“Watch out!” Jordan yells, right before her soccer ball hits Kristina square in the forehead.
“Ow!” she exclaims, shooting daggers at Jordan. The rest of us had been passing the ball around while she lay in the sun reading the latest fashion magazine. “Can’t you guys go somewhere else to do that?”
“Of course your highness. We wouldn’t want to inconvenience you any more than we already have, would we?” a sarcastic Cookie says, picking up the ball and walking away. Jordan and I laugh as we follow her, even more so when we hear a peeved “hmph” from Kristina. We had been passing the ball between the three of us for quite some time when Jordan kicks a little too hard and it sails over my head and into the trees.
“I’ll get it” I say, turning around and jogging towards the ball. It’s really far in and by the time I get it, I can barely see my friends through the trees.
Suddenly, I am grabbed from behind. My scream is muffled by a hand covering my mouth and I drop the soccer ball. I try and twist out of my captors grasp but he is too strong. I can tell it’s a man because of the firm, wideness of his shoulders and arms. Then, almost as suddenly as I was captured, I was free. I quickly turn around to see two guys wrestling with each other. One is very tall and widely built, most likely the one who had grabbed me. The other was not as tall or wide, but what he lacked in size he made up for in speed. As I watched, I could tell that my savior was winning. With one final swing of his fist, he knocked out my captor. He then turned around to face me. I’m pretty sure I gasped. He looked mystical, unreal. He stepped towards me and I unconsciously took a step back. When he noticed this, he stopped and waited for me to make the first move.
“Who are you?” I ask him.
“I can’t quite tell you yet” he says shaking his head. “But for now you can call me Nash.”
“Well, Nash, thank you for saving me.” I step toward him. “But where did you come from?”
“Again, I can’t quite answer that yet. Not until we get you to safety. Come let’s get your prot- friends and we must move quickly, I can sense others.”
“Others?” I try to ask but he pulls my arm and drags me quickly to the girls. As we run out of the trees, I can’t help but look at Nash. It’s a very interesting name. He seems as though he’s deep in thought and when he catches me looking at him, he offers me a small smile. When we get to the girls they hurry to me, Jordan grabs my face and looks into my eyes.
“Are you alright?” Cookie asks from behind Jordan.
“I’m fine,” I pull away from Jordan and turn to look at Nash. “Thanks to Nash.”
He smiles briefly at me then turns to my friends angrily. “You are her protectors! I shouldn’t have been the one pulling a Cyclops off of her! It’s getting too dangerous for her on this side, they know where she is and will come after her again. It’s time she learned who she is.”
“Hey, chill! We’ve got it under control! She doesn’t need to know yet!” Cookie argues.
“No, he’s right, Cookie,” Jordan says back. “We can’t keep her somewhere that she could be in danger.”
“I agree with Jordan. She is no longer safe here, especially with school being out. In school she was protected by wards, now not so much.” Kristina adds.
Cookie sighs, “Fine, but if we’re gonna do this, someone should call her mother so that she knows that Storm won’t exactly be coming home.”
