"Years of practice," Shock said with a grin.

Of course, she got her practice from the art up in their tree house. Shock tossed the lipstick back to Carver for safekeeping.

Over the following week, Lock spent a good chunk of his time collecting forget-me-lots, powdering and storing the ones that already dried, and helping Shock coach Barrel on potions. He also used a mask to hide his face to go to the Witches' Shop for something to remove the lipstick. Agatha gave him the run-around about the potential mischief he could cause with it, and after having her fun, [i]finally[/i] sold it to him after promising a date with Barrel.

Well, he wouldn't call it a [i]date[/i], but sure, he could probably trick Barrel into meeting Agatha sometime next week. And speaking of dates, Lock made sure to arrange one with Lillith. He didn't want a repeat of last week.

By the time the next band practice came around, Shock was in a better mood, as the plan was coming together. Barrel was late again, probably doing whatever down in the sewers. Lock made his way down the slide after Shock to at least get things set up. Shock landed first, then stepped out of the way so Lock wouldn't crash into her. She straightened her skirt, then calmly walked to set up the microphone. Lock went to his guitar case to tune it...only to find that the strings were missing.

"Shock!"

Shock turned to him.

"What?"

Lock pointed to the guitar.

"Where are the strings?"

"How should [i]I[/i] know?" Shock asked. "I'm not in charge of your things."

"You did it to punish me!"

"[I]I[/i] did nothing."

Lock growled as he caught the specification.

"Who did, then? Barrel? Carver?"

Shock shrugged with a smirk. Lock tackled her. Shock went down, but carefully positioned her body as she fell. She leaned back to throw her brother off of her. Lock slammed hard into the floor, but recovered quickly. He dove for his sister's legs as she got up. The two of them would still be brawling as the others arrived, with the only care to keep the fight away from the instruments.