Chapter 1

“ It’s your first day of school so try and stay out of trouble and control your temper.” Said a woman about 42 years old, with long dark hair, and silver eyes. She wore a black skirt, a yellow t-shirt, with a white apron over top.

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be fine. I can take care of my self.” I called as I ran down the road to catch the bus to Charity City High.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Said my mother quietly to herself.

Hi there my name is Breo and I’m on my way to school. First year even though I’m in grade 11, my mom was home schooling me. I am 17 years old but don’t look it, I’m fairly tall around 5’7” with mid shoulder length black hair that I keep tied back in a ponytail. I have silver eyes like my mothers, but they change color to suit my mood like my fathers. I have a childish face that is usually always smiling.

At home it’s just my mom and me. My father was murdered when I was three so I don’t remember him to well, but mom tells me about him all the time. She says I’m just like him, always helping out the underdogs, and always fighting. She also says I get my short fuse from his side of the family. I remember when I was younger I asked why he was murdered.

She said no one knows who, how or why he was murdered, but mom says it was because my fathers friend/rival wanted to marry her, but when my father married my mom it turned the friendship into mortal enemies. No one has been able to prove it was Jackson Smith (fathers friend) so he hasn’t been arrested yet. So now ever since I was old enough to understand I’ve been trying to find out the truth about my fathers’ death, but now that I have to go to school I’ve got less time to work on that. Speaking of which here comes the bus and the 20-minute ride to school.

As I took my place in line to get on the bus two guys about a year older than I am knocked me out of line and took my place.

“ Ouch, shit!” I yelped as I hit the ground hard on my right elbow. ” Hey buddy. What’s the big idea?” I added as I got up and dusted the dirt off my clothes and glared at the guy who had pushed me.

“Humph, new kids go to the back of the line,” said the other boy. I was deciding on whether to push them back or not. Then I decided that that would be too childish, plus I remembered what my mom told me about keeping my temper in check. So instead I shoved my hands into my pockets and made my way to the back of the line.

As I walked I heard people whispering as they watched me pass. I passed one guy who gave me, at first a genuine grin, but it soon turned mischievous. Then “Coward” I heard him say.

I whirled around to face him. “What, what did you say?” I asked him, as my eyes flashed from silver to pitch black.

“ You heard me, coward. A coward just like your pathetic father.” He said grinning at me evilly.

I stared at him in disbelief, which soon turned to anger. I started to turn around and walk away, but instead I turned around and punched him in the nose, then I snapped kicked him in the stomach. I watched him fall to the ground, his nose was bleeding profusely, it was probably broken, and he was rolling around on the ground holding his stomach, groaning. I looked down at him and said. “My father was not a coward, unlike you. He was a great man and say one thing to contradict that, and I’ll personally kick your ass from here till kingdom come.” Then I kicked him on last time in the ribs as I walked by and climbed on the bus

Chapter 2

I‘m sitting in the office of my new school waiting for the principal to finish looking at my records. The room was small, the desk was varnished oak, and the chairs we sat in were small comfy desk chairs on wheels. The walls were painted a dark gray and the carpet was black. There was no window in the small office.

“So you’ve never been to school before now?” He asked me. The principal was a man in his middle age, around 45; he was tall with brown eyes and balding gray hair. He also had a mustache. He wore a brown suit with matching pants, with a light blue shirt underneath, and a black tie.

“That’s right sir. Oh no wait, my mother did try to send me to kindergarten once but after a week she pulled me out because I kept beating up the bullies in the older grades.” I answered him.

After a few more minutes of reading and discussing my records he said,“All right Ms. Breo, here is your schedule of all your classes. Now off you go.” He held the door open that lead out into the hallway for me.

I looked at my watch and realized that I was almost twenty minutes late.

I nodded my head, mumbled a quick thanks and took off down the hallway. I ran past brown, wood colored doors with dark green lockers on either side of the doors lining the walls of the hallway. My feet hardly made any sound on the brown wooden floor of the school halls. I turned right to a set of stairs. The stairs were made of different shades of red brick like tiles. After reaching the top of the stairs I took a left and started looking for room 207. Once I found the door I put my schedule into the back pocket of my black cargo pants, straightened my green shirt that said ‘Don’t mess with me’ on the front. I adjusted my yellow and black backpack, and knocked on the door. I didn’t have long to wait before the teacher came and answered the door. “Hello and who are you, besides late?” she asked sternly staring down her nose at me.

“ Yeah umm, sorry about that. My name’s Breo, I’m a new student here and I don’t know my way around the school quite yet.” I replied nervously under her stern gaze.

“ All right then, your excused. There is an empty seat near the back of the class, you can sit there.” She said as she pointed to the desk in the fifth row.

I looked to where she had pointed and saw that my desk was in between two guys who didn’t look people friendly. “Oh great, this is going to be fun.” I said sarcastically to myself. I walked to the row and took the seat that was five spots in from the left side of the classroom wall.

I had just taken out my binder and started to copy down the notes from the over- head, which the teacher had put up, when the guy on my right looks over my arm at me, and asks his friend on my other side, “Hey Yue what have we here? A new victim?”

