“It never even crossed my mind,” he said, his eyes betraying his lie.
As soon as she left, Craig went in and closed the door behind him. JD handed over a credit card. “You already know the pin,” he said. “You should not need to sign anything, but if you do, you can fake my signature well enough that it won’t be questioned. Make sure you have fun tonight.”
Craig looked down at the card, which he had used a few times in the past. “Why are you trusting me with this instead of your brother?”
“Would you trust Jonathon with anything?” It was a good point and Craig didn’t bother to answer.
The evening went well and everyone had a good time. They hit a bar after their meal and it was gone midnight before they returned, some of them a little the worse for wear.
JD had waited up for them and, seeing the condition that most of them were in, said the 5am training session was cancelled. Only Simon and Katie, the two designated drivers, were sober.
Before dropping off to sleep, Sarah reflected back on the evening. It was the first time she had socialised with the others outside of the Sanctuary, other than shopping with Katie, and she felt she had turned a corner. She was no longer an outsider; she was now definitely part of the family whether she wanted to be or not.
You really don’t want to do this
A few weeks later, before starting the session with Sarah, JD walked around her, looking her up and down critically.
“What?” she asked. He was starting to make her feel uncomfortable.
“You’re losing weight.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “That’s not really a surprise given how much you’re making me exercise.”
JD wasn’t prepared to accept that as a valid reason. “You need to eat more.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
JD frowned at her. “No, you are not. Lose any more weight and I will create an eating plan for you.”
Craig was watching from the balcony. JD knew that Sarah would argue with him so he had asked him to be present to back him up.
Predictably, Sarah looked up at Craig. “Can he really do that? I don’t remember signing up for him to become my dietician as well as my trainer.”
Craig couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He was finding Sarah’s reaction very entertaining. “Sorry Sarah, it all comes under the same job description.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“His of course.”
“Traitor,” she yelled up at him, but she was smiling. She wasn’t angry with him. Then she turned to JD. “I’ll try,” she said. “Now let’s get on with training.”
Later that evening, at dinner, JD made sure he sat next to Sarah. A heated exchange between Jonathon and Katie had most people’s attention. JD watched Sarah take a small portion of stew. She could feel his eyes on her and did her best to ignore him, but he continued to stare at her until she took some more.
“Good girl,” he said so quietly only she could hear him.
“Bite me,” she replied under her breath.
When she glanced at him his face was unreadable, but his eyes were laughing at her.
————————————-∞————————————-
One Friday night, a few weeks later, everyone except Doc, Silvia and JD were in the lounge giving each other mental challenges.
“Your turn,” Scott said to Sarah when they had finally managed to solve the one set by Simon.
“Alright,” she said, “but I’ll need some string.”
Scott disappeared from the room, returning a short while later with a ball of strong white string and a pair of scissors. He handed them to Sarah, who cut off two long pieces of identical length. Then she called Craig over to her.
“What are you up to?” he asked as she tied one of the pieces around his wrist.
“This is going to be fun,” she said as she winked at him. “For us, but not necessarily for you.”
“I bet that isn’t the first time she has tied him up,” Jonathon said.
“First time with string anyway,” she replied as she tied the other end around Craig’s other wrist. His hands were now loosely tied together, but not restrained in any way due to the length of the string.
“Oh yes. Details please,” Jonathon said eagerly.
“Well I was given a pair of handcuffs for my twenty first.”
“She’s winding you up,” Craig said hastily.
“Actually I was telling the truth about the last part. I just haven’t used them on Craig. Katie. Come here.”
“How did I forget about that?” Craig asked as he watched Sarah tie the other piece of sting around Katie’s wrist.
“You got very drunk that night.”
“So did you and Alex...” Scott started to ask, then found he did not want to finish the sentence.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but no, we didn’t.”
“So you still have them?” Jonathon asked.
Before tying up Katie’s other hand, Sarah looped her piece of string around Craig’s, effectively tying them together.
“Somewhere I think. Want me to hunt them out for you?”
“What makes you so sure I don’t have my own?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Sarah ignored him.
“Now you two are tied together. There is a way to free yourselves without cutting the sting or taking it off your wrists. All you have to do is find it.”
She then sat down and watched the fun begin.
“This should be easy,” Craig said. “If I put my arm round here...”
For half an hour they manipulated their bodies around each other, but always they ended up back in the same position. Scott, Simon, Jonathon and Sarah found it very amusing to watch, especially some of the positions they got themselves into. Frustration began to set in and eventually they gave up.
“Watch very carefully,” Sarah said and took hold of the string attached to Craig. She made a small loop with it, threaded the loop through the gap between Katie’s string and her wrist and moved it over her hand, freeing them both. They were now still tied up, but not to each other.
