“Excuses!” Ava called through a laugh. She looked over her shoulder, checking Lydia’s distance from her. She slowed slightly, giving the other girl time to gain some speed and close a bit of distance.
	She turned down the streets, her legs working from a lifetime of memory. She spared the mailboxes quick glances, predicting the names and lion-head crests on each one before she passed. The crest of the hunter’s Society, most of them blazed brown outlined in gold with a few greens, grays, and the rare purple spattered about.
	When they turned on Jason's street, orange crests became dominant among the smaller houses, some crests split into two different colors, often between orange and white. Some of the residents liked calling the block the Orange District, the couple handfuls of lesser-ranking colors in Lion's Ridge gathering around the smaller houses.
	Ava spared a small terrier a quick glance as the dog started barking at her with the bravado only a small dog could muster.
	“Hi Ponchy! Bye Ponchy!” she called as she ran past, making the dog bark more frantically as it struggled against the leash keeping it inside the yard.
	Ava slowed her pace slightly as she neared the end of Jason’s house. She glanced behind her. Noticing Lydia had stopped, the colorful girl slid to a halt. One of her flipflops nearly flew off and the other’s strap dug irritatingly between her toes.
	Ava turned around and crossed her arms, grinning. “Of [i]course[/i] you do. Such [i]perfect[/i] timing, dontchya think?” She trod back toward Lydia, a thin layer of sweat glistening on her brow and breaths heavier than normal.
	She slipped her thumbs back into the pockets of her jean shorts as she stepped in front of Lydia. She opened her mouth to say something, but the ungodly cry of unoiled machinery cut her off.
	She looked to the Bennett’s garage as its whining plea for mercy stopped. Her light expression turned into a scowl as her gaze fell to a boy around their age standing inside the garage. His body and a bulging bag of garbage partially obscured a motorcycle parked carefully beside a convertible with its top down.
	Ava sighed quietly, then gave a light, one-shouldered shrug in a silent, ‘Oh well.’ Her face returned to a more casual expression as Jason Bennett addressed Lydia.
	Taller than the girls, he finished his duty and strode toward them with the leisurely stride of an overconfident moron. His worn leather jacket hugged him just right, showing off the muscles of a teen boy who had hit the gym too often.
	The look Lydia shot her only made the red-head's grin return.
	“How [i]sweet[/i] of you to notice me, Bennett!” she answered him with an exaggerated, mocking excitement.
	Ava’s brows rose when Jason leaned against the mailbox, making her wonder if he was the cause of its crookedness in the first place.
	“Sorry. Not a fan,” she answered the boy, no hint of apology in her voice. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward. “But I bet Lidy would [i]love[/i] to see it!” She cast Lydia a knowing smirk, a taunt in her voice that only a true friend could successfully pull off. "Wouldn't you?" She blinked up at her friend with the innocence of the guilty.