It all began with a simple gesture.

Seeing it, Elizabeth had turned to face Mason. “Why sir,” she said with a grin, “do you bite your thumb at me, sir?”

“Um, no,” replied he, latching on to her train of thought. “I do not bite my thumb at you madame. I just....bite my thumb.”

And of course after that, nothing would do but to reenact the rest of the play in the back corner of the library. Liz and Mason had playfully jabbed at each other with imaginary swords, completely acting like little kids and not the recently-graduated high school seniors they really were. But hey, it was fun!

Once they’d both died heroically, they chose to step it up a notch. One hour later, they were both back in the corner of the mansion’s library, building fortresses out of books and available chairs and tables whilst laying out their arsenals. For you see, Liz and Mason had decided to completely shatter the spirit behind the library and wanted to play Romeo and Juliet, but with a twist. Instead of a tragic double death, their families had gone to war and they’d sworn to never speak to each other again unless it was to curse the others’ name.

But when they’d begun, Mason had brought a friend, Gabe. Clearly, they were the Montague cheaters who happened to have Mercutio as an ally. From the get-go, she was outnumbered with only her backpack crammed with supplies to serve as an ally, but Elizabeth the Capulet would never surrender! Never!

And so that’s how she ended up desperately defending herself and her book fortress from a constant barrage of various, non-harmful school supplies, including, but not limited to paper airplanes that dropped glitter, rubber bands with strings attached enabling them to be pulled back to their side, and paper wads that were catapulted out of plastic spoons.

Oh yeah, it was going to be a huge mess, but oh it was going to be so worth it!

Abbigail was looking around the Library for something to entertain herself. With summer upon them, the small nine year old wanted to meet new people and figure out her gifts. However, Abby also wanted to catch up on her reading, a list she had been adding to for longer than she could remember.

A small commotion in the back of the area had the blonde going to investigate. What she saw caused the small girl to pause at the edge of the scene. Two older boys and an older girl were... playing war?

Abby cocked her head to the side as she watched them. As she followed the track of a few well built paper airplanes, something struck the side of her head. She looked over to see the smaller of the boys grinning at her, another paper ball loaded in his spoon-apult.

Green eyes went wide before the little girl dropped to her knees, the paper ball flying over her. Abby giggled lightly as she quickly crawled to where the other blonde was. The enemy of my enemy. And those boys were definitely her enemy now.

Once she reached the other girl, she grinned before picking up a forgotten paper airplane and taking aim at the boy who had hit her. She was pleased to see that he had to drop behind his fort to miss getting hit.

Elizabeth ducked behind her shelter in time to avoid a paper wad from ruining her hairstyle. She peered out between a gap in the reference tomes in order to study her rivals. Hmmm. Mason had a huge grin on his face. Clearly he was enjoying his ill-gotten numerical advantage. Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. Yet his advantage wasn’t as great as Liz knew it could be. It seemed that both boys were essentially working independently, almost in competition against each other in their efforts to score a hit on Liz.

But then Gabe glanced away! That was her chance! Even as he seemed to waste ammunition by shooting in some random direction, Liz stood just enough to get her head over the top of her fortress and quickly spin two ninja stars at him. The first missed by several feet, but the second one glanced off Mason’s ear.

“Ach!” he stage whispered as he retreated below deck.

“Haha! Take that, foul Montague cretin!” she crowed as she returned to hunkering inside her bunker.

Only to find its occupancy to have doubled. She returned the girl’s smile and watched her score a hit on Gabe. “Nice!” she whispered loudly. The girl looked pretty young, but Liz was ecstatic to have an ally! Maybe they could turn the tables on those Montague boys! “M’name’s Liz,” she said in introduction, effecting a slight Joisey accent. “We’re the really cool Capulets and they’re the terrible, wicked Montagues. We must battle to bring honor to our clan!”

Eyes wide in the thrill of the battle, Liz quickly snatched a sheet of paper out of her backpack and began rapidly folding it into a simple airplane shape.

>>“Nice! M’name’s Liz. We’re the really cool Capulets and they’re the terrible, wicked Montagues. We must battle to bring honor to our clan!”

Abby grinned at the enthusiastic girl. "Name's Abbey," she tried to copy the girl's accent. "Ah got a score ta settle wit that one." Abby finished her comment with a point to the side of the boy fort with the boy who hit her.

