Taken

Chapter 19

RIKKI

September 11, 2013 9:00 a.m.

"Ah," I gasped as I woke up from another nightmare. I hadn't slept well the night before, waking up every other hour from nightmares about being whipped by Jeff.

After about a minute, I realized that I was the first one awake, and neither Jeff nor Carlos had come to wake us up. That was unusual and slightly frightening.

"Should I wake up the others or let them sleep?" I wondered to myself.

I decided to let the others sleep, so I climbed down from the top bunk as quietly as I could and decided to try text someone on my iPhone again. There was no service, as usual, so I gave up trying.

As I angrily put my iPhone away, I heard someone come up to me.

"Hey," Kade said. "No service still?"

"Nope," I replied, still a little frustrated.

"It'll be okay, we'll find a way out," Kade assured me.

"You really believe that?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I do. You have to believe in something, or else there's basically no chance that it'll happen. If you believe in something, then you're halfway there already."

"You know, that actually makes sense. You're pretty smart, Kade."

"Me? Smart? What about you? You make the A honor roll every semester," said Kade pointedly.

"Okay, first of all who actually reads the honor rolls? Second of all, I'd like to point out that you make the A honor roll every semester, too."

"Um, to reply to your first point, you just admitted that you read the honor roll, too," Kade smirked.

"Dang it," I replied with a smile.

"Well, even the smartest people have their faults."

"True, we can't all be perfect," I replied.

"Yeah, like the time I laughed along with the other guys when you and the other freshmen got pranked," Kade said sadly.

I sighed. "Fifty cartons of eggs thrown all over the entire freshmen class. We all smelled disgusting for the rest of the day, plus all of our clothes were basically ruined. My mom at least managed to save my favorite t-shirt."

"The prank wasn't my idea, but I should've said something. I shouldn't have laughed at you guys, either. I'm not that kind of person."

"Then why did you laugh?" I asked him.

"Well, I guess I didn't want the other guys to laugh at me. It's a school tradition to prank the freshmen, but I think we went a little overboard. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, I forgive you. It wasn't really your fault, anyway," I said.

"Thanks, and I really am sorry. I wish there was some way I could make it up to you."

"That's okay you don't have..." I started.

"Rikki," Adam interrupted. "What are we gonna do today?"

I gave Kade a look that said, "We'll talk later," and said out loud to Adam, "Well, Adam, we're going to do the exact same thing we've done ever since we got here; sit and wait.

"Oh, okay," he replied.

"Adam, sometimes I wonder about you," I said with an eye roll.

"Rikki, I hear people talking outside," said Adam.

"What are they saying," I asked as Adam pressed his ear up against the rough wooden door.

"Um, I can't really tell. Come over here." I went over to the door and pressed my ear against it.

"You stupid little piece of crap," I heard Jeff yell. "Why were you leaving the house? I specifically told you not to leave the house until I got back from the grocery store!"

"Um, I was just going to feed the dog," said Troy, obviously lying.

"What were you really going to do?" asked Jeff angrily.

"I just told you, I was going to feed the dog!" cried Troy unconvincingly.

"Can I say something?" asked Carlos in his scarily low voice.

"What, Carlos?" snapped Jeff.

"Troy told me that he was sneaking away to free his little hostage girlfriend," said Carlos with an evil smile.

"I did not!" claimed Troy, but the tone of his voice gave him away.

"Oh, so you like our little hostage? You like her enough to free her? I don't know about you, Carlos, but I think that Troy is a threat to our plan. What do you think?" asked Jeff.

"I agree that the boy is a threat. I think we should lock him in the dining hall until he shapes up," Carlos smirked.

"That sounds like a great idea," replied Jeff.

"Um, no, that doesn't sound like a great idea," panicked Troy.

"Carlos, take him away," said Jeff.

"No!" protested Troy as his voice faded away.

I moved away from the door and said grimly, "Troy was coming to let us go, but they caught him before he could get here. Now they're going to lock him in the dining hall."

"Oh, well that's just great. Someone actually tries to get us out of here, but then he gets caught and locked up. Typical," said Adam angrily.

"Adam, don't be so angry. Maybe Troy will escape and let us out," said Kelsi.

"I highly doubt that. Jeff and Carlos might be evil, but they're definitely not stupid. Well, they are stupid, but not when it comes to locking people up. They'll make sure Troy can't escape from the dining hall. They want our parents' money too much," said Kade.

"Kade's right. If Jeff and Carlos want to lock up Troy, they'll make sure to do a good job," I said.

"Well what do we do now?" asked Kelsi.

"We do the same thing we've been doing this whole time," said Kade. "Whatever those guys want us to do."