TV2: The Third Announcement

#1

she got 10 jewel

These were the first words shining bright on her phone's screen under her desk.

shit sorry spoilers

These were the second, arriving moments later.

It was math class, early Fall, and Jewel was trying to be a good student for a change, primarily in the hopes of building up just a bit of a grade buffer. She was taking notes, and even though she was sitting in the back of the room, she was only checking her phone every few minutes. Coleen was ditching to watch SOTF. She had not told Jewel about this plan, which was the only reason Jewel was in class.

Season Sixty-Five was rolling strong. The background on Jewel's phone was a closeup of Zachariah Johnston's face. Coleen laughed at her about it fairly regularly. Both of them tended to prefer the contestants who actually did things, but for some reason Coleen had developed a dislike of Zach that grew stronger the longer the season ran. "Who the fuck takes a drink from someone in SOTF?" she was fond of saying. "Who the fuck asks someone to hang them? He's lucky and stupid, and that's it."

And Jewel, who so rarely said a word against Coleen, now found herself debating. What could be said about Zach that didn't apply to Shawn—who Coleen had the biggest crush on and who had strangled a girl with the corpse of a snake—and to so many others they'd cheered on together over the years?

They could, at least, agree that both Zach and Shawn had atrocious taste in girls.

Who?

Jewel had lost track of whatever the teacher was writing on the board as she composed her one-word reply. She didn't like how Coleen was handling this, not when she knew Jewel was in class. It was too playful, and that gave her a bad feeling. She sent her message, then thought better of it and quickly typed and sent a new one.

Wait, don't tell me. Just tell me was it Shawn?

She forced herself to look away from the screen, to follow along as the teacher said something about SOHCAHTOA. It was familiar, to the point where it should have been more than alphabet soup, but she couldn't concentrate. She chewed the inside of her cheek, biting down hard enough for it to just reach the edge of being painful, then releasing. She should have ditched herself, even without an invitation from Coleen. This season was different. It was the first really good one in a while, and she was sitting in school as it unfolded. She hadn't seen anything since going to bed last night.

guess again

Coleen and Jewel had engaged in a running discussion and dissection of the season's new rules. Jewel's feelings about them had been mixed at first. The teams had won her over to some extent, mostly because they presented a very real possibility of driving a wedge between the Shawn/Mae unit and Zach. It hadn't quite worked out that way, but the dynamic remained interesting, and last she'd heard, Shawn was still separated from the others.

The ten kill rule, well, she had her own private hopes about one particular contestant who just might have a chance. He'd made it halfway, and he'd said he was gunning for it, and if he made it while trying to pave the way for Shawn and Mae, that was as good a reason as any. Lucky? Maybe, or maybe others could just see what she could. While Jewel normally had no patience to spare for kids who didn't do a lot, Sean Davidson was a bit of a hero to her.

She scribbled some numbers on her paper, glancing around to see if anyone was looking her way. They weren't; the boy next to her, whose name she had somehow managed not to catch even after having various classes with him for years, was leaning forward in his chair, seemingly intent as their teacher drew lines across a triangle. His hands, however, were busily doodling a robot on his graph paper. Jewel frowned; it wasn't very good, even for a quick sketch.

Her phone gave a little jolt in her lap. New message.

no guesses?

Jewel's frown deepened until she forced it off her face. She slid her phone into her pocket and raised her hand. The teacher called on her promptly, wearing an almost hopeful expression, but it vanished when she said, "Excuse me, may I go to the bathroom?"

~*~

"Good afternoon, friends, enemies, and strangers."

Jewel stood in the lobby of the theatre, leaning against the wall under a massive black and white portrait of Marilyn Monroe, whose image she'd seen frequently growing up and the content of whose movies she couldn't begin to guess. It was probably four in the afternoon or thereabouts, and she felt good now. She'd eaten and spent long enough away from others, in the quiet letting the ringing and the screaming fall to a dull roar, and then when the time was right she'd fiddled with her headset, leaving the incoming audio muted but setting it to broadcast what she said again. She'd taken a few deep breaths, run things through in her mind, and spoken, voice carrying to whichever if any of the three headsets she'd given away that were in operation. No telling if any were turned on, if they were in the hands of those she'd bequeathed them to or looted by their killers or abandoned on the ground somewhere.

"How are you all? It's been a while. In case you've forgotten or we haven't actually met, it's me, Jewel Evans, just dropping by to give you a routine checkup. I hope you haven't gotten yourselves killed. I'm looking forward to seeing each and every one of you again.

"In case you haven't figured it out, there are a few of you now that I've talked to and given little gifts. Maybe you should get acquainted. Might have a lot in common. Maybe you've even found other friends. Feel free to crank the volume up so they can hear, too. Of course, no skin off my back if you're feeling introverted.

"Let's see. I guess it's only polite to let you all know what I've been up to. In case you missed the last two announcements, I racked up five marks by my name over the first twenty-four hours. But don't worry. I haven't been sitting idly since.

"I spent the night in the transportation center, where I had a conversation with Genni Hayward, with a G and an I. It wasn't very interesting, so I made my way to the casino.

"There, I found four people. They didn't play nice, started shooting at me when I just wanted to talk, so I shot Shawn Something-or-other in the throat.

"That really got them agitated, but not quite how I expected. I ended up putting a bullet in some other guy's back when he turned on AnArchy and attacked her. I thought they were friends, but I guess he saw an opportunity. Then the survivors and I made nice and went our separate ways. It just goes to show, sometimes talking things out is your best bet after all.

"I'm sure a lot of other losers have died, especially since I found someone's fingers in the popcorn machine, but I had nothing to do with all of that so I don't really care.

"If you're keeping count, I'm sitting on seven. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do now. I'm thinking I'll probably head to either the Bowling Alley or the Daycare Center, set up with a good view of the doors, and shoot everyone who steps through them.

"That's the news. I'll talk to you all later. Jewel Evans, signing off."