Chapter 6: Rocky Road

Megan and Sean both Dreamed that night, and it was troubling to both of them. Sean had images of the mountain top where Megan had rescued him, thousands of snakes trying to reach him, and Megan being taken from him. Megan's Dream was just as bad. She also Dreamed of the mountain top, and relived horror of how close she felt she came to failure. At the same time, a dark mass was rushing toward her and she couldn't move fast enough to get out of its way. She could dimly see a dirt road through the dark mass with mountains in the background. And, at the same time, pain and loss and despair and darkness engulfed her. The stench of rot filled her nose. Megan could see Sean as a distant point of light in the darkness. He was screaming in loss and despair, as he was trying to reach her.

The two young Magi had similar Dreams about half the time. The other half, their Dreams were different, but they both knew their Dreams were true Dreams. The one thing their Dreams always had in common was they always came in threes. Something in the past, the present, and the future, was always included in their Dreams. Sean had been given the reason for the Dreams to always be in sets of three, in a Dream. He was told the past, present and future were the same and connected. The only difference between the past, present, and future was how static the events were. All too often, their Dreams left them feeling tired and on edge in the morning. That may have contributed to the problems they had on the second day of school.

The teens didn't drive themselves to school the next morning as planned. Scott pointed out during breakfast, that a parking pass would be needed before they drove themselves to school. Seth drove them with Martha in attendance. They parked in the visitors reserved parking area and the adults proceeded to the high school business office to take care of the paperwork for a parking pass.

Every school, no matter the grade level, has groups of students that gather according to interests, social standing, or inclinations. The high society cliques try to lord it over the other students. The nerds tend to stick together, hoping it will provide some level of protection, much like schooling fish. Jocks enjoy the physical fitness and challenge of competing as teams or individually, and associate with like minded individuals. The knuckle draggers are the ones that are impressed with their own physical prowess, and stick together because they can't impress anyone else. Members of the various cliques often cross boundaries and seem to merge with various cliques. For example, jocks and knuckle draggers are sometime indistinguishable. Evaluating the different cliques at a school is difficult because the first thing you need to do is determine the scale that would be used. Grades would seem to be the most important, but that is usually only important to their parents. Quality of clothes is important to the high society types and the world of ideas is important to the nerds. Some observers believe that knuckle draggers are rated within their group, by who can produce the most stupid idea.

The knuckle draggers at the high school may be as dumb as rocks, but they were sly and knew how to manipulate the system. One of the rules at the high school stipulated that, if someone was fighting, everyone associated with the fight went to the office. It didn't matter who was in the right or in the wrong. A truism for school fights, is that authority figures seldom see the first punch. They often see the second punch that is thrown in retaliation.

Many of the football players were unhappy about the results of the previous afternoons PE class and the football practice afterward. Bob Clancy, one of the ring leaders of the knuckle draggers, was beyond unhappy, but, he was also cautious. He knew they couldn't tackle Sean's group together. Bob had a healthy respect for AJ's fighting skills. He wasn't as aware of Scott's skills in self defense, but was cautious enough to assume they were nearly as good as AJ's.

He believed the new kid, who was smaller than the other two, might have some fighting skills. He doubted they measured up to AJ's expertise, despite what AJ said. So Sean, as the smallest male in the group, became his target. In Bob's mind, he also hoped that he could corner the pretty little blond in the process. He worked out a plan to get them separated.

The second day of school didn't start nearly as well as the first day for the young Magi. The problems started as soon as the six teens entered the school, to walk towards their lockers. They needed to pick up what they would need for their first period class.

A boy about AJ's size bumped into AJ and yelled, "Stop that!" before swinging at AJ's chin.

AJ easily dodged the swing, and the next one before pushing the boy back. The boy fell, and a teacher grabbed AJ's arm.

"To the office, both of you, now!" the teacher ordered sternly.

The boy stood and the teacher grabbed his arm before marching both of them towards the school office.

The boy looked miserable. He caught AJ's eye and silently mouthed, "Sorry," before shrugging.

Sean, Megan and the rest of their group started to follow AJ but Lilly stopped them.

"We can't help them," Lilly said. "We need to get to class. If AJ can ask for witnesses, they'll call us when we're in class."

