Young Writers Society

(My mom says it's best to get into college as soon as you finish high school. It gets harder to get accepted into the college the longer you wait. Anyway, I think it's about time we skipped to the next day.)

Everyone got to school the next morning like usual. Today they needed to put their plan of befriending Katherine into action. There was nothing they could do until lunch period, and they still needed to find the right way to approach her. Kai told everyone to think of ideas before lunch, then they would go with the best one.

Although the kids couldn't make their move yet, Ryukin and Tala could. The two Tsurekin waited until all the students were inside before sneaking onto the school's premises. As they made their way to the dumpsters out back Tala said, "So, how are we going to do this exactly? He's not going to come out if we call him."

"Then we'll have to act like we're here for another reason," Ryukin replied. "We'll pretend one of our masters dropped something out of the window and it landed in one of the dumpsters, then they asked us to look for it for them. That way we'll have a good reason to be digging around in the garbage when we accidentally encounter him."

Tala growled a little. "I don't like the idea of rolling around in that trash heap."

"It's the best I could come up with. If it makes you feel any better, I'm going to be getting dirty, too. Now, follow my lead." When they got close enough to the dumpsters he said, "I know you don't like it, but Kai says he needs it before third period."

Tala rolled her eyes before saying, "Okay, but which one did it fall into?"

"I don't know, we'll just have to search through all three dumpsters until we find it. Be sure to dig deep, it might have slipped into the bottom. And keep quiet, we don't want anyone to catch us out here." With that, Ryukin jumped into the nearest dumpster and started digging.

(You want to try bringing in the new Tsurekin? I was thinking it could be either a one-headed hydra, or it could have a dominant head and several others that are simply passive. It's up to you.)

Tala growled and jumped in another one slowly digging down in the dumpster sniffing every now and then to try and catch the smell of the Tsurekin, but the trash was covering up any smell that would be there. Once she had figured she had looked over the whole dumpster she crawled out and tried to ignore the trash stuck to her sides. She shook her body and moved to the next dumpster jumping in and digging down deep in the bin. She was about to get out when she saw something scaly in front of her. She breathed in and hissed, she hated anything that had snake in it! She started to get out when the tail wrapped around her lower body and squeezed.

"RYUKIN!" She growled trying to get free of the Tsurekin.


*Sorry it's short, multiple heads is ok. *

Ryukin heard Tala's voice from the other dumpster. It sounded like she found the Tsurekin they were looking for. He hopped onto the edge of her dumpster and saw her being attacked. He held out his talon and said, "Give me your paw!" Tala reached out her paw and Ryukin grabbed it and pulled. He was able to pull her free from the Tsurekin, but he lost his balance and they both ended up on the ground.

Five heads rose up from amidst the trash. They all had long necks that connected to the creature at the shoulders. The one in the middle of the heads was bigger and was the only one that seemed to have life in its eyes. The other four heads that surrounded the center one all seemed to mimic its movements. As it began to crawl out of the dumpster they could see more of its body. It had a simple lizard-like build with a long tail and four legs. Its body had a grayish blue tinge to it, with red stripes running along its joints, tail, and necks. A long brown line ran all the way down from the center head, down the spine, to the tip of the tail.

The creature began to make low hissing noises as its five heads lowered to strike. "Wait, we're not here to hurt you! We didn't even know you were in there," Ryukin lied.

"That's right," Tala said. "We were just looking for something for one of our masters! We don't want to fight you."

Something about what Tala said seemed to calm the hydra down a bit. The heads straightened up a little as it said, "...Masters?" From the sound of its voice it was male.

Tala's ears perked as she heard voices from behind the door that leads to the cafeteria. "Someone's coming," she said.

"Into the dumpster, quick!" Ryukin said. Neither Tala, or the Hydra, argued. All three of them jumped into the farthest dumpster from the door and closed the lid right before two cafeteria workers came out.

Tala wanted to hiss as the stinch from the trashcan filled her nose. She listened until the workers were done smoking, a smell that wafted threw her senses making her want to hiss even more.

"They are gone." She said finally. She had been right next to one of the Hydra's head and she didn't like the lifeless look in it's eyes, the main head had life in it, but not the other heads. They were just mirrors, smaller mirrors, of the first it seemed. They all crawled out and Tala shook the trash off her and laid down so she wasn't looking in a threatening stance.

"You said Masters?" The hydra said looking at them again.

"Yes, our humans." Tala replied.

"Where are they?" The hydra asked.

"They're inside attending class right now," Tala said.

"My master is the reason we're out here," Ryukin said. "He dropped something out one of the windows by accident and it landed in one of the dumpsters. He asked us to find it for him because he would be late for class if he went to do it himself."

"What was it that he dropped?" the hydra asked.

"I believe it was his ipod." Tala looked at Ryukin. Either he was a quick thinker, or he had all this planned out beforehand.

"I have to spend all day in these dumpsters," the hydra said. "I can find anything that falls in here."

"Some extra help would be appreciated," Ryukin said. "I'm Ryukin, and this is Tala. What's your name?"

"Lavos," the hydra replied.

"Why are you in the dumpsters all day?" Tala asked looking over at Lavos.

"Good place to hide." He replied. Tala nodded and looked at the dumpsters.

"I could stand guard." She said not wanting to go back in them. Ryukin looked over at her with a smirk on his face.

"All right," Ryukin said. "Make sure you let us know when someone is coming."

Tala nodded and sat down beside one of the dumpsters while Ryukin and Lavos went back to rummaging through the trash for something that didn't exists. She started to think, I wonder how Skylar and the others are faring with Katherine?

