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In the quaint town of Westwood, when the sun shone high and the cicadas chirped loudly, time seemed to crawl. It was summer vacation for the students at Westwood High School, so there was lots of time to spend with friends.
However, in the forest on the eastern part of Westwood, a treehouse stood in silence. 3 bikes and a unicycle were leaned against the trunk of the tree, and the rope ladder dangled slightly in the wind.
A friend group of 4 freshman: Alex, Jake, Emily and Mia, were all sprawled around the treehouse's interior.
Jake was flopped over a beanbag, clicking a pen.
Emily and Mia slouched on the couch, absorbing the wind the oscillating fan blew at them.
Alex lied on the floor, fiddling around with a Rubik's cube.
Alex was the first one to break the silence. "Guys, this summer has been dragging on. We need something exciting to spice it up." He declared, frustration evident in his voice.
"Yeah, I agree. We're already 2 weeks in and we've still had nothing to do." added Emily, twirling a strand of her curly blonde hair.
The friend group let out a bored sigh in unison.
"Oh, I know!" Mia exclaimed, and the others turned to her. "How about we play Cowboys and Indians?"
Silence. And then Jake burst into laughter. "Cowboys and Indians? What are we, 12?" He rolls off of the beanbag wheezing, before adding "Besides, we haven't played that since middle school!"
"It's just an idea Jake." Mia responded. "You got any better ones?"
Jake falls immediately silent. "Yeah, I guess we can play that." He grumbled, earning a smug grin from Mia.
"Great." Alex says, getting up from the floor. "We can play right here in the forest."
"Oh!" Mia said as an idea popped into her mind.
She scrambled to the toy chest and grabbed 4 'Nerf N-Strike Elite Strongarm' blasters that resembled revolvers. "We can use these, seems fitting for Cowboys and Indians, right?"
"Ughh..." Jake groaned. "So it's just a Nerf fight then? That's boring."
"Besides," Jake added. "Your dad's a cop, you got more gun training that all 3 of us combined."
"Jake, are you gonna keep complaining or are you gonna give any ideas?" Mia said, her patience growing thin.
"Actually, I do have an idea." Jake said, to the surprise of the girls.
The chestnut-haired boy walked over to another chest in the treehouse and dropped about a dozen coils of rope on the floor with a grin. "Whoever gets shot gets 'wounded' and taken prisoner. The prisoner is then taken to jail and has to be tied up and kept there. If all players in a team have been shot and imprisoned, the opposing team wins."
Emily and Mia look at each other. This was actually not a half-bad idea for once.
So the quartet of friends all decided that this "Prisoner Cowboys and Indians" game would be what they'd spend today doing, rather than lounging in the treehouse. They all climbed down the rope ladder and hopped on their bikes (Jake on his unicycle) to Westwood Creek.
"It's going to be a bumpy road Jake." Mia warned her friend. "Probably time to give up and lose the bet."
"I'll give up when you grow past 5 feet." Jake snarkily replied, poking fun his friend's petite stature.
"Besides," Jake added. "I've gotten way better at riding this thing: watch." He then proceeded to flex on Mia by easily riding over a fallen log.
"Oh, you are so going down." Mia said mischievously.
When the friends arrived at the clear, flowing waters of Westwood Creek, they split into teams. Boys vs. Girls.
Alex decided to lay down some ground rules before starting. "Alright, so let's review. You get shot, you get taken prisoner. Once you've been taken prisoner, you get tied up."
Emily then chimed in. "How about we gag prisoners too? They might shout to alert their teammate."
"Good idea Emily." Mia said with a devious smile, spinning the cylinder of the Nerf gun before bogarting the revolver shut.
The boys then went to the opposing side of the Creek, and hid behind a couple trees. The girls did the same. "Let the games begin!" Alex shouted from behind a thick oak tree.
The first few minutes was a chaotic foam dart shoot-out between opposing sides. Whenever someone ran out of bullets, they scurried out of their cover to pick up missed darts from the floor, before quickly retreating back to safety.
"Alex!" Jake hissed from behind a spruce tree. "I got an idea, cover me and I'll encircle them."
Alex nodded and began firing foam darts at the trees, Emily and Mia quickly hid before returning fire. In the midst of this, Jake went about 100 feet to the right and carefully crossed the water before hiding behind a tree. He peered out from behind it to see Emily and Mia taking cover and returning fire.
Perfect. He thought to himself. They'll never know what hit 'em.
