Of Thieves And Do Gooders

Once Hayden had convinced me to jog out of the school, he led me around the right side of the school. I grumbled quietly as we continued to jog, and he next led me to a trail leading through the forest. What kind of classroom was out in the middle of the forest?

I silently wondered this, but kept the thought to myself, deciding to save my breath for jogging rather than arguing. When Hayden finally slowed to a quick walk, I panted beside him, causing him to glance at me from the side with a hint of humor in his eyes. "You tired already?" he asked incredulously. "You're gonna die during hell week," he informed me, pressing forward to emerge onto a thin trail worn into the fallen pine needles and leaves.

I was still panting and thankful that we were now walking, even if it was a quick walk. "Shut up," I retorted in a snap, since that was all I could reply with before I ran out of oxygen.

A smirk tugged at the side of Hayden's mouth, but nothing more as he led me down this trail and into a clearing in the forest. In this clearing there were stumps in several places where trees had been cut down, and yet leaves and pine needles as well as sticks, twigs and any other forest litter, covered the floor. From the smell in the clearing, it was apparent that the trees had been cut down recently, maybe a day or two ago.

As for the majority of the clearing, it was filled with maybe thirty students, all of which looked quickly in my direction. Secret school or not, the students were interested in the "new kid". Then I also saw that a majority of the female population looked away from Mrs...Good lord, what was her name?...Oh well...The point is the girls looked quickly away from the grumpy old hag and nearly every eye lit up at the sight of Hayden's approach, and then at me of whom they smiled at politely. I'm sure if they'd known I was a girl, they might have glared at me, some might have even attempted to kill me with their evil words.

But the funny thing was, I was great with words, in fact, I loved words, if I could, I would've married them. So, if it ever came to an insulting contest, I would win, hands down, no questions asked...Then again, if it came to brute strength, I would probably run away and hide like the girl I was. Conflict was fine with me, as long as I wasn't physically injured in the process, 'cause I detested pain. That was one thing I wouldn't tolerate with a cool head.

An irritating clearing of the throat came from the middle of the clearing, it was one of those fake ones that made my eye twitch involuntarily. I turned my eyes quickly to find the source, and, of course it was the old tight-wad.

She glanced quickly down at her watch and scowled. "Just in time Mr. Silverman, Mr. Frost." She nodded for us to join the group that had formed in front of her. Obviously she was a little tart at the realization that we were on time, she had apparently been wishing for someone to be late that day.

So she likes dishing out zeros, eh? I thought dejectedly, with a silent grimace. I then tried to pay attention to her words, but they were so boring and drawling out of her mouth like loose spit, that I found my mind wandering quite abruptly to a sound behind me. Muttering, then giggling, obviously female. Origin: unknown. Age: somewhere between sixteen and seventeen years of age. But what were they giggling about?

I stretched slightly, and tilted my head to the side more, attentively keeping my eyes on the teacher, whose name evaded me.

They were more clear to me now that I was paying attention, "...I know!" One of the girls squealed in excitement, making my nose scrunch up in disgust at the sound.

"And he's so cute!" Another girl piped in with no less excitement, "It's no wonder he shares a dorm room with Heavenly Hayden." Yet another girl retorted in a dreamy tone.

I snorted accidentally at this name. Heavenly Hayden? I wondered with a chuckle forming in my throat. Still I continued to listen since they hadn't seemed to notice my odd sounding snort of amusement.

"But Raymond's got such a nice ass," One of the previous girls pointed out with a mischievous sound to her tone.

More giggling.

Okay, not funny anymore. I straightened quickly and shifted slightly so that I was standing in front of "Heavenly Hayden" so that my ass was firmly out of the girls view. I wasn't about to be the subject of "ass talk" as I called it.

The old hag abruptly focused on me, a glare formed in her beady little eyes, "Mr. Frost," she started sternly, eyeing my head quickly, "I'm not sure what you've learned as regarding to the rules at this school, but in my class, hats, baseball caps, beanies, visors and scarves are not allowed." She tilted her oddly pointed nose into the air, and the straight line that was her mouth, pointed downward slightly in--what I assumed was--a frown.

I quickly snatched the baseball cap from my head, resisting my girly urges to brush my hair with my hands in every direction so there was a part down the middle of my scalp. Carefully, I ran my fingers backwards through my hair, to rid myself of my hat-hair, frowning slightly at the absence of the majority of my hair.

