Of Thieves And Do Gooders

"I...uh, don't think we need to wrap it, you know? I think you're just overreacting," I said in a high pitched tone, unable to control the pitch of my voice quite suddenly.

Hayden stared at me like I'd sprouted a second head. "What are you talking about? You've got a wound and it has to be wrapped, now stop being a wimp and take off your shirt," he ordered as if I were to comply immediately.

Uh, I don't want to. Make me.

That was what I wanted to say. But, as is understandable, I couldn't. "Erm, I can wrap it myself, really, I don't need your help," I said with a nervous expression on my face, despite my efforts to keep calm. I was losing it, this wasn’t good.

Hayden looked suspicious now. "What's wrong with you? You hidin' something?" he asked, taking a step closer to me.

"I, uh, no. I just, don't want to take my shirt off, that's all," I replied, walking over to sit on my bed.

I yelped as I felt Hayden pounce on me, tackling me to the floor without any warning whatsoever. It was incredibly rude, if you must know, and I really didn't expect him to do it.

"H-hey! What are you--!?" I began but cut myself short, struggling angrily to get away from him.

"Just calm down, I'm just gonna wrap your wound and we can both get to sleep," Hayden said calmly, although he was fighting to keep me from escaping.

"Get off me man!" I shouted as I continued to struggle.

Hayden didn't say anything, but rolled me over so that I was lying on my stomach, and then he hiked up my sweatshirt so that just my lower back was showing. Of course he couldn't get any closer because if he got any closer than that I swung my arm wildly at his face and, ahem, private area.

Once I was content that he wasn't going to lift my sweatshirt any higher, and he had only succeeded in getting my stomach wrapped slightly due to my struggling, I said, "Alright, alright!" I gave in with a scowl, "Just let me sit up and I'll let you finish wrapping the stupid thing."

"And if I let you up, you'll cooperate?" Hayden inquired, to make sure I wasn’t fooling him.

"Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled in response.

With that decided, Hayden let me up and I sat up, and held up my sweatshirt so that the gash on my lower back was showing, but nothing else. Hayden tightly wrapped the gash on my back, and was done much more quickly now that I wasn't putting up a fight.

"There. You have to make everything difficult don't you?" Hayden commented, walking over to his own bed and pulling off his shirt.

"Yes," I admitted with a shrug, turning quickly to my own bed so that my red face was impossible for him to see. My God, he had perfect abs! Why did I look? Now I would be having freaking dreams about his perfect abs, I could see it now, I'd wake up and my pillow would be covered in drool!...Did I mention I'm a little boy crazy sometimes? Or at least I can be. And if you saw Hayden's abs you would've been feeling a little boy crazy too!

Hayden crossed the room and flicked off the light switch before I even got in bed, which posed a problem for me when I tripped over some unknown object and hit my head on the soft bed soon followed by the hard floor. "...Shhhhit!" I muttered to myself, scrambling upward so that I could crawl under my covers.

"Did you just fall?" Hayden asked with a sound of repressed laughter in his voice.

"I...no, of course not!" I lied confidently, "I just, kicked off my shoes." I soon realized that it had been my shoes that I had actually tripped over.

Note to self: Burn evil shoes.

"Good night Raymond," Hayden murmured from across the room, apparently he had gotten to his bed without falling.

"Night, Hayden," I said, although it was really the first time I'd actually said his name, which was just a simple realization.

_______________________________________________________________

"Hey," Someone poked my eyelid and I snorted, jerking away from them and rolling onto my opposite side. Honestly, who pokes an eyeball? "Hey, get up," the voice came again. Whoever it was, I was starting to hate them, why wouldn't they let me sleep?

"What?" I asked in a muffled tone.

"Get up, we've got the second part of the Agility exam today." I recognized the voice as Hayden's now.

"I'll take a zero," I muttered, knowing I wouldn't mean it later when I actually had the grade.

Hayden didn't reply, and suddenly everything seemed very quiet. Thank god, he left, that was a relief, now I could get back to my favorite past time, sleep--

"Dog pile!" A new voice shouted, scaring the crap out of me.

Shortly after the shout, there was one heavy thump and my legs were crushed beneath at least one-hundred and eighty pounds of muscle. Then came a second shout, "Whoooooooo!" followed by yet another loud thump in which my torso was crushed.

