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And this one's a long one!

Piper

After that Saturday of flight, everyone respected Leo…somewhat. (Translation: They didn't ignore him like they used to. They gave him high-fives, slapped him on the back, and, most of the time, asked when he was going to build another robotic animal. Leo would have to shrug and say that he didn't know.)

"It needs a name," Piper decided later that day as they walked at the back of the school toward the fields. Technically they weren't supposed to go there without adult supervision, but no one really cared—not even the supervisors themselves. As long as they came back, though.

Piper climbed up the two-meter tall fence and swung her legs over the top. She hopped down on the other side and looked at Leo through the rails. "Well, c'mon," she said. Leo sighed, tossed Piper his bird's remote from above, (yes, he had brought it), and climbed up the fence halfway.

"I'm not exactly the one to perform gymnastics…" started Leo, looking down with caution. Piper rolled her eyes.

"C'mon," she repeated. "It's not that high."

Leo closed his eyes and continued to climb, feeling his way up. He finally rested at the top with one leg dangling on the edge of school property the other not.

"It's not that high up," repeated Piper. Leo sighed and swung his other leg over, but he lost his balance and tipped sideways.

Out of pure instinct, Piper darted out of the way, stumbling and crashing down sideways while doing so, her choppy brown hair flying all over her face. It was when she realized that she hadn't heard any impact or groan from Leo that she realized that he had tricked her again.

"That's for making me carry your bags on Tuesday," he said, still sitting on the top of the fence. Piper propped herself onto her shoulders.

"You're still upset over that?" she asked.

"I get even when I can," he said, hopping down from two meters above in a single move. He bent his knees on impact, causing nearly no sound. He straightened himself back up and dusted his jacket for non-existent dust. He held out his hand for Piper to grab. She cocked her head with a surrendering sigh and took it, allowing Leo to haul her up to her feet.

"As I was saying," she continued as they kept walking, "I think we should give your pet a name." She controlled the bird to fly up over the fence from the other side by using the remote. She made it tail behind them a few feet above their heads, showing off a trick every once in a while.

"Steve," Leo decided.

"That name is overused," commented Piper.

"Fred."

"That one too."

"Bob."

"Now you're just messing with me."

"Then what do you suppose we should call it, Ms Fussy-Fussy-Name-Namer?"

"How about… Archimedes?" asked Piper. "Wasn't he, like, a Greek machine-builder guy?"

"Yeah," said Leo. "I think I've heard of him. Maybe the bird's name could be Medes. Archie, or maybe Dez?"

"Chime," decided Piper, finding the smaller word in the larger one. "Let's name it Chime."

"But Chime sounds like a girl name," said Leo.

"And why should this be a problem, seeing she is a girl," asked Piper. She landed the bird in her left palm and used the fingers on her opposite hand to nod its little bird head.

"Fine," sighed Leo. "Chime it is."

They ambled along the fields for another while, racing each other every once in a while, and playing with Chime when they got bored. By the end of the hour, all three of them bore scratches and bruises where they had tripped over their feet or fallen onto their faces or crashed into a tree. (Well, of course, Chime was the only one to crash into a tree. It was an accident, though.)

Soon, after another one of their let's-see-who-is-faster-the-human-or-the-bird races, they fell onto their backs, exhausted. Piper directed Chime to fly around their heads.

"I wish she were real," she muttered as they trailed their eyes on the bird.

"Same," said Leo. "Unfortunately, humans haven't advanced enough to create robots that actually move and speak on their own—unless you count an android."

"Too bad," murmured Piper quietly. After a moment, she said, "Hey, what time is it?"

"The time that if we don't hurry up, they'll lock us out for the night," Leo replied. "It took us around an hour to get here, right?"

"Yeah," said Piper. It was then that she noticed that dusk was befalling them and that the sky had already turned orange. She got to her feet and they silently made their way back, every once in a while yanking out handfuls of the wavy grass and throwing it at each other.

They finally reached the school near seven with exactly half an hour to kill. They sat near the fence, not really wanting to leave the perfect weather they currently stood in.

So they played around with Chime another few minutes. It was Leo's turn, and he practiced some new tricks near the school door on the other side of the fence.

"Watch this," Leo told Piper, flying Chime upwards until they could no longer see the bird behind the school. Then, to Piper's utter horror, he let go of the controls, and she could practically hear the bird come crashing to the ground.

But at the last second, he spread Chime's wings out, and she stopped falling and started flying with her belly literally one inch off the ground. She flew up over the fence and out toward the fields.

"Impressive," admitted Piper. She took the remote from Leo's hands. "My turn," she said. She flew Chime back, and directed her upwards just like Leo had.

"This is extremely accurate," Leo was telling her. "So don't hesitate to stop her at collision. She'll fly up the exact second you tell her to. I would know."

"Okay," Piper said, her fingers suddenly turning fidgety. Since when was she nervous to fly Chime? So she did just as Leo instructed. Fly up, and then just let go.

It was fun the first time. Chime flew up right before she crashed into the ground, momentum pulling her up for the second round without Piper so much as having to pull the control up for more than two seconds. Soon Piper was comfortable with tricks.

Three spins down, four on the way up, but soon Leo was telling her to stop, and that she'd eventually crash Chime into something.

"Nah, I got this," said Piper, brushing him off. Chime performed another three barrel rolls in a row, flying back toward the school.

"It's gonna run out of battery," warned Leo.

"She's still going strong," Piper told him.

"It's time to go in."

"Three more seconds."

Piper landed Chime on the extension that hung over the door to go into the school. She tossed the remote to Leo, and climbed up the fence. Leo underhand threw her the remote and climbed over himself.

