Chapter Four
~Brady Shell~
The rest of the week passed without incident. Laura still hadn’t managed to find Brady anywhere, and began doubting whether she’d be able to do good on her start-of-semester resolution. She was still determined, however.
But thankfully, her afterschool detention sessions with Logan were turning out not quite as bad as she’d imagined. She learned that Logan actually knew more math than she did, and ended up teaching her some of the things she didn’t yet understand. He was sharp, and afterschool, in the relative privacy of the near-empty classroom, he was engaging, lively, and interesting.
Which was why she didn’t understand the way he acted during school. Every math class she had that week, he’d arrive after her, and shoot her a shy smile as he passed. Otherwise, though, he didn’t acknowledge her presence in any way. Or anybody else’s, really. He kept his head down, and always wore the same, dull clothing. It was like he wished he could shrink his long limbs so they would stop taking up so much space.
Laura found herself starting to wonder what happened to cause him to transfer here. What really happened. She didn’t put any stock into the rumors she heard. At the same time, she had been unable to force herself to ask him about it herself. It felt like she would be invading his personal life if she pried like that, and she didn’t feel comfortable doing that yet.
One time during math class, Laura snuck a peek back at Logan. As expected, he sat with his head down. But just at that moment, an image flashed in her head of a powerful lion – a king – who’d been disgraced. It felt like all the power was still there, just…restrained. Like it was forcibly being thrust down. Just as quickly as it came, the image disappeared. And she found Logan looking back at her, meeting her gaze strongly.
She spun around quickly. He had seen her looking. She hoped he didn’t get the wrong impression. She also hoped Mrs. Millburn wouldn’t notice.
Thankfully, their teacher was busy writing on the board. Relieved, Laura returned to her notes. But she could feel Logan’s gaze on her back.
Logan was also always the first to leave at the bell, brushing by people to get to the door. Laura knew he had heard the rumors swirling about him by now, and hoped they weren’t getting to him. She couldn’t imagine the instability his life held. But she knew things would get better for him, if only he started speaking up more.
Which is what she decided to tell him at their next detention session together on Friday. Today’s session – Thursday’s – was cancelled by Mrs. Millburn on account of her grandson’s birthday.
So, it was on a rainy Thursday afternoon, in the break before the last class of the day, when Laura found herself in a hallway struggling with the mechanism on her locker. The second bell had already rung, marking anybody coming to class late, so the hallway around her was completely empty. But no matter how many times she tried the combination, her locker wouldn’t open. She banged her fist against the cold metal in frustration, producing a clang that ran all the way down the hall.
“Do you need a hand?” a strong voice asked her. It seemed familiar, in some way…
Laura looked towards it, and felt her heart freeze in her chest. Brady Shell was standing beside her, with that easy smile gracing his face. Brady Shell! And he looked handsome as ever.
She couldn’t believe it. All this year, she hadn’t seen him pass by her locker once, and now, with almost everybody else already in class, he was standing here, beside her, offering to help. What were the odds?
“Uh… yea,” she muttered, stumbling over the words. “I think the lock is busted.” Idiot! That was the best you could come up with?
“Oh, well that’s OK,” he said, turning his attention to her locker. She stepped aside, letting him examine it. Which was when she felt a strong hand grab her ass.
“Hey!” She whipped around, and came face to face with some guy she’d never seen before. He was grinning widely. He was wide, too, and built like a football player. “You can’t do that!”
“Oh really?” he asked, still smiling. “Can’t do what? This?” And he reached around with one hand to grab her again. She shoved his hand away, and stepped back, trying to get some space, but felt herself bump into another body. She looked behind her. Brady was standing there, grinning as widely as the other guy.
“Didn’t we know each other, before?” he mused at her. Out of the corner of her eye, Laura saw another two guys approaching them. “I think we did. You’re… Laura, right? From back in ninth grade? My, but how much you’ve grown since then…”
“And developed very nicely,” the wide-guy added brusquely.
“Yes, she has, hasn’t she?” Brady said. He grabbed her by the waist, and started moving his hand up her back.
“Get off me!” she exclaimed, pushing him away. But those other two guys she saw approaching had already surrounded her, blocking any escape route she had.
She looked in terror from one guy to the next. All three looked like big, mean football players. And then there was Brady, who didn’t look like he matched them at all, yet he was smiling as wickedly as the rest.
“Ooh, she’s a feisty little vixen, isn’t she?” one of the two new guys crooned. Somebody pushed her – hard – and she went flying right into the guy. He caught her easily and spun her around, then wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her close to him. “Why, I didn’t know you liked me already,” he said crudely, and all four of the guys laughed. She struggled, trying to escape, but his grip was too strong. She looked desperately to Brady, but he was laughing just as much.
“What should we do with her, Brad?” the guy holding her asked. She tried to swing her head into his, to do something that would cause him to let up on his iron grip, but she was too short. Wait. Brad? Was that what these guys called him, now? The guy finally let go, and she stumbled into the middle of the clearing. All around her, hungry eyes stared at her body.
“I think she’s a good girl,” Brady said ominously, stepping closer to her, “so I think she’ll cooperate with anything we say. Won’t you, Laura?”
Laura shrunk back. All four guys stepped even closer. She was trapped, with no way out. She felt another hand slap her ass, and a roar of laughter erupted from the group. She was scared, now. She could scream, but she doubted anybody would hear, here in the most abandoned corner of the school.
Brady took another step towards her, and she was about to make a fist right when her arms were grabbed and held. She struggled, trying to get out of the grip, but it was no use. There were four of them, and only one of her. Oh God, what were they going to do? How could this be happening to her, right here in the school? And Brady, of all people, seemed to be their ring-leader. She felt her whole world start to collapse on itself.
