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Danial Haxton, Tangents, JustGotHit, Killstroyer, WendigosArk, Nizar Alkhalilmagic

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Alan, Sean, and Christine walked briskly across the school with Mr.Jackson. Because the teacher was there, they couldn't say much with eachother.

Alan was relieved that Mr. Jackson didn't show impatience andsay things like, "This had better be good." But he did seem skepticalabout Alan's claims.

As they crossed a grass field and drew near the school gymcontaining the locker rooms, Alan saw one football player who appearedto be a lookout walk inside the building. Alan assumed he was reportingto Ryan and Rock that Alan was coming.

Right as they came to a short staircase leading into thebuilding, Alan stopped, bringing the progress of the group to a halt.There was uncertainty on his face. On one hand, he wanted to be atake-charge leader, but on the other hand he very much wanted advice andencouragement on what to do.

Christine could read his face and said, "Relax. Don't worry.We've got a teacher with us, so there's no way there's going to be anyviolence. Let's get this over with. The longer we wait, the more timethey have to harass Amy."

Alan was filled with dread. He envisioned a dozen or so beefyfootball players attacking him as soon as he walked through the door,teacher or no teacher. But worse than that, he was horrified by visionsof Amy being gang raped right before his eyes. It was the latter vision,plus the words from Christine, that gave him the resolve to go throughwith whatever might be beyond the doors in front of him.

They walked in through the main doors of the building andentered a well-used hallway. From it, there were doors leading to themen's showers and lockers, women's showers and lockers, plus variousoffices, storage rooms, and so forth. There were no people to be seen.

They came to the door leading to the men's section. There wasanother pause as Alan said, "I guess we should try here, first." Thetension was rising, and even Mr. Jackson seemed a bit spooked.

Alan opened the door and... nothing.

No one could be seen, just the usual rows of lockers.Normally there was a big rush of activity in the lockers right beforethe last school bell and for a few minutes after, then again periodicrushes as various sports groups with after school practices finishedtheir activities. But between ten and fifteen minutes after school, asit was now, the lockers were usually empty or nearly so.

However, as the doors finished swinging shut after them, theybecame aware of the sound of voices. They began heading towards thevoices wordless and very quietly, as if they were police sneaking uponto criminals.

As they made their way down a long row of lockers the voicesbecame clearer. Alan could recognize Amy's voice, which set his heartbeating faster than its already quick pace.

He reached the end of the locker row first, turned the corner, and...

He couldn't believe his eyes.

There, on a long bench in front of yet more rows of lockerssat Amy and Ryan, talking and smiling and carrying on in a friendlymanner. They both were looking at a book in Amy's lap and staring at itwith rapt attention. That was the last thing Alan expected.

Elsewhere, now that they stood at a crossing point betweensets of locker rows, Alan became aware that there were other athletesmilling about here and there. One peeked around a corner to look atthem, stared at Christine in surprise, noted the teacher, then looked atAlan.

Alan was shocked to realize that the guy looking around thecorner at him was none other than Amy's brother Brad. Alan felt a briefmoment of relief until he realized that Brad's gaze was filled with notonly cold disgust, but open mistrust and distaste.

Brad motioned over a couple more guys from the other side of the lockers, pointed at Alan and said something.

Alan couldn't quite make out all the words, but he gatheredBrad was criticizing Alan for being an uncaring and unsatisfyingboyfriend to have his girlfriend hanging out inside the boy's lockerroom.The guys all laughed, slapped Brad on the back with a loudround of "Good one, Brad!" before going behind the lockers again. Evenafter they all disappeared from sight, the snickering and crude jokingcould still be heard.

Ryan looked up at Alan, then took in Mr. Jackson, Sean, andChristine. He smiled triumphantly then said, "Hey! It's the Plummer boyand his posse. I was just hanging out with your girlfriend, talkingabout art. I hope you don't mind."

Alan walked up. "Actually, I DO mind. What's going on here? What's your game?"

"Game? No game. What are you talking about?"

Alan looked at Amy. "Aims, are you okay? Did he force you to come here or try to hurt you?"

Amy looked at Alan quizzically. "What? No. Of course not. He's just showing me his etchings." She lifted up the book in her lap.

