(51)Kendall

"Ally? Ally!" I asked repeatedly into the phone, but there was no answer. Only the painfully-real, dead tone-sound rang through the receiver, and I couldn't keep calm. Ally had called me…but there now was no sign of her.

"Is everything ok, man?" Logan asked, appearing behind me. I didn't move at all, but stared in front of me, thoughtfully. "I don't know, but I have to leave. Now." "What are you talking about?" James asked, from somewhere across the room. "It's going on 9:00. PM. You can't go anywhere!"

I turned, finally, to look at him. "You don't understand. Ally might be in trouble. I need to go check on her." Both of them stared at me, obviously trying to process everything through their minds. Carlos had already gone to bed, but I was sure that if he was around, he would be doing the same as James and Logan.

"We'll come with you," Logan finally said. "In case you need help." I patted his shoulder appreciatively. "Thanks, man. We'd better go."

We didn't even bother to write a note for Mom, Carlos, and Katie. There was no time for that. If Ally was in as much trouble as I thought she was, we couldn't do anything that would slow us down. And besides, we had our phones with us.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to exit the Palm Woods and get on out to Logan's car. Without any hesitation, the three of us hopped in, and took off.

"Where should we check first?" Logan asked, as he glanced around the whole view, while driving. "Her place. Don't even worry about parking too far away from her house; this is important. I have a strong belief that something happened at her house." I took a few deep breaths to help calm me and my nervousness down.

The drive was taking too long. Why did the Palm Woods have to be so far away from Ally's house? Five minutes felt more like twenty.

At last, Logan made the final turn onto the road leading to Ally's place, and I felt my heart beat a little faster, the nearer we got. The feeling that she was here, got bigger, too.

"Oh no…" I heard Logan gasp quietly, as we approached Ally's house. I turned straight to where he was looking, and my heart practically stopped. Everything seemed to turn to slow motion. This couldn't be real life.

Logan's foot slammed hard on the brake, and almost exactly when the car stopped moving, completely, I threw the door open, and galloped across the road and to the porch where Ally's still body lay.

I fell to my knees beside her, my eyes directly floating to the deep scrapes on her hands, arms, and hands. Only one question was left unanswered in my head, at that moment. What happened?

Seconds later, James and Logan appeared beside me. "Oh my god…" I heard James gasp, and that made me feel all the more uneasy about all of this.

"She fell on the cement," Logan immediately said, and both James and I shot him a "how the hell did you know that?" look. "Are you freaking psychic or something?" James asked, for the both of us.

"No, I am not," Logan answered. "It wasn't too hard to tell. The cuts on her face are definitely deep scrapes…and there's a little bit of blood right there, behind you guys. She must have fallen, or something."

My head turned back to look at Ally's blank, cut-up face. Now that I had a closer look, her eye looked somewhat swollen. I didn't say anything, though. I couldn't find any words to say. It was like I had forgotten entirely how to speak. Besides, Logan seemed to be observing everything perfectly. This was where having a best friend interested in the medical field really paid off.

"What should we do?" James asked aloud, and Logan bit his lip. "We need to get her to somewhere warmer. I have no doubt that she passed out from the cold."

"Or, hmm…maybe it was from getting so beat up?" I finally squeezed out, rolling my eyes. I touched my warm hand to her arm, but instantly whipped it away. Her skin was freezing!

Barely thinking about it, I tore my jacket off of me, and gently wrapped it around her. Then, I began to lift her up, but jumped when a sudden, unfamiliar voice yelled out through the cold evening.

"What the hell are you doing here?" All three of us looked up to see a middle-aged man peeking his head out the door of Ally's house. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who this man was.

"What are you doing with her?" he asked a moment later. I stood up, slowly, while I held Ally's practically weightless body in my arms. "Saving her," I muttered with one brave breath.

"Ally's father laughed. "So, you are that blonde kid that was dating my daughter. Emphasis on the 'was'." I swallowed, but didn't agree or disagree with him.

"She ignored me. Actually, she went right out and did the opposite of my wishes," he went on, when no one spoke. I raised my eyebrow, waiting for him to continue, since he definitely did not look finished.

"Hopefully after what happened tonight, she will have learned just what happens when someone dishonors their parents," he finished with a smirk, and all three of us dropped our jaws.

"What did you say?" James growled.

"You did this to her!" I snapped, glaring at him with pure hate. The guy rolled his eyes. "I am glad I kicked her out when I did. She's been acting all spoiled and selfish lately…truthfully, I don't know why she didn't see this coming."

That is it. I couldn't handle all this anger. I usually was pretty good with controlling my temper, but I wouldn't even classify what I was feeling now anything like anger. What I felt for this man was so incredibly full of hate…it would scare anyone.

With two swift movements, I placed Ally's unconscious body in James' arms, and I jumped at her father with everything I had.

The man fell to the ground under my force, but he responded surprisingly quickly. Not long after we both had made it to the ground, he threw an immensely frightening left hook at my right eye, but fortunately, I ducked out of the way just in time.

Now, it was my turn to attack. I followed his example by throwing a punch at his eye, but of course, I missed this time.

"KENDALL!" I heard Logan yell from behind us, but I ignored his call. I was too into this fight, now. This was my chance to express just how I felt about this man, from Day 1.

But, it was obvious that this guy had some experience from fighting, because I wasn't exactly winning. Actually, it was looking more like a tie. I was now receiving just as many blows as he was, and it definitely was not making me get any more brave.

Everything was happening so fast. It felt like the two of us had been fighting each other for hours, but it had to be much less than that. 8 minutes, tops.

We probably would have gone at it for hours, if it weren't for James. He grabbed me off of the guy, with ease. "KENDALL! KNOCK IT OFF!"

I turned to look at Logan, whom was now holding Ally. He looked very disappointed and worried, at the same time.

"Calm down, Kendall!" James said, grabbing my shoulders, noticing how much I was still shaking. "Beating him up is exactly what he did to Ally! Don't be like him!"

I took a couple deep breaths, focusing just on calming down. James was right; I shouldn't going to be like him. I never would.

Ally's dad scrambled to his feet, and shot a look so dark, I wouldn't even call it a glare. "If I ever see you here ever again," he threatened with a growl, "I'm going to call the cops. Actually, I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place!"

"Oh, yeah," Logan muttered. "Maybe because you know that you'll be the one getting arrested."

"Now get the hell out of here! NOW!" Ally's father concluded, and slammed the door. I could feel his gaze at us through the window, but I ignored it deciding to go check up on Ally again.

"We need to go. Right now," Logan said to me, and he handed her back into my arms. I nodded once, and limpingly began to make my way to the car parked a few feet away from all that had happened.