"I'm really not sure I want to go."
Jack glanced at Daniel. The archaeologist was scowling at the letter he'd received inviting him to a reunion. "Why not? Won't it be fun to catch up with old friends? I mean you haven't seen them for what, ten years?"
"Nearer twenty actually." Daniel grimaced as he studied the letter. The invitation was to a paint-balling event, and it wasn’t patently clear to Jack that it was something which Daniel had no intention of attending whatsoever. "And I wouldn't exactly call them friends either."
"So who are these people?"
"There were nine of us - we were all in rooms on the same hallway in college. I was kind of on the periphery of the group, being the geek.”
“And…?”
Daniel grimaced. “ And Larry Jones, who considered himself to be the leader, went out of his way to humiliate me at every given opportunity. I’d hazard a guess that the only reason I've been invited is to let Larry to play 'shoot the geek' and humiliate me even further.”
"They might have changed," suggested Jack. "You've changed in the time I've known you. You haven't seen them for years - there's a good chance that they've changed as much as you have."
"Well seeing how they've elected to hold the reunion in a paintball range, it doesn't sound like they've changed much at all," grumbled Daniel. "I'm sure the real game is pick on the nerd."
"Oh come on Daniel, they're grown men, and it was years ago. You don't really believe that do you?"
"I wish I didn't, but the guy behind this was a loud-mouthed, ignorant bully when I knew him, and nothing about him then suggests that twenty years later he'll be any different. The only reason that I'm invited is to allow him to humiliate the geek for old times sake." Daniel gave a resigned shrug. "I'm not going and that's final."
"But Daniel," grinned Jack. "You're missing the point."
"What point is that?" Daniel frowned.
"You're not the geek that you used to be," Jack raised his eyebrows and gave Daniel a knowing look. "You're no pushover these days, and as for paint-balling - that's nothing when you compare it to real combat experience, now is it?"
Daniel pursed his lips as he considered Jack’s proposal. "What - go along and play the geek until we start paint-balling?"
"Something like that, yes," grinned Jack.
"Might be fun after all. Maybe I will go."
xoxox
Three weeks later, the nine men met in the cafeteria of a paint-balling range just outside Chicago. Daniel was the last to arrive. Deliberately he shambled towards the others, shoulders hunched and head bowed.
"Look like the geek's arrived," grinned Larry Jones. A quarterback during his youth, he was still a bear of a man, although he was somewhat flabby these days. Back in their college days he'd made it perfectly clear to everyone that he barely tolerated Daniel's inclusion in the group. It was only because Daniel had been reasonably good friends with Matt Stevens, another member of the football team and a man that Larry liked, that he’d allowed Daniel to tag along at all. He turned to the others. "Get ready for target practice."
Some of the other men laughed, but their laughter was subdued, more out of politeness than genuine mirth.
"Hey guys," said Daniel as he reached the table. "Sorry I'm late."
"Head in a book again Jackson?" laughed Larry in a not altogether friendly manner.
"Something like that," muttered Daniel.
“See you’ve cut your hair – decided that the girly look wasn’t becoming any more, huh?” sneered Rick viciously. Larry laughed but no one else joined him. Daniel kept his head down in a good approximation of his behaviour when they were all at college.
"Okay guys, I've agreed that we're playing Renegade today," said Larry, interrupting Daniel's attempts to greet the other men present. "Two teams of four and one lone gunman - the renegade. Object of the game, the renegade has to capture both the team flags without getting killed, while each team has to both kill the renegade and capture the other team's flag. The winner is the person or team who achieves their objective first."
"So who's the renegade Larry?" asked Tom Andrews, Larry's best friend. "You?"
"Oh no," grinned Larry, thoroughly enjoying being back in charge of his college friends. "Names out of a hat. Last name out is the renegade." He gave Daniel a filthy look. "We want to make sure this is all nice and fair, now don't we?"
He produced a glass full of folded up bits of paper. "Okay, red team." He pulled four names out of the glass. "Tom, Rick, Mikey and… me." He gave Tom a wink. "Orange team, we have John, Matt, Steve and - oh - Freddie. That leaves you Jackson. You're the renegade."
Daniel knew that this was fixed, although he had to admit it had been neatly done. He had only noticed the palming of his name and the replacement with Larry's because he'd been looking for something along those lines. He gave Larry an icy cold stare. "Okay. What colour am I then?"
"Blue. To match your eyes," mocked Larry. "Think you're up to the job?"
