#curlyfirefly

Connor tilted his chin up like he had won something, “If you lose, you change your powers and join my gang.”

Desi glared at the boy. No. There was no way he would be willing to stoop so low. He knew how she felt about that, damnit! How could he put her in such a terrible position? She let out a shaky breath. 

Across from her, Connor raised a hand and pointed in her direction, “What about you?”Desi thought for a second, then squared here shoulders. If he was going to hit low blows, so would she. 

“If I win,” she said, “You give up matches for life.”

Connor’s smile did falter that time. Though she was satisfied at his change in demeanor, she couldn’t deny a prick of guilt prodding at her from the back of her mind. It was buried, however, when the full weight of her deal with him had settled on her and replaced all of her emotions with anger. At long last, Connor made his way towards Desi. She met him halfway. 

“Next week,” Connor said, “Six o’clock.” 

Two hours later she found herself sprawled on the couch of the basement. She was in the living room earlier, but the others complained about the chill and so she was banished to finish her bout of angst below. That’s where Amber found her.

“You need to stop sulking.”

“Shut up,” Desi hid her face under a pillow. 

She did not feel like talking to anyone, not even Amber. What had happened earlier was still eating at her mind. All she could do—all she wanted to do, really—was allow her anger to feed on the memory. How dare he do something so unnecessary, so incredibly infuriating! Not only did he put the both of them in the spotlight, oh no. He had used the system to hit her where she was weak. Connor knew— more than knew— he understood what her gang and her powers meant to her. 

There were very few things Desi cherished in her life, the two most important being her own abilities, and even more important, her gang. Those two things had become ingrained in her. They were a bigger part of her identity than her own name. What hurt her most, however, was not the thought of losing either of those things because of a match, it was that fact that Connor was the one threatening to rip them from her. 

The pillow was lifted from her face. Amber smirked down at her, the bare bulb illuminating the basement gave her hair the impression that it was on fire. As a result Desi tried to snatch back the pillow, but her friend only held it out of reach. The arch of her brow was enough to assure Desi that any objections to this conversation would be in vain.

“There’s frost on the tv,” Amber tossed the pillow away. Desi refused to answer. Instead she continued to glare at the television until icicles formed along the bottom of the screen. In her current state of mind, she wasn’t about to do anything in order to please anyone. She knew it was stupid, but if Amber didn’t want the television frosted over, she would make sure that sucker couldn’t be thawed for a week. Unfortunately for her, Amber was losing patience fast. She picked up a nearby book –by the looks of it it was one of Teddy’s—and threw it at the basement wall. It nearly dented the cement, “Dez. Stop. Now.”          

  The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees as Desi sprang up. 

“You heard his terms!” she cried, “You expect me to be ok with them?”

“He did that to get your attention,” Amber plopped down across an armchair, “Anyways, you could have refused.”

“He did it to screw me over!” Desi cried.The red head shrugged, “You really should have seen this coming. I mean, how long has he been trying to get you into his gang, like, two years now?”

Amber was right. Desi sighed and allowed herself a moment to remember the way things used to be. 

Back before she or Connor had powered up, the two lived only a few houses away from each other in Brooklyn. They had been friends for years until ninth grade, when the two began dating. Then one day Connor disappeared. It wasn’t until Desi had gotten her own powers six months later that she learned the truth about her friend during her very first match. 

Like any new kid she was nervous about the prospect of fighting with powers she could scarcely control. She was downright mortified when she found out she would be fighting someone with much more experience. When the two stepped up to fight, however, things went differently than anyone had expected. They recognized each other at once and wasted no time in forfeiting in favor of catching up.

“I almost set fire to the block,” Connor laughed. He and Desi had ditched their gangs that night and made their way to a playground halfway between their respective safe houses. Desi sat on a swing and listened as Connor recounted the night he powered up, “One minute I was doing homework, the next my geometry book’s on fire.” 

“You always did hate math,” Desi laughed, then sobered when a thought came to her, “Why did you run off without telling me?”

Connor frowned, “What and burn your house down? How’d it happen with you?” 

Desi gave a humorless smile at the memory.“Remember that fish tank my dad had in the living room?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Froze it solid while feeding the fish,” she said, “ I ran out of the house after that and kept going until I crossed into Manhattan,” she paused, “I wonder what made it happen.” 

Connor shrugged, “No one knows. It just does.”

“But why?” she turned her attention to her shoes, “This kind of stuff belongs in comics or Narnia, not in real life.”

“Apparently it does,” he said, “It happened to us.”Desi didn’t look up, “I wish it hadn’t.”

The swing next to her creaked and jingled as Connor leaned closer to her.          

“Well, I’m glad it did,” he said. At that, Desi lifted her head towards him. She offered him a small smile as he swung just close enough to nudge her shoulder. 

The two of them picked up their relationship as if they had pressed play on a paused song. Whenever they weren’t with their own gangs, they would often be found together in some corner of the city. The only difference – aside from the powers and gangs—in their relationship was their newfound rivalry in the ring. Whenever their gangs had skirmish matches, neither side would hesitate to pit Desi and Connor against each other. It was all in good fun, as both had a healthy competitive streak.

 If Desi were honest, she enjoyed this new facet of their relationship. Connor was never one to let her win at anything, so she relished each and every time she beat him in the ring. Of course, they’d go out afterwards, the loser having to buy the winner an ice cream or pretzel.The trouble came when Connor got it into his head that Desi should join his gang. 

First and foremost, she did not want to abandon Amber and the others; especially after all they’d done helping her get assimilated to life “Underground” as they called it. Second was the part that Desi hated even more. In order for her to join up in Connor’s gang— a gang that was made up solely of teens who could control fire— she would need to swap her power. 

A power swap could only be performed once in a lifetime. If it was done, the effects were permanent. Desi, after working months to gain control over her ice, had grown attached to her ability as most powered teens did. She saw it as a vital part of herself. To change it would be to deny a link in her dna.  As a result she refused to even consider taking up Connor’s offer, and their friendly rivalry was tainted with a bitterness felt on both sides. In spite of Desi’s multiple refusals, he still tried everything to get her to see his side of the argument.Or almost everything, Desi thought. His latest attempt—the grievance match—was his worst yet. This time, it seemed he was determined to get his way by any means.           

 “I didn’t think he would force me,” Desi said.           

 “He’s only potentially forcing you,” Amber corrected, “He’ll be forcing you if he beats you.”           

 “That’s a technicality,” Desi waved it off, then shot Amber a scowl, “Whose side are you on anyway?”

“No one’s,” Amber chuckled, “I’m the mistress of neutrality remember? I couldn’t care less how you and lover boy work this out as long as you do.”

Desi was quiet for a long time. Thoughts that ranged from anger, to betrayal, to fear tumbled around in her brain in knots. At the center of it all was the one thing she was sure of.

 “I don’t want to leave the gang,” she said at last. The couch cushion dipped under Amber’s weight as she sat down next to her. She took Desi’s hand and looked her straight in the eye. There was the same intensity Desi saw just before Amber battled in her own matches.

 “Then win.”