Chapter 6:

Wren POV-

The rest of the day went as well as could be expected. I had biology with my parents, and my dad got up and left, again.

That was my last class with them for the rest of the day, and, it seemed that in 6th period, word of my "telling off" Dash seemed to have already gotten around school. Although, it did seem to have quite a mixed effect. Some kids, namely those on the lower end of the popularity spectrum, gave me high fives, but at the same time, the hateful glares of the popular crowd let me know that I had made enemies.

All of the future students didn't quite know how to react. Dash, of course was an adult, a parent, and most importantly, an authority figure (chief of the Amity Park police department), that was supposed to be respected. But, at the same time, here he was acting like…well, a high school jerk.

James was in both my seventh and eighth period classes, and his uneasy glances didn't put my conscience in any better a position.

Unfortunately, Dash was also in our eighth period class, and I didn't like the look he was giving me.

When the dismissal bell rang, I gathered up my things and practically sprinted to my new locker. I turned the combination, putting away the books from my last class and taking out my folders from earlier in the day, shoving them into the confines of my backpack.

The halls were quickly filling with people excited to go home, and, with no sign of Dash, I might actually be able to make it to Jazz's car without confrontation. I closed my locker door, and there leaning cockily against the other lockers was the jock himself. I did a quick glance behind him. The halls were already almost clear, no sign of faculty, my parents, or James.

I picked up my backpack off of the ground, regarding him with a glare.

"You should learn to show more respect," he told me, stepping towards me. I involuntarily stepped back and I felt the wall brush up behind me.

That's just great, now he cornered me.

"I suppose I might have showed some respect if you actually deserved any of it," I remarked, still holding my scowl on him.

"Of course I deserve respect. I'm the most popular guy in school. I'm the star football player and I'm the guy all the girls want," he stepped forward, lowering his voice, probably attempting to be seductive or something.

'Oh God,' I mentally whimpered, feeling queasy, 'If he takes one more step, this time I'm actually going to barf,' I thought, realizing that I would never, comfortably be able to go over to James's house again so long as his dad was there.

"Don't kid yourself," I remarked, swallowing the bile rising in my throat, "Girls want guys who show respect, not only to them, but to everyone. And the way you treated Danny, Sam, and Tucker, and now the way you are treating me, does not show that you know anything about respect."

He paused, actually seeming to think this over for a second, and unconsciously backed up a little from me.

"Dash, let her go," I heard a threatening voice say behind him. I knew the voice as my father's but I could not see him passed Dash's large frame.

"Yeah, dude, that's not cool," I heard James chime in, sounding more uncomfortable than I was.

Dash stepped aside, and I saw my dad, looking pissed, and…I swear his eyes…no, that can't be right. Behind my dad forming the other two sides of a triangle were my mom and Tucker. Next to the three of them, James was standing, looking visibly distraught and giving me an extremely apologetic look.

With the space that had Dash's stepping aside had opened, I slipped out from the corner and ran to…well, hide safely behind my parents.

Dash said nothing, he just walked away.

James, with a very pained expression on his face, gave me one last look and followed behind Dash. I felt a little bad for James; I'd hate to be in that car on the way home.

"Are you okay?" my mom asked and my dad looked at me with concern.

I nodded, unable to say anything else. My mom accepted this and she put her hand on my shoulder, gently leading me out of the school to where Jazz was parked out front.

Eventually I had managed to distance the present Dash from the future Mr. Baxter in my mind, because after all, they were different people. Dash was a jerk, but Mr. Baxter was an inspiring force in the rebel army with a wife and three kids. They weren't the same person, at least, not right now. And, because of that, I knew I had to at least, try to forgive Dash, because I knew the kind of person that he would become.

Heck, maybe what I said to him today would make him begin to change.

Danny POV-

I hated the way Dash had treated Wren, heck, I hated the way he treated all girls, but I seemed to impact Wren in a worse way, for some reason. But her reactions were what were weird to me. Starting at lunch…there is a large majority of people who would have either ignored or sided with Dash when he insulted us, but with Wren, she almost seemed…personally insulted, to the point that she made herself a public target. Another weird thing was that, when we came to her rescue, she immediately ran to me and Sam…in fact, it almost seemed like it was instinctual to her.

'There is definitely something she is hiding,' I decided, making a mental note to check into her past a little deeper.

'Hmm…' I thought, mischievously formulating a plan, 'maybe…I could just go into her dreams a little…'

I shook my head at the thought, that was wrong…right? But at the same time, she was hiding something, something that could be important to know if she is staying with me and my family.

'Okay,' I justified to myself, 'I need to do this.'

With that in mind, I took a look at the clock. 11:30 p.m. she would probably be asleep by now. I stood up, making myself invisible and intangible as I phased through the wall and into Jazz's room. The only light came from a lava lamp on Jazz's desk that slowly bubbled up and down. Both Jazz and Wren were sound asleep, breathing lightly.

'Well,' I sighed internally, 'Here goes nothing,' and I phased into Wren's head.