With an unsteady truce agreed to the girls now once again began looking for Katie or Kellie. Karen silently hoped they wouldn’t run into Katie. Although the girl was outwardly nice, Karen had heard rumors about her temper. Considering that Mary Elise was essentially holding her friends at magical gunpoint she had no desire to try and talk her way out of a big problem. Unfortunately for Karen, today was not her lucky day.
As the girls opened the door to the gym, they almost ran right into Katie. Startled the group fell backwards gaping up at the girl. “Lisa,” Katie said curiously. “What are you guys doing here?” Karen glanced between Mary and Katie. The two girls had yet to realize the other was here. Now she hoped to mediate a truce between the two before something went wrong.
“Katie be careful,” Lisa yelled. “Mary Elise has a ring of her own. She already changed Sammy once.”
Karen groaned as a shocked Katie now stared at Mary Elise. Before she could act she saw both girls point their rings at one another. “Don’t move Mary,” Katie growled. “I was going to say the same thing,” Mary sneered.
The group went eerily silent as the Katie and Mary now held their rings out, threatening to change each other. “You know I can age you to dust before you even have a chance to think,” Katie growled, narrowing her eyes at Mary. “Ha I can change you TO dust,” Mary laughed. “I’m getting pretty good with this thing. Question is do you want to risk it? You think your faster than I am?”
“Will you two please just stop,” Karen groaned rubbing her eyes. Katie and Mary Elise glanced at the girl while still holding their ring hands up. Neither girl wanting to yield before the other. “Okay listen,” Karen started. “Look Mary didn’t come here to fight, we came to talk.”
“Then how come she’s changing my friends,” Katie growled. “Hey I thought She was going was going after my friend.”
“Okay Listen,” Karen sighed. “It was a misunderstanding and besides she did change her back.”
Katie and Mary Elise narrowed their eyes as they continued to stare at one another. Karen could see both girls lower their ring hands slightly, although she was getting through to them she could see that they still did not trust one another. Karen decided to try something risky, hopefully she would be able to keep both teens from obliterating each other. Taking a deep breath Karen now stood in between Katie and Mary Elise. “Now,” she said slowly. “If either of you use your rings your going to have to go through me.”
Katie paused while a look of genuine fear spread across Mary Elise’s face. “Karen don’t,” she yelled. Karen glanc d backwards at her friend giving her a sad smile. “Mary I’m gong to need you to trust me Okay? Just let me tell them about you.” Mary Elise bit her lip as she slowly lowered her ring hand. “Okay,” she whispered. “But if you do anything to hurt Karen Katie, you’ll regret it.”
Katie nodded slowly lowering her ring to her side. “Okay,” she muttered. “I won’t do anything but I need to know what’s going on.”
“How about this,” Mary Elise said. “You tell us what you know about the rings and I’ll tell you everything that I know.”
Katie nodded. “Sounds fair,” she said. “We should probably go find Kellie though first, she’s the one the knows the most about these things.” Mary Elise nodded, seeming to accept the terms of the tentative peace agreement. As the girls now slowly began to make their way out of the gym Karen hood to be able to negotiate some sort of a peace between the girls.