Project: High School

Chapter 22 - "After you."

Richerson sighs in response, running a hand through his hair as he looks back up at Katy. A flicker of something flashes through his eyes for a moment as he watches Katy laugh at the people who keep failing the hammock climb. Nelly notices this flicker and reaches over to squeeze his arm as a means of comfort, knowing what he's thinking.

This situation of being sent undercover is the very same that got Katy's mother, Tyler, killed 7 years ago. Tyler's death broke Richerson, having been in love with her since high school, and Nelly knows that, if he loses Katy, he'll be barely able to keep going.

She looks over at Katy as well and softly speaks, still rubbing Richerson's arm, "I can't believe them... They really can't just let things lie, can't they...?"

Richerson shakes his head, looking utterly defeated. "And Katy knows exactly what they're doing, even though she doesn't show it. She's letting them do as they want so that she has a shot for revenge. Even if the chances she'll achieve it are slim to none."

Katy looks over and her smile dims a little when she see's the expressions on their faces, knowing what they're talking about, and feeling a pang of guilt in her heart. She loves them dearly, she see's them has her second family, but she hasn't told them everything and she won't anytime soon. Especially since her house got blown up last night, both her and her grandparents targeted with that explosion. Katy takes a moment, thinking furiously, and then perks up, a mischievous grin curving her lips.

"Hey Richy!"

Richerson and Nelly pause in their conversation to look over at Katy, whose grin has only grown wider. The two share a slightly worried glance, both knowing she's come up with something that might end up with someone getting hurt.

"Yes, Katy?"

"Care to make a bet?"

Katy's words gains Richerson's interest, his competitive nature sparking to life. "And that would be?"

She jerks her head towards the hammock climb, her grin growing even wider, "I bet 50 bucks that I can climb that in less time than it takes you."

Nelly laughs quietly to herself, knowing that Katy is provoking her husband on purpose to lighten his dreary mood, and nudges him towards her, "Go on."

He nods excitedly, his mood already improving, and practically bounds over to Katy, who tries hard not to burst into laughter at how much he reminds her of a golden retriever.

"So." Katy crosses her arms as the two of them watch another person attempt the hammock climb. "You'll be going first, naturally, and I'll go after you. However, the goal is to be faster than each other, not for any of the prizes that are offered. Sound good?"

"Sounds good to me. Who's going first?"

"Hmm..." Katy trails off as she thinks, watching the person fall of the climb. "I'll go first, you try to beat me."

Richerson gives her a sideways look, clearly having an internal struggle over whether or not he should underestimate her. After a few seconds, he decides to be cautious this time around and waves her towards the booth, "After you."

Katy snorts and hands him her calico stuffy before sauntering over to the booth to pay her tickets and promptly gets in line to attempt it. A couple of the guys in the group who went earlier do double takes when they spot Katy, her flaming red hair and confident way of carrying herself catching both their attention and their hormone driven attraction. She, naturally, notices the stares and sends them a small smile, one that they immediately interpret as a flirty one, which makes the entire group pay much closer attention to the activity than they were before.

Nelly picks up on what Katy's doing to the poor boys and just shakes her head with a soft laugh, the sound going in one of Richerson's ears and right out the other. He's far to focused on the other peoples attempts at the hammock climb, trying to find a simplistic way to succeed with minimal effort based on the other's fails, to really pay much heed to his wife, despite her being less than a foot away from him. However, Nelly is more than used to this sort of tunnel vision from her husband. He has one of the worst sort of competitive natures, and it gets so bad at times that he can completely tune out most situations in favor of whatever has challenged him.

Nelly, on the other hand, quite enjoys these sort of situations with her husband, especially nowadays with how the pregnancy has been hitting her. She wholeheartedly enjoys taking little videos of the mutterings that Richerson makes throughout his hyper-fixation and later uses them to cause him as much embarrassment as she possibly can. Katy, being in on Nelly's mischievous habits and enjoying them just as much, likes to set up these little competitions with Richerson just to see his face when Nelly uses the short video's to embarrass the poor man.

If you were to ask Katy her thoughts on this particular habit of Nelly's at the cost of Richersons pride, she'd tell you that he voluntarily signed up for this stuff when he first asked her out. And that marrying her was definitely a turning point in how much enjoyment she gets out of her own teasing.

Meanwhile, and moving back to the current situation, one of the boys from the group approaches Katy as she waits in line.

"Hi there, beautiful."

Katy give the boy a cute little wave and a soft smile as she responds, "Oh please, I'm just average looking."

The boy scoffs dismissively, obviously not believing her, which is fair because even he can see the confident way she carries herself. This causes Katy to laugh lightly, which in turn makes the boy flush, seeing as he wasn't expecting such a sweet noise from a very badass looking girl.

"Ahem... Well, I was wondering if I could get your number. And I want to warn you that this thing isn't anywhere near as easy as it looks." The boy nods toward the hammock climb, sending it a short glare, it did cause his pride to take a hit after all.

"Hmm..." Katy taps her finger on her lips, looking very thoughtful, as she watches yet another person fall off the hammock, "How does this sound? If i manage to make it about halfway before falling off, I'll give you my number."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I always knock on the fridge door before opening it, just in case there's a salad dressing