“But I have to pick my brothers up at school,” said Mercedes.

The professor replied, “Well that’s too bad it’ll only take thirty minutes.”

With doubt, Mercedes agreed and started her project with Jordan. Meanwhile, an hour later, Nathan and Christian were dismissed from school. Nathan and Christian were waiting for an hour in the cold, rainy weather. All of a sudden a white, dirty van pulled up to the school. The principal knew that the boys were outside. In the white, dirty van were two muscular dudes with many tattoos and bald heads. They walked up to Nathan and Christian, and started pushing them toward the van. The boys struggled to get away but couldn’t; the bald men were too strong. One bald guy pushed them into the van, then went in afterwards, and the other bald guys hopped into the driver’s seat and drove away. When the principal looked out the window he noticed that Nathan and Christian weren’t standing near the fence anymore. He thought that Mercedes had picked them up, but just to make sure he decided to call Mercedes.

Mercedes answers the phone, “Hello?”

The principal replied, “Hello, Mercedes this is Mr. Richards, the principal of Lincoln Elementary.”

Mercedes says, “Oh, hello Mr. Richards, what can I do for you?”

Principal Richards replies, “I was wondering if you came to pick up Nathan and Christian, or maybe a relative did, because I looked outside and the boys aren’t there by the fence anymore.”

Mercedes replied in a worried tone, “What? No, I didn’t pick them up, and we have no relatives here. Are you sure they aren’t walking around?”

“No, they’re nowhere in sight,” said Principal Richards.

Mercedes replies, “Okay, I’ll be right there!!!”

Mercedes rushes quickly, throwing everything in her bag and, almost tripped over a chair.

The professor yells, “What are you doing?!?!”

Mercedes says, “I have to go, there’s a problem at my brothers’ school.”

Mercedes rushed out the door. Jordan grabbed his stuff and ran after Mercedes. He met her at her charcoal grey mustang.

Jordan yelled, “What’s going on Mercedes?”

Mercedes yells, “Get in, I’ll explain on the way!”

Jordan gets in the car, and waits for Mercedes to explain what’s going on. Jordan sees a tear roll down the side of Mercedes smooth cheek.

Mercedes says in a shaky voice, “Nathan and Christian are missing. The principal says they’re nowhere around the school.”

Jordan doesn’t know what to say so he just sits there. The ride to Lincoln Elementary was quiet. Once they get the school, Mercedes runs around yelling for her brothers.

Mercedes yells, “Nathan!! Christian!!”

Jordan yells, “Nathan!! Christian!!”

Mercedes looks where her brothers stand when she goes to pick them up. There was a colorful piece of paper caught in the fence. Mercedes picked it up and looked at it. It was a perfect drawing of a beautiful rose and at the very bottom of the paper signed “by Nathan Gonzalez.” Mercedes decides the only one thing to do is call the police.

“Hello? 911 What’s your emergency?” says operated.

Mercedes replies, “Hello, my brothers are missing! I think they’ve been kidnapped.”

The operator replies, “How long have they been missing?”

Mercedes replies, “About an hour and a half.”

“We’ll we can’t help or put up a missing persons ad until it’s been twenty-four hours since they’ve been missing because they could have just wandered off.” says the operator.

Mercedes cries, “But…..wait!!”

Mercedes began bursting into tears. Jordan sees her crying so he runs up and hugs her.

“Everything is going to be okay….we’ll find them Mercedes……I promise,” Jordan says.

Mercedes and Jordan decided to go home. Mercedes was freaking out all night. Jordan decided to stay the night, and sleep on the couch. Mercedes stayed in her room all night, and cried herself to sleep. She fell asleep for a couple of hours until she woke up from a nightmare. She woke Jordan up at three in the morning and lay down with him on the couch. She fell asleep for about two hours. She woke up super early in the morning, about 5 in the morning. She snuck out the house without waking up Jordan who was still sleeping on the couch. She walked to the San Francisco beach where she thinks things through. When she got to the beach, she sat on a big boulder that the waves hit slightly. She sat there and put her legs low enough so that the waves could hit them. Mercedes thought about everything that came to mind. She thought about her parents and her older brother, she thought about Jordan, but she mainly thought about how she was going to get Nathan and Christian back. She sat there and sat there, and nothing came to mind. After staying there for about two hours, she finally decided to leave. When she got home she found a letter tape to the door.

The letter said, “If you want your brothers to live, come to Lincoln Elementary at 8:30 tonight, ALONE!!”

It was about 8’o clock, and the sky was pitch black. Mercedes was so scared to bring out her secret again but it was the only way to save her brothers. So she grabbed a remote from the dresser, walked into her closet and pressed a button. She took a couple of steps back. Her clothes rack split to *each side and showed a glass case with a black ninja suit hanging up. She put on her mask, suit, and boots. She decided not to take her mustang because she didn’t want Nathan and Christian to know her secret. So she traveled by foot to Lincoln Elementary school. When Mercedes got to the school she noticed a slightly opened window. She crawled through the window quietly and looked around to see if anybody was in the room. There was nobody in the small dark room so she went into the hall. She heard a loud “Boom!!” to her right. The loud boom came from the gym, so without hesitation Mercedes tiptoed to the gym door.

A familiar voice says, “She’ll be here any minute. One of you guys stay in the hall.”

