'Are you gonna listen now, Leon?' I ask impatiently, gripping onto the cold, heavy chunk of metal in my hands. I'm desperate to just drop it and leave this moron tied up alone.

'It's quite hard to with a gun being held to my head and blood rushing through my ears.' He replies, jaw clenched. A tiny ribbon of sweat runs down his temple.

I giggle lightly. 'Do you really think I'm gonna kill you? Look, we've got some business to work on,' I gently place the gun on the wooden floor, as if it might crumble to bits if I drop it. 'My Pa used to tell me in his husky voice, Never kill the useful ones first. He would sit on the swinging bench on the front porch of our house, smoking a cigarette as I sat on his lap. I never took notice of his babble; it never made sense to me. I used to throw away the prettiest dolls. But I've learnt my lesson now.' I smile. When Leon turns to look at me, his brown eyes are filled with slight confusion, I guess his lingering thoughts about me being completely crazy must be now have been validated.

'OK, maybe you don't understand English,' I sigh, flicking my blonde hair behind my back. 'WE...need YOU... to help US... with our plan. So I'm not gonna kill you, OK? I wouldn't anyway. I'd just leave it to the ones that prefer mess. I'm NOT ruining this manicure.' I take a look at my shimmering crimson-coated nails. 'And it took me a while to look this good.' I grin at him. He looks uncomfortable, like if I took away the rope attaching him to a wooden chair, he would fly out of the window straight away. I like to see him squirm. 'The whole school knows you for your brains. You're like a little cooler version of Einstein, aren't ya?' I ruffle his golden hair. He cringes away – well as far as he can get, which is about a centimetre more. He has always hated me; I still remember those venomous looks he shot at me when we had to be partners in chemistry class. Yes, I know how much he wanted to pour that lovely flask of Ph 2 Hydrochloric acid all over my innocent, untouched face. Well, I guess the time has come to suck back that venom and spit it at him. Just so he can feel the fear I've always yearned him to feel. As I said, I won't hurt him. Well, not a lot anyway. It gives me just enough pleasure to see him on the verge of peeing himself.

'Since when did you become the bad girl? You were always the shy one who sunk her head into any book thick enough. You were like a vampire towards the sun when it came to a social life. What happened?' He seems so much more relaxed now, knowing I'm not going to shoot him. But if he starts asking irritating, pointless questions, the trigger can still be pulled.

'I took off my nerdy, thick framed glasses.' I reply, sinking down onto the floor with my legs crossed. My knee length pleated skirt spreads out across my thighs. I pull my long socks higher up. 'With them, the only stuff I saw was the amazement of quantum physics or how much use a metaphor had in literature. When I took them off, I saw what everyone else saw. Negativity. At first, I was too reluctant to join the team of delinquent teens. Then I thought, what the hey? I don't think my Ma will care.' I grin again. He looks down at me from his chair, trying to figure me out.

'Jesus, stop looking at me like that! I answered your stupid question, didn't I? This isn't a lie detector test. I'm the most truthful girl you will ever meet, anyway. If your top totally doesn't work with your shoes, I'll tell you.'

'You're such a freak.' He mutters, loud enough for my ears to catch. Quite a brave move for a guy to make, considering he's tied to a chair with an EAA EZ pistol perched patiently under him. Maybe I should have told him that I'm not afraid to use my fists; they can come in handy at times like this. I rise up, fixing my skirt and flicking my hair back again.

'What are you doing, Jarvis?' He asks, now looking up at me with slight fear.

'I prefer Gabrielle, thanks. I'm not one of your pathetic little friends that you holler at by their last names. Maybe I should be; after all I'm a freak in your eyes.' I watch him shrink behind the thick rope, further into his seat. 'Seriously, Latrelle. You should tell your tongue to watch what it slips from your throat. Hold onto the unnecessary comments.' I rest a hand onto his shoulder, looking into his eyes. I act a lot like my Pa used to. He was so headstrong, and to me, was never afraid of anything. If there was something in his way, he would bust it out. Friends of my parents would be like, 'Oh, doesn't Gabby look a lot like her father? But she acts so much more like Ma, doesn't she?' I guess I believed them. But when I took off my shell, I would look the in the mirror and see more of my father in me. I don't know; maybe it got there when he died.

'OK, so you know us, right? There are six of us planning to commit the impossible. We could make it seven, if you agree to join. Well, it will be eight. You don't really have a choice, do ya?' I giggle, running my fingers through his hair. I can already feel his skin prickling. 'Hold on... I don't want to think of it as an impossible task. Maybe, very difficult. OK, so there's like a bank in the centre of town, right? What's it called again...oh yeah, Central Bank!' I laugh again, kneeling on the ground so my face is in level with his. I position myself on the left side of him. The room is quite dark, with only a gash of light from a small window flowing through. I can see collected dust floating around at the arrival of movement after such a long time of emptiness in the room.

'My dad works there.' He mumbles, looking down at the grime-filled floor.

'Yeah, I know. Trust me, if I didn't, you would still be hugging your Xbox alone in your room at this moment in time. I guess you're quite used to the dark, huh? Teen boys' bedrooms are like little caves for them to nestle into all day. In the mornings when their moms rip open the curtains, they cower under their beds. That's how I see it, anyway. After all, I am a freak.'

'Quit messing around, Jarvis—'

'Gabrielle. Anyways, you can help us a lot with our plan. That bank is Mahoosive. Just looking at it from across the street makes me feel lost.' I huff. 'Get your daddy to bring you the map, and that would be level one completed. Right?'

'My dad's a security guard.'

'Great. That means we have to kill your daddy too.' I roll my eyes. His light gasp makes me laugh. 'Chill out, Leon. Surely he can't be on duty every night. When does he have the day off?'

