Murray McDonald - Kidnap

“Can you please let me fight,” whispered Lela to Chen, exasperated at not having been used. She wanted her one bout out of the way. “I’m not going to fight properly, so you can forget it I don’t care if we win or lose, I’m not a sideshow,“ she added.

“Look, you can go last. I’ll put Tom in now, then me. All we need is one win and we’ve done it. You might not even need to fight,” he replied.

He entered the sheet detailing the running order. They would not know who they faced until the bout commenced.

Tom was first and stepped forward, Lela wishing she had spent more time training him. He was up against Yuan, an ugly brute who was uncharacteristically large for his age both in height and weight. He was well trained and despite his size was surprisingly agile. He also had a tendency to use just a little more force than necessary. Lela quickly gave Tom instructions.

“Take a dive,” she said.

“What?” he stammered. “That’s your advice? That’s the best you can do to gee me up?”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt, just take the dive. Chen can win the next match, don’t try to be a hero, Yuan plays dirty,” she pleaded.

Tom walked towards the mat looking back towards her as if she were nuts. He took the stance and began to circle his opponent. He didn’t stand a chance, Yuan moved and flipped him up and over, laying Tom out on his back. Rather than simply pin his shoulders down, he reacted to his team mates’ cheers and body-slammed Tom with all his weight, completely and totally unnecessarily. A gasp of air blasted out of Tom’s mouth as he was winded by Yuan’s bulk. Lela immediately jumped out of her seat but Mia had anticipated it and grabbed her.

Tom had lain still for a few minutes while he was attended to. He then hobbled back to the team in agony. Lela was incensed and had to be restrained by both Mingmei and Mia. Chen was up next and was met by 1C’s best fighter and current Junior Judo Champion of Japan. It was a tough and close match with neither of them able to get the winning move, it was a tie. Chen looked to Lela as he came back to the team.

“It’s down to you Lela,” he said.

“I warned you all along Chen, you realise you’ve cost us the win. I will not fight in front of an audience.”

Lela walked towards the mat to a huge cheer from 1H, although most wondered why the hell Chen had left the smallest girl in the class to fight the last bout. Class 1C began to laugh at who was stepping up for 1H, they knew who she was up against. Chen was gutted, he was sure he would have got her on side but she was serious. She was going to throw her fight and she was right, it was his fault. Lela had warned him from the start.

However Chen began to smile as a huge cheer erupted from class 1C. Yuan had just stepped forward, the 1C captain had decided to use Yuan twice in the last three bouts which he was perfectly entitled to do, having used everyone at least once already.

The giant Yuan towered over Lela.

“I’ll try not to hurt you too badly as you’re a girl,” he said to her as they waited to start..

“I won’t, seeing as you’re an ugly git and deserve whatever you get,” she replied angrily. Yuan had committed the cardinal sin, he had hurt her brother.

The bell sounded to announce the start. Yuan lunged, Lela dropped and as she seemed to fall, she caught Yuan perfectly and transported his energy over her dropping shoulder and threw him like a rag doll across the mat and into class 1C. The bell sounded again even though it hadn’t quite stopped ringing from the start of the bout. Class 1H had won. However, the hall was silent as a stunned audience were still trying to understand what had just happened.

Tom and the rest of class 1H began cheering, and, although still confused, so did the other classes, except for 1C.

Sunday lunch was everything Tom and Tristan thought it would be, only much worse. Ms Anderson had planned a French style Sunday ‘dejeuner’ a full eight courses, over five hours. They had both gone into the lunch with a game plan, to fully apologise and throw themselves on her mercy, thinking they might manage to wangle their way out of the lunch. It failed miserably, she thanked them for the gesture and then sat them down to 5 hours of hell. However that was nothing compared to what she had planned for the following week, a full 12 courses.

The rest of the week improved slightly as the tiredness began to lift and the students settled into their new regime. By Thursday, they almost began to admit that they were beginning to enjoy themselves. The upcoming yacht race was the event of the week. Miss Sullivan was a keen sailor and had been running training sessions each evening to get her crew into shape. Each of the yachts was over 90 feet in length and, as usual, every member of the class would be involved in the race. The race course was around a circuit of buoys which circled the island. If any boat failed to circumnavigate each of the buoys, they would be disqualified.

The black figure stole across the school grounds, avoiding the camera sweeps by timing each move to perfection. Within ten minutes, the black figure was busy at work on the yacht. There were only a few modifications required before the big race on Saturday. After thirty minutes, everything was done. Saturday was going to be a very profitable day. It was time to leave.

“Hey, what are you doing?” came a shout from behind.

“Wait a minute, I recognise you! We played bowls last week, why are you dressed like that?” asked the girl as she came closer. But she came too close and a swift movement to the back of her neck had her unconscious.

Reaper’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered

“We have a problem, I’ve been spotted and recognised,” said Ling.

“Damn,” replied Reaper, that was not good. “Where are you?”

“I’m hiding on a boat, the girl is unconscious but I’ve not left any marks. Should I kill her and dump her?”

Reaper thought for a second.

“No, too risky. We can’t afford to have jumpy parents. I’ll call you back.”

Reaper made a quick call and then phoned Ling straight back.

“OK, here’s what you need to do.”

He explained the plan. Ling smiled, it was brilliant.

Friday morning started like any other morning but it did not take long to change. Madeleine had not stopped crying during their Maths lesson and no matter how much the girls tried to console her, she just got worse. It got so bad that she was eventually allowed to leave the lesson, her constant drawing in of large breaths to commence her next bawling was driving the teacher insane.

It was not until their break that they heard from Madeleine what had happened. She was waiting for them in their usual spot, next to the beach,

The girls all rushed over to her when they saw her sitting there and immediately began to console her again. The boys were less consoling, they just wanted to know what the hell was wrong.

“Madeleine, what’s wrong? What’s happened?” asked Chen putting his arm around her.

“It’s Erika, she’s been expelled,” she managed between sobs.

“She’s what?” exclaimed a chorus of devastated boys, most of their wilder fantasies had included Erika and Madeleine.

“Expelled for being drunk, they found her on one of the boats and had to pump her stomach.” She started bawling again.

“NO!” said the girls.

Pulling herself together, she continued.

“They think she drank a full bottle of Vodka and they found four full ones in her room.”

“Oh my God, have you seen her? Is she OK now?” asked Mia.

“Briefly, a half hour ago. She’s still quite ill, they’re sending her home as soon as she’s well enough.”