{1} Tempest {Sweet Pea}

XVIII

Storm was back in the garage, she had her radio blasting, and she was eating.

She hadn't stopped eating since the hospital, since the hospital food was horrible in her opinion. She smiled at the soundproofing walls in the garage, so she could play her radio as loud as she wanted.

Until a pounding was heard on her door and she picked up the remote, quickly turning it down.

"It's open!" She calls and Jughead came in with Fangs, Sweet Pea, and Toni, who were all carrying food.

"Okay, what is this?" She asks as he looks at her with a disbelieving gaze on his face. "Am I starving?" She asks and Jughead tossed her a bag of Pop's and she opened it.

"I was gonna say Happy Birthday, but apparently you have forgotten that as well." Jughead unwrapped a burger as she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Seriously? Wow, I've really been through hell if I forgot about my own birthday." Storm says and then the door busted open.

"We were gonna use this for the meeting. You're gonna have to move this little loser party."

Archie says and Storm stands up before the other three could, shooting them a warning look.

"This is my garage Archie. And something tells me, that it's not for a birthday party. So you're gonna have to find another place for your meeting of the Red Circle. Case in point not my room. Thank you. Happy Birthday. Go now." She said, and slammed the door in their faces without another word.

Jughead's mouth was wide open and Fangs whistled, clapping for her quick thinking, followed by Sweet Pea and a sort of asleep Toni.

"Thank you, thank you. Now for the love of god just stop already all of you, I'm not that impressive. Who wants to play a round?" She asked, and Toni let out a snort when she took a cue stick.

"I play the winner of it all. This should be fun to watch." She says.

Toni versus Fangs ended up taking a surprisingly long time, all things now considering that Toni didn't usually...

She never played with the others, it was usually Storm who plays pool and Toni would watch and wait tables.

Fangs eventually beat her, but it was a real close game. Fangs got destroyed it was not even a match and Jughead, he chose not to play.

"Surprise, surprise." Storm says, taking the cue stick from Fangs as Sweet Pea lined the balls up again.

"Not really. Your break." Sweet Pea offered and she chalked up her stick before shooting the cue ball.

Jughead was asleep, as was Toni by the time they were finished and Fangs crept out of the garage.

Storm beat him again and Sweet Pea sighed as they shook hands quickly as she looked over at Jughead and Toni.

"You've improved. Besides, you're used to playing single player. You're doing pretty well. You've beaten me a couple times, and it's not like I'm a big expert myself at it." Storm says as she looked at the two sleeping kids.

"Guess that I'm the one on the floor with a sleeping bag again." She says, grabbing a burger from the Pop's bag that still held food in it.

"What are you working on?" Sweet Pea came over to stand behind her as she sat on a wheelie chair and spun to face her computer.

"Law school stuff. It's boring." She says as she opened her computer and began to type quickly, and then one of her quizzes popped up on screen.

"The accused, in this example of beating someone to death, would have to not admit to what... in order for their lawyer to move the sentence to manslaughter."
A) Knowing it was a possibility to beat them to death.
B) Knowing it was their fault.

Sweet Pea raised his eyebrows at the screen. "It's A, in case you were into it for a second." Storm says, clicking the circle and there was a couple more of the questions, which she answered at once.

"What made you want to become a lawyer? Was it just your mom? Or did you know that you also wanted to be one?" Sweet Pea asked, after he sat on the couch and she turned around with the laptop on her lap now.

"I wanted to be one. My nickname is the mediator. My mom insists that I'd be a great lawyer. I mean, I've already gotten into a good online law school. I mean, she insisted, and I decided that, yeah, it was what I wanted to do." She says and as Jughead fell off the couch, she chuckled.

"Negotiator, Mediator. Those were all nicknames, that ended me up back in a hospital bed. But, it's worth it. Every time." She says and he nods.

"So it's happened before." It was a statement not a question and she nods quickly.

"Mostly in Chicago and now this Red Circle, has permanently been changed in order to shut up the Northsider in a gang of Southside Serpents."

She said and grabbed her phone, and opens the camera app quickly.

She looked at Jughead and Toni, who were asleep barely a whole foot away from each other and she took a couple pictures without the flash on.

Then she turned the flash back on, taking the picture, when the camera flashed, the both of them jumped and woke up quickly with yells.

Storm was laughing at them as they tried to get their wind back, and she was hysterically laughing, almost like she couldn't breathe.

She stuck her face into her hands so that she didn't have to look at them so she could attempt to regain control.

"I think you're killing her." Sweet Pea's voice came through, and she began to laugh again, as she tried to control it all over again.

"You think we are?" Jughead exclaimed and then gesturing at Storm, who was hiccuping.

"Okay. You have school tomorrow, all of you. So get going." She said, looking at her phone. "It's 1am. Get going. I've got law school." She said and they all shrugged, and walked away.