Alan was flabbergasted. He looked back to Christine and Sean,as if they had some kind of explanation. He looked all around, butthere was nothing to see except some half-dressed boys in the middle ofchanging. He seized on the only oddity in the scene: "Something's goingon! If the two of you are just talking about art, why the hell are youdoing it in the middle of the boy's locker room for crying out loud?!Girls aren't allowed in here! And where's Rock?!"

Ryan grinned, "Oh that. We were hanging out in the hallway upuntil a minute ago, but I just had to come in here for a second to getsomething from my locker. Girls come in here from time to time when it'semptied out, no big deal. Look, you're standing next to a chick rightnow," he said as he nodded in Christine's direction. "As for Rock, Idon't know what you're talking about. He got suspended and doesn't go tothis school anymore. Duh!"

Mr. Jackson spoke up. "Amy, it's not a good idea to come inhere, even for a minute. It's against school policy and we've hadreports of harassment before. Now, Alan, is there something else youwanted me to see about, because I really need to be going."

Alan looked around and especially stared at the look of snidesatisfaction on Ryan's face. He walked down a corridor between rows oflockers, motioning Mr. Jackson to come with him. As soon as he got outof Ryan's hearing, he said to the teacher in a low voice, "Mr. Jackson, Idon't know what's going on, but I tell you, this is not normal! Ryan isup to something. I don't know what. Maybe they were waiting for thelast few stragglers to leave before doing something dreadful to Amy."

Mr. Jackson shook his head dismissively. "Alan, I understandyou're feeling a bit spooked. I heard about how you fell down the stairsand some of your other recent problems."

"I was PUSHED down the stairs, Mr. Jackson," he corrected him testily.

"So you say. And that may well be. Some of these guys, likeRyan here, I know they're a bit questionable and full of themselves. Butnext time, before you drag a teacher halfway across the school, youneed more evidence. Now, can I go?"

"Wait a minute." Alan had visions of Ryan waiting for theteacher to go before springing his trap. He walked back, brushing pastChristine and Sean, grabbed Amy's hand, and pulled her up. "Aims, we'releaving. Now. Please. It's important."

"M'kay." She turned to Ryan. "Thanks for sharing your drawings. It was nice to see you."

Alan growled, "It was NOT nice to see you. I don't know your game, Ryan, but you're not going to win."

"Oooh! I'm so scared," Ryan mocked with staged fright. "Boy,this was a real crisis situation. It's not like you're paranoid andjealous of Amy sitting with a REAL man, are you?"lights

"Shut the fuck up." Still holding Amy's hand, Alan headed outthe room with Sean and Christine in tow. Mr. Jackson was already aheadof them.

Alan's face was burning with embarrassment as the groupwalked out of the building, down the stairs, and back into the light ofday.

Mr. Jackson waved and walked off, not wanting to waste any more of his time.

Alan continued to walk with the others until he was wellclear of the building, then stopped in the middle of a grass field. Heturned back towards the gym and said while facing it, "Will someone tellme what that was all about? I thought the plan was going down! The planwas going DOWN!" He turned and looked to Christine.

Now it was her turn to look sheepish and embarrassed. Sheraised her hands in the air then waved them helplessly. "I don't know.That's how it seemed. I mean Rock coming to school, Amy with Ryan..."

Sean spoke up. "Dude, I don't know what's going on, like, ATALL. But I saw the way he looked at you, all triumphant and full ofhimself. You would have thought he'd just finished beating you up orsomething. He's up to SOMEthing, that's for sure. I don't know, man. Itseems to me like you just got played."

Amy was looking most befuddled. "Alan, love, can you tell me what this is about? I'm all in a muddle."

Alan spun around to look at his girlfriend. "Amy, you weretold these football players are up to something. Well, Ryan is theobvious ringleader of the group out to get me and you're just sittingthere, pretty as you please, looking at his etchings! 'Come look at myetchings' is one of the most clichéd come on lines of all time, didn'tyou know that?"

Growing more agitated, he said in a rising voice, "Not onlythat, but were you OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND to go into the boy's lockerroom all by yourself? You were just telling me, like, right at the endof sixth period that you had security taken care of. You had your ownbodyguard, you said! What the heck?! Aiii-mee!"

