most likely kept in a phone or camera. This particular card however, doesn''t contain any video data." After telling us a few more details, like the mark''s check in time for the hotel and his room number, Kevin gave us all a picture of who we would be robbing. "Now you don''t have much time left to prepare so I suggest you get going."

    We didn''t wait to be told a second time. Once outside the school, everyone crowded around me, something I was growing accustomed to. Jessica was the first to speak.

    "What''s the plan Mitch?"

    I was busy rubbing my eyes and groaning. "Ugh, this is so far out of my comfort zone! Hell, knocking over a corner store was a stretch!" I sighed and let myself start thinking. "Ok, first we need to get into the hotel, scope out ouraccessibility."

    "Yea, but The Ander''s has a no minors policy."

    "Correct Nate, which means you clearly are a minor. Is anyone nineteen plus?" Riley raised her hand. "Cool, I have an ID that says I''m twenty two."

    "Why? And how?"

    "When I was ten I overheard my dad talking about fake IDs, I told him I wanted one, he got me one, for some reason he added four years to it. Got a problem with that Nate?"

    "Get off my back dude!" His response caught us all off guard. "I''ll admit I still hate every aspect of this, but what I hate most is that damn pen...so right now Mitch you''re just someone full of resources and contacts that can keep Kevin from ever using it."

    "Awesome!" I clapped as Nate stepped ever so slightly on to my side. "We''re making progress on all fronts today." Nate just rolled his eyes. "Ok Riley, you and I are going to go in as a couple. We''ll say it''s our anniversary or some cheesy shit. Our mark is on the sixth floor so we get as close as we can to that. Ideally we run into him and ask him to take a picture of us or something, swap camera and or phone with him, and check for the card."

    "What about the rest of us?"

    "Trent, you Jessica and Nate will recon the surrounding area. Getaway routes, hiding spots, the works." They all knodded agreement. "If Riley and I can''t get the card in a handoff, we loot the room. According to Kevin, our guy will be conducting his business at night so we''ll have some time, but not a definite window."

    "Make sure when you pick the guy, you get one of his room cards."

    "Nice call Riley, thank you. Of course the real problem comes into play if both of those plans fail. We''re aiming for zero detection here but failure isn''t an option."

    "What are you going to do if that happens?"

    "Whatever I have to Trent, but as little of it as possible." I knew he didn''t like my answer because I didn''t either.

    Everyone went home to change and prepare, knowing to meet at a local landmark near the hotel. I arrived last.

    "What''s with the Bluetooth?"

    "Constant contact. I never want to be out of the loop, so when we get started, four way conference call. Hope you all have minutes."

    "You don''t exactly look like the type to be wearing one of those though dude."

    "Aready taken care of Jess." I took one last look at my crew. "We good?"

    "Not good, but ready."

    "Works for me." Setting up the call was awkward, but after a few minutes we had all four phones linked up. As Riley and I walked towards the hotel doors I noticed her outfit. "You look good."

    "Thanks, you said we''d be pretending to be celebrating so I went with it. You''re looking sharp too, hun." I was initially taken back by the pet name, until I realised she was getting into her character. I thanked her as I pulled at my collar. This black button-up may look good but today was too damn hot for it.

    "This parking lot is tiny," I heard Nate over the headset. "Plus side, he can''t leave in a hurry."

    "You think he''s got his own car for one day?" Jessica asked.

    "I would, I definitely wouldn''t trust a cab to drive me to my illicit dealings."

    "Good," I interrupted. "We''re assuming our guy has a rental, I like it, keep the chatter coming, but a little more quietly eh?" Riley bumped my arm as we neared the doors. "Going silent for a minute guys." I hit mute on the earpiece as I opened the door for Riley. The lobby was nice, as long as I could look past the pretentious nature anyway. This was definitely a place you stayed at to spend money, not sleep. I walked to the clerk quickly. She glanced up and then back down after seeing my earpiece. "Hi, sorry it''s just a hearing aid." She looked at me with a little disbelief.

