Jake

"Look, Allison, you're a very nice girl and all…"

"But?"

"But I'm really not looking for a girlfriend right now," I said awkwardly.

"It's Cassie, isn't it?" Allison snapped.

"What?"

"Your cousin told me all about her."

"Rachel?" I asked, hurriedly. "What did Rachel tell you?"

"She said you and Cassie are dating," Allison looked at me carefully.

"I'll kill her," I muttered to myself. Rachel had a serious habit of getting into my business. She had this obsession with getting me and Cassie together.

"So, it's not true?" Allison asked hopefully.

"What? About me and Cassie?"

"Well, yeah," Allison said in a dumb air head way. "You know you've gotten really cute lately, even cuter than your friend. Marcus?"

"Marco." I corrected. I didn't even want to think about where this conversation was going.

"So why don't you just dump her and come with me," she whispered in my ear, even though nobody else was on the beach. "I mean it's not like you were close."

We were close, I thought. Now it's like she doesn't care.

"Who are you going to disappoint?" Allison continued. "Rachel? Like she knows any better."

"Look," I said, I had just about enough of her bagging my friends. "Don't you think…?"

"Well, who do we have here?"

A loud crude voice echoed from behind me and Allison.

I turned around and found myself staring at a short, stocky guy with a big grin plastered on his face. John. He went to our school, but got expelled for putting some kid in hospital. He had it in for me when he still went there. I think it was because I was the only one who stood up to him and actually got away unscathed.

"Is that you, Jake?" he mocked. "Big Jake, long time."

"Great," I muttered to myself. I wasn't scared or intimidated by John. In fact, I could take him on and win. Last time I did that he had a small army backing him up, this time he was by himself. Only one person saw me take him on. Marco. He never spoke about it again.

I never resorted to violence unless it was absolutely necessary. All I really did was push him, it wasn't my fault if he's a crappy fighter. No one found out about that fight. I didn't want people knowing I could fight and John didn't want people to know he could be beaten.

"Jake, Jake, Jake," he said, slowly shaking his head. "Jake, Jake, Jake."

"Would you get on with it," I said, almost bored. "I don't have time for this."

"Don't have time for what?" he asked, drawing nearer. "For me kicking your butt?"

I laughed. "Are you serious?"

"I want a rematch."

"I'm sorry?"

"I want a rematch," he repeated, looking at Allison amusedly. "We had an unfair fight."

"We sure did," I agreed. "I was outnumbered five to one. But that didn't stop me from beating you."

That's when he turned angry. He stepped right in my face and started calling me obscene names. I just stood there calmly. Not flinching, just waiting until he finished.

When he did, I said calmly, "Now that's over, Allison, come on."

Allison was only too happy to leave, but John spoke up again.

"No, Big Jake, not until I get my fight."

"I'm not fighting you," I said, calmly. Showing no emotion.

"Why? Are you scared you might lose?"

"No," I said, honestly. "I'm scared I might win."

That's when he pushed me. I didn't fall back, I didn't even move, but how dare that scum touch me? So what did I do? I pushed him back, but with more force and he stumbled back.

"Oh, you…" he shouted and came after me. Before he could reach me I stepped out of the way and watched as he fell over.

"Jake, can we please get out of here?" Allison pleaded.

"Yeah, sure," I said, just as John started to get up.

"You think you're so good don't you?" he said, snarling at me. "Well what do you think about this?"

Things couldn't have gone worse after that. He had a knife and he pulled that knife up so that it was touching my throat. It was pressing in on me. The strange thing was, I was completely calm. I was just worried for Allison, who had now starting to sob.

"Allison, get out of here," I said.

"You move and your boyfriend here will be missing a head," John snapped at Allison.

Allison stood stock still, just like me except she didn't have a knife pressed at her throat.

"Look here," John taunted. "Big Jake, finally cornered. I knew one day I'd get you. You humiliated me in front of my friends. Bet me in the one thing I was good at, beating up other kids. Except you don't even use your gift."

"Gift?" I laughed. "You call beating up other kids till they land in the hospital a gift? You're nuts."

"Watch it," he snarled.

"Jake, please," Allison pleaded through sobs. "Please don't make him angry."

"We could have been great together, in business," he continued. "But your morals are different. You hang out with the wrong people. You should have joined me. Now you're going to pay."

"Not today," I said fiercely and before he could react, I stepped about a millimetre back and knocked the knife out of his hand. It flew and landed two metres away. Allison screamed as I landed a clenched fist on John's cheekbone. John, looking stunned and angry flew back and landed on the sand with a thud. Quickly, I ran toward the knife and with all my strength broke the blade. It made cuts on my hand, but I ignored the blood and wiped it on my pants.

"Jake!" Allison shrieked.

I turned around just as John came swooping up from behind me. He managed to trip me and I went sprawling in the sand. John, looking pretty pleased with himself, tried to lay a fist in me, but I swerved out of the way his fist punched sand. I then managed to trip him and he landed face first in the sand. I took advantage of him coughing and choking on sand to grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him to his feet. With him still spluttering, I gave him one warning.

"Get out of here, before you land in juvie," I snapped. "Don't start trouble with me again."

He was still coughing when he ran out of there. I distinctly heard him shout, "You tell anyone about this and your dead! I'll get you one of these days! You're dead!"

When he was out of sight I picked up the broken blade and walked to the nearest bin, where I threw the blade in there with disgust. I walked back to a snivelling Allison.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm alright," she sniffed. "Are you alright? You've cut your hands."

"Yeah, it's alright," I reassured her.

"Are you sure. I mean you could come over to my house and I could clean them for you…"

"No thankyou," I said hurriedly.

"But you're my hero…"

And that's when she leaned in. I knew what she was going to do before she had time. I swerved out of the way and cleared my throat, uncomfortably.

She sniffed and turned toward the ocean.

"Well I hope those dolphins had a better time at watching your fight than I did," she said, haughtily.

"What?" I asked, hurriedly, suddenly breathing had become a lot more harder.

"Yeah, four of them, I saw them swim closer to shore when that guy had his knife to your throat," she pointed out to the ocean.

I turned toward them and my heart nearly stopped. I was looking at four dolphins, all of them staring back at me, no comical grin on their faces.