I Kick It

"I'm not there yet!"
 This page contains ***major spoilers*** for the series. If you're not caught up, stay back! Av's not gonna be too thrilled if you react to spoilers prematurely...

## I Kick It

### Director

Potato Flakin

***I Kick It*** is the third chapter of *Two-Sided*.

## Synopsis

While Daniela continues to appreciate her new life and bad status, she faces a pain in her heart, which her enemies begin to make worse.

## Content Warning

*This chapters contains some violence and masochism (self-harm for pleasure) scenes.*

## Transcript

Months later, I was now thirteen, and ready for even more than people could ever think I accomplish. Seventh grade started out smoothly. Mya couldn't escape my strong grasp. No one could. My mother often dragged me into her office. She scolded me, punished me, yada yada. But she could never stop me.

"Listen to me, Daniela!" She scolded after we got home once. "If you keep going down this path, you're going to land in a dark place."

"Does it look like I care? No."

"Don't you dare walk out on me-"

I merely shoved Rex out of the way and walked to my room.

December came by very fast. My least favorite month of the year where everyone was so festive that I felt like bleaching my eyes. Christmas was so obnoxious, and I loathed even *thinking* about celebrating it. It was cold. Snowballs were pelted at you. You'd sing stupid carols to people. You'd decorate some smelly tree that you pet cat ends up tipping over five seconds later because "curiosity killed the cat."

I *hated* every jolly person so much that I felt like breaking every single one of their festive faces into bits. I remember heading out after early release day and running into Mya and Evie.

I taunted them, taking pride in myself once again, feeling so good. "Ah, the Christmas *freaks*," I called out to them. But moments later, karma struck me square in the eye - as Mya spat hot chocolate at me. This wasn't a kick whatsoever. It was straight-up painful. They ran off while I bounced around in pain. My eye was throbbing. Right then and there, I promised to ruin everyone's little holiday in Pineshadow, and despite just being thirteen, I had the willpower to do it.

Rex could try and punish me, but if she did, her punishments weren't strong enough. I snuck out without her noticing and prowled the alleyways, thinking of a plan. Suddenly, I heard a loud banging noise, and peering around, I saw an interesting young teenage girl looking ready for trouble.

She was light brown, with brownish-black hair and a purple streak. She had fiery brown eyes that were so pristine. She was venting to herself about how her family life sucked. This was a person just like me. And I took advantage of her anger.

I strutted right up to her and easily got her on my side. Her name was Amira Fleckenshire, and we were about to become Pineshadow's unholy Christmas wreckers.

We went around, busting into everything, ruining everything, blowing things up. Amira was happy. My sadism was kicking in. So was my masochism. When she wasn't looking, I rubbed my arm against a table with a sharp end. A scratch appeared there. I took instant pleasure in it.

Soon enough, we'd broken into Evie's house, and we clambered over her fence. We headed to Mya's street, wrecking everything there. Amira and I had reached the final house. I was brimming with contempt at how easy this was. Inside this final destination, two very young children were sleeping in a warm place.

I was ready to break their lives into pieces, tasting the sadism and suffering on my tongue. However, Amira wasn't. In fact, she burned me down. She realized that I manipulated her and turned on me, then and there. I had lost my accomplice. I had been betrayed.

A feeling pierced my heart. Pain. An immense level of it.

I was *not* going to let her get away unscathed.

I then grabbed her by the back of her gray sweatshirt, and sucker-punched her on her jaw. She became a ragdoll, falling to the ground and onto the freezing cold snow. I picked her up, wished her a disturbing Merry Christmas, bit into her hand, then pinned her onto the ground with my foot. Her pain was my pleasure. I took off, preparing to complete my mission alone.

Who needs accomplices when you're already bad enough on your own? I left her for dead. I thought Amira was going to die of the cold that night. Running away quickly, I reached a small alleyway in Hollow Tree Court, made a humble abode from junk, and fell asleep knowing that my mission was a success.

When I woke up, however, I was greeted with an unwelcome surprise.

*Evie, Mya, and Amira had caught onto me. I was exposed.*

"But they know everything. And you should probably check twice before you assume what you believe is obvious! I'm not dead, surprise, surprise. Hypothermia didn't kill me in the end. And now you just try running away. There are adults watching, and adults listening. You will never be alone, Daniela!" Amira told me.

Being the person I was, I just ignored them - then ran straight into their parents. I tried finding an excuse, but they weren't fooled by me. I was driven to the Pineshadow Outdoor Mall, placed with a whole bunch of jolly children and teenagers, and forced to sing carols to the elderly. *I couldn't sing*. I *hated* every word that came out of my mouth. I was humiliated. Embarrassed. Rage filled up in me. After I went home, I broke down.

"Why did you let this happen, mother?" I asked angrily. "That was the worst feeling in the world! It was so humiliating!"

