It was Arts & Crafts Day at the Deb U Campus. Actually, there wasn’t such a thing officially, but a few of the girls liked to make things, and they didn’t like being made fun of by the students who didn’t know how to make crafts and therefore teased those who did in an effort to hide their own insecurities, so the first girls, who did like to make crafts, put up signs declaring it a special day dedicated to arts and crafts, in the hopes of deflecting said teasing by enticing others to join them or being able to tell others to bugger off because they were just taking part in Arts & Crafts Day as mandated by the campus activity schedule. (There was also a protest that always happened in conjunction with Arts & Crafts Day, with students holding picket signs that said “No Run-On Sentences!” and “Students For Good Grammar.” The Arts & Crafts participants generally made fun of the protesters, because they wanted other people to have someone to make fun of besides them.)
Anyway, it happened that they were doing a Trash To Treasure theme that A&C day, and were making mosaics on paper plates using magazine and newspaper clippings. FaithAyn made a mosaic of movie star pictures; Flipper made one of children; Lil made one of flowers; Usagi made one of trees and plants; Kalypso made one of sea animals; and TabuMinstrel made one of machines and appliances. They cut and pasted happily away, and held up their works to show each other as they went.
A stiff wind picked up from nowhere and snatched the plates from all their hands. The plates hovered and spun in the air and transformed before their eyes into metal discs, then zoomed off like UFOs. The girls shook their heads and blinked, and when they looked around, they found themselves in an open field, with crowds of people some distance away.
“What just happened?” wondered Lil.
“We’re even better artists than we thought!” announced FaithAyn. “We made flying plates!”
“Are you nuts? It had nothing to do with us.” Usagi looked around and frowned.
“I think she’s right. Something is afoot.” Kalypso shaded her eyes to better see the people on the other side of the field.
“I think you mean something is at hand,” said FaithAyn. “It looks like they’re holding our plates.”
“Is this a Frisbee tournament?” asked TabuMinstrel. “I do like Frisbee.” They all heard a whirring sound, and one of the metal things came flying by.
“If we’re here to die, what’s the danger? Is it behind the Frisbee?” asked Lil.
“I think it IS the Frisbee,” answered Kalypso.
“Catch it!” Usagi encouraged Lil, who then reached up for it. She missed the discus, but it did not miss her. It lopped her limb off at the forearm. The other girls gasped as blood spurted from what was left of her arm.
“Don’t worry, it’s only a flesh wound,” said Lil bravely. She swooned from the loss of blood and collapsed, soon drawing her last breath.
“Those things are dynamite!” declared Kalypso, as another one came and sliced her at the neck. Her head went flying, and her body stood confused for a moment without its control center before giving up and crumpling into a heap.
“Right, we’ve got to regroup,” said TabuMinstrel. “Hit the dirt!” They all flattened themselves against the ground, but the next discus came in practically sideways and buzzed through her like a saw in a log factory.
“Oh, that was disgusting,” said Flipper. “Bring me a bucket, I’m gonna throw up.”
“This is far too perilous. Way too much peril. I’m outta here.” Usagi jumped up, but the next discus cut right through her midsection. The pieces flopped onto the grass.
FaithAyn and Flipper looked at each other. “Okay, one of us has to cause a distraction while the other one makes a run for it. It’s the only way. Let’s do rock-paper-scissors to see who stays.” They put out their fists. One--two--
Thup, thup. Two gleaming metal discs sliced through their legs. They were stumps on the ground, neither one able to either make a distraction or run for it, and in moments their blood dumped into the dirt, leaving them lifeless on the lawn.