“No, she looks a bit to tender to be a good victim Jack,” answered Yue, as he too looked me over.

“Leave me alone I don’t want any trouble, but if you do, keep it up,‘cause you boys just found it.” I snapped at them while still copying the notes.

“You hear that boys? We got ourselves a sharped-tounged beauty,” declared another boy sitting behind Yue, Jack, and I. “So little lady, what’s your name?” Inquired the boy.

“That’s for me to know and for you to never find out.” I retorted turning around to see who the speaker was. When I saw who it was I gasped in surprise, and then broke out into a small laughing fit. I laughed because it was the guy I had beat up at the bus stop. I was about to say something to him when the teacher called up to us and asked if there was anything the matter. I shook my head no to her question and shoved one fist into my mouth to keep from laughing out loud and my other hand held my aching side.

I spent my next two classes trouble and laugh free. My three least favorite classes are in the morning. First is History with Mrs. Rose, and then I got Mr. Smith (fathers old ‘friend’) who teaches religion, kind of odd for someone who murdered someone. I particularly hate this class and the teacher loathes me. Then I got Law with Ms. Candle.

It’s now lunchtime and I’m sitting in a tree eating my lunch, and doing homework from my Law class. “Now let’s see question one. If you were to get arrested the police officer would read you your rights. What are they?” I read quietly to myself as I bit into an apple. I was just about ready to answer the question when I heard footsteps coming towards the tree. I looked up from my homework and down towards the ground, and saw a boy running from Yue.

“Hey Yue what about student rights huh?” yelled back the boy to his pursuer as he ran circles around the tree. From my position I could see that the boy had messy black hair, he wore blue jeans with a hole in the right knee, and a black shirt. I could not see his face from my position.

“Your rights huh, fine. You have the right to hold still, and the right to have your ass kicked by either me or my friends.” Said Yue as he tried to grab the guy.

I watched for a little while longer enjoying the hard time Yue was having in catching the other boy. ‘Alright I’ve had enough of this’ I thought to myself. I jumped lightly down to one of the lower branches; I crouched down on the branch and waited till Yue came around the bend of the tree again. I kept my hands on the branch I had been crouching on, jumped off pushing myself backwards at the same time, and on swinging forward I brought my heels up and kicked Yue in the jaw, and using my momentum swung myself back up onto the branch again. From there I watched Yue fall to ground holding his jaw with both his hands.

I jumped down beside the guy that had been being chased. “You okay pal?” I asked him.

“Yeah thanks a lot. My name is Kai Taylor. What’s yours?” Asked the boy, as he looked me over then looked at Yue with confusion on his face.

“My name is Breo Moon. Nice to meet you Kai.” I replied holding out my hand for him to shake. He looked at my hand for a second then shook it with his own. His hand was tough, callused, and he had a very strong grip. Now that I wasn’t looking at him through the tree branches I had a good look at him. He was a few inches taller than I was; his black hair was messy from his mad dash away from Yue, red eyes, and a lopsided grin plastered on his face (his grin looks evil.). But besides the grin I thought he looked like a pretty nice guy.

“Breo? Means fire, doesn’t it?” He asked as he let go of my hand. I nodded in reply. “Well it certainly fits your temper. One more question, where on earth did you learn to fight like that?”

“My mother taught me most of what I know and some I taught myself.” I answered. I heard the shuffling of grass behind Kai. I looked over his shoulder and saw Yue getting up. I grinned when I saw he was still trying to rub the pain from his jaw.

“ You know Yue, you shouldn’t bug kids who are smaller than you. If I see you doing that again I’ll personally beat you down like the dog you are.” I said calmly as Yue glared daggers at me, and ground his teeth in anger.

“Yeah, well you better watch yourself babe, or you’ re going to die an untimely death just like your old man.” He said evilly.

I was too shocked and angry to do anything except stand there, but Kai wasn’t, he whipped around and brought his leg up to kick Yue in the head, then dropped to the ground and tripped him with his other leg.

Yue fell to the ground yet again. Kai stood up and walked over to him. He crouched down, wrapped his fist around the front of Yue’s plain black t-shirt, stood up and lifted Yue off the ground. Kai brought his face close to Yue’s “Listen here, moon boy. Don’t go bugging people who don’t got both parents, especially if they can beat you up and toss you around like a rag doll. NOW GET!” Kai said, and shouted the last of the words in Yue’s face as he let him drop to the ground. Yue sensing that he had done enough took of across the schoolyard as fast as his legs could carry him.

Kai turned around and looked at me with concern written all over his face. “Umm Breo. Are you all right?” He asked as he walked over and put a hand on my shoulder“No, no I’m not. Grrrr next time I see Yue he is going to be screaming for his mother!” I yelled and pounded my fist into the palm of my left hand. “Thanks Kai. I do have one question. How does everyone I met so far today know that my father was murdered?” I said, furious. Kai just shrugged his shoulders and said “Come on we’re going to be late for class.”

