Part 128: Kung Fu Fighting

Day 75: Friday, November 29

Chapter 1

Heather inwardly rejoiced when she saw Ryan leave the sideline bench during an attention-catching play on the football field and sneak off towards the boy's locker room. There was a chain-link fence around the edge of the football field. He walked right along the fence to reduce the chance of being observed, but she saw him.

She thought, Thank God I was watching Ryan - I almost missed his move. Good thing I've been so careful to keep my eye on him, and he didn't even know it, the idiot. He's obviously up to no good, and I'll bet dollars to donuts that he's plotting against Alan. This is my chance to shine! My Sir will be so proud of me when he finds out how I single-handedly stopped Ryan's plan - he's bound to lift the 'no ass' ban and give me a good solid pounding back there. Ooooh God, just thinking about it gets me hot, and it fucking itches soooo much. I can't believe how much I need him to stuff his yummy fat pole up my butt, like he did yesterday!

I'd better get going. Who knows what those assholes have planned. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of his buddies; where the hell are they? Why is he going along the fence; it only goes toward the locker rooms? A-ha! That's where they must be!

She mumbled something to Joy about having to go pee, grabbed her cell phone from where she'd stashed it under the cheer megaphone, and then quietly slipped away. Luckily, Heather could use the restroom in the girl's locker room, since she was on the squad and the public restrooms were on the other side of a fence, so it didn't look odd to anyone that she was headed in the same direction as Ryan.

In fact, Ryan didn't really care if she followed or not, so long as it was just her. He had watched her, as well as Amy and Katherine, eye him and the other members of his gang on the bench from time to time. He figured that Amy and Katherine wouldn't follow him, judging from the way others had been keeping an eye on them since they'd arrived at school. They knew they could be used as bait and shouldn't just wander off to investigate something. Janice and Joy were acting very protective and obviously had been clued in to the situation at least somewhat.

Heather, on the other hand, was a free agent and potentially dangerous. But Ryan knew her well enough to know that she loved the spotlight and thought her shit didn't stink. If she saw him wander off, she was the type to try to fix things herself. She would never even consider working with others or calling for help. Having already calculated that she was the one cheerleader likely to follow him, he had arranged for his girlfriend, Rebecca, to slow Heather down.

His occasional backward glances confirmed that she started following him after saying only a few words to Joy. The other cheerleaders were busy with their cheers and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Not yet, at least. He was wearing his full football uniform even though he was benched for the game, but he also had a cell phone hidden away. It started to ring and he pulled it out.

It was Ivan, another member of Ryan's gang and a wide receiver on the football team. His season had ended two weeks earlier when he injured his big toe. It wasn't a serious injury, and he could still walk and even run just fine. But he couldn't plant his foot properly to run routes, and his toe would take months to heal, so his season was over and he wasn't required to suit up or appear on the field. This freed him to help with Ryan's plot while the other remaining members of his gang had to remain on the bench or even take part in the game. Ivan was also serving as the lookout. He was the one positioned to see if and when Alan left the stands, and his first call to Ryan as Alan headed to the bathroom had set the plot in motion.

Now he was calling a second time. He told Ryan, "He's right where we want him. Christine's still with him. They're headed to the bathroom and they're all alone. There's absolutely nobody else around."

"Good. Lure them away. Just remember, don't hurt her too much. No visible bruises if you can help it."

"Right. Hurry here!"

"I'm on it."

Ryan was almost to the boy's locker room. As soon as he hung up, he speed-dialed Rebecca, who was waiting a short distance away in the girl's locker room. She was on a number of sports teams during the year and her presence there would not seem out of place.

As she flipped open her phone, Ryan said to her, "Becky? Heather's coming. She's following me."

Rebecca replied, "Just her?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry; I'll stall her."

He asked, "You've got the door taken care of?"

"Don't worry; I've got it."

"The door is locked, right?"

"Yes, already," Rebecca huffed.

"Good. Stall her. Do whatever it takes to keep her there. She can be very determined. And she's like a hundred feet behind me. So get ready!"

The football field was surrounded by a chain-link fence in anticipation of events where there would be a charged admission, so people couldn't sneak in or out. It so happened that there were virtually no such events, since it was a challenge to get a good crowd even for free, but nonetheless the field only had a few access points. The boy's and girl's locker rooms were one of the few ways to get through.

Heather knew this, and thought, Why would they use the locker room? That doesn't make sense! But wait ... Ryan's just going to pass through. No worries, though. I'll just sneak through the girls' locker room and then follow him so I can be in the middle of the action and get the big reward. They think they're smarter than me, Heather Morgan? HA! They're so pathetic!

