Roger’s swim practice on Thursday morning was intense. One of the schools in Friday’s swim meet was their strongest competitor and their results against that team would be a good indication of how successful the season would be. So the coach really worked them hard, particularly on trying to avoid any early-start disqualifications.
Roger and Tom had a hurried conversation as they rushed through their showers to get to class.
“Tom, you and Cindy seem to have really hit it off. And hey, your sis is a really cool chick, by the way.”
“Thanks, Rog. Yeah, Jan and I are real close. I hated it when she left for college. She was my main support when we lost Dad.... She would come to my room and hold me and soothe me when I woke with nightmares during those first few months, while Mom was so deep in grief that she was dealing with her own feelings,” he looked down and then wiped his eyes. “So Jan really pulled me through and I love her to death. And Cindy? She’s just wonderful, you know. She’s smart, and cool, and funny, and just great to be around. If you’re worried about how I’ll treat...”
“It’s cool, Tom. I’m just happy that she seems happy to be with you. Say, see you after school, okay?” Roger said as he pulled on his shirt, closed his locker, and left.
So it was a tired Roger who trudged into his home room class that morning. He sat down and pulled out his bag of energy bars and drinks and began eating. Ayame leaned over and whispered to him.
“Nothing important in announcements, just your swim meet tomorrow, Roger. Other things not matter.”
“Mmmm hmmm,” he mumbled.
Several minutes later, the PA system came to life again.
“Your attention, all staff and students,” the principal announced. “There is one other announcement now, the details have just been finalized. Tomorrow morning, instead of home room, there will be a special assembly; attendance will be taken as you enter the auditorium so please be sure that you give your name to a teacher as you enter. We have to get everyone in, so please enter the auditorium as soon as you get to school. All freshmen and those sophomores having their home rooms in the E wing, please use the balcony entrances. Seniors use entrance doors E, juniors doors C, and the remaining sophomores doors A. Please use those doors and be orderly. Thank you, and please resume your classes.”
“Holy crap,” Roger muttered. “What gives? This must be hot stuff for a school-wide assembly like that.”
“Yeah,” Cynthia remarked. “Maybe there’ll be some scuttlebutt about this.”
Meanwhile a student had called the teacher’s attention. “Any idea what the assembly’s about, ma’am?” the student enquired.
“No, sorry, this is the first I’ve heard, so I’m in the dark about it too,” she answered. “Maybe we’ll hear more later today.”
The morning passed and they heard all sorts of rumors, but no concrete information. None of the teachers had information, or if they did, had been told not to share it. Ayame mentioned to Cynthia that she had seen Tom pass her Civics classroom as she was leaving it and had waved to her; he was walking with a group of guys and they were talking animatedly.
At gym, Roger went to the pool to get some work in on his fly stroke. The coach had recommended an adjustment in Roger’s technique that he thought might give him a tiny speed improvement and Roger was keen to practice it so that it would feel more natural.
It was during lunch period that it happened. After they finished eating, Ayame had to use the restroom, so she excused herself and went into the corridor, reminding herself that she needed to use the boys’ room. But when she entered the room, she suddenly was grabbed and pulled all the way into the room while a boy moved to hang a sign on the door and block it.
She tried to scream but the boy who had grabbed her clapped his hand over her mouth.
“Oh, look who we found,” the boy sneered. “It’s the Denisons’ Jap cousin. That’s really better than I hoped—let’s do this, guys. Hey, Jap girl. We were goin’ to get us a girl and have fun with her, since we can’t get a naked one in the Program. But you’re better. Tell your fuckin’ cousins that unless they stop messin’ with the Program, we’re gonna find you and you’ll really learn what it’s like to have some real men fuck you till you can’t walk, y’hear? And here’s a sample of what I mean...”
He tried to pull down her shorts with the hand not covering Ayame’s mouth but as he moved to reach for her waistband, she bit the hand he was holding over her mouth. He jerked it away cursing and Ayame screamed loudly, twisted in his grip, and brought up her knee, slamming it right into his groin. The guy howled and bent over as another kid grabbed Ayame, who turned and raked her nails over his face. The third guy grabbed her and managed to pull her shorts partway down, but he was the one who was keeping the door blocked and suddenly it was forced partly open and two girls started to try to squeeze in through the small opening.
“Get outta here,” the kicked guy gasped. “Out!”
He staggered to the open window and slid out, followed by the other two.
“Are you okay?” one of the girls shouted as they worked the door open wider, slid in, and then rushed to Ayame.
“Hai, okay now, maybe, catch breath.” she panted.
“Did they hurt you?” the other asked.
“No, but if you didn’t come...” Ayame shuddered.
“What’s going on?” a new voice came. It was a male teacher. “What happened?”
Ayame explained.
