BLOODSPORT
CHAPTER THREE !

   THE SIGHT OF TARA laid up in that hospital bed was enough to make Pauline Summers shed a tear. Which she did. Almost immediately, the young girl had burst into tears mere seconds after walking into the Carpenter girl's hospital room. Everyone had stood by unsure of what to do.

It wasn't until Tara had begun to laugh at the mascara tinted tears that trailed down her friends face that everyone else fell into fits of laughter as well. Pauline had sobbed out her own version of laughter, wiping away the tears on her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

After pulling up a group of chairs that sat around the room, they all sat down. Mindy had pulled the Summers girl into her side right away, chuckling at the black streaks that remained on her face. The warmth of Mindy's body was enough to calm the previous blubbering girl, who settled down quite nicely against the Meeks-Martin girl.

The group sat there for maybe ten minutes, just chatting away so if anything and everything. In spite Pauline's meltdown, every one of them were determined to distract Tara from her attack. Wes had just finished his fun little anecdote about how his science teacher had flirted with his mom in high school when the door to the room slowly creaked open. Standing there was someone that none of them had seen in many years.

Tara's older sister Sam stood at the door as some random man lurked behind her. "How are you feeling?" Sam quietly asked in concern. She quickly stepped into the room, dropping down by the bed to get a better look at her younger sister.

She appeared totally riddled with shame at having abandoned her sister.

A soft smile grew on Tara's lips at the sight of Sam. "You came."

"Of course I came." The older Carpenter girl muttered, her eyes stinging with unshed tears at the sight of her baby sister laid up in a hospital bed. Sam sniffed as she gestured to the man behind her. "This is my boyfriend, Richie."

Richie moved forward with an awkward smile, waving down st Tara. His body jittered out as he spoke. "It's so nice to meet you. I'm so sorry if I'm intruding."

"Nice to meet you, too."

While the two spoke, Sam had moved across the room to greet the group who welcomed her with open arms. The Carpenter woman made her way down the friends, pulling each into an embrace which enveloped both her and them in a brief state of comfort.

When her turn came about, Pauline grinned extra large into the fabric of Sam's jacket. She couldn't believe that Sam was actually back in Woodsboro. "It's so cool to see you."

Sam Carpenter was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Years ago when she had taken off, her family hadn't been the only ones that she's left behind. The best friends of her sister had missed her too. Every one of them had looked up to her, especially Pauline, who as a only child, had viewed Sam as somewhat of an older sister.

Learning that the Carpenter woman had taken off had been a tough pill to swallow.

"Look at your hair. I like it." Sam cheekily commented as she mussed up the Hick's boys hair. She stepped back to gesture over at of them. "These are Chad and Mindy, the twins. That's Wes and that's Lina. I use to babysit them all."

"Which is always how I like to be introduced." Wes jokingly responded. His words managed to generate many smiles.

Sam's gaze shifted over to the Freeman girl who had remained attached to Tara's side during the entire interaction. "And Amber. Hey."

   Amber let out a brief, almost stiff smile. "Hi. Nice to see you." She monotonously replied, not even attempting to hide the way she sized up Sam.

   "Hi. I'm Richie." The man spoke up again, awkwardly lifting up his hand in a strange, half way which just ended up with him shaking a slightly clawed hand.

   A grimace overcame Amber's features at the man's strange mannerisms. She lifted her head in a nod as she muttered a, "Hi." while leaning into the side of Tara's bed more than she already was.

"Where's mom?"

   Tara sighed. "She's stuck at a conference in London." While she understood that her mom had to work, being unable to come home to be with her daughter who nearly died was frustrating. At the confusion that washed Sam, Tara then said, "She called me earlier."

The Freeman girl's arms folded across her chest as she scoffed at her friends mother. "Yeah. For all of ten minutes."

   Pauline swiftly elbowed the girl in the side. "Stop." She harshly muttered. Amber was seriously beginning to get on Pauline's nerves. She just didn't know how to keep her mouth shut at times.

   Tara had begun to look a little weary, most likely from all of the over exertion she had engaged in during her friends visit. Amber was quick to notice the drowsy effect take over Tara's features.

   "Uh, look, guys, Tara's really tired." Amber placed a hand upon Tara's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Maybe we should just give her some space."

   As they all let out words of agreement, already planning on walking out of the room to give Tara some much needed space, the young Carpenter girl spoke. "Not you, Sam. I want you to stay."

Sam looked back at her sister. "Okay."

   The group watched the sisters for a few seconds before awkwardly stuffing themselves as a group, aches in sides from rouge elbows be damned, through the small doorway to give the Carpenter siblings some privacy.

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"SO WHAT IS SHE LIKE, THE SISTER?" Liv inquired from the group later that evening as they all gathered in the local bar. They had all headed there after leaving the hospital where they met up with the McKenzie girl.

She was much a newer addition to the group and therefore had been absent during the time in which Sam lived in Woodsboro. This meant she knew next to nothing about the eldest Carpenter sibling.

"Sam?" Chad rose an inquisitive brow before a full blown smile over took his face. "Oh, Sam is so cool."

His sister was quick to counter his words, extending out her pool cue to emphasise, "You only say that because she let you wear Pokémon onesies to bed for a year." A smirk graced Mindy's lips as she intended to embarrass him.

Chad however embraced the jest with a laugh. "That's true. That's a true statement."

"I think Sam's great. She was the first person who knew I was gay." Pauline spoke up, the young girl cradling her glass of virgin sex on the beach. It was the only drink on the menu that she had found herself actually enjoying and so it had become her go-to drink every time the group hung out there.

"Apparently, I didn't hide how I looked at Ariel from The Little Mermaid very well." A slight laughter fell from her lips as she remembered the knowing look that Sam had given her all of those years ago.

