The Running Back

Noah got no further than one step into Rachel's house before she punched him on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" She had caught him off guard and for once not only did her punch hurt, but he also had no idea why she had decided to hit him. She looked like she was going to punch him again and Noah flinched in response. Rachel froze in mid punch and she shook her head. She spun on heel and marched into the living room. "Are you going to tell me what that was for?" Noah asked despite the risks involved.

Rachel spun back towards him, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. "Why didn't you tell me that Jesse was on the football team?" she asked angrily. "And don't tell me you didn't know. You had to have known. You did, didn't you?"

"Um... yeah. I did."

"So why didn't you tell me?" Rachel asked again.

"Cause I knew you'd freak out," Noah whispered, for fear of Rachel's wrath.

"What was that?" Rachel asked, raising her voice.

"Nothing, just forget about it. We won." He plastered on a smile, hoping that Rachel would just let it go. Rachel stared at him for a moment and then sighed in resignation.

"I suppose you're right." The game did end quite well. "That guy just makes me so mad. He thinks that he's so much better than me at everything, and he's not." She forcefully plopped down onto the couch, still quite upset about the whole thing. Noah silently sat down next to her. He never really knew what to do in situations that involved Jesse. Typically he'd respond with an offer to beat him up but Rachel would never resort to violence like that.

But with violence in mind Noah thought up something else. "What to come over to my place and play some Call of Duty?"

An hour or so later the two of them were in Noah's living room. His Xbox was attached to the moderately sized TV, with the screen split in half. Rachel wasn't a serious gamer but she enjoyed playing video games. Mostly she'd play more casual games; things that were rated 'E for Everyone' but that didn't mean that she didn't know what she was doing. Like with everything else in her life Rachel could take video games very seriously.

Sometimes it was even scary to watch her. And at that moment, as he watched Rachel get a collateral with her sniper rifle, Noah did feel afraid. "Yeah! Fuck you!" She switch to her sidearm and ran over to collect their dog tags. "Hey, get away from those!" Rachel took aim, killing two more enemies with a few precise shots to their chests. Over his headset, Noah could hear other players talking.

"Who the hell is the crazy chick that keeps yelling?"

"I don't know, but whoever she is I'm glad she's on my team. She's scary."

Rachel was too involved in the game to pay attention to what they were saying. All she could focus on was killing everyone on the opposing team. Noah decided to kick back and enjoy the show. One by one, Rachel took down each enemy she found, yelling profanities as she did so. It was only ever through gaming that Rachel wouldn't watch her language. It was quite an amusing scene to watch.

Elsewhere...

"You are so lucky that I'm a nice sister," Quinn told Frannie as she lugged her bags upstairs and into her old room. It wasn't too bad honestly, especially since Quinn was in such good shape but that didn't meant that she liked carrying her sister's things for her. Frannie simply smiled at her.

"I am, aren't I? You can just throw that in the closet," she told Quinn as she jumped onto her old bed. Once Quinn had done what was instructed of her Frannie beckoned her sister over, pulling her into a hug and onto the bed once she got close enough. "Damn, it's been so long since I've seen you. So tell me, what's in your life."