sugar, spice and everything nice.

FOUR

"I love her, Babcia. And she broke my heart. What do I do?"

Babcia looked at Lia over her glasses. "Well, Lia, what do you think you should do?"

"Move on?" Lia guessed. "Like everyone else? Just get over her, find someone else, like everyone else."

"Well, you could do that," Babcia admitted. "But 'everyone else' does not have the necessary skills to end the life of anyone who has hurt them."

Lia stared at her. "You mean... kill Tessie? Tessie? I'm supposed to kill her? But I love her! I just told you that-"

"You lost your virginity to a girl who got a boyfriend half a month later after leading you on. I don't think she deserves your love."

"But still - wait. How do you know I lost my virginity to her?"

Babcia raised her eyes to the sky, as if to say, Dear God, why did you give me this child?'' Please take her back. She sighed. "I can hear it in the way you talk about her, kochanie. You can't hide anything from me."

Lia didn't have the heart to sigh. "Fine. We'll kill her. What do we need to do?"

Babcia leant over the counter, a twinkle in her eye. "First we must decide how, precisely, we will kill her. Second - and this is the best part, kochanie - is who we will frame.

✣ ✣ ✣

Lia walked through the doors of the restaurant, heading to the main desk. The secretary looked up, a fifty-something year old woman. Lia disliked her instantly.

"I'm here for the interview."

"Ah, there you are!" A man in a business suit ran over to her. "You must be the girl here for the interview!"

"Yeah, here are my documents-"

"Unnecessary," the manager declared. "You're hired. We're too short on staff to reject someone. What's your name?"

"Emily," Lia lied. She and Babcia had come up with a fake name, age and identity, as well as found a wig, glasses and contacts in a storage box.

"Well, Emily, here's your uniform. You start tomorrow."

✣ ✣ ✣

Lia had all the ingredients at home.

She had her bucket and toxins. She made sure to use gloves and glasses, as well as a mask, and then she opened the hand sanitizer. She poured it all in, until it filled a quarter of the bucket. She carefully used a knife to cut open an aerosol can of rat poison and emptied it into the bucket, then squeezed nail polish remover into the concoction.

She used a separate bucket to mix rubbing alcohol and bleach, then poured it into the mix. She stirred it together until it was yogurt-y, then added the secret ingredient: borax.

It was her third week at the restaurant, and she knew that Tessie would be eating there tonight. She poured her mixture into a little polish bottle, then slipped it into her uniform pocket. She donned her black wig, green contacts, fake glasses and acrylics, then drove to the mall. Tessie, Elijah and Aria came in ten minutes later. She watched them chat, then headed over when she thought they were ready. She made her voice higher, and asked, "May I take your order?"

"Can I have a cheeseburger with fries?" Tessie asked.

She took a note of it, and wrote down Aria and Eli's orders too.

She walked to the kitchens. "A cheeseburger with fries, a blood steak and a hot dog for table four!"

When the food was ready, she secretly glazed Tessie's order with the concoction, then waited five minutes to deliver it.

She couldn't wait for the result.

✣ ✣ ✣

Tessie felt like shit, but she didn't let it show. "So you two got partnered up in math? What do you even need to do in math? Make a sculpture of Isaac Newton?"

Aria snorted. "God, I wish. That would be so fun. And then we could paint him in little mathematical symbols."

"Then what do you have to do?" Tessie asked.

"We have to make a three-dimensional model of a graph of something. I think we should do it for the percentages of Holocaust deaths."
Aria looked at Eli, aghast. "Absolutely not! This is math class mixed with art, not the history of genocide! We will not make a 3D graph of dead people!"

Tessie laughed. She bit into her burger, and sighed. "I wish I could do that. I need to write a history essay, finish a painting, write a letter and read four chapters of some old book. It's exhausting. I want to jump in front of a car. School is way too stressful."

"Besides," Eli added. "The teachers suck. All they do is embarass you and cut you down."

"'Your college professors will not tolerate this, you know,'" Aria mimicked.

Eli laughed. "They're ridiculous."

He checked his watch. "Shit, it's late. My dads will kill me. I should go."

"Me too," Aria said. "Talia needs help with something. What about you?"

"I should go too," Tessie said. "I might have a fever. I should go to bed."

Lia brought over the check, and they paid, then each left quickly. Lia went to the bathroom, then changed into her normal clothes and took off her wig, glasses and contacts.

She followed Tessie into the parking lot, and listened to her call her mom. "Hey, Mom. I'm coming home now. I don't feel too well. I might have a fever. Yeah, I'll drive safe. No, I'm not drunk. I haven't had any alcohol today. Promise. Love you!"

As Tessie was about to open her door, Lia kicked her in the back. Tessie flipped around, her nose gushing blood. Her vision was blurry. "You," she gasped.

"Me," Lia grinned.

"Why?" Tessie demanded.

Lia cocked her head. "You took my virginity, then broke my heart. It's only fitting."

Then she slashed Tessie's throat, and Theresa Emily Smith stopped breathing.

✣ ✣ ✣

"Hey, can I do something?" Lia asked.

Emilio swivelled around. "Sure," he said.

Lia pulled out a marker, then coloured Emilio's fingers. She handed him an empty coffee cup. "Hold this."

Emilio held it, puzzled, then gave it back when Lia held out her hand. "Thanks," she said, and sprinted away.

✣ ✣ ✣

Lia carefully recreated Emilio's fingerprints, sticking them onto the concoction ingredients. She put on gloves, then dropped them in an old paper bag. She put them in Emilio's homework drawer, then snuck back into the precession.

Emilio was going to prison.