Joie hesitated, giving Kami a challenging look. Then she smiled.
"Sure!", she said, winking at Night Creature.
"Oh LOOK!" cried an annoying, laughing voice. "It's the Sweat Briggade!"
Joie immediately turned to Night Creature, challenging Veronica's immature tone with her silence.
Without warning, Nora kicked at the air, pointing her sharp-toed cowgirl boot at Night Creature's hoof. The horse looked at her, but he did not move.
"WATCH it!" said the Queen Bee, turning suddenly, and kicking her foot out towards Bullet, so that the poor paint whinnied loudly, shifting, prancing against the ground agitatedly. Nora spooked the horse again, and before Kami could react, Bullet reared up suddenly.
Shoving Kami to the ground protectively, Joie turned on the three smirking cowards who stood before her, placing herself directly between the two horses.
"Go about your BUSINESS, Nora, and take your FRIENDS WITH you, because NOBODY who was originally HERE is going to ride out before PRACTICE because of YOU...OR your friends!"
"I didn't REALLY kick at YOUR horse, you MORON," sniped Nora, approaching Joie with a wicked gleam in her eye, "but that can easily be ARRANGED, because, as I recall, you chose to DISTANCE yourself from living like a NORMAL human being!"
"That's RIGHT!" agreed Veronica. "Old FREAKenstein over here just HAD to give us a piece of her mind EARLIER, so YOU were JUST giving HER the BOOT, RIGHT Nora?" The noxious blonde's annoying laughter polluted Joie's ears, and she closed her eyes, turning away from the trio.
"Of COURSE she was...SORT OF..." declared Jessikka, her hands on her hips, "except that she was ACTUALLY giving the REAL boot to poor KAMI INSTEAD!" The redhead rolled her eyes at Veronica, shaking her head. Turning towards Kami, she reached out her right hand, feigning a sympathetic face.
"Ya' KNOW, Kam," she said, "I'M actually willing to APOLOGIZE for Nora's behavior. I mean-"
"What do you think you're DOING, you air-headed little-"
"EASY, Nora!" said Jessikka, glaring at her friend. "I was JUST going to offer this poor little WIMP a DEAL! She MAY be a clueless DITZ, but she's NOT a walking FREAK show, like JOY over here, so..." She leaned closer to Nora. "...if she's willing to be NORMAL, and DITCH the weird GOTH ZOMBIE, maybe she can SAVE ME from having to DEAL with Her Gothness ALONE! GET it?" Her eyes flashed at Nora as she paraded her cleverness in hushed tones of superiority, and, finally, Nora raised both eyebrows thoughtfully.
"Well..." Looking at Kami, she smirked, then shot daggers at the girl, pinning her, freezing her with a stare that wouldn't seem to quit.
"Her Gothness!" quipped Veronica. "I LIKE that! It sounds like an OFFICIAL TITLE for our little Princess of MIDNIGHT and MAYHEM!" Gasping, she giggled. "The Princess of Midnight and Mayhem! Oooh, I like THAT title even BETTER!"
"SHUT UP, Veronica! I SWEAR..." ordered Nora, her concentration momentarily broken, even as she stared Kami down.
Something within Joie wanted Kami to refuse the offer, but Joie forced her saddened eyes to stare straight ahead; she was NOT going to run away on a horse right now, and she was NOT going to fight, lose her sense of logic, or pretend that Kami would, or should pay her back for being so kind towards her.
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