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“Our winner this year is Marco Rodriguez!” he could hear Pascal shout from the arena.

Jasper threw his helmet across the tent as hard as he could across the tent. He was hoping that a loud crash would release his anger, but the helmet hit the dirt and quietly rolled away. He clenched his fists and cursed out loudly.

He knew he had to get out of that tent before Marco came back to show off his victory. He took his bag off the table at the back of the tent and quickly took off his gear. After pulling on his jeans, he noticed that the bruises that scatter his chest and shoulders were already to become visible. His fingers softly pushed on the tender spots on his stomach.

“Rough game,” someone said behind him.

Jasper turned around to see Samuel standing at the front of the tent. A large white patch was taped over his left eye with white gauze wrapped around his head to hold it in place. He still had his gear on and his arms were crossed under his chest.

“Just pissed Marco won again,” Jasper told him.

“Yeah,” Samuel said pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table. “Heard your car flipped pretty good.”

“Yeah,” Jasper agreed. His muscles ached as he lifted up his arms to put on his shirt. “I think you win for injury though.”

Samuel touched the bottom of his patch and Jasper could see his face wince.

“Lost the sight in that eye. I guess I should thank you for that,” Samuel said.

Jasper remembered how Marco signalled for him to go around so they could run into Samuel’s car and Jasper cursed himself out for that. He let Marco use him to win. He knew he should have partnered up with Samuel so Marco would have lost.

“Sorry,” Jasper muttered.

“It’s no bid deal. I’ll survive. If I was a Brighty they’d have me in the hospital for weeks.”

“If you’re a Brighty you’d never be allowed in a car.”

He could hear Samuel chuckled under his breath. Only two other piles of clothes sat on the table. Jasper grabbed Samuel’s clothes and threw it at him. Marco’s clothes were the only ones left on the table.

He pulled his knife out of his pocket and made a quick slash down the front of the shirt.

“What’re you doin’?” Samuel asked him.

He lifted up Marco’s shirt and tore it apart, his muscles screaming out in pain. Samuel’s laughing grew louder.

“He can afford new clothes,” he said.

“That extra five hundred can buy a lot.”

He threw Marco’s torn up shirt on the ground and pulled out his jeans. He let the legs of the pants hang off the side of the table. Jasper held the knife against the jeans and sawed off the legs.

“It’s been hot lately, he may want shorts,” Jasper said.

Jasper cut off the second leg and threw them down on the ground, on top of his shirt. He slid the knife back into his pocket.

“I’m leaving before he comes back,” Jasper said walking across the tent.

“Same here. He’s going to think I’m the one who destroyed his clothes,” Samuel said. “And I can’t spare anymore eyes.”

Jasper waited at the bottom of the fire escape leading to Shai’s apartment. He tried knocking on the door, but there was no answer. Shai must still be out with that Brighty. The longer he had to wait the more his anxiety grew. Shai was manipulative, but going out with a Brighty was just dangerous. If she got caught she’d be shot right away.

He stretched out his back so he was sitting against the brick of the building. He stretched his legs out across the ground while he waited. 

 No one, not even Todd, came to the apartment. He was waiting for about half an hour before, before he saw Shai walking down the ally. When she saw him she sped up her pace and Jasper got up off the ground.

“I can’t believe I let Marco won,” he said as soon as she was within an earshot of her.

“Jasper, you realized you almost died, right?” she asked arching an eyebrow.

Jasper shrugged his shoulders and Shai rolled her eyes at him. She began to pull herself up the ladder as Jasper followed behind her. She knew she couldn’t be out in the Slums for long looking like a Brighty.

Shai pulled herself through her window and Jasper continued to follow her. She went into her room and Jasper sat down on the couch. The muscles in his body continued to ache.

“I can’t wait to get outta these clothes,” he heard her say through the door.

“If you didn’t pretend to be a Brighty you wouldn’t have to dress like one,” Jasper told her.

“I ain’t goin’ to stop. This guy is too stupid to stop.”

Jasper ran his fingers over the ripped material of the couch. “Try tellin’ that to an Officer as they are hangin’ you.”

