True Friends: Kidnapped - Lulu Nighthaven & Breeana Willow Vala (ebooks online reader .TXT) 📗

wife of his.
In the car, Raven sat, ramrod straight, with a pile of gifts next to her. She had picked up the headphones and CD player and was listening to Avril Lavigne's 'Complicated' on full blast.
Ignore it, she thought, ignore it all. It`s just as it's always been. No one cares they just want you gone. But after a while, you get used to it, to the loneliness and pain. You have to, when it's you against the world.


CHAPTER TWO

U.K., May 19th


"Yas? You coming?"
"I'll be out in a minute!" Yasmin called out to her friends.
She chewed on the end of her pen and stared down at the blank piece of paper.
Their teacher had announced that their school in Glasgow, UK was linking with a foster home in Alabama, America, and that all of the kids would be linked to a foster child as a pen pal.
Yasmin and her friends had crowded round the table that their teacher had put all of the fact-files of the different kids on.
"I'm gonna pick him", Miranda had said, picking up one of the files. "Brad, 12 years old."
"I like the look of this one", Jack had said. "Sara, 10 years old."
"What about you, Yas?" her best friend Tracy had asked. "There's one you might like. Julie, 11 years old. Or Fred, 10 years old."
But Yasmin wasn't looking at Julie or Fred. Her eyes had fallen on a photo of a girl with black hair, green eyes, and a bored expression on her face. She picked up the file.
"Raven, 10 years old", she had muttered.
She opened the file. Tracy read over her shoulder.
"Wow, seven foster homes in two years? Sounds like she's a difficult kid!"
"Shut up Trace, you sound like a Social Worker", Yasmin had laughed.
So, Yasmin had chosen Raven, and here she was, sitting at her desk trying to think of what to write while her friends were out having fun. She didn't want to put the boring old, 'My favorite color is... My favorite food is... My favorite sport is...' She wanted this to mean something to Raven. It sounded like she had had a tough life.
"Yas!" Tracy called through the open window. "Come on! Recess is almost over!"
"I just want to finish this letter!"
"Finish it? You've not even started it! Just scribble something down and come out!"
"God sake...." Yasmin muttered under her breath.
If they would just stop pressuring her into doing something... wait a minute!
Something clicked inside Yasmin's head, and she started writing. She was finished within two minutes. She signed the letter, 'Yasmin Brooke, xxx', dropped the letter on the teacher's desk, and ran out to join her friends.


Miss Johnston walked into her class five minutes before Recess was meant to end. She started tidying up her desk, ready for the afternoon lessons, when a piece of paper caught her eye. She picked it up.
It was one of the letters that she had asked the children to write to the foster children in America. This one was by Yasmin Brooke to someone called Raven Night.


Dear Raven Black,


Hi! My name's Yasmin Brooke. I go to a school in Glasgow in the UK. Sounds like you've been through some tough times. I mean three nose breakings! Flipping heck, what'd you do to deserve that? I've only had my nose broken once, when I was six. I got in a fight with my friend's big brother over his skateboard. I wanted a go on it and he said we were too small, so I kicked him where it hurts, and he got so mad that he punched me in the face and broke my nose! It hurt. Huge understatement, it reeeeeeeally hurt. I hope you write back! I’ve got loads more gory stories, if you want to hear them. Well, talk to you soon!


From, Yasmin Brooke, xxx


Miss. Johnston smiled, and put the letter in an envelope. She would be posting these as soon as she left work, and they should get to Alabama in about a week. It would be at least two weeks before the children got any replies. Ah, there was the bell. Time for class.


