The Falcon Ridge Series Book 2 Not Just A Girl

(Chapter song ‘One Step Closer’ by Linkin Park)

SARAH

Do you know what it takes to get kicked out of here? Neither do I. I've been trying for a damn week and this Riker chick will not budge.

I’m in hell. Fire. Brimstone and absolute rage. I swear, I’m about two seconds away from supergluing her ass to her motorcycle.

I've purposely skipped practice. I walked off in the middle of practice. I've even flooded the locker room… TWICE!

I camped, literally camped out, on the roof of the dorm for a day and a half. Luke had to drag my sorry but down.

All Anna Riker does is find new ways to discipline me. She definitely has a good imagination which I’m testing daily.

I'm currently in her office for starting a fight in the hallway after Mindy trashed talked Jayson to me. Yeah, I punched her lights out. I'm on edge as it is and she bashes the man I'm in love with. I don't think so.

So, I'm slumped in her chair with my teenage angst on full display.

"I'm going to have to inform your parents about this, Sarah." She folds her hands on Jayson’s desk and arches a brow.

I snort. "Great. If or when you find out where the fuck they are, let me know because I'd really like to talk to them."

She flips through my file and a look of regret crosses her face. "You're from Black Lake."

I get a snarky look on my face. "Yeah. I'm from Black Lake." My words drip with mocking sarcasm.

"Sarah, I'm sorry." She says low.

"Save it." I mumble, turning away from her in my chair.

"Regardless of where you're from, you can't continue with this behavior. I don't know what your problem is..." She sits back as I glare at her.

"My problem is you being here." I cross my arms.

She turns her chair. "Well, I'm sorry. I can't change that, but you can certainly change your attitude. Sarah, I can't bring back Alpha Duke. Eventually, you'll have to adjust. I'm sure in your career here with us, you'll run into Alpha Duke again. Just not right now. So, for the time being, can we just try to get along? I'm actually not bad to hang around once you get to know me."

I sigh. "Fine." I'm not admitting defeat, I just want out of here before my wolf shreds her ass.

She closes my file. "Good. So. We'll just add an hour to your current kitchen duty and we'll hopefully, have a better start tomorrow. Yeah?"

"Whatever. Am I done here?" I ask.

"Sure. Just try to keep the boy fights to a minimum, ok?" She smiles.

I scoff at her and leave her office.

I walk down the hallway and I'm stopped by Wren. "Hey... uh.... got to minute?"

I tilt my head. "Not really. Places to go, people to see...." I go to leave her there when she grabs me.

"Hey, I'm not Riker or anyone else you think you can pull this bullshit attitude with. You will talk to me, right now." She crosses her arms and eyes me.

I mirror her stance. "I'm not in the mood, Wren. I don't need any pep talk or how I'm supposed to be fucking strong. Blah, blah, blah. Ok? I'm sick of hearing it."

Her jaw ticks. "Oh, yeah? And how do you think Jayson would feel if he saw you right now?"

"That's just it, isn't it?" I stuff my hands in my jacket pockets. "He's not here, Wren and he's never going to be. I can't even talk to him. So why should I even care about what he would think?"

She thumps a finger on my chest. "Because. For better or for worse, Jayson believed in you. Jayson saw the great kid you are while the rest of us were pulling our hair out. Whatever he saw, made him so confident in you, Sarah, he fell in love with you. Now, he's gone a little over a week, and you've taking something I could only dream about, and flushed it down the goddamn toilet. You've taken Jayson's dream for you and ripped it to pieces."

Now, I was angry. How dare she use my love for Jayson against me. "So, what!! It doesn't mean anything! None of this means anything if he’s not here! Don't you get that? I have nothing, Wren. No boyfriend, my family is gone, my town. I have nothing! I am Nothing!!!" I was seething. My chest heaves and my throat closes up.

"Sarah, you're not nothing. You're something to us. To Jayson. I bet he's sitting wherever he is wondering if you've mastered that pin technique you two were working on. I bet he's wishing he could run beside you through the trees. Sarah. Right now, I bet he's sitting down on some mission. Praying he doesn't get killed so he can see you dance, just one more time." She grabbed my hands. "You promised him to not change who you are. He didn't fall in love with this girl. He fell in love with the girl he wants to see dance again."

A tear rolled down my cheek and Wren softly wiped it away. "Sweetheart, if you destroy yourself and he does come back, you'll hate yourself even more than you do right now."

I slammed my body into hers, wrapping my arms around her. She hugs me back.

"How do I fix it?" I cry.

She pets the back of my head. "Well, you can start with ending this broody teenager stuff. It's kind getting old." She bends down to meet my eyes and smiles.

"Everything good?" We turn to see Luke pointing at us as he approaches.

I push away from Wren and wipe my cheeks. "Yeah. Just having a moment." I give a half smile.

He nods. "I don't need to knock anyone out, do I? I don't deal in this whole talk about boys thing, but if some punk needs a lesson taught, I'm your guy." He taps a thumb to his chest, grinning.

I shake my head. "No Luke. There's no boys." I giggle.

He blows out a breathe and raises his brows. "Good because I don't want to be the poor schmuck that has to tell Jay his girlfriend's dating. Please don't make me do that."

I laugh. "I won't"

He smile and taps my shoulder. "See ya." He struts up the hallway to the offices.

Wren put her arm around me. "You hungry?"

"Starving." I say as my stomach rumbles.

****

The talk with Wren turned out to be the kick in the pants I needed. If I'm ever going to see Jayson again, I need to grow up and get over it. I need to get through this camp with the hopes that one day, he'll walk up that path, grab me and kiss me within an inch of my life.

