Old Habits Die Hard

I

Di was running as fast as her legs would carry her, the sounds of her friends' voices muffled by the growing distance between them.

"I can't hear you!" she called over her shoulder with a laugh, "You're gonna have to catch up!"

"You'll get tired eventually!" someone, probably Chris, shouted back.

"Yeah right!" Di laughed under her breath. Suddenly, her foot hit a rock and she felt her legs begin to give out. Next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the pavement, her knees skinned deeply and covered in dust and blood. Ignoring the pain which was spreading through her legs, she hopped up as quickly as she could and took off again.

"Ha!" she shouted as she reached the front of her house, "Told you I'd win! I always win!"

"Yeah cos if anyone beats you you'll beat them to a pulp!" Chris panted, catching up to her at last. Di stuck her tongue out at him as the others caught up with them.

"What happened?" Sophie asked, covering her face with her hands at the sight of Di's bleeding knees.

"Just a little blood," Di smirked, "Maybe it'll leave a scar!"

"Oh cos scars from falling on your face are so cool," Chris said sarcastically.

"Let me see!" Jamie pushed through the shoulders of his friends, who were all much taller than him. "Oh that's brutal!" he exclaimed, zooming in on Di's wounded knee with his camera.

"Ah that's gross, don't film that!" Sophie squealed, her face turning a pale shade of green.

"Grow up," Di scolded, rolling her eyes.

"We lost Phil," Peej reported, finally catching up with the rest of his friends.

"What? Where?" Chris asked, turning to face his boyfriend.

"Dunno for sure," he responded, "A couple blocks back I turned and he wasn't behind me anymore."

"Well that's Lester, innit?" Di laughed leading the way inside, "He knows where to find us."

The six friends minus Phil kicked off their shoes and piled their bags by Di's front door before resuming their normal after-school activities in her living room. Di, Sophie, and Jamie planted themselves on the sofa as PJ and Chris wrestled for the "player one" Gamecube remote.

"--I really don't get why you have to film us talking about making a video," Di addressed Jamie.

"I want to make sure I document everything!" he squeaked, "What if you come up with the best idea in the universe? I'll have it on tape!"

"I guess," she rolled her eyes.

"I think it's cool," Sophie encouraged, smiling at the small boy with the camera.

"Thanks," he grinned from behind the lens.

"—Gimme tha—Ow!" Chris screamed from the floor, "You bit me! Peej bit me!"

"You had it last time," PJ smirked, holding the controller out of Chris' reach.

"You two don't have to play that game, you know. You could help us," Di pointed out.

"Yeah, well I try to help you," Peej defended, "But you never want to use my ideas!"

"That isn't true!" Di retorted, "Your scripts are just—they're really weird," she admitted, "but your ideas are good!"

"Uh huh, right," Peej said mockingly, "You just don't appreciate my work."

"I think it's really creative," Sophie piped up.

"So do I!" Di remarked, "But if we are really going to enter the festival this year, I just want it to be the best script it can be!"

"Come on Diana," Chris said, "Peej's scripts are better than anything you've ever written!"

"That's it, Kendall—" Di bounded off the sofa and was on top of Chris in a split second, "You wanna die?"

"Hey, hey!" Sophie tried to calm the atmosphere as PJ pulled Di off of Chris, "There's no need to fight. We all just need to work together," she pointed out.

"Sophie's right," Peej agreed, "We need to work to everybody's strengths if we wanna make something good enough to compete at this festival."

"Yeah," Jamie piped up, still manning his camera, "I've been to this festival. The cinematography level on some of these films is impressive, but I think we can compete with some wide-angle shots and maybe some cool action sequences, I'm good at those, and maybe if we—"

"Woah, woah, slow down!" Di said, grabbing her notebook and pen, "Let me write this stuff down!"

"Okay," Jamie complied, "Here I'll start over. Wide-angle shots, action sequenc—"

"What about a horror movie?" Chris piped up, still lying on the floor.

"Oooh!" Jamie squealed, "Oh that could be so cool! We could do so many awesome angles in a horror film—"

"—and the effects!" Peej chimed in, "Think about the effects we could do."

"I don't know," Di said, "Horror films don't have very good plots."

"So we'll make one with a good plot!" Chris said, "No one will expect it!"

"Maybe..." Di still didn't sound convinced.

"I could do some really cool makeup effects with a horror movie, I think," Sophie mumbled, "That could get us an edge on the competition."

"Hmm," Di thought, "Maybe. Maybe a horror movie could be cool."

"Phil would make a sweet killer!" Peej laughed, "His innocent vibes would make it even better!"

"What about Phil?" Phil's voice wafted in from the front door.

"Oi, where have you been?" Chris called to the boy who had just entered the house.

"Sorry, got distracted by the iki van," he laughed, "What are we saying about Phil?"

"We're talking about how you're deceptively innocent," Di said, causing Phil to laugh. "How do you feel about being a killer in a horror movie?"

"Sounds sweet," he said, plopping down on the floor next to PJ.

"So are we decided then?" Sophie asked, "We're doing a horror film?"

"It's not official til we seal it," Di piped up, "Spit pact."

"Spit pact," the other four said in unison, forming a huddle near Diana. She licked her hand and put it in the center. "Horror movie?" she asked. Each of the other five each licked their own hands and piled them on top of each other in the center of the huddle.

"Horror movie," they all agreed.

"If any of you breaks the pact," Di instructed, "You have to lick the front gate at school. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" they all chanted, throwing their arms in the air as Di smiled.

"We are gonna make the best movie ever."