Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Wild Fantasies

The party is heating up with the new guy, and Claire puts fire on the dance floor with their street jazz moves. Ethan comes out of the room, and Emily follows him. He sees the guy crashing his party. He leans forward, but Emily holds his hand and asks him to calm down. Ethan takes a deep breath and turns to the other side. Emily is left alone, she wants to follow Ethan, but her gut feeling tells her not to, so she stays where she is. She sees Claire dancing with the new guy and Daniel enjoying himself. Emily steps outside to get some fresh air. She decides to walk a car near all the parked cars. She says to herself, “The whole school is here; Ethan must be good at making friends, I guess.”

She keeps on walking, looking at the sky. The shining diamonds in the sky always amaze her. Emily used to sit on the roof of her house and look at the stars whenever she was not feeling good, and tonight she feels terrible because she was about to kiss the guy of her dreams, which some party crasher interrupted. She keeps on walking later but doesn’t realise she has walked past the boundary wall. She turns back when a flash of light hits her face. She covers her eyes, and after a while, the light stops blinking. She turns but sees the light blinking again in the wood, so she follows the light. Emily walks to the blinking light into the dark, quiet forest. As she wanders deeper into the woods, the light stops blinking. Emily thought it was Ethan playing a prank, but no one in the woods, so she turns but realises that she has lost her way.

Ethan is standing by the pool when some guy comes running and jumps into the pool. The water splashes out, and that’s what

break Ethan’s trance. He immediately realises that he has left Emily inside alone. Ethan heads inside in a hurry. He looks for Emily all over the place. He went into the room where he left her, but she was not there. “She might be in the washroom.” Ethan murmurs.

He checks the washroom, but it is empty also, so he heads to the main hall where the party was happening. There he sees Claire sitting with the new guy and Daniel playing beer pong with his Football friends. He takes Daniel’s arm and pushes him to a corner. “Have you seen Emily?” Ethan asks.

“I thought she was with you,” Daniel says.

Claire sees the guys having a conversation in the corner, so she decides to join them, leaving the new guy alone. He sits there as Claire walks away and then heads outside. Claire walks over to the boys, “All okay, boys?” she asks.

“Emily! I can’t find her.” Ethan says with a breaking voice. “Relax, Ethan, she must be here somewhere. She isn’t a child.”

Claire tells Ethan with a sarcastic tone.

“It is not that. We were about to kiss when that crasher showed up, and I lost my temper and left her here. She must be thinking I was taking advantage of her.” Ethan tells.

Daniel comforts him, “Dude relax; she must have gone out for a

walk. Emily often does that. Let’s go outside and check.”

The three head outside and look for Emily, but she is nowhere to be seen.

Emily runs through the woods. She is being followed by some ninjas who are firing shuriken stars at her. She dodges one of the stars, and it hits a tree. The shadows follow her, but Emily is fast as well. The ninja launches another shuriken at her. This one scratches Emily a bit on the arm, and she falls into a pit. She tries

to get up but then thinks about the Ninjas following her. Emily immediately covers herself with the dry leaves as much as she can and lies down in the pit, still and quiet.

She sees the Ninjas flying over the pit in a blink. There are three of them. They all jump over the pit as if it was not even there.

She stays in the pit and waits for the Ninjas to go as far as possible. Emily can feel her head getting heavier. Her head starts spinning. She tries to climb up, but vertigo does not let her. She falls and stays in a state of paralysis. She wants to get up and climb out of the pit, but she cannot even move an eyebrow. “It must be the stars that scratched me,” she thinks, “The stars must have some paralysing liquid on them.”

Emily tries to shout, “Help, Help.” within her head, but the words do not come out of her mouth. She suddenly feels some shadows surrounding the top of the pit. “Oh no! They are going to kill me now, and I am going to die without even finding the

love of my life and by some creepy Ninjas.” She thinks in her

loud head as it is the only thing in her control at the moment.

One of the shadows jumps into the pit and lifts Emily, and the others help pull her out. Emily can feel her eyes getting heavier. She falls unconscious. She opens her eyes and sees one of the people holding her in his arms, then she opens her eyes again and sees a black van in front of her.

