His laughter filled the gym, but it only added to her building terror. “You think they care?” His mirth left as quickly as it had come. “The only two members of the team who would try to protect you are the preacher’s kid and his friend. And they didn’t come to the dance.”
His hand stroked her blonde hair. “These guys are my friends. They always back me. And the only thing you’ve accomplished today,” he now grabbed a handful of her hair, causing her to gasp in pain, “is embarrassing me! And I WON’T stand for that!”
He moved to strike her, but was caught off guard as she slammed a basketball, which she’d grabbed from the cart, into the side of his head. When he reflexively released her, she shoved it into his gut, causing him to double over. Then she burst into a run past John’s stunned friends and climbed onto the bleachers, using them as steps to reach the door Dave had busted down the previous night.
As she ran, she heard John swearing at her. She risked a look back to find him leaping onto the bottom bleacher, followed by his friends. She lunged through the door, her heart pounding in her ears. Passing the empty principal’s office, she kept running . . ..
* * *
As Dave, George and Yoshi approached the side doors to the school, they found Jamie, who was just coming out from behind the school.
Noticing the two ninja draped over Dave’s shoulders, as well as the one George was carrying over his left, Jamie commented, “I see you ran into some, too.”
“Yeah,” replied Dave, “there’s six more tied up in the shop building.”
“How many did you encounter?” Yoshi asked her clan brother.
“Two.” His face darkened. “Both dead.”
She hugged him. “It is good that you are safe.”
They entered the building next to the science room. Jamie did the secret knock and the door plunged open. Shawna threw her arms around him. He allowed himself to smile. Her presence made him feel better.
Dave looked at Yoshi in confusion. “Did I miss somethin’?” he asked, gesturing at the couple.
Yoshi merely shrugged.
Jamie noticed the bo staff Yoshi was carrying. Still enjoying Shawna’s embrace, he asked, “Where’d you get that?”
“It was in the Industrial Arts building,” was the kunoichi’s response. “I am going to use it to build upon training that George received in Alaska.”
Jamie looked at his clan sister’s new student in confusion. “You never mentioned that before.”
“And you never mentioned that you were a ninja,” he returned.
Jamie smiled. “Touché.”
Buster and Amy stepped, hand in hand, into the corridor. “Shawna,” Amy smiled. “I’ve got a battle scar!”
Shawna, her brown eyes widening in concern, pulled away from Jamie. “How?”
“A throwing star wound,” stated Buster. “We bandaged her shoulder, though.”
“Dude,” muttered Dave. “I just wanted to apologize. If I hadn’t been so caught up in poundin’ on the ninja, she wouldn’t of gotten hurt.”
Amy smiled. “I’m still alive. You’re forgiven.”
Suddenly, Laura burst into the hallway, coming to a stop right in front of Dave, who unceremoniously dumped his two prisoners to the floor. “Laura?” he asked, noticing the panic in her tear-filled eyes. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him for just an instant before throwing herself into his arms. “Dave,” she cried, “please help me!”
John Bowers ran into the hall, followed by Freddy Jenks and four other teens. Seeing Lauraa and Dave, the jock raged, “This isn’t your business!”
“It looks like she just made it his business,” said Shawna, her eyes staring daggers at the basketball player.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” screamed Laura as she moved behind Dave, who stood before her protectively.
By now, a crowd, which included the rest of Adventure, had begun to form up the hallway, just outside the English room.
“She hit me with a basketball!” roared John, pointing at the lump that was growing on the side of his head.
“Dude,” thundered Dave. “After what you’ve done t’her, I wouldn’t pity you if she’d run over you with a bus!”
“Get outta my way!” John took a swing at Dave, who caught his wrist, twisted his arm behind his back and slammed him against a soda machine.
“Listen up, dude,” commanded Jamie’s larger cousin menacingly. “She’s made her choice. She doesn’t wanna be with a girl-beatin’ dog-lunch like you. So just leave it alone!”