"Maybe," replied Daniel. "I'll do my best."
As the men got changed and equipped, Matt took Daniel to one side. "You shouldn't let him get away with it Daniel. He's a bully and you just encourage him."
"Leave it Matt. It's okay." Daniel gave him a nervous smile. "If I make a fuss he'll just get worse."
Matt gave him a sympathetic look. "As long as you're okay."
Daniel just nodded in response.
xoxox
Daniel crept through the woods, his first victim easily visible. He didn't have a clear shot open to him, so was circling around to get a better position. Unlike the teams, who each had a home base, Daniel carried his flag on his back and whoever shot him was entitled to remove it as proof.
In contrast to the others, who were crashing through the undergrowth, yelling and shooting randomly, he moved as silently as he could through the bushes. 'Jack was right,' he thought, 'genuine combat experience makes a real difference to this game.' He rounded Mikey's position and was now directly in front of the man. Daniel lay low until Mikey almost walked on to him, then took aim and hit his victim full in the chest. Easy – like taking candy from a baby.
Mikey stared in amazement at the blue mark on his jacket. "Jackson?" He looked around him, but couldn't see Daniel anywhere.
"Bang, you're dead," murmured Daniel, and moved off as silently as he'd come.
"Jackson!" yelled Mikey. "Show yourself! I know you're here!"
He was already some distance away, hidden behind a small rocky outcrop. As he suspected, Mikey's shouts brought others to his location. As Steve ran right in front of Daniel, a single shot picked him off.
Steve glanced at the mark on his jacket, and grinned. "Nice shot Daniel. Glad to see you're not dead yet."
Daniel smiled and moved off cautiously. He made short work of Matt and John and then realised that he only had to get Freddie and he'd wiped out the orange team. He checked out his map and worked out where the best positions for a base camp might be. Realising he wasn't that far from one of them, admittedly the most obvious choice and therefore not somewhere that Jack would have picked, he set off towards it in the hope that other people didn't think like Jack.
Sure enough, the red team had picked the obvious spot to set up their base camp. Tom was patrolling the perimeter - or at least he thought he was. Daniel hunkered down in some bushes some distance away and pulled out the binoculars he'd thought to bring with him from the SGC. No way would Jack or indeed any of SG-1 have picked that spot to set up camp. Although the camp was tucked into a natural dip, offering some protection against long-distance attacks, the thick undergrowth surrounding it meant that anyone could creep up unnoticed until they were almost on top of the camp. The rocky outcrop providing the back wall was also easily scalable, making an attack from above the most obvious choice.
He watched Tom's pathetic excuse for sentry duty for a while longer, and was just about to start his planned attempt to grab the flag when he noticed that Tom appeared to be talking to someone. He zoomed in on the man. He was definitely talking to a bush. He zoomed in still further on the bush. The end of a paintball gun was just visible.
Larry. It had to be. Daniel begrudgingly applauded the man for his strategy. Most people would pick Tom off easily and then rush into an apparently empty camp to steal the flag, leaving themselves exposed to Larry's counter attack. You needed to sit back and watch a while. The camp was still fairly easy to take, but he'd have to pick off Larry while hidden. He also needed to work out where Rick was before he took any action.
He mentally thanked Jack for all that he'd learnt and crept off towards the other blindingly obvious place to site a base camp.
The orange team had set their camp up in a more exposed spot - little cover for the enemy here. Daniel hunkered down in a secluded spot covered by undergrowth some distance away, retrieved his binoculars and watched the camp. Freddie was lying low on the ground, just below the pole with the flag on it. Not an easy target. The banter as the grouped had changed had indicated that the guy had been a Reservist for a while - and it showed. He was hard to pick off, but would find it fairly easy to take out anyone who tried.
Rick was probably around here somewhere, waiting for an opportunity. Daniel scanned the sounding countryside, trying to spot him. No sign anywhere.
Then he heard the sound of someone trying to move silently but failing. The faint sound of leaves scrunching and twigs snapping underfoot somewhere behind him alerted Daniel to the real possibility that his game could soon be over if he wasn't careful. He couldn't risk that - he had a point to prove to these guys on behalf of so-called geeks everywhere.
His assailant grew closer. It had to be Rick; Daniel knew where everyone else was. He shrank in on himself under his bush, hoping he hadn't been spotted. The guy stopped almost on top of him. Daniel hardly dared to breathe in case he gave himself away. He looked up - almost over the top of his head. Rick was listening intently to something - it was probably the sound of the archaeologist’s heartbeat which was deafening to Daniel.
