They were half way across my front lawn to the cars when they heard a loud shout from their right. "Kyle watch out! Jackie's running...!"
Next thing they knew Kyle was on the ground with someone on top of him. They reached for their guns but stopped when they saw it was just a young girl who had started to laugh. Kyle smiled and laughed a little as well.
"At you." Kyle finished sense the voice stopped and laughed again then looked at her before he said. "Jackie, you knocked me over again. Why do you always do that when it sometimes hurts you but not me? You nearly broke your leg last week knocking me over like that when we were up the canyon."
"I do it all for fun Kyle! That is the first time this week; I'm going for a new record. My latest record is ten times in a week and that was last month." She continued laughing. "Besides Mr. That-Didn't-Hurt-Me-Because-I'm-Made-Of-Metal-And-Nothing-Ever-Hurts-Me-And-I- Have- No-Brain-And-I'm-Insane need I say more? You never get hurt no matter what we do to you Kyle. Jessie hits hard and you don't ever get hurt when she hits you. That means you never feel it when you get hurt except when she hits your stomach even then it doesn't hurt very much."
"Get off of me so I can breathe a little easier Jackie. You're sitting right were my air goes and I didn't mean that in any way, shape, or form that your fat." Kyle said. "It's just true that I can barely breathe with you sitting on top of me. So please move. The only one who can sit on me and I can still breath is Danni. She only weighs ninety pounds last time she checked."
She stood up and reached down to help Kyle stand back up. They both brushed themselves off.
"I tried to warn you she was coming," A big group of kids came over together. The speaker was near the front of the group. "But I guess I was a little late because she saw you first and took off before we could stop her."
"Hi friends of our own high school clique," Kyle smiled at them all. "What are we?"
"HIGH SCHOOL REJECTS, ROCK ON, YEAH!" They cheered throwing their fists in the air with wide grins. Rejects was mixed with some saying Misfits but most said Rejects. We were the group of kids that didn't fit in anywhere else so we were our own little clique at the school. Grabbing people who were alone at random was our signature. We didn't ever not allow someone into our group of friends but we have kicked a couple out. We were the HSR's. People from other groups who didn't feel like they really fit in also joined our group.
"Well, we aren't much without our founders and presidency especially Danni, she the president you know. She came up with the group's name and rules and especially the idea in the first place when she met Mandy and Jessie. If it weren't for them we'd still be part of the wall or be trying to fit in to group we didn't belong in at all. We would all still be ignored and unaccepted." Jackie said looking at him. "Why are you and them not at school for two days straight without a phone call or warning? You usually tell us when you aren't going to be at school. It's only fair if you tell one of us if you're going to be gone for a day or two. Besides isn't at all usual at all for all of you to be sick at once. We were all starting to think you all had died."
"Haven't you all heard at all what happened to them?" Kyle asked them surprised.
"Heard what?" A boy asked. "What's going on Kyle?"
"You of all people should know, Logan. Your one of the few people I know of that actually reads the newspaper. They all just suddenly disappeared and were kidnapped."
They all looked around at each other like they were expecting someone to yell April Fools though it wasn't April or a joke.
"No way," Another girl said finally not believing Kyle.
"Brittney, I'm not lying with this. This isn't so kind of sick joke either." Kyle said. "It's true, and you've got to believe me. Trust me and believe me because I'm not lying about it."
"Of course we trust you but let me get this straight first. Our president, vice president, and second vice president who are also our founders were kidnapped and no one bothered to tell us anything at all." Another girl said clicking them off on her fingers and then shrugged. "Nothing was said at the school today. Well we aren't surprised sense we are some of the least popular kids in the whole world though we have the best and biggest group of friends in the school. And everyone knows our names. Still they should have said something about it so we knew what was going on."
"What about you Kyle?" Another girl said. "Why weren't you kidnapped too? You always are with them so it's only logical that you should be taken too."
