"You are aware you two are insane, correct?"

"You've said that 4 times already Josh, can we use the rink Thursday night or not?"

"Actually you can have it all day. We canceled everything for the week on Tuesday."

"You did? Did I miss the email about that? Did you send it just to Francesca? She didn't mention it to me."

"We didn't cancel you two but everything else we did. We wanted to give you two as much ice time as possible, even while we tried to sort this out."

"Thanks Josh. So Thursday? Are we all good?"

"Barb is going to cry when I tell her what you two are doing but yes. Thank you Ryder. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for us."

"There are no two people more deserving than you and Barb. I need to run but I will see you tomorrow, Josh." I give Josh a pat on the arm even though I think he wants to give me a hug but besides Bray the other day the only person I really hug ever is Francesca. With everyone else emotions and stuff is still scary and uncomfortable but when she is upset, I don't have time to feel anything but concern. When people have cried around me in the past I have just frozen in fear but yesterday when she began to cry I sprung right into action to make her feel better again.

"Where are you going?" Josh yells after me as I reach the front door.

"I have a murder to commit," I yell back flashing him a big smile before I dart out the door to my car.

I drive straight to the arena where the figure skaters are ending their practice and park my car in a different parking lot so no one sees it. Francesca thinks I am with Bray doing work for tomorrow but really I am on a killing spree. Of the original group there are less than 30 of us left in the game of assassins. Yesterday when I unpaused the game I used the crowded bar to my advantage and took out Dunk and then Spittsie back to back. I have seen Dunk's popsicle earlier so I planned it just right. Now I have Colleen, a freshman on the figure skating team.

I hide in a bush outside the arena and wait for everyone to leave. I could strike the second I see Colleen but I still don't know who has me so I would prefer she be alone. I finally see Colleen leave the arena, her head on a swivel, speed walking toward where she lives. I let her get some distance before crossing to the opposite side of the street and begin to follow her. As she gets farther from the arena she slows up but I remain on the opposite sidewalk from her until her guard is fully down.

Finally she is relaxed and pops one headphone in. I use this to my advantage and cross the street and come up behind her. Shooting someone in the back, even with silly string, is too cowardly for me so I reach out and tap her shoulder.

"Sorry Colleen," I tell her before spraying her jacket with silly string.

"Shit," she whines before handing me over her popsicle stick. "Good luck with that one, you're gonna need it."

Colleen sends a quick message to the group chat announcing her death before walking off. I flip the popsicle stick over to see whose name is written on it and let out a long string of curses. "Of course I would get fucking Luna," I mumble as I stalk back to my car. Luna already tries to keep a 10 foot radius between us at all times, how am I going to get close enough to take her out?

I decide to worry about that another day and text Francesca instead. I hate how pathetic this sounds, since I just saw her yesterday night, but I miss her.

Me: What are we doing today?

Beck: Me, you, ladies, movie day?

Me: Pick you up in 20?

Beck: See you then!

I walk back to my car and drive to Francesca place. Hoping for a miracle I head up to Francesca's apartment hoping that I can get close enough to Luna to take her out. I knock on the door because unlike our house they always lock the door.

Parker flings the door open then throws himself across their kitchen table. "I don't have you Parker, relax."

"He doesn't," Francesca assures him even though she doesn't know who I have anymore. I haven't decided yet if I should tell her I have Luna or not, I know she won't help me take out her best friend.

"Oh, well then hey man."

"Hey Parker," I laugh as he picks himself off the ground and dusts himself off.

"By any chance do you know who Bray has? He texted me about the clinic thing and said we should work on it together today but I think it is a trap."

"No idea, he refused to tell me," I shrug and Francesca returns from her bedroom with her jacket and a backpack. "Ready?"

"Yup," she smiles and hooks her arm around mine, dragging me away. I guess today is not my day to kill Luna.

I follow Francesca down to my car and we head to the store before heading to my place for some snacks. I have to admit our snack selection is kind of pathetic. It is mostly fruits and veggies, since we both have kind of strict diets, but we do get a package of cookies so it's not all bad.

"Wait Ry," Francesca calls from behind me as we walk up to the house.

"Yeah Beck?"

"What if whoever has me is in there? It isn't safe."

I stop and turn around looking at her wide eyes staring at the house. She is so proud she survived this long and I would be completely gutted if I brought her into the house and she was ambushed. We have been avoiding people the last two days mostly to protect her and I am not changing that.