"It serves you right for ruining *everyone's* Christmas."

I approached her, shoving her back violently and whipping out a glass shard from my pocket. "*So you don't care for my feelings*?"

"Daniela... I... Yes, I do! Please just put that away and don't point it at me!"

"Very good," I told Rex. "Now don't toy with my emotions any longer, *Rexalia*. Stay out of my way and let me do something so I can feel better." I stomped off to my room, locking the door and simply scratching myself with a hair comb. The pain was so soothing compared to Rex being submissive in my wrath.

Soon enough, I realized that Mya wasn't my only target anymore. There was one more person I wanted to target, and that was Evie. I desired to wipe that strong look off her smart Asian face.

*Evie and Mya were my true targets.*

I'd openly bicker with myself on who to pick on. I remember picking up Mya and threatening her before Rex dragged me into her office to weakly punish me.

"Miss Burton Vunquist, it's about time you left Mya *alone*. Go file my paperwork while I get lunch. If the staff notice you doing anything, I'll see to it that you file paperwork for the rest of the week."

As she left the room, I muttered, "Yeah, right."

Shortly after that day, I found out that my mother was using Evie and Mya to help her run errands in school. Seeing them helping her, and the fact that they were on good terms, made me desire to hurt them at all cost. I scratched my hand on a brick pillar, feeling that sweet, sweet pain. My desire to get some kicks out of people was out of control.

I tried bothering Evie and Mya. The first time, I blocked their way back to the office. I was happy until Evie openly referred to me as Rex's daughter - the principal's unruly daughter - in front of a male student. And he was *cute*. I blushed, feeling myself dying inside; this was embarrassing. That male student was surprised and looked at me with curiosity. I sweared to the stars that I would get back at Evie and Mya.

Worst of all, that male student followed me. "Hello! Are you going back to class?"

"Yes, I am, so please get out of my way."

"My name's Henry Danielson. You know, Daniela? I see more to you than you think."

Furious with him, I slammed Henry against the lockers.

"Listen, *Danielson*. First off, don't **ever** talk to me that nicely. Second off, stay away from me, or I will break your nose and watch as you bleed out. Clear?"

Henry, now a little startled, nodded and ran away. I ignored the part where he said that he sensed more in me.

Later, I confronted Evie and Mya again, wanting to beat them up two-on-one. Instead, Mya stomped on my foot, and I shrieked. This was not the type of pain I wanted. To add insult to injury, Henry was there *again* and watching me with fascination. That cute boy's soft eyes piercing my soul was absolutely the worst.

I was being made a punching bag. In public. Henry also learned my hated short name, Dani, from Mya. I was livid. It was then that I began to develop a plan to make sure those two girls would pay.

Lying to Rex, I got her set of keys on the guise I was going to unlock the library doors. I saw Evie and Mya go into the closet, and I snuck up behind them. *Slam!* I got back at them by locking them in a storage closet. I was literally laughing so hard inside. I felt like I was a savage, holding up those keys, standing on top of the world that I was going to dominate.

I got away with it too. Despite them later escaping and accusing me, my satisfied self strutted out of that office and was ready to complete her school day.

My fifteen seconds of victory was then snatched out of my hands. Henry got my keys and exposed my deception to Rex. She was furious, dragging me out of the school by the collar of the blue sweater. Her words in the car only made me even more upset.

"I cannot believe you would *lie* to me like that!" She growled. "You're not supposed to do that. Better be lucky Henry stopped you from murder!"

"News flash, I'm in pain, and I **do not care**," I retorted. "Just shut up so I can go home and make myself feel better."

"How are you-"

"*Ask again and I'm kicking you in the STOMACH*."

Pain was scorching my heart like fire. It was suffocating, choking, and pressuring. Panicking, I ran into my room, shutting the door and bashing my head against a nightstand. The dizzying pain gave me the pleasure that I needed.

My freakish nature was growing, and soon, I would descend into madness. I would become berserk.

## Cast

* **Eden Riegel** as Daniela
* **Nora Dunn** as Rex
* **Elizabeth Daily** as Amira
* **Dee Bradley Baker** as Henry

## Trivia

* It is revealed that:
	+ Daniela can become overly violent with her mother when she is upset.
	+ Daniela, if hurt, will inflict pain on herself to feel better. She will also do it even if she's happy as well.
	+ Daniela thinks Henry is cute. Henry also hints that he sees past her entirely.
	+ Daniela can't sing.
* When Daniela mentions a cat tipping over a Christmas tree, this is a nod to a story Av heard about her great-grandmother's cat, Venus, doing the same thing.
* The scene where Daniela pulls a glass shard on Rex was inspired by a scene from *Euphoria* where Rue violently confronts her mother with one.
* When Daniela is describing her pleasure in hurting Amira, she references the Rihanna song *S&M*.