Boarding school was such a drag, especially when everything was so formal. 

"Don't chew loudly, cover your mouth when you yawn, no skirts less than three inches below your knee." All that stuff was so prudish and definitely not befitting a free spirit like Charlie. 

"CHARLOTTE! Are you paying attention young lady or are you daydreaming again? Please don't make me call your father."

Charlie's head snapped up at the strident chastisement from the headmistress. She was constantly after Charlie, reminding her to act like the lady her father expected her to be. Ah yes, the upstanding tea shop owner with two cats and a brother who had connections from Los Angeles to New York and was often away on business sourcing new tea and other things to sell in his shop. He was a great dad when he was around and they had a great time but boarding school was the best option once she reached 12 because he wanted her to have the best education money could buy. 

Putting on her best smile, she demurely answered "No Ma'am, I was simply writing notes and my pen ran out of ink. May I refill it?"

She shook her pearl green pen, a gift from her uncle Hamish, and pulled out her bottle of ink from her desk. The headmistress changed course immediately and smiled back, nodding her head as she returned to her lesson on agriculture in California. Charlie did her best to focus and soon the bell rang signaling the end of the school day. She stood to gather her books and the headmistress called her over to talk amidst a chorus of "ooohhhhh" from the other girls. Once the classroom was empty, her teacher handed her a paper that was written in florid spencerian script. 

"I'm impressed by your meticulous penmanship Charlotte, but this paper is full of problems. You speak of privilege and a problem with inequality in your paper but it completely misses the assignment. Might I remind you that this is not civics class but the history of agriculture. You have referenced the dust bowl and great depression as sources of grievous inequalities between the rich and poor which I find admirable but your use of race as an issue and comparing those people to us is off the mark. I need you to rewrite your paper of I'll be forced to bring you down a full two letter grades as this type of conversation is inappropriate."

Charlie pursed her lips and took the paper from the teacher. With a swift movement she tore the paper in half and dropped the pages on the floor. 

"Give me an F if you need to but I won't take it back. I said what I said and if you don't like it that's your opinion but it doesn't change the fact that immigrants, colored people, and migrant workers have gotten the short end of the stick for a long time." 

She turned and stormed out of the classroom before her teacher had much time to react and walked as fast as she could down the hall and out the front doors to meet up with Cherry. 

"Come on, lets go before I get in more trouble. I want pie."

Cherry Darling spit out the toothpick she'd been ravishing with her teeth and stood a bit straighter when she heard her cousin's voice.  Charlie certainly wasn't a prude by any long shot, but the boarding school manners that were being drummed into her made her act differently. Well, from the sound of it. not that different. 

"Pie sounds swell Charls. What about this trouble though?  Beat up another girl? Spit on a teacher?"  Cherry hooked her arm through Charlie's and began to skip down the sidewalk, her skirt fluttering in the breeze. 

"Oh you know Ms. Jones she's such a prude and wholly old fashioned. She didn't appreciate my paper I worked HOURS on and told me to rewrite it so I tore it up and told her to give me an F because I didn't see the merit in going back on my convictions."

Charlie flicked her ponytail behind her shoulder as Cherry grabbed her other arm and together they made their way down to the local diner. Inside, the place was abuzz with chatter from local teenagers and workers from a construction site nearby. They found an empty table and sat down, waiting for the waitress who was two tables over. 

"So anyway dear, how are you doing in your classes? You never seem to be in trouble...least not as much as I am. I swear the headmistress painted a target on me the day I showed up at the school and hasn't let up since."

The waitress arrived and they ordered their pie, and coffee, and chattered a bit about what they planned to do for the long weekend. Charlie was in the middle of a sentence when the hot cherry pie was plopped down on the table, a trickle of vanilla ice cream melting into a pool on the plate. 

"I'm thinking of having jackets made up, thank you, with the words in fancy embroidery. Papa says that it's too expensive to hire a tailor to do all the work but I saved up my money from my birthday and got myself a machine for home. I know you're really good with art and I think it would be fabulous if you could come up with an idea that we could use on our jackets. Jill says she's willing to let us use the home ec room after school if we need."

She took a bite of pie and paused, waiting to see what Cherry would say to her plan. 

"Well first off, school is a drag, but I promised my brothers I'd finish college, and by God, I don't care how boring it is, I am going to graduate with honors. Secondly, I might have found a fella if you know what I mean."  She giggled and waved down the waitress. After a few minutes of chatting two glorious slices of pie appeared and Cherry dug right in. Charlie talked about a sewing project and Cherry chewed slowly, trying to make her pie last. Finally she took a sip of black coffee and spoke up. 

"Well what kind of jackets doll?  I'm all for helping you with a design!  Of course you know I can't even sew a straight line but I'm sure I can whip us up something just right!"  She pulled out her wallet and insisted on paying the bill, then jumped to her feet.  "In fact, let's go down to the sewing shop and look at some thread!"  

The two girls made their way down the street, passing other pedestrians and a man walking a dog and turned the corner just in time to get nearly run over by two men in masks running for their lives.  

"What the hell!" Cherry exclaimed.  She pushed one of the men forward, trying to disentangle herself and looked over to see if Charlie was ok. 

