New Family

Play to Win

Uzi snickered to herself as she prepared the stage, setting a large foldable table in her bedroom while N and V watched from the side. N for his part is watching with curiosity in his bright yellow eyes while V stared blankly at her cell phone as she texted. The three were set for a game night with their friends, proposed by N for fun and upped the ante on by V who thought having a betting pool would make things interesting. So the trio would serve as a Team 1 while Lizzy, Thad, and whatever poor sap they string along would form Team 2.

As the Worker Drone set a few canisters of oil at the table, V called out without looking up, "Liz' should be here about now." Not a moment later, a knock is heard from the front door of the Doorman residence.

From behind the walls, Uzi could vaguely hear the muffled voice of her father speaking to the visitors. She yelled out, "Let them in Dad!"

A muffled "Okay!" came through the wall as inaudible muttering came from the visitors. After a moment, Lizzy and Thad both walked through Uzi's bedroom door and entered.

N waved, "Hi Thad! Hi Lizzy!"

"Nice to see ya', N-and-M's!" Thad shot a finger gun at N whilst Lizzy ignored the tallest drone, instead walking over to V.

"Sup bestie," Lizzy offered a fist bump which V met with a lazy hand.

Uzi scrutinized them, only nodding back to a greeting from Thad and glaring at Lizzy (who completely ignored her). Waiting only a few seconds, she called out, "So where's your teammate, think you could beat us with just the two of you?"

As all of the drones sat at the table, Thad and Lizzy left a seat between them empty. The popular girl flicked her ponytail in the air, "Oh, they're here. They just want to make an entrance because they're a diva like V."

While V gave an offended "hey!", Lizzy playfully waved her off while snapping her fingers at Thad. He eagerly smirked and began to rapidly smack his fingers on the table like a pseudo drum. Hiding away from sight from inside the room, someone sighed and began to walk into view.

The pigtailed newcomer stepped around with an unamused look on her face while the trio of Uzi, N, and V yelled out in surprise. "J!?"

Thad stopped his drumming and waved his hands, "Tada! Our ticket to victory!"

J raised an eyebrow at him before taking her seat at the table, shooting a look at Lizzy beside her, "For the record, the entrance wasn't my idea."

Lizzy rolled her eyes, "Oh c'mon, don't be a diva about being a diva. The best girl of the night deserves a little spotlight."

J tilted her head up and thought about it, "You know what, sure. I can accept that."

V sputtered from her seat, "Lizzy!?"

The cheerleader reached over the table, grabbing V's hand and affectionately patted it, "Chill bestie, you're still #1 to me." They smiled for a moment before Lizzy jumped back to her chair and crossed her arms, "Of course, having the objective #1 player on my team is what's important."

Uzi's eye twitched, darting her eyes between the three of them, to N and V in confusion, then back to J, "What!? How!? WHY!? You hate Worker Drones!"

J scoffed, "Oh please, that was the old me back when I thought we were actually doing something good for humanity. Ever since...." She cringed at the thought, "everything...I've decided to relax a bit."

N tilted his head, "That's nice, J...but how did, you know...?"

Thad raised his hand, "Oh, it was the night all of you went into that creepy bunker. Things started to get crazy and fly into the air, then Uzi's dad found us and..."