CHAPTER THREE


Alabama, May 26th

"Hey, give it back!" The little boy with sandy blond hair who was about six screamed.
"No! It's mine now, and I'm keepin' it!" The thirteen-year-old said, holding the apple above his own, carrot-top head.
Being back in social services clutches was no different than before. And Raven had known nothing would have changed. She stood, four feet from the bully and his target. The little boy had come out of the kitchen with the apple as a gift for his birthday, his name was Mike, the older boy, Gary, had ambushed him in the hall below the steps and taken the apple. Raven had seen the whole thing and was waiting, with her black t-shirt and black jeans she was almost enveloped in the darkness behind the stairway.
The little boy was crying now, with his bloody nose and tear streaked face, he made a pitiful site. So Raven interfered.
"Give him back the apple." She said, coming out of the shadows and into full view when the boys turned their heads her way. "If you do, I might not bloody your nose, if you don't...then I'll just have to break it, won't I Mike?" She asked, staring hard at the youngest boy's face.
"I'm not scared of you, your that new girl who got beat by that guy. If you can't take no better care of yourself than that, then what do I got to worry 'bout?" Gary said, not giving Mike the chance to answer.
"The fact that I'm an Indian and could scalp you without so much as blinking, give him the apple. You don't even need it." She said, knowing scalping him was not possible, and saying it anyway just to scare him. For half a second his eyes were like double plated saucers. Then he composed himself after a little trouble, and snorted.
"What if I don't want to give it back? What are you gonna do about it, half-breed!" He said, hitting Raven in one of the place it hurt most, her pride. He was still snort-laughing when he hit the floor hard, with Raven on top of him, her fists impaling into his face over and over again.
"Raven! Gary! Raven Night, get off of him this instant!" The house mother exclaimed, calling for security when Raven moved from punching Gary in the face to punching him in his gut. She had just gotten in a good hit to the bullies rib cage when she was lifted, although it was more like dragged, off him.
"Don't punish Raven Mrs. Clyde, she was just getting my apple back, then Gary called her a half-breed and laughed at her, he punched me, Raven was only helping me!" She heard Mike saying, not seeing because her eyes were closed tight and she was busy fighting the big male arms that had trapped her from behind, and now held her about a foot off the ground.
"Is that true, Gary?" The lady asked.
"No! I was giving him the apple when she pounced on me, I didn't hit her 'cause you said it wasn't nice to hit girls." He answered.
"If you believe him, then your even more stupid than he is. Now make this Rambo sized guy put me down!" She said, gritting her teeth, trying not to be rude, and failing.
"Jim, you can put her down now. But you might want to stick around in case she attacks again."
"Yes ma'am, I'll be over here." He put her down and walked over to the wall leaning against it.
"Gary, took Mike's apple and bloodied his nose, I saw it only fair to bloody his in return Mrs. Clyde." Raven said, leaving out how much it had hurt to be called a half-breed.
"Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with being insulted because of your heritage?" Mrs. Clyde asked, looking at Raven, seeing nothing but a girl, a weak one, Raven was sure.
"It has nothing to do with that, just give Mike his apple and punish me, I don't care anyway, I'm used to it."
"Scared that if you had to actually fight me you'd loose?" Gary taunted, not even realizing how close to breaking his ribs she had been.
"No, I just don't wanna have to kill you. Going to jail isn't really on my to-do-list." She said, staring him down.
"Whatever, I'm not scared of you no-how. You're a girl, and girls are wimps!" He said.
"Gary!" Mrs. Clyde exclaimed, staring at him like he was some kind of three-headed frog.
"Fight, here and now." Gary said, ignoring Mrs. Clyde and staring at Raven.
"Ok, I'll be breaking your wrist either way. You don't bloody somebody's nose then deny it." She said.
"Just shut up and attack you little half-breed." He said, taking a step back and throwing the apple on the ground.
"Shut up, like you actually have a chance."
Raven stepped forward and waited, letting him make the first blow so that she wouldn't get in trouble for it later. When Gary's fist connected with her bruised jaw she didn't so much as flinch, she took the hit head on and kicked Gary in the shin, sure she was leaving a bruise even if she was only in her tennis shoes.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Mrs. Clyde said in a desperate voice, motioning to Jim, he walked over and tried to grab Raven but she ducked and earned a fist in the face to boot.
Great, she thought, now my nose is bleeding! Does he know how hard bloodstains are to get out? She weaved her way around Jim and landed a solid kick in Gary's face, and once again, she thanked the Devon's for those karate classes.
"If you two don't stop it you will both get sent to the isolation room and spend three hours every other day with Dr. Franklin!" Mrs. Clyde yelled, calling for more security when Gary got Raven's black eye with his right hook.
Heck no, Raven thought, as a group of three security guards moved in on them, ain't no one gonna mess up this fight! Dodging the first two was easy, but then she was back to dodging Gary's fists and Jim's Rambo arms.
"Go, Raven, go!" Mike yelled over the confusion, some other kids had joined them and were cheering for her too. "Raven, three o'clock!"