The school day went by way faster than I wanted or expected it to. Every excruciating second, the pit in my stomach doubled in size.

I guess you could say I was almost literally saved by the bell.

Sort of.

"Do you think she'll be a no-show?" Brooke asked me once we were outside of the classroom, navigating through the ocean of teens to the gym.

"Dude, it's Ingrid we're talking about. She cares way too much about her self ego," I reassured her. Externally I was anticipating the moment just as much as Brooke was, but mentally I was screaming with blatant fear.

"I know she does, but what happens if she gets overly prepared and brings like, an army of her minions?" Brooke questioned. I gasped and squealed.

"Don't tell me the great Brooke Flynn Griffin is afraid of a Barbie army," I said, defiantly crossing my arms. Truth to be told, if she was scared I'd have to be scared too. "Besides, the most they could do is file your nails a little too much or put on the wrong shade of lipstick."

Brooke chuckled and relaxed a little.

"There is truth to that," she said.

Quickly finding our way out of the school, we met up with the rest of our friends-- Ace, Damon, and Zane. They were all sitting at an old cafeteria table, working together to do a piece of the mountain of homework due tomorrow.

"Are you sure you still wanna do this? You could get seriously hurt!" Ace said with his nose still buried in a book,  obviously trying to hide his concern for 'the love of his life.'

"100% certain. In all honestly, the most she or her henchmen could do is make my lipstick the wrong shade," Brooke said, quoting me.

"Or she could burn your entire face off," Ace added.

"So what? I'd still die with my dignity," Brooke returned. "Besides, I'll go ahead and tell her what she told me-- 'be careful, otherwise your entire life could be ruined.'"

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement as we started toward the literal battle field.

<><><>

The sky was filled with fluffy grey snow clouds, and the loud sound of blowing wind whistled loudly in all of our ears. The grassy field was caked in a blanket of purely white snow.

Brooke stood by the back door of the gym-- directly by our field-- and casually looked at her phone while she waited for Ingrid.

Despite her thousands of pleas for us to go home, the boys and I were hiding underneath the bleachers in case Brooke needed any backup.

In a couple of seemingly infinite minutes, Ingrid's stupid makeup-caked face appeared across from Brooke's hooded head. From my point of view, you wouldn't be able to tell what either one of them actually looked like.

Once they began to talk I wasn't quite able to make out what they were saying; but when I saw Brooke starting to hover, I knew the fight was about to go down.

I was right, of course.

Brooke's fist collided with Ingrid's face, making her head flick to the side from the impact.

Ingrid quickly returned the favor, and before I knew it, the two were rolling on the floor and practically snapping each other's necks.

"Shoot, she's gonna get killed!" Ace said out of the blue, trying to crawl out from under the bleachers. Zane, Damon and I exchanged worried looks, quickly restraining Ace by his shoulders to keep him from getting away.

"Let me go!" he shouted, flailing his arms and trying to pry us off of him.

"Ace, dude, calm down!" Damon whispered.

"Yeah! You'll get us all killed if you don't!" I added.

"It won't be as bad as what--" Ace started again, though he was interrupted by me gasping a quick, sharp breath and falling.

In a few seconds, I realized that a pair of calloused hands were tightly latched around my mouth, pulling me backward.

"Shoot!" Ace, Zane, and Damon all yelled at the same time.

In a sudden flurry of fists and feet, a slight glint of some type shiny metal caught my eye.

"Winter, don't move," Damon said. "We'll get you out of here."

I glanced down slightly and saw the blade of a pocketknife up to my neck. My breath pace quickened, and I almost passed out from fright.

"A step closer and she's dead," a low voice grumbled. I quickly closed my eyes and balled my fists, trying somehow to miraculously make any upcoming pain absent.

"Just put the knife down," I heard Zane say. "and no one has to get hurt."

I felt the blade inch closer to my neck and the hand tighten around my mouth.

"No one'll get hurt if you stay away!" the person warned.

I let out a small whimper and my legs began to feel like jelly.

"Ok, ok," someone said. I was too afraid to actually decipher who it was. In fact, I was so afraid that I wanted to hide in a corner, curling up into a ball, and cry myself to sleep.

"Mphhlmmmgmm!" I said. I had tried to say 'please let me go!' but obviously, since hands were on my mouth, it muffled my words.

In a few seconds I began to kick and writhe, as a new-found courage suddenly began to bubble up in my stomach. In fact, before I knew it, my eyes were wide open and the fight or flight instinct (both in this case) made me bite the dude's and pry myself away from him.

He quickly wailed out in pain, and I felt the sickly metallic taste of blood in my mouth. Without a second thought, I quickly spat on the grass and ran out from under the bleachers.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," I gagged as I spat out another mouthful of blood while sprinting across the field. The boys stayed behind and began to beat the snot out of the guy back there, which only made me appreciate them twenty times more.

I carelessly continued my run away from the bleachers; my only goal was to stay away from my supposed kidnapper.

That was, until I realized I'd most likely regret it for the rest of my life.

"Wait, is that... Regular?"

***

A/N : Kinda random, but did anyone realize that Brooke's initials spell out 'BFG?' Brooke Flynn Griffin? __CLGF__ came up with the idea XD

So can you make my day by commenting on how you like the book and voting if you liked this chapter? Please?

And also make sure to comment some ideas! I might take a few and make a dedication like I did last chapter :p

This chapter's dedication goes out to Sethbeast185 since he helped encourage me to make this book a reality.

If you look at my 'Upcoming Books,' you can be cool (like Sethbeast185 and __CLGF__ *cough cough*) and get a dedication and stuff!

But anyway--

XOXO,

Your homie,

DA FRANKSTER