I'M OUT FOR GOOD! SCHOOL'S OUT, NOT FOR GOOD, BUT FOR THREE MONTHS! ~runs around like an idiot and crashes into a tree~

So… a big thanks to DolphinGoddess 17 for all of her awesome advice! Thanks so much!

Disclaimer: I DON'T own Hamtaro.

Chapter 14

Sandy watched the grey, billowing clouds from the north of the city loom over buildings and houses in the suburbs a few miles off. When she turned her head a little, she could see that the streetlights were already lit, indicating that twilight was approaching. A twinge of panic ruptured in her chest at thinking of how late it had gotten and yet she hadn't seen so much as a trace of her twin in the approaching crowds. The only thing that kept her going was the drive to not look like an idiot should she had decided to stop and turn around, then stop, then turn around again. Besides, there was Stan to worry about and, with every short breath, Sandy would heed one foot a little farther and faster.

She hurried, almost ran, past a bar full of drinking and partying men and women. Since it was so crowded, some even leaned against the wall outside of the establishment, chatting and looking to have a good time. But Sandy wasn't fooled. Her father always told her to stay away from any kind of bar and if she had to go through one, run. Just run past it and avoid any eye contact with anyone. After walking in and out of the crowd flowing towards her, she took a sharp turn to the right, thinking that it was the pavement when she bumped into something. It wasn't hard, so Sandy guessed that it wasn't a wall. Her answer was clear when she peered up to see a gruff man with a glass bottle half full of beer in his hand staring down at her.

She leapt back, startled. Head hung down to hide her identity, Sandy muttered a quick "Sorry" and turned to walk onto the pavement when a hand grabbed her right shoulder. It was as if time itself froze. The hand was cold, obviously had held onto an icy beer bottle too long and it sent a wave of chills down her spine. Half praying, Sandy jerked around, moving her shoulder a little for the man to stop holding it, but failed to get the firm hold off. She jolted her chin up to see the face and saw the man was swaying a little, probably from getting drunk to Sandy's horror.

"Hey, girl. You look a little familiar," he said, words slurred.

"Uhh..." Sandy was scared beyond belief. Her eyes kept darting towards the fingers gripped onto her collarbone as she was pleading for a way to get out.

"C'mere, Scotts," the man called over, beckoning another person over with a brandish of his beer bottle. Scotts staggered over while taking a huge gulp of the beer and turned his head to the side at seeing Sandy.

"Doesn't she look familiar?" the man said again. Scotts just looked at her for a while before shooing away the answer with a wave of his hand.

"Naw, Jordan. But she's pretty, you got to give her that," Scotts replied. The man nodded and turned to look at a shaking Sandy who quickly resolved herself, not wanting to be afraid in a situation like this. Sandy, feet cemented to the sidewalk, looked away and shuffled her shoulder bone a little. To her surprise, the man let go and Sandy finally thought it was over until another guy came waltzing over, not looking as drunk as the others.

"Can I buy you something, girl?" he asked, drawling out the 'irl'.

"N-No. I'm too young," Sandy answered quickly and whisked around to see that the man grabbed the front part of her arm. This time, gathering all the courage that she had vested in herself, she scrambled to get away, tugging on her arm to discover that it was useless.

"Hey, don't be like that. You should really get a drink. A whiskey." It wasn't a question. The same men, Scotts and Jordan, walked up a little behind him and stared at Sandy, smirking.

She ran out of courage. It was as if the bravery was drained out of her, breath choking diminishingly as she took a faulty step onto the street. With eyes glued to the alley and the giant, wide pavement next to it, Sandy had this feeling that she should take the pavement side, not the dark alley.

She bolted towards the wide street and, like on her track team, pumped her arms up and down as fast as she could to get more momentum. Breathing heavily with sweat dribbling onto her lip from the tip of her nose, she sprinted at least one hundred yards from the men. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that she had lost them completely through the mazes of the streets. She went from a sprint to an easy job and turned her head in every direction she could. Thinking that she was safe, she screeched to a stop to compose herself.

