Spy School: New Students

Part 2

"Ben, wake up"

"Beeen"

I woke up in a cold sweat with voices coming from outside my door. I stood up and changed into my clothes as fast as possible, ignoring the, "Just woken up" stink coming from me. I opened the door and saw a sight that shocked me... Erica.

She looked right into my eyes with the most relieved expression I have ever seen. She leapt into my arms and kissed me. I couldn't believe this was happening, I swore on my life that she was dead from the car accident! Erica started saying ever so soothingly, "I love you Be-" I woke up, a second time. This time I could hear the chatter of kids heading to the cafeteria for breakfast. "That was a dream" I told myself, putting my hands on my head and regretting ever going to bed.

I picked myself up off my bed and started brushing my teeth. The thought of Erica.... dead and never coming back was enough to make my cry for 5 hours, but I tried my hardest to stay tough this time. To distract myself, I tried recalling the events from 2 months ago.

I was sitting in class sulking when Hannah tapped me on the back and dropped a note on my seat. It said, "Meet me at the park after school".

5 hours later it was finally time and I was really excited for this one. I ran to my room, showered,  sprayed some cologne, and straightened my hair.

It was finally time. Finally time to move on. Finally time to let go of Erica...

I hurried down to the park on the corner of the street, and saw Hannah. She was sitting on a bench, looking around probably for me. I started my way over to her when I saw 2 guys standing near the playground which had 3 little kids on it.

I estimated that they were between the ages of 5 and 7. The guys looked like 2 goofy dads talking about the weather but something seemed off about them, I assumed that it was just because I was nervous of meeting Hannah and moved on.

Once I was out of the trees, Hannah spotted me. She ran over to me and hugged me. This caught me off guard and I panicked thinking she might have mistaken me for someone else.

"Ben! Thank goodness you made it!" She said with a relieved face.

"Hey! So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked, blushing. I caught a whiff of lavenders and smiled to myself.

She leaned in close to my ear, which gave me goosebumps, and she told me in a soothing voice, "Let's talk somewhere else"

I nodded eagerly, phased by her in every way. She grabbed my arm which instantly made me redder than a tomato and led me over to a corner of the park. It was up against a wall, which had some houses on the other side.

She was about to start talking but I needed to check something first. I pulled out a bug sensor and ran it over the wall, to make sure no one was watching us. Next I checked around in the bushes for any audio bugs but came up empty.

Hannah must have been slightly impressed because out of the corner of my eye I could see her watching me in amazement. However when I was done she shifted her expression back to being casual quicker than I could see.

"So what did you call me over here for?" I asked curiously.

"I wanted to ask who Erica was..." She  told me hesitantly.

This caught me off guard because me and Zoe had gone to a secluded part of the hallway to talk. I would have 100% noticed if someone was next to us, especially if that someone was Hannah.

"How do you know about that? I didn't see you anywhere near us..." I asked carefully.

"I put-"

Hannah got cut off by a scream coming from the playground, a little kids scream. She looked at me with a worried face and we both took off in the direction of the playground but saw a man running full sprint towards a car.

There was a little kid behind him, that was on the verge of tears, chasing him screaming, "BECCA" over and over again. I assumed that Becca was his sister or friend, and this dude had snagged her and ran.

I yelled to Hannah to take care of the little kid while I got the guy.

There was no response.

I yelled it again while still sprinting towards the man but still, no response. Right as I was about to turn around to check what was going on, I heard very loud thuds closing in behind me.

I could tell this was not Hannah, but the second man who I saw at the playground. Instead of facing him head on, I simply side stepped him and he fell face first in front of me.

I checked behind me but saw no one. I was confused as to where Hannah could have gone because I literally saw her 5 seconds ago.

This was where I messed up...

In my head, I had started a mental timer for how long I had before this guy was back on his feet. However I forgot this was no ordinary guy considering the stunt he had just pulled off. Before I knew it, he was back up on his feet and he was mad.

You could practically see the smoke coming out of his ears. He charged at me again, not learning his lesson the first time, and I extended my leg to trip him. He saw this coming and jumped over it, while grabbing me by the neck.

He was double my size and stronger than I thought he would be, so he was able to hold me there, slowly choking me. I used a trick I had learned from Erica and kicked him in the stomach. He loosened his grip on me and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. He was curled up in a ball groaning in pain, but I was too mad to finish the job.

"Where is Hannah??" I accidentally yelled out loud in frustration.

"She's right here Ben" I turned around and saw a handgun pointed right at Hannah. It was held by a woman with sunglasses and a suit on. Hannah was looking at me with pleading eyes screaming, "Please, get me out of here"

I looked right into Hannah's eyes and told her to not worry. I looked around at my surroundings behind my glasses to try and find something that I could use to my advantage. I spotted a giant tree branch behind her and started forming a plan.

"You got me" I told her in the saddest tone I could think of. I kneeled down to the ground with my arms on my head and pretended to surrender. She started stepping slowly towards me, remaining vigilant. My plan was to jump up at the last moment and push her as far as possible to either knock her down or snap her head against the branch. However Hannah thought we were doing something where she was involved.

The moment the woman took her eyes off of Hannah, Hannah ran at her and pushed her forward. The woman stumbled towards me, and I thought it was fine, until I heard a click.

Time seemed to slow down as I knew she had just shot and I knew the bullet was heading towards me.

I started to think about how Erica suffered the same consequences as me when I felt an immense pain in my ribs.

It felt like someone had poured 5 gallons of gasoline on that spot and lit it on fire.

2 seconds after the pain, I was falling. I didn't know where I was falling and I didn't know if anyone was gonna catch me.

All I knew is that I would meet Erica soon.

Soon.