Sure enough, Ryan walked briskly until he got through the door of the boy's locker room. Then he broke into a run through the building and out the other side. Once he was back outside, he started running even faster as he bee-lined to the ambush spot.

Heather walked briskly until she got through the door of the girl's locker room, but then she stopped. She saw Rebecca standing there, obviously waiting for her.

Rebecca stepped forward. "Heather! I'm so glad you're here. I've got some very important information. I think my boyfriend Ryan is up to something no good, and I think I know what it is. You've got to help!" Her plan was to stall Heather for as long as possible with a false confession about Ryan.

Heather, however, wasn't buying it. What's Rebecca doing here? She's Ryan's girlfriend; she has to be in on this, the bitch! I don't know what "this" is just yet, but I'm gonna find out! If she thinks she can stop me, she has another thing coming. NOBODY gets in my way!

She replied brusquely, "That's nice. Tell me about it later," and started to hurry past her.

But Rebecca stepped right into Heather's path. "No! You've gotta listen. This is serious!"

Heather took a moment to assess the situation. Rebecca knows she is no match for me; after all, who is? She must be stalling for time, trying to keep me from going through the locker room. Has she blocked the doors? Probably. Shit, she could have even locked 'em! By the time I get that all worked out, Ryan'll be long gone.

So Heather just said, "This is bullshit," and hurried back out of the building.

Rebecca followed her out, calling, "Wait! Wait!" But Heather wasn't listening. She watched as Heather ran from the entrance to the girl's locker room to the nearby entrance to the boy's locker room. (In fact, it was all part of the same building, but there were no interior connections between the two sections.) She was amazed as she watched Heather open the door to the boy's locker room and rush inside.

Rebecca had no idea what Ryan was really up to because he had told her as little as possible for security reasons. All she knew was that Ryan wanted her to stall Heather, giving her the outline of a bullshit story to tell Heather, and that he had her make some fake screams which he'd recorded. She didn't even know about the feud against Alan. The taboo of going into the boy's locker room, though, was too strong for her to just rush in there, especially since she didn't know if that was what Ryan would want her to do, and she couldn't get out the other side of the girl's locker room quickly because of the obstacles she'd put in place to block Heather.

Still standing at the top of the steps leading into the girl's locker room, she pulled out her cell phone and called Ryan for further instructions. But the phone rang and rang and Ryan didn't answer.

However, Rebecca hadn't been completely unsuccessful. Heather quickly made it through the boy's locker room without seeing a soul. She burst out the other side and looked around for Ryan. But he'd had just enough of a head start to foil her: she couldn't see or hear any sign of him.

She was pissed.

But she kept her cool, and thought, Okay, where would he go? She looked around. A short distance in front of her was the heart of the school, where all the classes and administrative offices were. She knew those would all be locked up. Alan. Alan. Ryan has to be after Alan. Alan wouldn't be that way. He wouldn't be over by the parking lots, either. Where would he be? What if he went to the bathroom or something like that? Oh shit!

The spectator stands lined the west side of the football field, and there was a public bathroom just to the west of that. She broke into a fast run in that direction, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of Ryan as she went.

However, precious time had been lost.

Chapter 2

Alan and Christine were making their way to the men's restroom. The stands rose up to a good height, and most of the area underneath it was unused, but covered by a concrete wall with little more than beams and rafters on the inside. The underside was, however, where men's and ladies' restrooms had been built. Alan and Christine had to walk down some steep stairs to get from the top of the stands back to ground level.

Their leaving the stands was spotted by Ivan, Ryan's teammate, who had been watching them and who immediately alerted Ryan.

Alan walked casually, noting how Christine was looking around warily and walking like she expected to get jumped from behind at any moment. I can't believe how serious Christine is about all of this. I mean, I appreciate the help, but she needs to take a chill pill. Sure, half time or after the game, we should worry. But I just saw Ryan and his whole gang sitting on the bench! Besides, we're within easy shouting distance of over a hundred people. When she gets tense like this, then I get tense. Maybe some jokes will help her relax just a bit.

He asked, "Did you hear the one about the blonde who tried to buy some orange juice?"

Christine sighed and rolled her eyes. She tried to show displeasure at Alan's blonde jokes, even though she actually liked them. "No," she replied.

Alan grinned. "She stood there at the store for two hours just staring. Do you know why?"

As smart as Christine was, she wasn't particularly good at figuring out jokes or coming up with her own on the fly. She was forced to ask, "No. Why?"

"Because the word written on the box was 'concentrate'!"

