Nutcase Kyle ran to the front when I came out with Trent for the curtain call on the closing night. She handed me a dozen roses. I knew who they were from: the Criminal Minds Crew. They couldn't hide anything for the HSR's but they still hadn't learned that quite yet. I took the final bow of my last and final high school play. Life was really good. The cheering and applause was loud it made most of the younger kids cover their ears. It was a standing ovation that Mrs. Wharton always wanted us to get and we had gotten it every night of this show.
The friendly faces and happy tears around me of the other seniors who knew this was probably going to be their last and final musical they'd ever be in made me forget for a long time that danger was still all around for us. I really took me forever to get to the dressing room sense so many little kids wanted to meet Belle because she was their favorite Disney Princess and friends wanted some last minute pictures with me before we all left. I gave Jessie my car keys so everyone could put the roses they had gotten for me and the others in the show (which was a HSR's tradition that started my sophomore year) in my car.
I went to dressing room and hung up all my costumes after checking them back in with Cody and got dressed when the door to the dressing room opened. I had the most costumes so almost all of the other girls had left but me because of their single costumes or two costumes they had to check in. I had about ten costumes to check back in.
"Hello everyone dressed?" Walker's voice echoed in to the empty room except for me.
"I'm naked," It was an inside drama joke everyone in Drama said when someone called into the dressing room, "No one in here but me and I'm dressed." I called after we both stopped laughing at the inside Drama joke.
"Well," he stepped around the corner, "I was wondering if you wanted to come to my house and watch a movie. Some of the others from Drama are going to be there too."
"I can't Walker sorry. I have plans with my HSR friends." I said stuffing my props that didn't need to be checked in because they were mine into my tote and putting the lid on it and putting it on the counter.
"What does HSR stand for?" He asked. "I've heard you use that all the time but I have no idea what it means. Most of us don't understand that either."
"High School Rejects," I said it turning to look at him. "Though some of us say misfits most of us say rejects. It's true we aren't popular if you think about it. Besides we don't fit in anywhere else so we made our own group and clique here in school. Everyone and anyone who wants to be can be an HSR but they have to follow the rules which are pretty simple and easy to do."
"Oh come on Danielle," He said. "Forget your other friends and come to my house with your Drama friends. They'll understand if you want to spend more time with the senior Drama kids before this is all over."
"Walker we planned these get togethers weeks ago," I said and turned to him. "Sorry but I have a really different commitment here that I want to keep. This group is more important to me than any of the Drama kids because they are more trustworthy and I hate the dressing room gossip that happens in here all of the time. I've heard my own name in here several times when they think I've left the room and you wouldn't believe some of things that are said in here about me and others. It's not right I tell you, it's not. If people have something to say to me I'd appreciate it if they said it to my face rather than behind my back because I can try and change what they don't like about me if they would just tell me face to face."
Suddenly he pulled out his hand that he had behind his back holding a gun. "You're coming to my house whether you want to or not Danielle."
"Not again," I groaned then I realized something. "It was you, it was you the whole time and I didn't realize it. I thought you just wanted to be nice to me but you wanted to catch me alone with you. No one else is going to your house. You tried to kill me. Why are you doing this Walker? I didn't think you had the guts to try something like this."
"Your right, I wanted to get you alone so I could get you back after you were rescued. I'm so tired of your so called HSR friends that you call brothers and sisters being in my way all the time. Why didn't you go to Junior Prom with me when Trent asked you after me? I should have gone with you. I asked you first. Why did you go with him and not me?" He asked advancing on me.
"Doesn't that sound familiar to you?" I stepped back until I was up against the back counter. "It was a better offer. You said you would go with me to the girl's choice then that cheerleader asked you and you dropped me two weeks before the dance and I ended up not going at all since all the boys I knew had a date. Not to mention, I'd rather have stayed home on the Prom night then gone with you when I figured out how much of a jerk you really are under that mask you wear all the time and some can't see who you really are but I can see through it. You know you can put on a good mask but in the end it can't hide everything someday it will all fall apart beneath your feet and the world will see what you really are. That happens because the only person you can't really fool is yourself."
Suddenly the door opened, "Danni are you there?" It was Trent.
Walker lunged at me covering my mouth so I couldn't scream and pointed his gun at the corner by the door.
"Danni, I'm coming in." He stepped around the corner.
"Hello Trent." Walker said relishing the whole situation.
"Walker what are you doing?" Trent was as surprised as I was at this revelation of who WM really was.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He still had his gun pointed at Trent. "I'm taking what I want. All I want is her and I'm taking her. In fact she's going to be my free ticket out of here."
