CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE – WE’RE EVEN… FOR NOW

Latex shards and ribbons of deflated rubber began littering the parking lot as Claire methodically worked her way around the balloon-ified car, putting all her pent-up frustration into each squeeze. From her vantage point several yards away, Jasmine watched with an amused grin as Claire became increasingly manic in her balloon slaughter. She pretended to take notes, pantomiming an art critic observing a scathing rebuke of a controversial new installation piece. "The way she claws at the fragile vessels of air and rubber is simply...inspired!" she narrated under her breath to nobody in particular. "Such raw passion, such naked aggression as she violates and deflowers these delicate, inflated spheres! Tru-ly...profound." Around the twentieth balloon cluster in, Claire finally lost her cool, windmilling her arms in furious, red-faced tantrum as she decimated the remaining orbs. Jasmine couldn't help but dissolve into a fit of the giggles at her sister's unraveling. "Okay, you got me,