He drew his weapon up as silently as he could without catching it in the branches that surrounded him. Unfortunately, the paintballs still in the reservoir rattled as he did so. Rick looked down and spotted the man beneath him. The man's eyes widened in surprise and he brought his gun up and fired wildly into the bush beneath him as Daniel fired back.
Blue paint splashed over both of them as Daniel found his mark. Red paint dripped from the leaves of the bush that Daniel had used for cover, but not one paintball hit the archaeologist. Daniel scrambled out of his hiding place but stayed low, close to the ground. He didn't want Freddie taking him out now.
"Jeez Jackson! You really startled me there." Rick looked down at himself. "Looks like you won this round. You really lucked out this time."
Daniel kept his weapon trained on the man in front of him, while keeping one eye on the man in the camp.
"Guess I did get lucky, didn't I? Can't be any other reason for the fact that you're dead and I'm not, can there Rick?"
The man scowled. "What are you insinuating?" He raised his weapon threateningly.
Daniel shrugged. "Nothing," he muttered, hoping that Rick would just leave and let him get on with the task of dispatching the final member of the orange team.
Rick raised the gun and stared down the sight, taking aim. "Now if I shot you and took your flag, no one would be any the wiser, now would they? I mean, your shots were way off the mark and hit me after I'd already killed you."
"Except that there's a time recording in your vest that records exactly when you and I were shot."
"Larry already thought of that. The guy who gave you your equipment is a friend of Larry's. I wouldn't rely on the time in that record."
Daniel was shocked. He knew Larry was a bully and a braggart, but he didn't think he was petty enough to cheat.
Rick stood with his gun trained on the archaeologist. Daniel noticed the subtle movement of the muscles in his hand as he squeezed the trigger and rolled to one side, shooting at Rick as he did so. Fortunately for Daniel, Rick's weapon jammed and no paintballs came out, whereas blue paintballs hit the man over and over.
As Rick stared aghast at the blue marks all over his torso Daniel continued rolling for cover. By the time Rick recovered, shook his weapon to clear the blockage and turned around, there was no sign of the archaeologist.
"Jackson!" yelled Rick. "Where are you?"
Daniel cursed silently under his breath. Freddie had been alerted by Rick's shouting and was sweeping the horizon searching for the lone gunman. Fortunately for Daniel, in order to get a decent view, he was no longer lying as close to the ground as he had been. If he could just get closer without being spotted he could risk a long-range shot, but he was going to have to get much, much closer. These paintballs didn't travel that far.
Should he head off back to the other camp to take out Tom and Larry or stay to try and eliminate Freddie? Constantly cruising between the two camps was going to sap his energy. He decided it made more sense to stay here and finish off the orange team, leaving him with just the red camp to tackle.
While he pondered his options, Rick had given up his half-hearted attempt to find the archaeologist and had left the area, grumbling loudly about arrogant geeks.
Daniel used his binoculars to check on Freddie. The man was clearly on the lookout for him, but as a result, his previously strong defensive position had been abandoned. He was crouching down near the flagpole scanning the horizon but he was now a much easier target. All Daniel had to do was get within range.
He slowly made his way towards another patch of scrub, keeping as low to the ground as possible. Freddie was still scanning the area looking for him, but he hoped that with any luck actual combat experience against the Goa'uld was going to prove better than reservist training. If he could just make it to the area of cover he was aiming for without being spotted, Daniel was confident that he would be able to hit the target.
He arrived at his chosen cover, only to find that it was nowhere near large enough to fully hide him from view. His only option was to lie flat on the ground, which made his chances of hitting Freddie almost impossible. Daniel's current location was right on the limit of his weapon's range. He would need to be off the ground to stand any chance of hitting the target.
Cursing under his breath, Daniel scanned around him for better cover. Halfway between him and the camp there was a dip in the ground that looked deep enough to protect him. He would be pretty exposed getting there, but if he made it then it was the perfect spot from which to launch his attack.
What he could really use right now was a distraction, something to make Freddie look in the other direction.
To his amazement and relief, Mother Nature decided to lend a hand. A snake appeared out of the undergrowth on the edge of the camp, moving directly toward Freddie. The man stared at the reptile, transfixed.
Daniel seized his opportunity and rolled down the slope into the dip. Once there, he lay still, heart pounding, waiting for his opponent to start shooting.
Nothing.
He rolled onto his stomach and gingerly peered over the edge of his makeshift bunker. Freddie hadn't moved.