"He forgot about me Tori, I don't know why." he said "They think it's because the girls were giving him too much trouble when they were taken and decided to come back later which he did but I wasn't in my room. I saw him and one of the agents, JJ, saved me though he wouldn't have found me in my room."
"And what else are you doing?" Tori promoted staring at the agents behind him. "Why are you with them? It can't be because one of them just saved you."
"I'm helping the BAU team find them." Kyle explained.
"Excellent." One boy jumped forward. "I'm in too."
"Hey Nutcase," Kyle said.
"Hey Crazy," He grinned.
"Excuse me Kyle but can you please introduce us to your friends?" Gideon said.
"Oh we all know who you are. Kyle, Danni, Mandy, and Jessie talk about you all the time like an obsession." Another girl spoke. "I'm Jessica."
As each kid introduced themselves they had an interesting nick name system. Like Crazy Kyle and Nutcase Kyle or Little Josh and Big Josh and a few others that had the same name, the one they found was a total nick name was Motchie. We had three Brittney's and she was one of them. We called on Cheer Britt because she was a cheerleader and the other one Britt then Motchie.
"Can we help you find our friends?" Jessica asked. "We know them very well, and probably better then you."
"We want to help." Tori added. "We can't just sit around and wait for news. I hate waiting."
Trent grinned. "Now you know what it's like for us actors!" He teased.
Hotch shrugged. "Maybe we could use a little more help from all you, kids."
Jessie and Mandy woke up in the small room we were kept in with blurry vision. I was gone once again. Their minds were so fuzzy and muddled they didn't know what to really think because they couldn't really think with the drug they had been given and fell back to sleep. They and I had all been drugged sense we had tried to escape for the hundredth time in less than two days and the person how had taken us was starting to get very annoyed with it. He finally drugged us so we would be easier to control that way.
When I called Kyle the first time after he had drugged us I couldn't think because of the drug. My voice was very slurred and other signs were pretty obvious too. It didn't take him long to realize what was wrong with me. When Kyle knew it didn't take him long to freak out. He was totally out of control when he was that frantic.
"I need to find them right now! They're drugged right now for goodness sake! What he overdoses them on whatever he gives them and they die?" Hotch and Gideon heard for the thousandth time in the last hour sense my call had come in and Kyle heard me sounding totally different from normal and found out we were drugged. The call had been too short because whatever the rules that had been put into place I had broken them after less than thirty seconds because I couldn't think straight while I was drugged.
The team was really tired and so was everyone else that knew us but they knew no one could stop working on it until we were found and safe sense they knew I was at least alive and from what I said Mandy and Jessie were too and they had to find us and soon before the un-sub decided we weren't worth the trouble and killed us so we wouldn't be able to tell anyone who he was and where he was. They had found no reason yet for our kidnapping but that didn't mean there wasn't one.
"Kyle please calm down." Gideon said hoping they could stop him from doing anything drastic that could get him in the same position we were or worse dead if that's what the un-sub was really after and we were his bait. "We'll find them and as soon as possible. We have a couple of suspects right now and we are going to bring them in soon."
"I'm just so worried about them right now that I figured out he's drugging them." He said near tears which was rare for him. He usually never showed his emotions but now he was showing them a lot more the normal. "I just feel so alone without them like I did when I realized I couldn't see my little sisters or brother because of my record. They are my best friends and like my sisters in fact they helped make me a HSR when they first met me. They made the group that I became a part of in only a day or two and everyone else in the group accepted me despite my differences. We remember that we're all human and have feelings and we have a few rules that say that we have to accept everyone though we are all different."
"A HSR?" Gideon said. "What does that stand for?"
"A High School Reject, the secretary or recorder." Kyle said not looking at him "I keep track of the other rejects, dates of get together's, and votes."
"Votes?" Hotch asked curious but glad Kyle had calmed down a bit.
