The Pack

Ch. 5

Dana was hating the rock climbing unit in gym. Her power was definitely not in her arms but at least the pulley helped with that. Whenever it was someone's turn on the wall they had to use a harness attached to the pulley, mostly to help them repel down. All the harnesses were piled into a bin and since Dana was the last out of the locker room today she had to grab the last one. Despite the large budget for sports the school gets, not a lot of it seems to go to rock wall climbing, no shock to Dana since it wasn't a sport that could win the school awards. While her class did the rock wall, other classes were doing various other things in the gym. Everyone was inside now that the snow had started. Dana's teacher was the coach for the boys baseball team, Coach Stenton. "Alright everyone, pick up the pace! We've got to get through all of you before the bell! I don't want to continue this next week!" He hollered. "Hemming, Caelum, you're up next!" He called out amongst his crowd of students. "This'll be good." He smiled to himself.

 "Time me, Coach." Caelum said excitedly as he hooked himself up. 

"Timer's already in hand." Coach replied. Caelum set himself up and then Coach started the clock. The rock wall wasn't tall but it did take the students a few minutes to complete while they got their footing. But Caelum was different, he went up the wall with full confidence and finished in less than a minute up and back. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" The Coach exclaimed and then continued down his list.

While Dana and Caelum were in gym, Willow and Bryce were in English. Willow followed along on the book they were reading but Bryce was half paying attention, holding his head in his hand leaned up on the desk. Then all of a sudden he got an overwhelming sense of urgency that he only felt when there was impending, life-threatening danger. He immediately stood up and ran out of the room, his instincts knowing where to take him. "Bryce Hemming, get back here!" The English teacher, Mrs. Daley called out. "Willow, go get your brother." She instructed. 

"Yes ma'am." Willow replied, already halfway out of her seat and hurrying out as well. She expected to find him still in the hallway but she realized he was going faster than he should be and she needed to hurry and follow his scent. She followed it all the way to the gym and when she made it to the open gym doors she stopped and saw what had happened. She spotted Bryce on the floor cradling Dana in his arms with a crowd of students surrounding them. Bryce had made it just in time to catch Dana from falling from the wall. The hook on her harness broke off on her way down and she would've hit her back on the gym floor if Bryce hadn't been there to catch her. Everyone was shocked to see him swoop in just in time. 

"Are you okay?" He asked. She was breathing heavily and eyes wide in shock. 

"How did you-" Willow hurried to do what she did best. 

"Thank god we were walking by when we did." She spoke as she made her way through the crowd and knelt next to them. "Are you okay, Dana?" She asked. 

"I think so." Dana replied, still in shock. 

"That's great! Let's get you up." Willow stood and offered a hand in getting Dana and Bryce up. "Are you sure you're okay?" Willow asked again. 

"I think so." Dana nodded more surely now that she had begun to move. 

"That's so good to hear. So lucky for Bryce and I to be coming by. He must have noticed you at the right moment." She pat Bryce on the back, a little too hard for any human but he only flinched a little. Coach Stenton came out of his shock and walked up to check on his student. 

I knew I was forgetting something, the da*n mat. 

"Come on Bryce we gotta ask Coach V that question, we only have a few minutes out of class." Willow urged her brother away but he didn't want to move. He was insistent on staying with Dana. "Let's go." Willow spoke again, this time invoking some of her influence over him. He was forced to move and they walked away towards the coaches offices. "What the hell was that?! And actually running, are you insane? What if someone saw you?" Willow asked in a hushed whisper.

 "She was in danger, I had to help her." Bryce insisted. 

"How would you even know that? We can't sense danger unless it's coming for ourselves or..." Willow fell silent. "We'll deal with this later. For now we have to get back to class." She spoke in a lower tone. She pulled him along to walk out of the gym and Bryce's eyes didn't leave Dana. "We already determined she's fine, keep walking." Willow insisted. Bryce listened in to what Coach was saying to her. 

"Guess we gotta get rid of this one. The school should buy new equipment anyway." He said.

Willow and Bryce walked back to class. "You're coming up with your own excuse for why you ran out." She told him, not going to clean up his mess this time. 

"Fine." He mumbled. They made it back and Mrs. Daley looked furious. They were really only gone less than ten minutes which was shorter than anyone else would've done but every minute counts in her class. 

"May I ask why you think it is okay to run out of my class?" She asked, walking up to the two of them. 

"I'm sorry ma'am, I threw up." Bryce came up with immediately. The fury went away from her expression. People always seem to gain sympathy when someone is sick. 

"Oh, are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?" She asked in a lower voice so the rest of the class couldn't hear. 

"I already took him." Willow chimed in. 

"Do you need to go home?" Mrs. Daley asked. 

"No, I'm okay now. The nurse gave me something for my stomach." Bryce explained. 

"Alright, well, get back to your seats. We're in summary time now but you'll have to read up to page 73." She explained. The two nodded and went back to their seats. One of Bryce's teammates leaned over to speak to him. 

"Dude, you threw up? You good?" He asked. 

"Yeah, fine. Probably something from lunch." Bryce replied. 

"You good for practice?" His teammate asked. 

"Yeah." Bryce nodded and the conversation ended there.

~~~

After school Bryce found Dana waiting for her dad to pick her up. "Hey, you okay?" He asked immediately. She turned quickly to see him next walking up to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The nurse checked me out and everything's good. I was just in shock for a little bit." She explained.

"Good, I'm glad you're okay." He said, feeling relieved.

"Thanks to you. If you hadn't caught me I would've been toast." She commented.

"Glad I could help." He replied, knowing he had be careful what he said to her.

"How did you do that? You weren't even in gym class?" She asked.

"Willow and I left class to talk to one of the coaches. We walked by just in time." He explained, keeping the story the same.

"Lucky, I guess." Dana decided.

"Yeah." Bryce agreed.