    "Really?"

    "Yea, a friend suggested it about a year ago, now no one can tell. Plus, added convenience if anyone calls me."

    "That''s a good idea, my nephew is really self conscious about his. I''ll have to remember that. Anyway, how can I help you two?" After handing back our IDs and my credit card she smiled wide. "How long are you looking to stay?"

    "Just one night." Riley beat me to it. I was glad. I didn''t want to do all the talking. "And do you have anything on the sixth floor?"

    "Hmm, yes. It''s mostly empty. May I ask why?"

    "Our lucky number, we met on the sixth, and a bunch of other cheesy reasons." I was surprised. Riley was weaving together a backstory I hadn''t thought of yet.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    "Oh how cute, well 606 is taken unfortunately."

    "That''s fine. As long as we have a balcony to see the moon from." The clerk fawned over Riley''s fake affection once more and entered us into the computer.

    "Enjoy your stay." With that she handed us our cards and directed us to the elevator.

    Inside the elevator I congratulated Riley on her deception. She responded in kind about my hearing aid lie. As we stepped onto the floor and turned, I couldn''t believe our luck. The mark was right in front of us, leaving his room. Without thinking, I walked right up to him.

    "Excuse me, could you take our picture quickly?" He agreed with a smile. After snapping a half dozen or so Riley, suggested we take one more, with him, to commemorate his kind gesture. By this point I was floored. Riley was in tune with me, providing perfect angles to let me work. As she raised the camera I had snagged his phone and dropped his wallet on the floor. As he walked away I quickly grabbed one of his room cards and called him over. "Hey guy, you dropped your wallet!" He thanked me and left in a hurry.

    "What are you doing?" Riley asked as I walked over to the room we had been assigned.

    "The computers are linked to the door locks. If we never enter our room it will look suspicious as fuck. That and I want to see what I just spent two hundred and twenty bucks for." We checked out the room for a few minutes and I made a mental note to remember the place. Expensive as it was, this was definitely somewhere you went to treat yourself, and someone else.

    "Hey check it out, There''s a not shit wine in the minibar."

    "Oh yea? How much?"

    "Eighty dollars?! Sheesh!"

    "Well it wasn''t my credit card."

    "Oh yea? Does Clarence Davies drink red wine?"

    "He''s more of a whiskey and Coke kind of guy."

    "Hey how''s the gang doing?"

    "Oh crap." I immediately unmuted the headset. "How we looking down there?" I got a collectivefinally, before Jessica told me she saw the mark leave the building. "Yea, the swap was a success. Checking his phone now, didn''t see a camera." Inspecting the phone I didn''t find any memory cards. "Shit, well, plan B." Riley put the wine away and we headed to the mark''s room. It looked identical to our own, it was untouched, save for a few used towels. "This isn''t looking good." The two of us searched what we could but ultimately we had nothing to look through.

    "What now Mitch?"

    "I hate to say it guys...but plan B was a bust. All we have left is..." I let myself trail off, not trusting myself to say it out loud. I would have to interrogate this guy. I didn''t trust myself to do it.

    "Well you''re not doing it with just the two of you!" Came Trent''s voice.

    "I hope not dude...I have an idea. Come on Riley, and be ready to make those adorable girlfriend eyes again."

    "What the?"

    Heading back to the lobby, I approached the clerk again, somewhat sheepishly this time. "Excuse me?"

    "Oh hello, do you need something?"

    "Just an answer to a question. See, as hard as we tried to keep this a secret," I pointed between Riley and myself. "A few of our friends found out and want to come crash the party for a bit."

    "Oh that''s fine, as long as you don''t disturb any other guests I don''t see why.."

    "They''re technically underage."

    "Technically?"