"Our group is kind of like a democracy." Kyle explained, "Like Jordan Stenquist, she broke the unwritten girl rule of asking a guy someone else likes out twice and then the last straw was when she broke the rule of acceptation with Little Josh by telling him we didn't accept him just pretended to because we felt sorry for him. We voted and she is no longer a HSR besides she used Danni and all of us. She played off most of our sympathy everyday just about. She stole Danni's lunch card every other day and left Danni food in the locker but Danni finally had enough of her stealing it and told her to stop but she didn't. Finally she had to hide it from her."
"This is interesting." Gideon sat down trying to keep Kyle calm so he didn't do anything stupid. "Tell me more about your group of friends. They sound pretty interesting."
"Well, we have several unwritten rules. The ones no one can break and get away with Danni made up: No one gets killed, arrested, hospitalized, or permanently damaged. Then there are a lot of mottos: It's only illegal if…. Never mind. Forget that one."
"What is it Kyle?"
"Okay it's only illegal if you get caught and if you're stupid enough to get caught then you got what's coming to you. Look we've gone joy-riding during assemblies and missed several classes by sluffing. The most illegal thing we've done is when we were joy-riding in Danni's car and she went ninety on a twenty-five mph street. That's the worst thing we've done unless you count when Jessie lived in Arizona and I lived in California or other places. Our friends there did a lot of stupid stuff that was dangerous and most of it was stuff that was pretty illegal and very few of them got caught unless they were doing something pretty dumb that they knew they'd be caught doing it or someone told on them. We've never got caught speeding while we were all joy-riding. Danni has lived here her whole life and knows where all the hot spots that cops like to watch for people at."
Kyle was calm now so Gideon decided to tell him one more very important thing. "Kyle are the girls very strong?"
"Depends on what you mean." Kyle said and explained which he seemed to be doing a lot lately "Physically no they aren't very strong but mentally yes they are very strong. Stronger than most people are and they are the strongest people I know."
"Then trust us to find them before they do anything very stupid and get in even more trouble then they all ready are." Gideon said.
"Trust me knowing them they all ready have done some pretty stupid stuff to get away for their kidnapper. Jessie will fight like no other. Mandy will too. Danni will too but she's not as strong like I said they aren't very strong physically. I think the reason she is taken to call me is because she will only come quietly if he had a gun pointed at her and Jessie or Mandy were threatened and even then if she gets a chance she'd fight but I know she wouldn't be able to get away from him very easily. She'd do anything for her friends or as we all call them her brothers and sisters. They are like the little brothers and sisters she never had in her family. She's the youngest in her family. She is almost the oldest by two or three months. Only a couple of us are a little bit older than her and if we are it's not by very much like I'm only older then her by one month."
"Kyle I want you to trust us to find them before they get themselves hurt or killed."
"I do trust you with this but I just am so worried but if you do have a suspect then we'll find them soon. I want my sisters back home safe and hopefully soon."
Little Josh groaned talking it JJ and said, "Sense I'm one of the newest members of our group of friends you think you can pick on me. I was made a HSR only less than four months ago and that's because Danni grabbed me when she saw me sitting alone at a table at breakfast in the lunch room in one the table in a back corner where I though no one could see me. She hurried over and asked me if I had any friends. I told her I had no friends yet and it was because I was new in the school and hadn't had time to really make any friends and people mostly avoided me anyway. She grinned and said "Then at makes you one of us, you're a High School Reject like the rest of our group!" And I was dragged over to meet the other rejects like I was a movie star or some kind of celebrity. I was absorbed in the group really quickly like I had been there my whole life. My differences didn't matter much in their opinion that's what the rule of acceptance means. We are all accepted no matter what and no ifs, ands, ors, or buts about it."
JJ looked up, "Josh we are all just asking if you know what happened to Jessie, Mandy, or Danni. Do you know anything? Any enemies they had? Anyone you can think of that might hold a grudge against them? Anything at all that would help us find them even little details that seem unimportant could help us out."
