Niagara Bodyguard

Work

Chapter 11:  Never before

                Never before had I seen such a beautiful interior to a stunning building.  My sleepy state consumed it all in a breathtaking inhale.  As I exhaled I looked around.  I was in a spacious lobby with no desks, no chairs, and no boring suits.  Everyone was dressed in whatever they wanted.  Most of the people in the lobby were dressed in colorful clothing, but a few decided to go naked, which really caught my eye.  I followed my sister through the almost crowd, there wasn’t that much people, into a backroom through one of the doors, which were all a different color.  Same as the couches.  In the next room, everything was the same color as the door, purple.  I loved this room, purple being close to my favorite color, magenta.  The only suit I’d seen so far was even purple, but it was on a big bulky guy with no hair, and black tinted shades on.  Despite his appearance, he practically jumped over his purple desk to shake my hand with a big smile across his face.  His teeth were perfect.

“My name’s Kanij Jinak,” He said, trying to stay professional.  He was obviously excited to see a new customer. “You must be very good if Lezah has come here recommending you.  Have a seat.  Make yourself comfortable in my office.  You like it?  I saw that smile on your face when you walked in.”

                Dammit, I let him read me so easily.  I looked over at Lezah with a ‘I underestimated him’ look and flashed my eyes back towards him for a split second before I whispered into my sister’s ear.  Kanij just looked precariously towards the couple of interesting looking people in front of him.  I faced him again and leaned back in the most comfortable recliner I’d ever set my cheeks upon.  In fact, it was the only one I’d ever seen, let alone sat in.

“Getting down to business, how much is he looking for?”  He asked, looking at Lezah and folding his hands on his desk.

“Let’s start him out on ϛ400 for his first job and see how he fares in our territory.  Who do you want him to protect?”

                Protect?!  Protect?  Now I’m supposed to be some type of bodyguard?!  Great!

“400 is a lot for a first job.  Is he that good?”  Kanij inquired, apparently surprised.

“He’ll be a lot better than that, but it’s my job to undermine my little brother.”  Lezah explained nuggying my head and heading off through the door we came in.  I wondered why she was so confident in me.  Was it because she was obviously a big wig in this business and thought it was because I was related to her?  Was it because of my ability?  I don’t know, but if it’s a challenge from her I’ll definitely take it on.  Kanij explained to me who I was to protect, for how long, where that person would be, and when I had to start.  To be truthful, I was really excited for my first job and headed out of the colorful building with a smile from ear to ear.

Chapter 12:  School! :D

                My first job was to protect a high schooler at school.  That might sound easy, but bullying is taken to the extreme in our villages.  Kids die in high school and funeral ceremonies are held every Friday after school.  Usually everyone attends except for the bullies, or ‘Psyches’, as the students call them.  I met my ‘objective’ at his house the next morning and talked to his mom over breakfast until he came out of his room sulking and shuffling through the kitchen.

“Who’s the old guy at the table?”  He said as he poured himself some orange juice at the counter behind his mother faced away from us.

“He’s going to be protecting you at school.  I want you to be nice to him and not worry about the psyches anymore, just focus on school.  I know you’re really smart and that you can show everybody in that school up.  I love you, have a good day at school.”  His mother said kissing him on the forehead and sending him through the door.

“Be careful, he’s emotional torn due to the loss of his only friend.  He went to his funeral last Friday and hasn’t gotten over him.  I don’t expect him to any time soon so just.  Be. Careful.”  She warned me.

                I set off without a word swiftly catching up to him.  When I caught up to him I asked him where his school was.  He didn’t answer.  I asked him what classes he had.  No answer.  I asked him what his name was.

“K.C. Cork”  He responded finally thrusting his hand out towards me.  I took it and shook it with a big smile on my face.

“And yours?”  He said smiling back at me.  I told him my name and asked if he wanted to get on my back or something because this was taking forever.

“Really?”  He asked, looking for a yes.  I let him climb on my back and started sprinting down the way we were going.

“I’ve never moved this fast.  Turn right here.  Left.  Left.  Left.  Left.”  He said laughing, I knew we had just gone in a complete circle but it sounded good to hear someone laugh.  After a few more minutes he lead me to his school and had me put him down.

“I can’t be seen on some old guy’s back… How old are you anyway?”  He asked.  I told him how old I was.  21.  I felt so old, even though that was extremely young in my culture.  My dad was going to be 187 in a few months.  I followed K.C. to his classroom and sat in the back cross-legged on a table in the back.  I manipulated the heat around me to make it wavy enough to mask my presence unless you were looking for me.  Even K.C. looked confused when he tried to find me, but he always found me after a second or two of looking.  He was a good student.  He answered a lot of the questions that the teacher asked.  Correctly, I might add.  Every time, he was correct.

“Sorry I’m late.”  Some oaf barged in sarcastically throwing an empty bottle of alcohol at the teacher.  The teacher caught it without losing a second of his lecture or even paying any attention to the ogre of a kid stumble towards his seat hiccupping and burping before dropping into an empty seat making it croak louder than a frog with a megaphone.  The rest of the day was almost the exact same except for the fact that K.C. was completely silent.  I understand why his mother hired me.  Ogre over here was smacking the kids next to him for answering the wrong answer.  That was a big problem.  His smacks looked like a sledge hammer attack as it sent the kids sprawling out of their seats and landing hard on the ground.  They all got back up and sat down in the same seats next to that abusive golem.  The same classroom all day.  I thought these high schools would be like the ones in my village with all different classes.  I was wrong.

“HEY!  Cork!  Get back here!”  The pungent walking pile of meat yelled.  I jumped out of my ‘hiding spot’ and strode over to the commotion surrounded by kids.  I pushed my way through and saw the 6’3 student I was supposed to protect walking away from the 6’8 meat locker calling him out.  The smell suddenly got to me and reminded me of when I was in high school.  Always looking over my back for the bully that tried to torture me with water.  Snapping back to reality I watched as the punch connected.

“Son of a Bitch!  You don’t punch me!  I punch you!”  The words came out of a slobbery mouth, spat towards the dark, like pitch black, haired skinny kid under my protection.  The next thing that flew from the big body was a fist.  I stepped into the circle and grabbed his fist and twisted away from me with my wrist.

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!” bellowed the monster.  I looked towards K.C. with an emotionless expression and he looked back approving of my movement but then said, “I got this.”  I backed up to the edge of the crowd and speculated.

“I’m going to kill y-“ the words suddenly stopped as a foot was pulled away from a face.

“Eew, now there’s an unknown residue sealed to the bottom of my foot protection."  Big foot threw a fist suddenly and missed as my objective easily dodged left and let his fist hit the wall.  The wall exploded with electricity, leaving a gaping hole into an empty classroom.  I didn’t let the surprise show in my face, but I couldn’t help it when K.C. extended his hand and shot a blue, white stream from his hand that covered his predator’s body, encasing the naked yeti with ice.  That was that and everyone walked away a little hyped from the fight.  I decided to have a little talk with K.C. on the walk home.