Chapter 3

“ How much farther is it to your place?” Kai asked as we walked to my house. We had decided to walk to avoid a confrontation involving Yue and his gang of friends. “Why?” I asked in return. “Why? Because my feet are sore from all this walking.”“Kai,” he looked at me “ it was your idea to walk in the first place. So don’t go complaining about your sore feet to me.” I said. We walked for about another ten minutes and were just coming up to my house when…“Get off my property you creep!” I heard my mom yell.

“Listen here Kayla, Eriol’s been dead 14 years, it’s time you re-married,” said Jackson. ‘Not again’ I thought to myself as we got to the brick fence that surrounded my house and ducked down behind it to avoid being seen.

Kai elbowed me in the ribs lightly to get my attention. I looked up at him, “What’s that jerk doing at your place?” Kai asked in a whisper, so only I could hear, jerking his head in the teacher’s direction.

“He’s been doing this for about six years now. Trying to convince my mom to marry him. She keeps turning him down and he keeps asking and asking. It kinda gets annoying after the first three times.” I whispered back in answer.

“Shall we interrupt his fun or what?” Kai asked with a mischievous glint in his eye. I shook my head ”Lets watch a bit more and see what happens.” I said with the same mischievous look as Kai’s. Kai looked slightly confused but stayed where he was.

“Give me one good reason why I should marry again and maybe, just maybe I’ll think about it.” Said my mother.

“Hmmm, one reason fine. Your daughter, you can’t look after her all by yourself. That’s my reason.” He said smugly. He drew himself up to his full height of 6’7 his black hair moved slightly in the breeze, and his smoke gray eyes shone with victory. His funny pointed nose and the grin of triumph that were on his face made him look like an ugly old hag, and in his black dress pants and gray button down long sleeved shirt he looked a lot more ugly than usual.

“It’s a good point, but, I don’t have to look after my daughter she can look after herself just fine.” Said my mother grinning at the look of astonishment and annoyance of being turned down yet again that was on Jackson’s ugly mug.

“Come on Kai, let’s go meet my mom.” I said and pulled him along with me to my house.

“Speak of the devil. Here she comes know. And she’s brought a friend.” Said my mother as she saw Kai and me come running up the driveway.

“Hi mom!” I called as I ran to the front door where my mom was standing.

Kai was running behind me glaring at our teacher as we passed him. “How was your day?” I inquired when I was standing in front of her.

“Good. How about yours? Who’s your friend dear?” she waited a bit“well aren’t you going to introduce us Breo?”

“Huh, oh yeah. Mom this is Kai Taylor. Kai this is my mom.” I said quickly.

“He- hello Mrs. Moon,” he said shyly “how are you?”

“Fine dear. Thanks for asking and please call me Kayla. Won’t you come in Kai? Breo will you and Juniper make sure that the “trash” gets taken out before you come in please, thank you.” She said as she led Kai into the house.

“Okay mom. Here Juniper, here boy. Juuunniiipeeerrr.” I called as loud as I could toward the back yard. Soon enough I heard footsteps coming around the corner. About half a second later a big German shepherd came barreling around the corner. The dog was about two and a half feet at the shoulder, a bit big for a shepherd pup; he was brown with a black spot on his head, another spot on his back, and black spots on his paws that made it look like he was wearing gloves. “ Hey boy, want to help me take out the trash?” I asked him as I scratched him behind the ear. He wagged his tail back and forth and barked in his little but loud puppy bark. I grinned and straightened my back. “All right then,” I said, turning away from juniper a little, and pointed toward Jackson.

“Take out the trash boy!” Juniper looked where I was pointing and saw Jackson, who had been stupid enough not to leave when my mom went back inside the house. Juniper crouched low to the ground in a pouncing position facing Jackson, growled, barred his fangs, and pounced at him. Jackson took off across the yard screaming.

I laughed at the scene, calling out to Jackson, “He may be just a puppy but he makes a pretty effective guard dog don’t you think!” and laughed some more.

“Ahhh, call off your beast. I’ll leave, I’ll leave!” he yelled as he ran away from the oversized pup.

“Hmm, okay. Juniper heel.” I called to the dog he stopped his pursuit and looked back at me. Then ran over as fast as his legs could carry him and sat in front of me with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. “Ha, ha good boy, did you enjoy that?”

“You’re going to regret your decision Kayla!” he called as he ran down the road away from our house.

“Yeah right you creep. Stay away from my mom and our property you no good murderer.” I yelled at his retreating back. Once I could no longer see his silhouette on the horizon I turned and walked to the house with Juniper at my heels. I opened the door and the pup bounded past me into the house. I then closed the door, kicked off my shoes, hung my backpack on the wall, and walked up the stairs that led to the living room. I walked into the living room and flopped down onto a green E-Z chair, with my legs dangling over the arm of the chair.

“Did you take out the trash like I asked you Breo” my mother asked me grinning mischievously while she scratched Juniper on the head.

“Yes I did. Juniper even got a piece of it. I had no idea trash could run so fast.” I answered my mother looking upside down at her and returning the grin.

“That teacher’s a jerk and a half. He’s over every other week bugging my mom like he bugs your mom.” Kai said to me angrily, but when he looked up at us and saw the look on my mom’s face and mine he asked “did I say something wrong?”