Regaining part of her jumbled mind, Sandy took in the situation.

She was alone.

She was lost.

She was outnumbered.

Her brother was gone.

Certainly, she had bad luck trailing her everywhere she went.

Then, a ring- Sandy's own ring tone- blasted into the evening. She scrambled to retrieve the phone as the men came around the corner, drifting over to where she was concealed. Rapidly, Sandy pressed a button and then brought the phone to her ear. A quick look over her shoulder told her to start walking immediately and she obeyed her instinct.

"Hello?" she whispered hoarsely into the phone, trying to be as quiet as possible. Her father's voice could be heard from the other end.

"Sandy? Oh, thank heavens. Turns out that Stan was just going out to get the cake and needed help carrying the extra present for you so he called us. Then, this was probably my fault, he actually ran out of minutes-"

"I'LL GET THOSE VERIZON IDIOTS FOR THAT!" Sandy didn't smile at her heard her brother's voice.

"Can't talk. Got to go. Don't know where I am. Hurry up and find me," Sandy ordered in a tense voice while whipping around a corner.

"Sandy, what are you talking about-"

The phone shut off.

"AH, DAMMIT! OF ALL THE DANG DAYS FOR MY MINUTES TO RUN OUT!" Sandy howled and hurled her phone at a warehouse, blowing her cover. Realization dawned on her, slapping her raw across the face to see what she had done.

"Oi! There she is!" one of the men called out to the others. Sandy couldn't believe how fast they were.

"Good, we thought we lost her," another murmured to his companion.

"So." One of the men walked closer up to Sandy. He was now about five feet in front of her, most likely their leader. "What about that drink?"

"I'd never do that!" Sandy spluttered. "You son of a bi-"

The man's face turned purple as he punched Sandy in the jaw and flew the girl back towards the cedar warehouse. Sandy, irritated that she had let him do that, rubbed the bruising spot. Her breaths became short intakes and hoarse exhales, an indication that she was beyond angry. As she looked around, she saw that she easily outnumbered and these people looked as if they were heavy weight lifters. Clenching her fist into a ball, Sandy refrained from attempting to tackle them and started to back away, but hit the wall behind her.

And a sudden wave of shock trekked through her spine when she took in the fact that these people were herding her into this trap. She had been an idiot to not realize it.

"C'mon, girl. Don't you wanna have a drink?" One of the men snickered and the others elbowed each other playfully as they watched Sandy's face change from frightened to mortified.

"Oi! Talk!" one man barked. Sandy remained silent.

"Oh, it's gonna be like that, right? Well, I'll teach you to respect your elders all right. Close your eyes, girl, this is going to hurt you more that it's going to hurt me."

Sandy bit her lip, sinking a little, but refused to give in to their game. She didn't close her eyes. Instead, her eyes averted up towards the Milky Way.

Please, oh, please! Just send someone here to help me, Sandy prayed as the men neared her.

Amazingly, her thought had been answered. Another voice, a male's voice, could be heard from the end of the alley.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" they called out.

It was as if it was an angel called down heaven. Sandy could finally have a clear head after she heard the angel's voice and she managed a quick smile of gratitude. The only reason why she didn't run into the angel's arms was because the voice sounded so familiar.

"And who are you?" one guy sneered. Sandy covered her eyes a little. This was turning into a horror movie.

"That doesn't matter. Leave her alone," the angel ordered. Sandy peeked a little from her palm and tried to identify her savior, but made no avail. It was too dark and the steer lamps weren't much help as they flickered on and off. The only part Sandy knew was that it was a boy because of his baseball cap.

"What makes you think that I'm going to listen to you?" the man retorted, not paying attention to Sandy, who was about to melt into sobs of gratefulness. "Who are you?"

"I told you to leave her alone. And you will do that," the angel repeated. The angel tightened the hat on his skull. For a moment, Sandy considered the thought that Cappy could be the stranger, but she remembered that Cappy had been out of town for a week.