Shai opened up her door and walked out of her room. She was wearing a pair of jeans with a tear in the knee and a blue shirt. A typical outfit any Rat would wear.

“You don’t care when I dress like a Brighty in the Market.”

“Yeah, the Market. It’s outside of Bright. They’ll shoot you if they find you in the city.”

“You don’t think I know that?”

She had her arms crossed under her chest. Jasper let out a deep breath and pushed himself off of the couch. She went back to the window and climbed out. After Jasper was done pulling himself through the window again, she arranged the cardboard back over the window. They were about to climb down the stairs, but Shai put her hand up and stopped them.

Shouting and cheering came from down the street. Shai knelt down to the ground and stared down. Jasper got down beside her, the muscles in his legs already starting to cramp up.

A group of people came into view as they turned around the corner. Jasper took a quick count to see twelve people. Most were stumbling as they walked, so they must have just come from the Shelter. It was obvious they were drunk. Shai’s apartment was close enough to the Shelter that you could see the steeple from where they were crouching.

“Couple of idiots,” Shai whispered.

“Yeah.”

Alcohol was banned and being seen drunk was an automatic sentence to a camp. Shouting like that was only going to draw attention to themselves and get arrested. Jasper scanned the streets quickly to see if he could see an Officer anywhere.

“Told ya to bet on him,” one girl slurred. Her short blonde hair stuck to her face with sweat. She had on a pink sundress with a torn strap and started twirling down the street without any shoes on her feet.

“Beth makes one smart choice and we all get hammered because of it,” one of the men joked. The rest joined in a chorus of laughter.

“You would have lost all your money on that Jasper guy,” Beth told them. She was obviously angry with them.

“Heard he died in the derby anyways,” another man said.

Shai turned her head so she was looking up at Jasper. Her lips were curled in a light smile.

“That’s sure gonna change our plans today,” she whispered to him.

Jasper stuck his tongue out at her. Shai turned her head and continued to watch the people on the street.

“Winner! Winner! That would be me!” Beth sang out loud. She was way off tune and continued to make up the simple lyrics. The rest of the group she was with started cheering again.

Shai hit Jasper in the shoulder with the back of her hand. Her finger was pointing out to the other end of the street. He followed her gaze to see four Officers walking towards the group. Their hands were on the guns strapped to their waist.

One of the Rat’s eyes grew big when he saw the Officers walking towards them. He turned around and started running away. The group looked at the man as he ran away. As the rest of the group started to see the Officers advancing towards them they started to run.

“Stop!” the Officers started to yell out. They pulled out their guns and positioned them in front of them.

Beth turned as one grabbed her arm. She tried to pull herself free, but the Officer quickly had her arms pinned behind her back and was attaching cuffs around them. Half of the group managed to get away as each Officer was arresting someone. They scanned their fingers, but Jasper knew that it was pointless. Majority of Rats don’t have files. He only did because of the derby.

The Officers pinned the Rats to the ground, except for the Officer with Beth. He was pulling her away as she screamed and cried. The Officers started to peel the Rats off the ground once they had their hands cuffed securely behind their back. One Rat’s face was covered in blood that was running down from his nose.

A couple more Officers showed up as they went searching for the ones that ran away.

“Lets go,” Shai whispered to Jasper. She cocked her head back towards the window.

They waited until the Officers pulled the Rats down the street and out of their view. Staying close to the ground they crept back towards the window. They quickly pulled themselves through the window and back into her apartment.

A couple more screams were barely audible from inside Shai’s apartment. He knew for sure that the Officers were scanning the streets intensely, looking for any reason to arrest a Rat. Zimmer wanted to get rid of them, but he should know that they weren’t going anywhere.

            Shai spent the rest of day inside her apartment with Jasper. They passed the time playing poker, but she had trouble keeping her mind of Todd. Watching the people get arrested was nothing new to her, but she still would get worried for Todd. He liked spending time at the Shelter and if an Officer caught him he’d be arrested. 

            Jasper picked up the deck of cards in his hands and started to shuffle them. They were each sitting on one end of the couch and used the middle as a table. They had been quiet for the last few minutes, so Shai searched her brain for something to talk about.

            “What happened to Sam?” she asked him.