Christine groaned. But she'd figured Alan would joke like this and she had prepared some jokes of her own. As they slowly walked down the stairs so she could look around carefully, she said, "There's only one thing dumber than your dumb blondes, and that's tit men. And you know why: they're always thinking about boobs. Why, I knew this one tit man, he was so obsessed about breasts that it took him THREE HOURS to watch 60 Minutes!"

Alan laughed as they reached the bottom of the stairs. He stopped and stared hard at Christine while continuing to smile. He brought his face right up to hers, as if he was trying to intimidate her, but in fact they both knew that he was just playing around. "So. That's the way it's gonna be, huh? You're gonna fight fire with fire?"

"Yep," she replied defiantly, going along with his mock tough-guy tease. Or at least she tried to act defiant, but she broke into a big smile. She knew she should be more mindful of danger in her surroundings, but she was having a hard time thinking about that when Alan's lips were so close to hers. His face was so near that his chest was pressing hard into hers. She could feel her nipples growing hard as her spongy big tits practically enveloped his muscular chest.

He thought, My God, she is actually pushing her big tits into me. Whew! This is getting hard to take. She feels so good, I want to rip her blouse open and grab her luscious melons and ... No, no, I can't think like that. I have to keep her safe from my debauched lifestyle.

Still, he couldn't resist leaning in closer, pressing their chests even closer together. He teased her some more just to prolong their contact. "So every time I tell a dumb-blonde joke, you're gonna tell me a dumb-tit-man joke?"

"Yep!" She was still maintaining a defiant stance and pose, but inside she was swooning and melting. Oh my God! Is he gonna kiss me? I think he might kiss me! What if he kisses me?! What should I do?! She was contemplating closing her eyes and puckering her lips.

But all of a sudden, he just said, "Okay, fair enough," and pulled away. He'd realized that she might accidentally brush up against his growing erection, and he didn't want things to go that far.

Christine was stunned (and disappointed) by his withdrawal, and immediately looked around. She half expected a group of masked men holding baseball bats to be standing behind her, but the coast was clear. In fact, there wasn't a single person to be seen anywhere. That was dumb, she thought. I can't lose my focus! Not here, not now.

A bit more miffed at herself than at him, she barked testily, "What was THAT all about?"

He was smiling from ear to ear, greatly enjoying the contact and the banter. "What was what about?"

"All that leaning in close and practically touching noses. Was that just some kind of cheap excuse to feel my chest against yours?"

"Yep!" he admitted proudly. "After all, you said it: I'm a tit man."

"Grrr!" she stomped a few feet away huffily. But on the inside, she loved the attention. Her heart was still pounding from the near kiss. She'd always hated her over-endowment, since her breasts had always been a tremendous athletic inconvenience to her rather than an asset to be cherished, but now she was having second thoughts about that. She'd also never really thought of her breasts as powerful erogenous zones, as fingering her own nipples didn't do much for her. But now she was rethinking that, too. Her nipples were hard and even tingling, just from his verbal and visual attention.

The two of them walked in silence towards the men's room for a few paces. Christine was again wearing her intense frown of deep thought, and trying to ignore her arousal.

At this point, Alan realized he'd probably been a little too cavalier about the whole situation, given the enemies he had. Wouldn't it be ironic if I go to the bathroom and a bunch of thugs come out of nowhere and beat me up? I can't just make this problem go away by pushing it out of my mind. Maybe she's too vigilant, but I'm probably not vigilant enough. There needs to be a balance. He looked around carefully and was relieved to see that the coast was clear.

Then she muttered, "You're a hopeless case, you know that?"

"Yep!" he admitted proudly. "Did I tell you why the dumb blonde sold her car?"

"No, but hold that thought, boob brain. We're at the men's room already. Can you hurry up so we can get out of here?"

"Sheesh. Okay, fine." He was going to be sarcastic, but realized that she was just trying to help him and he should be more appreciative of that.

"Just GO already!" She tapped her foot impatiently. "And yell if you have a problem."

He couldn't help but tease her some more, "Okay. But maybe you'd better come in, just to be on the safe side. That way, I don't have to yell. And it's probably better if you hold it for me while I pee, so I can remain fully alert to any danger."

She started to blush a deep red. "You wish."

He continued to tease, "Actually, I do."

She pushed him hard in the chest, sending him a couple of feet closer to the bathroom door. "GO, already!" She pushed him mostly to get him into the bathroom before he said anything more embarrassing, and even more arousing.

He was having a fun time. He walked into the bathroom and carefully checked the stalls, because he knew that's what she would want him to do. The coast was clear. Then he walked to the urinal and started to pee. He finished quickly and washed his hands.