A big muscular guy, with a bald head and many tattoos, was walking towards Mercedes to get to the hall. Mercedes hid behind the lockers so that he couldn’t see her. When his back was turned against, Mercedes ran up to him, jumped high and kicked him in the head. He fell forward with a loud thump. Mercedes decided to tie him up and put him in the janitor’s closet. It was a struggle pulling the guy in the closet but she finally got him in. Mercedes looked back in the gym and saw Nathan and Christian tied up together barely waking up. Without thinking Mercedes put her mask on and ran into the gym. She looked around the gym and saw nobody around, so she ran to her bother. She woke them up and untied them. Once the boys were free, someone grabbed her from behind.

Mercedes yelled, “RUN!!”

Nathan yells, “What about you?!”

Mercedes replies, “I’ll be fine, just go.”

Just as the boys were about to run to the door someone in a mask closed it and locked it with a key. He tied the boys up again and put duct tape on their mouths. A big guy brought Mercedes up to the man in the mask. The man in the mask pulled off Mercedes ninja mask and threw it on the floor. Nathan and Christian were shocked to see their sister.

The masked man said in a deep voice, “Hi ninja.”

Mercedes replied, “Who are you?”

The masked man took off his mask and revealed his face. He had a blackish grey mustache and beard. He looked about in his forties and wasn’t very muscular. It was the principal of Lincoln Elementary.

Mercedes says in anger, “You!! Why are you doing this?”

Principal Richards says, “Think about it…………..you killed my younger brother three years ago.”

Mercedes thought about it and thought about it. Then it popped into her head. She remembered it like it was just yesterday.
*
*
*

It was October 1st, 2010. It was also her first year of being a ninja. Her first task was to stop some guy name Jeff Richards from destroying the San Francisco Bridge and killing hundreds of people. She broke into Jeff’s office where he kept all his weapons to destroy the bridge. As she was about to break the weapons, the light turned on and the door opened. A young man about in his early thirties, and a handsome face came in. it was Jeff Richards. He tackled her down, as if they were playing football. He punched her in the face, to stop her for a second. She got up and punched back in the face. He fell on his desk and seized a knife. He hurled it at her, grazing her arm. He ran toward her with another knife, trying to jab her. Instead she knocked it out of his hand and kicked him in the face. He flew into the cabinet and fell to the floor. The heavy cabinet began to waddle back and forth. It fell on Jeff Richards, crushing him to death. The police came and found Mr. Jeff Richards dead. They also found all his ideas of destroying the San Francisco Bridge and killing the hundreds of people that would be on it. The police left the Jeff Richards case alone after a year of not finding the killer.

Mercedes says, “Jeff Richards was your brother.”

Principal Richards nodded and said, “Yes Jeff Richards was my younger brother and you killed him so now I’m going to kill your brothers. Now you’ll feel our pain.”
Principal Richards pointed to the guy holding Mercedes back. Principal Richards grabbed a pistol from his boot and began walking up to Nathan and Christian. The boys were so scared; their faces were red with sweat and their eyes were watery. Mercedes was scared and furious at the same time. She head butted the guy holding her. He let her go but quickly grabbed her arms. She elbowed him in the stomach and kicked him in the side causing him to hit the wall which knocked him out. Principal Richards was shocked. He began shooting at her but missed. They went back and forth punching each other until Principal Richards was able to throw her on the ground. He kicked her and kicked her until she looked liked she couldn’t get up. He grabbed his gun and prepared to shoot. When he tried shooting, nothing happened. The gun was empty. Mercedes got up with pain and punched him in the face. He fell to the floor. He was angry. He grabbed her leg and pulled her to the floor. He repeatedly punched her until she kneed him in rib. He grabbed his special knife out and slightly stabbed in her side. She screamed with pain and knocked the knife out of his hand. She punched and kicked him punched and kicked him until he was knocked out. She walked up to her brothers and untied them. Mercedes was in bad condition. She could hardly walk. As the three of them were leaving the school she fainted. Mercedes woke up the next day. When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Jordan with his arms and head lying on her legs sleeping.

Mercedes mumbles, “Jordan.” She moves her legs a little to wake him up.

Jordan woke up, looked at her and smiled.

Jordan says, “Hey beautiful, you’re awake.”

Mercedes smiles and replies, “Where’s Nathan and Christian?”

“They’re in the waiting room,” says Jordan.

“Okay good,” says Mercedes.

Jordan replies, “You know Mercedes I was so scared when they called me and told me you were in the hospital, I asked them if you were okay and they told me they were still working on you. I...I….was afraid I was going to lose you, the most important person in my life. I…I love you Mercedes. My feelings grown for you since we first became best friends in kindergarten.”

Mercedes replied with tears in her eyes, “I love you too. I’ve felt the same way but I thought you wouldn’t.”

Jordan moved in close, “Of course I would” he leaned in and kissed her.

Just as they were kissing Nathan, Christian and the doctor walked in. Nathan and Christian ran up to Mercedes and hugged her.

Mercedes says, “Oh thank goodness you guys are okay. I love you guys.”

Nathan and Christian reply, “I love you too Mercedes.”

Doctor says, “Okay, looks like you can go home Mercedes, just take it easy with those stitches,”

Mercedes replies, “Thank you doctor.”

Jordan kissed Mercedes on the cheek and said, “We’ll be by the elevator waiting for you.”

Nathan, Christian, and Jordan leave the room. Mercedes gets dressed and goes up to the mirror. She looks at herself and smiles because she knows that nothing can ruin her happiness now.