Chapter 20: Surprise, Surprise!
“Surprise, surprise!”
A hard shove and my back hit one of the lockers making a jolt of pain shoot down my spine. Then all of a sudden, I was being held up by a boy almost a foot taller than me, with huge bulging muscles. He pressed his entire weight on me so I couldn’t even move my legs.
“Look who we have here boys, our very own Miss OG!” I didn't know who held me because he wore a ski mask over his head and so did the rest of his team of four, but I did not like the tone he was using. They all wore the Imphal High Basketball team jerseys, but I knew it was a diversion and that they didn’t belong to the team. I knew every player because they were all Nick’s friends and I sat with then during lunch quite often.
"Who the hell are you? Get off me!" I yelled and went to shove them with my hand.
Wrong move. Because, soon enough, both my hands were pinned tightly above my head by one, while another came up and pressed a hand to my mouth, gagging me. This one seemed to be just as muscular as the first, but only an inch or so shorter.
The one who was holding me before tsk-ed. “Should’ve know she’d be feisty, but then again, it’s always fun when they’re feisty.” An ugly smile followed.
“Hell yeah! I like it when they struggle,” another said from behind, this one on the skinnier side than the rest.
“What do you say guys? Should we have some fun while we’re at it?” The one who was holding me now laughed while I tried desperately to get free.
Fun while we’re at it? Then whoever was doing this didn’t have rape in mind, but if I didn’t do anything soon, these punks weren’t going to sit around and follow orders. Too bad I was on the skinny side and these goons had at least two hundred pounds of muscle on me. Who were they? I'd never seen them before. Or did I? Their faces were covered and I didn’t know everyone’s voice at school. How did they know about me? Was this because of the notice on the bulletin from that day? Was this Dylan’s plan on getting info out of me?
“It wasn’t me. Just think about it. If I wanted you to myself, then why would I give away my only blackmail material and make you a walking target to all the horny bastards?
Why did I think of that just now? I know Ethan was not the culprit, he just wasn’t. I didn’t know what his relation with this other woman was but I knew about his feelings for me. I can never doubt that, especially not after yesterday. It had to be Dylan! He must be using me as leverage against Ethan into telling him about that woman. Oh, god! I didn't want to think about that right now. I needed to escape because the goons were done talking and were ready for some action.
I couldn't even bang my head back against the locker to alert someone, their grip too tight and with the match going on, no one was going to hear. The only good it would serve would be to give me a damn headache. Suddenly, the one who was holding me first, let go of one of his hands, taking both my hands in one of his and started to move his hand down my arm in a slow caress. He wanted me to know what was about to come next, wanted to see the fear in my eyes.
“Don’t worry Miss. OG, we’ll be gentle. And maybe you can teach us a thing or two of your own? After all, you’re our inspiration.” The one holding my mouth said, smirking.
But then the first thug got impatient and I felt his hand grab my breast and squeeze it tight enough to make me wince in pain. I'd had enough.
Closing my eyes tightly, I summoned up as much strength as I could and lifted my leg in one quick motion, put all my strength behind it and nailed him in the nuts, thankful for wearing heels for the first time in my life.
Both hands released me at once. Everyone went to help the poor victim and I took the opportunity to scream as loud as I could while making a dash for the door. "Help!"
But before I could get a chance to escape, the guy I’d just kneed grabbed onto my leg and pulled. I fell to the floor the next instant, my vision going blank for a second as the taste of iron filled my mouth.
“You little bitch! Get her!”
And then with a battle cry, everyone came at me as I tried to crawl away. I was only about two meters away from the door when I felt two heavy male bodies fall on top of me.
I screamed then, sure that I’d have a fractured rib if I got out of here alive. But then, suddenly the weight was lifted off of me.
“Ethan?” The name was a whisper, but that was the first thing that came to my mind when I felt the others join in a fight against my protector. I opened my eyes at once.
But it wasn't Ethan Whitmore who had rescued me. It was Nick D’Sena. My best friend, along with the rest of the basketball team.
I never knew Nick could fight like this but he was holding his own against the tallest one, the one who attacked me first. Nick’s friends were pounding the hell out of the others and all the noise had attracted enough attention that a huge crowd had gathered around the open door, students who had been watching the match. It wasn’t long before their chant to fight began.
Did all this seem like a joke to them?
“Aki! Aki, are you alright? You're bleeding,” Nick knelt down beside me, his own face covered in more than a few scratches. I looked at the floor a few feet away to find Nick’s friends had gathered the thugs into a pile on the floor, all of them groaning and bloody.
“You okay, Akira?” Ryan, Nick’s classmate asked, holding down the skinny one when he tried to escape and landing him back into the pile. I simply nodded, my head was starting to pound, but my stomach was a whole different story.
“H-how did you f-find me?” It was now, after everything was over that exhaustion took place. Oh, how I wished that my parents weren't home right now.
“Practice finished early so we decided to head back. Wait here!” He left my side to run to his locker. Opening it, he fetched his water bottle out of his backpack and rushed back to me. “This might sting a bit.” He warned before pouring the water on his tee shirt and holding it to my lip.
I hissed out instantly, realizing then that my lower lip was busted. I was going to have a great time explaining that to my dad.
“Akira!” The familiar voice had me turning to look at him. He was here!
“She’s hurt! We need to get her to the nurse’s office!” Nick’s voice was urgent… and laced with regret. He was probably blaming himself for arriving too late.
“What on Earth is going on here?!” A voice boomed just as soon as Ethan knelt beside me, lifting me up carefully so that most of my weight was on him. The entire hallway went eerily quiet as the Principal, Mr. Bennett, appeared at the doorway. He was a middle-aged man with thinning salt and pepper hair but he was still in shape and quite handsome. He was someone who demanded respect.
“These boys were trying to harass her, Sir. We found them attacking her when we came back from practice,” It was BJ, another boy from the basketball team who answered.
“Someone call the nurse and you four, would you like to tell me why you did such a shameful act or do I have to call the cops?” I turned to look at the boys when Mr. Bennett pointed at them. My eyes widened as I finally saw who they were. They were from the soccer team. The basketball team, along with a few other boys had unmasked the culprits.
“It’s all her fault! She kneed me in the balls first!” The first guy with brunette hair…Sean, I think his name was, spat at me.
“Mind your language,” Mr. Bennett warned. “You’re not even supposed to be in this side of the building! Ms. Sanders, can you tell me what exactly happened?”
“Mr. Bennett, she needs to see the nurse first, the questioning can wait.” My eyes widened as I saw Dylan walk into the room.
“Yes, you’re right,” Mr. Bennett moved out of the doorway.
“No, it’s okay.” I felt drained but hell if I was going to let this chance slip away. I wouldn’t let anyone manipulate the situation. Mr. Bennett walked into the room and knelt down in front of me, urging me to continue. Ethan’s hand tightened around me a fraction before releasing, giving me his support. I continued, “I came here to wait for my friend, we go home together. But these people attacked me as soon as I got here. They came in right after I did.”
“Now,” Mr. Bennett’s voice was menacing. “This is the last time I’ll ask. Why did you four attack Ms. Sanders? She’s an honor student, one of our brightest, is that why you did this? Jealousy?”
“She also writes pornography!” It was the skinniest of the group who spoke.
And the entire room fell silent.