When he walked back out, he sighed heavily, as if he'd just completed a difficult task. "Boy, I don't know how I made it through that. Especially the hand-washing part. It was all ... like ... complicated!" He gesticulated wildly with his hands to emphasize his frustration. "I don't know why, but all I could think about was beautiful women with big breasts." He stared very deliberately right at Christine's rack as he said this.

She was so embarrassed she wished that the Earth would open up and swallow her whole. But at the same time, she was excited and turned on by his obvious lusty attention.

He brought one of his hands up to his hair and stroked it. "How's my hair?" he asked with concern.

"Huh?"

"Am I turning blond? I feel all blond." He put on a stupid face.

Christine guffawed at that. She was also grateful for the shift of attention from her body. She teased, "How shall I kill you, Mr. Bond? Slow and torturous or fast and painless?"

Chapter 3

Ryan had run by while they had been teasing and joking. Knowing where they were, he took a long route to make sure there was no way they could see him. Then he worked his way back to the building where Ivan was hiding.

Ivan stood on the far side of the building with a boom box in one hand and a cell phone in the other, occasionally peeking around the edge of the building and through some trees to check on Alan and Christine. They were over a hundred feet away. It would be extremely hard for anyone to see him during one of his occasional peeks, since he'd carefully picked this location.

Ryan reached Ivan, patting him on the shoulder.

Ivan knew what he was going to ask. As he put his cell phone away, he said, "They're still there. You got here just in time."

Ryan smiled. "Do it then. When you're ready."

That exchange had taken place while Alan was still peeing.

Once Alan was out of the restroom, Ivan decided the time was right and started playing back Rebecca's recorded screams on the boom box he was carrying. Ryan had devised a fiendish plan to lure Alan, and Christine if she was there too, into an ambush to rescue a screaming woman (or so they would think). He knew their reputation as moralistic do-gooder types and figured they couldn't resist such a chance to save a "damsel in distress."

Alan started to walk back towards the stairs leading up to the stands. "I never did tell you why the blonde sold her car. It was for the gas money ... No? No laugh? I need to work on my delivery."

"Shhhh!" Christine hissed, looking all around very suspiciously.

"Wow, I must really-"

"Shut up!" she hissed. "Listen!"

Alan listened. It was faint, but he could hear the sound of screaming. Female screaming.

"You hear that?" she asked warily.

"I think so ... it's gone already. Sounded like someone screaming, maybe. Could that be coming from the game?" He looked east towards the stands.

She paused, trying to listen closely. "No, I don't think so," she finally concluded. "It sounds like it's coming from that way." She pointed west.

"I think it might have been a female voice. Is it my imagination, or did you hear it again? And a bit louder now?"

In fact, he was right. Ivan had turned up the volume on the boom box a couple of times already. The plan was to make the occasional screams just loud enough to draw Alan's and Christine's attention and send them searching for the source. It would be very bad if anyone else heard.

He added, "I think we should go check it out. It sounds to me like someone in trouble."

Christine was listening closely and getting that feeling too, although it was hard to tell. When the wind picked up and rustled the leaves on nearby trees, it was impossible to hear any of the voice at all.

She looked around carefully and said, "Well, okay. We can check it out a little bit, but let's not stray too far from the stands. This could be a trap."

"It could be," he admitted as he started to walk west. "But the odds are so improbable. Ryan and his whole bunch are playing in the game right now. We know that. If it was half time, then maybe, but that could be ten or more minutes off, the way our team is running their no huddle offense."

The two of them walked ahead warily.

Christine was careful to make sure that she and Alan remained in the open and far from any possible ambush spots. She wondered if Alan was right and she was being too paranoid, but she kept her cell phone in her hand ready to dial, anyway. She knew the others, and especially Alan, already thought she was being way too paranoid. She had to admit to herself that Alan had a point - she had just seen with her own eyes a few minutes earlier that Ryan and his gang were safely involved with the football game.

To make matters worse, there was the incident in the boy's locker room with Ryan and Amy that turned out to be just a feint on Ryan's part. So Alan had already effectively cried wolf once, making school officials less likely to move rapidly to help.

The two of them quickly walked west a couple hundred feet until they came to a building known as The Clubhouse. The surrounding neighborhoods were wealthy, in some cases extremely so, and their school was remarkably endowed considering it was public. The Clubhouse was at the center of all the sports facilities on the west side of the football field and stands. There were tennis courts, racquetball courts, basketball courts, a volleyball court, and even a walled Olympic-size swimming pool. There was also a nearby gymnasium with indoor basketball courts, and more.

All the facilities were closed and locked for the duration of the Thanksgiving vacation, so there was no reason for anyone to be about. The parking lot was on the other side of the football field. The area was completely deserted.