“No, no of course not.” My mom paused. “I know this is kind of a personal question and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Was your father murdered 14 years ago?” my mom asked tentatively.

Kai just starred of into space for a few seconds, then in a small, quiet, hesitant voice he said, “Yes he was. I was almost four when it happened. My father was babysitting me so I pretty much saw the whole thing.”

‘Poor Kai’ I thought to myself and looked at my mom. When we looked back toward Kai, his head was hanging forward, chin almost touching his head, as his shoulders shook with repressed sobs.

Chapter 4

A few weeks later Kai and I were down stairs in my father’s old study doing research on each of our father’s deaths. The room was a small wooden box, with a metal desk in one corner that was supporting a computer, a large wooden shelf full of books, large fluorescent lights lit up the room, and three filing cabinets lined the wall opposite the desk. I was sitting on the wooden floor looking through old newspapers and print-outs of police reports trying to find clues when Kai asked,“Hey Breo find any thing useful in those papers yet.” As his fingers flew across the keyboard trying to get into the police computer files trying to find clues of his own.

“No not a damn thing. And we’ve been at it since” I looked down at my watch “ 6:30 this morning and it’s now almost 8:30 am. That’s almost two hours, it’s hopeless!” I yelled furiously as I chucked about the 20th paper across the room into a pile of useless junk.

“It’s not entirely hopeless.” He said. I looked up from my paper and towards the computer. “Come look at what I just found.” I got up, walked over to the computer, and looked over his shoulder.

“On Friday, June 13th, 2006 two men were found murdered in their homes. The first was one Eriol Moon. We could only find one physical inflection that could have caused his death and that was a broken neck. The only other marks found were bruises on the arms and legs. Autopsies later showed no internal damage. The only things found at the murder scene besides the body was a mans leather glove size large, and a piece of clothing in the victims hand probably from the murderer.” Kai read aloud as I jotted down important facts.

“That’s my dad Eriol Moon. I wasn’t at home when he was killed.” I stopped and put down my pen. “I was at my Aunt Mary’s farm for the summer.” I said sadly. Kai turned his head away from the computer screen and looked at me. He was surprised to see a tear slowly rolling down my cheek.

“Hey it’s okay. We’ll find out who did it and make sure the get what they deserve besides a good beating.”

I looked up and smiled gratefully at him. I wiped my arm across my eyes getting rid of the tears. “Jeez you don’t give much of a pep talk but at least you cheered me up, thanks Kai.

“ Fine, make fun of me, but next time you need someone to get the people motivated don’t come crying to me.” He said in mock annoyance. “ By the way you’re welcome.”

“Lets get back to work on this thing.” I said and picked up the pen from the desk.

“Yeah.” He said as he clicked the mouse on the screen. “Oh by the way, I know this is a bit off topic but, in all the time I’ve known you I never ever say you cry not even a single tear no matter how many times we got beat up.” He added tauntingly as he went to the next page of the report.

“And your point is what Taylor?” I asked glaring at him as I wrote down more notes.

“Oh nothing. Just that the non-emotional Breo Moon has emotions and is a normal human being after all.”

“Why you little jerk. You are so going to get it.” I snapped as I put my pen and notebook away into my backpack.

Kai quickly pressed save on the computer and took out his disk from the A: drive, shoved it in his pack, and headed for the stairs rather quickly. “Well the normalcy was fun while it lasted. Come on we’re going to be late for school. Ahhh!” He said as he dodged away from me and took off up the stairs toward the kitchen.

“Get back here Kai, you over sized wimp!” I called up at him as I too ran up the stairs. We ran into the kitchen chasing each other around the table and calling each other names like two little kids. My mom walked in just then and grabbed the back of my shirt as I passed. “You two are going to be late for school if you don’t get your butts in gear and catch that bus.” She said as she stuffed my lunch into my bag laughing quietly at our antics. “Now get going and no more fighting either of you. Do you here me?” My mom called as we ran out the door that led to the front yard.

“Yes ma’am.” We called over our shoulders as we vaulted the brick wall that surrounded my house and ran down the road to catch the bus.

We got there just as the bus was pulling out to head to the school. “No wait! Stop!” Kai yelled as we both put on an extra burst of speed to catch up to the bus. The bus screeched to a halt and opened its doors. We hopped in, showed our bus passes to the driver, and took a pair of seats near the front of the bus.

We breathed heavily trying to catch our breath from our run as we talked about what we found on the computer.

“We never did finish reading that report did we?” I asked as I rooted through my lunch, after I had regained my breath, to see if there was anything good to munch on.

“Nope, I guess we’ll just have to finish it when we get back to your house after school.” Kai answered as he looked over my shoulder and into my lunch.

A shadow past over us, and stopped once it was directly in front of Kai and me. We looked up wondering, and dreading whom it might be.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t my favorite victim. How are you Kai?” asked the boy with a very familiar grin. I didn’t recognize the guy so I went back to my lunch bag raiding.

