Announcementcontent warning: violence; injury; may disturb sensitive readers"I can't believe Foster actually assigned us homework for tonight," Ellie scowled as the three of us left the cssroom together.

  English was our st css of the day, and it was another one all three of us shared.

  Harper rolled his eyes, "The man's a menace. At least we only have to see him once more. Wednesday, then we're free."

  "Speaking of free," he added, "Do you to want to hang out this afternoon?"

  The ravenette tomboy nodded, "Sure. Oh hey, then we could all do our English homework together, right?"

  She had enough sarcasm in her voice for that st part to ensure nobody in this hemisphere missed it. That got a ugh out of Harper, but my mood was still too low to ugh at stuff. Plus I had other things going on anyways.

  "You two have fun," I told them. "I've got another shift at Crawford's, and considering I was uh, 'off sick' yesterday I really have to go in today."

  The tall jock frowned, "Ah right. Can I give you a lift over there?"

  I shook my head, "No thanks. I need some time to clear my head, and the walk will probably be good for me."

  "All right then. Take care Bke, see you tomorrow!" he said.

  Ellie nodded, "Look after yourself Bke. I'll text or something ter, ok?"

  "Ok," I replied. "You two have fun."

  They headed off to Harper's locker while I went the other direction to my own, then continued on my way out the front doors of the school. It was only a ten or twelve minute walk to work. The high school was about a kilometre south of the main crossroads, and work was a half kilometre east from there.

  Unfortunately it didn't really do much to clear my head. And it didn't do anything to improve my mood, so I wasn't exactly in great spirits when I stuffed my hoodie and backpack under the counter then put on my ugly orange vest.

  On the plus side, it wasn't a job that required a lot of concentration or focus. So I could kind of daydream and keep thinking about all that other stuff while people came and went, pumping gas in their cars or buying junk food or cigarettes or whatever. Plus Monday afternoons weren't exactly the busiest time of the schedule, so there were plenty of gaps when I had nothing to do but stand there.

  Which meant I really wasn't paying much attention to anything, until some guy in cover-alls and work boots stormed in and started yelling about something. He was clean-shaved, but had some messy blond hair poking out from under a red baseball cap. His cover-alls had some grease stains on them here and there, so did the boots.

  I blinked a few times then finally asked the guy, "What? What's the problem?"

  "I said the dang pump ain't working!" he gred at me. "I been hitting that 'call for assistance' button for the st two minutes! What are you, sleeping in here or something?"

  I frowned at the guy for another second or two, then gnced out the window at the pumps. There were actually two vehicles out there, but it was easy to guess which was his. There was a big white cube-van on the far side of the pumps, blocking pumps three and four along with my view of the road and everything else.

  The other vehicle was a big Harley motorcycle next to pump one, all polished bck and gleaming chrome next to pump one. Standing beside the bike was a burly-looking middle-aged biker dude, all decked out in chains and leather and stuff. He looked pretty chill though, just calmly putting some gas into his tank. He'd taken his helmet off so his long greying curly hair was all hanging out. And he had a bushy greying beard to match.

  My attention finally moved over to the panel that controlled the pumps, and I checked the status of all four pumps before looking back at the van guy again.

  "The pumps are all pre-pay," I told him. "Didn't you see the signs? You can either pay at the pump with your credit or debit card, or if you're paying cash then that's what I'm here for."

  The guy made a face and muttered some choice swears, but he pulled a twenty out of his wallet and spped it down on the counter. Then he turned and stomped back outside, while I rang it up and activated the pump.

  It was only another minute or so before the guy was back to yell at me some more, compining that the pump still wasn't working. So I checked the screen again, and saw that he'd only got a couple dolrs worth out of the twenty I'd authorized on it.

  "Sometimes the pumps run a little slow if they get a bubble of air in the hose," I told the guy. "Just jiggle the handle a few times and it should be ok."

  He shook his head, "Look kid you get the damn thing working right, or I'm calling that number there. I'm sure your boss will love to hear how you were sleeping on the job when I got here."

  I let out a long sigh as I silently cursed Mr. Crawford for putting that sign on the back of the register. It had his cell number and basically invited customers to call him if they had a bad experience, and ever since he put it up me and the rest of the staff would get people using it to bully us.

  "Fine, I'll come have a look at it," I told the guy as I locked the register. "I can't pump the gas for you though. The pumps are self-serve so it viotes some w or whatever."

  I had no idea if that st part was true, but it usually worked. And this guy seemed to buy it too, at least he didn't try and argue about it as I moved out from behind the counter. I noticed that the biker guy was already finished, he was just closing the gas cap on his bike as I followed the van guy out the door.

  And that's when the van guy suddenly turned around and drove his fist into my gut, hard enough to knock all the air from my lungs. I immediately doubled over and fell to my knees as I gasped for breath, while both men grabbed my arms and dragged me around back of the store and into the little alley between the building and a tall fence.

  The area was completely hidden from the road, nobody passing by would see anything. Then it dawned on me, with the cube van blocking the view there was a good chance nobody saw the two guys jump me, or drag me away.

  My heart was racing as I finally started breathing again. I tried to struggle, but is was too weak to fight against high school bullies. I didn't stand a chance against a couple tough strong grown men.

  As they held me the biker finally spoke. He had a low pitched voice, that was both calm and almost calming in a way. Like if I wasn't in the middle of being mugged I might have found him rexing to listen to.

  "Just calm down kid," he stated. "Ain't nothing personal. You got something that don't belong to you, and we're just here to get it back."