“Stop.”
A loud voice broke cut through the laughter, causing all four of the guys to look up. Laura looked up, too. And found Logan standing a few meters away, feet spread in an aggressive stance, looking right at them.
“What did you say?” Brady said ominously, turning to face him.
“I told you to stop,” Logan replied simply.
“Or what?” Brady rounded on Logan.
“Or I will make you.”
“Oh really?” Brady’s tone was incredulous. “Boys, this guy here thinks he’s going to stop us.”
That caused another roar of laughter to come from the three guys still around Laura.
“We’re probably scaring his little girlfriend,” Brady continued derisively. The words stung, despite everything what was happening, because they came from Brady’s mouth.
“Hey, isn’t it that new kid?” the guy holding Laura offered. “Yea, Brad, I think it is.”
“And you’re new?” Brady asked, walking right up to Logan. “Well, new kid, I think you better get on your way. We wouldn’t want to see you getting hurt.” Then he shoved Logan right in the chest, knocking him back. He staggered back, but made no move to counter. Laura’s arms were still twisted behind her, and they hurt.
Brady turned around, back to face Laura and his crew, satisfied that he’d dealt successfully with the nuisance. But then Logan spoke again:
“Last chance, Brad. Tell your friends to back off.”
Brady spun around furiously. “Nobody ever call me Brad,” he spat, “except for my teammates!” And he threw a punch right for Logan’s head.
Everything happened at once.
Logan stepped aside easily, avoiding Brady’s fist, and Brady lost his balance and staggered forward. Logan swept a foot out, tripping him, and allowed Brady’s momentum to carry him to the floor.
At the same time, one of the guys standing behind Laura charged at Logan. Just as he was about to slam his shoulder into Logan’s side, Logan raised a knee hard, and the guy’s chest rebounded against it. The guy gasped, having the wind knocked out of him, and fell back to the floor.
Brady had already gotten up, and was in the middle of swinging a sucker punch to the back of Logan’s head. Laura screamed, but Logan twisted around just in time to block the blow with his forearm. Brady looked stunned for a moment, but that expression quickly turned to pain as Logan clubbed him in the midsection with a fist. Brady fell down, clutching at his stomach.
Growling, the guy holding Laura let her go, and ran at Logan. So did his friend. Laura collapsed to the floor. When she looked up half a second later, the wide-guy who held her before had his hands at his face, trying desperately to stop the blood flowing from a vicious gnash on his nose. And his friend was also writhing on the floor in pain.
Logan stood there, amongst the four bodies, completely unscathed. And looking worriedly over at her.
Just then, the second guy – the one who had gotten a knee in the chest – decided that he hadn’t had enough yet. He got up, and ran at Logan from behind.
“Watch out!” Laura screamed, but Logan just gracefully – majestically – extended his left leg back in a roundhouse kick. Logan’s foot struck the guy in the chest, and he collapsed heavily to the floor.
Logan looked back at Laura. Seeing that she was still there, he walked over to Brady, who lay face-down against the floor. Gruffly, Logan kicked him over to his back, and dropped to one knee to pin both of Brady’s shoulders to the ground. From where Laura was, she thought Brady was in enormous pain.
“Listen to me, Brad,” Logan began, “I don’t want you doing that to her, or any other girl, ever again. Do you understand?”
Brady whimpered desperately and nodded his head in agreement.
“In fact, Brad,” Logan continued, “I don’t even want to so much as hear of you being in this part of the school again. Do I make myself clear?”
Brady kept nodding, over and over. Laura thought she could see tears running down his face. Somehow, holding him like that, Logan was hurting him. Really hurting him. She had to end it.
“Stop it!” she yelled. She tried getting up, to pull Logan off, but her knees were weak, and didn’t want to support her.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Logan looked to her. And removed his hands from Brady’s shoulders. Brady exhaled in relief, and weakly rolled to one side to cradle himself with his hands.
Logan rose, and stepped quickly over the bodies to walk up to Laura. Before she knew it, he had his hands gently under her arms, helping her up.
“Are you OK?” he asked, frowning with worry.
“Yes,” Laura answered. “But… why did you do that?”
“Do what?” Logan asked quizzically.
“Do that,” Laura emphasized, pointing to the four guys still mostly on the floor. “Why did you do that to them? Why did you interfere?”
“They had no right to treat you that way.”
“But I didn’t ask you to do that!” This felt wrong, somehow, arguing like this with her rescuer, but she couldn’t control her emotions. And right now, they were demanding an outburst. “Oh my God, now Brady’s going to hate me. They’re all going to hate me. All going to blame me!”
“You cannot be complicit in things like this, Laura…”
“Oh, like you would know?” she spat.
“I know more than you might think,” he said.
“Oh, give me a break. You haven’t lifted your head once in school! I don’t think you’ve even spoken to anyone other than me! You had no right to interfere, no right to do that at all!”
“And without me, Laura, what would you have done?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She felt herself getting close to tears, and had to bite off the end of every word. “But I know I still would have had a chance with Brady! Oh, who knows what he’s going to think of me now. He’s probably going to hate my guts! Why did you have to do that?” Her eyes began to water, and she clenched a fist, swinging it right at Logan’s stomach. He made no move to get out of the way.
Her blow connected, and it felt like she had hit a concrete wall. The reverberation ran all the way up her arm, hurting both her elbow, her shoulder, and her knuckles.
“Very well,” Logan said quietly. He turned and walked away, leaving Laura to slump against her locker. Tears began to stream down her face.