(All I could think of, I just woke up. I figured I'd give you a go at trying to introduce them to her. We could also do something where Katherine starts getting harassed by a couple of guys and the others step in to help.)

Skylar was about to fall asleep in class when the bell finally rung for lunch. She got up quickly and slipped out the door nearly running into Kai.

"Where are you going?" He laughed.

"Food and caffine." She smiled. He nodded and they started towards the lunchroom. "Have you see Katherine?"

"Not yet, I've been keeping my eye out for her." He replied as they walked together. She took a deep breath and looked around the room.

"There." She said pointing to a far table where Katherine was sitting surrounded by a group of maybe four guys. "Looks like she isn't all that comfortable either."

"Well, this is going to be fun," Kai said sarcastically. As they got closer they could overhear what the guys were talking about. One of them was trying to ask her out even though she was making herself very clear that she wasn't interested, while the others were there to make sure she doesn't try to get away. Because they were in a group no one would try to stop them. It was a coward's tactic.

Well, it wasn't going to work on Kai. Even after gaining strength from his bond with Ryukin he didn't like having to get into a fight unless he had to, but if there was no other option he had comfort in knowing there was no way a bunch of highschool bullies could overpower him. He went up to the group, and Skylar followed.

"She said, no," Kai said. "Why don't you leave her alone?"

The guy who was hitting on her looked at him and frowned. "Mind your own business," he said, "unless you want to get hurt."

"I suggest you leave now, or else you'll be eating those words," Kai replied, holding his ground.

Skylar crossed her arms watching the guys and Kai. She would back him up, if he needed it. She doubted he would though if anything happened.

"Listen, geek, he said mind your own buisness." Another one of the guys said. "You should really take that advice before we have to chase you off." Kai just stood there looking at them, unwavering. She noticed one of the guys frown and step forward not wanting to be faced down by someone that looked like Kai. Not buff, not a jock. She smiled a little, they were about to find out quickly that just because someone didn't look as strong as them didn't mean they weren't stronger.

The guy who stepped forward came up to Kai and grabbed him by the front of the shirt. "What's your problem, punk? This is none of your goddamn business." Skylar saw Kai's fists start to curl as he stared at the guy.

"What's going on here?" a familiar voice asked. Skylar and Kai glanced over their shoulders to see Cedar and Elise approaching. Cedar rested his elbow on Kai's shoulder and looked down at the guy holding onto his shirt. "You picking on my buddy?" With his muscles and height he easily overshadowed the other guy.

Elise crossed her arms and shook her head. "Ganging up on others? How very unattractive."

"You guys having a fight? Mind if we join?" Ty asked as he and Shigure showed up as well.

Shigure frowned the moment she saw the other guy's hand on Kai's shirt. She strode up to him and pushed him back and stood between him and Kai. "Touch him again, and you'll regret it." When they had saved Shigure's brother from Jirran she had vowed to do whatever it took to return the favour. So ever since then Shigure had taken it upon herself to be Kai's bodyguard.

The guy had started to waver when the others showed up, but when Shigure stepped in he was suddenly angry again. It probably had something to do with having a short girl standing up to him. "Get out of the way!" The guy moved to push Shigure aside so he could get to Kai. Everything happened in a blur. One second the guy was reaching to shove her aside, the next he was on his knees with Shigure holding his wrist at a painful angle.

The rest of the group started to step forward to help their friend, but stopped when Cedar stepped forward as well. "You guys want to take this outside?" he asked, cracking his knuckles.

Skylar walked around the group and towards the guy that had been flirting with Katherine.

"Would you mind leaving, now?" She said her arms crossed. He started to say something and she heard Kai and Ceder step behind her. He turned and the group walked away. Skylar smiled and looked down at Katherine. "Boys, they think they can have whoever they want and wont take no for an answer."

"Hey, not all of us!" Ceder said from behind her laughingly.

Kai and Skylar both sat down at Katherine's table while the others went to get their lunch. Kai was the one who asked, "Are you all right? They didn't hurt you or anything, did they?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm fine. Thanks for helping me."

Skylar nodded and said, "No problem. We couldn't just stand around and let those guys push someone around. My name is Skylar by the way, and this is Kai."

"My name is Katherine," she said.


(Got any ideas of what they can talk about?)

"How long have you been going here?" Skylar asked before taking a bite out of her apple.

"A few years." Katherine replied not really looking at them.

"Really? I haven't really see you before." Skylar said surprised. She'd seen her this year, but not the years before.

**No idea.**

(It's the long weekend this week so I'll be going camping with my family from today until Sunday. Just a head's up.)

"Why are you eating alone?" Kai asked. "Shouldn't you be eating with your friends?"

"I don't have any at this school," she said.

"Why not?" Skylar asked.

"Because I never really felt the need to make anymore. I already have a good friend who takes care of me."

"Really? What's his name?" Kai asked.

"Lav-" Katherine stopped herself, then said, "Larry. He... goes to another school."

Kai glanced at Skylar for a moment. Had she almost told them the name of her Tsurekin? He turned back to Katherine and asked, "Have you known Larry very long?"

She nodded. "Ever since I was a kid. He was always there for me, protecting me from other kids who tried to bully me."

"Sounds like a good guy," Skylar said. "So why couldn't he come to this school with you?"

A look passed through Kastherine's eyes, as if she was trying to think of something to say. "He...moved to another part of the city. He's outside the school's jurisdiction."

"I see," Kai said. "In that case, why don't we be your friends?"