Jamie's Lucky Day

"Yes, of course." Lucky said as her smile softened and she nodded eagerly to the young blonde. "Lead the way!"

"Okay, it's not too far."

Jamie tried not to go too fast as she led Lucky through back alleys and shortcuts. She cut through the foyer of an office building to get to the next street, sidled her way down an alley between the wall and the utility truck that parked there, and crossed the street. There, in the alley was a plastic bag with her lemonade and now-melted Kit-Kat bar from the gas station, and above that on the wall of the building was the enormous, lavish, colorful and stylized graffiti tag.

Jamie set down the heavy spray paint bags and picked up her gas station bag, and then pointed at the wall.

"That."

Lucky was panting by the time that Jamie stopped. She was in good shape and worked out a lot, but navigating behind a crafty roller skater while she navigated the streets of Tokyo was much different than rolling around a ring for fifteen minutes. Especially with all of Jamie's shortcuts.

When Jamie finally stopped, Lucky pushed her hand against her chest and just sought to catch her breath before Jamie finally pointed at her inspiration. lucky looked up and blinked. It was graffiti. Lucky initially furrowed her brow and turned to Jamie. Her instinct was to scold the girl and tell her that it was illegal, but as her mouth hung open, Lucky stopped.

She looked back at the tag. It actually was pretty well down. It stood out in a way that drew attention but didn't mar the area. Someone had obviously put a lot of time and effort in it. Lucky looked back at Jamie and looked her up and down. She then smiled.

"You know what, Jamie-san. I think you could do even better than that!" She said genuinely. She was going to prove Abattoir wrong. She was going to prove Jamie wrong. Jamie needed someone to encourage her and Lucky thought that maybe whatever Jamie had planned could actually be kind of thrilling. She imagined herself up there with all those paints and it made her cheeks flush a bit. Even getting caught... wouldn't that be a little exciting? How bad could the punishment really be for people to see such a masterpiece?

"Yeah," Jamie agreed. "I'm always the best at stuff when I do it."

She sat down on the pavement and unstrapped her rollerblades, and then set them neatly against the wall. She seemed suddenly completely calm as she traced her fingers thoughtfully over the black outlines of the work on the wall. She looked closely at it, the finer details, admired how each color bled into the next and how the lines were so curvy and random and... complicated. She figured that whoever it was that had left his signature here for her to find must have been some kind of genius.

"Do you wanna see how it works?" She asked Lucky, sparing only a quick glance back at the older woman. She grabbed a can of black spray paint and shook it like she had seen people do. Tic-a-tic-tic-a. She popped the cap off and fiddled with it for a moment before she found the little plastic tab that had to be removed, and then accidentally fired a short burst of paint up in the air. She coughed and shook her head and jumped back.

She went to find an unused section of wall on the side opposite her inspiration, and stood there staring at it, deep in thought. She reached up and pulled off her bandana, and freed her long, unexpectedly gorgeous blonde hair. It tumbled down over her shoulders and reached nearly to the middle of her back, wreathing her face. It was in need of being washed, but it was thick and lush and somewhat nappy from being stuck in her bandana for most of its life. She tossed it with her fingers and shook it back, and then very carefully drew a short line with the paint.

"I might write my name first, but..." She said quietly. "I have a lot of them. Jamie's not my real name, ya know. Not many people know that. The wrestling people don't." She stared at the wall. The paint can hovered just above it, and she carefully drew another short line, getting a feel for how far she had to hold it and how fast she could move it to get what she wanted.

"You're my best friend," she said without thinking, but it was no big deal.

"Oh, yes, of course!" Lucky said eagerly as she watched Jamie go to work, surprised as the girl revealed her rather cute, blonde hair. She only paid attention to it for a moment before Jamie started with her practice sprays.

She looked down at the spray can bag while Jamie stared at the wall and grabbed a blue can. She shook it up and stepped up next to the blonde. "I would probably have trouble calling you by your real name even if I knew it..." Lucky said and looked at Jamie. "But, I could probably use my name and no one would know who it was..." Lucky smiled.

