Episode 4
Dear Ms. Jago:
You are so totally cool I can’t even tell you. I want to be just like you, even though the guidance counselor at school says I’ll never have a chance at the Assassins’ Guild. He thinks I just like your clothes, but he’s so totally out of it. (It’s true your clothes are completely kick-ass though.) It would be so cool to be so strong and dangerous. I bet you don’t take anything from anybody.
I practice and practice so I can be like you. I’m a pretty good shot these days, even though I don’t get to fire anything but paint guns. And I’m pretty good with a knife, if I do say so myself. My mom and dad are pretty cool about it, just so long as I keep up my grades. They didn’t even mind too much when I was arrested one time. Only one time--the police haven’t been able to catch me since then. And I haven’t done anything, it’s all Danny Hanks’ fault they were ever after me in the first place.
I thought and thought about that. The truth is, there’s no point sitting around crying that it’s all Danny Hanks’ fault. If I want to be the kind of person that doesn’t take anything from anybody, I can’t just sit around whining that all my problems are someone else’s fault. If I have a problem, it’s my fault if I complain and don’t do anything about it. So I have to do something about Danny Hanks. See, Danny Hanks’ family has so much money it’s a joke. He never bothers to study, because no matter what he does he’ll get into the University. And even if he doesn’t it won’t matter, because his family is so rich he doesn’t have to do anything, which he won’t anyway, even if he gets a job. He smarts off to the teachers and they don’t dare say anything to him, because his grandfather is such a big shot and his father too. He goes out at night to practice, like I do, but he takes a case of beer and just shoots at anything that moves and he thinks he’s so hot. So then the people in the neighborhood call the police because there’s paint all over their building and their cars, and they can’t even go for a walk without getting hit with paint, and they come and find Danny Hanks drinking beer and shooting at streetlights. So do they arrest him? No way. They take one look at his ID and they say, "So, Mr. Hanks, did you see the vandal who did this?" And he tells them it was me!
He shoots at me whenever he sees me, which isn’t often, because I’ve gotten pretty good at being stealthy. (That is such a cool word! I found it by accident when I was looking something up for a history assignment. Isn’t it cool?) I don’t know what his problem is. The counselor at school says he probably likes me, but I think it’s pretty messed up to tell a girl you like her by sending the cops after her. Then the stupid counselor tells me I could do worse and maybe I ought to give him a try, seeing as he’s so rich! No way! That is so totally lame I can’t even tell you!
So I thought and thought. What can I do about Danny Hanks? If we had an Assassins’ Guild here I’d file Intent, but we don’t so I can’t. I could nail him with paint in front of the whole school, but then I’d be in trouble, and nobody would be brave enough to stick up for me, except maybe my brother and my parents, but that wouldn’t do any good. I just don’t know what to do. Then I thought, you’re so totally cool you’d know what to do. So I asked myself, What would Jago do? I know you probably get piles and piles of mail, and I’m just one average Mospheiran girl. But like my mom says, nothing ventured nothing gained. So I’m writing to ask, what should I do about Danny Hanks?
Love
Miss Mospheiran
From Jago, the household of
the paidhi-aiji, Bren Cameron, the Station
To Miss Mospheiran, Jackson, Mospheira
Nadi,
Whatever you do, use finesse.