At least, that's the fantasy I’ll live with.

I'm walking down the dorm room hallway, thinking of all the ways me and Jayson would reunite when I hear whispering. I slow my pace to Shane's door.

"We can do this."

"I don't know, bro. Seems a little suicidal."

"Man, that's what we were training for, wasn't it? Potentially dying? Just because they say we can't fight, doesn't mean we shouldn't"

I listen in the cracked door. When I heard enough, I push it open,

Gasps fill the room and then sounds of breaths being released when they see it was me.

"Sarah. You scared the shit out of us." Shane scolded.

I smirk. "Take it from a professional sneaker. Leaving your door open when trying to be sneaky is a bad idea."

Hayden's face turns red as Sam throws a pillow at him. It hit his face with an humph sound coming from him.

I walk in and shut the door. "What are you all planning?"

Shane grins. "We're getting our town back."

My eyes widen. "How?"

Shane squints and looks me over suspiciously. "You swear you won't tell?"

I punch him in the arm. "Do you even know me? God, you're supposed to be my twin."

He adjusts himself on his bed. "Ok. We're going after the rogue army before they hit us."

I wait for more. When it doesn't come, my brow arches. "That's it?"

He shrugs. "Well, it's a work in progress."

I nod. "Just the three of you."

Hayden points to me. "Four."

"Sam's right. You're all dead." I sigh.

Shane flops his hands on his bed, "This was Jayson's plan, too. We have to do something."

I cross one arm around my chest and my other hand rubs my chin. My finger bounces on my lips as I pace back and forth. The wheels are spinning and I stop. I get a devilish look in my eyes. "How many do you think would still fight right now?"

Hayden shrugs. "All of us."

"One hundred Trained fighters..." My scheming brain places the pieces in a nice orderly fashion. I pace back and forth again then stop. I point to Shane. "How many packs did Jayson say there were?"

He shrugs. "Four or Five."

I point to Hayden. "Your brother. Ex border, but not part of the unit."

Hayden nods.

"You think he could round up some extra fighters and keep it on the down low?" I ask.

Hayden smirks. "Of course."

I bounce my fist in front of me. "Ok. I want you all to spread the word. Anyone willing to join us, will meet us in the Northeast Forest. We leave in two days. We take these packs out one at a time. We track them, eat them and move on the next. By the time they even reach Black Lake, there will be nothing left. With the packs divided, they'll be easier to handle and this time... We know they're out there. " I get an evil look on my face as I place my hands on my hips.

I turn to Sam. "Sam, there's a cave just outside the fence. We need to stash that with supplies."

"It’s electric. How do we get passed it." Sam asked.

Shane leaned on his headboard. "Easy. Patch into the current circuit, redirect the wires, ground it on an infinite loop. I could do it in two seconds with some cable wire."

I smile. My brother has always been the electronics genius. "Do it."

Hayden raised his hand. "My friend Christian has all the cameras looped on his laptop. He could patch into them and shut the alarms down. He just bought a new program off the net."

"You sure he can do it?" I turn to Hayden.

Hayden put his hands behind his head, smirking. "Oh yeah, Dude’s been hacking computer systems since before he could walk."

"Excellent." I look around the room.

I walk around. "Ok. So, over the next day we need to borrow everything we will need to make this trip on foot and paw. We need everyone rested and in top shape. We need to identify the trackers. Midnight on the second day, we all leave. We wait for no more than thirty minutes. Anyone not there will either not be coming or will have to track us down. We will need to put as much distance between us and the camp before morning. So we will be moving fast. Get some sleep."

“The Terror strikes again.” Shane chuckles.

“You got that right.” I smirk and flip my hair over my shoulder. “Two days.”

They nod and I leave.

I leave feeling confident that this plan will work. It has to work. If it does then the unit will see that our plan was better and they will have to let Jayson come back. They can't take our home if we already kill the threat, right?

****

"Kale!" I run up to him, panting.

"Hey, champ." He smiles.

I swallow "How did my parents call you?"

"Um... I don't know. They just did." He gives me a confused look.

I put out my hand. "Give me your phone."

He furrows his brow.

"Give it!" I demand.

"Ok. Jeez." He scoops it out of his pocket, swipes it open and hands it to me.

I search his call history to the day my parents called. I open the key pad and hit redial.

"Hello?"

"Dad!"

"Sarah? How are you calling..."

"We don't have time for that. Dad, I need you to get everyone to Black Lake now."

Kale give me a curious once over which I completely ignore.

"Sarah, I can't…"

"Dad. Yes, you can. Sneak out, make up something, whatever. We need everyone who was going to fight there in five days." I stress.

"Sarah what's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain, ok. Please, just trust me. You need to leave now."

"We’ll try, but I don't..."

"Please, dad. Try really hard. I've got to go." My eyes meet Kale’s and I can tell he’s filled with a million questions.

I hang up and hand Kale his phone. "Thanks."

"Sarah, what's going on?" He arches a brow and crosses his arms..

I grabbed his hand. "Kale, if you care about me at all, you will not ask that question. Just, please, trust that I know what I'm doing for once."

Still looking confused and concerned, he shakes his head. “This isn’t going to get me punched out, is it?”

“Not by me.” I smile.

“That’s a relief… I think." He sighs.

I run back to the dining hall and dorms to spread the word around. I need to get as many on board as I can because tomorrow, I'm planning on leading a whole bunch of 18-year-old kids to fight with me and get my home back.