But suddenly, as Jake was closing in on the girls, he stepped on a crunchy leaf, alerting them of his presence. Emily quickly whipped around and began suppressing fire. Jake was forced to hide.
He also began firing foam darts from behind cover, but all of his shots missed. Pretty soon, he was out of ammo.
His heart rate was accelerating as he felt the girls moving closer on his position. He decided to make a run for it, so he peered out from behind the tree to check if he was in the clear.
Big mistake.
A foam dart blitzed through the air and his Jake square on his forehead. He was shot.
"Yeah!" Mia said enthusiastically. "Come on prisoner, you're mine now."
Jake felt his heart sink. Seriously? He lost already? But, rules were rules, so he came out from behind his cover with his hands up.
"Walk to me." Mia commanded. "And lay down your weapon." Jake did as told, and dropped his gun at her feet in surrender.
"Now turn around and place your hands behind your back. I'm going to tie you up now." Mia ordered, her voice oozing with satisfaction.
Jake obeyed her command, and turned his back to her and crossed his wrists behind his back. Mia pulled out a bundle of rope and quickly began tying his wrists.
She wrapped the rope several times around his wrists, before tying the restraint with a cinch knot.
Mia then took out a bandana from her pockets. "Open wide, cowboy." She teased.
Jake reluctantly opened his mouth, allowing Mia to wad the bandana and shove it in.
"Now you keep that in there, prisoner." Mia said, grabbing Jake's own bandana from his pockets.
She then fed Jake's own bandana between his lips and tied it off at the nape of his neck, securing the wad in his mouth. Jake could only respond with
a weak "mmph."
"Now follow me prisoner." Mia commanded, grabbing Jake by the sleeve of his T-shirt.
Jake was taken a bit further into the woods from where the shoot-out was. When Mia arrived at a satisfactory location to tie her prisoner at, she cleared the base of the trunk from any debris, leaving the dirt exposed.
"Kneel." Mia ordered, pointing to a clear patch of ground. Jake, feeling a sense of submission, complied with a muffled moan.
Mia then tied Jake's ankles together and secured them to the tree with a big loop around the trunk. Another loop around the tree and Jake's torso ensured Jake's imprisonment was permanent.
"Not so funny now, is it Jakey?" Mia taunted.
"Grmm! Ymml pmy frmm thms!" Jake growled through his cleave gag.
"Me? Pay? Oh, I don't think so. You're not going anywhere." Mia teased, reveling in the control she now held over her captive friend.
Before Jake could reply with more gag-speak, Emily appeared with a bound and gagged Alex in tow. Mia looked at her prisoner with a huge grin on her face. "You lose."
Alex and Jake locked eyes for a moment, their game plan had failed horribly, and now they were at the mercy of the girls. Alex furiously tried to shake off Emily's grip, but Mia soon aided her friend in keeping the prisoner in check.
"I got him while he was picking up darts from the floor." Emily said with pride. "Looks like you lose, boys."
"Good job Emily." Mia said happily over the boys' gagged grunts and moans. "Let's tie him right behind Jake."
Alex tried to protest at the idea of being bound back-to-back, but it was no use. He was force-knelt to the tree and tied in a very similar way to Jake. This time, Emily wrapped a length of rope around both boys' torsos and the tree, binding both of them in place.
Both girls took a step back to absorb the wondrous sight. Both boys, bound back to back, moaning through their cleave gags.
"I think we should have a little fun with them." Mia said, clearly receiving some kind of sadistic satisfaction from the two boys' predicament.
"Mmmmmmph!!" Alex and Jake cried out in unison, furiously shaking their heads. Trying desperately to wiggle and struggle free.
"Or, we could keep them here for the rest of the afternoon." Emily suggested. "Let them learn their lesson to not underestimate us ever again."
"Nmmpmh! Plmms dmmt!" Alex begged through his gag, his blue eyes welling up.
"You know what?" Mia playfully said, toying with Alex and Jake. "I think that's a good idea, let's go Emily."
The girls grabbed their bikes and fastened their helmets. Before leaving, Mia took one final look at the bound boys.
"Ta-ta boys! Hope you enjoy your quality bonding time together!" Mia taunted. "We'll come back in a few hours to untie you. See you then!"
Mia blew the boys a kiss, before leaving with a laugh.
Alex and Jake struggled in isolation, but the ropes held fast. They moaned and muffled to each other, but again, no use.
So as the two bound friends continued to struggle in vain, the girls' parting words had been embedded into their brains: Don't mess with the girls ever again.