“Do you know who the boys were? Describe what they were wearing?”
Ayame said she was so terrified that she didn’t actually recall any faces but did notice that the guys were wearing jeans and black polos and one had cowboy boots.
“Damn. That describes about 20 percent of the boys here,” the teacher mused. “Do you need to see the nurse? No? Sure? Well, let’s go to the office and I’ll need you to do an incident report.”
Just then Cynthia ran up.
“Ayame! It was you? I heard a girl was attacked in the boys’ room. Roger will be here in a sec. I told him to wait because he couldn’t go into the bathroom—he didn’t want to wait but I told him if I wasn’t right back ... ah, here he is.”
Roger grabbed Ayame. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”
“No, Roger, I kicked one and scratched another and then girls came. Not hurt, just scared.”
“She needs to come to the office for a report,” the teacher said gently.
“We’ll go too,” Roger said firmly.
The three of them set out for the office with the teacher trailing them, carrying the sign and doorstop.
Cynthia asked her if she could describe the guys. Ayame told her what she had told the teacher.
“Ehh! Forgot tattoo on one who grab me.”
“What was it? Where?” Cynthia prompted.
“Was like cross on upper arm, like tees crossed.”
“You mean like four ‘T’ letters joined at the base?” Cynthia asked.
“Hai, like that.”
“Mmmm. I know I’ve seen that guy. Mean bastard. That’s a Templar cross, I think.”
They had reached the office; the teacher related what he had seen and Ayame dictated her report, including what the guy had threatened. Roger was enraged when he heard the details. Davis had come out while the teacher was talking and when Ayame finished, asked her a few questions.
Then he asked, “So they came in through the window?”
“Maybe. Probably. Nobody outside room say boys were inside.”
“Hmmm. The windows can’t be opened from outside, they put up that stolen school ‘Out of Order’ sign on the door, and used that wedge on the bottom to keep it shut, so they must have planned this for a while and got in earlier to disable the window lock. And the boy has a Templar cross, you think. But you couldn’t identify him otherwise?”
“Ah, no, not.”
“Well, I don’t think we’d be able to take action without a positive identification, then,” he mused. “Let me consult our school’s lawyer about what we can do.”
The three kids walked out of the office and into the hall.
“That’s shitty, the school can’t take action,” Roger growled. “I’m gonna kill them if I catch them.”
Cynthia put her hand on his arm. “Got a better idea, bro. Bet they went to the hangout those scum use, right? That tattoo on one of them. Another’s face is scratched, so we can ID him too. Here’s my plan...”
Less than ten minutes later, Cynthia was striding purposefully toward the bleachers on the football field. As she got closer, she saw some figures moving under the seats; as they saw her approach, they began to move deeper into the shadows. Then she heard a voice.
“Hey, no sweat, it’s just a girl. Hey, girl, wanna join us?”
“Not really,” she answered. “Depends on who you are. I only see three of you under there; I was looking for more guys, the ones who usually hang out here.”
“Hey, we’re who you’re lookin’ for. We hang here all the time. You come to play with us?” the first voice said and the guy appeared from under the seats. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and his right upper arm bore a Templar cross.
Cynthia grunted in satisfaction. He was one of them.
“Why don’t your friends wanna come out to play, too?” she called.
Another guy came out and she saw his scratched cheek. Cynthia walked closer.
“I’d like to play a game with you guys. It’s called ‘Tell Me.’ I’d like you to tell me why you attacked a defenseless girl a few minutes ago, okay?”
“Hey—you’re the Denison girl! Yeah, hey, we couldn’t finish the job fuckin’ your cousin like we wanted, but we got you now instead. Hot damn. Gonna get us a piece of ass right now, guys! Don’t let her get away!” the tattooed guy called as he lunged for her.
Cynthia was easily able to dodge his rush, sidestepping him with a straight-arm push as she moved to grab the second kid’s arm, using his momentum to flip him right into the face of the first kid, who had recovered from his headlong rush, had turned and was coming at her from behind. The two went down in a flurry of arms and legs. The third kid stopped his rush at her and looked at her uncertainly.
And was suddenly surrounded by three MPs who appeared from under the stands.
“All right; just hold everything right there,” one MP called. “You three boys, just sit on the ground, now; MOVE!”
Then Roger, Ayame, and one of the gym teachers appeared from under the stands.
“You okay, ma’am?” another MP asked Cynthia as she was straightening her clothes.
“Yes, sir. Phew, one of those jerks stinks! I’m okay, I hope you heard everything.”
“Sure did. Nice way to get a confession, and I like the judo techniques too, miss. They never knew what hit ‘em. Clever to use yourself as bait, I gotta say.”
Meanwhile the other two MPs were snapping cuffs on the three kids.
“Okay, the three of you are under arrest for assault and attempted rape,” one said.
