Fran wasn’t thinking at all as she ground Abby’s hand into the floor.  The only thing that was playing in her mind was the thought of Abby trying to take Jim away from her.  Her mind had been shattered at the thought of her own friend trying to keep the two apart.  It was inconceivable.  When that happened, all of her logic left and all she cared about was keeping Abby away from Jim.  As she hurt Abby, she suddenly felt something prick the back of her ankle.

“This is what you get for trying to hurt me and my-OUCH!”

Being as sensitive as it was, the skin easily pierced and Fran let out a scream.  She jumped off Abby’s hand and fell on her butt, grabbing at her ankle.  Taking a few moments to look at her foot, she noticed that a small sewing needle had been jabbed into it.  There wasn’t a whole lot of pain running through the injury, but it was enough to have scared her and gotten her off what she was doing to her friend.  She quickly plucked the needle out of her ankle and began to look to see how it had gotten stuck in her. 

 Off to the side, Jim could be seen, slowly hobbling towards Abby’s hand.  He knew that what could be described as a Raging Volcano would be very unhappy with him from behind, but he wanted to get over to Abby.  If he was going to have any chance of surviving against a raging-mad Large, it would be with the only other person that big in the room.  He called out to her as he slowly came closer to her, almost reaching the hand that Fran had been crushing.

As Fran saw Jim down there by Abby, she realized that it was him who’d jabbed her.  Abby didn’t have any free hands with the pain she was enduring, so the only explanation was that Jim had done it.  This made Fran’s head start quivering and shaking with anger.  She made fists in both of her hands, and screamed down at Jim.

“JIM!!!!  You’re going to try to betray me again and run off with Abby?!  You’re going to pay for that!!!”

Jim immediately froze with fear from that statement.  He knew that there was something bad coming his way, and could only hope that Abby would realize it and try to protect him before Fran could get to him.  He slowly turned and prepared to back towards Abby, but he gasped when he saw something soaring to his position.  He began to leap towards Abby, hoping he wouldn’t catch the entire blast.

Abby, looking up, saw Jim running towards her.  She began to slowly move her head and arms to reach for him, but her eyes widened when she saw that it was already too late.  Fran’s hand was sailing down towards Jim’s position, looking like it was about to smack and crush him into the ground, as if he were a fly.  Abby cried out for Fran to stop, but it was too late. 

The hand hit just after Jim leaped.  It slammed down just behind him, but the force that Fran had used caught Jim’s airborne body.  He was blown straight into the watch around Abby’s wrist.  As he went closer, he used his right arm to try and shield himself from the blow.  As he hit, his arm immediately popped out of place, and he let out a loud, fear-filled scream.  He slowly slid off the watch and hit the ground, his entire body shivering from the pain.

Abby gasped as she saw Jim’s tiny form being thrown into her watch and then to the ground.  As she saw his tiny, shivering body, she immediately moved her good arm and reached down for him.  Slowly picking him up and letting him lay in her palm, she looked down at him.  His eyes were wide open, but he didn’t seem to notice that he’d been picked up.  He just shivered and stared off into the distance, almost unaware of everything that had been happening around him. 

“Jim?  Jim?  It’s me, Abby!  Hey, Jim…are you alright?!”

The tiny form known as Jim could hear every word Abby was saying to him, but he couldn’t move at all.  The shock of being blown back by Fran and injured against Abby’s watch had been too much for him.  He was just lying in her palm, shivering, wanting to speak up, but his body just wouldn’t let him.  As he was there, unresponsive, Abby started to get worried, a tear coming into her eyes.    

“Jim…Jim, please say something!  I know you’re moving and that you’re okay, right?  Right?......Jim?  Jim?!”

As Abby was holding onto Jim, breaking herself down into tears from her friend’s unresponsive behavior, Fran had frozen herself after she’d smacked the ground with her hand.  Her rage was so great and powerful, but one simple action had caused a conditioned response in her that immediately snapped her out of her fit of rage. 

Hearing Jim screaming out in pain, in that much pain had flowed through her head and snapped her back to reality.  The tiny person she wanted to love was hurt, truly hurt, and she’d finally caught wind of what she was really doing.  She looked down at the two of them, and began to contemplate everything that had just happened, a tear growing in her own eyes at what she’d done. 

She’d merely felt a little jealous, and had somehow spiked into a cruel rage from within her.  She got so caught up with her rage that she’d kidnapped Jim, tortured him with her feet and hands, and even tried to hurt him.  Even when Abby, her best friend, had come in to smack some sense into her, she’d ignored her and hurt both of them.  So caught up on getting his love, she’d let her rage take over, thinking that she could force him to love her.  But she was wrong.  It had only made things worse.

Abby had slowly picked herself up, holding Jim in her palm, as she noticed Fran’s sudden change in attitude.  She took a quick look at the girl and saw regret and lament in her eyes.  Abby knew what had happened.  Fran’s rage had come to an abrupt stop, thanks to a conditioned response, just like she’d heard.  She gets angry, the rage swells in her, and she loses control of her logic.  She rages and, when she hurts the person in question, she snaps out of it.  She never wanted to believe the rumors, or that she would even want to think about hurting their new friend, but she’d been wrong.

As she watched, she saw Fran slowly trying to approach the two of them, reaching out and whispering “J-Jimmy…?  Are…Are you okay?”

In response to this, Abby immediately started backing away from her, glaring into her eyes.  Now she was the one who was angry, angry with Fran for doing the unthinkable.  She started yelling back at her, making sure she knew exactly what she had done.

“No, Fran!  Jim isn’t alright!  Neither of us are!  You got too caught up in your rage, and hurt both of us!  He is seriously hurt!  You almost killed him!  You went too far, just like I told you not to!”

“I…I’m..sorry, Abs…” replied Fran, who was almost whimpering at this point, lamenting everything she’d done, realizing that Abby was upset with her.

“No, Fran!  Sorry doesn’t cut it!  You got a little jealous and if I hadn’t come along when I did, Jim would be dead right now!  DEAD!  So, you just stop talking and think about what you’ve done!  I’m going to take Jim and get him some medical help.  I’m going to tell the Dean that you’re going to miss the rest of the week of school.  You just stay home and keep away from us!”

Fran had started to cry at this point, but stayed silent, not saying a word.  She realized now that everything Abby had said was true.  She’d merely gotten a little jealous and it went so far that she’d almost killed Jim.  She wanted to nod to Abby, but was too shocked to say anything.  As Abby was walking away, she turned as she came to the doorway.

“Listen, Fran…you’re my friend and I care about you.  But you can’t act like this.  Our little friends are fragile, and can’t take that much abuse before they break.  I’m sure Jim is going to be broken up about this for quite awhile, both physically and emotionally.  Come back to school next week, and I will try to help you make amends.”

She then turned her head and walked out the door with the shivering Jim still lying on her palm…