The man cracked his knuckles. "That's it, you are going to mind your own business from this day forth. You either get the hell out of here or die tonight in the spot where you are standing. Got it? Now scram, dammit!"

The angel simply replied, "No."

"You asked for it! Sam, Scotts, go ahead and grab that douche! I'll be the one who's going to give him a lesson," the man said.

"Okay, Jordan," the two-gang members replied automatically and started for the angel. The angel didn't move, to Sandy's surprise, but stood his ground as if wanting to die.

"You will leave her alone," the angel repeated, tightening the baseball cap on his head. "You promise that."

"You douche! You'll be dead, you can't see if I'll kill the girl next!" Jordan yelled at him.

Sandy was horrified. She brought her hand to her mouth to hide her scream at the words of "dead" and "kill". All she wanted right now was for the angel to run, but the angel just remained in his position as if cemented into the ground.

"No. I will not be dead," the angel softly replied. There was something hidden in his voice… Something playful, the kind of amused tone that a person would have when they were keeping something secret.

Jordan was shaking with vehemence and hastily prodded his finger at the angel's chest. The cold whisky from his breath could be smelt, even at Sandy's distance. Sandy gasped as the angel didn't move.

"You listen to me, you douche," he hissed to the angel. "You are going to die. You hear me? Die. And all you care about is the girl. See, your problem is that you're alive in the first place. I'll gladly fix that!"

The angel didn't move, but gazed back up at Jordan. He didn't say anything as Sam and Scotts grabbed his shoulders and Jordan started to throw punches at the angel's face. Sandy was shaking from head to toe right now, sliding down onto the floor as she watched the angel continuously get hit and hit. And hit. And hit. And hit again.

She was choking back her tears, but they streamed down her neck anyway. She wanted to just run up and drag the angel to safety, but she couldn't find her legs. They felt like jelly and she couldn't stand up. But as the angel's baseball cap was knocked off, Sandy stopped crying for a moment and shakily got up. Her knees were wobbling and her ankles trembled, making it difficult to take the first step. Sandy heaved in a deep breath, closed her eyes and started for the brawl.

"Hey, Jordan! The girl's coming," Scotts warned as Jordan brought the angel up the wall and gave a right hook to the angel's stomach.

"The girl? Ha, let her come!" Jordan sneered and continued to rapidly punch at the angel's heart. Sandy felt more anger in her than ever before and she tried to remember all of the ways for self defense, referring to the Twilight book that Bijou had read to Sandy, since the girl was too lazy to actually read it herself.

Okay, so the self defense stuff were… Popping the eye out. Ew, but I'll do it. Push the nose into the brain. Again, ew. Knee to the groin… I'll leave that one out. Go for the eye popping, Sands, c'mon this is why you watched all of Stan's boxing tournaments! Sandy thought. She was two feet behind the fight and the way the angel wasn't giving up made her give a quick twitter of hope, but the angel's face was twisted and bruised. Sandy now knew that he was in a lot of pain, but he refused to show much of it.

"Jordan, you might want to turn around. She looks like she wants to fight you," Sam pointed out. Scotts and himself were folding their arms across their chests, watching the scuffle and snickering whenever the angel gave a small wail of pain.

"Run!" the angel rasped, aiming his word at Sandy. Sandy could feel her heart sink at how bad the angel sounded. Jordan let go of the angel's collar and made a course towards Sandy.

"Ah, shit," Sandy mouthed as she ducked one punch. She had forgotten, of all things, to make a plan probably because she was furious for the men to beat up the angel.

"You want to die too? Okay, I'll kill you first!" Jordan threatened as he threw one punch that missed Sandy by inches. The angel, bleeding and coughing, crawled over to his baseball cap and tightened it onto his skull.

"I said leave her alone!" the angel cried and pointed a shaking finger at Jordan. Sandy quickly dove down towards the ground as Jordan attempted to kick her, fed up with the misaimed punches.

