Ew… This Guy's A Weirdo

Five years ago in the rolling city of Gemshore Evelyn, 13, snakes through the crowds of Ravaged. Forcing her way through the clutter and as she enters a more open space, a baseball hits her hard in the back of the head, knocking her down.

“Ah! What the hell?!” She said, rubbing her head while watching the ball roll away,

“Aye, you.” Adrian, 12, says with a blank expression. He reaches out his hand. “Gimme my ball back.”

Evelyn immediately springs up, pointing a finger at Adrian,“You’re the jerk that hit me?! What the hell was that for?!”

“Hah? I didn’t do shit, you got in the way of where I was hitting.”

Evelyn grinds her teeth on each other then she bends down and picks up the ball, ready to put Adrian in his place. “You want the ball back? Fine! Take it you dick!”

Evelyn throws the ball hard at Adrian, his eyes widening in surprise as he barely catches it in his hand. Evelyn grumbles, mad that he actually caught it, before sticking out her tongue and skating away. Adrian looks down at his hand, feeling the slight sting from catching the ball.

“Good throw…” He says, before turning and walking away.

…

Continuing through the city, Evelyn makes it to the entrance of an alleyway. She lets out a relieved sigh, “Finally home…” She rounds the corner and sees a group of men going through boxes and blankets tucked next to a dumpster. “Hey!! Let go of my stuff!”

She zooms over to the men, diving kicking into one's back. This maneuver scares the rest of them off and Evelyn stops as she sees her “home” in tatters.

“Ah man… Not my box fort… It took a week to scavenge this stuff…” She looks up at the sky, seeing the sun about to set “I don’t have enough time to rebuild all this… Ugh, guess I’ll talk to Scoots”

…

Evelyn reaches a small park in one of the many different carts in Gemshore, a small playground standing in the middle of a dirt lot. She skates through like it was her second home. She makes her way over to a man with fewer teeth than the bills he’s counting, Scoots.

“What’s this? My biggest cash cow has come back to me?” He said,

“Hey, Scoots. Is there a king of the hill going on tonight?”

“Yeah…” He points his wad of cash towards the playground, “That playground for the night, for whoever lasts the longest! You in?”

“Sure am!”

“You have no idea how happy that makes me!” Scoots springs up and starts advertising, “Oi! Tonight just got a whole lot better ladies and germs! The champ! She may just be a wee girl, but don’t let that fool you! She-”

Evelyn skates away from Scoots, bored of the promotion. She wanders around waiting for the event to start when she spots Adrian, trying to stay awake. Evelyn frantically turns away and starts to move far from him, but he already notices her. Perking up.

“Oh? The muscle gorilla girl’s here?” He says with a smirk, getting the reaction he wanted as the comment stops Evelyn in her tracks.

She swings around, “I’m not a Gorilla, asshole! What are you even doing here?!”

“Same as you looks like. Didn’t think someone so preppy looking would need a place to sleep. Figured you’d be enjoying a nice meal in a room…”

“Yeah? Well maybe some people like to take care of themselves despite the circumstances. Unlike you.”

Her comment wipes the smirk off of Adrian’s face and the two glare at each other for a few moments.

Scoots comes over an air horn, “Alright!! Who’s ready to get this party started!”The homeless people all cheer, “Tonight is a special night! Over twenty people tonight want a chance at sleeping in the playground! A sanctuary, where any crime is off limits, so a lucky winner can sleep in peace! Contestants, line up! Customers, place your bets to yours truly!”

Evelyn and Adrian line up with the rest of the participants, the two still glaring at each other as they wait.

“Everyone ready?! Good! Let’s rumble!” Scoots yells out,

The participants all rush for the playground. Evelyn starts skating ahead with a smug smile on her face. “This’ll be light work, I’ll take control of the playground quickly and hold them off.” She giggles to herself, “Plus, I can stick it to that-”

Evelyn feels a gust of wind from behind her, she turns and sees Adrian, with a wild grin on his face. His bat almost makes contact with Evelyn before she quickly ducts under it.

“What’s this! The champ just got snuffed out by that white haired newcomer! This is getting better and better!” Scoots comments to the crowd,

“Guess it wasn’t a fluke before…” Adrian says, the two now circling each other, “You’re not half bad, Gorilla girl.”

Evelyn snaps, dashing towards Adrian and throwing a spinning heel kick, which Adrian blocks with his bat. He pushes her back and swings his bat down but Evelyn is able to quickly skate away. She starts skating towards the playground and Adrian follows. Evelyn smirks before grabbing a pole of the playground, swinging around and landing a solid double kick into Adrian’s face. He tumbles back, scrambling up and pocketing a rock. Evelyn jumps up on the top of the playground. Adrian licks the blood from his nose and smirks at her.

“Ew… This guy’s a weirdo…” Evelyn says to herself,

The rest of the participants make it to the playground, a large man attempting to bulldoze Adrian over, winding up a right. “Outta the way, brat!”

Without even looking at him, Adrian catches the man’s fist, hurling him at Evelyn. Evelyn looks on in surprise, jumping out of the way. Adrian sees his opening and takes out the rock he pocketed, throwing it up and hitting it directly into her face with his bat. Evelyn grabs her face and Adrian follows up by jumping to her level, smacking her down with an overhead swing. Adrian smirks down at Evelyn as he comes down with another overhead swing, just missing as she tumbles out of the way. Adrian charges Evelyn but she plants both of her hands behind her head, springing her body up and landing a double kick to his gut. Adrian is sent flying across the playground, his back hitting the metal bars. Evelyn zooms after him, throwing a punch that collides with Adrian’s bat. He then headbutts her backwards and just when he goes in to swing, another participant punches her down on the ground. Adrian’s smirk swiftly turns to rage as he swats the man across the face. He beats the man with his bat until he's on the ground.