  Then I felt him pry my left hand open, and my gut lurched. He tried to pull the ring off, and he wrenched it hard enough I was positive I felt something snap. I let out a loud cry of pain, before the biker guy cmped one hand over my mouth.

  "Nope it ain't coming off," he sighed. "Sorry kid, we're gonna have to do it the hard way."

  Then he said to his buddy, "Give me the bolt cutters."

  As soon as I heard that I went into full-on panic mode. I fought, I kicked, I struggled, I tried to scream for help, but it was all useless. About the only thing I managed to do was make them angry. Especially the van guy, as I nded one kick on his shin before he shed out with the back of his hand.

  That left my head spinning, plus my jaw was aching and I was positive I could taste blood. After that my struggles were even less effective than before.

  "Why don't we just kill the little shit?" the van guy growled as he pulled a small but nasty looking set of snippers from one of his coverall's many pockets.

  "The boss said to leave him alive," biker guy replied. "And believe me, you do not want to cross her. Now give me the cutters, we've already wasted too much time."

  I was still trying feebly to struggle, but the biker guy twisted my wrist until that sent pain up and down my arm. Between the pain and the fear and the feeling of complete helplessness I had tears streaming down my face, but I kept trying to pull myself free.

  Then the biker guy warned me in his low calm voice, "Stay still kid and all it'll cost you is a finger. Screw around and I'll take the whole hand."

  At that point my knees gave out again and I slumped down, just in time to see our high school's star football pyer come charging into the alley. Harper tackled the biker and just like I was knocked free. I nded on my back but immediately curled up onto my side clutching my left hand to my chest. I was positive my little finger was broken, but that bck gold ring was still in pce. And as soon as the fingers of my right hand found it, I automatically gave it a twist.

  That just added to the pain and I let out another cry. But despite the agony of my busted finger and the mind-numbing fear and tears, I forced my left hand into a fist then thrust it up towards the sky.

  A fsh of pink washed over my body and suddenly the pain was gone. I practically sprang to my feet in time to see the van guy's fist connect with Harper's face, and my friend stumbled back a few paces until his back was against the wall of the store.

  Van guy's back was to me as his arm pulled back like he was about to hit Harper again. And while I didn't know anything about fighting, I did know one simple trick that I was confident would work.

  I brought my polished pink boot straight up between van guy's legs from behind, and buried my toes so deep into his crotch I'd almost swear his feet left the ground for a moment. The guy crumpled on the spot without so much as a sound. He ended up on his side, curled up in a foetal position like I'd been a few moments earlier.

  Then I turned to find the biker guy, but he'd already fled the little alley. That's when I heard the motorcycle engine start up. I rushed out from behind the store in time to see the Harley peel out away from the pumps and onto the road. The guy hadn't even put his helmet on, it was still perched on the little seat rest behind him as he made his escape west towards the crossroads.

  We had some products on shelves outside the store, like jugs of windshield washer fluid and bottles of oil and stuff like that. Without even looking I grabbed one as I moved past the dispy. Then with way better hand-eye coordination than I'd ever had in my original body, I unched a half-litre container of brake fluid at the escaping biker.

  I wasn't actually sure if I hit him or his ride, but I saw the bike wobble once then drop, and both the guy and his Harley slid right through the main intersection and into a utility pole on the far side. A moment ter the pole toppled then came down, along with some traffic lights and a tangle of power lines. There was an arc of electricity and a shower of sparks, then all the screens and lights on the gas pumps went dead.

  "Bke!" Ellie called from behind me and to the right. "Are you ok? What happened, where's Harper?!"

  I turned to find her sitting in the passenger seat of Harper's pick-up truck. It was in one of the parking spots off to the side of the store, and my friend had her window rolled down as she stared wide-eyed at me.

  "I'll tell you ter," I told her as I turned and dashed back into the alley to check on my friend and saviour.

  Harper was still leaning against the back of the building. He was wincing as he rubbed his jaw, and I could already tell he was going to have a nasty bruise on the side of his face. As I rushed to his side he looked at me and asked, "Are you ok? What the hell happened, who were those guys?"

  "I don't know who they are," I said as I shook my head, "But they wanted the ring. Someone sent them to take it from me."

  He frowned, "How? It won't come off, right?"

  I felt a wave of nausea as I gestured towards the tool on the ground, "They were going to use those bolt cutters to..."

  "Holy shit," Harper's face went pale and he looked as queasy as I felt.

  Then I told him, "You should get out of here before the cops show up. I'll catch up to you ter. Maybe we can meet somewhere?"

  He frowned, "I don't want to leave you on your own. What if there's more of them?"

  "I think..." I hesitated, then gnced at the guy in coveralls. He was still curled up on the ground a meter or two away from us. I sighed, "I think I can take care of myself, as long as I stay in this form."

  I could tell Harper was reluctant to just drive off and leave me, so I suggested "Tell you what? Go wait for me around back of the school. I need to grab my hoodie and backpack out of the store then lock the pce up. Then I'll head over and meet you there."

  "All right," he finally sighed. "You be careful though. Text or something when you're on your way, ok? If we don't hear from you in ten minutes we're coming back to find you."

  I nodded, "Sounds good."

  When he finally started moving I added, "You'll have to go the long way around. Don't go through the crossroads, there's been an accident there."

  Harper frowned as he hesitated. Then he just nodded, "Alright."

  I was still running on pure adrenaline and maybe a bit of shock. In fact it almost felt like I was half-way on autopilot as I moved over to the van guy then crouched next to him. He was just barely conscious, and whimpered slightly as I leaned closer to him.

  Then with sirens approaching in the distance I demanded quietly "Who sent you? Who are you working for?"

  PurpleCatGirl