Amy looked sad. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'd never met Ryanbefore. I didn't know him from Adam. Is he one of the ringleaders?Nobody told me that. I'm really super sorry to get you all worried! But IDID have a bodyguard. You may not have noticed, but my brother Brad wasthere. He wasn't, like, THERE there and standing next to me orsomething, because I asked him to keep his eye on me from a distance. Hewas a couple of rows away, listening for trouble. Those guys wouldn'thave done anything with my brother close by."Everyone looked over at the gym, and sure enough, there wasBrad leaving with some of the athletes who had been in the locker room.They were walking away, headed to the school parking lot.

It occurred to Alan that even now, Brad had been keeping aneye on Amy, but was doing it in such an unobtrusive way that his friendsdidn't notice.

Alan looked from Brad to Amy a couple of times, then to Seanand Christine. Finally, he said, "God, I feel so stupid. Sorry, Amy, butcommunication was bad. I should have warned you explicitly about Ryanand a lot more. And you, Sean, you're totally out of the loop and youmust be wondering if I've gone mad. Duh. I'm so stupid. It's just thatso much has happened today that some things slipped through the cracks."

Christine spoke up, "No, it's my fault. At least partially. Itold Katherine to warn Amy but I forgot to mention so many key things,like Ryan or Rock for that matter, wherever he is. I let everyone down."

"Nonsense," Alan said, still glum and frustrated. "It's justthat things have been moving too fast. This whole plot just came out ofnowhere hours ago. Look. Why don't the four of us go get an ice cream orsomething, and compare notes and figure this out? For one thing, Istill feel vulnerable standing here in the middle of the school. Whoknows what Ryan is planning. I have to admit, he totally surprised me.I'd feel better in a store."

Amy, Sean, and Christine had bicycles while Alan did not,since Susan drove him to school that morning. So they got their bicyclesfrom the bike racks and walked to a Ben and Jerry's located just acouple of blocks from the school.

The mood at the shop was one of frustration and distress asthey discussed what had happened and filled each other in withinformation. Then, as they licked their ice creams, the question wasasked: just what was Ryan trying to do with this seemingly meaninglessencounter?

There was a long silence after that, but then Christine spokeup. "I have a theory. Only a theory, mind you. You know about the twoguys who backed out, right?" (A few minutes before, she had told Seanand Amy about the morning meeting of footballers and what Dave and Garyhad done, though she didn't mention Dave and Gary by name to protecttheir identities.)

She continued, "If you look at it like a military operation,when they defected the operational security was blown. They WERE goingto do something after school today, but they didn't know who knew what.So they went ahead with kind of a practice run of what they were goingto do, just to see what kind of reaction they'd get. Who would turn up?Alan, would you take matters into your own hands and gather up a posse,or go fetch the authorities, or what? What information had been leaked,and who had leaked it? Actually, when you think about it, it's prettysmart. Now they can plan again and be much better prepared next time."

Sean nodded, adding, "On top of that, they've got the whole'boy who cried wolf' thing going on now. I'm sure Mr. Jackson willcomplain about how he was all put out for a big ado about nothing, andother teachers will think twice if Alan asks them to go check outsomething without a lot of evidence first."

Alan dropped his head. "Damn. That sucks. It makes sense. Nowthey know that my so called 'posse' is a posse of two. That's prettysorry-assed. And it's not like I really had more people to go to whowould know how to fight if I'd had more time to round them up. And notonly that, but now that I think about it, Christine, they're going to bewondering big time why on earth you were there. If they do somedigging, the element of surprise about the extent of your martial artstraining will probably be blown. Dang! This sucks!"

The others all nodded glumly.

Amy grabbed Alan's arm and held him for support. "I'm worried about you. Really worried!"

He looked into her eyes. "And I'm more worried about you,Amy! I don't like this whole idea that you might be used for bait. Ifanyone harms a single hair on your head, I swear, I'm totally going togo postal!"