Freddy took a step forward, but stopped when Yoshi’s hand shot up and grasped his throat. “You were not thinking of interfering, were you?” she asked sweetly.
He shook his head, his eyes wide with fright.
She squeezed a little. “Good.” Then she released him.
Dave pulled John back from the soda machine and shoved him in the direction of the basketball players. “Now, fer yer own safety, I’d put as much distance between you and me as possible . . . if I wuz you.”
John glared past Dave at Laura. “Dave won’t be here forever.”
Jamie stepped forward. “But I will be.” Everyone now stared at the young ninja. “She’s taking the road that leads away from you, Bowers. And she’ll always have someone there to protect her from you.”
The jocks and their puppet turned and stormed away.
Laura threw her arms around Dave and sobbed into his Hawaiian shirt. Dave wrapped his own arms around her comfortingly. “’S’okay, dudette. He’ll never hurt you again.”
Jamie’s own mouth turned into a slight smile. He had never seen Dave this gentle. It was as if he were afraid that he might break the small cheerleader.
* * *
John, Freddy and their friends sulked on the bleachers. The team captain spun a basketball between his hands. Nobody had spoken since the confrontation in the hall.
Finally, John leapt to his feet and threw the ball to the floor with such force, the sound reverberated throughout the gym. “How DARE she!!!”
His friends looked up at him, not really shocked by the outburst. “She wants to break up with me? FINE!!!” He kicked a bleacher as he said the last word. This caused another echo throughout the gymnasium. “I can have any girl I want!”
“Then why be mad?” asked one of the players, a curly-haired teen named Jarod.
John thought for a moment. “I don’t want Dave to have’er.” John burned with anger at the thought of Laura in the arms of Jamie’s cousin. She belonged to him. SHE WAS HIS PROPERTY!!!
He crossed his arms and looked sullenly in the direction of the coach’s office. Jamie and George had just finished locking several more prisoners in there.
An idea formed in his mind as he looked at the unguarded door to the makeshift jail. A dark smile played at the corners of his mouth. He had a means to get even. Shawna had planted the seeds of rebellion by constantly bad-mouthing him to Laura. Jamie had brought his lumbering bear of a cousin to the school. But, most importantly, Dave had stolen his property.
He grinned as he fidgeted with the keys in his pocket . . . keys to which the coach would only have entrusted his star player. He would get even . . ..
Chapter Twenty-One
Saturday, 9:30 PM
Laura calmed down enough to explain what had happened in the gym. All of Adventure, as well as Jamie’s local friends, had gotten a good chuckle at her improvisation and Jamie hadn’t missed the irony of her weapon choice.
The group spent the next few hours visiting in the science room, each taking turns monitoring the halls and discussing ideas for escape. The rest of the students were getting restless and Jamie feared a breakdown of order if they did not find some way to contact the outside world.
As they noted the hour, everyone began to file out of the room. They needed rest before they could think through any ideas. Max and Pete would sleep in Steve and Jeremy’s room, since t
he English room was missing the glass in one of its windows.
“Ya want me to sleep outside’o yer room?” Dave asked Laura. “Just in case yer ex pays a late night visit?”
She smiled shyly. “That’s sweet. But he wouldn’t dare try anything with you in the building.”
Dave cleared his throat. “Maybe I’ll just walk ya to yer room, t’be safe.”
After Amy had given Buster a quick kiss on his cheek, causing him to turn three shades of red, Laura accompanied Shawna’s cousin and Dave from the room and headed toward the stairs. They were sleeping in the typing room with Shawna, who stayed behind to wish Jamie a good night.
As she watched Dave and Laura leave the room, Shawna’s smile nearly took in both ears.
“You look happy,” commented Jamie.
“She’s my best friend,” stated the girl wistfully. “I’ve always wanted her to leave him.” She looked up at the young ninja, tears of joy overflowing. “Look what it took. The Lord uses even the strangest situations to do good.”
“Amen,” Buster agreed.
