The late student

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"Again." Sensei Morai shouted at Ellie as she had her practise against the top air ninja student at the academy. A guy by the name of Bryce. Yeah he was like the college football player but worse. Like a frat boy on steroids. And considering the two attended the same college made their competition even more extreme. It was made worse that they shared the same classes, an therefore, saw may more of each other than Ellie hoped for.

"Ooh little sorority girl can't take the heat." Bryce taunted her and Ellie hated the fact that he chose these words. She had never joined a sorority their college didn't actually have sororities or fraternities they weren't large enough. But it didn't stop people taking on those traits. And Ellie was far from the stereotypical sorority girl. It was a stupid and unfounded insult if she was being honest. Sure she was blonde but that was literally the only thing she shared with the sorority stereotype. She wasn't bitchy or mean she didn't fit the stereotype. It was a shame that the same couldn't be said for Bryce. He did fit the frat boy stereotype, cared more about parties and getting girls than his degree, was on the football team. Always smelt like cheap beer. Oh and thought himself to be the most attractive guy ever. Ellie like her guys a little less serious and into different sports. 

"Still butthurt I rejected you for a date?" Ellie taunted right back she wasn't going to let him win at this little debate they had going on. Or the fight they were partaking in. 

The two continued to spar for another few minutes without either coming up on top. It was essentially a rather fair fight, not that Bryce would ever admit to it that would bruise his ego, and considering nobody would admit defeat or stop the fight it would appear Sensei Morai would have to step in to stop them. 

"That's enough you two. Bryce you are dismissed." At her words the pair instantly stopped. They bowed towards each other before Bryce turned and did the same to Sensei Morai. As soon as he walked away Sensei Morai turned on to Ellie ready to give her the next challenge.

"Not too bad Ellie-Bellie. You nearly had him there. The next challenge is whether you can go against your biggest distraction." Now Ellie wasn't sure what she had meant. At first she thought back to the little comment that Sensei Morai had mentioned prior to them starting this longer training session yet she didn't really think much about it. Yet when Sensei Morai was replaced with Dustin she had to stop for a moment. 

"You really have to show me how to do that some time." Ellie asked before she instantly took a fighting position. Considering Sensei Morai-Dustin just came forwards to attack. 

It was about 20 minutes later when the session was finally stopped. Ellie was left lying on the floor her chest moving rapidly up and down as she heaved breath after breath. She hadn't admitted there was a part of her too caught up on her hidden emotions that she couldn't actually physically fight the earth ninja. Even when it was someone else disguised as him. Though the session didn't seem to stop because Sensei Morai thought she needed to stop. It was shortly after the sky started to spiral purple that Sensei Morai called out to stop the session.

"We'll call it for today. Head home and be back here tomorrow. I'll expect you to be late if you're coming with your sister again." Sensei Morai was still in the form of Dustin as she spoke and it took Ellie a moment to not laugh. 

"Yes Sensei. I'll see you tomorrow. But please change back first." Ellie smiled as she saw the woman return to her normal state. With a bow she then headed back to the fountain only to luckily catch her sister exiting at the same time.

"Tori wait up!" Ellie hollered hoping that the group in front of her could hear her. 

Upon exiting the waterfall Ellie turned to look at the group of three. None of them looked particularly happy and she wondered just what had been said to them by Sensei Watanabe. The man wasn't always the nicest in terms of words. 

"If you guys could be on time for once we wouldn't have this problem!" Tori had stated as they approached the camper van.

"You know that the time just slips away from me." Dustin tried to argue back

"The set an alarm its not that hard." Tori continued her little lecture.

"Ladies, ladies chill out. We'll be on time tomorrow and then this will all be forgotten yeah." Shane tried to calm them both down. 

The next afternoon, Ellie had a day off from class. Therefore, she spent her time studying in the morning and then spending her time with her friends in the afternoon. After all what was college if you didn't spend your time with your friends more often than not. 

Her sister Tori worked at a diner in the evenings. A sweet 1950's styled one where she was a waitress. The food was really nice, and the friends and family discount was sweet. Even better when Tori was on shift and sometimes gave them free meals. But this meant that considering her sister only really worked the evenings, she had been recently promoted to evening duty manager, that during the day the two Hanson sisters could really do whatever they wanted. So considering Ellie was behind in her college work she had spent a little bit of the morning working on her latest assignment before the two sisters decided to do something together. 