From behind me I heard more giggling and felt my face redden slightly, reestablishing my stance in front of Hayden, in case I had unknowingly moved to reveal my ass to the giggly females taking up the space behind me.

Before the snappy teacher--whose name was starting not to matter to me--could continue someone's hand shot into the air eagerly. The grumpy hat-hater smiled wryly, "Yes Irwin? What is it?"

"Mrs. Lilany, I'd like to go first through the course," a disturbingly eager boy with short-cut brown hair and skin problems said quickly, almost slurring his words together.

Mrs. Lilany? Well that's moving toward the top of my hit list...

Mrs. Lilany seemed to keep from rolling her eyes then replied, "I know you're eager to begin, but I must first explain the course Irwin." She turned sharply to face the remainder of the clearing.

Irwin...moving second from the top of my hit list...

Everyone turned their attention to the clearing, regarding the stumps, underbrush and dead leaves and pine needles. What was so special about this clearing?

Apparently we would soon find out, "This is the course that will be used for the Agility exam." Mrs. Lilany--I take that back I'm gonna start calling her “Mrs. Killin' Me” I think it fits better--spoke in that strange drawling way that made my eye twitch involuntarily. "It looks like a regular clearing doesn't it?" No one bothered to answer, knowing full-well that it wasn't just a "regular clearing".

"Well, it's not, and as a matter of fact there are several traps set through out the clearing that are designed to cause you to misstep, stumble draw attention to yourself and in some cases, break a bone or two." Mrs. Killin Me began to pace in front of the group before her, like a hungry tiger in front of a flock of sheep.

Irwin had a disgustingly eager look in his eyes, I silently wondered if he was really any good at being a thief. But of course he would be, why else would he be at Shadowstep Academy?

"Where are the new students?" Mrs. Killin Me abruptly asked, and I quickly raised my hand to make up for my lack of attention. On the other side of the group I saw two more hands raise. Mrs. Killin Me sighed and stated, "By order of the Headmaster, I can't allow your grade on this particular test to count against you. However, you may run through the course if you wish to." There were groans and mutters of protest, but Ms. Killin Me quickly hushed them. "Be silent you moaners," she snapped, "You've had time to prepare for this exam, and thus, you'll take it and fail if you have to."

I smiled to myself, I surely wouldn't be the first one on the course, as eager Irwin was, but I planned on going through the course anyway, if I was going to become a better thief, I'd need practice. And besides, it might even be a little fun, who knew? Certainly not me.

"Okay, so who would like to go first?" Mrs. Killin Me asked, scanning the group in front of her. Instantly Irwin's hand shot into the air, waving frantically.

I could've sworn I saw Mrs. Killin Me scowl for a fraction of a second, and then her eyes locked onto me. I caught my breath in my throat, and cringed inwardly, she wouldn't make me go first now would she?

"Mr. Silverman, would you grace the rest of the class with your demonstration of the course?" she asked with a mocking sound to her voice. I let out my breath, thank God she didn't pick me, I didn't work well under watchful eyes.

And apparently the girls were watchful of a certain part of me, I thought with disdain.

I turned my head to look at Hayden--oh sorry, "Heavenly Hayden"--and saw that he had a determined look in his eyes, obviously he wasn't planning on failing. And yet, how he was going to make it through the course without knowing any of the traps was beyond me.

"Sure," Hayden replied coolly, standing just behind a white line that had been painted over the leaves--which I hadn't noticed until that moment.

"Whenever you're ready, you may proceed," Mrs. Killin Me said lazily, almost in an disbelieving tone, as if she expected him to do terrible.

It felt like a race was starting, the suspense was strange, waiting for Hayden to cross over the line and into some dangerous zone meant to be a test. But, when Hayden finally did step over the line, he didn't run, like I was half-expecting, but he did just that, he stepped, very carefully over the line, hardly making any sound when his feet touched the leaves.

That was amazing, they were old dry leaves, how could you not make sound? I wondered this skeptically, not sure if I really wanted to do the course after him and look like an idiot, because I made way too much noise. This was supposed to be Agility class, after all, and part of agility was being quiet and showing how well you're capable of sneaking around.

I wasn't the best at sneaking, but still, I wasn't horrible either. So I wasn't entirely stressed about the test.

Hayden, paused slightly, glancing around his surroundings, looking for something, although whatever it was, I couldn't find it either.

I nudged Leon on my left and whispered, "What's he lookin' for?"

Leon grinned, keeping his eyes on Hayden, but he leaned over to me and replied, "Somewhere in the clearing is a gold key, Hayden's job is to find it, and get back to the finish line in a timely manner, and, if he can, without getting caught in any of the traps."