The rest of them agreed, reluctantly, and continued to their lockers. They had nearly reached their lockers when it happened again. Scott was the target this time. Lilly was fuming as she watched the teacher march her younger brother away.

{I sampled that kids emotions, } Sean silently told Megan. {He was afraid of something. He didn't want to attack Scott but was afraid not to.}

{Any idea what's going on?} Megan asked.

{Not a clue, } Sean replied. {It couldn't be a Brujo controlling them. Scott would have smelled the corruption on them. It has to be something mundane but I can't figure out what.}

"Lilly," Megan said, turning towards her Second. "Did you smell anything?"

Scott was the 'official' smeller in the group, but Lilly had a touch of the skill, and could detect whiffs of a Brujo's corruption.

Lilly shook her head angrily as she watched her brother disappear around the corner, his arm in a teachers grip.

"I don't need to smell a skunk to know one's around," Bell said, "and I don't mean a Brujo. Something's going on and I don't like it."

"Yeah," Sean said thoughtfully. "Everyone on their toes. I think something's going on, too."

The school lockers were located in cul-de-sacs of twenty double rows of lockers. This design allowed enough lockers for all the students, but meant the lockers were out of sight of the rest of the hallway.

They were getting books from their lockers when a satisfied voice said, "Sean David Kilpatrick Flynn, I presume."

Sean looked towards the hall and saw Bob Clancy and two more guys that were nearly as large. They filled the exit from the locker space to the hall.

{So, that's what all that was about, } Sean silently said to Megan as he looked towards the hall.

"Congratulations, Bob. You can pronounce big words," Sean said approvingly.

"Yep," Bob said proudly. "I also have someone at each end of the hall causing a little disturbance so we won't be interrupted while we have a little talk."

"That's too bad," Sean said mildly before closing his locker and turning to face the three.

"Too bad for you," Bob said with a smirk.

"Too bad because it will take longer for someone to call an ambulance," Sean explained patiently.

"Hey," Megan said, shouldering her way in front of Sean. "You promised I could take care of this, the next time."

"Megan," Bell said, putting her hand on Megan's shoulder. "We're supposed to protect you. Remember?"

Megan pushed Bell's hand off her shoulder and scoffed, "That's only if I'm facing someone dangerous."

"Wait a minute! He's challenging me," Sean protested. He looked towards Bob and asked, "Isn't that what this is about? Aren't you challenging me?"

Bob looked confused but said, "Uh, yeah. I'm challenging you."

"See?" Sean asked, looking at Megan.

"It doesn't matter," Megan said stubbornly. "A promise is a promise. You promised."

Sean sighed before reluctantly saying, "Okay, but you have to promise not to hurt them too bad."

Megan shook her head and, advancing towards Bob and his friends, said, "I'll only promise not to kill them. If I break them a little, that's on them."

"We can't fight a girl," one of Bob's friends said.

"It won't be a fight," Megan promised him.

"Get out of our way so we can take care of your boyfriend," Bob ordered.

"You still have a chance to get out of our way," Megan warned as she walked forward. "You can still walk away. You won't be able to if you start something."

What happened next wasn't pretty, but it was quick. Bob tried to slap Megan. The friend that didn't object to fighting a girl tried to grab her.

Megan easily ducked under the slap and grabbed Bob's wrist as it went past. She waited until the other boy's hand touched her before lashing out with her foot, bending his knee sideways at an impossible angle. Megan continued going with the direction of Bob's swinging hand, twisting the arm until it reached the limit of its arc. Then she wrenched the arm down, twisting more as she pulled, and dislocated his shoulder. Bob bent forward, grabbing his shoulder, and sucked in a lung full of air to scream in pain. Megan met his nose and jaw with her knee as he bent forward. She didn't even need to augment her blows with talent. The simple moves she had practiced with Lian and Laoshin for most of her life were all that was needed. The other boy was rapidly backing away, his hands held up in front of him as if warding off blows. Bob's scream came out as a strangled burbling. The other boy's scream of pain was much louder and attracted a lot of attention.

Megan glared at the boy holding his hands up and pointed at a spot on the floor in front of her.

"You, stand there, and stay there," Megan ordered sternly.

The boy didn't even hesitate in jumping to the spot she pointed at, and stood there trembling.