Silence filled the room. Then Jonathon began to laugh and was soon followed by Scott and Simon. Even Katie joined in. She couldn’t believe the solution had been that easy.
Only Craig wasn’t joining in. He was glaring at Sarah. “You had me getting into all sorts of awkward positions with Katie while everyone else was laughing and all I had to do was that?”
Sarah couldn’t keep the grin off her face as she started to back away. “You need to see the funny side. Everyone else does.”
“I’m going to make you pay for that.”
She was now out of the room and moving slowly backward down the corridor, Craig menacingly approaching her.
“Craig. I’m warning you. Keep away.”
“Warning me? You’re not armed you know.”
Doc and JD were both in their adjoining offices and, hearing the commotion, opened their doors to see what was going on.
“You really don’t want to do this,” Sarah said.
“Oh I think I do.” Craig was smiling now. She wasn’t sure she liked what the smile was saying.
“She does realise she’s about to come to a dead end doesn’t she?” Doc asked JD.
Sarah slammed into the wall. “Apparently not,” JD replied.
Before Craig could reach her, she tried to duck under his arm and escape. Unfortunately for her he knew what she was going to do before she tried it and was ready for her. In a move he had obviously used on her many times in the past, he grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder.
“Should you put a stop to this?” Doc asked JD, who shook his head.
“They’re both smiling. They’re just playing about. As long as nobody gets injured, I’ll stay out of it.”
“Craig. Put me down. This isn’t funny,” Sarah yelled.
“I beg to differ. Can someone get the door please? And turn on the floodlights.” Scott opened the doo
r while Simon switched on the lights.
“It’s good to see them all having a good time,” Doc said to JD.
“She certainly breathes fresh air into this place.”
“Are you sure those two aren’t an item? The more I see them together the harder I find it to believe.”
“Positive.” JD no longer had any suspicions that they were lying to him about their relationship. Though they were closer than he had ever seen two people be, they never gave any indication that it was anything other than a very strong friendship.
“Craig, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sarah said.
“Stop wiggling or I’ll drop you.” He smacked her behind hard enough for everyone to hear, making her squeal. He carried her out of the house, the others trailing behind.
He paused just past the threshold and looked back at JD and Doc. “Can you ask Silvia to get some towels please.”
“Towels? What do you need towels for?” Sarah asked, a note of worry evident in her voice.
“You’ll see.”
“He’s not going to do what I think he’s going to do, is he?” Doc asked.
“We can get a better view from upstairs.” JD couldn’t keep the grin off his face as he spoke. He was very much looking forward to seeing the scene play itself out.
“Silvia darling. The children are playing. Can you get them some towels please,” Doc called out to his wife as he and JD ran up the stairs and walked through the first bedroom they came to and out onto the balcony, which gave a perfect view of the pond below.
Everyone except Sarah was laughing as Craig carried her over to the water. “Craig this isn’t funny anymore. Put me down right now.”
“Not yet.”
Then she spotted the pond and she instantly knew what he was planning on doing. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Watch me.” Without giving her chance to take a breath, he threw her in.
“You complete and utter bast−” Her comment was cut off as she hit the water and went under. When she surfaced she was coughing and spluttering.
“You should have shut your mouth before you hit the water,” Craig said, grinning broadly. She swam across to him and held out her hand so he could help her out.
“He’s not going to fall for that is he?” Doc asked as he and JD continued to watch from the roof of the house.
Craig took her hand, not realising that her feet were at the edge of the pond so when she leaned backward she had enough leverage to pull him forward into the water.
“Apparently he is,” JD said, doing his best not to laugh.
“You need to start training them how to use their brains more.”
“So it appears.” JD was too busy admiring how good Sarah looked when she was wet to look at Doc as he spoke.
The fun appeared to be over, so the two men went back into the house and entered their separate offices to continue their work.
Silvia appeared by the pond with towels and scolded them both for getting wet and dirty.
“It’s not my fault,” Sarah said, but Silvia was too busy lecturing them on what she would do to them if they became ill from being in the unclean water for her to take any notice.
They were both sent inside to shower and change into dry clothes.
Craig finished before Sarah and she found him in the games room playing a PlayStation game with Scott, Simon and Jonathon.
He looked up at her as she entered and she threw something at him.
“What’s this?” he asked, catching it with one hand.
“It was my phone.”
“What is it now?”
“Drowned. And you are going to fix it. Unless you plan on explaining to my boss exactly why I need a new one.”
“Sure. Your boss likes me.”
Sarah wasn’t going to let him off that easily. “You can also explain to Jason why he can no longer contact me when I’m not here.”
The smile dropped from Craig’s face. “Scott can fix it,” he said, silently praying that he was right.
“No problem,” Scott said and left the room with the useless piece of metal and plastic in his hands. “You can have it back in the morning.”