I yelled, surprised, attempting to sit up, but failing due to the weight on my torso. "What the hell?" I blinked several times, letting my eyes focus.

From on top of me, in a tangle of limbs was Leon and Damion, grinning contently at me. "You're up!" Leon pointed out with a wide smile.

I glared at him, "Yeah, I wonder why..." I muttered, wriggling in an attempt to free myself, but failing. "Now, get, off!" I exclaimed, using the utmost of my sudden surge of strength to try and free myself, only to fail miserably. I might as well have attempted to lift a house.

"What? Not enough weight on you? Hayden why don't you join in here?" Damion looked up from his position on his back.

Hayden was standing at the end of the bed and shook his head, "No thanks, that's a sausage fest, I'll meet you guys at the old tower. Don't lose the new guy along the way." And with that said, Hayden disappeared out the door.

"Oh, come on! You're no fun!" Leon whined and rolled off of me and onto the floor.

Seeing my chance in the distracted state that Leon and Damion were in, I threw all of my weight upward and rolled Damion off of me and onto the floor, right on top of Leon. There was a loud crash, followed by a yelp from Leon.

Perfectly executed, I thought happily, sitting up to point and laugh at them on the ground.

Out of nowhere, Leon's hand shot out from under Damion and caught my own hand, pulling me down off of my bed and into the pile. I squeaked in surprise and landed with a thud. I liked to think that it had been a very manly squeak…but I doubted anyone else would have agreed with me. Undoubtedly, I'd hurt my back with that last little tumble, I rolled quickly off of them and onto my feet, "When does class start?" I asked, distracting them before I could be pulled into one of those inescapable manly wrestling things, that could probably go on for hours.

Leon and Damion got to their feet and were pushing each other like four-year-olds. Ending the little quarrel I slapped them both across the back of the head and they glared at me as I restated my question, "When's class start?"

Leon leaned to the side to see past me to look at the clock. "In about...ten minutes," he answered, leaning back into a normal position.

"What?" I asked in disbelief, I had frigging ten minutes to get ready? Great, now I didn't even get to shower! Evidentially since I was pretending to be a boy, I regrettably had to smell like one. "Urgh!" I muttered in a disgruntled tone, running into the bathroom with an arm full of clothes.

Once I'd closed the door, I randomly started smelling clothes at will, finding a T-shirt and loose gray sweatshirt that smelled clean. I pulled them over my head, cringing slightly at the wound on my back, nearly forgetting it was there. I next found a pair of relatively loose jeans, that would at least hide my curves and then stumbled out of the bathroom as I zipped up my fly.

"You ready?" Leon asked, suddenly standing straight, making me suspicious.

"What'd you just do?" I inquired, regarding him from a side glance.

"Nothin'," Leon answered quickly, a high pitch set to his voice. He was practically ready to squeal in excitement.

Like hell he didn't do anything. I wasn't an expert on lying, but even a three-year-old could figure out when Leon was lying.

"What'd you do?" I asked again, this time even more suspicious.

"Nothing, man you're paranoid," Damion replied this time, sounding more calm than Leon.

Too bad Leon had already sold them out, "Bullshit! I know you did something!" I accused, walking over to my bed like a lion sneaking up on a gazelle. Albeit a dead gazelle in my case.

I glanced back at Leon who had a wide grin on his face and was obviously waiting for me to find something. Suddenly, the covers on my bed moved. I froze. What the hell did they put in my bed?

Carefully, I bent down and picked up my shoe and held it up over my head, whatever thing they'd put in there it was going to be a very squished thing in a matter of seconds.

"No!" Damion cried, grabbing my arm and yanking me backward so roughly that I flung shoe behind me and fell onto my back with a loud thud. And let me tell you now, that hurt!

"Ouch!” I shouted, rolling onto my stomach to take pressure off of my back, and I sat up, rubbing the back of my head, 'cause that sure as hell didn't feel like someone had kissed it.

"You're tellin' me," Leon murmured, tossing my shoe into my lap from behind me.

Apparently my wayward shoe had had a brief introduction with his stomach. Now, that was funny.

"What in the hell, did you put in my bed?" I asked sharply, remaining sitting on the floor and stuffing my feet into my shoes.

