Okay okay okay. Going into the fray and trying to save a bunch of people from a gang, with GUNS, seems highly unrealistic, right? Yeah, but that's sorta the point.

Crouched close to the ground, I creeped up to the edge of the track surrounding the football field, careful to stay behind the fence, using it as partial cover. Getting a newly expanded view of the playing field, I eyed the scene before me.

Hundreds of people, mostly high-schoolers, sat idly in the middle of the field, closely knit together. Some were talking in earnest whispers, others had retreated within themselves, only showing blank and distant stares on their faces, and many were quietly sobbing, afraid of what would happen if they raised their voices. I couldn't see my friends, but I knew they were in there somewhere.

I looked at the people responsible for the chaos. I counted eight guys along with the three girls. The most formidable girl had sleek black hair and tattoos wrapped around both of her upper arms, several piercings on her face, and held the only shotgun. The other two had brown hair and unsure expressions on their faces, constantly eyeing each other, and holding their pistols incorrectly. Best friends and new recruits.

Three guys had black hair, four had brown, and one had blue. All the males had either tattoos or piercings, if not both from what I could see. Two of the black haired guys each had a semi-automatic rifle, and Blue-Head had two pistols, otherwise they had a pistol each.

The whole group had identical tattoos on the inside of their left lower arms a few inches above their wrists: a four-sided diamond with a diamond-back snake coiled around it. Definitely a gang.

I watched the captors pace around the captives, and saw how the others averted their gaze from the blue-haired dude, and slouched their postures when close to him. He, on the other hand, had a proud swagger in his step, and seemed to 'look down' on the others, though he was far from being the tallest of the bunch. I concluded he was their leader.

Some 30 yards away from the sedentary mob of people was a large pile of back packs, gym bags and purses, and several garbage bags that looked like they were stuffed with small square objects. I thought for a moment and realized they were phones.

"Deez peeps be smart," I thought half-amused.

I soundlessly slumped up against the fence, racking my brain as to what my plan was.

"Hmmmm...well, if you cut off the head, the body crumples to the ground," I thought.

There. Plan made.

I took several deep breaths and looked down at my hands. My skin was a wonderful coffee pigment, and I could tell from the shifting of my bones and muscles in my body that I had a leaner, taller build. Pulling a strand of hair in front of my face, I saw that my hair was now jet black and tightly curled. I knew from the image in my mind that my jaw was pristine, and my cheekbones protruded subtly from my skull, forming uplifting facial skin, clean and crisp. My nose poked out gently, contrasting with my big golden eyes.

"Gotta give it a little twist" I thought to myself.

With my transformation over, I was ready to do some magic. I could help those people and help my friends, and they wouldn't second guess me when I would say that Izzy was safe and away from it all. And technically, that was partially true.

No one could ever believe that Izzy was anything but plain, normal, little Izzy. Izzy wanted to stay that way.

***
Audrie's POV
»Flashback to Halftime«

I watched Izzy walk towards the bathrooms for a moment,  then turned back to the menu. She was too easy to mess with sometimes. Without moving my eyes from the menu, I asked Karmen,

"So waddya want, Kar?"

"Hmmmm" She sighed.

I heard her sigh several more times between the busy chatter of the crowd before she really spoke,

"I'll have nachos with jalapenos, a Milky-Way, and a Mountain Dew, and before you ask, no I'm not gonna pay you back, and no, you can't argue."

I looked at her with a glare, and she mockingly glared back. I looked away.

"Whatever" I said nonchalantly.

Kar snorted.

Cousins. You love 'em to death, but you sometimes hate 'em to death too.

"I think I'll have a pretzel and some Mountain Dew too." I verbally thought.

I unexpectedly snapped over in Karmen's face.

"And if you even THINK about eating my food, Karmen Ó'Braonáin, so help me I will rip your head off and stuff it in a dung hole!" I said forcibly.

She put on an innocent face, and I turned away and snickered. Death threats over food is pretty normal between our family, especially empty ones.

Finally it was our turn. We stepped up to the counter, Karmen half a step behind me.

"What would you like to order?" A stout Hispanic lady on the other side of the counter asked.

"I would like-"

Bang.

Everyone dropped to the ground, knowing full-well what that noise was. A gunshot.

"But here? Why?" We're my first thoughts that sprung into my mind.

I turned toward Karmen, who was sprawled belly-first on the ground.

"Kar, are you okay?" I asked in a somewhat desperate tone.

"Yeah, I'm okay, are you okay?" She said looking at me through her red-brown locks, eyes wide.

"Yeah," I replied with a little less certainty than I meant.

We laid there with screams and scared tension ringing through our ears, and it took me several moments to realize that I was shaking. Kar laid her also-shaking hand on my arm.

"We're gonna be okay," She said with a slight quiver in her voice.

We......we're gonna be okay......wait. I forgot about Izzy!

"What about Izzy? What if...if..." I trailed off.

I thought about Izzy lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Karmen seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she looked at me, and finished my sentence.

"If she was the one that got shot..."

I stared at the ground, an uneasy knot forming in my stomach. Suddenly, my heart lept into my throat when a gruff booming voice yelled,

"EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ME AND SHUT THE *insert cuss word of choice here* UP!"

We turned around, and our eyes met with a guy probably in his late teens-early twenties with spiky blue hair. Everyone went silent.

"EVERYONE HAND IN YOUR PHONES NOW!"

Several other people with garbage bags came around, pulling people to their feet not-so-nicely and searching them for their phones. I was surprised inwardly when no one even tried to call 911, but at the same time it seemed understandable. We were all so dang scared. And I didn't even know if Izzy was alive.