With a quick look around, Abby noticed all the paper coming out of the girl's bag. With a grin a little too wicked for a young girl, she started to craft a boomerang. Her Uncle may not have been around a lot, but he had taught her a few cool things to do with paper. As she crafted her boomerang, she thought back to Liz's words. Montagues and Capulets were from Romeo and Juliet. Not that she knew the play very well, but Aunt Teresa had mentioned it once.

When her boomerang was complete, she collected the paper balls scattered around her and Liz. Once she had them all, she fitted them to sit on the edge of her boomerang. She set up a little prayer in hopes her idea would work, before she tossed the boomerang-bomber in range of the boys. She ducked down before she could see the effect.

The airplane quickly took on form and function. As Elizabeth fished a paperclip out of her bag of tricks, she watched Abbey toss a funny-looking object over to the boys. It really didn’t look like it would do anything but drop all the paper wads halfway between the forts. But a peek through the gaps she’d left in the books showed her an incredibly creative use of the origami bombing arts.

“Ten points for creativity and a gold star for awesomeness!” she said to the markswoman. “That was some nice shootin’, Tex.” A victorious grin slashed Elizabeth’s face as she inserted the paper clip into the tip of the airplane. The boys were totally going to lose, especially with such a devious genius on the Capulets’ side. This Abbey was an excellent recruit.

She rose from her crouch just enough to peer over their defenses. She ducked quickly to avoid an enemy fighter plane but jumped right back up to launch her own warrior. The paperclip enabled it to have enough weight to fly straight and far while packing a punch. But as soon as she released it, a rubber band bounced off her cheek.

A hand flew up to the grievous wound and the blonde fell behind her bookishly barriers. This meant war. “Okay, Abbey, we give them no quarter. No prisoners and no surrender! For Juliet’s honor!”

Abby smiled at the compliment upon realizing her idea actually worked. The small blonde quickly began folding a paper airplane to attack with. She looked up when she saw Liz drop down quickly. The older girl was holding her cheek making Abbigail think she was hit.

>>“Okay, Abbey, we give them no quarter. No prisoners and no surrender! For Juliet’s honor!”

"Why don't we give them a false sense of-" she stopped not knowing the word. "Make them think they won, while we make ammo. I could crawl to where they are so as to trap them?"

Abby wasn't sure if the idea was actually good, but it was the only thing she could think of. Instead of simply throwing paper back and forth. The little girl was confident that if she did get caught, she could run back to their base before the boys got her. She often out ran the boys from her old neighborhood.

Elizabeth contemplated Abby’s plan as she whipped a restaurant-swiped straw out of her bag of tricks. She shucked off the wrapper and ripped up several pieces of paper, nimbly folding them into spherical forms. There were many things that could go wrong with the idea, namely the extreme risk to Abby. She could easily become blitzed by the Montague fools. besides, they’d probably believe they’d won even after the lady Capulets creamed them.

“If you really want to, we can, but you’d leave yourself vulnerable,” Liz warned her side-kick. “And what do you mean by a trap? I’ve got a few ideas for some superweapons. Would those work?” Having a well-thought out strategy was essential in warfare. Speaking of war....

Liz noticed a flash of red hair rising up over the boys’ battlements. Quick as a wink she loaded the straw, appeared over her walls, and blew through the straw. Miss, miss, phht, miss, “Hey!” Two out of five, not bad odds.

Liz grinned in success as she ducked down before a squadron of airplanes decapitated her. Confiscating two of those airplanes once they’d reach the ground, Liz threw them back to the boys without crouching to aim. As long as there were things in the air going their way, the boys probably wouldn’t be firing. It would give the girls a few moments to strategize.

As Abbigail listened to the other girl, she messed around with a few of the things in the bag to create something.

>>“If you really want to, we can, but you’d leave yourself vulnerable. And what do you mean by a trap? I’ve got a few ideas for some superweapons. Would those work?”

Before Abby could answer Liz, the older girl was shooting spit balls(?) at one of the boys. Abby looked through the gaps in the fortress to see her hit two out of her five shots. Abby smiled and bowed.

"Milady, I bow to you and your awesome skills," Abby let out in her fake accent. "What sort of superweapons are you planning?"

Abby had somehow created a slingshot with a bent straw and a rubber band. She peeked through the gap to see if she could get a shot from the safety of the fortress.

