Jamie's Lucky Day

Jamie Valentine sat on the curb, heavy cheeks on her palms, elbows on her knees, pouting her little heart out because she couldn't steal spray paint.

Earlier in the day, she had been taking a shortcut across town, rollerblading with her earbuds on, without a care in the world. Swish, swish, swish, she zoomed around people and a tree and she side stepped a dumpster, extra careful with the dumpster. Swish, swish, skrrt! She stopped dead.

Clop, clop, clop, clop, she walked back on her rollerblades to stand halfway down a side street, in the center of the side wall of an old building. She stared up in slack-jawed wonder at the most incredible, most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The way the colors all swirled together and almost-but-not-quite spelled something out, and it had to be a hundred feet high! It reached to the second story windows!

She had seen graffiti before. She had seen taggers, sure. But now she had to wonder... were they all this amazing?

"Oooooooooooooooohhhhh..."

She stood and stared until her plastic bag from the gas station, with her lemonade and Kit-Kat bar, fell out of her hand. The small sound it make hitting the street was enough to jar her out of her trance, and suddenly she was filled with excitement.

She had to go steal ALL THE SPRAY PAINT!

She was going to learn to do THAT! Forget cards and wrestling and stuff, THIS was the trick she wanted to do, and she wouldn't REST until she was the best one ever and people would talk about her like she was some kind of ninja artist who came in the night where people least expected and painted the best things. She could paint evidence on the walls of criminals houses so that people would find it and then the criminal would go to jail, and she'd be like Batman!

Which was stupid. She was just excited. Or at least she was, until she realized that spray paint neither fit in her satchel, nor in her shirt, without leaving and obvious lump. She'd get caught for sure, and she could NOT get caught again. Not around here, and she didn't want to leave the area because this was the one with the bakery that made all the rolls that you could just take out of the thing yourself.

"Crap."

So she did the only thing left to do. She pouted, yo-yo string hanging down from her finger with the purple sparkly yo-yo hanging off the end. She had no spray paint, and the worst part was that she had left her lemonade and Kit-Kat back on the street. Well, the worst part was the paint, but that was bad too.

She just needed a plan.

Lucky was feeling quite good. Her body was still stiff from her hard fought match with Abattoir, but she had come out victorious and even Macky had been impressed with how she had fired off a couple of good shots. Lucky suddenly frowned. Her chest still ached from the shots she had received but she shook those thoughts away and trudged on.

She was moving through the city, heading towards the AFW building when she passed by a rather pathetic sight. There was a little girl pouting on the curb. She paused and looked the girl over. With the yo yo like that, she couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen. The streak of blond that came out from her bandana and her pale complexion gave Lucky the idea that, perhaps, she was a tourist who had been separated from her family.

Lucky's heart instantly sank and she nearly teared up right there. With a new found determination, she marched over to the girl. She would find her lost family no matter what it took!

"H-Hello!" She started, trying to conceal her Japanese accent as best as she could. "I am from Japan and I speak English." She figured that was a good way to begin. "Are you Lost? Have you been separated from your family or group?" She asked. "I could help!" That was when she noticed. The girl had looked familiar...

"J-Jamie-san!?"

Only Jamie's eyes moved when Lucky approached, and she looked her over from the middle down.

What was she even talking about? What group? Was there supposed to be a- ooohhhhhhh, this lady thought Jamie was a... Well, normally ideas would spring to mind about how to profit from this misconception, but Jamie just didn't have the energy.

"Mmf."

Then she said her name, and Jamie leaped up off the curb, ready to make her escape! She ran in place on her rollerblades for a moment and flailed her arms to regain her balance before her eyes finally made it up to the woman's face.

It was HER! The blue one! What was her name? Come on, Jamie, come onnnnnnn...

"Hey... Mmmmmmmmm..." Her eyes squinted under the strain, but no intelligible sound escaped her.

Lucky gasped as Jamie jumped up, but found herself stifling a giggle with her mouth as Jamie flailed and tried to keep from falling down. She blushed when Jamie finally recovered and smiled warmly, hoping Jamie didn't think too much of Lucky's soft chuckle. She remembered the girl was overly skittish, but maybe it was just because she had gotten very drunk? Lucky hoped so.

There wouldn't be any of THAT today, that was for sure!