"And if he gets caught in any of the traps?" I prodded.

"Then he loses points, and he definitely doesn't want that," Leon replied, his eyes still on Hayden.

Something glittered at the corner of my eye, and I turned my head curiously. Hanging from the branch of a tree was a thin gold chain, and on this chain was the golden key Leon had mentioned. My gaze darted between Hayden and the key, wondering if he'd seen it at all. He didn't seem to see it.

Finally, Hayden took another almost silent step forward, and there was a seemingly loud snap! Maybe if anyone had been making any sound, the snap wouldn't have seemed as loud, but that wasn't case here. Hayden's eyes widened, and he leapt to the side, only to have a thin metal bar sweep across the floor beneath him, knocking his feet out from under him. At least I thought, both of his feet had been knocked out from under him, but he had lifted one foot, barely high enough so that the bar missed it. The foot that did get hit probably hurt like hell, but Hayden played off of the trap, as he fell he used his hand to push off of the ground while he moved into a cartwheel of sorts, landing firmly on the ground with his uninjured foot. There was a fraction of a second in which his face looked partially pained, but the expression was soon gone and replaced with a scowl.

I could practically read his mind: Damn it, I just lost points for that one.

I heard Leon chuckle beside me and he nudged me lightly. "He just got some points back for that one."

I looked at him, confused, how'd he receive points for running into a trap?

Leon must have seen the confusion in my face, "Part of agility, depends on your reaction time, for how quickly Hayden just acted, he got points instead of losing them," Leon explained simply.

On my other side Damion whispered to me, "Hayden may not be the quietest walker, but he's got the quickest reactions."

I scowled, great how was I going to get better than the guy with the quickest reactions? Then again, this wasn't going to count against me, so I really shouldn't be worrying...and yet, I found myself nervous, and perhaps a little excited.

I followed Hayden's gaze, which led me across the clearing to a stump with the one thing Hayden had to look for: A golden key. I did a double take, squinting to make sure I'd actually seen a key. And I had, on that stump sat another golden key. I frowned, confused. Why would there be more than one key in the clearing? I quickly glanced back up at the one in the tree, and it was still there.

I nudged Leon and whispered fiercely, "Is there more than one key hidden?"

Leon nodded, "Of course, there are about thirty students here to take the test, you think Mrs. Lilany would let them all go for the same key?"

I snorted quietly, goodie, well I was going to go after Leon or Damion then, and get the key I could see, then I wouldn't be stuck looking for another one. I thought casually, wow, whoever's stuck going last is screwed if there's only one key left.

Durring my questioning, Hayden had slowly advanced on the key sitting in the middle of the clearing, obviously out in the open. I heard Damion chuckle and looked at him curiously, what was so funny?

He smiled at me and explained, "Hayden's thinking of going for the key out in the open."

"So?"

"So, that's the key with the most traps around it, why else would it be out where everyone could see it? That key's set there for someone really experienced, someone really unlucky or someone really stupid."

I looked at Hayden, it really did look like he was going for the key in the middle but he paused, scanning the ground quickly, he began to step to the side. His gaze slipping upward toward the key in the tree that I had seen.

Damn it! I cursed in my head, there went my key.

Hayden smirked, and walked at a slightly quicker pace, stopping at the bottom of the tree, he touched the trunk lightly. Instantly there was a sound of something locking into place. With wide eyes, Hayden ducked nimbly and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding an arrow in the back, head, and neck. They stuck vertically into the tree where he had been standing.

Holy shit! I thought incredulously, There's freakin' arrows set up here?...I'm gonna die.

And it seemed like it was quite possible to be killed in this “test” of Mrs. Killin Me's. Honestly, I was starting to think her goal was to kill us, or at least injure some people. Some people learned best from being injured, but I sure as hell wasn’t one of those people.

There was silence at first, and then another sharp click as if something else was set into place again. With wide eyes again, Hayden did a back hand-spring, avoiding spikes that jutted out of the ground where he had been kneeling.

Oh my God! Spikes? There are spikes?

Breathing heavily, but almost silently, Hayden leapt over the spikes, and pressed his foot firmly against the trunk of a tree just beside the tree he needed to get to. He bounced off of the tree almost, barely reaching the lowest branch on the tree he was intent on reaching. His hands wrapped tightly around the branch, and he began to swing forward and back, until he swung around the branch and landed with both of his feet planted firmly on the branch in a squatting position.