“Get lost Ken, or you’ll be sitting funny for a week.” Snapped Kai as he clenched his hands into fists.

I had seen Kai’s muscles start to twitch a little with anticipation, so I stopped rooting through my lunch and peered up at Ken. He wore a plain white t-shirt, and a scraggly pair of blue jeans. He was taller than Kai with dark brown hair, smoke gray eyes, and with the nose that looked like it had been broken a few times and that grin he looked exactly like Jackson. “Kai who is that guy? He looks just like Jackson.” I whispered at Kai out of the corner of my mouth trying to get his mind on something else before he did something stupid like start a fight.

“That’s because he’s Jackson’s kid.” He answered in a bored tone of voice.

“What! Are you kidding me?” I almost yelled but caught my self just in time, and looked up at Ken then back at Kai again quickly. I turned my head and looked Kai right in the eye, “Please tell me that you’re joking.” I pleaded.

“Nope, I’m dead serious. Sorry,” said Kai shaking his head. “But I wish I were.”

“Damn, I was hoping you were just joking around again.” I sighed and dropped my shoulders and looked at the ground.

“Hey Taylor, who’s your little friend?” Ken asked Kai. I didn’t look up at him this time. I saw his feet turn so the rest of him could face me better. I could feel his eyes bearing into me; it felt like he was searching into the depths of my mind.

“Leave her alone Ken, she hasn’t done anything to you.” Snarled Kai as he jumped to his feet. I could tell that he was ready to let his fists do the rest of his talking. I was about to try and stop him when luckily the bus arrived at the school and everyone tried to get off the bus at the same time. While Ken was getting jostled around, I grabbed Kai’s hand and dragged him to and then through the back door of the bus. Ken must have seen us leave because when I looked back as we tried to loose him through the throng of students he wasn’t too far behind us.

“Kai, go for the trees.” I said to him as we rounded the corner that led to the back of the school.

“All right. But that won’t do us any good Breo.” Kai said between breaths as we practically ran for our lives.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he can climb trees faster than anyone I know.” He answered.

“Well we’ll see about that now won’t we?” I said more to myself than Kai.

“Come back here you two. It’s pounding time.” We heard Ken yell from somewhere not to far behind us.

“Ha, you’ll have to catch us first ugly,” I yelled back tauntingly.

“Head for separate trees it’ll slow him or them down some.” I then said to Kai.

He nodded “Okay. Be careful Breo, and I’ll see you later.” He said as he turned and jumped into a tall Weeping Willow.

“I will. Later Kai.” I called as I took off along the ground heading for a tall cedar tree. Ken must have told some of his flunkies to go around the other side of the school, because before I had time to stop I ran straight into a group of guys. I hit a tall, muscled, gorilla-looking guy and fell backwards slightly dazed. I waited to feel the pain of body meeting ground but it didn’t come. I looked up to see who had caught me; once my eyes refocused and I could see the persons face clearly I gasped and tried to swallow the lump in my throat but failed. My horror stricken face stared up into that of Yue’s. To me the look on his face was that of a hungry wolf who had just brought down his favorite prey.

Chapter 5

“Uh-oh” I said under my breath. “Let go of me moon boy, or you’ll be wishin’ you were in detention.” I growled up at him. He just smirked down at me, then made me stand upright. He brought my arms behind my back and applied pressure; I wince and made a small cry of pain.

“Don’t try to get away my dear, or Yue will end up breaking one of or both your arms.” Said a deep voice from somewhere in front of me.

I stopped struggling against Yue’s hold and raised my head so I could look in front of me. I couldn’t see the speaker anywhere. “Are you afraid to show your face you filthy cowahhh.” I said to the ring of teens around me, but was cut off when Yue applied more pressure to my arms.

“Coward am I?” asked the mystery speaker again, it sounded a lot closer this time. I looked up again and starred straight into the face of Jackson Smith. I growled low in my throat as my eyes changed from dark silver to black, and lunged at him. Yue was surprised by my actions and accidentally let go. I wasn’t expecting him to let go. So when I kept going, instead of stopping, I fell forward right into Jackson. We both tumbled to the ground in an ungainly heap.

“Get her off of me you dopes!” he bellowed as he kicked at me, trying to get me off so he could stand up. One of his kicks landed on my face and I yelped in pain. I grunted as another landed on my ribs. Finally before I could get kicked again someone came and hauled me roughly to my feet.

I just let my head hang limply as I waited for something else to happen. I could only just see Jackson getting up, dusting off his dress pants, and start to walk over to me. I raised my head slightly so I could keep him in my line of vision. “Murderer” I mumbled under my breath. He had been grinning at the sight of me in pain and at the blood that was slowly seeping out of my split lip, but the grin faltered a bit when he heard me mumble.

“What did you say girlie? I didn’t quite hear you.” He said starting to grin again. The sight made me want to heave up what little I had had for breakfast that morning.

“Murderer” I said a bit louder. Then I rose up to my full height, which was slightly difficult considering the guy behind me was still holding me, and yelled “MURDERER!” right in his deformed face.