The snake had stopped about six feet away from the man and was clearly assessing the threat posed by the obstacle in its path.
Freddie was frozen to the spot, staring at the snake.
Daniel took his opportunity – he knelt up and as he took aim the snake moved away. Freddie – his focus no longer completely on the reptile – turned his head and finally saw Daniel but it was too late. Blue paintballs hit the man on his side and thigh.
To Daniel’s surprise Freddie smiled. He stood and took the flag down and then walked towards the stunned archaeologist. “Here, I guess this is all yours.”
“Thanks.” Daniel took the flag.
“I knew Larry was under-estimating you,” Freddie smiled. “You tried to hide it when you came in but you’ve been working out lately.”
“Ah. I thought nobody would spot that.”
“Sorry, I’m a personal trainer. I know when someone’s fit and when they’re not and you, my friend, are fitter than most of us here.”
“Well, I’ve got another camp to tackle,” Daniel smiled as he took the flag and placed it in his pocket. “See you later.” The two men shook hands and he moved away.
“Don’t suppose you’ll tell me where you learnt to shoot like that?” Freddie called after him.
“Maybe one day…” he said before muttering “when it’s no longer classified” under his breath.
Once he was halfway to his next destination, Daniel squatted and took out the timer pack from his vest. It didn’t take much to open it, and he realized that the timer was set about 15 minutes too fast. Years of watching Sam playing with alien technology paid off and it was a quick and simple job for him to set the time correctly. Job done, he replaced the pack in his vest and headed on his way.
Back at the red camp, nothing much had changed. Tom was still ambling around the perimeter, weapon slung lazily over his shoulder. He and Larry had evidently become bored with waiting for attack – neither was alert and Larry was now clearly visible from under his bush.
Daniel decided to go for an aerial attack. He looped round and climbed up the rocky escarpment to make his approach from the rear. He reached the top and crawled on his belly until he could view the camp. Lying flat on his stomach slightly back from the edge of the rocky cliff-face meant that the men in the camp couldn’t see him. Even if they could, they didn’t have much of a target to aim at.
Tom had given up ambling around and was now sitting down, leaning against the flagpole while he smoked a cigarette. From this angle, Daniel had a clear shot at Larry. The men had evidently not even considered the possibility that someone might attack them from up here. He smiled and took aim.
One blue pellet hit the back of Larry’s calf, and then he swung immediately to hit Tom on the shoulder before the man could react to Larry’s yelp of pain. Larry scrambled out of his hiding place and stared at the blue paint mark on his leg.
“Jackson!!”
Both men looked about them wildly but neither looked up in Daniel’s direction. They obviously hadn’t foreseen that the rocks behind them could be anything but protection. Just for fun Daniel shot them both again, which only served to infuriate Larry more.
“Jackson you coward! Show yourself!” he yelled. Tom, in the meantime was shooting randomly into the bushes, showering them with splashes of red paint, but failing to actually hit anything.
Daniel noticed movement on the horizon. The other men had gathered and were making their way down towards the camp. He smiled. Somehow humiliating Larry with an audience was going to make this all the more satisfying. Although Daniel was not normally a vindictive man the years of sustained bullying that he’d suffered at the hands of at least three of these men - coupled with the knowledge that today they’d tried to win by cheating - left him determined to bring these bullies down a peg or two. And he was going to do it for geeks everywhere.
He peppered both men liberally with paintballs – Larry’s butt being a particularly easy target - and just for good measure he took a couple of potshots at the flag, not really expecting to hit it but wanting to maybe mark it with blue paint in case he had any difficulty in getting hold of it. To his delight both shots hit the target. Game over – the flag was his, he’d won.
While some of his audience – particularly Matt and Freddie – were finding the situation incredibly funny Rick for one was not. He had always been one of Larry’s particular supporters when it came to picking on Daniel, and the spectacle of his friend being ritually humiliated at the hands of the geek he detested was clearly too much for him.
“Larry! He’s up on the rocks!”
Tom heard Rick and stared up at the cliff face. “Up there, Larry!” He initially rushed straight toward the cliff face before realizing that by doing that he wasn’t going to be able to get a shot in at Daniel. The two men split up and headed out of the camp in opposite directions.
A pincer movement. Daniel had to get out of there and fast. It wasn’t going to take them long to reach his position. He looked down at the cliff face, not hopeful that there was any way down, but to his amazement, there was something bordering on steep steps off to one side. Slinging his gun onto his back he carefully climbed down the twenty feet into the camp, reaching the bottom just as Larry crashed into view above him.
