Summertime

Chapter Seven-In the Middle of a Gunfight

“Hey…hey, Ghost…” Fun Ghoul whispered in my ear, poking my shoulder. I groaned into my pillow. He had been softly prodding me for the past ten minutes, attempting to wake me up, and only annoying me half to death. I sat up, glaring at him so hard I was surprised when holes weren’t drilled into his forehead.

“What the hell do you want?!” I snarled at him.

The second the words were out of my mouth, I was greeted with a splash of freezing cold water to my face. With a shriek, I shook my head and wiped the wet hair from my eyes. Rage quickly took over. Laughing, Fun Ghoul darted out of the room.

“You little fucker! I’m going to kick you in the balls so hard your mom is going to feel it!” I yelled. He smirked at me from around the corner.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” he cried before running. I leapt out of bed and charged after him.

I chased him wildly through the hallway of the diner and into the kitchen. For about five minutes, we did nothing but circle each other around the dining table before Party Poison found us.

“…What the fuck did you do this time, Ghoul?” Poison said in shock as he looked at me, soaked in water and angry as hell.

“I was trying to save her the trouble of taking a shower,” Fun Ghoul giggled innocently.

“I’m gonna—”

I was stopped mid sentence as Poison grabbed my arm to prevent me from ripping Goul’s smug face to shreds.

“That’s enough, you two. Ghost, you can shower now if you want, the bathroom’s free. We’ll be going to tear down a BLI base today, so you’d better be ready,” he said shortly. I nodded. He seemed to be in a bad mood, and when Party Poison was in a bad mood, the best thing you could do is to stay out of his way.

After subtly flipping Ghoul off one last time, I headed towards the bathroom for a shower. Kobra Kid came around the corner and almost bumped into me.

“Well, you’re up early. Why are you all wet?” he laughed. I grinned. It was really quite amazing to see how Kobra could brighten my mood so easily.

“Ghoul decided to be nice and save me the bother of taking a shower. I’m taking one anyway,” I added. Kobra wrapped his arms around me and gave me a brief kiss. I smiled. We had been dating for about two months now.

I hugged him one last time before heading to the bathroom. The only real reason I had come to stay with the Killjoys, I had teased Kobra multiple times, was because they had a working shower.

After my shower I hurried into the dining room to eat a late breakfast of—guess what—Power Pup with everyone. Dr. Death-Defying was broadcasting something in the radio room with Show Pony, and Grace was outside watering the few small desert flowers she had managed to grow. The rest of us were spread out amongst dining tables, wolfing down Power Pup.

“So…what’s with this tearing down a BLI base?” I asked Party Poison as I sat down next to Kobra Kid.

“It’s half radio station, half storage center. We can use the radio part of it to broadcast a message, take things we need from the storage part, and then finally we’ll burn down the place and ghost any Dracs near it,” Zero said from across the room. I smiled; Zero, the utter know-it-all.

“Sounds cool. What kind of things do you think are in the storage building?” I said, making a face at Fun Ghoul as he entered the room.

“Dunno. Food, weapons…maybe some maps,” Poison muttered absently.

In ten minutes we were ready to go. The Killjoys and I were the only ones leaving; Dr. D, Show Pony, and Grace would stay behind because Party Poison insisted I come along, and there wasn’t anymore room in the Trans Am. The other four girls would ride in the jeep behind us.