"Look Walker you don't have to do this." Trent said. "Let her go and we can talk this over."
"And who's going to stop me from getting what I want? You won't make it more than three steps toward me before I shoot you. I acted like I was a bad shoot but to tell you the truth I'm really not. I was taught to be hunter by my dad and I nailed my first deer when I was only four years old." He had to be exaggerating.
"Walker, listen to me. Just let her go before you do something you'll regret for the rest of your life please."
"No, I'm not going to let her go because I wanted to get her alone with me but she's hard to convince."
"Let's just talk this over. We can find some kind of solution and you don't have to do this. There are other things you can do. You don't have to take her away from everyone. Let's talk this over."
"What's there to talk about Trent? I just talked to her now I have what I want. She is what I wanted this whole time and I'm taking her and no one is going to be able to stop me. Not you, not the FBI, and not any of her other friends. By tonight I'll leave town with her and no one will ever find me, catch me, or stop me for that matter. I'll have her and no one will stop me when I'm gone. She'll be mine and no one is going to be able to stop me this time. At first I wanted to kill her for what she did to me but luckily for her I changed my mind. I'm going to make her fall in love with me and marry me."
"Please, just let her go. You don't understand what you're doing to her. She'll never love you if you make her go with you. She'll hate you for forcing her into this. No one can love someone who forces them into a situation they never wanted to be in the first place. Love can't be forced."
"You're wrong. I know she won't love me at first but soon she will learn to love me because all ones like her do eventually in time when they see that the one who they are with is the one they truly love. She is all that I want and I'm going to take her and no one can stop me. She'll be only mine, you dimwit. You understand me, she'll be mine. I know what I want now so I'll take it. She will love me in time and forget all about you and all the other friends she had. In fact why don't I just kill you since I know she loves you and that would be easier for me to get her to forget you when she with me if you are dead. With you gone she'll have no one to turn to but me to replace you in her life and heal her heart."
I moved quickly in fear when he said he'd kill Trent and I couldn't let him do that. I horse kicked him as hard as I could in the most significant place I could think of: the groin. He went down hard taking me with him dropping his gun and it clattered to the floor I kicked it away before he could get it and shoot me or Trent. Trent grabbed the gun that skidded across the floor toward him. Walker got up pulling me up with him, pushed me as hard as he could that I fell hard on to the tile floor, and ran out the door to escape yelling."This isn't over yet Danielle! I will get you in time and you'll be mine someday!"
Leaving the room was his giant mistake and one he would soon regret. He didn't realize what was awaiting him outside of the room in the hallway, something that he couldn't have avoided even if he wanted to.
"LET'S GET HIM NOW!" The shout that sounded after Walker exited the girls dressing room surprised him and before he could think of who it was and what was happening to him he was thrown on the ground and had a dog pile of all the HSR's fall on top of him pinning him to the floor just like they had done to Jedi when they had attacked him believing he had taken us and was holding us against our will. To Walker's dismay he felt his body being smashed as flat as a pancake and he could barely get enough breath into his lungs to state him his arms and legs were pinned as well and no matter how hard he tried to move it was impossible. They had been waiting for me when they had seen Walker enter the dressing room and after a while they knew something was wrong since neither of us had left the room yet and watched Trent enter the room to find out what was going on. Unfortunately for Walker Jessie had cracked the door open after Trent entered so they could hear what was going on inside the whole time so they knew what Walker had said to him and what he planned to do to with me. The HSR's who all were listen getting more angry the whole time and like a family they knew they had to act when he came out. We all remembered one thing we found extremely important sometimes, family are the ones that you choose to turn to when you need help and when you are in danger whether it's real or imagined they are there for you. Friends will most likely save their own skin usually but when we were in trouble we turned to each other and people could see we were a lot more than just really close friends, we were practically brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile while all the HSR's were dog piling on Walker in the hall pinning him to the floor outside the dressing room a very different scene was happening inside. Trent came to me as soon as Walker fled. He knelt next to me and held me as tight as he could without hurting me and I was shaking fearfully like I was having a seizure but Trent knew I wasn't since he had been watching me since the first time he met me and he had always felt something was very special and different about me than anyone else he'd ever met. He'd never felt for any girl the way he felt for me.
He cared for me a lot more than anyone I knew. Me, a strange, imaginative, friendless, bully target, that no one knew except for all the rumors they heard that destroyed a none existent reputation that I so wanted to have before the HSR's. A girl no one really cared about until she and her friends made themselves and others the HSR's which he had joined when he quit the Chess team to purse his drama and lost all his friends because of his decision to not continue with Chess. All his old friends hated him for quitting and called him a quitter. After they told him that they were no longer friends he met Jackie and soon after the HSR's and was absorbed into our group quickly and found that we were the best group of friends anyone could ask for. He had always loved me in silence because he didn't know how he could tell me without me turning to run in the opposite direction like so many girls had in his past when he told them he liked them. I had done the exact opposite when I found out he liked me I had practically run to him in a figurative sense.