They had picked Shane up at the skate park. He was there as per usual. Ellie knew he worked at a gas station so many days a week. Yet whenever she saw him, he wasn't at work. She supposed he only needed to work a few days a week and then could spend the rest of his time doing his true passion. Skateboarding. Though Ellie wasn't sure what future he had in the sport, she was still happy he was following his passion. 

Then the group of three headed to bother the one person who was most likely to be late. Unfortunately, Dustin was the only one of them who had work that day, not that Ellie currently had a job. But his place of work was one the group of four always enjoyed spending time in regardless. Storm Chargers was the sporting shop in Blue Bay Harbour. A very prominent establishment in the town, supplying all the equipment you could ever need for your sporting adventures and running the local motocross team 'Storm Racers'. The lady who ran it, Kelly was in her late 20s with bright auburn hair and a smile just as vibrant as her hair. She was more than willing to let the small group of twenty year olds loiter in her establishment considering the group were essentially able to help anyone out in their specific sporting area. Dustin obviously worked there and was permitted in the building whenever he wanted, it worked nicely considering it also gave him free time to work on the bike he raced on as well. 

Sitting in Storm Chargers always brought a pleasant feeling over Ellie, she felt oddly at home in the building. Despite not being as much of an avid sportsman as her friends, her fear of the ocean stopped her surfing as much as her sister, and skateboarding had never been her thing, but she did enjoy the odd race on a bike. She had the whole 'martial arts' expert thing backing her up. But the way that Kelly ran the storm chargers made it so that even if you weren't the most avid fan you felt welcome in the establishment. 

She was sat quite comfortably on the sofa next to Shane who was watching a tape recording of some of the other skateboarders in the area. The pair weren't talking mainly because Ellie didn't really have a clue what she was looking at other than at someone's feet and skateboard a little dodgy in her own opinion. Dustin was working away surrounded by 6 or 7 rather obnoxiously large alarm clocks. Tori was somewhere at the coffee machine, that they all totally used Dustin's staff card to ensure they got unlimited amounts. And as Shane let out noises of amazement at the sight of whatever trick was being displayed on the TV Ellie pondered what the actual chance of any of them being on time was actually going to be. 

Sure they were trying much harder than normal to ensure that they were going to be on time. Well at least the other three were, Ellie had once again realised that she would probably only ever be on time if she took herself there. But the actual likelihood that they would be on time, yet alone early as the other three were intending to be, something about it just didn't seem right. Like there was some force out there saying that they just weren't going to get there on time. No matter how hard they tried today something was going to stop them.

"Kick flip to fifty fifty that's what I need to learn from this video." Shane commented as the second Hanson sister approached the table. Yet before either sister could respond to his words, the shrill sound of the 6 alarm clocks blaring out at the same time interrupted them all. 

"Dustin." Tori shouted as the group hastily made their way to the store front and Tori's camper van which was situated outside. Ellie took a look back at the cup of coffee she had left behind not even touched. 

"Dustin you're not going to leave me behind alone to clean up are you?" Kelly asked her actual employee as he too followed the rest of the group out, Ellie waiting for him by the door. 

"Have I ever told you what a cool boss you are?" Were his words of response as he moved to the door and past Ellie who slapped him on the shoulder.

"Really 'have I ever told you what a cool boss you are' way to sound like a dick." Ellie mocked as the pair went to join the rest of their friendship group in the car. 

"What was I supposed to say? And I wasn't wrong she's well cool." Dustin tried to argue as they made their way into the back seats. Tori didn't even wait for them to have their seatbelts on before she set off.

"Something I dunno a little better. Could you not have told her you needed the rest of the afternoon off this morning? Been a little bit more considerate." Ellie was trying to get him to see that he might have been able to avoid that awkward little exchange. 

"I'm plenty enough considerate as I am. The workshop isn't that bad." 

"The grease on your face says otherwise."

"Wait what? Lizbet you can't just tell me that now. How long has it been there." Dustin looked at Ellie with desperation, he couldn't believe there was something on his face for so long, according to her and he hadn't noticed.

"Since before I got there this afternoon." Ellie shrugged as she felt eyes from the front of the camper van focused on the pair of them. 

"All the customers must have thought I was an idiot."

"Or hardworking." Ellie gave a final shrug with her last words as she turned her attention elsewhere. 