Elizabeth acknowledged her compatriot’s compliment with an overly dramatic aristocratic nod, complete with a significant look down her nose. But back to business.

“Well,” she started, “The rules of engagement prevent any of us from doing something that would make a huge mess, so no liquids. They’re too hard to clean up and they can ruin the books. But I found some glitter.” Elizabeth’s eyes glinted as she withdrew the cylindrical container that held the shimmering gold and silver substance inside. Glitter was perfect, in her opinion. It got everywhere, it took days to get most of it off, and it wouldn’t destroy anything. And it could be vacuumed up if needed.

And what boy would enjoy walking around all day covered in glitter? It was so much better than mustard gas.

“I’m thinking about some kind of slingshot,” the elder girl continued. “But it would have to be big and really strong.” After all, she didn’t want it to break or not carry its cargo far enough. Speaking of cargo... “We’ll be shooting the glitter at them, but we can’t do it like a normal slingshot. I think we have to put it in something so that when it hits, the thing explodes and gets the glitter all over them. Maybe a paper box or something? It just has to be strong enough to make it over to them and quickly, but weak enough to allow all the glitter to fall out all over them. Sound good to you?” she asked her partner, sparing a brief glance to check her reaction.

While she’d been speaking, she’d been whipping together another creation. This was a child’s bow and arrow combination. She formed a c with her index finger and thumb and stretched a rubber band around their tips. She took one side of the rubber band and notched a cutip on it. The cutip had been specially armored with a paperclip around its head, just as she’d done with the airplane earlier. She wanted her arrow to pack a sting.

Abby listened to the older girl as she took aim through the gaps of both fortresses. With surprising ease her paperclip ammo made it through to the boys. Their shouts of shock were music to her ears.

"Bloody Capulets!" one of the boys shouted at them. Abby just giggled.

"What about a balloon? If not an actual one, maybe an origami? We could poke enough holes in it to make it explode when it hits. Though I'm not sure if it'd work properly," she suggested as she took aim again.

She could see the boys trying to block the larger holes of their fort. Abby smiled wickedly when she noticed several spots slipping their notice. These were the spots she aimed for.

Another shout followed before she saw several airplanes and paper balls headed their way. "Incoming," she warned Liz.

Before Elizabeth could respond to her comrade, the warning alarm sounded and she immediately ducked. It was almost too late. A deadly squadron of unorthodox airplanes and orthodox paper wads pelted their fortress and the skies above it. It the elder girl had been a fraction of a second slower, she would’ve been clipped.

As it was, the fallout was severe. It seemed a few of the airplanes had contained small strips of paper. The confetti had fallen throughout the flight, allowing some of it to still land on Liz. The vile Montagues. No honor.

She shipped up over her fortress and barely took aim before sending a paper-clip armored cutip flying off and striking Mason’s nose. The sharp cry of dismay was soul-satisfying as the blonde sank down into the shadow of the book wall. “I like that idea,” she told Sarah, referencing the balloon. “It should work. Do you know how to make one? I don’t.” She spared a brief moment to glance at her cohort before reaching back and confiscating some of the paper wads, preparing to lob them back towards their makers.

Abby smiled at hearing both the cry from the boy and that Liz was up for her idea. Nodding quickly to the question, Abbigail started searching the backpack for a good sized sheet of paper, though weak enough to shatter easily. She couldn't find any that looked like a good large size, but she did find a small packet of notepads.

"How about a bunch of small ones instead?" Abby asked even as she started to shape the paper.

She folded the paper diagonally before undoing the fold and using the other corners. Then she did a "hot dog" fold before undoing and then again redoing the fold the other direction. Before continuing she flattened the paper to become a triangle. Once the first paper was in that stage she moved on to the other papers, keeping her mind on one step to keep things organized. Eventually she had a line of little paper "hats".

She continued with her steps. Folding the corners to touch the tops. Folding more corners to reach the center lines. Tucking flaps to close the balloon. Blowing to expand the balloons. She was left with a line of colorful balloons. Now all she needed was the glitter.

Abby paused before she reached the backpack. Beside her were several airplanes the boys had thrown at them. She smiled before picking up the five discarded planes. She went up to the "front line". Standing up quickly she threw the in rapid succession. She watched one hit a boy in the cheek before ducking back down.

"Where's the glitter?" Abby asked after looking around their fortress.