"You were so obvious." Mindy cheekily grinned down at the Summers girl who playfully rolled her eyes as everyone chuckled at her expense.

Clearly not that obvious if Mindy remained oblivious to her feelings after all this time.

"No, trust me. Sam is not cool. Her dad left her mom, right?" Amber harshly stated, cutting off the laughter the group had shared at Pauline's anecdote. "Walks right out when Tara's eight, Sam's thirteen. Sam started acting out, getting in trouble with the cops. And then, on Sam's eighteenth birthday, she leaves."

A somber atmosphere crashed over them all. Her gaze was intense as she continued, "Ghosts them all. Maybe Sam's changed. I just don't wanna see Tara get hurt again."

"So what, you're protecting Tara from her own sister now?" Wes inquired, his eyes squinting over at her. He couldn't understand why Amber hated Sam as much as she did.

"Well, Someone has to."

The boy scoffed. He fiddled with the pool cue in his grip as he questioned, "Okay, so no guys are good enough for her and how her family's off-limits, too?" Tension between the two was growing thicker by the second.

   "Mmm. Motive." Mindy piped up as she moved to rest against the pool table. With a smirk aimed over at the Hicks boy, she jested, "If I can't have her, no one can."

   "What?" Wes nervously asked, glancing around wildly to avoid eye contact. It was as clear as day to them all how the boy felt for Tara but was he capable of hurting her to keep her to himself?

Mindy leaned her body past Pauline, who sat between herself and Wes, and teasingly grinned at the Hicks boy, "We all know you have a crush on Tara."

Wes tried to shrug off the insinuation. "Okay, come on, Mindy."

"But we're all suspects." The Meeks-Martin girl then uttered. For a brief moment everyone glanced around at each other, casting doubt upon one another despite their attempts not to. Mindy's words were extremely convincing to a group of impressionable teenagers.

In order to lessen the tension filled air, Mindy chimed back in with a nod in the McKenzie girl's direction. "Except maybe Liv."

A sweet, appreciative smile pulled at Liv's lips. "Thank you."

"You're way too boring to be a psycho." Pauline stifled her giggle by taking down a big gulp of her drink. Laughing at someone else's expense wasn't nice but in that moment, she didn't care. The joke had been funny and it wasn't as if Mindy was wrong.

In all honesty, the Summers girl was pleasantly surprised that she hadn't been called out for her inability to hurt another human being. Her pacifism had always been the topic of much banter amongst the friend group. Specifically by Mindy, who was forever complaining that her best friend would be unable to avenge her in the event of her untimely and metaphorical death.

"Yo, Liv." Their joyous laughter faded fast at the sight of Vince Schneider, who was advancing on the pool table and them. His gaze remained locked upon Liv, who shuddered at the gross leering sent her way. "You want a real drink? Or are you happy sitting at this kids table?"

Without hesitation, Chad stepped up in defence of his girlfriend. "Alright, listen up, uglier Michael Myers. It was a summer fling. It meant nothing." He towered over the man with ease, glaring down at him.

The creep's jaw locked. His gaze shifted in irritation from Liv up to the muscular Meeks-Martin boy, "I'm sorry, was I talkin' to you?"

"I don't fucking care who you're talking to." Chad snapped back, squaring out his shoulders to appear bigger and more threatening to the older man.

Vince, paying Chad's macho bravado no mind, looked past him and spoke directly to the McKenzie girl. "Liv, let's go." He gestured for her to follow him.

"Don't you fucking talk to her!" Chad yelled as everyone began to shuffle into front of Liv, just in case things got violent and the Schneider man was unable to take no for an answer.

As the yelling began to elevate in volume, and Vince pulled out a switchblade that had many gasping, the bar's owner piped up, yelled out a threat of, "Hey! Get out of here or I'm calling the cops."

Vince began to leisurely step back, his gaze firm upon Chad who was quick to shoo the man away with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Go."

"I'll see you soon, sweetheart." The Schneider man leered over at Liv once again, lifting up a dirty, grease covered hand and pointing at her.

"Hey, man. Fuck you."

"You kids too. Let's go." The bar owner then said to them. Groaning in annoyance, they all began to gulp down their drinks, grab their stuff and head for the exit.

"What a fucking nut-job." Pauline lowly commented to Mindy as they exited the bar. She quickly grinned as she spun around on her heel and began to slowly walk backwards. "You really think I have the capability of being a being a psycho?"

Mindy reached out a hand to steady the girl just as she stumbled on a small, stray rock. She grinned at Pauline as she gripped tightly to the fabric of her jacket. "Hundred percent. Even people who veer away from confrontation can have the thirst for blood. It's like the perfect alibi. I would be incredibly impressed if the killer turned out to be you."

A faint chuckle escaped from Pauline's lips. "That's so sweet."

Chad, who stood by the car, rolled his eyes at the antics between the two. For years, he had been forced to watch them flit about, denying their feelings for one another. It was exhausting. "Let's go, weirdos. Put a stop to this strange flirting you've got going on."

Pauline halted all movement at his words. She was quick to avoid eye contact with her friend, who stared at her confusion at her sudden shift in personality, as a warmth that could only be described as embarrassment enveloped her. Without a doubt, her cheeks had already begun to develop a rouge tint.

She was just thankful that the sun had vanished behind a wall of dark clouds during their time inside the bar, allowing her to rush to the car without the blush being seen. The door to the vehicle slammed shut as Pauline released a shuddering breath and her body morphed into the nylon cloth covered backseat.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter three. not proofread.
I'm trying to develop Pauline's feelings for Mindy slowly. She really does love her but the idea of being found out terrifies her. anyways hope you enjoyed :)