    "They''re eighteen. I''m guessing the policy is fairly stringent so I didn''t want to risk it." She thought about it for a minute, I sensed she wouldn''t allow it. Then Riley chimed in.

    "Please?" She pleaded. "They''re the friends who helped us meet in the first place!" That did it. Once again Riley had wooed this woman over.

    "Well as long as I see that they''re eighteen, I wont stand in the way of something so special." Riley squealed happily and kissed my cheek, a level of acting I wasn''t aware I should maintain.

    We left to meet the others outside. We walked around the block together to avoid any suspicions from the clerk. When she checked everyone in, she sent Riley and I a wink. We hurried to our room.

    "Damn this is swanky!"

    "Jess...did you just use the word swanky?"

    "What about it Nate?"

    "Easy!" I commanded. "We don''t have time to screw around. Now, either I missed a pick, and I don''t miss my picks...or the card is somewhere on the guy that I can''t pick."

    "Is that even possible?"

    "Yes, there are few places I can''t...or won''t reach." Everyone snickered a little. "So here''s the plan. Trent and I wait in his room, we jump him when he gets back and we call you guys. From there...we get the card, we leave, end of story. Questions?"

    "Yea, what do we do?"

    "Enjoy the room, like Jess said, it is pretty swanky."

    As we left, Trent immediately called into question my ability to do this safely. I tried to reassure him, but barely reassured myself. I made a point of avoiding violence, he had become something of a bodyguard due to that. After entering the next room we took opposite spots next to the door. Me in the closet and him in the bathroom. It seemed to take forever, despite only a couple hours going by. At first we tried to make conversation but the tension was too much. I wondered what the other three were getting up to. Then I heard it, the beep and click of the door unlocking. I couldn''t guarantee the mark wouldn''t use the closet or bathroom so I took my only chance. I tackled him hard from the side and tried to throw him forward. It sort of worked, then Trent dove on top of him, mashing his face into the floor. Grabbing a towel, I wrapped it around his head as Trent maintained his pin.

    "Get something to tie this guy already!"

    "With what?!" Just then I saw a lamp on a side table. It was much harder to tie up someone who doesn''t want to be tied up than I anticipated, but I eventually got it. After gagging him properly and making sure the guy was under control, I texted the gang. "Showtime." The guy''s eyes widened as he saw three more borderline kids file into the room. I slapped him across the face to get his attention back. "Please make this easy. All I want is an SD card." He muffled through the gag, as if asking for it to be removed. "Give me any reason to...and I break your face." Trent pulled the hand towel out slowly.

    "That card is the only thing keeping me alive right now."

    "You''re assuming we don''t just kill you and rummage through your stuff, this is just quicker." Trent took the words out of my mouth. It was a little unsettling.

    "You''re kids! You wouldn''t even know how! Let alone have the guts!" He spat in my face. I wasn''t sure how to reply. Then Jessica came from behind me.

    "Oh yea?" She pulled a knife from her back pocket, something that scared me a little. Tipping our victims head down she ran the dull side against his neck. "Carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea...unconscious in a minute, dead in another. Makes a bitch of a mess though. She flipped the knife so that the blade was pressed to skin. "We might be seeing who has what guts in a second alright." Her delivery was haunting, and it worked.

    "Fine fine! Jesus! The inner pocket on my right side, it''s in there." It was hard to fish a tiny card out of the tiny pocket of a restrained person, but I finally had it.

    "Now what?" I wasn''t sure who asked. I was too busy making a call.

    "Hello."

    "Big man...I did something stupid."

    "Well, you certainly have your mom''s attention span."

    "Can it, you can beat me up later. Right now I need a quiet kit."

    "How quiet?"

    "Silent, and forever if you can."

    "I don''t have the supplies."

    "I have two Little Annies and five eyes...that work?"

    "That works. Where?"

    "The Anders, now."

    "Seeya in ten."

    "What the heck was that?"

    "Our way out."