"We all usually meet together at least once a month out of school, like go to a movie, or just hang out at the mall or a park. I missed the last three get together's because I was busy or sick," Josh answered as if it had something to do with the question.
"Okay that isn't what I need to know. So let's make this simple. When was the last time you saw them?"
"At school."
"That's the last time you saw them before they disappeared?"
"Yeah."
"You don't talk much at all do you?" JJ asked when he only said two are three words to the questions answers if he answered them at all.
"Can I go home now?" He asked annoyed. "Maybe I shouldn't have become an HSR in the first place. I thought it was a really good group of friends to be in but if this is the mess we are always getting into then no it really actually sucks to be an HSR. I feel like they are always ready to go on some kind of suicide mission with the FBI sense they started talking about you all every other breath sense you came to our school for the assembly at the Red Ribbon Week which I wish we had skipped. Next thing we know they're following you all around, and disappearing for weeks at a time coming back like they'd just had the time of their lives. Telling us about their adventure on a case with you like it was the greatest thing they had ever done."
"You talk more when you complain or don't answer the questions." JJ sighed. "This is not what I expected when I saw those kids the first time."
"I promised my mom I'd find some friends at the school as soon as possible when we moved here so I did when I meet the HSR's," He said. "I didn't want to move here in the first place but my dad was offered a job. If I had a choice I'd still be living in Florida and not here. Like Jessie said 'Everyone here has been paired up sense elementary school and those who aren't and didn't move here after that time somehow missed that train.' Danni and Mandy are two of the ones who did miss the train that I know of sense they have lived here their whole entire lives. Not that they really cared what the fad was at the time. They were too busy trying to be themselves and fit in. Then they finally gave up and became the weird girls without even really trying. They stay sane by doing things they loved. Mandy started to lose herself in her drawings and her stories and Danni in her stories."
Dona was telling Gideon that none of them knew anything and that if they knew something they tell them when Tori said something to Kayla that caught his attention immediately. "Ever sense then Camel said he'd get Danni back someday for breaking up with him though he deserved it. So now you know all about Danni's first ever boyfriend. I'm surprised she didn't tell you about him all ready."
"Who's Camel really?" Kayla asked.
"Jedi, Jeridiah Elise Harmon!" Tori said "Golly I though everyone heard of Camel Jerk-a-lot by now."
"Is he still going to your school?" Gideon said suddenly showing total interest in their conversation.
"Of course he is. He was only seventeen last time I heard about him a couple of months older then Danni." Tori said.
Hotch came up the hall.
"Do you think he would be able to do something like this?" Gideon asked when Hotch was passing.
"No, I don't think so because he's in the military but then again now that I think about it maybe he did do this," She said that made Hotch stop.
"Military training is common amongst criminal's right? Except honorably or dishonorably discharged is mostly what you find among them too." Tori said suddenly jumping up from where she had sat down.
"Time to get a real suspect just don't tell Kyle I lied to him," Gideon said to Hotch quietly.
"I heard that," Kyle stood behind him. "I figured you had lied to me when you started to question all my friends. I know that they had nothing to do with this. They all would tell you everything they know and I know they didn't hurt the girls. We care about our sisters too much."
"I was just trying to keep you from getting yourself killed or kidnapped like your friends." Gideon said. "If you go running around town or somewhere out there alone you'll be leaving yourself like an open target that this kidnapper probably couldn't resist if it happened to come. Remember what happened at your house. You're lucky he didn't get you that time. If we hadn't of been there at that time he probably would have gotten you."
"Just remember what I said they're my little older sisters. The HSR's are like my family. The family I wished I had. The family some of us will probably never have."
"That is understandable," Gideon said and left to go get Jedi thinking. As teenagers their friends are their lives. That is what I've heard and from what I've seen it's true among this group of kids. Maybe the HSR's aren't as different as people seem to see them as at their school. They may be different but that seems like its okay to them. Different is good in their eyes. That's a good rare quality to have. It means they have empathy for each other. Most forget how to empathize in middle school.