Keeping as close to the rocks as possible, he inched his way along until he was perfectly lined up with the flagpole, ready to make his dash and grab the flag.
“They’re coming back down, Daniel!” called Matt.
Daniel sprinted across the campsite to the flag pole and quickly pulled the flag down. Stuffing it in his pocket alongside the other one, he gave Matt a quick thumbs up and then un-shouldered his gun, ready for whatever onslaught might be coming.
Larry appeared first – red in the face and breathing very heavily. He clearly wasn’t used to taking much exercise these days.
“You may think you’ve won, Jackson,” he panted, “but the timers will say different.” He raised his weapon.
“Oh, do you mean the time difference?” asked Daniel. “Yeah, I found out the time wasn’t right on my vest so I reset it back to the right time. Think when they check the times they’ll find I shot you first – many times.”
Larry’s eyes bulged and the veins stood out on his neck. “You fucking geek!” he bellowed. The venom in his tone took Daniel right back to his college days and left him feeling inwardly sick.
“I believe the winner is the person or team who returns to the centre with both of their opponents’ flags,” said Daniel as pleasantly as he could manage. “See you there.”
He took off as fast as he could. He was counting on the fact that neither Tom nor Larry were as fit as he was. It was about a mile and half back to the centre. He knew he could run at a reasonable speed for some distance – something he’d put to the test many times in his escapes from the Goa’uld – he was just hoping that Tom was as unfit as Larry appeared to be.
He heard Larry bellow “Get him!” and dared to look back over his shoulder to see the response. Only Tom and Rick had responded and joined in the chase. Everyone else appeared to be laughing.
Daniel took heart that it was only Larry’s closest friends who were still happy to act the bully. Realising that Rick was gaining on him slightly he upped his pace from fast to flat out sprint. He wouldn’t be able to maintain that pace for the full distance, but he hoped his pursuers would soon run out of steam and he could run the rest of the way at a more comfortable speed.
Sure enough the plan worked. Before long Daniel had gained a couple of hundred yards over the closest of three men. He maintained that distance and was soon able to slow down as it was fairly obvious that those chasing were tiring.
Keeping up a brisk pace, Daniel trotted into the centre with no sign of the others. He walked up to the desk and handed over the three flags to the guy standing there.
“Weren’t you the Renegade?” There was a definite air of incredulity in the man’s voice.
Still out of breath Daniel just nodded.
“That’s gotta be a first. We’ve never had a renegade win before. And definitely not clean.”
“Clean?”
“You’ve not been shot once. There’s hardly a paint mark on you – just splash-back from your own weapon. That’s impressive.” He pulled out an instant camera and snapped Daniel before the archaeologist could react. He called into the back office. “Hey John, come and see this – we’ve got our first ever wipe-out!”
At that moment Tom and Rick burst into the room, red-faced, sweaty and gasping for breath. “You-you…” gasped Tom, anger all over his face.
John appeared from the office and looked at Daniel, then at the other exhausted men. He checked the flags and then the photo. “Very impressive. Since we introduced the Renegade game three years ago you’re the first renegade who’s ever won.“ He grabbed a pen. “What’s your name?”
Daniel told him and he wrote it on the white border of the photo. “This goes on the roll of honour board over there.” He nodded in the direction of a pin board near the door.
“That’s really not necessary…” Daniel blushed.
“You’re wrong – success like this should be rewarded,” grinned John as he walked towards the board. He glanced at Rick and Tom as Larry burst through the door, shortly followed by the majority of the group. “Your friend’s just gotten himself the honour of ‘King of the Range’. He’s got top spot on the board!”
“No friend of mine,” growled Larry. “Fucking geek.”
John finished putting Daniel’s photo on the board and turned round to glare at Larry. “Well that ‘geek’ has just achieved something that no one else has here – ever.” He walked back and bumped into Larry, speaking quietly as he did so. “And given that he clearly knows how to use a gun…” he glanced at Larry’s paint-spattered clothes “… much better than you do – I’d steer clear of the insults if I was you.” He gave Daniel a final firm handshake and a knowing look. “I’d love to know where you learnt to shoot like that, but I guess I’ll never be allowed to find out.”
“I could tell you,” smiled Daniel, “But then I’d have to kill you.”
“Thought as much. See you around.” John disappeared back into the office.
Matt came over to Daniel and shook his hand. “You dark horse. Where did you learn skills like that?”