Seth was filling out the paperwork for a parking pass and Martha was chatting with one of the secretaries. She knew a lot of the people in the school district's administration. They were both startled when AJ entered the office with another boy. A teacher gruffly told the boys to sit and wait until Mr. Casey, the assistant Principal, was available.

"AJ, what's going on?" Martha demanded.

AJ shrugged and said, "I'm here for fighting, Aunt Martha. I don't know what the fight was about, though." He was looking at the other boy quizzically while he was explaining his predicament to Martha.

The other boy hunched his shoulders and seemed to draw in on himself.

A burly, gruff looking man had stepped into the doorway and overheard the question and answer.

"Then, why were you fighting?" the gruff looking man asked. His voice sounded like gravel that had been dropped into a cars transmission.

"I just pushed him back after he swung at me a couple of times," AJ protested.

"Hi, Brent," Martha said.

"Hi, Martha, Seth," Mr. Casey replied. "I take it you're related to AJ."

"It's more honorary than a real relationship, but we claim him," Seth said with a chuckle. "I've never known him to start a fight though."

Mr. Casey looked at the other boy and asked, "Did AJ do something that caused you to swing at him?"

"No, sir," the other boy said. He sounded miserable.

"Then why did you swing at him?" Mr. Casey asked.

"I had to, sir," the boy mumbled.

The door to the office opened, and Scott was led in. The teacher had another boy by the arm too, that looked like he was shaking with fear.

"Scott!" Martha said in shock.

"Hi, Aunt Martha," Scott said in resignation. "Don't worry. I didn't hit him."

"Does something smell here?" Seth asked the room in general, but he was looking at Scott.

Scott shook his head slightly, and Seth's shoulders relaxed. Seth had been asking Scott if Brujos were involved. Scott's sense of 'smell' in detecting the evil of Brujos was much better than his dad's.

"I think so," Mr. Casey said, answering Seth's question. He hadn't picked up on the silent communication between Seth and Scott. "That's Joel Fisher," he continued. "He doesn't get in fights. Why are you in one now, Joel?" he asked.

"I was told that they would beat me to a pulp if I didn't start a fight with Scott," Joel answered. "I've seen Scott around, and I didn't think he would hurt me too bad before the fight would be stopped." He shrugged and said, "It was the lesser of two evils."

Mr. Casey looked at the boy that had started a fight with AJ and asked, "Is that what happened to you too?"

The other boy nodded miserably and said, "Yes sir," in a frightened little voice.

Martha and Seth looked at each other and, at the same time said, "Sean."

"What?" Mr. Casey asked.

AJ nodded thoughtfully and said, "That makes sense. Since last year, they wouldn't try to tackle Sean with me around. They probably separated Scott for insurance."

"Who?" Mr. Casey asked, alarm showing in his voice.

"The knuckle draggers," AJ said in disgust, shaking his head. "Man, are they in trouble now."

"Who's in trouble," Mr. Casey asked.

"Whoever is going to try to tackle our son," Seth said, grimly.

"Megan's with him," Martha said.

The office phone rang and the secretary picked it up.

"Oh, shit," Seth replied.

"What?" Mr. Casey asked. He sounded like he was having problems keeping up with the conversation that had somehow, taken a left turn.

"Mr. Casey, we have a couple of students hurt in the back hallway. Mr. Holloway said they need ambulances for two students," the secretary said, urgently breaking into the conversation.

"Megan," Seth said, his voice sounding reluctant but accepting the inevitable.

"Call the ambulance, Miss Spencer. You boys stay here," Mr. Casey ordered. "What do you mean by 'Megan'?" He asked, moving towards the door. "Do you think she was hurt?"

Seth and Martha followed him into the hall. Martha barked a laugh before answering him.

"Sean has more restraint. He might hurt them but wouldn't cause them to need an ambulance if he had time to plan his response," Martha explained. "Megan gets angry when attacked. She figures people earn what they get and doesn't really care how bad she hurts them."

They heard the screams of pain before they reached the crowd of students.

"Get to class," Mr. Casey bellowed. "Anyone marked tardy will get an unexcused absence," he promised. "Get."

The crowd of students broke up rapidly, leaving two boys on the floor of the hallway. Another student, a boy, was standing in the opening to the lockers. A teacher and Sean were on one knee beside the incapacitated students. Sean looked up at Mr. Casey's voice. He stood and stepped back when he saw Seth and Martha.