A True Underdog Story: Chapter Two

"Come on, Sammy, chill out." Those were the words of my best friend trying to calm me down. We were on our 1-hour lunch break, at Taco Bell, and I was still kind of embarrassed at what had happened.

"I can't just chill out!" I said. "I screamed and fell! You wouldn't chill out if you were in my place."

"But I'm not." She smirked.

Casey and Billy, meanwhile, were looking at the menu behind the counter.

"Doritos Tacos Locos?" Billy inquired. "A NEW Taco Bell specialty? Bring it on!" Casey rolled his eyes as Billy ordered the Doritos thing.

"What would you like?" he turned and asked me in such a gentlemanly way that I kind of laughed.

"Casey. I can order for myself."

Looping an arm around me, he said, "Yeah, but what if I want to order for you?"

"We're in Taco Bell. Sorry to break it to you, but this isn't The Cheesecake Factory."

He huffed. "Fine. Suit yourself." But he was grinning.

After we were all ordered up and seated in a booth, Billy started yakking on about how amazing the Doritos Tacos Locos were.

(Note: For your information, I've never actually eaten them before, so don't take my word on it and go try it or something because for all I know, it could majorly suck.)

When Billy finally came up for air, Casey said, "So, anyway, before class started, I was talking to some people—"

"Girls." I specified. "He was talking to some girls."

He gave me a strange look. "I know them. Two of them were in a couple of my classes last year."

Inside my head, I screamed, Why are you getting jealous over nothing? Stop being a freak, Sammy! On the outside I smiled and nodded my head, "Yeah, I figured."

"They told me that they were in Rauen's summer session last year, too. And they told me something weird about him."

Rauen was our 'coach', per say, for this four-week class.

"What'd they say?" asked Marissa.

He shrugged. "Just that he has a criminal record. But apparently, he did his time and is completely normal, safe, etc, now. So really, there shouldn't be anything to worry about."

"But it's still weird that he has a criminal record." I blinked at him. "You know what? I think we should quit the class."

"Why?" snapped Billy. "Just because, once upon a time, he probably embezzled some money? Or stole someone's identity? Because now he's just a guy teaching gymnastics to people in summer. That's not criminal."

"Well, how do you know if his crime was money embezzlement?" I snapped. "What if he's a kidnapper? What if he uses his class as a way to get closer to kids, and then he murders them? Huh? I mean, he was perfectly fine humiliating me in front of the classroom. What if he's not above killing me, either?"

Everyone stared at me. For a moment I thought they'd agree, but then they started laughing.

"What?" I demanded. "Guys, I'm serious!"

"Of course you're serious," Casey said, taking my hand. He was sitting in the same side of the booth as me, with Marissa and Billy across from us. "But you're being a little paranoid, don't you think?" he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.

I turned my head away. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. But…I don't want to risk another life-death situation here. You guys know how I, like, attract creepy people."

"Define 'creepy people'," said Billy. "I think one's sitting right next to you."

On instinct, I whipped my head to my right, but saw no one. In fact, I was sitting on the wall-side of the booth, so it's not like anyone would be able to be sitting there anyway.

I turned back to Casey. "Wait, you're saying Casey is creepy?" I laughed.

"Well, I am attracted to you," he noted. "And we do hang out a lot in a cemetery…if I do say so myself, I'm pretty creepy!"

"Fine." I rolled my eyes. "I attract criminals."

"That's actually very true," Marissa pointed her plastic fork to the ceiling. "Sammy's been stuck in the back of some weirdo's car at least four times in her junior high existence."

I rolled my eyes overdramatically. "You're exaggerating. It was only twice."

I looked over to see Casey eyeballing me nervously. "Do I need to chain you up?" he asked. "I can't go one day without seeing you and wondering if you've gotten yourself kidnapped or expelled or possibly killed."

"Chain her up?" Billy grinned evilly. "Count me in! I love criminal activities. It's my hobby."

"What's your hobby?" Marissa asked.

"Being naughty," he rubbed his hands together. "So let's go shoot something, shall we?"

Casey got out of the booth and picked up his tray. "Fine. But if you seriously have a gun on you, just know that the last thing it'll ever shoot is you. And I'll be the one doing it."

What we were doing hiding behind the bushes behind the tennis court at the sports complex, I had no clue. Our gymnastics classes were held inside the sports complex, and Rauen had told us before break that he'd be at the tennis courts if we urgently needed to get in contact with him.

So here we were, spying on the supposed-criminal-turned-gymnastics-coach.

"I hate this," Marissa squirmed. "I'm sitting on scratchy weeds!"

I pointed to the wood fence blocking us from actually entering the tennis courts. It was a huge fence, and got taller and taller as it progressed. From the place we were hiding, we could see over it, but we wouldn't be able to if we were on the tall end. Unless we climbed the wooden platforms build by it. That would be a better view anyway, a good place to hear in on Rauen's conversation. But Marissa wasn't up for it.

Actually, Billy and I were the only ones who actually wanted to catch Rauen in the act. Billy may like the class, but he loves mayhem even more. And spying on our coach to try and catch him in some criminal act sounded much better to him than backflips anyday.

"How about I go climb the fence over there? Maybe I can hear the criminal-coach say something shady!"