There was a triumphant smirk on his lips and behind me I heard excited muttering from the girls behind me. I must admit, that was pretty damn impressive. I didn't know Hayden could do any acrobatics. Then again I hardly knew anything about him. For all I knew, he thought he was a gymnast in a past life, thus leading to his acrobatic prowess.

Nimbly, Hayden began to shimmy up the tree, reminding me of my last "mission" that I had attempted. Of course it was dogs chasing me, not arrows, but virtually the same threat.

It seemed like there weren't anymore traps up the tree, since spikes weren't shooting out of the trunk and arrows were spitting out of branches. Carefully, Hayden reached eye-level with the key and waved his hand quickly in front of the tree trunk, and then ducked speedily behind the other side of the trunk. As he had expected, more arrows shot out from the other side of the clearing landing vertically where Hayden's hand had gone by.

Hayden swung around the other side of the trunk again, he pulled a knife from somewhere and quickly marked the tree where the arrows didn't detect him. Then, he tucked the knife away and stood on a branch just below the highest arrow in the trunk.

I looked to Leon, who looked completely serious, which was a strange look, and then to Damion, who also looked serious, although there was a touch of excitement in his eyes. And Mrs. Killin Me? Oh she was grinning and scribbling frantically on her clip board, while still watching Hayden intently.

When I looked back at Hayden, he had leapt from the branch he had been standing on, and pressed his foot firmly at the area of the arrow where it met the tree, and pushed off of it! The arrow snapped beneath his weight, but not before Hayden had leapt through the air and straight at the golden key. He locked his fingers around the key and ripped it from the branches.

And now, he was falling!

I gasped loudly, my hands flying up toward my face, to either cover my mouth or my eyes, whichever one would have the worst reaction to seeing Hayden go splat.

To make matters worse for Hayden, arrows shot from the opposite tree trunk, and flew at him! What the hell kind of course was this?

At the last second, when the arrows would've hit Hayden, I couldn't help it, I covered my eyes and turned my face toward the ground. I heard a loud crack, shortly followed by gasps, and then mutterings, and after this came…laughter?

I uncovered my eyes, slowly, begrudgingly, and to my surprise, Hayden lay on his back in the clearing, slowly standing up. I blinked several times, wondering where the arrows had gone, how he had landed without snapping his spine and why--and who--was laughing.

I soon realized it was Damion and Leon that were laughing. When I realized what they were laughing at, my cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment. They were laughing at me.

Apparently there was something funny about a guy gasping in horror and covering his eyes when another guy went tumbling toward the ground with arrows flying at him...Great, now everyone probably thought I was gay. Just what I needed. I was a girl pretending to be a guy and now everyone was catching onto my real sexual orientation! This wasn't good, or maybe I'm jumping the gun, yeah, maybe I still look like a straight guy...

Triumphantly, yet stiffly, Hayden crossed the same white line he'd crossed in order to begin the test. I could tell his back obviously hurt, and his foot seemed to have been given less pressure than his uninjured foot.

"Well done Mr. Silverman." Mrs. Killin Me complimented, clapping her hand briskly on his back, although I think she just wanted to hit someone. "You can return to your dorm room for the rest of the day, the remainder of the test will be concluded tomorrow, I suggest you hold dearly to that key, if you lose it, you fail." I gaped at her, how many points was this God forsaken test worth?

Hayden simply nodded, stopping in front of Leon, Damion and I. He grinned. "Good luck to you guys." He looked at me, "What's wrong with you Raymond? You look like you're about to start sobbing like a little girl," he scoffed, walking past us and out of the clearing, heading toward the path he'd led me down earlier that morning.

I scowled to myself. That bastard! I don't even know why I bothered worrying about him! Sure, I was a girl, but still, he didn't have to insult my girly guy counterpart! I wish one of those arrows would have hit him in the ass.

"Okay." Mrs. Killin Me pulled the attention of the class back to her, "From Hayden, I'll take people from the right of him to take the test." She glanced over to the empty space between me and Damion. "Damion, that means you're next."

Damion grinned, and practically bounced to the white painted line. "Ready," he said happily.

"Then I'm ready when you are." Again, Mrs. Killin Me sounded bored.

I stared at the ground in horror, if she went from Hayden's right, then that meant I was last. I didn't want to be last! That meant I'd have to get the very freaking last key! I scowled, wiping the look of horror off of my face, now I could look forward to hours of searching and a bad impression with Mrs. Killin Me, and I doubt I wanted to be on her bad side.

