Disclaimer: This is not owned by me. I only wish it was.

One year. That's how long it had been since he had left me to fend for myself against Mama. I had grown up a lot in the past year. Seven years old and I could fend for myself pretty well. There was always food in the house, as long as you knew how to make it, so I learned. Mama wouldn't do it, she spent the time she didn't spend working too drunk to cook and she would probably starve if food didn't show up in the fridge already made, not that I would complain too much if she did.

The recess bell rang and I ran outside. Frakking substitutes. At least the regular teacher was good. Yet again, anything was better than home, where I could only hope Mama was so drunk she passed out, although that rarely happened.

"Kara!" a voice called from behind me. I turned around. Karl Agathon, my partner in crime and my best friend was there. I smirked.

"Yeah, what do you need Karl?" I asked. He had a huge grin on his face. He was up to something.

"I have an idea. That sub today is a royal bitch and I know how to get her back." It sounded like my sort of plan and I had a feeling it was going to be a good one. We were always trying to top our last trick. It was a miracle that we had yet to get caught. It was also a miracle that Karl had yet to get caught swearing, which was also my fault.

"What's the plan?"

---

It was story time now, where the teacher was reading us a stupid book with a stupid moral. Luckily for Karl and I, she was a crappy reader and had to actually stare at the book, which is why she didn't notice us crawling back to the desk.

"You have it on you, right?" I asked. I couldn't take our secret weapon to our house. If Mama found it she'd ream me and I got reamed enough.

"Of course. You think I'd leave where we could get caught?" he said, yanking the tube out of his pocket. He put a generous amount on the chair in front of him.

"That's the last of it," he grumbled, "We'll have to buy more on the way home."

"Fine by me." Avoiding home, even for just a few minutes, would be great. The two of us snuck back to our place with the group, looking as innocent as possible for the rest of the day.

---

"Oh how she screamed! That was the best!" I laughed. We had pulled some mean tricks before, but this was the best. Gluing the substitute to the chair, this was going down in history.

"Hell yeah she did. That's what she gets for telling us to sit still every thirty seconds while she paces the room." I snorted at that. It was the truth. If she wanted us to sit still we were going to make sure she did the same.

"Kara Thrace and Karl Agathon?" We both turned around and looked to see a boy behind us. He was in our class and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, what do you need?" I asked him in my normal brash manner.

"You guys are the ones who glued the sub to the chair?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Maybe, why?" I asked, skeptical of him. I don't really know the kid, but he seemed like a goody-goody to me.

"I'm gonna go tell the teacher," he yelled, then took off towards the school.

"Like hell you are," I growled and took off after him. I tackled him, then quickly stood both of us up. I hit him as hard as I could in the nose and he started to cry as blood ran down his face and on to his shirt.

"You are not telling anyone that Karl and I did anything, do you hear me?" I snarled, "If you do, I'll do more than just bloody your nose."

I let the kid go and he crumpled into a mess of tears, blood and snot. I felt bad, but what I had just done to him didn't even compare to what I would get if Mama found out. I'd be lucky to escape with anything less than a few broken ribs and a maybe an arm or two. Mama did not take well to my disdain for authority.

"Come on, Karl, we have to go."

---

"You go get the glue, I'm going to go look at the toys," I told Agathon when we entered the store. I loved to look at the toys, seeing as I only had a few myself. It was nice to hope that Daddy would come back and get me some.

"Ok, tell me if you see anything cool." We went our opposite directions and I walked through aisles and aisles of toys. I stared at the toys, checking the prices, seeing how long it would take me to save up the random cubits I found lying around the house and in Mama's dirty pants to by one. There were pretend guns, vipers and battlestars, things I would give anything to own and would take me years to save for. The battlestar was my favorite, something so big up in the sky, away from Mama, tattletales and stupid substitutes sounded like a great thing to me.

Eventually I walked past all of that stuff and into the cheap toys, things I might actually be able to get one day in the near future. Toy people, animals, and then I saw the insects and I had an idea. I grabbed the bag off of the shelf and ran towards Karl.

"Karl, Karl! We have to get these! We can play a great trick with these!" I was yelling and Karl looked at me like I had lost it.

"What are those?" he asked, "Plastic bugs?"

"Yeah, female subs will freak!" I said, before adding my mother in my head. I needed to get her back for the beatings she had given me the past few years and if anything scared Socrata Thrace it was insects and that was something I was willing to take advantage of after she cracked my rib a few weeks ago. It was just starting to feel better.

"Hand it here and I'll get it with the glue." I handed him the bugs and we walked through the line, me the happiest I had been in a year.

A/n: I decided to do a part 2, even though I didn't get any reviews. If you like it please do though :D It's always nice to know that your work is appreciated. If you don't like it I'd like to hear from you too, if just to know why you don't like it. Thanks- Dephs