In his office, JD switched off his listening device, leaned back in his chair and quietly laughed.
————————————-∞————————————-
A few weeks later, when Sarah turned up for her usual Friday night training, she brought some items of equipment with her.
“What are they for?” Katie asked as she saw Sarah pass by, laden down with what appeared to be a metal stand of some sort. She also had a sword carrier thrown over her shoulder and a bag containing what looked like newspaper.
“You’ll see later,” she replied as she dumped them on the ground near the arena door.
Her lesson went well and, just as it was finishing, she asked JD if she could borrow the arena after dinner.
“Sure. Can I ask why?”
“I want to see just how accurate the others are with their sword strokes.”
“And how are you planning on doing that?”
“Come and watch and you’ll find out.”
“Why will you never just tell me what I want to know?” he asked in exasperation. “Have you any idea how trying you are?”
She smirked at him. “You wouldn’t want me any other way and you know it.”
“I swear to God I’m going to strangle her one of these days,” he said to himself as he watched her leave the arena.
For once, even Jonathon was present. As soon as the meal was over, Sarah led them to the arena and set up the stand. She then attached a sheet of newspaper which had five horizontal lines drawn on it in red ink.
“Do you have any idea what she’s up to?” Simon asked Craig as Sarah took a wooden sword out of its carrier and swung it around a couple of times.
“Actually, I do. They do this for fun in her Korean sword lessons. They have competitions in it as well. It’s the only thing that she’s absolutely hopeless at. Even I can do better than her and I’ve only tried it a couple of times.”
“Right boys and girls,” Sarah called out. “This is paper cutting and this,” she held up the wooden sword, “is a paper cutting sword. The object of the game is to cut the paper along the lines, starting at the bottom and working your way up. With each stroke you have to perform a cut.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Katie said.
“Trust me,” Craig said. “It isn’t.”
“There is a technique. First you have to get your body in the right position.”
She got them to line up with their legs straight and together. Then they had to move their toes outward, then their heels to make their feet straight once more, then repeat.
“Now bend your knees,” she said. “It may be uncomfortable, but it’s a stable position. You can’t lose your balance from here.”
She then demonstrated how to hold the sword and cut with each stroke, right, left, right, left then right again. “You need to cut the paper each time, on the next line up. However, your arms should always be in the same position. This means you have to start with your knees bent low and straighten them a little with each stroke.”
She then threw the sword to Craig. “Craig will demonstrate as he’s a lot better than I am.”
He did so, cutting the paper successfully five times, but only hitting a red line once. “It takes practice,” he said.
It was Jonathon who decided to make it a little more interesting. “Everyone put in ten dollars. Winner takes all.”
There were protests that that was unfair as Sarah was far more experienced, but when she demonstrated how bad she really was, everyone agreed. They all placed their money under Sarah’s sword carrier and the fun began.
“Everyone gets five practice rounds, then the competition starts.”
It came as no surprise to Sarah that they all did really badly on their first attempt, but they each improved and seemed to be enjoying them
selves.
JD turned up on the last practice round, watching in fascination from the balcony. Sarah saw him, but said nothing, not wishing to put the others off.
Then they got down to the competition. It turned out to be a lot closer than any of them had been expecting. By mutual agreement, Scott was in the lead with only Jonathon left to go.
“No pressure,” Scott said as Jonathon took up his position in front of the stand. “But you have to get at least four of the lines to beat me.”
“Thanks,” Jonathon reply dryly, “but I had managed to work that out for myself. Now stop trying to put me off.”
“Why would I do a thing like that? It’s not as if there’s money riding on this or anything.”
At those words, JD scanned the room and spotted where the money had been put. He was aware that they bet against each other over all sorts of things and he didn’t like it.
Jonathon did well. Three of his cuts were perfectly on the lines, but the last two weren’t. Close inspection of the paper, however, showed that he was closer to the lines than Scott, so he was declared the winner.
“Not so fast,” Sarah said as he walked toward the money. Then she looked up at JD. “Want a go?”
JD thought about it for a moment. Normally he would have said no, but he wanted to teach his brother a lesson. He was sure the gambling had been his idea and didn’t like seeing him walk away with the money.
“Alright,” he said and moved toward the steps. Instead of climbing down or sliding down the fireman’s pole, he did a forward flip, landing neatly on the balls of his feet on the arena floor.
Sarah was the only one to react, swearing very loudly. The others had seen him do that lots of times before so weren’t surprised, though they did find Sarah’s reaction amusing.
“Is that part of the training?” she asked.
“No, it isn’t,” JD said as he walked toward the wall to retrieve his sword.
“Sorry Jason,” she said, “but that’s against the rules. You have to use this sword.”
He looked at her and for a moment she wondered whether he was going to take the sword from her hand or not.
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