She actually had to stop herself from gasping loudly when Jamie said that Lucky was her best friend. She grinned from ear to ear but looked at Jamie and the way she said it so casually. She turned her head and cleared her throat and pushed aside the flutters in her belly before she looked back at Jamie and held up the shaken bottle.

"May I try as well, Jamie-san? I don't think I'll do anything near as good as you, but I wouldn't mind trying if you don't mind me using one of your cans."

"Sure," Jamie said, not paying much attention. "It usually takes a while before something starts looking like I see in my head." She swished imaginary brush strokes at the wall with her hand and tilted her head.

"I'm really good with yo-yo's. Like I'm probably the best, but I kinda feel like I'm as good as you can get with 'em, so I want to find more stuff. And I'm really good at rollerblading, and with cards, and I can do some neat stuff with jump rope. I used to watch the guys at the gym jump rope, and then I'd practice after they left. It was hard at first, because my chest would hurt so much and I couldn't breathe, but I got used to it. And I really like sewing. I used to make costumes and things, but I don't have a sewing machine now, and even if I did I have nowhere to put one. I couldn't stash it anywhere, and I could only put it in a hotel room for a little while until I ran out of money, and I wouldn't want to get one and then have it get stolen or something, so... I just can't sew anymore. It's kinda sad, because I was so good at it."

She gestured some more at the wall while she imagined her plan. "I think I'm gonna write Jamie, but the way I do with the yo-yo's. Maybe I can make it look like that..." She sprayed some more paint on the wall, thoughtfully, and at the same time haphazardly.

Lucky opened the can and spritzed the wall with one line before Jamie started talking. She turned and listened to all the things Jamie started talking about and smiled. Once she was finished, Lucky turned and looked at her small mark. She shuffled a few steps over and then began to spray paint her own name on the wall in very meticulously sprayed kanji.

She stuck her tongue out as she drew the word, trying to make sure everything was perfect. She'd been taught calligraphy when she was younger and this seemed a lot like that. Lucky actually felt pretty good about it as her pace picked up.

However, as she sprayed, she began to think about what Jamie said and, without looking at the girl, she started to speak. "Jamie-san..." She began. "Do you like the life you have? The way you live? How you live?" She asked. "Haven't you ever thought about... any other kind of life?" She asked. "Wouldn't you like a place to be able to put a sewing machine, for example?" She hoped that b she wasn't pushing the girl too much. Maybe Jamie was so used to living on the streets that anything else seemed foreign to her, even, perhaps, bad to her. Lucky didn't know and she really didn't understand. However, maybe putting it in different terms would make Jamie at least consider her words.

Lucky's questions put Jamie on edge like she was in trouble. She furrowed her brow and glanced over at her, and then rattled her spray can around.

Her mouth set into a grim line and she stared at the wall again, this time not thinking about paint. She did think it was weird that Lucky would spray paint with her when it was sort of illegal, since she seemed to be the type that would really not like that, but sometimes older people did things like that to get Jamie to trust them. Not many, but some. And that simple fact made Jamie instantly trust them less.

"Even if I had a house, I'd just have to leave it," she sulked. "People could come find me whenever they wanted, and I'd have to pay for it all the time, and it'd be way more than a hotel. I'd rather not have a sewing machine than have to leave mine behind."

She added, more quietly "This is the longest I've been in one place for a while, so... I don't really want to leave again."

"Jamie-san..." Lucky said with a sullen tone. "Not... Everyone who wants to know where you are is bad..." She added. She stopped painting for the moment.

"Jamie-san, what if you could have a place that you didn't have to pay for?"

Lucky bit her lip as she looked at Jamie.

Jamie stiffened when she heard the words. She tightened her grip on the spray can and opened and closed her other hand into a fist. Her hair obscured her face from the side, but when she turned to face Lucky she was a different person.

The funny, squirrely, spacey little girl was gone, and instead there stood a fierce, blonde-maned wild animal in dirty pink socks and a mini-skirt. She leveled her dagger-gaze aggressively at Lucky, and her body was tense and ready to run or fight or scream or whatever.

"What are you talking about?" Her voice was fully loaded.