“Why you worthless, miserable piece of trash” he spat as he raised his hand to slap me across the face. I quickly turned my head away from his hand; shut my eyes tight, and waited for the pain of the blow to hit. I waited a few seconds and when the pain didn’t come I slowly opened my eyes and looked back toward Jackson, and, to my amazement, saw Kai standing there holding back the blow with his right hand wrapped around the teacher’s left wrist.

“Hey teach. Don’tch you know it ain’t right to hit girls?” He inquired glowering at the man while trying to keep Jackson’s hand where it was.

“Foolish boy. Leave know or you’ll end up being in the same boat as the girl behind you.” He said calmly but with venom in his words.

“I don’t ditch my friends, never have, and never will.” Said Kai, calmly but sternly. To someone who didn’t know him you would have thought he was being brave. But to someone who knew him you could tell he was hiding his real fear with a bravado act.

“Kai,” he turned his head slightly in my direction. “Kai go, get out of here this has nothing to do with you. Go I’ll be all right.” I said in a pained voice as I struggled against the guy who held my arms.

He shook his head, “Sorry Breo, I don’t ditch my friends. So I’m staying and it looks like you jerks are stuck with me.” He said sounding bored with the whole thing. He dropped his hands to his sides as a sign of submission.

“Fine, the more the merrier. Take them both to the van, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Jackson said as he walked away.

Yue came up behind Kai and grabbed him by the neck half-pushing half-dragging Kai along with him. “So you two pests are finally going to get what’s coming to you. The boss says I can help dish it out if I want.” Said Yue smugly as he kicked Kai in the back because he was struggling to get loose.

“How?” I asked as I was pushed forward roughly, “ by beating us up. You couldn’t hurt a fly much less us. Why don’t you just let us go and save yourself the pain?” I said in a perfect imitation of Yue’s tone of voice, and was rewarded with a punch in the face.

“Shut-up girl, or I’ll give another black eye to go with the other one.” Said the boy in front of me who just happened to be Ken.

“How ‘bout I give you a broken knee to go with your soon to be busted nose.” I spat as I kicked at him. My eyes went a darker black than what they had been before. On my third try I was rewarded with a yelp of pain and a shot to the stomach both coming from Ken. “’Cough’. Ohhh ouch.” I moaned as my captor dragged me on my knees along the ground.

“That’ll teach you.” Ken said as he turned on his heel and continued to walk the way we had been heading.

“Why you!” Shouted Kai as he lunged at Ken. He was pulled back by Yue and cuffed upside the head. “Ow, jerk.” He said to Yue and was hit in the head again.

We walked for about three minutes longer, with very little trouble from Kai or me, when we finally arrived at the van. “Tie them up, and throw them in the van.” Ordered Ken as he opened the van’s back door.

“Right.” Said Yue and the guy who held me in unison. They tied our hands behind our back, and tied up around our ankles and knees using nylon rope for both. Once that was finished the big gorilla guy came up behind me and tossed me into the van.

I hit the other side of the van with a thud “ouch!” I cried. Next the‘gorilla’, as I have dubbed him, came up behind Kai grabbed the back of his shirt and tossed him in as well. Kai landed beside me, both hands and back hitting the chair with an odd crunching sound.

“Ahh, god damnit my hand.” He cried in pain. I could see his face starting to turn pale and he was biting his bottom lip to keep from crying. We looked out the door and saw Jackson approaching the van from the schools front doors.

He came up and started to close the sliding door of the vehicle very slowly. “I hope you enjoy the ride, because you two won’t be going anywhere for a very long time. Oh, and Breo didn’t I say that your mother would regret your decision. Now I’ve taken away the only thing that matters to her.” He said.

I had been trying to get to my knees, and had just succeeded when he said the part about my mother. He was just about to close the door all the way when I launched myself at the door. “You bastard!” I shouted as I flew through the air and hit the closed door.

“Breo. You dork, don’t do that. You’ll just tire yourself out.” Kai said as he watched me continually ram my shoulder into the door.

I realized that Kai was right and stopped. I was about to try and somehow crawl over toward Kai and see if his hand was okay, when I heard Jackson talking outside to his son and Yue. “So boys what do you think we should do to them?” asked the older man.

“Well, we could always use them for some form of ransom then kill them off.” Suggested Yue.

“Or you could use Breo to get her mother to marry you dad.” Put in Ken.

I could just see the stupid grin on both his and his father’s face.“They both sound like good ideas. Let’s discuss them both on the way back shall we?” said Jackson as I heard one of them open one of the front doors. They must have nodded in response instead of answering verbally because I didn’t hear anything after that. I said something in Japanese that Kai couldn’t understand and threw myself one last time at the van’s back door before sitting down and slouched in a defeated heap.

Chapter 6

We had been sitting in the back of the van for about three minutes before it finally started to move. I was looking at Kai’s wrist to look for signs of broken bones when I asked, “Where do you think the three stooges are taking us?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t wanna stick around and find out.” His tone was serious when he answered me. “So doctor, how’s my hand is it useable?” he then asked me jokingly moving his hand around back and forth slightly.