"Now give the remote back," he said, holding out her hand for her to give it to him. Piper shook her head.

"Chime is mine until we get into the dormitories," she told him. Then, just to prove her point, she flew Chime into her hand.

"Just make sure you don't end up marrying it."

"She's yours all for tomorrow. Promise."

"Fine," said Leo as Chime was forced into five continuous loop-the-loops.

That was when the doors opened again and four guys walked out. The first three were obviously the bad guys by the cigarettes and tattoos and biceps that could only be earned by going to the gym twelve times a week for five continuous hours, meaning that the fourth guy was their victim.

Piper instantly knew these guys were trouble. She didn't even need to shoot Leo a warning glance for them to sneak away silently. They tiptoed to the closest cover they could find—a tipped over picnic table. They crouched down behind it and waited, Piper twisting the remote controls so that Chime landed softly and safely and inconspicuously on an identical table a little farther off.

At that point Piper had wanted to be close to the bullies so that she could see and hear what happened. But afterwards she just wished she had never been there to witness it in the first place.

The second raven guy threw their victim against the fence, rattling it tremendously. The obvious freshman fell on his arm, wincing slightly, his skin getting caught between the bars. He tried pulling away slowly, but the blond bully held him against the fence. Piper's breath turned sharp. She sneaked a frightened and wide-eyed look at Leo crouching down next to her.

"You rat us out?" he demanded into the freshman's face.

"No!" he yelled, his voice coming out hoarse as if trying not to cry, which Piper would have done if she had been in his current situation in less than three seconds. "No, I didn't!" he yelled again.

The blond guy didn't do anything for a second, but then pulled the freshman away from the fence and onto the ground with such force that when he fell on his hands they got ragged and earned deep cuts that seemed serious. "You're lying!" he spat at the freshman.

"No!" he yelled again, trying to cower but look not so pathetic at the same time.

"Then why did we get detention for three weeks, then, huh?" asked the second guy. "Can you explain that?"

Maybe it's because a teacher saw you, stupid, Piper thought.

"I didn't tell! I didn't, I swear!" the freshman yelped.

"You were the only witness," the blond guy snarled. To his buddies, he added casually, "We really have to stop leaving so many witnesses."

"You knew what would happen if you hadn't told a soul," said the second raven-haired guy.

"You also knew what would happen if you did," continued the third bully, speaking for the first time.

Piper didn't look. She was glad she had. Because when she finally heard the yelps and the kicks and the punches and the rattling fence and the bullies finally stop, there wasn't much to look at but chaos. She bit her lip to prevent from her crying out in dismay. What kind of cruel person would do all that just to get even with someone? Piper knew she'd just swear and curse at them behind their back. But this? This was horrible.

Piper remembered in elementary and middle school where they had bullying presentations every two months, and she and her friends found it so annoying. In grade one and two they'd play hand games. In grade three to five they'd play around with whatever they had in their pockets. In middle school they'd just take the time as a free period and chat. They never paid attention. It was only now that Piper realized how serious and horrible bullying was.

"Let's hope he learned his lesson," said the third guy, spitting at their victim but missing and hitting the ground next to him instead.

Piper remembered what her dad and every teacher she had ever had tell her—when bullied severely, like what she had just witnessed, always tell. But this whole ordeal happened because some guy told someone what he had seen the bullies do. Piper didn't want to be next.

The second guy went in for another kick, but the blond guy held him back. "No point," he said. "The guy's knocked out until next week. It's almost curfew—let's get back inside."

They turned to leave, when one of them stopped. "Hey, what's that?" he called.

Piper felt her blood run cold. So they had found them, and soon she would join that poor freshman on the hard and cold floor. But nothing happened. Piper cautiously peered out from behind the bench and she sighed in relief when she took notice of the fact that they hadn't found her, but then grew panicky again when she took sight of what they had.

Chime.

In this entire scene, Piper had forgotten all about the stupid little bird. But there she was, still standing upright on one of the farther and unturned tables.

"I've seen that bird before," said the third bully, thinking. "I've seen it."

"A witness," muttered the blond guy, and he swore loudly. "We have to stop leaving those!"

"What do we do?" asked one of them. The blond guy looked around, and Piper's head shot back behind the table.

"They already heard us," he said. "They might even be listening right now. But if they are, they'll be sorry. Now c'mon. Curfew ends soon, and we don't want to be here when the teacher comes out to check that no one's here. So with a couple backward glances, the trio turned back to the school and walked inside.

Piper didn't move for a minute. "God, this stinks," she said, then to prove her point she swore. Then swore again. Then kept repeating the same cuss word over and over again just beause she could.

"You know, you have nothing to be afraid of," Leo told her. "They know it's my bird. They'll be coming after me, not you."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," said Piper, swearing afterwards.

They walked back to the dormitories, saying their shaken goodnights at the third story, entering their own rooms. Quietly as to not wake up the other girls, Piper crawled into her bed and pulled the curtains around her. Without bothering to change or brush her teeth in the washroom next to her, Piper curled up in a tight ball and closed her eyes, praying that she could get some sleep.

Hope that wasn't too nerve-raking.

And, okay, I don't know what high school bully trios look like. (Still in grade seven—hello?) I was about to use the stereotype of beached-blond hair and muscly arms and stuff, but decided to leave how they looked like to the imagination of the readers. (I had seriously written up three large paragraphs to describe them, so this wasn't an easy feat.)

And, no, the leader is not Dylan. They're just normal mortal bullies. Just to clear that up.

Okay, I'm getting tired of this, but review. Everyone with an account and at least one story knows that I can tell how many people read my story. Not who they are, of course, but I have numbers. And I want you to review. So review. Now. Even if it's just ;P.

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