    Ray showed up in ten minutes like he said. Coming right up to the room he sighed at what he saw. "What the fuck Boss?" He sent us away as he got to work. We all went to the bedroom.

    "What''s he doing?"

    "Don''t ask questions you don''t want answered. Now here''s our story. The mark attacked the girls. So Riley, Jessica, we''ve got to mess you up a little bit."

    "Mess us up?"

    "A couple hits, just enough to bruise, more would be more convincing but..."

    "What else?"

    "Two of us, I''m thinking me and Trent defended you two, knocked him down. Nate, you were in the hotel room with Ray."

    "You have a criminal past Mitch..." I punched Nate''s shoulder as he said my name. "I''m just as likely to defend them."

    "Maybe, but Riley and I checked in as a couple. I''m in this fight regardless."

    "If he wants to brawl I''ll sit out."

    "Fine...oh and one more thing, make sure your stories are all a little different. It''s easier to believe if we all remember a few things differently. As long as the main point gets through, that''s all the cops will care about.Now for the shitty part." Jessica and Riley braced themselves. Riley was especially tense. I didn''t blame her. This was so far from what I was hoping for. Trent and I just stood awkwardly for a second, not quite sure how to hit someone so that it wouldn''t hurt too much but still make a mark.

    "Man up and fucking do it!" As Jess called him out, Trent backhanded her across the face, the sound sickened me.

    "I can''t...I can''t do this." I walked out to see Ray finishing up. The mark''s arm was tied off and a needle was sticking out. I heard a few more blows land behind me.

    "Good to go?"

    "Good? No, but ready." I ran him through the story and we positioned everyone.

    After calling the police, as well as the hotel it wasn''t long before the place was swarming with people. A couple EMT''s looked over the girls while officers took statements from everyone. I feigned anger and fear as well as I knew how, and hoped everyone else was doing ok. After a couple hours of hassle, of being questioned again and again, we were finally free to go. Everyone went their separate ways, while Ray and I walked slowly together.

    "Want to know how much that kit cost?"

    "A lot."

    "Little over a grand Mitch. You''re going to tell me everything."

    "Ninety percent?" He stopped.

    "Everything Mitch. That was serious. They were not Little Annies, and you know it. You''re going to tell me, because of what you did to them."

    "Ok, everything." I was quiet for the rest of the walk to his car. I hadn''t seem him like this in years, and I''d prayed I never would again. "I''m sorry."

    "I''m not who you should be saying it to. Did my time, money and effort at least go to a good cause?"

    "I fucking hope so."

 Success and Failure

    The ride back to my house was unsettling to say the least. Ray drove without any kind of audible distraction, a habit from his wheelman days apparently. So near complete silence only made my paranoia and fear seem multiplied. When we finally got to the house we went straight to the garage. By the time I had turned to look at him, he had already lit a cigarette.

    "Start talking kid."

    "Gimme a minute!" I snapped back. "I don''t know where to start."

    "I don''t care where you start Mitch. Backtrack and fill in the gaps but I need you to sing and now. You took me way out of my comfort zone tonight, something I both applaud and hate you for." He took a long drag of smoke. "You said there''s a guy like your dad, start there, who is it?"

    "My English teacher."

    "Consider me interested."

    "He''s playing this like a politician. We do the all the dirty work, he gets all the profits."

    "Your dad never really did that-"

    "Aren''t I supposed to be the one talking? He may work differently, but he''s just as shitty a person, maybe worse." I spilled everything to Ray. Thesocial experiment the contracts, the burning in our hands, the pen, all of it. Ray just sat quietly. As I was finishing, he was lighting a third smoke.

    "That''s everything?"

    "So far, but we have a whole semester ahead of us."

    "You''re going to let this guy work you like a puppet that long?"

    "What choice do I have? He''s magical or some shit, for all I know this thing with my hand is just one of a million things he can do. Right now I feel like my only hope is to ride this out."