Emily wakes up and finds herself in a van with four men, all wearing black suits. She looks around, and the van is all black from the inside, and the windows are all tinted so no one can see inside. She feels like she has jumped from a romance novel into one of the James Bond movies. Emily jerks a little, and one of the men sees her. He opens a bottle pour something into a cup, and offers it to Emily. Emily looks at him with fear in her

eyes, “take it. It is just a herbal tea to wear off the drug.”

She stares at the man for a few seconds and then takes the cup. Emily takes a sip, and she already feels better. She gathers all the strength and courage she has and asks, “Who are you people, and why were those ninjas following me?”

The man to her right takes out a badge from his pocket and shows it to Emily, “We are from Interpol, and those people attacking you are some goons from an underworld gang. We don’t know why they were attacking you, but you are safe now. We’ll drop you home safely.”

Emily sits back as the man in the driver’s seat continues to drive on the road and stops right outside her house without even asking Emily where she lives. “Maybe Interpol knows where we all live.” she thinks to herself.

The van stops, and Emily steps outside. One of the men follows her as she opens the lock to the gate. “Thank you for saving me,” she says to the man in the black suit.

“We are happy that you are not harmed in any way. Take good care of yourself, and don’t walk into the woods alone; it is not safe.” The man says and sits back in the van. Emily heads inside as the van drives out of her street.

Emily wakes up with almost 50 missed calls from her friends and Ethan. She jumps out of bed and heads straight to school.

Emily reaches school and notices that everyone is staring at her strangely and whispering into each other’s ears. She has been started at before many times, but this was different for her as they were not discussing her beauty but how she disappeared from the party and was dropped by some people in a van. She ignores all the gazes and walks to her locker. She sees her friends standing by the locker and runs to them. They all hug her. Claire asks, “Where did you go last night? We were all

looking for you, but you were nowhere and then we hear that some people in a van dropped you? What happened, Em?”

Margaret stops Claire, “Easy Claire, let her breath. Emily, are you

okay?”

Emily tells her friends about everything that happened last night, from the blinking light to the ninjas to the men from Interpol. “You got attacked? By Ninjas? Why were they attacking you? Did you hear them talking about dominating America?” Margaret yells.

“Sshhh, keep it low, Brainiac or else the whole school will know,” Daniel says while covering Margaret’s mouth. “Did you tell Ethan about what happened? He was all worried about how he left you last night.”

“Oh no, Ethan! I have to find him.” Emily exclaims, “Thanks, Dan.

I’ll see you guys later.” and she left to find Ethan.

Emily is checking all of the classes when she sees Ethan sitting alone in a room with his head down. She knocks on the door, and Ethan lifts his head and looks at Emily standing in the doorway. He gets up, and Emily walks over to him. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you like that, not like that I shouldn’t have left at all.” Ethan says to Emily.

She holds his hand and tells him about what happened last

night. “Are you hurt? Did they hit you anywhere?” Ethan asks

while holding Emily.

“I am fine.” says Emily while rubbing Ethan’s arms, “Also, you don’t have to feel bad for leaving me alone, you needed your space, and I understand. I would have done the same thing if I were you.” Emily comforts Ethan. “But if you still feel bad about it, there one way you can make it up to me,” she says while biting her lips.

Ethan looks at her. He grabs her from the back without wasting any second and pulls her closer towards him. Ethan holds Emily’s face in his hand and put his other hand around Emily’s back.

Emily has Ethan’s shirt from the back and runs her other hand through his hair. They both get closer and closer, and at last, Emily gets what she has always been dreaming about. She kisses the guy who adores her, and she does not want to let go of this moment. Ethan holds Emily tightly, and they both kiss each other’s lips gently.

Claire and Daniel are on the football field, sitting in the seats. Daniel asks Claire, “Emily must be terrified?”

Claire replies, “Hell yeah! Escaping Ninjas, being rescued by Interpol. This doesn’t happen every day, you know.”

“She just got lucky, I think.” says a voice from behind the seats.

They both look behind and see a dark-haired guy with messy hair smoking behind the seats.