Damion held something close to my face and I had to sit back a little in order to see it. My face became instantly pale, I felt it do so and I slapped the creature out of his hand. Damion was holding a tarantula in my face! But I soon took care of that problem, since I'd slapped the thing to the other side of the room, I would've got up and stomped on it if I would've moved quick enough.

I really didn't like spiders. I don't know, it was this thing about having something crawl into my ear while I slept to lay eggs in my stomach, that just freaked me out and made me hate spiders...yeah, I know what you're thinking, "That's not true!" And I know it's not, but forget you! I hold firm with my fear.

"What're you doing?" Damion exclaimed, sprinting across the room to retrieve the overgrown wolf-spider.

"Don't hold a giant-ass spider in my face!" I yelled back defensively. It's not like it was my fault that my first instinct was to slap a giant spider!

Leon found the entire situation pretty funny, because he was laughing pretty hard.

"You could've killed it!" Damion exclaimed, picking the disgusting little creature up, and he didn't seem bothered that it was running wildly between his hands.

If you ask me, it looked pissed and I think it had it out for me now, if it didn't already. "Good!" I shot back, "I'm no pacifist and that thing's nasty!"

Damion had been prepared to reply with some smart remark when Leon pointed out, "Hey, guys? We've got six minutes to get to the old tower. So, you guys wanna fight about this thing later?"

"Crap!" Damion looked around and found a clear glass bowl with change in it. He dumped out the change and set the spider down on my bed, soon followed by the bowl. "There, let's go." Damion started toward the door.

"Hey! Don't leave that...that…thing on my bed!" I objected angrily, gesturing toward the grotesque specimen on my bed but while heading toward the door as well.

"Stop being such a girl about it," Damion retorted sarcastically, paying no mind to my objection.

I bit the inside of my cheek and paused at the door. Damn! He said the "G" word! With an irritated growl and a lasting glare at the creature on my bed, I slammed the door and followed after Damion and Leon.

The moment we were in the hall Leon and Damion started jogging, ugh, did I mention I hate jogging? It's like the cabbage of forms of transportation. Did I mention I hate cabbage too?...'Cause I do.

Anyway, once we'd gotten outside, Damion and Leon led me toward the forest again and I was lagging at this point, but I couldn't be emasculated even though technically they were more masculine than me, so I picked up the pace to keep up with the two.

We followed a dirt trail like before, but this one led in another direction. I was dying now, weezing and barely keeping up with Leon and Damion. We followed the trail for about another three minutes when a tower began to protrude from the treetops and finally, the entire thing came into view. The tower was covered from the base to one of the first windows in ivy, giving the tower an ancient feel to it. It must have been older than the school itself. No doubt the tower was filled with numerous stairs, ugh, I could only hope we wouldn't have to climb those stairs, I was already dying as it was.

Leon and Damion burst through the door to the tower and I followed after them, although I stopped the moment I was inside. I doubled over, heaving due to lack of air. I could hardly believe I'd run all that way! I wasn't an athletic person, and I knew it. "Jesus! I feel like a smoker, how the hell can you guys run that much?" I exclaimed, looking up to see Leon and Damion only to blush moments later.

Both Leon and Damion had already blended into the group of students that had accumulated in the room. I glared at them as they snickered and the rest of the class didn't bother to contain their laughter. I nervously ran my hand through my hair, grumbling at the absence of my hat. Quietly, I joined the group, but I stood next to Hayden, since it wasn't him who made me embarrass myself.

Mrs. Killin Me rolled her eyes at my entrance and spoke to the class, "Settle down, there should be a few more arrivals, so talk amongst yourselves until then." She waved her hand lazily and the students broke into conversation.

"Nice," Hayden commented haughtily, without looking at me, but I could tell he had been laughing at me with the rest of the class.

"Shut up," I murmured, then smiled to myself and leaned over to whisper in his ear, "Heavenly Hayden."

Hayden stiffened and glared at me. "Who calls me that?" he asked sharply, obviously not as amused by the name as I was.

Ha! I'd struck a nerve! I loved when I struck nerves!...Wait, how could he not know about the name? Wouldn't Damion and Leon have told him? I answered him nonetheless, "Oh, just every girl in the school," I replied casually as if it were the most commonly known fact on the planet, unable to keep the laughter from my voice.