The radio remained running in the background, the group of four paying minimal attention. After all, it was only a report of the current unusual weather pattern, the changes in atmospheric pressures. Something Ellie was sure they could actually feel. And they were doing really well for time, as she checked her watch noticing they had over 15 minutes to be there, that was until Tori spotted the sign of a broken down car with smoke pouring from the engine. And Ellie wished she was heartless enough that she would be able to drive straight pass. Or let her sister drive straight pass, Ellie would never be able to drive the camper van her sister treasured so much. 

"They look like they need some help." Tori spoke before suddenly coming to a halt, in the middle of the road. 

"No Tori you can't we'll be late and Sensei will have my dick." Shane spoke as Tori ignored him and jumped out of the drivers side. Ellie knew they was no point trying to argue with her sister and opened the back door to join her sister. They might have been able to help the couple with their broken down car much faster if more of them were present. She also had too much heart to sit there and just watch. 

"We can't just leave them here, what if something happens." Tori charged her way over to the couple. Dustin was also on her heels a toolbox in his hand. Ellie was slightly slower getting out of the camper van not sure what she could actually bring to the situation. She was more than positive they didn't need a law student right now. 

"I know if we're late something is defiantly going to happen to us and it won't be something good. He's going to gut me I can feel it." Shane whined, though he was ignored by Tori. Dustin turned to his friend to give him a shrug. Ellie went to stand beside him, she placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"You could always go first and get it over with. Then you won't know what Sensei will do to you." She offered, her words half serious, half joking. If he truly wanted to go ahead Ellie would not stop him, she would probably encourage him. But it was really his own decision. He could stay with the rest of the friendship group and go in together, face the consequences of their own actions. Or he could go on ahead and hopefully get there just in time. But that was highly unlikely considering how late they already were. 

"How late are we now?"

"About 10 minutes." Ellie responded after checking her watch the two sharing a look. There was no point in Shane going ahead of the others, they were late. Sensei Wantanabe would be furious and it would be easier for him to make the speech just the once to throw the group out. 

Soon enough though, the car had been fixed and the elderly couple were on their way. They seemed nice enough and after Ellie had spent some time talking to them whilst the others worked on the broken down car, she could see how upsetting it could have been had the group of 20 year olds just driven past and ignored them. But the time had passed a lot faster than any of them had really wanted it to and the group were now a good half an hour late once again.

"Dude perhaps his alarm clock didn't go off and the class hasn't even started yet." Dustin attempted to console Shane who was still the most annoyed by their little pitstop along the way. 

"He's a ninja master Dustin, they don't oversleep." Shane responded before shoving Dustin in the direction of the back of the van rather than the front. Obviously very much annoyed with the man wearing the yellow shirt. 

"Just leave it Dustin, we're not going to be able to console Shane right now." Ellie tapped Dustin on the shoulder as he sat next to her in the back. The rest of the journey was spent in silence as they approached the normal area of which Tori felt comfortable to leave the van. The group quickly changing into their ninja uniforms before heading through the familiar path in the woods. 

"Something's off." Ellie commented as she looked at the surrounding forest on the lead up to the fountain they usually used to enter the hidden school. 

"Reckon we're going to get jumped again?" Tori asked her sister, knowing that the other blond was the most tuned into the environment out of the pair of them.

"No the school's wards are down. Something is very, very wrong." Ellie stated as she hoped her own judgement was wrong. 

Only for the group to find that Ellie's judgement was once again very much correct. Something was really, really wrong. And as they watched the school crumpled to pieces in a tornado focused just on the main area. They were not sure what kind of trouble they were in for. 

"It's gone." Shane decided to share the obvious as they stood staring at the space the school once stood. 

"I'm thinking earthquake" Dustin offered up a solution, most likely to ease the tension a little. But it was not working, it would not going to work in whatever this situation was. 

"When was the last time you heard of an earthquake sucking buildings and people into the sky?" Shane responded to Dustin. Rather the thing they did do was to head in the direction of the school and see what was left, if anyone was left. 

The site of where a once grand school stood was now rubble and dirt. There was no clear signs that anyone had been left behind from the brutal attack. There was only small remains of different parts of the school of which the group could only look on with sorrow. That was until a rock moved and a hand reached out. Ellie was the first to rush over noting a very familiar green padded vest. 

"Cam, are you alright?" She asked the man she considered her friend. Though before he could really confirm to them all that he was indeed alright, and even start to explain just what had happened did laser shots fire from the sky down to the ground where the survivors had been noticed.