When we heard the shout of 'let's get him now' outside the door I sighed with pure relief and felt security envelop me as I sat in Trent's arms knowing Walker wasn't going to hurt us now and not ever again. The kidnapper had been caught by the HSR's. The motto of 'you mess with one of us you mess with all of us' had come through after all this time. We had stuck together like we always should, like a family should stick together and we always would.
"Are you going to be all right now Danni?" He asked as I pulled away from him and I stopped shivering. "He's been caught and he can't hurt you or anyone else anymore. He wouldn't be able to hurt any of us ever again for as long as we live."
"It's over." I breathed "I can't believe it's finally really over. We actually got away from him and survived. Now he's been caught. I can't believe this whole nightmarish experience isn't just a dream, I had. I can't believe we actually survived this whole ordeal. I can't believe it's all really over. It's a miracle that we survived it and that it was all over. We're still alive. It's over. "
"Yes, you did survive this nightmare and became a lot stronger during it. We all did and if I'm not mistaken he is probably pinned to the ground by now in the hallway by the HSR's that most likely heard everything and were ready to pounce like a cat on a rat when he exited the room. Are you sure that you'll be all right? We can wait a minute longer before we leave this room if you want. Do you want to wait to leave?" He asked me.
I shook my head. "I want to see this. I need to see this. I need to see what our siblings, our family, did to Walker. I need to see them. I need to make sure everyone is actually okay and no one is hurt. Men like Walker don't care if they hurt a few people along the way to their objective. I have to see him."
"I still have his gun but yes we need to make sure our family is okay." Trent helped me stand up and we went to the door.
I paused and looked at Trent. "Please stay close to me. I need to feel you with me." I whispered and he came to my side his arms around me.
As I opened the door several pairs of legs and heads fell in from the large pile in the hall.
Kyle looked up at the two of us, "He's on the bottom of the pile and I can't breathe." He said and I could barely hear him.
We stepped over the tangled pile of body parts. To see Walker's head barely sticking out of the pile. "If you haven't learned anything from this situation then you've got to be joking." I started to laugh sense I realized we were free and safe after such an exhausting time.
The Criminal Minds Crew who had barely arrived on the scene stood staring at the pile stunned, making me laugh even harder than before.
"Hey, are you ready to handcuff him yet or are you going to stand there gawking all night?" Mandy called to them. She was near the top of the pile so she was heard. "Some of us who are near the bottom probably can't breathe very well and I'm surprised Walker hasn't passed out yet sense he's on the bottom."
Hotch once again smiled and pulled out his handcuffs and prepared to take Walker into custody. One by one the HSR's stood up and moved aside so the next one could get up.
As Walker was handcuffed before he could regain his breath we shouted, "YOU MESS WITH ONE OF US, YOU MESS WITH ALL OF US! HIGH SCHOOL REJECTS ROCK ON YEAH!"
As Hotch was taking him away after he regain his breath he yelled. "Danielle, I did a lot of things just for you. You can't believe I actually took you the first time? Isn't there anything you will do to help me?"
"I've only got eight words left in me for you Walker and I don't normally swear at all but I've got to say this to you. 'Rot in Hell you son of a Bitch.'" I turned away and my friends all started to cheer.
Walker confessed to kidnapping me, Mandy, and Jessie and trying to kidnap Kyle and to our surprise after a while he started to go after Trent also but I was always with him when he thought about it. It made sense to everyone after all. He was tried as an adult and after he was convicted, booked in to prison for three counts of kidnapping, three counts of attempted kidnapping, shooting at two federal agents, two counts of attempted murder and many other things which I can't remember all of them. We knew he would in prison for a long time and we were finally free from him and we didn't feel the danger anymore.
I was glad we were safe and finished the trimester in peace. Well as much peace as you can have with the HSR's and had fun finishing our year in the process. Most people still found us as crazy idiots. Playing tag in the halls during lunch after we ate was our favorite past time and skipping assemblies to go joy riding in my car or go to Lee's to buy some treats. Of course a bunch of seniors grabbed us for the senior's assemblies when we got awards and to our surprise we had to come because people had voted on us and we got awards for being the craziest, most dramatic, and funniest seniors.
We all laughed about it after we got the trophies made out of tin foil and cardboard.