Hayden continued to glare at me then a more amused smirk lined his face, "Well then, I suppose it's only fair that I tell you your name." Hayden grinned at the disturbed expression on my face. How could they come up with a name for me already? I hadn't even been at the school for three days!

"What is it?" I asked fiercely, but quietly, wondering how creative the female population really was.

Hayden was enjoying himself far too much, "Romantic Raymond." He snickered at the name the moment it left his mouth.

"Shut up Heavenly Hayden!" I taunted, sticking my tongue out at him.

Before Hayden could respond to the name I had spat at him, Mrs. Killin me began to speak, "Okay class, if you'll shut up now, we can begin the exams and get out of here as quickly as possible." So Hayden simply made an odd face in my direction, then turned his attention to Mrs. Killin Me.

The class immediately fell silent, although there were giggles from some of the females from behind me. I turned curiously to see the new girl that had arrived the same day as me...what had her name been?...I really can't remember, oh well, I'll just call her Mindy for now. I made brief eye-contact with her and smiled, then turned back around to pay attention to Mrs. Killin Me. There were more giggles and I realized my mistake, I was a guy at the moment! It probably just seemed like I had invited her to freaking flirt with me! Ugh, I suck at life.

I brushed the thought from my mind and tried to focus on Mrs. Killin Me's instructions, "...Today will be a bit different than yesterday," she was saying, "You will be broken up into groups of four and sent into one of the many rooms in this tower. Each group will start out in different rooms and continue through three more rooms where your skills in reaction time, guile, sneaking, fighting and in some cases, the medical field." I gulped, I really didn't want to get hit with arrows and skewered by spikes.

Mrs. Killin Me continued, "The keys you retrieved yesterday will be necessary today, one will be required in each room, they way in which it will be used is up to you, your only goal is to make it to the last room with all four of your members." I felt my face go pale, "Now, if you would all get out your keys and prepare yourselves as I recite your groups..."

I tuned out Mrs. Killin Me as I realized, I didn't have my key! How the hell could I forget the damn thing? I patted my clothes rapidly, maybe I'd put it in one of my pockets without noticing. No such luck.

Someone tapped my shoulder lightly, and I looked up abruptly, a little wild-eyed. Hayden dangled a gold key in front of my face and I snatched it out of his hand, relief washing over me.

"I knew you'd forget it," Hayden explained briefly, smiling proudly at himself for analyzing me correctly.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks," I replied, just glad to have the stupid key, I didn't need Hayden's ego to grow any bigger than it already was, so I wasn't about to thank him sincerely.

"...Group three: Hayden Silverman, Raymond Frost, Laura Harding and Amelia Basco." I felt my heart jolt, I wasn't on a team with Hayden, Damion and Leon? That didn't make any sense! I should've just been on the same team as the people I already knew! It was common sense, honestly, this chick didn't know how to run a class. I grimaced to myself and shook off my disappointment. Oh well, at least I was still on the same team as Hayden, one person I knew.

"Every one, please get into your groups and I will draw a number at random to decide who goes first." Mrs. Killin Me had a small box with--what I assumed was--tiny pieces of paper in it with each group number on it.

I nudged Hayden's side and he looked down at me--damn I hate being short--and raised an eyebrow curiously. "What?"

"How hard do you think this is gonna be?" I asked, practically hinting that I really didn't want to be skewered.

"Don't worry about it, just don't get hit by anything," Hayden replied simply, ruffling my hair, which I assumed was because my hair was pretty easy to ruffle because of the height difference. I felt like his thirteen-year-old sibling, I realized with an irritated frown.

The students began to shuffle and find their groups when someone tapped my shoulder lightly, I turned around. "Hey, looks like we're on the same group," Mindy said with a small smile in my direction.

I smiled back and nodded, "It looks like it." Then Hayden nudged my side harshly, almost knocking the freaking wind out of me. Resisting the need to cough I thrust my thumb over my shoulder to gesture at Hayden. "This is Hayden, and I'm Raymond," I said a little sourly.

The other girl that had been standing next to Mindy smiled widely and stepped in front of her, "And I'm Amelia!" she said in an enthusiastic voice that made my eye twitch, "And this is Laura," she added, pointing to the other girl.

Laura, that was her name, gotta remember that.