Sean lightly punched Alan in the shoulder to get hisattention and as a brotherly gesture. "Hey dude, whatever help you need,just ask. I had no clue. I thought we were walking into a lion's den toget our asses kicked by a whole squad of big Neanderthals. But I wastotally ready to duke it out, shoulder to shoulder. That's what friendsare for, right? It's the least I can do, especially after everythingyou've done for me lately."

Christine's curiosity was piqued by that last comment. She filed it away as something to be investigated when she had the time.

Alan lightly punched Sean back. "Thanks, man. I reallyappreciate it. Now, we just need like twelve more of you to even up theodds. I'm worried. I thought these guys were pretty stupid, butapparently this Ryan has a brain. That look he gave me - it was almostlike he was saying to me, 'I'm going to attack you soon, but you don'tknow where, you don't know when, you don't know how, and there's nothingyou can do to stop it.' What a prick! That's what really kills me, thisnot knowing. If it was just something like, 'come fight me at McGill'safter school,' I could deal with that. But this! They could be planninganything now!" He turned to Christine. "We need more information."

She replied, "That could be a tough one. I think they'vesuccessfully tested the loyalty of their group and flushed out the oneswho couldn't be trusted. They'll probably figure out at least one of theguys, you know the one I was telling you about who was talking to allthe others and trying to moderate the plan? I'm sure they'll make anexample out of him, which will cause the remaining pack to sticktogether that much tighter. I can try to ask around, and I will, butwith school out and Thanksgiving coming up, I can't see how we'll learnanything new until Monday. And even then, I don't know. We're prettymuch flying blind now."

Alan paused, then emphatically cursed, "Damn!"

The group finished the rest of their ice creams in silence.

But Amy hated to see when people got sad. Suddenly, shegrabbed Christine's arm and said, "Hey, everybody here needs to take achill pill. Why the sad faces? I say we go back to Alan's house and havesome fun! What do y'all say?" She leaned into Christineconspiratorially. "You know what they say, Christine, I'm the girlfriendthat loves to share her boyfriend with others. Or maybe you'd preferSean here?"

Christine found herself so flustered that she couldn't thinkstraight. "Wha- what do you mean? I have no idea what you're talkingabout!"

Amy leaned in even closer and whispered conspiratorially, "I'm saying, sex is a great way to relieve stress."

Christine was so flummoxed by that that she was renderedcompletely speechless. Her face grew red as a beet. She tried to lookaround to see if anyone else had heard that, but Amy still held onto hertightly. She was suddenly very regretful that she'd unbuttoned twobuttons on her shirt since leaving school to better entice Alan. Shefelt that all eyes were on her two suddenly hard nipples.

Suddenly Amy broke into laughter and everyone else followed suit. "Just joshin' ya, Christine! Geez, Louise! Relax, already!"

Christine laughed along, but it was more of a nervouslaughter. She couldn't relate to Amy's easy going ways and couldn't tellwhen she was joking and when she wasn't. She wanted to crawl under arock and die, but continued to smile for appearances' sake.

Alan looked at Amy continuing to playfully cling to and prod a resistant and stiff Christine, and thought, God,that's so hot: Amy and Christine together. Just the thought! And I cansee Sean is thinking the same thing. It's funny, 'cos Christine is thisself declared "goody-goody," yet she has the face and body of a pornstar... Damn, it's so frustrating. I've made a promise to myself that Ican't get involved with her, and I swear I'm gonna keep it if it's thelast thing I do. She's just too good for me and my fucked up sex world.Damn!

At least Amy's kidding had broken the morose mood. The group began talking and joking again.

Sean pointed out to Alan, "You know, dude, your wholesituation is kind of like the end of 'The Empire Strikes Back', don'tyou think? I mean, think about it. When you first watch that film you'rethinking Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are finally gonna have it outand that'll be the end of it. But noooOOOoooo! Climax denied."

Christine was now freed of Amy and feeling more like herusual self. She said in an acidic tone, "Looks like somebody here needsto get out more often."

But Alan ignored that and said to Sean, "I see what you mean.And think: the people who saw that when it first came out had to waitthree whole years to get to the ending. Harsh!" Making a reference tohow Luke Skywalker had one of his hands chopped off at the end of thefilm, he joked, "But on the plus side, at least I still have both of myhands!"