Shooter Girls (Series, Slice of life, Competition)

The victor of the digital race, a small framed, young brunette with short hair, laughed, “Do you want me to lose on purpose?”

The redhead blinked, “You would do that?”

“No.”

“Ah, so the truth comes out. You're just a power hungry megalomaniac that only cares about winning!”

The brunette adjusted her glasses and sniffed, “Yeah, pretty much.”

“I'm gonna start calling you Ella the impaler.”

“That has a great ring to it,” Ella piped. She was far shorter than her best friend, and it became apparent as the two stood up from the couch. “And I'll call you, Tassie the second.”

The redhead, Tassie, cocked her head, “Why the second?”

“Because I'm always in first.”

Tassie rolled her eyes and laughed, “Shit, I walked right into that one. Anyway, it's been fun, as usual. If I didn't have to go to work I'd say that we could keep playing.”

“Naw, I should get going too,” Ella brushed some of her hair away from her eyes.

“Thanks for coming, I'll see you soon!” Tassie leaned forward suddenly and embraced the bookish girl tightly.

Ella, who was unused to any sort of physical contact, went rigid, “Uh, yeah… anytime.” She backed up quickly as she flushed. A rush of nervous butterflies rose up within her a second later as she tried to keep her composure. Since she'd met Tassie three months before, she'd developed a fast crush on both her and Tassie’s step-sister, Gretchen. Gretchen was twenty six and four years older than her step-sister, but they were living together in an apartment to cut costs.

“You okay, you look a little pale,” Tassie said with sudden concern.

Ella winced. The butterflies in her stomach were actually beginning to hurt, and they felt almost like period cramps, “Oh, no, I'm fine, I...ouch!” She bent forward and clutched her abdomen as a sharp pain pricked at her.

“Ella, what's wrong?!” Tassie was at her side in an instant.

“I don't know...fuck, what's going on?” Ella grunted as the cramping in her stomach became worse. She'd never experienced anything like it, but it didn't feel like it was going to go away anytime soon.

“Should I call 911?”

“No!” Ella rejected the idea desperately.

“I can drive you to the emergency room,” Tassie offered, her words laced with deep concern.

“I'm fine, I...uhh!” The twenty one year old college student grit her teeth.

“You're not fine! “Come on, we're getting you to the ER,” her friend pressed as she pulled the girl up and began walking her to the door.

“No, please!” Ella begged, “Take me to Providence if you're going to force me to go!”

“Why Providence? It's further away!”

Ella took a deep breath and glared up at her friend, “I have a regular doctor there, she knows me. Please?”

“Yeah, of course. Let's go,” Tassie grabbed her keys quickly and opened the door, “Don't worry about me, I'll let my work know that I'm going to be late.”

Three days after that incident, Ella waited impatiently for a phone call from her doctor. She'd had the same doctor for her entire life, and there was scarcely anyone in the world she trusted more. When she'd visited during her episode, she was given some medication and a few tests were run, and now she was waiting for the results.

Finally, after her last class at school, the phone rang and she picked it up eagerly, “Hello, Dr. Yeo?”

“Hey, Ella, can you talk?”

“Yeah, of course, go ahead.”

“Great. Well, we got some results back from your tests and it looks like nothing very serious is going on.”

Ella sighed, “Oh, that's a relief.”

“Yup. However, this is a problem that is probably going to get worse if we don't do something about it.”

“Okay...hit me, what's happening?”

“Well,

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