tommy was sat in the mess hall with a bucket of soapy water. "i see cindy got you into cleaning"

"i'd do anything for her, even get a little messy cleeaning up" he chuckled. eliza grabbeda bucket and some soap and started cleaning. "what are you doing?" he asked

her. "cleaning, isn't it obvious dufus" 

"yeah, but why?"

"i guess i feel bad for ignoring cindy last summer and i really need to do something else than saving ziggy's ass from will and sheila"

soon enough cindy came into the mess hall and got down to scrubbing. "i swear to god, everyone just wants to ruin my life. alice just, like..she just won't let it go.

it's like we're still 12 years old and her whole goal in life is to, to punish me for something that wasn't even my fault"

"i can't believe you guys used to be friends" thomas said.

"you won't believe a lot of things," eliza muttered to herself. ziggy wasn't the only one that eliza had to say something to.

"and ziggy," cindy started. "it's only a matter of time before she ends up in jail or worse. i'm just trying to be a good role model and make something for myself.

but no, no, i'm the stuck-up priss who hates fun, which isn't even true at all. i like fun, i like fun! i just..i just want to get out of shadyside. os that so

crazy?" cindy continued. she scrubbed to hard she broke the sponge that she was using to clean. "shit!" she exclaimed. 

eliza's mouth dropped and thomas let out a laugh. "did cindy berman just swear?" he said. 

"not now tommy! not in the mood!" 

cindy stood up and left to get another sponge, leaving eliza and tommy by themselves in the mess hall. "i don't know how someone could feel all that, also have you seen lily around recently?"

tommy shook his head, "i haven't seen her since mom dropped her off, why?" eliza peeped out the window searching for her. "i just...i haven't seen lily anywhere

and she doesn't know the area. something about it just gives me the creeps" she admitted. tommy went over to eliza and looked at her, "i know what you mean, like i feel like i'm losing my mind at times"

"listen, i need to tell you somethi-"

cindy rushed back into the mess hall looking around for tommy. "what is it, babe?" he asked, interupting the big thing eliza was going to say. she smiled at him.

soon enough all their attention went onto nurse lane who just walked through the door. "nurse lane,"

"i'm sorry," she started. eliza raised an eyebrow at her. "but i can't save you,i saw your name. i saw it on the wall, one way or another, you're gonna die tonight"

nurse lane walked closer to thomas and now a knife was shown in her hand. "what are you talking about?" thomas had now asked her. 

instead of getting an answer she launched herself at him with the knfe in hand. the knife was now pressed up to tommy's next but he managed to push the knife away from his neck but it flung at cindy's feet. eliza ran to nurse lane and tommy trying to push him away from her but they fell on to the floor eith nure lane still trying to kill him. "the knife cindy! hand me the fucking knife" eliza yelled as she pulled nurse lane back bashing her head on the wood. cindy froze watching the scene unfold.

tommy was heavy breathing and placed his hand on the back of his head, slowly moving it away he saw blood on his pale fingers. eliza glared at cindy who was still standing there.

the ambulance and police was called to take nurse lane in. a police officer came up to cindy, eliza and thomas. "you got history with her? she had a grudge against you?" he asked. "no grudge, we barely ever talked. i-i got bugs spray from her, that's it. it just doesn't make any sense"

"why would she do something like this?" cindy asked the officer. "now you say something," eliza whispered under her breath about cindy.

"she was nuts, just like her kid"

"nurse lane, she never seemed crazy"

"that's what she said about her kid, but sane peoeple don't chop up their friends. now, tell me again what happened" cindy now stared into the blue and eliza noticed she was staring at ziggy who was under a tree watching nurse lane being taken away into an ambulance.

the lunch bell rang so they all headed into lunch, eliza didn't know where ziggy was but she decided to go inside the hall. she sat on the table with some friends, thomas and cindy. "she said one way or another, i was gonna die tonight" thomas told them. 

"the kiddos are right, that's like, totally witchy behaviour" joan said, rolling up a ciggarate of weed. "it's just, there must be some explanation. the witch isn't real" cindy added.

"like what?" tommy said. cindy's eyes darted to the weed joan was adding into the normal ciggarate. "maybe she was on something,"

joan scoffed at the thought, "drugs are peaceful, not violent"

"i'm not talking about marijuana"

eliza looked at the ciggarete. "hey joan, can i have a hit?" she asked her. "of course you can, eliza"

tommy turned his head to eliza, "since when do you smoke?" he asked her. "since you almost got murdered"

"just amit you're jealous that the witch wanted your hubby all to herself!" on of the boys' on the table said.

"be serious man! why would nurse mary wanna do something like that? why would she want me dead?"

"oh, she wouldn't but..the witch might" the boy and joan both said as a joke. thomas rolled his eyes, "hey, they're just playing around, this was nothing. i promise" cindy told thomas.

"yeah, like you promised you'd look after thomas but that sure changed today where you let him get killed almost if i wasn't there" eliza knew exactly how to wind cindy up but what came as a bigger prority was her brother. even if she lost all her friends she wouldn't care as long as she still had him. eliza and lily never got on unlike her and thomas. lily and thomas cared for each other in a way neither cindy or eliza would understand but thomas loved eliza with all his heart.
he would kill for her, and she'd do the same if it meant he would still be in her life.

"did you see her eyes? there was something in there, something wrong"

clapping brought them out of the convosation. "chicks, dicks, listen up! we had a scary situation earlier, but we cannot let that mess with the most important night of our summer. tonight is sunnyvale versus shadyside. it is red versus blue, it is good versus evil.tonight, we commencicate colour war!" the guy said. the boy on eliza's table wasn't impressed. "it's commence, my god"

joan was now licking the ciggarete up, "he might be dumb, be he's kind of shagadelic"

"he's disgusting, you're disgusting"

the guy picked up a red flag, "tonight's first event is capture the flag, baby" he started whispering the next part, "sunnyvale..we have never..ever lost a..COLOUR WAR!" he shouted the last part. "so let's not let tonight be a stain on our legacy"

joan handed eliza the ciggarete and she took a small quick puff, thomas placed his head down facing the floor for a quick second but looked back up when joan walked up to the front of the hall. "thank you,kurt, for that neat-o speech. now, shadysiders, let's go out there and do our best, because even if we lose, we're still winners in our hearts" eliza and thomas looked back seeing cindy walked out of the hall.