The Stray: Plan by K.E. Strokez

CHAPTER ONE

The leaf landed gently among a collection of mostly stationary humans before it was crushed by a black leather shoe. The boy wearing that shoe sighed. He was bored out of his skull.

Or so he pretended to be.

Upon learning of his admission to a school he had purposefully set out not to join, Kenneth Bridge hatched a rather simple plan to get himself expelled.

The people in the courtyard stood talking to each other in groups. Porters wove through them as they ferried the new arrivals' luggage indoors.

“What's your main objective, Matthew?”

The Bridge twins — who had inherited their father's black haired, green-eyed, passable looks — stood with the Shaws: a family from their native city.

“When I win the Bronze Laurels,” the boy announced, “I shall-”

“You mean when I've won them,” interrupted Benita, the Shaws' offering to the school that year.

Ken was cocky enough to snort: “Losers. I'd go for Gold.”

“Bronze is for freshmen, you idiot,” the blonde Benita corrected him.

Everyone in the group, asides from the “lesser twin”, knew the ranking system. A step above the alloy she mentioned was Silver for sophomores, Gold for juniors and Platinum for seniors.

Ken looked away as the conversation went on. All he wanted to do was pick a fight — a real fight — with the first able-bodied male teacher he met.

His eyes settled on the statue of an eagle on a pedestal in the middle of the courtyard. It looked irritated. He would have glanced at its plaque, but figured it must have said something boring anyway.

The massive double-doors at the entrance to the school building had been wide open when the Bridges and Shaws arrived. The lesser twin wondered for the umpteenth time why they didn't just go indoors.

Benita spotted the quartet when they appeared at the top of the steps. One of the figures lifted the hand-bell it was holding and rang it. Despite its size, the implement could be heard all over the courtyard.

The porters began to inform the parents and guardians that it was time for them to leave. Brian Bridge and the Shaws had no need of that information.

All alumni knew the traditions.

“Good luck, kids,” the man stated as he began to walk off.

“See you at Thanksgiving,” the Shaws added as they too began to make their way to the gates.

“Bye,” the students said to their departing guardians. Even Ken joined in, despite his mood and intentions.

--

The Rescue Party waited for the parents and guardians to leave the compound before they acted. They had to be quick or the guards might see them in the courtyard. Such was the curse of standing out so much.

The wind picked up and they Cast something bright-looking to distract the dogs. The barking and scratching in the kennels was enough to occupy the men in uniform, who scrambled to placate their canine comrades.

The confusion was all the Rescue Party needed to act.

The Foretold's arrival would be announced by an obvious — but not too obvious — occurrence, through which his identity would be known. But he could not be discovered before he had the chance to meet those who would keep him safe.

As the iron gates swung shut, their rusty creaking was masked by the howling wind. Everyone in the compound was officially one Strike down.

--

A rather tallish boy walked across the courtyard with his back to the building. Ken could see that he was in uniform and wondered why he wasn't indoors. He seemed out of place among all the freshmen.

As if he had sensed that he was being watched, the boy stopped in his tracks and stared back. The twin shuddered as an icy chill went up his spine, but he kept walking toward the building like the other newcomers were doing.

Something bright caught his eye and he turned to look at it.

Two slivers of light shot out of the eagle's glaring facial orbs and coalesced into a beam. Ken stared at them, despite the intensity of the glare, as everything else — including daylight and the sounds of the people around him — seemed to melt away.

Tap-tap-taptaptaptap...

The sound of running footsteps began to sound against the paved ground, and grew louder as they progressed.

BANG!

The plank — swung by a pair of arms attached to an unseen body — came flying out of nowhere and whacked him right in the face.

And then everything went dark.

Thanks for reading it. Click here for more content