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II. THE ACE OF SPADES
The sun rises over Mirrorworld; the first ray of sunshine falls onto a lone playing card lying on the dirty tiles like a bad omen: the ace of spades. A few inches from the card, a hand dangles out of the bed, pale, decorated with shy freckles, two chunky rings on his fingers, a battered wrist watch showing it's 6:30AM. Asher's fast asleep when someone sits down at the edge of his bed, gently nudging him in the side. Riley feels like bait in a lion's cage, but she couldn't remain in her own bed any longer. She holds her breath, eyes darting across the hall, finds Val fast asleep in their own bed. 7:00AM, the alarms would go. Last night, most of the group decided they'd get up then, but Riley wanted an advantage. An edge over the others. So she nudges Asher again.
"Feck off," the redhead mumbles, then rubs his eyes, a hostile glare shot at Riley the moment he opens them. "What the hell, Blondie?" he whispers, agitatedly, his voice rough from sleep.
"So sorry, Red," Riley snarks back, "but we're a team for the day, and I want to win this." she runs a hand through her hair.
Asher props himself up on one of his elbows, blinking at the girl in front of him. "What?"
Riley rolls her eyes, impatient. "It's 6:30. Everyone else will get up at 7, so if we get going now, we have free reign when it comes to hiding," she holds up two backpacks she packed with the rations found in the center of the hall, nine packages, like a fucked up food-version of musical chair.
"Shit," Asher chuckles, sitting up fully now, running a hand through his face, then through his long, red hair, "I didn't peg you for a trickster, Blondie," he reaches for his jeans on the floor next to him.
Riley pouts. "It's not on purpose. I didn't plan to. I just... woke up early and came up with the idea. It's not like it's a rule to get up at 7. The early bird and all..."
Asher shrugs. "Yeah." he quickly gets dressed before taking one of the backpacks from Riley's hands. "Come on, then, before we wake one of the other idiots," he gets up, and Riley does so, too. They both tiptoe to the edge of the hall, then step out from under the canopy. Asher fishes a packet of cigarettes out from his pockets, lights one, then begrudgingly holds it out to Riley. "You want a smoke?"
Riley shakes her head. "No. I don't smoke," she says, "It's bad for you." she crosses her arms across her chest, then looks around. She'd much rather be teamed up with, well, really anyone but Asher. Her preferred partner, of course, would've been Val, who on the bus ride revealed she looked at plans of the park beforehand and mostly memorised them. But, honestly, Riley would've been happy with anyone but the moody ginger.
"Oh, no, shit, Sherlock?" Asher raises his eyebrows, taking a deep breath of his cigarette, then blowing the smoke in Riley's direction. "Now don't say it causes cancer, colour me surprised."
"Can you please stop being mean? It's just one day. For one day, can we please just work together?" Riley takes the camera out and starts recording before Asher gets to snap back, holding her face into the camera, flashing a Hollywood smile. "Guys, this is Riley. I'm working with Asher today," she pans the camera to Asher, taking another drag of his cigarette, "who's a bit moody cause it's so early," she lowers her voice to a conspiratorial volume, panning away from Asher's now furrowed eyebrows, "everyone else will get up at 7AM, but it's 6:36 right now, so we're earlybirds," she grins, holding a thumb up.