    "You and I both know he won''t just let the lot of you go when this is over."

    "Of course not, I sure wouldn''t." I took a moment to realise what I had just said. "I plan to figure a way out before he gets rid of us."

    "Well you know I''ll help anyway I can, especially now that I know roughly what I''m working with."

    "Thanks Ray. Hey, one question."

    "Shoot."

    "What was in the kit?"The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Heroin mostly, along with a few other undesirables."

    "Holy shit! Really? A thousand bucks worth?"

    "You said, and I quote,silent, and forever. The batch I planted on him was the signature product of a real nasty dudewho got on the wrong side of your dad and me years ago. That connection alone will put him behind bars for the forseeable future."

    "Fuck, remind me not to screw with you."

    "I think I just did."

    As he left I decided to stay out a while longer. Looking around the garage I noticed just how much of a mess it was. No one in the house had put their car in here for years, leaving it to become a communal storage locker for the household. Old yard furniture, some recyclables and more stuff we could put in a yard sale someday than I cared to take stock of. I cleared myself a small area and started bouncing a golf ball I found off the concrete. With eachwhack I relived a couple seconds of the robbery I had just commited. It had been sloppy, amatuer, and worst of all, I had put four people in positions I would be uncomfortable in myself, and was.

    Heading back inside it was dark and silent. Mom had gone to sleep, probably an hour before. I crept towards the basement stairs and found my way to my room. I didn''t sleep, but I did have nightmares. I saw outcomes that I was glad didn''t actually happen. Jessica actually slashing the guy''s neck open, him beating the girls like we lied and said he did, and Riley''s terrified look after I told her I had to hit her a few times. Maybe it was just how opposite she was from Jess, who called Trent and I out for not doing it properly, but I couldn''t get the look of Riley''s face out of my head. Finally my alarm sounded and I groaned, realising what it meant.

    I got to school early to make sure I could run into everyone and apologise for the previous night. They all said it was "okay" even though I knew it wasn''t. Luke''s was one thing. We only pretended to endanger people, and the people were ourselves. Last night at the Anders'' we had beaten and threatened a man with his life, and then ruined what was left of it.

    I slogged through my day until fifth period. The tiny card in my pocket may as well have been cancerous I wanted to get rid of it so bad. I felt relieved and terrified as I presented it to Kevin. I could only shudder at the thought of the intel I was powerlessly handing over to him.

    "Excellent work, all of you!" Kevin sang. "Not only do I have the card but my associate will be spending a considerable time in jail on a slew of possession and assualt charges. I can''t say it''s what I was expecting but it might be better." He got up from his desk as I was slumping back into my own. Kevin pulled down the projector screen and looked back at us. "There is just one tiny little detail. Not one of you considered the possibility of security cameras!" As he roared in our faces, security footage of last night at the hotel came on screen. Everything was played back. Riley and I checking in, us in the hallway, everyone entering the mark''s room, Ray. "Thankfully, yours truly had the forethought, and a friend of mine has made sure these files will never see the light of day."

    I wanted to say something, anything. To defend my lack of stealth and tact as a means of not seeming suspiscious, to demand how he got the footage, but I stayed quiet. I knew what I would be getting myself into.

    "Keeping this colossal fuck up in mind, the week off I had planned for you shall be reduced to three days. So since today is Friday, I''ll see you all on Thursday, and be ready to work when you get back."

    I didn''t wait for anyone. As soon as I heard that I didn''t need to be there, I tore off. Before I really knew what I was doing I had grabbed my car keys and was on my way out.

 Help and Hindrance

    Storming out of the school and straight to my car I envisioned all the places I wanted go, anywhere other than here, but as I sat down and turned the ignition, I didn''t go anywhere.  Chastising myself for such a rookie mistake as forgetting about cameras and punching the dashboard, wishing it was Kevin.

    "Where we going?" Trent was sitting beside me now.  "Also, I feel like shots like those might hurt the resale on this thing."