"Nice to meet you both," Hayden said politely, although I could easily tell he wasn't as thrilled to meet Amelia as he was to meet Laura. "Since you're new, I'll help you out whenever you need it, so just call, alright?" he said in a charming voice that made me want to hit him, just because he didn't offer to help me out at all...oh that's right, I'm a guy at the moment. But still, it annoyed me.

"Thanks," Laura said then turned to me. "So you're new to Shadowstep Academy too, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I just got here a few days ago," I replied, although I was certain she knew that, since the headmaster had announced it and I was the kid hiding under the table. It’s kind of hard to forget about the weirdo that tried to disappear under the dinner table.

"So, us new kids gotta stick together huh?" She nudged my stomach lightly with her elbow and I felt my insides squirm, human contact with girls when I was a guy was strictly prohibited in my book. That and I had this incredible sense that she was flirting with me.

"Yeah, I guess so." I laughed nervously and turned quickly toward Mrs. Killin Me when she began to speak, actually glad to hear her voice for once.

Mrs. Killin Me dipped her hand into the box and fished out a piece of paper, and somehow I knew what the number would be, before she even said it, "Group three, you'll be going first." She gestured toward us and the four of us walked up to her, Hayden and me in the front because of our masculinity, I suppose.

Mrs. Killin Me looked the group over and nodded to herself, obviously pleased with her choice in group members. "You four will begin in room four," she pointed to a room behind her with the number "4" carved above the door, "you may begin." Mrs. Killin Me waved her hand nonchalantly behind her and dipped her hand back into the "box of doom".

Hayden led the way and I walked beside him, intent on avoiding Laura at all costs, since Hayden was my friend and a guy I didn't mind standing by a guy when a girl was trying to hit on me, it freaked me out.

Without so much as a hint of hesitance, Hayden pushed the door open and walked in and I followed cautiously after him.

Something clicked the moment I stepped into the room, and I instantly fell to the floor, grabbed Hayden's ankles and pulled them out from under him. He yelled in surprise and barely caught himself to keep from hitting his face on the stone floor. I heard Amelia or Laura squeal in surprise and the door slammed shut, just as five or six arrows sunk into the wooden door.

Staying low to the ground, I pulled the door open again, and smiled out as the rest of the class looked at me with expressions of excitement and wonder. "There's traps in here," I said sarcastically, as if it weren't expected. I then looked up to Laura and Amelia. "You comin' in?" And then I slunk back into the room, grinning widely at Hayden.

"Thanks," he said grumpily, obviously not pleased with being out done by "the new guy". Then, he seemed to rethink his tone and said more in a more friendly tone, "Now, I don't have six arrows in my ass."

I smirked back at him, "No problem, I'm just glad you didn't beat up the floor with your face." I laughed a little, "I guess I didn't think that far ahead."

Ha, ahead, get it? Wow, I'm funny.

Laura and Amelia slinked into the room, staying close to the floor like I was, although Amelia looked much more skittish than Laura. "Are you guys alright?" Laura asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Me and Hayden said in unison.

Amelia giggled instantly at the uniformity and I already knew I wasn't going to like her much. Hayden stood up cautiously and I followed, then Laura, then--hesitantly--Amelia.

I could already tell that this was going to be a dangerous "exam". And what kind of exams were this dangerous anyway? What if someone got killed? What then? I could picture a lawsuit of some sort, unless there was some paperwork that made the student acknowledge that they could die while learning at Shadowstep Academy. I hadn’t so much as seen paperwork, so that must have been for students with families. Obviously they hadn't had any issues like that yet, so, I wasn't about to break their streak.

Hayden took a step forward, looking around the room, possibly looking for a place where one of the keys could be used.

The room was made of stone, naturally, and there were two levels, reminding me of a dungeon from the Legend of Zelda. On the level we were on there were three directions to go, one would be down the stairs in front of us, while the other two directions broke apart into two paths, which both led around the outskirts of the room to the other side of the room. On the lower level I saw that there was a pool of water, but the water wasn't nice and clear and inviting, it was a dark shade of green with something floating in it...I squinted to see if I could get a better look at it. Then, the water pushed to the side slightly as if something moved beneath the surface and the floating object swiveled very slowly to reveal itself. I kept myself from screaming, but my eyes widened at the recognition of the object...

It was a skull.