A/N: Thanks ppl. I was bout to change the 'I love you' bit, but I guess lucky for me I didn't. Anyways. ENJOY! (Next part will be up – maybe later on today! Well today as in Auz today.)

Part 17: Revenge

Hearing the voice, Jessie looked up from her book and turned to see who it was. Sarah… After seeing Sarah and her group of four or five friends, Jessie kind of felt a little intimidated. She quickly stuffed her book and her i-pod back into her bag.

"So, what is Miss Goody-Goody doing all by herself in school?" Sarah began in a disgustingly mocking tone of voice.

"What do you want Sarah?" Jessie asked solidly as she stood up, trying to pretend she didn't feel the slightest bit frightened.

"Oh, nothing much… really. Just wanted to show you that, no one ever takes a girl from me." Sarah said bitterly, followed by a few snickers from behind her.

Jessie was about to walk away, but suddenly, Jessie flinched from the pain her ankle was causing her. Though Jessie's ankle may allow her to stand up and walk, but truthfully it's not in the best condition, because when in certain weird angles, it would become terribly sore. "What are you talking about…" was all Jessie could manage through her pain.

"Oh don't play stupid with me… Jessie," Sarah began bitterly, "You took Katie Singer from me, and now you are gonna pay for it."

Before Jessie could say anything more, two girls grabbed her from behind and pulled her down to the ground, holding her firmly there.

"Let go of me!" Jessie grounded out, trying to break free. "He…" Jessie tried to scream 'help', but found her mouth now stuffed with something resembling a piece of cloth.

Now successfully silencing Jessie, Sarah instructed another girl to hold Jessie's leg while another tied it down. Jessie had tried with all her strength to struggle out of the two girls' firm grip, but that was absolutely useless. Jessie was then lifted up and three of them carried Jessie to a nearby alley, out of the street.

Once in the alley, one of the girls attempted to strip away Jessie's clothes; luckily Jessie's arms broke free from the two girls behind her just in time and pushed the girl back. That girl lost balance and fell onto another girl behind her.

Sarah got frustrated, and slapped Jessie across the face, the slap was so hard, the pain stung Jessie's face, and she could feel it burn an imprint. The two girls again held Jessie down, this time more firm than previous, another girl tried to attempt to rip at Jessie's clothes, but only tore a small bit of the sleeve.

Just before the girl could tear the rest of Jessie's shirt off, someone yelled out, "Hey what are you guys doing!"

Immediately Jessie recognized the voice, it was her brother Eli, Jessie tried to yell out 'Eli' through the piece of cloth that was stuck in her mouth. But was unsuccessful, except the sound she managed was desperate enough for Eli, so he began to walk down the alley. Sarah and her gang saw Eli coming towards them, they became nervous and quickly fled down the other side of the alley and left Jessie lying their still tied up.

"Oh my god!" Eli muttered out, when he finally reached the figure on the floor with their shirt in a mess. "Jessie?"

Eli quickly took out the cloth from Jessie's mouth, and untied the rope that was holding Jessie's ankle. After finally being free again, Jessie quickly leaped up into Eli's arms and clung onto him for dear life.

"What on earth happened?" Eli asked, now carrying his sobbing little sister out of the alley in his arms.

"Don't ask… Thank… god you came… just in time." Jessie managed through tears.

"Don't worry Jess, I'm here now, you're safe." Eli said soothingly, trying to calm her down.

"How'd you find me?"

"Well, I got out of work a little early, so I decided to come pick you up instead of going to Starbucks. Once I reached the school, I only saw your bag there and I kinda freaked. So I walked around looking for you." Eli said as he finally placed Jessie back down on her feet.

"Oh."

Eli picked up Jessie's bag and said, "Jump on" before he turned his back towards her. With one little hop, Jessie was on Eli's back, and he walked towards his parked car.

"Thank you." Jessie said gently.

"For what?"

"For looking around for me instead of just standing by my bag waiting for me… For coming to pick me up, instead of going to Starbucks." Jessie laughed at her last statement, it may have sounded really stupid to some people, hell it would've sounded stupid to herself, if not in the same situation.

"No problem. You are my little sister, and I have your back. You know…"

With that Jessie hugged Eli around the neck a little tighter than before.

"Oi, you trying to strangle me to death or what?"

Giggling, Jessie mumbled out a "Sorry."

One and a Half Hour Later…

"Hey Jess," Katie said into the receiver.

"Hey Katie…"

"Guess what! I passed my driving test, I can now drive you around!" Katie said all excited.

"Congratulations! But Katie, sorry to break it to you, you don't even have a car yet."

"Oh yeah… that…"

"Yeah."

"No worries, I'll ask my dad for one, he owes me a birthday present anyways."

"Right."

For the next half an hour, Jessie and Katie talked about everything on the phone. Jessie was having so much fun talking to Katie, she totally forgot about the incident that happened after school just before.

"Jessie, time for bed!" Rick called from the bottom of the attic stairs.

"Yes, dad!" Jessie called back, with one hand covering the receiver.

"Sorry, time to sleep. You wanna sleep over tomorrow?" Jessie asked hopefully.

"Yeah sure, I'll tell my mom tomorrow."

"Good. Then I'll ask my dad tomorrow, I mean my mom. I'm staying over at my moms for the night, so we'll be going over later on in the day, when Eli finishes band practice."

"Okay… Can't wait to see you tomorrow then, babe!" Katie said excitedly.

"See you tomorrow! Night Katie…" Jessie said just as excited.

"Night"

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When Jessie and Katie were on the phone…

"Grace…" Eli said, poking his head into his step-sister's room.

Grace, who was sitting on her bed reading, "Yeah."

"Can I come in? I need to ask you about something."

"Uh… Yeah sure…"

Walking in, Eli took a seat at the end of Grace's bed, after getting comfortable, he asked, "Did Jessie offend anyone? Like in school or anything?"

"Uh… no, not that I can think of. Why do you ask?"

"Well today, I went to pick Jess up from school, and I found her tied up in an alley with a group of girls surrounding her."

"Really?" Grace asked automatically, not really believing what she was hearing.

"Yeah, the girls ran when they saw me. Once I untied Jessie, she clung onto me, I could tell she was really terrified. But when I asked her what happened, she wouldn't tell me… so I was thinking maybe you knew something about this."

Something immediately clicked in Grace's mind, 'Sarah.'

"Don't tell Rick or Karen yet, or even my mom for that matter… I'll go talk to her."

"Oh okay. If you guys are in any trouble… just need any help, tell me. Alright?"

"Yeah."

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