"Oh you know how the boys have their fancy varsity jackets and I thought we could make a statement on that. Juzh it up a little if you know what I mean. The leather is a bit heavy but we could do something with satin or wool. Anyway, if we're gonna go around knockin teeth out, we might as well have some way for people to know who we are. Course daddy would never agree to violence but what he doesn't know won't hurt him right?"

She stood and waited for Cherry to give the money to the waitress, fetching her rucksack from the booth. The idea of going to the sewing store sounded like a gas and she was all too excited to see the men who blustered past until they tangled her and her cousin. 

"Hey! Watch it!" She yelled, brushing her sweater off. Charlie looked like she was about to pounce so she reached for her cousin's arm and pulled her back. The two men shouted indistinctly and took off running again, leaving the girls and half their stuff in the dust. Charlie looked up to see two much larger men shoving their way indiscriminately amidst a chorus of irritated and injured voices. She nudged the small canvas bag at her feet backwards, pushing it against the wall as the two guys shoved past. 

"Where the fuck did they go?" One of the meatheads asked, glaring at Charlie who backed up against her cousin. "You girls see a couple of jerks?"

The girls pointed in the general direction of their assailants and once the lugs were gone, they sighed and slumped against the wall. 

"Wonder what that was about? I mean it's kinda hard to tell who the bad guys were cause they both looked pretty mean."

Cherry grinned, a sort of wicked looking smile that crept up her face and into her eyes.  

"You wanna see what that was all about?  Let's follow them!"  

Before Charlie could protest she grabbed her best friend's hand and pulled her along, running as fast as she could, trying to keep her eyes on the masked men.

Charlie yelped as Cherry dragged her by the hand, off on a other harebrained adventure. Sure she liked these kind of things but she had to make a show for everybody else. 
 

“Cherry careful! You’ll pull my arm off!” 
 

She knew the complaint would fall on deaf ears as her cousin clamored after the thugs. Surprisingly, the men were rather sluggish and before long the two had nearly caught up as they turned a corner. By now the jackbooted guy that was also in hot pursuit had fully caught up and was busy splitting his knuckles on one of the guys teeth. 
 

“WHADDA YA MEAN YOU DONT HAVE IT? YOU DID WHEN YOU WAS RUNNIN OUTTA THE DOOR!” He took a few more swipes at the one guy and dropped him like a stone so he could apply a little more persuasion to the other fellow. Charlie hissed and pulled Cherry short of revealing themselves, though she was keen on getting a few pointers for her own ragtag group of girls. It was boring being prissy and nice when you could just as easily make trouble and throw a few punches. Cherry turned around to look at Charlie, frowning slightly. 
 

“Looks like they lost something and This GUY is mad as a wet wasp!” 
 

Charlie grinned and pulled the bag from inside her sweater sleeve, shaking it slightly. 
 

“Guess we’ll have to see what he’s so worked up about…”
 

Cherry gasped when she saw the bag Charlie was holding.  Without another word she slunk down the alleyway, hand in hand with Charlie.  It wouldn't do them any good getting caught now, especially since she was only armed with a knife.  Once they had turned a corner she looked for a car.  It was easy to get started and she and Charlie got in and drove across town.  Cherry parked the car two blocks away and the girls hoofed it to an older building.  Charlie opened the door with her key and they ducked cobwebs as they worked their way across the defunct tea shop.  Once they had secreted themselves away in the old speakeasy under the shop they finally let down their guard. 

"Okay" said Cherry eagerly. "Let's see what you snagged!" 

Charlie set the bg down on a dusty table ignoring the orb weaver that skittered off the opposite end of the table. She picked at the string that fastened the bag, grunting as it held tightly. 

"Cherry, be a dear and lend me your scissors? I know you keep them in your pocket."

She held out her hand and grasped the small silver scissors with the decorative handles. After a few frustrating snips, she finally managed to get purchase on the rope and cut through, loosing the bag to revel its contents. There was the usual, a few stacks of cash which she set down on the table, kicking up a wisp of dust. She rustled around in the bag and came up with some papers that looked to be certificates, a few random coins, and a rectangular gray box that was locked. It looked like it was a safety deposit box and something rattled inside it. They key, however, was missing. 

"DAMMIT! What are we gonna do Cherry?"

Cherry watched with a growing impatience as Charlie emptied the bag.  There wasn't enough money to make two big guys that angry, and although the coins looked foreign, she couldn't imagine that they'd be very valuable.  The papers might be worth it but then again they might just be bits of trash.  Finally Charlie pulled out a small grey box with a handle and lock.  There was no key. Charlie cursed.  

"DAMMIT! What are we gonna do Cherry?"

"Calm down, calm down. We have a few options.  One I like better than the others.  Either we go back and waste time looking for a key that's almost sure not to be there, or we bash this thing open."  

"You're right, I don't like either of those options.  You got anything else?" 

"I pick the lock.  But it's been a while since I picked anything harder than the lock on Honey's liquor cabinet."  Cherry sighed.  "But, you know, I'd rather try to do it first and fail then pass it on to someone else and have them be in on our secret. Tell you what, go get both of us a half shot of scotch and we'll get to work!"