            “What?” he asked back. His attention was focused on the cards.

            “I saw them pull Sam out of his car. Did he die?”

            “No.” Jasper started dealing out the cards. “Lost the sight in one eye, but that’s it. I’m surprised your Brighty let you watch it.”

            Shai shrugged her shoulders. She remembered how every Brighty woman hid their face, so they didn’t have to watch. Being ignorant was easiest for them.

            “Riley didn’t want me too,” she told him.

            “Riley?” Jasper asked chuckling. “Sounds like such a Brighty name.”

            “I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Brighty name.”

            Jasper shrugged his shoulder. Shai got up off the couch and went into her room. She peeled back the sheet on her window and looked outside. The sun was already starting to set. Curfew was coming soon and Todd still wasn’t there. She cursed under her breath; Todd would have hid in a building by now. That’s what she would have done and he’s smarter than her.

            “It’s almost Curfew,” she heard Jasper say behind her.

            She turned around to see Jasper leaning against the doorframe.

            “Stay here tonight then,” she told him. She walked away from the window and towards him. She wrapped her arms around him and felt his do the same.

            There have been many nights that they stay at each other’s house. Curfew was something they were all scared of, whether they would admit it or not.

            The bell started ringing from Bright. It was barely audible from the Slums.

            A loud banging noise made Shai’s heart jump. She pulled herself away from Jasper. The loud banging noise continued to echo through her empty apartment.

            When she realized it was the front door, she ran into the kitchen and pulled a knife out of the drawer. It had a wide blade with a very sharp point. She gripped the black handle tightly and ran to the front door.

            “Shai!” Jasper yelled at her as she opened the door. She spun around on her heels so she was facing him.

            “Stay here,” she told him.

            The poundings continued on the door as Shai crept down the stairs. She felt her heart beat quicker as she imagined it was an Officer on the other side. They could be searching the houses for alcohol. There wasn’t any in the house, but once they saw the bracelet Riley bought for her they’d arrest her for sure. No Rat could afford that, so they would have thought it must have been stolen. It could always be a Rat panicking because the bell for Curfew had rang.

            She looked back over her shoulder quickly to see Jasper standing at the top with a metal pipe in his hand. He quickly nodded at her. She didn’t need him there, but felt better to know that there was someone to back her up.

            The pounding started to get harder as the person on the other side was getting angrier. Shai pulled the metal bar off of the door. She curled her fingers around the doorknob and took a deep breath in.

            She moved so quickly she didn’t have time to recognize who the person was. She flung the door open, slammed her body into the person and pinned them up against the wall with the knife at a threatening angle at their throat.

            A pair of bright blue eyes told her that it was Todd. His mop of dark hair was ruffled and his face looked shocked. It quickly melted away to a grin. She could smell the alcohol coming off of him.

            “You always give the warmest welcomes, Shai,” he told her.

            “Why the hell didn’t you come through the window?” she asked him angrily.

            “Take the blade off my throat first.”

            Shai lowered the knife and they both went inside. Shai put the metal bar back over the door and ran back up the stairs. When she got back into the apartment, Todd was over at the window locking it.

            “You’re suppose to lock the window at Curfew,” Todd scolded her.

            This wasn’t the first time Shai had heard this lecture. They locked down the apartment at Curfew, but Shai always felt nervous doing it when Todd wasn’t there. She felt like she’d be locking him out of his own house and that he’d be shot because of her.

            “Guess I forgot,” she mumbled.

            “Forgot? You’re smarter than that. How could you just forget?” he started to yell at her.

            “I just heard the bell. Didn’t give me time yet to lock it,” she shouted back.

            Todd rolled his eyes and then looked at Jasper. His eyes went big like he just noticed him in the room for the first time.

            “Your brother’s gonna be happy to know you’re not dead,” he told Jasper.

            Jasper scowled at him and Shai slipped her arm around his waist. Todd turned and started to walk away.

            “Don’t ever leave that window opened again,” he said without turning his head.

Todd slammed the door behind himself. Shai pushed her forehead against Jasper’s arm.

“He’s an ass when he’s drunk,” she mumbled.

“He’s always an ass.”