'...Tuesdays and Saturdays.'

'Nice. So this mission has to happen on either of those days.'

'You're telling me that you're planning to rob a high security, international bank?'

'Well, I thought you'd catch on. Don't make it seem so bad. We're helping people, right?'

'Helping who? You just want the friggin' money to yourself, that's if you ever get your hands on it. I guarantee a huge failure. Remember a few years back when eight men tried infiltrating that building? They made it out in handcuffs, dude.'

'I'm not your dude. Remember to mind your tongue, Latrelle.' I slide the gun around on the floor, just so he gets the idea of a possible consequence.

'This will work. We just have to think ahead. Like really ahead, so we know every single possible outcome. This won't work if you don't contribute. And don't even bother spurting out rubbish like, what's in it for me? 'cause that's such a stupid question. If we get into that safe, we'll be filthy rich. There'll be enough to make every living soul in this city bathe in money. We'll have billions in our hands, my friend.'

He stares at the floor, trying to avoid my gaze.

'So are you with us?'

Silence.

'Are. You. With. Us.' My voice turns icy. I can feel him swallow his dignity, when I rip out a slender, sharp knife from my cardigan pocket. Obviously I didn't want it to carve holes in my expensive school attire – it came with a case. Leon gulps when his eyes set onto it. I look at my reflection on the shiny metal. Even with a lack of light in the room, it's still enough to notice that I need another layer of Rimmel London lipstick on. I apply a quick smudge before carrying on with my threat. 'So. What's your answer? Are you in or are you...out?'

'Fine,' He sulks. 'I'm in.'

'Yeah,' I smile. 'That's what I thought.'

After I untie him, we leave the desolate warehouse and saunter about a mile to my car. I parked it further away, so people wouldn't think the building was occupied after such a long time of sitting alone in its own small corner of the city. The afternoon breeze is warm, and the sun shoots a fiery glance on our direction. I watch Leon shield his eyes. He has small red marks across his arms where the rope was implanted into his skin. We walk through a wooded path, stumbling upon fallen branches and decomposing vegetation. He doesn't know how we got here, as I had blindfolded him on the way. He looks around the small forest, taking in as much as possible.

'Hurry up. They're waiting for us at the other warehouse.'

'There's another one?'

'Yeah. It used to be a mini factory or something. We haven't got much time left. I need to arrive with you in twenty minutes.' My father's gun bounces in my handbag, feeling very heavy. The knife's in Leon's hands.

He follows me to a gleaming red convertible parked in a lonely space of concrete. We get in and whiz ourselves to the next destination. I love the feeling of the wind gliding along my face. It lifts my long hair up, making it flow in the air. 'Fifteen minutes.' I say to him, but he's staring mindlessly out into the other streets. 'Wow.' He utters either to himself or me. 'This is the craziest thing I've ever got caught up into in my life.'

'Well, get used to it.' I reply. 'There's gonna a lot more crazy stuff happening. Anything will be possible once we have that money.'

We pull up at another old warehouse that looks more like a giant barn. As we step out of the vehicle and walk up to the giant wooden doors, the chatter inside becomes more obvious to us.

'Look everyone, Gab's back with a new arrival.' A tall guy holding a can of Carling beer in his hands stands up to our occurrence. 'I'm guessing he knows our plan.'

'Yes, Trick. He knows, and he's part of it.' I smile, patting my gun-filled handbag.

'Nice Job, Jarvis.' A girl with fiery red hair smiles at me.

'He was a bit resistant, but he got it in the end.' I explain.

We sit down on some old wooden benches inside the warehouse except for the supposed leader of the group, Trick, who lingers around us clutching onto his beloved can of beer.

Phoenix, the Redheaded girl is sitting on my right. The others are Rogan, Demi, Chris, and Jackson, spread out along the circle of benches. We were always a close group of friends, but somehow when I lost my good-girl image, we became a bunch of rebels. When my father got arrested, something changed in me. When he died, I woke up from my pathetic dream and entered the real, bad world. Petty theft, burglary, online fraud— that was light work. We always had risky plans in our minds, but never anything this complex and dangerous. Something inside us all called us together. We have to do this now. There's no turning back.

We're proving all those people that looked at us as nothing but a bunch of delinquents that we're more than they ever thought we could eve be. We have power, right here in our minds. We are going to unleash it. That money's coming to us, no matter what.

'Right then,' Trick started. 'Let's just have a little time to talk about what we're going to embark upon.' He sits down on an empty space opposite me. 'In case you didn't realise, this is big stuff. We have to glide through this–no short stops or anything. No messing around.' He finishes off the last sip of beer before tossing the can behind him. A small gust of air from outside makes its way in.

'OK–so we're all seniors here. Expect for baby Gabby over there.' His sudden attention towards me makes me blush. 'We all wanna go to the best colleges and all that. We all want enough money to provide for ourselves. We all want a good job. We basically want everything. It would take a lifetime to end up with everything. Maybe even never. You see, I had a dream about this. That's why we are here now. I had a dream that there were five of us walking past the gates of a large building. Security guards took no notice of us, and all the cameras bypassed our appearance. We just kept walking on, before ending up at a large silver door. We knew that behind that door was out lives' dreams; everything we would ever need. We knew that if we left with what was in there, we would have victory. Then I woke up and thought, 'wow! God comes to us in the most unusual ways, doesn't he?' Trick grinned. 'What I'm saying is, we can do this. We just need our guns and our minds, and we will succeed. Don't let anyone put you down along the way. We're gonna do this. Right?'

'Right.' We all chorused.

'Ok then,' He sighed. 'Let's kick this freakin' Safe open!'