Mr.Big Shot // Rio (Good Girls)

Part Eight: Double Jeopardy

Alexa Clarke set alarms for two things, and two things only. One: Forever 21 Black Friday sales, and two: the morning menu of Mcdonald's.

Unknown to her before the morning of the robbery, there was a third event that would qualify for consciousness before nine AM. Hint: It was not Beth, and it was certainly not criminals with neck tattoos, no matter how stylishly they dressed. It was Annie.

Still, she held an amount of resentment indiscriminately towards anyone who intruded on her carefully crafted Three-To-Eleven sleep schedule, which made an appearance as Alexa snarled her order into the microphone of the Starbucks drive-through.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

"No, someone woke up on the couch, wearing unicorn onesie pajamas, because apparently UPS is morally opposed to reasonable shipping time for mattresses." There was such venom in her tone that Annie carefully removed the painted nerf guns from arm's reach of Alexa, replacing them with an iced mocha. "This is going to be the death of me," she groaned, chewing the straw flat.

"That's not funny," Beth reprimanded.

"Y'know what's not funny? That I'm going to have eye bags in my mugshot."

Surprisingly, the drive to Fine & Frugal (which was less Fine and more Mediocre) only got more stressed, the tension practically palpable, although that might have been the August humidity that even the car AC in overdrive couldn't beat.

"I really don't like this." Beth was back to stating the obvious, and even Annie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, because I just love spending my Wednesday mornings committing robbery."

"I know that," Beth snapped, red nails digging into the steering wheel with an impressive grip. "I just mean that this is an obvious spot now. No one suspects a Costco."

"Yeah, but Costco isn't run by an asshole rapist. And their deals are amazing."

"Oh, don't even get me started, girl." Beth pulled into an alleyway behind Alright, I Guess & Frugal and turned off the ignition as she handed out the masks, stylish ski masks in complimentary colors.

"Hand sewn." Ruby nodded approvingly as she plucked at the seams. "So we're really going to do this again?" She fit the hem of her baby-blue mask snugly on her neck.

"It's not like it can get any worse for you guys- you've already done it. They can't just charge you again for this. Double jeopardy, and all that," Alexa said matter-of-factly, pulling her floral orange mask on over her bun, which gave her skull an elongated appearance.

"That is not how double jeopardy works!"

"Yeah, nice going, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls," Annie commented, snickering under her canary yellow mask.

"Shut up, nerd. Hell if I have to redo wash day for this." She still tried to poke her hair into a less idiotic-looking shape, finally settling and pushing the car door open. She leaned into the front seat, gloved hand open and gesturing towards the painted nerf guns. "Let's do this."

-

Rob me once, shame on you, rob me twice, shame on me.

The robbery of Okay & Frugal went exceptionally until the police timer was one minute and fourteen seconds out, and suddenly Annie's car wouldn't start again.

"The one thing we didn't account for: Murphy's law." Annie jiggled the keys, slamming her palms against the dashboard. "God, I hate that guy."

"Fifty-six seconds left," Ruby chimed.