"Come here." I set our snack bag down and pick her up. My big jacket is open so most of her is hidden and protected by it and the little bit of her exposed I have my arm firmly wrapped around her. "Ready butt?"

"Ready," she nods, holding on to me for dear life. I pick up the snack bag and continue toward the house. When I walk in there are a few people in the kitchen but they all jump back when they see me, scared I will do to them what I did last night to our two other teammates.

I don't even bother saying hi to anyone and head right up the stairs to my room. Francesca clings to me the entire time, her face buried in my neck as if no one is going to figure out what little figure skater would be attached to me like a koala.

When we reach my room Francesca doesn't loosen her grip until she hears the lock click. "Am I safe?"

"You're safe, Beck."

She drops to her feet finally and checks around the room before finally trusting she is safe. "You give off a lot of body heat."

"Thank you? I think."

I am about to ask what movie we should watch when a knock at the door has Francesca flying across the room as far from the door as possible. I open the door just a little to see who is knocking. "What's up, Bray?"

"I finished the poster and wanted your approval before I post it."

"Who does he have," Francesca whispers from next to me out of Bray's line of sight.

"I swear I don't have you Beck. Look, I don't even have my bottle on me." Bray pats himself down and once I am satisfied he isn't here simply to kill Francesca I open the door fully.

Francesca is less trusting and remains slightly behind me holding the back of my shirt tightly in her fists. "Lets see it Bray," she says with a little nod.

He flips his Ipad toward us so we can review it. I think it's good so I look at Francesca waiting for her opinion. I have my arm protectively around her and as she looks at it closely and Bray wiggles his eyebrows at me. I flip him off with my free hand but he just smirks in return, unfazed.

"Looks great Bray, thank you!"

"No problem, I will go post it now."

Bray leaves and Francesca quickly kicks her shoes off, pulls out the rats and climbs into my bed. "Do you mind if I get under the covers? I am cold."

I pull the comforter back and she crawls under, just her head poking out on my pillow. The ladies all settled themselves close to her. Unlike her, I am sweating so I take my shirt off and throw it on the chair before joining all of them under the covers.

"What movie Beck? I trust you after last time."

"Um um um I am choking! I can't remember a single movie I have ever watched!"

I laugh at her panic as she grabs the remote from my hands, opens Netflix's and begins scrolling through movies so fast I am not even sure she can make out the name. "You're cracking under the pressure," I mock as she fumbles the remote.

"Ah ha," she yells, clicking on a movie before the little preview can even play.

"What is it?"

"You have to trust the process, ok? Just watch and enjoy!"

I ask no more questions as the movie begins but for the first few minutes I am not even paying attention to the movie honestly. I can't say ever in my life I have ever laid in bed with a girl like this. Most girls are in my room for sex only, minus Maddie, and never in our lives have Maddie and I laid in bed under the covers and watched a movie together.

I keep extremely still leaving around a foot and a half between us. Francesca is engrossed in the movie and I try to pay attention too. It is a decent movie about two assistants trying to set up their workaholic bosses, not really my thing but not bad either. When it is over Francesca tells me it is my turn and I look for something I think she will enjoy.

I end up picking Grown Ups but shortly into the movie we both fall asleep. When I wake up the rats are on my chest and Francesca is cuddled up against my side. I put my arm around her and my other hand gently on the ladies and go back to sleep with them all sleeping on me.

When I wake up a second time Penelope is crawling up my face probably because she is hungry. I slip out of bed trying not to wake Francesca and put the ladies in their cage so they can eat and drink. We managed to sleep for 3 hours so the movie is long over and our meeting to prepare for tomorrow is in 40 minutes. Probably won't calm any of the rumors about us if we both missed the meeting.

I sit back in bed and wake Francesca up gently. "Beck, hey sleepy head time to get up."

"Ops, sorry," she yawns as she sits up her hair a complete mess. She tries to brush it with her fingers but it does little to help. Between that and her wrinkled shirt, I don't think the rumors will be dying down today.

"I slept too, don't worry about it, but we have to head to Pickles soon for the meeting about tomorrow."

She nods and climbs out of bed rubbing her sleepy eyes in the cutest way. I turn my back toward her and put my shirt back on before she catches me watching her.

"Ready Ryder?"

"Ready. Let's go," I tell her as we both walk out of my room.