Chapter eleven
AN: I'M SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO POST THIS!!! I've had the worst case of writers block for this story! But I'm back and plan to be posting once a week!
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To say that Susan was annoyed would be like saying that bears weren't very nice, it would be such an understatement that the word understatement could no longer be applied. She was furious that she was being essentially forced to go with them, but somewhere deep inside she was almost grateful for it. As she sat down on a bench and began to read her book she found herself reminiscing about the times when she would bring Twyla and Gawain to the park back in Anhk-Morpork. She shook off the wave of sadness that followed the thought and looked down at her book. As she read however she couldn't help but notice Jamie arguing with some other boys.
"It's not my business, just leave it alone." She told herself as she stopped herself from glancing up at them.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Sophie yelled causing Susan to surreptitiously peer over the top of her book and observe the proceedings as her protective instincts began to kick in.
"Hehe! Hey look at the shrimp trying to save her big brother!" One of the boys, clearly the ringleader, laughed before shoving the little girl gently knocking her to the ground. This did not work out how the boys had planned, as Susan immediately stood up and strode towards the group and then bore down on them like a hurricane.
"I'm sorry but some of us are trying to read, and that fact aside what kind of spineless idiot picks fights with children, it's just pathetic and quiet frankly speaking I think I almost feel sorry for you if you feel you have to resort to it to maintain respect." She stated glaring at the boys with such pity and distain that even Jack felt ashamed as he helped Sophie up.
"Wha-wha- hey! What gives you the right to butt in?! Mind your own business lady!" One of the boys yelled as they tried to scrape together some dignity under Susan's unwavering glare. They were all so shocked when she seemingly appreared out of thin air then simultaneously seemed to have always been there that it was all they could do not to simply run away. Then in the reasonable tone of a lawyer defending her clients Susan proceeded to say, "For one thing I have just as much right as anyone seeing as I just witnessed what I can only possiblity define as child abuse and misuse of power, for another thing I am minding my own business seeing as I accompanied these people here and am, in fact, included in their group. That being said I am going to politely ask that you please leave them alone."
Everyone except Jack stared at her completely nonplussed, which in their defense made sense considering the fact that none of them had met Susan or anyone remotely like her before. The ringleader, being the first to recover scoffed and in a still slightly shaken voice laughed,
"Please! Like I'm going to do something just cuz you asked me nicely," Susan rolled her eyes at his sarcastic tone as he continued,
"But you know what? If you, the runt, and dreamer boy here can beat us at hockey I swear on my life that we'll never bother any of you guys again." Out of the corner of her eye Susan noticed Jack flinch when he said that and raised an eyebrow at him before shrugging it off.
"Make it just the two of us and we'll have a deal." She stated with a level of confidence that sent a quick chill down everyone's spines. The boy laughed in the kind of way that causes people to think 'you know the world might just be a better place if this person got slapped'.
"Alright babe you're on, if you beat me I'll make sure we leave you three alone." He stated shaking her hand.
"I'LL HOLD YOU TO THAT." She stated in a voice that hit the poor bully like a punch in the face and settled into his subconscious like a stone. He blinked twice and nervously headed off in the direction of a large, frozen pond at the back of the park. Once they arrived Susan gestured slightly to Jack to help her as she realized she didn't have skates. He shrugged and formed some blade-like pieces of ice along the soles of her boots and she strode out onto the ice. Everyone settled along the outside of the pond and got ready to watch as one of the other bullies sneered and said, "This bitch doesn't know what she's getting into, Todds been on the varsity team since second grade!" Jamie and Sophie exchanged nervous glances before Jack placed a reassuring hand on either of their shoulders.
"If you're going to put money on anyone here, put all of it on Susan, she's going to tear this guy apart." He said with a grin and a hint of nervousness. While the two didn't understand why he was nervous if he was so confident in her abilities the fear hit everyone present the second that the loaned hockey stick made its way into her hands. Because for a short moment she held it, not like the hockey stick that it was but like a scythe and in that brief moment she looked very, very grim and frankly terrifying, even to an immortal like Jack. But then the moment was over and she had shifted her grip to hold it correctly and, so far as she was concerned, it had never happened at all.
"Well then? Shall we get started? I would very much like to get back to my book." She said with finality and a layer of what seemed to be boredom. An important detail about Susan Sto Helit is the fact that throughout her entire life she had always excelled at sports involving hitting an object with a stick, be it any form of hockey or golf place a stick in her hands and be ready to watch the other team's goalie flatten themselves to the ground in terror as the puck flys into the net while making an odd humming sound. Unfortunately for the bullies this is the exact event that they found themselves facing. Susan seemed entirely at home on the ice with her makeshift skates as she blazed her way through the game, completely dominating and ultimately humiliating her opponent Todd. Once the game was over, which didn't take nearly as long as any of the spectators expected, she had a bright and terrifying grin spread across her face and her hair had at some point during the game, or massacre depending on your outlook, seemingly rearranged itself into a high ponytail.
"Well, that was fun, it's been quite a while since I played that, I'd nearly forgotten how much I enjoyed the game!" She exclaimed her grin widening as she reached out a hand to her fallen opponent. He took her hand and dejectedly nodded to her in a begrudging respect.
It amazed Jack that despite already knowing about her skills at the game Susan had still managed to completely shock him with just how good she was. He'd seen her play before in the past but never at the level he had just witnessed. After a short discussion about how she would be making sure that the boys kept their word about leaving them alone Susan let out a contented sigh and turned to Jamie and Sophie.
"Well, I hope that that was enough to deter them from causing trouble for you both in the future. That being said If you don't mind I will be getting back to my book now." Jack wasn't sure what possessed him, even for someone as impulsive as he would usually have at least considered the consequences of his actions before doing what he did. But instead of taking into consideration the fact that she had just a moment before completely decimated someone at hockey when she hadn't played in gods knows how long and had literally not broken a single drop of sweat and could most likely destroy him in moments, Jack decided to do something entirely reckless. He threw a snowball in her face the second she turned around to go back to her bench. Now the world is full of mistakes and generally bad decisions, the action of throwing a snowball into the face of the current Death is by far the worst of all of them. Despite this knowledge and the clear look of pure abject horror on the faces of his two friends Jack simply smiled and with a surprising amount of confidence stated, "Sorry Duchess, but there's no way I can let you go back to your book, not when you're just starting to have fun. It goes against my job description." For a moment she simply stared at him, her face unreadable before she calmly and slowly bent down and formed a neat little ball of snow. Despite his seemingly sudden loss of sanity Jack had enough sense to know that he was in a massive amount of trouble as Susan slowly, methodically packed her snow into a tight ball. He certainly had the sense to duck when she, less calmly, threw said snowball directly at his head. Unfortunately this course of action lead to Jamie taking the full force of her snowy rage, causing him to fall backwards into the snow before jumping up and yelling, "Oh it's on now!" Needless to say that trip to the park quickly devolved into a snowy free for all by the end of which everyone involved was found collapsed from laughter and exhaustion.
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