“Stay outta my fight, you piece of tra-”

Evelyn punches Adrian in the side before he can finish his sentance. He responds by hitting her across the face with his bat. This doesn’t deter her however as she hits him with a knee. Adrian goes to swing again but Evelyn has a read on him, weaving it before hitting him with a cross to the chin. Adrian blocks a follow up from Evelyn and lunges forward with an elbow that cuts open her forehead. She throws a hard kick that collides with an equally heavy swing from Adrian, sparks flying as Evelyn’s skates scrape across his bat. The two start throwing a flurry of attacks, now not caring about dodging or blocking anymore. The two are completely even and damage begins to quickly accumulate on their bodies. Suddenly, a flurry of different attacks engulf the two of them, as the scared participants start ganging up on them.

“Get these monsters off the playground first!” One said,

“Screw fighting them! Just jump ‘em!”

“Get the hell off!” Adrian barks, getting a metal pipe across his face.

It’s a few hours later and Adrian stirs, getting up with a large black eye. He looks around and sees he’s still in the park, on the ground outside the playground. The place is quiet compared to how it was before. He also sees Evelyn laying a few feet away from him, but his eyes widen when he doesn’t see his bat. He gets up with a pained grunt as Evelyn starts to slowly wake up. Her eyes shoot open and she sits up, before looking over at Adrian.

“I hope you’re happy… Now neither of us has a place to sleep.” She said,

Adrian ignores her, frantically looking around the park. This catches Evelyn’s attention as she slowly gets up and starts following. “What’re you even doing?”

“Shut up! I can’t find it!” Adrian replies,

Evelyn notices that he’s talking about his metal bat, “So? Just get another one.”

Adrian swings around and looks at her with a glare, “There isn’t another one!”

He goes back to looking around and Evelyn watches for a few moments. She sighs, before also looking around.

“I don’t need your help.” He said,

“I’m not helping… If I find it? I’m selling it. Look what you did to my face!” She points at all the bruises on her face,

“Screw off! I didn’t even do half of those!”

“Like I care!”

She sticks out her tongue and the two start engaging in another competition to find Adrian’s bat. The two both see it underneath the playground and they start pushing each other trying to get to it. Adrian dives for it and hits his face perfectly against a metal pole. Evelyn stops dead in her tracks and bursts out laughing. She falls to the ground, pointing and laughing at him. Adrian gets up and grumbles while rubbing his forehead, grabbing his bat.

“Quit laughing at me!”

Evelyn wipes a tear from her eye, “Jeez, man, lighten up. You don’t have too many friends, do you?”

“So what?”

“Uh, that’s really sad. Especially when you admit it…”

“Yeah? Well I don’t want your opinion and I don’t want friends. What I do want though…” Adrian turns with a smirk and points at Evelyn, “Is for you to be my pitcher.”

Evelyn squints unamused, “Why in hell would I, someone with a looot better things to do, help someone like you? A jerk.”

“Cause I won our fight!”

“Wha? No you didn’t!”

“Yuh huh!”

“Nu uh! We both got jumped!”

“But I woke up first! So I won!”

“Ugh, you’re insufferable! You want my help? Then you help me find a place to sleep tonight! I would’ve actually won if it wasn’t for you!”

“Fine by me, I won’t even have to walk that far.”

Adrian starts walking towards the playground.

“Woah, woah! Wait! You can’t go up there!” She yells after him,

“You ain’t the boss of me!”

“No, I mean you legit can’t go up there!”

Adrian ignores her and jumps onto the playground. As he does a man with a scar across his face stands up, towering over Adrian as he looks down at him. “This is my spot, shrimp.”

…

Adrain tosses the now bloodied man into a dumpster. He pokes his head out of the bin, “You got any idea what you’re doing?! Every homeless person in this city will tear your shrimpy ass apart for breaking our rules!”

“Really? Sounds fun.” Adrian closes the dumpster on his head and walks back over to Evelyn, “There, done.”

“You’re actually stupid.” She says, looking on is disbelief.

“Quit whining already. I gave you what you wanted…”

“Yeah, yeah, you did… AT THE COST OF GETTING A TARGET PUT ON MY BACK FOREVER!!”

Adrian leans back as Evelyn screams at him, an unamused look on his face,

“Relax, he only saw me.”

“What?”

“What? I ain’t a snitch.”

“You’ll take the heat? Really?”

Adrian puts his hands in his pockets and starts walking off, “I’ll be back here in the morning. You better be here.”

“Wait a sec! Where are you going?”

“To find somewhere to sleep, where else?”

“Well I mean…” Evelyn is hesitant, conflicting between whether or not she wants to show this boy any kindness. She makes her choice, “The playground is big enough. Just sleep here.”

Adrian looks at her for a moment, before walking back towards the playground

“So, what's your name? I’m Evelyn!” She said,

“Adrian.”

“Adrian? Hm…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me.”

“I don’t know, just wasn’t picturing that as your name is all.”

“Again, what's that supposed to mean?”

“I was thinking more simple, like ‘caveman’ or something, you care so much for your club and everything. It suits you.”

Adrian frowns, “Well, Gorilla girl suits you more than Jacklyn.”

“Evelyn. ‘E v e l y n’.”

“Whatever it is.”

“I just told you what it was. Like, a literal second ago.”