"Jamie-san, it's good to see you!" Lucky said. "I.. I would ask how you've been..." Lucky said, turning her head shyly. "But it looks like you're in some distress. If... you're in some kind of trouble, Jamie-san.." Lucky asked, tilting her head. "You know I'll help you. I know the last time we parted, it wasn't on the best of terms, but..." Lucky held out her hand. "I really, really would like to be your friend. I... think you're pretty neat, actually!" Lucky raised her eyebrows hopefully and looked at Jamie. "But... if there's something wrong, can I help? When I approached, you look really, really sad."

Lucky bowed her head respectfully.

"Wellllll..."

Jamie thought about it, and then cautiously took Lucky's hand and gave it a shake. She looked around to see if there was anyone else with her, like the big red one. Seeing no one put her at ease.

She liked Lucky, despite not being able to remember her name, and despite screaming at her and running and hiding the last time they were together. She liked her more than most people. Or anybody.

"So I'm trying to find this hardware store, and I know it's around here somewhere but I lost my phone and I can't look up directions, and I don't speak Japanese so I don't know what to do!" The lie came out all at once.

Lucky sighed inwardly when Jamie took her hand. It seemed like that was a big step for the blonde, but Lucky tried not to make a big deal about it. Jamie's expulsion of her problem in one long stream put that thought on hold.

She nodded along and when Jamie was finished, she smiled. "Oh, is that it?" lucky said. "I thiiink I know where the one around here is!" She said. "And, I could definitely help with the language barrier."

Lucky nodded after a thought. "Come one, it's this way!" She said and began to walk in the direction of the store. "So, what do you need from the hardware store that's gotten you all disheveled, Jamie-san?" She asked, not knowing how anything at the hardware store could be worth so much trouble, especially for someone like Jamie.

Ha HA! Success! Jamie had played that perfectly, and now Lucky was playing right into her hands. And she didn't even KNOW it!

"Ummmm..." She thought hard for an answer while she slowly glided along next to the Japanese woman. "Art supplies."

She nodded her approval. That should do the trick. She'd definitely want Jamie to have those. Old people always wanted Jamie to have more constructive hobbies. She looked over at Lucky and squinted. Something was weird.

"Did you get beat up again?"

"Oooh! That sounds like fun!" Lucky chirped as they walked. "I haven't really done anything like that in a long while. I don't think I'm that creative, really." She dismissed it with a soft chuckle.

She looked at Jamie and gave the blonde a soft smile before her brow knit at Jamie's question. Lucky frowned and pushed a hand against her sore chest.

"I was in a match, yes." She admitted. "I was a little foolhardy, but the victory was mine. It was a fun match!" Lucky looked at Jamie. "When are you wrestling next, Jamie-san?"

"Oh," Jamie said. After a moment, she added "That means I could beat her, too. I bet it was some dumb chump."

She hooked her thumbs in her wide black belt and turned her head away while she meandered along next to Lucky. "Well, I'm kinda really into... art, now. Wrestling is... well, the last time I was there I got beat up by like, twelve people. They all came at me and I was fighting 'em off and everything, but then one tackled me from behind, and it was a guy, and he was like... I'm just not really into it right now."

Lucky's eye twitched at Jamie's casual response. She wasn't going to tell the girl that she only beat lucky because she's a dirty cheater, but it still bit at Lucky a bit and she needed to at least try and make her case. "Wrestling is a funny business, Jamie-san. Just because you beat someone doesn't mean that you can beat anyone they beat. It doesn't mean you could beat them every time if you faced them again." She noted. "Abattoir-san wasn't a chump at all. She was very skilled."

She continued to frown as Jamie mentioned her latest wrestling endeavors. "I'm sorry to hear that, Jamie-san. Wrestling is competitive, sure, but it's supposed to be enjoyable too. Thrilling!" She said, thinking about it with a renewed enthusiasm. "If you're getting tackled by men... That's not very good at all..."

Lucky walked silently with Jamie until they were near the hardware store. In the busy city of Tokyo, buildings were crammed into wherever they could fit and this one was no different. "It's just up there." Lucky pointed out to a sign all in kanji.

"But... you should try to find someone who isn't going to get you into those types of situations. A good fight for your skill level..." Lucky added.