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“Your aunt almost got into a fist fight with Cinder Fall.”
“Oh boy.” said Ruby when she read Penny’s text message. She was getting in her car, Crescent Rose, to pick up Penny after her league game at the bowling alley, where Penny played on her team The Pin Maidens, alongside Pyrrha Nikos Arc, Winter Schnee, and Ruby’s aunt Raven. Ruby, as she drove, thought to herself that her night was going to be more interesting than she had previously believed.
As she pulled into the parking lot, she saw two police cars, their lights flashing, on opposite sides of the lot. She looked at the one nearer to the lot entrance, catching a glimpse of her aunt Raven sitting on the curb next to the car. She parked Crescent Rose, and started to approach where Raven was, noticing that staring down at her was the on-duty Clover Ebi, the off-duty Winter, and Penny. The three women were wearing their matching shirts that read The Pin Maidens, which Penny had designed and ordered for them. The scene was being guarded by two other officers Ruby didn’t recognize, who stopped Ruby when she got close. “Excuse me, this is a crime scene. We need some space.” said one of the officers.
“Hey, it’s okay.” yelled Clover toward Ruby and the officers, causing the officers to turn toward him. “That's Raven's niece. Let her in for me?”
The officers nodded at Clover, then moved aside for Ruby. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem, just doing your job.” Ruby said, smiling at the officers as she walked past them toward Raven. “Aunty Rae, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Raven exasperatedly yelled. “That’s what I keep trying to tell them!”
“Bull.” Winter replied, her arms crossed while she grimaced at Raven.
“I believe you.” Penny added.
“Thank you Penny.” Raven said to Penny, then turning toward Winter. “Why can’t you be like her?”
“Because I'm a cop who has been watching you for the past month intentionally antagonizing Cinder literally every chance you get.” Winter answered. “Who else would have done it?”
“Uh, done what?” Ruby asked.
“Someone-” Winter said, deepening her glare at Raven, then turning to Ruby, “-had shirts with something very inappropriate on them delivered to Cinder Fall’s team.”
Ruby squinted. “...inappropriate how?”
“They made a gross pun using the first letter of the first name of Cinder and her teammates, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Neo Politan.”
Ruby looked to the side in thought. “C for Cinder, M for Mercury, E for Emerald, and N for Ne-oooooooh…” Ruby turned back toward her aunt. “Aunty Rae, Ewww.”
“I DIDN'T DO IT!” again yelled Raven.
“THEN WHO DID?!” barked Winter.
“HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!” Raven yelled back from her seat on the curb.
Winter grabbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Raven, will you please just come clean so we can all move on with our lives?”
“I have nothing to come clean about!” Raven protested. “C’mon Winter, do you really think that if I did something that funny I wouldn’t take credit?”
”You know that actually is a good point.” chimed in Clover. “She totally would.”
Winter threw her arms to the ground, saying, “Ugh, I can’t believe this.” just as Pyrrha joined them.
“Hello everyone.” said Pyrrha. “So good news, I managed to convince the owner to not press charges or ban anyone from the bowling alley.”
Winter let out a relieved sigh. “Great. How’d you do that?”
“I… may have had to agree to do a commercial.”
“Oh Pyrrha,” Winter said, concerned. “You didn’t have to-”
Pyrrha waved her arms in front of her. “It’s okay. I like this place so I don’t mind doing it if it helps us. Plus, I got some catering business from them for Jaune and I out of the deal.”
“Well.” Clover chimed in again. “I guess I should go confirm there’s no charges being pressed. Everyone wait here.” Clover then walked away toward the bowling alley.
Winter turned to Raven again. “There, no one has to worry about getting arrested. Now can you fess up?”
Raven stared deadpan at Winter. “Winter, for the last time, I didn’t do it.”
Winter sighed again, then reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone and typing on it. “You know what? I don’t care anymore. As soon as Clover comes back, I’m going home and having a bath.”
Clover came back a few minutes later and let everyone know they were free to go. He told the other officers to let everyone leave, bid everyone a good night, and walked toward the police car on the other side of the lot to let them know the same. Ruby and Penny bid their farewells to Pyrrha, Winter, and Raven, and watched them leave. As they turned to walk to Crescent Rose, they jumped when they saw Neo had joined them without them noticing.
“Gah!” Ruby squeaked out, being met with only a smile and wave from Neo. Neo then gave Penny a note, and jovially skipped away.
Ruby looked at Penny confused as Penny opened the note. “Thanks for the website link!”
“Website link?” asked Ruby
“Oh! She asked for the link to the site that I ordered the team shirts from.” Penny replied.
Ruby squinted. “Hey Penny… do you think she-?”
“Most likely.” Penny swiftly answered.
“Huh, so that’s why you believed my aunt. Why do you think Neo did it?”
“To bother Cinder. I don't think Neo likes her very much.”
“What gave you that idea?”
“She messes with Cinder’s stuff a lot. Last week, I caught her spitting in Cinder’s ball.”
“Ew.”
“I agree. Ew.”