Chapter 11:

Kim looked up from her notebook that was spread out on the picnic table in front of her, even with finals just around the corner today had been to nice of a day to be kept cooped up, and Lori was far to energetic to stay around the house so they had all packed up their notes and headed to the park to study and still keep an eye on their little sister like they had promised they would.

She blinked, Lori was no longer on the play structure in front of them, "Guy's where's Lori?" she asked jumping up. She could come up with a hundred different possibilities as to what went wrong, Rita and her goons, someone wanting to make a quick buck by ransoming her, a water gun fight that she got caught in. There was also the possibility that a monster had grabbed her.

"I'm sure she hasn't wandered off to far," Billy said softly.

"Still we better find out where she went, just in case," Jason announced, slipping into leader mode, like he always did when there was even a remote chance that one of his younger siblings could possibly be in trouble. There was a reason that their father had named him leader.

Lori had been playing on the play structure before she had gotten distracted by a group of her friends showing up. She could still see her older siblings from the soccer field, so she hadn't bothered telling them where she was going. Some of her classmates call her a baby because she had to let someone know where she was at all times.

She had just claimed possession of the ball when she heard her name being called out in a panic, her siblings had realized that she had wandered off.

"Man what a baby," a girl from her class hissed in her ear, kicking at the ball under Lori's foot, "Can't even play a simple game of soccer without having to get checked in on."

Lori stumbled, catching herself and regaining possession of the ball, "You're just jealous because your big sister doesn't want anything to do with you," Lori exclaimed.

The next thing Lori knew she was on the ground with a sharp pain in her knee, the pain only added to her anger, "You pushed me, that's a foul!" she shouted as she lifted her hands up to inspect them. she winched, she had hit the ground hard and had scuffed up the heels of her hands, there were also a couple of grass slivers embedded in her hand as well.

"It's my word against yours, so who is everybody going to believe, me, or some foster child."

Lori shot her classmate a glare as she stood up to inspect her knees. her left knee seemed okay, although she wondered if Mrs. Hathaway could do anything to remove the large grass stain on her white capris. A look at her other knee, which stung a lot told her that it was pointless to try to salvage her pants, there was a large ragged hole in the knee which was scraped up and bleeding from falling on a sharp rock that was hidden in the grass. By this point she was fighting hard to keep her tears under control, she was to old to cry.

Kim hadn't been looking long before she ran straight into someone, mainly Tommy Oliver.

Tommy laughed, "I guess I'm not the only one to decide that today was to nice of a day to stay cooped up for," he said before remembering that he didn't like Kimberly.

She, however, didn't seem to notice the awkwardness Tommy was feeling because of that, for she immediately demanded, "Have you seen Lori my younger sister, red hair, yeah high," with that she held up her hand to explain, "Eleven years old?"

Tommy shook his head, "No, but I saw a bunch of kids playing soccer."

"Thanks," Kim called over her shoulders as she raced off towards the soccer fields. Tommy blinked in surprise, Kim had actually seemed genuinely concerned for the well being of her sister. Maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought.

With that in mind he followed Kim to the soccer field.

Lori was a little confused as to why Tommy Oliver was carrying her, he didn't like Kim, who had been the one who had shown up after she had fallen, and she was quite capable of walking on her own, but he insisted on carrying her across the street to the youth center to get patched up. Yes for most people the youth center was the closest first aide kit to the park. Ernie had a large one in case kids got banged up and didn't have a first aide kit on them, but for her and Kim, the Command center would have been easier. All she would have done was hobble over to the bushes and teleport in.

"There," Tommy said, smoothing the band aide that he had just put on her knee, "Good as new."

"Thanks Tommy," Kim said, "But you do know that I am more than capable of taking care of her by myself."

"I can take care of myself," Lori muttered shooting her sister a dirty look.

"What happened anyway?" Tommy asked, he had been the one who had found Lori while on a jog through the park he saw a large fist fight on the soccer field.

"Sammy pushed me, and called me a liar." with that Lori told them what happened, unaware of the men in the shadows waiting to strike.

One of the men looked at the other, the leader, and raised an eyebrow should they nab them now.

The leader shook his head, not yet, wait until they leave.

In front of them their prize stood up and announced to her companions, "It's getting late, I think we better call a cab and get home, I have enough cash for it, Tommy you want a ride?"

The leader nodded, now was the perfect time to act, it was a good thing that they had a cab waiting for just this opportunity.