“Just picked them up over time.”
“Na.” Freddie joined the two of them. “You don’t just pick stuff up like that. You can’t even get that good with training alone. You’ve had combat experience and it shows.”
“Sorry – you’re way off the mark.” Daniel shook his head. “I’ve done this a few times too many. I just know what mistakes can be made - mostly from experience. I’m going to get changed.” He headed towards the door only to find his way blocked by Larry and Rick. He wasn’t surprised when Tom came to stand behind him blocking his retreat.
“Who do you think you are geek? Huh?” sneered Larry. “Bet you think you’re something special what with getting your picture on the special board an’ all, dontcha?”
“Leave it, Larry,” Matt interjected. “He beat us all. Fair and square.”
Daniel met Larry’s scowl with an even gaze. “Can I please leave now?”
“What will you do if he says no?” jeered Rick. “Beat him up, using your black belt in karate?”
Something inside Daniel snapped, and just for a moment he considered taking his paintball gun and pounding Larry to a bloody pulp with the end of it. Instead he pulled himself together and drew himself up to his full height. He calmly removed his jacket and slung it over one arm, flexing his muscles as he did so.
“Do you really want to test that out, Larry?” he asked, his even tone belying the anger he felt.
The bully eyed Daniel’s biceps – it was very obvious that Daniel was in considerably better shape than he was. He merely scowled in return. However, instead of letting Daniel leave, he turned and left the office, closely followed by Rick. Tom bumped into him – hard – as he pushed past to join his friends.
“You’re welcome,” muttered Daniel under his breath.
Matt rejoined Daniel. “You going to leave it at that? You should say something.”
The archaeologist shook his head. “I’ve made my point. I won. If he can’t handle the fact that I can beat him that’s his problem, not mine.”
“He won’t leave this alone, Daniel. You made him look like a fool.”
“I guess I won’t be accepting any more invitations that come from Larry.” He smiled ruefully at Matt. “But there’s no reason why we can’t keep in touch. I’ll give you my new email address.”
“Whereabouts are you based these days? Still in Chicago?”
“Nah. Here and there. More often there than here.”
“Oh come on, Daniel! You don’t need to be so elusive with me.” Daniel merely gave him a wry look in response.
“Daniel Jackson. Man of mystery,” grinned Freddie.
“Action Jackson,” laughed Matt.
“Definitely no geek,” added Freddie.
“Definitely not.”
Daniel shrugged. “I think I’ll give the reunion dinner a miss. Don’t think I’m going to be particularly welcome.”
Matt glanced out at the courtyard to where Larry was still blustering to his friends. “Not sure I want to go myself. Fancy going for a few beers and a quiet meal instead?”
“Sure, why not? You want to join us, Freddie?”
He nodded and the three of them headed off to get changed and find a suitable place for their own reunion.
xoxox
On Monday morning Daniel was the first member of SG-1 to arrive in the briefing room – a rare occurrence. Before long, Jack joined him.
"How was your weekend?" Jack asked. "Fun?"
"What?" Daniel looked up from the notes he was apparently deeply engrossed in.
"Weekend? Reunion? Good?" Jack gave Daniel a questioning look.
"Oh. That." Daniel was deliberately being obtuse.
"Yes Daniel, *that*." Jack could throttle the archaeologist when he got that stubborn. "Come on! What happened?"
"I went, put on camos, shot a few people. Came home."
"Shot a *few* people? How many?"
"Eight."
"Eight. That was everyone…"
"…except me. Yes." Daniel gave Jack the benefit of his best expression of blue-eyed innocence. He blinked a few times and looked back down at his notes. "Shot Larry what ten, maybe twelve, times."
"*Ten* times?"
"There were some paintballs left in the gun," explained Daniel. "Didn't want to waste them."
"No. I can understand that. Waste is bad." Jack wiped the smirk off his face as Daniel glanced back up at him.
"It wasn't my fault that most of them hit him on the butt." Daniel picked up a pencil and started to scrawl on the page. "In front of everyone else." He leafed through the pages of a reference book, an innocent look on his face, but the corner of his lips quirked. "I mean, after all, I am only a geek who doesn't know one end of a gun from the other."
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Geek No More
by AtheneStory Bemerkung:
Woke up one morning with the entire story in my head – just took well over a year to find the time to write it! Seriously though, bullying is a real problem in all areas of life – it must not be tolerated EVER. Big thanks as ever to Jo for her wonderful use of the red pen.Site Navigation
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