could have lined up behind me for protection and I would have led them right up to Rosa. Thing is, Earth Witch throws up this pillar of dirt that did the job before I could get there, so I just changed back to normal and went for Downs. But she could have worked with me, you know. Given me a chance. I think “witch” is just about right for her.
Curveball did a great job keeping Drummer Boy back. I bet it was cool for her, too. I’ve heard the rumors about the two of them. But she doesn’t care about me and I don’t care about her. That makes us perfect teammates!
Maybe Curveball and I can pose together for the camera sometime. I mean, I won’t go anywhere near that Tiffani skank, but Curveball looks good on camera. She has that tomboy thing going and I’m high fashion, so the camera would like us for the contrast. And a tomboy’s no threat to me. Maybe I should talk to her about that. Like I said once before, I just need to act sincere.
Stuntman. All right. Everybody thinks I dumped him. I’m the Ice Queen, right? I see the looks people give me sometimes. But I didn’t dump him. I don’t even know what happened.
I told him way before we had our fling that I thought he was a big jock. And not just because he’s black, either, if that’s what you think. It’s because he moves like an athlete. That works for being a stuntman, too, knowing his body, knowing how to move. It’s called body intelligence. I learned about it when I was studying microbiology in college. Every athlete has it. I do, too. [smiles sweetly]
I still think Stuntman has a really cool ace. But does he think I’m stupid or what? I thought everything was fine between us, and then he’s saying, have I read Stendahl?
And I’m like, hey, you just [bleep]ed me and you want to talk about books? How do you think that makes me feel?
You don’t get a degree in microbiology when you’re stupid, but you don’t get one reading the work of philosophers, either, or whatever the [bleep] Stendahl was.
And then Stuntman gets all belligerent. He says, what do I know about Howard Hawks movies? About what? Movies directed by some [bleep]ing [bleep] who’s been worm food longer than I’ve been alive?
And then Stuntman kinda smirks and says, you’re even worse than Lorelei Lee. And I said who? Then he makes a crack about Diamonds being best friends or something, and I yelled, “We’re the Clubs, you moron!” And he started laughing at me.
Me, Jade Blossom.
Laughing at me.
We haven’t spoken since.
But I still wonder what the [bleep] he was talking about.
Confessional: Michael Vogali aka Drummer Boy
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone wants to know: hey, DB, did you hold back because it was Kate? Did you slack off there? Was that why the Reds managed to get Downs to their hideout finally? Did you want to get kicked off the show?
[a slow patter of solemn drumbeats]
Was I holding back?
Yeah. I was. I’m damn certain I could have got Downs back, or at least made it possible for someone else on my team to get to the little bastard—like anyone would really want to rescue him. [bleep], there’s a problem all on its own; hell, any sane person would’ve been happy to let the other group have the [bleep]hole.
But no, I didn’t do all I could. You happy now, knowing that? [bleep].
Look, Kate and me got some problems we’re trying to work out, and yeah, most of ’em, I’ll admit, are my [bleep]ing fault, okay. We’ve had some fights and we’ve had some really loud and nasty arguments. But I ain’t gonna hurt her. Oh, sure, I thought about it. Hard. I did. Think about it, man—I had both Stuntman and Tiff in my hands. They’re great shields, those two—you couldn’t hurt ’em if you tossed them off a [bleep]ing cliff. I could have used ’em to rush Kate and the rest of the Reds. Hell, I could have tossed ’em at her, maybe knock her down. Can you imagine what it would feel like to have two hundred pounds of rock-solid Stuntman land on top of you? Kate’s ace is her arm; beyond that, she’s no better than a nat. And once Kate was out of the way, it would have been simple to get Downs back.
Now . . . you really want to be fair?