He nodded. “Impressed?” He semi-smirked confidently.
I shrugged awkwardly and glanced at my watch and realised I should probably be getting home. “Okay, see you guys tomorrow,” I waved. I left the gates and walked towards the roundabout.
I plodded along the path, every step sounding in the silent afternoon. My bag rose and fell against my back; that in itself was annoying enough and I was glad it wasn’t summer – the sweat and flies would only worsen the experience.
The zippers on my bag rattled. My arms and legs stiffened. I slowed down my breathing, refusing to cave into the rising pace of my heartbeats. That last sound wasn’t a zipper, nor my own footstep; it was that of another footstep – a heavier one, offbeat to that of my own.
I didn’t stop and continued walking. I glanced over my shoulder quickly, ready to yell for help, expecting to see someone. There was no one. My heart slowed down. I spotted someone far back waving their arms frantically.
It was too far to see, but it was around the school gate. There was only one person who looked that stupidly enthusiastic – Hunter. Another figure was beside him. The two rapidly approached and I was able to confirm that they were indeed Hunter and Ace.
“You walk slow,” Ace commented.
“I was waiting for you guys, that’s why I didn’t move,” I said, defending myself.
“Hey, in the time we were mingling around, you only made two hundred metres,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Lies. The roundabout is more than two hundred metres from the school!”
“Ok children, let’s stop fighting and walk home,” Hunter said, grinning like an infant.
“Shut up,” me and Ace replied simultaneously.
“Jeez guys. Rude,” Hunter huffed.
Having the two walking with me for even part of the way made me feel that little bit safer, though I doubted their ability to defend anything if we were attacked. Those footsteps I heard earlier still bothered me; I was almost certain someone had been behind me.
The two punks walked ahead of me for a while and it was then I noticed that they weren’t the same height. I was significantly shorter than both so to me, they’d always been around the same height. Ace was taller, by about five centimetres or so.
They had a similar build; they were both quite skinny, but strong. They were muscular, but not in the body builder way.
They both turned around and I quickly diverted my gaze. “Hey, nerd-bird. Stop perving,” Ace grinned.
“What – no – I was not!” I shrieked.
“I feel kind of violated,” Hunter gasped.
“Stop being an idiot,” I grumbled.
I turned off into my street first with a brief flick of the hand in return to Hunter’s enthusiastic waves and Ace’s weird head nod thing.
The next afternoon, unexpectedly, I had to stay back and clean up the chem bench after the experiment went seriously wrong. Ace and Hunter left in a giggling fit. Archer left school early and so, one to a bench didn’t exactly make a group.
I ended up joining up with the bench next to us – Amber, Tyler and Vanessa. We added far too much catalyst and heated it for way too long and the bubbling, foaming mixture shot straight out all over the table.
“Hey, can you pass me the paper towels?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, here,” I replied, reaching across the sink to grab the towels. “We nearly done?”
“C’mon let’s go,” Tyler groaned, putting the last of the beakers in the bin.
After getting the bench checked, we were finally dismissed, twenty minutes late. Being a winter afternoon, no one was bothered staying behind and the school grounds were pretty much empty. I turned right as I left the gate and headed up towards the roundabout.
My footsteps fell rhythmically against the ground, my bag thumping against my bag with each step. There was an unusual echo behind me, like an extra step. I slowed my footsteps and listened closely. My footsteps sounded louder than they were supposed to be. I stopped suddenly and an extra footstep fell. I turned around.
“So, you’re the girl,” Alec said. “It took long enough to get you alone.”
“What?” I said slowly, keeping my distance as he advanced.
“How did a girl like you wind up with boys like them?”
“Bad timing?”
“I thought I’d made a point when I grabbed Carla, but when I saw the look in their eyes when you walked away, I knew I’d grabbed the wrong girl,” he laughed. “So how did you manage to get both of them whipped?”
“What are you talking about?” Who was whipped? Whipped for who? My mind was running at a hundred kilometres an hour. This guy had stalked me down and waited for me outside of the school. That was some serious beef with the punks.
“Exactly what would I have to do to drive them mad?”
I watched the crazed look in his eye grow, and I had a bad feeling growing in my stomach. They always said that going after another guy’s girl was a deadly sin. Oh why Dylan, why? I spotted the black sedan parked near the end of the path. There was only one person who had a sedan like that – Archer.
“I think grabbing Carla was a good start, that really wound them up,” I said, stalling.
“I think grabbing you would really wind them up.”
I ran. I bolted down the path, yelling as loudly as I could, but I was way too far from the gates for anyone to hear me. It didn’t help that all the kids walking home had left ages ago. I made it to the car and swung the door open, leaping inside and locking the door. Alec banged on the door a few times, snarling before finally leaving.
I panted heavily, too busy catching my breath to notice that Archer wasn’t in the seat next to mine.
“Mr Sawyer,” I said, gaping. “Sorry, I,” I began.
“It’s fine,” he replied. “I’ll give you a lift home. Just give the driver your address.”
I told the driver my address and sat back.
“What’s going on? Where’s Archer?” I asked, suddenly realising it was strange for Archer’s dad to be waiting in the car without Archer.
“That’s the problem. I need to ask you for a favour.”
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