“And suspicion of possessing controlled substances,” the other chimed in. “They had these in their bags back there,” he said, displaying some containers he was holding in a cloth before dropping them into a plastic bag, closing it, and marking its label.
“Miss, can you identify anyone here?” the first MP asked Ayame.
“Errr, the one with the tattoo grabbed me and threatened me. He I kicked. The one with scratches, yes, I know his face. Third one, oh, he too, his cowboy boots I remember with the red design. Yes, was those three,” Ayame confirmed.
“Okay, that’s all we need right now. Miss, we’ll need you to swear out a statement...”
The teacher broke in. “Officer, I just spoke to Mr Davis in the office and he has a signed copy of the incident report. Is that what you need?”
“Ah, yes, that too, but we have our own format. We know Sgt Denison, so we can get a full statement from her later when she gets home. Meanwhile, we have a few questions I need to ask before you talk to anyone else. This way we know that no one has suggested something that changes what you recalled, okay, miss, um... Ayame. Right.”
“Yes sir.”
Ayame answered a series of questions about her attack and recalled how the boys had threatened her and what they had told her, speaking her statement into a little recorder.
“We’ll get this transcribed and you can read and sign it later, miss,” the MP said as he put the recorder away.
Meanwhile the three attackers had been led away and a small group of bystanders had gathered. The MP left with a promise to see them later at the Denison home, and then Ayame, Roger, and Cynthia returned to the school with the teacher, who brought them to the office.
When they got there, Davis was waiting.
“Well, once again you Denisons make things happen,” he said ruefully. “But in this case, I guess I need to thank you because it’s so hard to make charges of improper or even criminal behavior stick for students these days. I understand you got a confession that the officers could hear.”
“Yes, sir,” Cynthia said. “When Ayame told me who the creep was, I remembered him—a real braggart and loudmouth. So I figured I could try to lure him into saying something incriminating and I was lucky because he did.”
“But the danger to you...”
“Was really minimal. Roger had gotten the MPs to come and then they got Mr Jones to bring the key to unlock the service gate into the stands area so they could keep out of sight behind the creeps while I was walking out there. I didn’t think anyone would have a weapon, like a knife, but I was watching out for that. Thanks for your concern, though. Our family protects our members. That was my goal and I couldn’t let their threat against Ayame stand. That’s all, sir.”
“Okay, then, and Mr Jones, thanks for doing your part there. I appreciate it.”
Jones waved off the comment and left the office.
“I think you’ll need another late pass now. And please, try, try, to be safe,” Davis intoned as he went back into his office and the secretary filled out their passes.
On their way to their classroom, Roger put his arm around Ayame’s shoulder.
“Darling, I’m impressed at how you fought off those scum. You’re a little fireball, you know.”
“Roger, when kidnapers took me, I was so scared but I think I should have fought them harder. But when those—those yakuza grabbed me, I got so angry! No way was I going to let them hurt me. I think if Cindy can fight, so can I! I can’t do her things, but I can kick, bite, and scratch, right?”
“Oh, man, doll. I hope you never get that angry at me,” Roger shrank away in mock fright. “Seriously, sweetie, you did great and I’m really impressed.”
“Yeah,” Cynthia chimed in, “you did everything we teach in basic self-defense classes. Use the weapons you have to defend yourself. You did really good.”
“Thank you. I am happy those boys are arrested now,” Ayame declared.
“Oh, crap!” Roger exclaimed. “Damn! I forgot all about asking Davis about the assembly! And we had such a good chance, too. Oh, well...”
They arrived at their English classroom and gave the passes to the teacher, who motioned them to their seats and continued with the lesson. After class, they asked several students if they had heard anything about the mysterious assembly and one girl said she heard a rumor that just had begun circulating that it had something to do with the Program.
No one was able to get any further information in their psych class, and when the final bell rang, the trio left for the front doors and the students who would be dressing there. They found the usual group of Program kids there, Mary, Mike, Jessica, Tom, and Elliott, and were happy to see that they were mostly being ignored by the kids pouring out of the school.
“Hey Jessica, Tom!” Roger called. “Any problems today?”
Jessica was pulling on her shirt. “No fuss today, Roger. But I’m so glad there’s just one more day to get through.”
“Me too,” added Mary. “Then I’m done forever.” she added in relief.
“Hey Roger, how you doing with the adjustment to your fly that Coach suggested?” Jessica asked.
“Practiced it today for maybe 45 minutes today. I think I’ve got the timing now. Tough meet tomorrow, so I don’t want to get too tired before it,” Roger responded.
“I think tomorrow’s practice’ll be light,” Tom observed. “Just enough to keep our muscles warm, probably. Hey guys, til tomorrow, okay? I’m bushed.” He gave Cynthia a light hug and kiss and left.
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