"You douche!" Jordan hollered at the angel. "I'll teach you a good lesson for messing with me!"

"Hey, you!" the angel yelled at Sandy. "Run, just run, okay?"

"But-" Sandy protested, hopping back onto her feet.

"I said run!" the angel barked in a much angrier tone. He remained where he was as Jordan approached where he stood, prepared this time. Sandy had nothing left to do and she stood glued to the place that she was at. Too terrified to see what Jordan could do to the angel, she fled down the street.

Pumping her arms up and down as fast as she could, Sandy zigzagged her way through the maze of abandoned warehouses. Once, she had passed a highway, but when she tried to get help, she found that the highway was fenced with twelve feet of barbed wire. It was getting cold and Sandy started to shiver, nearly slapping herself for not remembering to bring a thicker jacket than her light windbreaker. She rubbed her hands together for warmth and moved her shoulder up to heat up her jaw. Speaking of jaws, her teeth were chattering like crazy and it was so loud that someone fifty feet away could hear it. Exhausted and too scared to get any more lost than this, Sandy sat down between two old buildings used to store motor vehicles.

First off, she thought of her home and how much she missed her father and brother. It sounded corny, but Sandy couldn't help but think that she'd never be able to see them again. Thinking about Stan made her want to throw up after he did such a stupid thing to get her stuck in this mess. However, she shook it off and tried to think about something else as she waited for help to come.

She wished, no, needed, the angel by her side. He was the reason why the police wouldn't be inspecting her dead body now and what did Sandy do? She had left him to die. The guilty feeling swelling in her chest struck her face harder than any blow or left jab. It was awful, holding all of that weight on her back and Sandy bit her lip. She brought her knees to her chest, trying to make the space a little warmer, but it felt as cold as it did from the outside.

"P-Probably from that guy," Sandy said quietly.

For a moment, her imagination took over and she thought that she heard the angel's voice in the far distance. Now, he was probably dead, but what did Sandy care. That angel came from heaven anyway, he was probably already dead. But her fantasies took over her mind as she heard a roar from the same angel's voice. Why in the world would the angel be so sad, so angry? This was beyond Sandy and she couldn't make out why the angel had to sound so frustrated and troubled. If he was dead, he was supposed to sound happy as Sandy had thought. However, before Sandy could get into this any more, the angel gave another loud cry and then it was quiet.

Sandy bolted upright, dismayed by the sound. She rushed off into the direction of the call and found the angel leaning on a wall, blood spluttering from his mouth and nose. Sandy took a quick look around to see that the men were no longer there.

"A-Are you okay?" Sandy questioned meekly, shy of the angel.

The angel didn't answer nor look up. He was far too busy trying to contain the pain and started to breath deeply. His face was covered in blood and his eye (Sandy couldn't see it.) was a nasty shade of midnight blue.

"Do you need help standing?" Sandy extended out a hand for him to grab hold of, but the angel didn't move.

A little angry that he was ignoring her after he had saved her life, Sandy inched a little closer to him. The angel noticed this and looked away from her before muttering, "Get out of here. Go home, you hear

Throat dry and teeth clenched, Sandy could feel a couple of tears come up. "Don't you want to get someone to help-"

"Just go."

Sandy gasped at his harsh words, but it was barely heard. She looked down, bowed respectfully, and started to walk away. Before she left, she whispered something in Japanese that her mother would always say whenever they were doing something fairy tale oriented.

"Oyasuminasai, Tenshi Senpai."

The angel smiled a little before saying, "Oyasuminasai…"

Sandy returned the sad smile before walking off into the night. The angel raised an eyebrow and finished his statement.

"…Torahamu-Chan. Sandy."

Okay, now only one more chapter left! PRAISE THE LORD! I can't stand much more of this… READ AND REVIEW PEOPLE! IF I GET FIVE REVIEWS, YOU GUYS GET THE LAST CHAPTER TOMORROW BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE IT ALL TYPED OUT!