Leon nudged me, "Look at the son of a bitch." He chuckled and then added, "He's practically bouncing through the course."

I focused on Damion, and saw that he really was bouncing through the course. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he started skipping or doing some odd little I’m-awesome-in-this-class dance. Cocky bastard.

"It's his best course you know, Agility and Guile," Leon said proudly as if he himself were great at the two subjects. Of course, with his build and lack of grace, I highly doubted he was very agile.

Within a few minutes, Damion found a key, avoided every trap thrown his way, and returned with the key faster than Hayden, and with less injuries. I was shocked, the traps had virtually no effect on him, he avoided them like they were nothing.

After Damion headed back toward the dorm rooms, the rest of the participants in the test were completely irrelevant to me. But time after time, they each avoided the key in the middle of the clearing, and time after time, the sun seemed to sink lower into the sky.

Finally, it was Leon's turn, and he found another key hidden beneath the bark on one of the trees. How he knew it was there was beyond me. When he returned, he had a few scrapes, but other than this he had a wide grin on his face and a golden key in his hand.

"Well done Leon," Mrs. Lilany complimented lazily, obviously she was becoming bored with the performances at this time in the day. One kid had taken over an hour to find his key, and even when he did find it he ended up being shot with an arrow and had to be taken to the nurse's office. "You may return to your dorm room, and don't loose that key of yours." She gestured for him to leave.

Leon passed by me and punched my shoulder playfully, unbeknownst to him I had dead-arm for three minutes after he left, "Good luck new guy, try not to get skewered," he joked, disappearing beyond the trees.

That was a nice morbid joke to leave on, I thought sarcastically.

Great, left alone with Mrs. Killin Me...This wasn’t going to be a fun experience.

"Well Mr. Frost, it looks like you're the last contestant," Mrs. Killin me said, looking up from her clipboard, "Care to begin before the sun goes down? There is only one key left, after all."

I scowled in the direction of the key in the middle of the clearing. I really didn't want to go after that key, there were untouched traps set all around it, and traps that had been reset adding onto those reset traps.

I sauntered over to the white line, pausing in front of it momentarily. "Ready," I stated hesitantly.

"Whenever you're ready," Mrs. Killin Me replied lazily, obviously not expecting much from the "new kid".

I gulped hard, swallowing the lump in my throat. Then, without any proper warning, I sprinted across the white line, making tons of noise as I ran straight for the stump with the key.

I heard a strange noise come from the direction of Mrs. Killin Me, maybe a gasp? I didn't have time to think about it.

From below me, there came a sharp click. I gasped loudly, stumbling to the side and tripping over a fishing line string, which snapped and set off another trap. Behind me the leaves fell and a large hole took its place, and in front of me a fan-like blade had been shot at me from the direction opposite of me. I did a sloppy backwards summersault, falling into the hole that had been created behind me, but not before I caught the side. The blade whizzed over my head and I held my breath for a fraction of a second longer than I should have. Then, when it felt safe to get up, I heaved myself up onto the leaf-scattered floor yet again, breathing heavily.

“That was sloppy,” I informed myself bitterly, looking to how far away the key was now.

Hastily, I ran forward again, catching sight of yet another fishing line, I leapt over this one, and my breath caught in my throat as another click seemed to echo through the clearing. I rolled forward, feeling an arrow graze my back. The moment I was set forward again, I leapt onto the stump, squatting down and grabbing the key, I felt my leg give out and I fell sideways off of the stump, just as an axe fell from the tree tops, and struck the area where the key had been sitting.

Wide-eyed, I leapt back over the fishing line and staggered a step to let the arrows fly by me, and then rounded the area around the hole that had been created and slid on my knees beneath another fan-like blade. I paused only for a moment to glance back and see the blade go straight through a tree. I let a startled gasp escape me, and then sprinted frantically toward the white finish line, tripping over a stake set in the ground. I got a mouth full of dirt and rolled forward--since I didn't know any back or forward hand-springs--hitting my head on a rock. I cursed loudly, and swore like a sailor as I crawled across the finish line on my hands and knees.

Panting, I didn't bother to stand up, I sprawled out on the ground, then threw my hands up in the air, "I'm alive!" I shouted triumphantly, nearly forgetting the golden key in my hand, and let my arms fall back to the ground beside me.