    "How long have you been here?"

    "Couple minutes, so long enough."

    "I fucked up, bad."

    "I was there."  His nonchalance was somehow calming.  "But you''ve got to get this into perspective.  A fuck up with you in charge is millions of times better off than anything the rest of us could put together on our own, or even as a team without you."  I shrugged my shoulders.  "So stop beating yourself and your car up, and figure out what we''re going to do next.  We may not like it, but we trust you Mitch."

    "You hungry?"

    "Almost always, what''s on the menu?"

    "Something cheap and close."  We wound up going through a drive through and getting a round of meals for the whole group.  Trent had apparently told everyone we''d be meeting them at a local park.

    "What if I wasn''t throwing a fit in the lot?  What if I had just bailed?"

    "I would have called you and had, probably the same conversation."

    Riley, Nate and Jess were all sitting at a park bench waiting as Trent and I arrived.  Everyone ate in silence for a few minutes before Jessica finally spoke up.

    "Any bets on what we''re gonna have to do on Thursday?"  No one said anything at first so I took the opportunity.

    "Something he thinks will be outside of our, well my comfort zone.  Thing is, he already hit the nail on the head with that high profile mugging, add on the fact that it''s only been a couple weeks and I have no frame of reference for what his goals could be."  All eyes were on me and at first it made me nervous, but I saw what Trent was talking about, there was almost reverence in their eyes.  "We can assume it will be something high risk again.  Knowing I was taught initially as a pickpocket, Kevin can pretty safely assume I''ll want to stay away from creating any kind of spectacle, as well as anything that can''t be moved easily..." trailing off, I immediately remembered the red Sunbird.  "Oh fuck.."

    "What?  What''s wrong?"

    "I think he''s gonna have us steal a car."  It took everyone aback but there weren''t any direct objections.

    "You sure?"  It was Trent.

    "Strong chance, like I said it''s the opposite of my style and it''s easy money if he''s got the contacts at a chop shop, which, let''s face it he probably does if he can just make security footage disappear like that."

    "Maybe that was a bluff?"

    "I like the way you think Nate, but all things considered..."  I held up my left hand and everyone else took a tentative look at their own.  "I don''t think Kevin needs to bluff about anything.  Like I said though, I''m guessing.  All I can do is reference what I know from Ray and my old man, and the last time they wanted to challenge me, it was to steal a car."

    "Did you get it?"  Oddly it was Nate who asked.

    "Nah, I ripped the whole interior apart, column included, and then the keys just fell out from the sunshade,  Ray was pissing himself laughing as I took them as some kind of pathetic souvenir of my failure."  As I got a round of chuckles, I tossed my now empty cup into a nearby garbage bin.  "Still have that key, along with a bunch of other stuff from back in the day.  It helped to keep track of certain successes and failures."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    "Well we''ve got a weekend to kill and then most of a week after that to get our shit sorted so why don''t we have some fun along the way, anyone got any ideas?"  Trent had managed to completely redirect the focus of the meeting, something I was grateful for.  Everyone tossed their own ideas out, things like bowling and checking out a new video game themed bar in town before Nate''s phone started ringing.

    "Guys...it says it''s Kevin..." the air had immediately turned and we all stared at the phone in shock.

    "Put it on speaker, " I instructed.

    "Hello?"

    "Nate, hi, first off, I''m sure you''re shitting yourself regarding how I have your number."  He didn''t give a chance for Nate to reply.  "If you''ll remember the first day of classes, I demonstrated an ability to entrance people, you are not immune to that ability, I took a minute a week or so ago and quickly took down all of your numbers, hello to the rest of you by the way."

    "How''d you know?"

    "Oh come on Riley, it''s obvious that by now you''d all be huddled together for safety like the hopeless little creatures you are, undoubtedly revering Mitch as some kind of saviour."

    "What do you want Kevin?" I was agitated by this point.