Rock and Ivan had been hiding on the other side of The Clubhouse, but once they saw Alan and Christine heading towards them, they ran off to hide behind a more distant building, making sure to move at an angle so The Clubhouse would block the view of their retreat.

Staging an ambush at The Clubhouse would not do, because it was within easy sight and hearing distance of anyone who might wander from the stands to either the men's or ladies' restrooms.

Christine moved forward warily, with Alan just behind her, until she cleared the far side of The Clubhouse. She stopped and looked around. She said quietly, "I don't see anything. There's no one here. And I haven't heard any screams for a while."

"Yeah, it looks that way, and I haven't heard any, either," he admitted. "But the sound could have been coming from maybe inside one of the tennis courts. Or racquetball courts." He pointed in one direction. "Or maybe from inside the pool area." He pointed in another direction.

"Maybe," she said as she carefully walked around The Clubhouse until she'd nearly circumnavigated it. "But it's been a while. Maybe whatever it was is over."

Alan listened carefully. In fact, the boom box had been turned off while Ivan and Ryan moved to a new position where they couldn't be seen, so even the occasional distant scream had come to a halt. But just as Alan was about to agree with Christine that he didn't hear anything either, Ivan turned the boom box back on. Again, the goal was to make the scream just barely loud enough for their two victims to hear.

"Wait! There it is again," Alan finally said. "It's still coming from that way, I think." He pointed west again.

Christine nodded, and said, "It could be off the school grounds." About two hundred feet ahead, the fence bounding the school property could be seen, plus an undeveloped canyon beyond it.

"Could be," he admitted, "but we should check it out just the same. That's not just some kids playing; that sounds like someone in serious trouble."

Driven by curiosity, and still afraid of crying wolf, she decided, "Let's go a little bit further and then call for help if we still can't figure it out. It could still be nothing. Or maybe it's a couple of lovers doing the deed."

The more Alan thought about it, the more it made sense to him that it could be a woman crying out in ecstasy, not in pain. That eased his worries a lot, and he relaxed enough to joke, "'Doing the deed'? What do you mean, a couple of real estate developers signing papers?"

She rolled her eyes at him and made clear with her disapproving face that he should be quiet so they could listen for the screaming.

He decided it would be wise to shut up. He knew this was a potentially very serious situation, but teasing Christine was so much fun that he couldn't help himself. I've got to try harder. Christine's really trying her best, and she cares. She cares about protecting me and even about protecting strangers. Sure, it was probably just a couple of lovers sneaking off, but what if I'm wrong? He sighed happily, despite the strange situation. That's one thing I absolutely love about her - she inspires me to strive to be a better person.

They could still hear the occasional screaming, although both of them were beginning to wonder why it was no louder than when they'd first detected it. It was still just barely audible.

Christine pointed out they could be moving parallel to it instead of directly towards it, which would explain why it wasn't getting louder. (In fact, Ivan and Ryan had moved positions yet again, drawing them further away from the stands and the football field.)

Much of the area around them was open ground where it was impossible for anyone to hide. For instance, the bicycle racks were to the north, as was the teacher / staff parking lot, and the odds of anyone hiding that way were low.

To the west were the swimming pool, tennis courts, racquetball courts, and more. There were lots of potential places to hide, so they found themselves drifting that way.

Alan pointed out, "You know, if it was a couple of lovers sneaking off for a quickie, they might be doing that inside one of the tennis courts or racquetball courts. Normally that would be way risky, but look how deserted everything is." The green fences around the tennis courts would provide some cover, but even better were the racquetball courts, which were surrounded by concrete walls.

The screaming was starting to get a little bit louder as they got closer to the racquetball courts, though still very intermittent. The two of them were walking quite briskly now. If it was just a couple of lovers, they wanted to confirm that quickly and get back to the safety of the stands. But if it wasn't, they didn't want to be creeping about while a woman was potentially being raped or otherwise attacked.

The distances they'd walked were not vast, and it had only been about a minute or so since they'd started to chase after the mysterious screams.

Chapter 4

The two of them came to the west side of the racquetball courts, because the screams sounded a bit louder over there. They were nearly at the edge of the school grounds now, a fact that made Christine a bit antsy. She had her cell phone out and was mulling over whom she might dial. But she decided instead to investigate further and put the cell phone back in her pocket.

There was a sizable gap between the west edge of the racquetball courts and the chain-link fence bounding the school. The fence itself was hidden from view by a line of tall bushes, as was the arroyo that lay just beyond the fence, outside the school boundary. Anything might be going on out there unseen, beyond the fence.