“When I was gone last year, Laura drove all the way to Aurthur to see me everyday.”
“Aurthur?” asked Yoshi.
“I was arguing with my mother a lot last year, after my grandfather . . . her father . . . died,” explained Shawna. “We were just irritating each other. So I went into foster care.”
Yoshi’s confusion was obvious. “Why did I not see you at school?”
Shawna wiped the tears from her eyes. “To keep from messing up my grade-point average, I stayed enrolled here. Laura and Amy brought me my homework and my foster mother home-schooled me.”
“I’d always wondered . . .,” mumbled Jamie.
Shawna wrapped her arms around his waist. Kissing his lips, she said, “You’ve bared your heart to me this weekend, Jamie Raleigh. It’s only fair that I do the same.”
* * *
Donnie grunted under the weight of his backpack. “You easily had as much stuff as I did. Why isn’t it slowing you down?”
Tanemura grinned as he leaped over a fallen log. “My backpack isn’t as large as yours.”
Dave’s father, struggling to keep up, examined the wiry, older man. “Where’d you put everything?”
Tanemura turned around. His mask covered his mouth, but Don could see a smiling twinkle in his eye as he replied, “That is a trade secret.”
The two had been traveling for hours. As tired as they were, they didn’t want to stop to make camp, feeling that they must be getting close to the town. “How much farther, you think?” asked Donnie.
Tanemura stopped for the first time in two hours, not at all winded, and looked around. “I have never been through these woods before, but . . . “ he pushed up the sleeve of his wrist gauntlet to see his watch . . . “I would say another three hours, or so.”
Donnie’s groan made the old jonin chuckle as they continued onward.
* * *
Unseen by anyone in the dark, chilly Missouri night, several dark figures climbed, one at a time, from a second floor window of the high school building. The final three carried an unconscious form each. They descended silently to the hill behind the two-story structure, then vanished into the darkness . . ..
* * *
Jamie had just felt sleep begin to overtake him, when he felt himself shaken violently. “Jamie!” a familiar, feminine voice called urgently.
“Wh . . . what?” mumbled the leader of Adventure as he opened his eyes and Yoshi slowly came into focus.
“You must come at once!” She tugged him into a sitting position.
He climbed unsteadily to his feet. His contact lenses were soaking, so he grabbed his glasses from one of the lab tables.
“Whassup?” grumbled Dave.
The kunoichi’s face darkened. “The prisoners are gone.”
* * *
Dave swore. The door to the coach’s office was standing open. There was no sign of it having been forced open. “Are ya sure you an’ George locked it?”
Jamie cocked an eyebrow. “Of course.”
The big teen ran his fingers through the brown curls on top of his head. “Who had the key?”
“I had it,” responded Yoshi. “I was just coming to check on them.”
Buster scratched the stubble forming on his chin from two days without shaving. “Does anyone else have a key?”
Jamie shrugged. “You mean, other than the coach?”
George ran through the side doors to the gym and skidded to a stop next to Yoshi. Looking into the coach’s office, he exclaimed, “Our escaped prisoners have prisoners!”
* * *
Dave swore loudly, his curses echoing through the upstairs hallway along with the sound of his open palm striking the chalkboard of the typing room. The classroom was in disarray. Desks were overturned, typewriters broken and the monitor for the teacher’s computer was lying on the floor, its screen caved in.
Jamie trembled, icy fear gripping his heart. They’d taken Shawna, Laura and Amy. Why those three, in a hallway full of classrooms filled with potential hostages?
There was a note on the blackboard that was written in Japanese. Yoshi was reading it. “They are going to return tomorrow morning at dawn.” She looked at her clan brother. “They want us to be ready to fight them.”
“Why don’t they just ask for our surrender?” wondered Buster aloud.
“We have disgraced them,” explained the kunoichi. “For them, defeating us in combat will restore their loss of honor.”