The small bit of sunlight that remained was blocked as Mrs. Killin Me loomed over me, something between a scowl and a smirk on her face. Only this woman could mix two opposite expressions. "That was the most," she stopped, trying to find the right word, "unusual performance, I've seen in all my years teaching at Shadowstep Academy."

I silently wondered if that was a good or a bad thing in her book and then I sat up, and quickly scurried to my feet, and spit out mouthfuls of dirt. "I...Uh..." I stuttered, not sure whether to take this as an insult or not.

Mrs. Killin Me scribbled on her clipboard and then continued, "But you passed nonetheless, and although you weren't in the least bit silent, you received a perfect score." She smirked wryly. "You and Damion were the only ones to receive perfect scores, you should be proud of yourself."

I gaped at her, was she serious? I did terrible! I admit it! Sure, I didn't exactly hurt myself and I got back as quickly as possible, but I stumbled all over the place and set off every trap that must have existed in the entire clearing! "A-are you serious?" I asked, wondering if this was her idea of a joke.

She shook her head, "No, your timing was phenomenal and you got the required item and returned with hardly any casualties." She pointed in the direction of the school, "Now, get back to your dorm room before I change my mind, don't loose that key, I can't wait to see how you fair in the next task." There was a strange sound of amusement in her voice, which was unsettling for me.

"I...Uh, yeah. Okay." I turned quickly and began to jog in the direction of the school.

"And Mr. Frost?" Mrs. Killin Me called, and I paused, "Leave your hat in your dorm room tomorrow," she stated pointedly, her amusement now gone from her voice.

"Yeah, okay!" I called back, continuing to jog back to my dorm room.

Thoughts buzzed through my mind fervently, how the hell had I passed? Sure, Mrs. Killin Me had explained it briefly, but still, I didn't feel like I should've passed. I shook the thought away, it wasn’t like it would count against my grade in the class anyway. However, on the brighter side, I had made a good impression it seemed.

When I reached the door to my dorm room, I paused hesitantly, almost unsure as to how I'd gotten there so quickly.

With a wide smile on my face, I flung the door open and threw my hands in the air as I shouted, "I passed!" I scanned the room and found Hayden lying on his bed, he had nearly fallen off when I had slammed the door open and currently proceeded to glare pointedly at me.

"Jesus! You almost gave me a damn heart attack!" he exclaimed angrily, probably because I'd scared him. I always seemed to be pissed at people when they scared me, or just made me jump in general.

"Alright, but you're missing the point, I passed!" I exclaimed again, "And with a perfect score no less." I walked over and sat next to Hayden, punching his arm playfully--and weakly--"Admit it man, I rock."

Hayden shook his head, but there was a smile on his face, so I assumed he wasn't angry or anything like that. "A perfect score, eh?" He snorted and then said, "That must mean you got that key as quickly as Damion. And without any injuries? That's hard to believe."

I scowled at his negativity. "And why's that so hard to believe?" I suddenly smirked knowingly. "Oh, I see, you're jealous, so you're pretending like I'm accident prone and I just got lucky during the test," I scoffed, knowing completely that what I'd just said made no sense.

Hayden chuckled. "Yeah, that must be it." He sat up, and pushed me off of his bed, "And get the hell off my bed, you're covered in dirt, what'd you do? Trip through the course?" Hayden teased.

I picked myself up from the floor, glancing at him, just to make sure he didn't know how close he was to guessing how'd I'd made it through the course. "Yeah, something like that," I joked back, standing up and walking over to my own bed.

But half-way there I heard Hayden gasp. "Dude! There's a huge gash on your back! What the hell happened?" he asked quickly.

"Huh?" I turned in a half-circle, trying to see my own back like an idiot. "Oh, that's right, there was this arrow, I think..." I muttered, sounding a little dazed.

Hayden walked over to me and lifted the back of my sweatshirt high enough to see my lower back. I jumped and swiveled around to face him, "What are you doing, man?" I asked sharply. I’d rather have him think I was a homophobe than have him figure out that I was a girl.

Hayden frowned at me, "I'm looking at the gash you have on your back, it doesn't look infected yet." He went into the bathroom, "But we better wrap it." He rummaged through the cupboards for a moment, "Take off your shirt, and I'll wrap it for you."

I froze in place, take off my shirt? Oh hell no, that wasn't even close to happening. But how was I going to get out of this situation? Tell him "Uh, no that's alright, I've got horrible man-boobs." Yeah, I don't think that'd turn out too well.

Hayden came out of the bathroom with a handful of bandages and looked at me expectantly. "Well? What are you waiting for?" he asked.