“Yes, it was only twisted Mr. Corny jokes.” I replied sitting down beside him. “So coming back to your early statement. How do you suggest we get out of here?” I questioned as I struggled against my bonds.

“Hmm, oh got it.” He exclaimed after a few seconds of thinking. I looked at him waiting for an answer.

“Well?” I said after a few more seconds of impatient waiting.

“Huh, oh yeah sorry. Okay have you ever tried flipping yourself through your hands in gymnastics?” he asked, I nodded. “Great just like that but right side up and without the bar to swing on. It’ll be easy” I sat there thinking about it for a moment. Then after awhile It dawned on me what he was trying to say. “Okay I understand. Lets do it.” I said as I tried to stand up. Once I had gotten to my feet I started to crouch down and undo the rope that was around my ankles, after I had gotten that I lowered my hands down as far as I could go and stepped backwards over my hands. I stood up grinning triumphantly.

Kai looked up and smiled at me then said “That’s great, do you think you can undo my ropes now?”

I laughed quietly at him “For someone who said that ‘it’ll be easy’ how come you can’t do it?”

“Fine go ahead make fun, but are you gonna untie these things or not?” he asked shoving his roped hands into my face.

“Fine you lazy boy. Just let me untie my own ropes first.” I said in a muffled voice as I untied the knotted rope using my teeth.

“Okay, but hurry I think we’re starting to slow down.” Kai said worriedly as he finally got to his feet.

“Got it. Man they tied those things tight.” I exclaimed rubbing my wrists to get the circulation back in them. I felt the van stop and started to panic slightly. I bent down and undid the rope around my knees, then set to work on Kai’s ropes. I had just finished undoing all of his ropes when the van door opened. We were about to jump towards Jackson and the two boys to try and escape when Jackson raised a small handgun and pointed it at us.

“You two kids better behave yourselves or you’ll wind up more dead than your dear old dads.” Said Jackson grinning. “Now get out of the van and you'd better be quick about it.” He added shaking the gun at us. We looked at the gun then at each other, we both of looks of extreme dread across our faces.

“Fine.” We breathed and slowly got out of the van with our hands raised above our heads like common criminals.

We walked up a long dirt road surrounded by small shrubs, trees, berry bushes and an old style wooden fence behind the plants. Enclosed within the fences were vast fields of grass and wheat. The road we walked on was a long mud brown dirt road with the odd big stone here and there, and it may not have seemed like it but the road was well worn from use.

We walked for about ten minutes, scenery never changing, before we finally saw our destination. It was a medium sized wooden cottage, with a small porch that ran the length of the building. Surrounding the cottage were hanging pots full of beautiful flowers of various colors, English ivy grew all along the porch railings, around the porch and cottage lush green grass grew with gardens of certain flowers plotted in various parts of the yard, and a small cobble stone path twisted its way through the yard like a snake through grass. The path led you from a small wooden gate around each flower garden and back to the porch.

After letting us get a quick look around from the gate that led into the garden they took us into the house.

We looked back out the door, as they took Kai and me down a flight of stairs, for what might be our last glimpse of daylight. We reached the bottom of the stairs and we continued to walk down a long seemingly endless hallway. The walls were barren of any color except for gray, the floor was made of old and cracked tiles, and the air smelled like decomposing rats or food it was all Kai and I could do to keep from throwing up. When we reached a wooden door at the end of the hallway, Yue opened the door, and Ken shoved us in from behind.

We stumbled inside the room and fell to the floor. We quickly picked ourselves up and charged at the rapidly closing door. We hit it with a resounding bang we felt the door buckle slightly underneath our combined weight then bounce back as we hit the floor.

“Tough wood.” He said as he rubbed his shoulder where the door had met his shoulder. “We’ll have to try again, as soon as we can only see one door instead of three.” Kai added in a dizzy voice as he lay down on the floor, eyes starring at the ceiling.

“I agree.” I said as I too lay back down on the floor from my sitting position. After a few seconds I turned to Kai “Hey Kai, did you bring your cell phone?” I asked hopefully.

He lay there with a thoughtful expression on his face as he fished through all his green cargo pants pockets looking for his small blue phone. He was searching through his last pocket out of seven when his expression changed from thoughtful to triumphant. “HA!” he practically shouted as he pulled his hand out of the pocket holding the phone in the air. “Found it, now we can call for pizza.” He added his grin spreading from ear to ear.

“That’s not entirely what I had in mind.” I said as I pushed myself up back into a sitting position.

He starred at me with confusion written all over his face. “What, may I ask is better than pizza in this point of time?”

“That’s easy you idiot. A way to escape duh.” I said hitting his forehead lightly with the palm of my hand.

“And how do you propose to accomplish that feat?” he asked still looking confused.

“By calling the police to come and get us outta here dummy.” I said holding out my left hand for the phone. He was about to hand it over when we heard the door start to rattle. We looked at the door as it slowly opened; Kai speedily shoved his phone back into his pocket and sat there looking innocent. It opened the rest of the way to reveal Jackson and Ken. They walked in and shut the door behind them and locking it this time from the inside. Kai and I growled low in our throats and tensed up, neither of us like the look on their faces.