Jamie noticed a book lying on the floor. He fought back his fear for the girls’ safety as he bent down and picked it up. The maroon, faux leather cover read The Holy Bible. Opening it, he read the words on the inside front cover:
Shawna,
It’s been fun having you here. Be sure to come and visit me. You’ve been an awesome foster-sister.
Love,
Alexandria
He didn’t recognize the author of the note. If Shawna survived this, maybe he’d get a chance to ask her.
NO! he thought angrily to himself. We’ll get through this! “If they want a fight,” he spoke aloud, catching his four friends off guard, “we’ll GIVE them a fight!”
“My brother,” Yoshi commented with concern, “calm yourself. We will be of no help to them if we cannot keep level heads.”
The young ninja felt a sudden flush of remorse. His shoulders slumped and he said, “This is all my fault.”
Buster put a comforting hand on his teacher’s shoulder. “No, it isn’t.”
Jamie’s eyes looked up to catch those of Adventure’s preacher. “How can you be so calm?”
“Yeah, dude,” muttered Dave. “We’ve seen how you and Amy look at each other.”
George added, “She was always flirting with guys, but I’ve never seen her look at someone like she looked at you.”
Buster took a moment to gather his thoughts. “She was desperate for a guy who would look past her body to see her heart. It’s even more beautiful.” He looked skyward. “But I’ll pray . . . and I know that the Lord will keep watch over them. We just have to have faith.”
Suddenly, John burst into the room, followed by a panting Freddy. “Where’s Laura?” demanded the jock.
“Yer bein’ here just puts me in that much worse of a mood,” grumbled Dave as he took a menacing step toward them.
Buster stepped between them. “Dave,” he pleaded, “be calm. Beating the soup out of John isn’t going to bring her back.”
“It’ll make me feel a lot better,” grunted the big teen.
“What are you talking about?” asked John, his eyes wide in panic. “What’d they do?”
“What did who do?” asked Yoshi, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
John and Freddy looked at one another in fear. “Uh . . .,” they stammered in unison.
The kunoichi leaped over a desk and grabbed John, shoving him
back against a wall. Freddy started to move toward them, but a glare from the girl made him think twice.
If Jamie hadn’t been so shocked, he might have laughed. The sight of the smaller Japanese girl holding the tall boy against a wall was quite funny.
Her right arm crossing his chest, holding him in place and her eyes locked on his, Yoshi’s left hand shot into and out of the front pocket of his pants like lightning. The others almost didn’t even see her move. Then she shoved him away from her.
As the jock slammed into a bookshelf, Yoshi ordered, “Do not move.” She opened her left hand to reveal what she’d taken from him . . . a set of keys that were attached to a basketball-shaped key-chain. She flipped through each of them until one caught her eye. Pulling another key from a pocket in her vest, she compared them.
“A match,” she sighed, handing both to Jamie. “Here is our traitor.”
Jamie glared at John. ”I guess it makes sense that the coach would give a key to his favorite player.”
"I should pound you into putty, dude,” rumbled Dave.
“Don’t bother,” interjected George. “He’s already done enough damage to himself.” He followed Yoshi, who was still staring daggers at John, out the door.
Buster followed them, pausing to give the jock a look of pity. He continued George’s thought. “That popularity that he’s so proud of is going to end when everyone finds out how much danger they were in because of his need for revenge.” He shook his head sadly and walked out of the room.
Dave glared at him as he walked by, causing John to wince in fear. The big teen, obviously fighting to control himself, clenched his fists at his sides and the popping of each of his knuckles was clearly audible in the dead quiet of the room. Still shaking in barely contained rage, he walked out the door.
Jamie walked by, not even stopping as he tossed John’s keys at the jock, who was too scared to even raise his arms to catch them. They bounced off of his chest and jingled as they hit the floor.
Bowers and Jenks were left to look about the trashed room and to reflect upon the results of their actions.
* * *
Jamie opened his eyes. Meditation wasn’t working. Dave had finally drifted off, after an hour of growling about creative ways to torture John Bowers. But Jamie couldn’t sleep. He was too wired.
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