“Hey, come forward and say that to our face,” Claire exclaims. The guy walks out, and Claire and Daniel find out it is, in fact, the same guy who crashed Ethan’s party last night. “You?” Claire questions.

“Yeah, me!” The guy says while looking at Claire with a smirk on his face. “I think your friend just got lucky, being followed by some ninjas or getting rescued by Interpol? Are you sure she is not bluffing?” he says and takes a puff.

Claire lifts her head, “Well, nobody asked for your opinion. So you better take your messy hair somewhere else and smoke there.”

“First, you left me at the party, and now this, C’mon love, you

are breaking my heart.” says the guy with a puppy face.

“What are you even doing here, Mr Party Crasher?” Claire questions in her typical sarcastic tone.

The guy walks to her, leans on her, “Following you.” He kisses

Claire and gets back.

Daniel is standing there, being ignored. The guy winks at Daniel and walks past the two friends as he heads to the school building.

Claire and Daniel turn and see the guy walking away, “Who is that Treat?” Claire says with a heavy breath.

Claire and Daniel wait for Mr Baker to turn to the board. As soon as he turns, they both sneak in from the back door of the class, but Mr Baker stops them both. “And where do you two think

you are going?”

They both stop. Mr Baker turns. Daniel has always been afraid of Mr Baker. The big mole on his left cheekbone and the little beard on his chin always gives him creeps.

“We lost track of time, Mr Baker,” says Daniel. “Use a watch next time, young man,” he replies.

The two take their seats next to Emily and Margaret. “Where were you guys?” Emily asks.

“Got hold up b—.” Daniel says, and Claire interrupts, “By a Treat. Mmmm.”

“What Treat?” Margaret leans forward to hear the conversation.

“It was the same guy who crashed Ethan’s party last night, the one who came with five girls and then started hitting on Claire,” Daniel says with his head in his book.

“Where do you think you are going, young man?” Mr Baker asks.

The group takes out their head from the book and see the whole

class looking at the door. “Oh my… The Treat!” Claire exclaims.

The messy-haired English guy stands at the door with a bag on his shoulder and headphones on his ears. Emily looks at him. He looks back at her and turns his eyes over. “I asked where you think you are going, young man.” Mr Baker asks again. ‘The class started 20 minutes ago.”

“I was looking for the class, couldn’t find it. The halls. They are huge; I got lost.” The guy says with his eyes wide open and face all flattened.

He takes out a piece of paper from the back pocket of his pants and gives it to Mr Baker. Mr Baker read the paper and gives it back to him. “Next time, be punctual, Mr Cruise!”

He takes the paper back and walks past all the students by the end of the classroom. They all follow him through the eyes. He passes by Emily as she is looking at him just like everyone. He walks past her and winks at Claire. He sits on a chair in the back. He puts his headphones on again and presses the play button on his phone.

Claire leans back and asks, “Hey, I thought you might wanna ask

but are afraid to, so let me tell you, I am Claire.”

He takes off his headphones, and chuckles lightly and says, “I am Nathan.” Nathan takes Claire’s hand and shakes it.

He looks at Emily and sees her looking at him. Emily immediately turns and looks in her book. Nathan put on his headphones back and laid back.

The bell rings. All the students head out of the class, but Nathan is the first one to head out. Emily steps out of the ladies room and finds a sudden change in everyone’s way of looking at her. The morning glares have faded. The school has got a new hot

topic now, and that is ‘Nathan Cruise’. Everybody is whispering about him. The arrival of Nathan at Darth High spread like wildfire. Nobody knows where he is coming from or who he is, but he is the new treat to all the girls and competition to all the boys.

Emily and her friends are standing outside in the parking area by the stairs. Emily is reading her book. Margaret is organising her notes, and Claire is doing her nails when Nathan passes by and thuds into Emily. The book in Emily’s hand falls on the ground, and she hits Claire, whose nail polish spills all over Emily’s shirt. Emily holds herself together and sees Nathan going away. “Hey! The least you can do is apologise.” She yells.

Nathan turns and says, “Now we’re even.” He puts on his

glasses, jumps into his jeep and drives away.