Endure for Today

FOUR

Small hands latched onto the side of her sweater, one even burrowing beneath her backpack to clench in the fabric underneath. A short, shrill screech accompanied the move from Chelsea.

Reaching back, Nalani pressed the girl further behind her, placing herself between her and the fighting duo before them. The kid's friends – a short, chubby girl and a twig-like boy – hovered around their friend's downed form, but other than yelling, they weren't doing anything. Neither were the students lingering around. Some of them were even whipping out their phones to record.

"Hey, I need you to stay right here, okay?" Nalani said, twisting her arm back to pat at the girl. Feeling the short, jerky shake of Chelsea's head, she let out a sigh and gave her a gentle nudge. "I'll be right there, Chelsea, and only for a minute or so. I'm not going anywhere, okay? But I need you to let go."

"No, they're fighting!"

Lips pressing together, Nalani patted the girl once more to calm her and tried not to wince when the screams of the boy being attacked reached a higher pitch that cracked his voice. "I know they are, keiki. And someone has to stop them, okay? So, I need you to let go and stay right here. Don't get close, yeah?"

Finally, with a reluctance that practically coated the air around them thickly, the girl relinquished her grasp on Nalani's sweater. The moment the hands slipped away, she was rushing forward to get close to the grappling boys, giving another firm demand for the girl to stay put over her shoulder. "Go get a teacher!" she shouted over the pained cries filling the air. Whether one of the bystanders listened or not, she wasn't certain, but she hoped one of the watching students had some sense. A school fight isn't a simple thing to be ignored. Teenagers could do serious damage to each other. "Okay, you two, break it up! Separate, now!"

The closer she got, now less than a foot of distance between them, the more that she could observe. And what Nalani saw chilled her to her bones, instantly killing the reprimand on her tongue.

There was blood. Blood pooling out from one of them – most likely the boy whose screams had quieted to gurgles – coated the brick flooring, drenching itself deep between the lines and grooves. It was an alarming amount of liquid, reminding her vividly of the time one of the students fighting in the field behind her last school pulled out a switchblade. He ended up slicing open his opponent's arm – a poor freshman with large glasses that only enhanced his wide, fearful eyes – with a single swing. That was when Nalani arrived and stepped in.

Is that what was happening? Had this random kid snapped and brought a weapon to school? Did he have a knife? Was he the cause of the loud commotion in the cafeteria?

Were there others?

Nalani didn't know. Although that sent a wave of apprehension throughout her veins, she did feel confident enough in her ability to handle some deranged kid with a pocketknife. If it was a gun, that'd be another matter entirely.

"Hey, come on!" she snapped again, lunging forward to shove at the boy on top. His concentration seemed to be centered primarily on the other boy's stomach. In fact, he was so intent that his face was pressed close, practically buried in the blood-soaked band shirt of the other boy. Her own stomach twisted in nausea at the thought of what he could be doing. Was he gouging out the boy's stomach? Carving into him? Stabbing down, twisting the knife in, and dragging it to slice him open? "Get off of him!"

When the second shove didn't work, Nalani reared her leg back and rammed the bottom of her shoe into the boy's side, catching him in the ribs with a strong stomp. Thankfully, it was enough to jostle him and sent him flopping ungracefully off of his silent victim. And without him there to block the view, Nalani was granted full view of the sickening damage that he caused.