Ken raised a gun and pointed it at us. “Don’t try any funny business.” He said glaring at both of us in turn, “I’ll shoot the first one who does.”

We relaxed our muscles some, and stopped growling. We watched Ken walk back towards his father and lean against the wall. Jackson, who had been pacing the entire time, stopped in the middle of us standing a few feet away.

“What do you want?” Kai and I voiced at the same time. We were both debating on whether or not to try and take them down, escape, and risk getting shot; we thought against it.

“Did you ever wonder how your father was murdered Breo?” he asked starring straight at me. I gasped and my hand went to my mouth in surprise.

Chapter 7

I just starred at him blankly; my face was stoic. I wanted to say yes but then I might be playing into his hands so I shook my head no.

“No, really. Well I think your lying so I’m going to tell you anyway. I would have offered you the same question Kai but then I remembered you already know how your father died.” Jackson said smiling at both of us.

“Burn and die asshole.” Kai spat, but didn’t get up or try anything. Now, now such language coming from someone your age just isn’t proper. Anyway where were we? Ah yes your fathers murder.” He took a deep breath then told the story of my father’s death…

“It was a warm summer night and I was walking home from a visit to the hospital. I had been visiting my sick wife who did not have much longer to live. I was debating on what I should do about our three year old son I wasn’t much of a father figure. The first thing that came to my mind was my ex-friend Eriol’s wife. I knew that they also had a little girl. I thought that it wouldn’t be right for either woman or child to grow up with the man who had betrayed me by marrying the woman that I really loved. I had seen Kayla and her daughter leave earlier that day without Eriol. So I went to pay my old friend a visit. When I walked through the door I could hear the T.V. playing one of the many sport stations. I stealthily walked up behind him and kicked the chair he was sitting in from behind. Eriol toppled out of the chair and landed on his face. He rolled sideways, sprang to his feet, and whirled around to face me. “You?” he said and his eyes changed from a friendly green to a deep angry forest green. You have no right to be here leave now or else.” He had added as he dropped into a fighting crouch when he saw I wasn’t planning on leaving.

“Shall we dance old friend?” I had asked as I too went into a stance of my own. Eriol growled in his throat and launched himself at me. After about 20 minutes of exchanging blows and misses I decided it was time to play dirty. I kicked low then uppercutted him in the face. I then walked up to him and kicked him hard across the face causing his neck to snap and Eriol to die…

“So when your mother came back a few weeks later to find that her husband had been murdered and I came to offer my comfort and condolences she immediately blamed me and would not speak to me after that. I have become completely used to but it hurts when all I was trying to do was be nice.” The teacher finished. I had been listening through the whole thing, but when he got to the part about how he killed my dad I tried to tune him out. But it wouldn’t work so I was forced to listen. I dug my nails, which were quite short, into my palms causing them to bleed.

When he finally finished my face was still emotionless but I was slowly starting to let one show. That was anger, I was furious with the man who had once been my father’s friend and equal. I slowly stood up and lowered myself into a fighting crouch. Jackson and Ken were just about to leave when I jumped them from behind and knocked the gun out of Ken’s hands, caught it in the air, and tossed it to Kai. He caught it clumsily but held on and pointed it at Jackson and his halfwit son.

“How dare you say my father betrayed anyone, when you were the one who betrayed him. Before he married my mom you two were the best of friends competing like normal people, just for fun. But just because he married the woman that you both cared for, you go and kill him. Now you tell me who betrayed who?” I said emphasizing every word as I jabbed my finger at him. When he didn’t answer I turned to Kai and asked for the phone.

I dialed 9-1-1 and told the police where we were after getting the information from Ken. Within 20 minutes the police arrived and arrested father, son, and Yue.

When I finally got home that night it was around 11 pm. I had gone straight from the cottage to the police station to answer questions; they had called my mom in as well. Kai, my mom, and I were answering questions for about three hours. The cops drove us all home; my mom and I had a small dinner of chicken noodle soup, and ham, lettuce, and cheese sandwiches. After our small dinner I tolded my mom I was going to bed and that I would see her in the morning. I had nightmares all night about my father’s death. I woke up the next morning tired and slightly grumpy. Mom told me at breakfast that I didn’t have to go to school that day. I took her up on her offer and went outside with my toast to eat. The rest of the morning was uneventful; mom went to work, I cleaned the house and had a nap before lunch.

In the middle of my late lunch Kai came over to see how I was and if I was okay. We talked for a little while then finally deciding to snap out of my depression I asked Kai if he wanted to spar in the back yard.

He agreed and raced outside ahead of me. When I got outside he was playing keep away with Juniper. I watched them and laughed the entire time. I continued to watch them while thinking then came to a decision.

“Hey Kai what do you think about life?” I asked as I ran out to join the game.

“Life, hmm life. I think life rules. Ahh.” He said as Juniper pounced on him. “What about you Breo? What do you think about life?” He asked as he wrestled with the pup.

“Hmm life.” I thought about it for a while. “I think that life is great.” I answered as I pushed the dog away from Kai and ran off laughing.