    "I want you all to shut up so I can have a conversation with Nate here."  He waited for a minute, satisfied with our silence, he continued.  "Now Nate, I have alluded to some co-conspirators of mine and in preparation for this weeks assignment, you''re going to meet one of them, alone."  Another minute of silence.  "Good, you''re listening.  Now I''m sure you''ll all come up with some kind of scheme like having him wear a camera or keep his phone recording during the meet.  Feel free to record the audio, it might help you all down the line, but cameras will be confiscated.  Am I understood?"  We all stated yes and the line clicked off.  Immediately after, Nate received a text.

    "It''s an address."

    "Alright, we''ll drop you off nearby, when you''re walking, call me and we''ll listen in."  He knodded agreement but had suddenly gone pale.

    "Why me?"

    "He thinks you''re the weak link."  I expected resistance when I said it but Nate just got up and started walking to the car.

    "Then lets go prove him wrong."

    The address was far into the east end of the city, unfortunately an area I wasn''t familiar with.  There were a couple attempts to start conversations along the way but fear and paranoia were quickly setting in.  We got lost a couple times in the identical streets and finally used GPS to get to the house.  As I pulled over a part of me couldn''t help but see dozens of prime targets, thousands of dollars in things that easily be relocated.  Shaking the casing part of my brain of out focus, I looked down the street.

    "Eight fifty four, one block straight down here."

    "Ok,"  Nate took a deep breath and called my phone, after I answered he took his own and slid it carefully back into his pocket.  "Here fucking goes."

    As Nate walked, everyone was dead silent, it was made worse by the slight ruffling of Nate''s jeans we could hear over the phone.  He walked slowly, I worried he would bail, but he never did.  Eventually we lost sight of him as he rounded a fence and headed up to a door.  A deep male voice greeted him and ushered him inside.  There was a simple command to follow, which Nate clearly obeyed.  The two desceded a flight of stairs and there was another short, sharp command, now to wait.  From the sound, Nate shuffled a little, obviously nervous.  As footsteps were heard coming back we finally heard Nate''s voice again.

    ''WHAT THE HELL?!"  Something sounded like an explosion and then Nate screaming.  Over it all, the faint sounds of the phone being picked up could be made out.

    "He''ll be in the backyard.  Wait two minutes, no sooner, then bring your car aound and get this mess out of here."  The line went dead and I was terrified.  I didn''t wait, turning into an alley and counting the houses until I knew I was behind the right one.  There was a gate in the way and it seemed to be locked tight.  "I said to fucking wait!"  The voice called from the other side.  Then I heard something fall and hit the ground.  "Go let yourself out, and don''t fucking bleed on my fence!"

    No matter what I did to the gate it didn''t move, eventually I heard some clasps slide and Nate fell through the gate, groaning through a rag stuffed into his mouth and blood covering his body.  Trent helped me get him into the backseat and the girls screamed.

    "What happened in there?"  I tried to hide my panic as Nate removed the gag but I know I didn''t do well.

    "He fucking shot me!"  None of us believed him, but through the blood I managed to see a hole in his shirt that must have been the bullet wound.

    "MITCH!  Fucking get him to a hospital!"  Riley screaming managed to shake me loose and I started driving as fast as I could.  The sounds of Nate groaning in pain, accompanied by the rest of the car doing what they could to try and help him was a whole new kind of terror I never knew I could experience, until I heard him start roaring again.  As I pulled over I caught a wild look from Trent.

    "WHAT. THE. FUCK?!"

    "Trent I can''t drive like this!  I''m freaking the fuck out!"

    "What about Nate dude?!  How do you think he''s doing?"

    "I know...I just.."

    "FUUUUCK!!"  Nate went quiet after one last yell.  His breathing was deep and ragged now.  "Guys..."  Trent and I turned to look and saw that he was holding the bullet.  "It..it doesn''t hurt anymore."