Peter smiled, "I look forward to that. Even if we do go skateboarding, we will definately do hoops in between. "sides I can show my manly side with extra action," He chuckled tohimself. "Haven't lost my craziness." He paused. "But seriously we will either only shoot hoops or do both hoops and skateboarding."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Justin held her close. "Sad Johnny hasn't seen."
~~~~~~~~~~~
The police officer said, "You are under arrest for assaulting a woman." He read more of the Miranda rights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johnny knelt down to the little girl. "I won't tell anyone, I promise. But, maybe we should call the cops?"

As they where exiting the barn, Maya smelled smoke. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, " Is thaet smoke?"

Ted groaned. "Not again." Rushing outside, they saw that the chicken coop was on fire and there was smoke curling out from behind. "Ya stay here," he yelled. When he started jogging to the chicken house, he realized thet she was following him. Turning around, she ran into him.

Blushing, she righted herself and yelled back at him. "I ain't gonna jest sit there and watch a some'n' burn."

"Yes, ya are. It's too dangerous."

"Then why is ya doin' it?"

"Because it's my uncles. And it's the right thing ta do."

"Then let me do it. I like doin' the right thing, too," she argued back.

"No!" He pulled her back inside the barn and sat her down in the staw. He got up close in her face. "I don't want ya gittin' hurt and it bein' me fault. Ya stay here no matter what. 'Kay?"

He had such a serious look in his face, she didn't move to get up. He didn't leave."I promise." She said it and meant it.

That was enough for him. Calling his uncle, he left the barn and ran to the chicken coop.

As Maya watched the two men fight the fire, she heard a noise outside the barn. It sounded like someone walking by the barn. Looking outside the barn door, she saw a man wearing dirty clothes, and what looked like a beer bottle in his hand. A bird flew out of the barn and startled the man. He looked where the bird had come--and he saw her.

In her next class, Miley thought abotu the friend she made. She really wanted ot get to know her better, but it was intterupted by schoolyard bullies. She prayed for Peter, then got out her notebooks for class.

As the drunk man rushed toward her, Maya scrambled back into the barn, shut the door, and lend against it, hoping to keep the stranger out. She didn't weigh enough nor did she have enough strength to keep him out, and she knew it. But the stranger didn't come after her. Maya didn't even hear him outside. She moved away from the door. She didn't trust the intruder. He could be anywhere. When she heard nothing but the men finishing putting out the fire, she heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe he had gone. Hearing a window crash and a bottle thrown inside, she started. The bottle had a beer drenched rag inside, and the rag was lit, but it was already too late, it had caught fire. The floor was lined with straw, and the straw caught quickly. Before Maya could think straightly, the barn was ingulfed in flames--and she was caught inside.

Declan rushed down the hall way, slid to a halt at the door to his music class, and heard music coming from inside. Declan smiled good, they are just playing music while they wait for Mr. Randall. Declan opened the door quickly, and began playing the trumpet notes for the song that they had been playing. After they finished, Declan spread out his arms, "No need to be waiting, the party has arrived."
"I believe they were waiting for me," Mr. Randall said coming in behind Declan, "Good playing by the way, Declan."
"Thanks, Mr. Randall." Declan said.
"You're welcome." Mr. Randall said, "Alright, everybody sit in your seats, and take your music out."

Realizing she was in danger, Maya yelled for help. The bottle had been thrown across the floor, landing near the door, catching the straw nearest to the door on fire, blocking her exit. She sisn't havemuch time to acted. Starting to climb up the loft ladder, she reconsidered. If she was on in when it caught fire, she could be hurt, or worse.

"Help! Some one help me!" she yelled until she want hoarse. She needed to get low. Crawling on her hands and knees, she crawled across the floor to an empty stall, closing the door behind her. She was loosing all the oxygen, she needed more. As she went dizzy with not enough oxygen, she heard noices outside the barn, then fell into a heap--unconsious.

Peter sat with Brian and Jen in his math class. He studied the text book, trying to figure out the square root of y. He scratched his head, waiting for an answer.

See the smoke coming from the front of the barn door, Ted called his uncle as he ran to the barn. When he didn't see Brooklyn anywhere, his heart jumped into his throat. She was inside the barn. The realization made him sick to the stomache. If only he hadn't told her to stay in the barn. She may be hurt inside; not able to get out on her own.

Rushing to the barn, Ted threw open the doors, scaling his hands as he did so. He was met by billowing smoke and angry red flames. He started to go into the flames when he felt his uncle pull him back. "It's too late. I'm callin' the fire department. Back away," his Uncle Brian yelled above the crackling and popping of the fire.

"No! She's in there."

The only thing keeping Logan's head from plopping down hard on his desk was his arm, propped up precariously in between like a post under a mountain chalet. It was all he could do to keep his eyes from drooping shut while the teacher droned on and on about noble gases and the periodic table of elements; the teacher was a tall, skinny man, with no hair to speak of above his forehead and a surplus of the stuff on his upper lip, and an enormous Adam's apple. He had a voice which, when combined with the monotonous pounding of raindrops on the window, would have the ability to put to sleep even the most rambunctious caffeine-filled person on a sugar-high. Logan, of course, had an attention span shorter than most inch-worms, so clearly, he couldn't be expected to last much longer. Hope it quits raining so we can skateboard later, he thought, and that was the last conscious thought he remembered.

*PLOP!*

The teacher yelled, "Something wrong, Logan?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter licked his lips, finally finshed answering the questions. He prayed they were right.
Jen whispered, "Hey. THanks for earlier."
Peter whispered back, "Anytime."
He loved Jen and hated the thought of someone hurting her.
