Heroes

Chapter Three

I waited in the cab for about three minutes, trying to calm the angry cab driver by making light small talk; it was better than nothing.

I turned around in the seat to check out my friends again. They were both sleeping soundly, their breathing seeming to be regular. Suddenly I started laughing. Tara had the most amusing expression on her face. She looked like she was having a very good dream and her mouth was curved into a goofy grin. I couldn’t help but laugh; she just looked so freakin’ funny. I held my stomach, I was laughing so hard.

Keigo came out of the clinic, with, the one and only, Isshin Kurosaki. I smiled to myself. He was such a moron.

Mr. Kurosaki came over to the car. “What seems to be the problem here?” he said.

“Um…” I said, feeling a bit awkward. “My friends are knocked out cold and I don’t know what to do.”

He looked at me, then my friends, and smiled. “Well, that’s no problem! We here at Kurosaki Clinic can take care of any minor injuries you or your friends might have! Here, let’s get them inside before it gets too chilly. I’m Isshin, by the way. Kurosaki, if it wasn’t obvious enough.” he stuck his hand out to me, and I gladly shook it. His hand was rough and large, like a lumberjack’s.

I smiled as I shook his hand. “The name’s Adel. And these are Tara and Babs.” I motioned to them.

Isshin and Keigo helped me get the girls into the house and onto stretcher-beds. As we got in I examined the place: everything was the same, event Masaki’s memorial poster was there. I smiled as we moved into a separate room where the stretchers were placed. I sat in the middle of them, watching as Isshin carefully examined my friends.

“Well,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “They’ve got some minor cuts and bruises, but they should be fine. All we have to do now is wait for them to wake up!”

I smiled wide. “That’s great! Thanks so much, Mr. Kurosaki!”

“Isshin!” He pouted like a little kid, and I laughed.

“Sorry. Isshin.”

He smiled before heading towards the phone hanging on the hook on the wall. “So, don’t you think we should call their parents and tell them what happened? What’s their number?”

I suddenly tense up. What was I supposed to tell him? I forgot, we were still just fifteen-year-old girls in the middle of Japan with nowhere to go…crap.

“Uh…” was my ingenious response. “Um…uh…no! You…y-you can’t do that!”

He frowned, his finger poised in front of the number keypad. “Why not?”

“Be…be-because…we…are…running away! Yeah, that’s it! We’ve run away from home!”

He looked a bit shocked, but put the phone back on the hookup. “Why did you run away?”

“Well, you see,” I said, trying to make up the best lie this world had ever known, “our parents were abusive. They beat us, physically and verbally, and they constantly threatened to kill us. Eventually we just had enough of it. We couldn’t take it anymore and we ran away from home, from America to Nippon (A/N: Japan), where we knew we wouldn’t be found. And so we ended up here….”

He looked as if he was about to cry, showing that my lie worked. I smiled to myself. Success.

“That…that’s so SAD!!!” Isshin exclaimed, and threw himself at me into a huge bear hug. “Oh, you poor things! Please, let me offer you shelter here! We don’t have much, but there’s a spare room back there that you’re welcome to use! And we’ll get you enrolled in school and everything!”