Rauen was with another guy, a little younger them. Rauen himself was maybe in his late 20's. 28, I presumed. The guy he was with was probably still in college.

"No, don't," said Casey, grabbing my arm. "If you fall, you'll break your neck…or something.."

I gave him a knowing look. "You do realize you sound crazy, right? Trying to stop me from being—"

"Reckless?" he demanded. "Because I'm always going to try and stop you, if it means you'll get hurt."

"Aw, how sweet," Billy snipped, "Your guys' bantering really brings out the inner Romeo within me. But seriously, Sammy's the only one small enough and willing—" Billy shot a look to a sheepish Marissa, "—to climb the fence. You know you or I would get caught."

Casey sighed and let go of my arm. "But if you get hurt, I really will chain you up."

"I won't fall," I said haughtily. Crawling over to the tall end of the fence, I grabbed onto two higher ledges with my palms and lifted myself onto the fence. The splinters in the wood stung my hand. "Seriously?" I whispered to myself. If I was the swearing type, right now would be the right time to hiss profanity into the air.

I managed to climb to the top of the ladder, but my arms seemed to be giving out already. If only my hands weren't burning by the sharp-edged, rough splinters on the wood! I would be able to concentrate better to what Rauen was talking about. But no, I was too focused on the searing pain going through my palms.

I was just about to let go and fall to my doom—yes, the pain was that bad—when my ears caught something. Hold on for just a couple seconds, I forced myself to think. A couple more seconds.

"Yeah," Rauen's voice was low, even, and…cautious? "I plan on taking him to the house tonight…I hope he doesn't put up a fuss. I really don't want to shut another one up, it's such a pain."

What?

Then I fell.

I don't know how I did it, but I managed not to scream. Actually, I managed to forward-roll into a standing position. Ninja-like skills. I felt proud, but also a tugging nervousness grew in the pit of my stomach.

Was he taking someone to his house to…kill? To 'shut up', whatever that meant? Why would someone put up a fuss? Because he was hurting them! He's a murderer!

I ran over to my friends and began dragging them away, my mouth motoring away, trying to tell them every word I heard.

Well, first Casey had a panic attack. "I thought you were going to get hurt!" he grabbed my face. "You are never climbing up anything tall ever again, OKAY? Are you insane? If you had fallen the wrong way, you would have broken your neck!"

"He nearly had a heart attack when you fell," Marissa said calmly, but she looked a little shaken too.

I really did feel guilty for falling. I had promised Casey I wouldn't, and here I did anyway. And I know how much I probably scared him. I didn't want to look him in the eyes, but here he was, grabbing onto my face, forcing me to look into his clear brown eyes…

"Stop!" I whined. "I know, I'm sorry, I fell, I scared you, I could have gotten hurt, I'm sorry."

His eyes were forgiving, relieved, and reassuring all at once, but his voice was firm. "You didn't say what I want to hear."

"Uh…" my eyes shifted a little, but he still had my face directly turned to his. "I…I promise to be more careful?"

"No! Promise you'll never do anything crazy like that again."

I have to admit, I laughed. "No can do. I'm sorry, but I just don't work that way!"

"Promise!"

Billy started a chant of, "DO. IT. DO. IT. DO. IT. DO. IT."

"NO. But I really am sorry!"

I pleaded with my eyes. Finally, he broke down. He sighed and let me go. "Fine, but just be more careful. You're…"

"What am I?"

"You're…messed up." But when he said it, he eyed me and grinned.

I nudged him. "That's true."

I told them all about what I had heard Rauen say. But we couldn't discuss it, because we had to go back to class. Only two more hours, then we'd be let out. I planned on following Rauen back home—even if it meant waiting here at the complex for hours until he left. It was summer, and Billy had a cell phone, so I could call Grams at home and tell her I was sleeping over at Marissa's if I really needed to.

Class was especially awkward, because Rauen kept picking on me to demonstrate.

"She can do the pancake!" he said excitedly, as I spread my legs into a V and pressed my head to the ground by my feet.

"She can do a bridge!" he said as I arched my back up and lifted my head off the ground.

"She can do a handstand!" he said as I lifted my legs straight up into the air.

As session one drew to a close, Rauen said, "So, Sammy here wonderfully demonstrated all the basic techniques we learned today. Remember, these are all the basics. Session two we'll spend the first half of class reviewing the basic skills and balance skills and stretches, and after lunch, the second half, we'll move on to more intermediate skills. Any questions?"

No one said anything. No questions. They were all content with the basicality of our newfound skills. But for now. For now.

We piled out of the gymnastics room. but my group ducked into the nearest bathroom. Billy quickly pulled a notebook and pen from his gym bag (God knows he carries those around here) and wrote 'Out of Order' and stuck it to the outside of the bathroom door.

Now we would wait until Rauen left. Until he went to 'the house'. So we could catch him in some criminal act.

Note: So…I don't really know where this is going. I started it out with just a lighthearted story about a summer gymnastics class, and now it's going into serial killer territory. Well, anyways, that's Sammy Keyes to you. So, I promise I'll be more formal with the Cammy next chapter. I tried to put some in here, but it didn't work out so great, as seen by the resulted chapter. So anyway, I'll put up another one hopefully soon. If anyone cares, that is…