Jen grinned at him mischeviously "And you still have your hair."
Peter chuckled, "Thank goodness"

Logan didn't answer the teacher right away, quite satisfied to let his face lie still on his open textbook.

"Logan James!" Mr. Stillman, the Teacher, exclaimed louder, and suddenly his voice wasn't so dull. Logan's head shot up; his eyes struggled to focus while his mind tried to figure out what just happened. I... I fell asleep in class? He thought, and mentally kicked himself.

Even though he felt stupid, however, he didn't let anyone else know it. He sat up straight, cleared his throat, and put on his most innocent face. "Yes, Mr. Stillman?"

"Having trouble staying awake?" Mr. Stillman asked, slightly perturbed.

Logan shook his head. "Nope. Not really."

"Come now, don't lie. Now, if my class is so boring that you can't stay awake while seated, you may stand on your feet for the remainder of the class. If, however, you think my class is interesting enough to keep you awake, then you can stay seated and we shall continue." The teacher smirked slightly.

Logan sighed. "You leave me no choice, sir." He stood up, and motioned to the other students. "You heard him, guys. He said stand if his class is boring." And then, he added, mimicking Mr. Stillman's exact tone, "Come now, don't lie." None of the other students moved; but Mr. Stillman did. He marched right up to Logan, and stuck his index finger firmly in his face.

"Don't think I can't send you to the principal's office on the first day of school," He said. "I will not tolerate disrespect in my classroom. Understood?"

Logan thought for a moment, and then took a seat. "Yeah, I understand."

"Good. Consider this your first strike - and in my ballgame, you only get two of those." Mr. Stillman turned and walked back to his desk, while Logan mentally pondered his little metaphor. Strikes, baseball... hm, that was actually pretty clever.

"Now, as I was saying before Logan's interruption: the Atomic number of any given element..." And the droning continued.

Waiting for the teacher to pick up assingmetns, Peter began writing on a piece of paper: his name was Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he wasn't a bad sort and DID NOT DESERVE IT!" He looked at what he wrote, then giggled to himself.
Jen noticed PEter trying to hold in laughter and she turned to him, letting him show her the paper. She chuckled, then whispered, "Confusing Voyage of Dawn Treader and Silver Chair are we?"
Peter shrugged. "Hey, it needed to be written." He gave her a playful grin.

"Who?"

"A girl. She was in the barn when I went ta check on the horses. We gotta git her outa there."

Rushing into the burning barn, Ted's gaze swept the barn clockwise. Nothing. He then checked each of the stalls, finding her in the third one. He fumbled with the stall door in his rushing. "Brooklyn? Brooklyn!"

Kneeling beside Brooklyn, he shook her shoulder and confirmed that she was unconsious from not enough oxygen. He checked her for any broken bones or injuries.Wrapping her up in one of the horse blackets lying on the floor in the stall, he swept he into his arms and headed for the door.

Ted ran into his uncle on the way out. "We're clear. Git tha fire department," he yelled above the roaring fire. Running quickly out of the barn with Brooklyn in his arms, Ted laid her gently on the ground, quite a ways from the barn.

Unbuttoning the top button on ther shirt to let her breathe easier, Ted brushed her brown hair away from her face. It curled around his finger nicely. It looked to be natural. She not only had a beauty outwardly, but she had a beauty inwardly, from what he had learned about her in their short aquaintance.

She still wasn't waking up. She was limp and it scared him. She didn't need anything else tramatic. She had had that all her life, from what she had told him. Maybe she would never wake up. The thought made his blood run cold.

And jest when I meet a nice girl out here.

School had ended and it was still raining, so Peter turned to Brian, Logan and Jen. "Looks like just shooting hoops today. We can do skateboarding tomorrow."

Logan spent the remainder of the class trying hard not to fall asleep again and also trying not to make eye contact with Mr. Stillman, who shot him a frigid glare about every ten minutes. Logan tried to follow along in his textbook, hoping beyond hope that he’d remember at least some of this stuff later on, but his mind couldn’t tune out the soft, slight ticking of the wall clock that signaled the passing seconds; each one seemed much longer than it should be. Mr. Stillman’s voice continued to drone, the clock continued to tick , Logan’s brain continued to wander, and the rain outside continued to drip without detectable rhythm. Logan made up his mind then and there: Chemistry = Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

And then, suddenly, like a miracle engineered in heaven to spread light in the face of darkness, the class was over. Mr. Stillman’s voice continued to drone as he ordered them to put away their books and detailed their assignments for the week, but it was suddenly more bearable now that the light at the end of the tunnel was in sight. Logan sighed with fervent relief as the class was finally dismissed, and he stepped out of Mr. Stillman’s mind-numbing dungeon and into the comparative Promise Land of the hall.

“Freedom at last,” Logan said with a grin.

A class or two later, school was over entirely. Logan stared with a downcast heart at the rain pouring down outside. This was it, then. The verdict was in: no skateboarding today. Logan retrieved his back pack and his skateboard from his locker. "Guess I won't be riding you today," he said glumly.

A few minutes later he caught up with Jen, Peter, and Brian. "Looks like just shooting hoops today. We can do skateboarding tomorrow," Peter said. Logan sighed, and glared at Brian, as if the rain were his fault. Of course, it wasn't; but Logan wanted to be upset at someone.

"Yeah, I guess," Logan said, and then shrugged his dissapointment away. "Well, that's cool; I'm pretty good at basketball too. This will be fun."

Emmy approached the group, and stood next to her brother. "Hi guys," she said, and was going to comment on the weather, but knowing that Logan was probably not happy about the weather, she decided not to bring it up.