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This isn’t what Irene had in mind when she walked into school that day. She expected boring classes, stressful tests, and cardboard lunch. What she didn’t expect is to be chained up with other students and having weapons pointed at them.
A loud banging sound caught everyone’s attention. “Now listen ‘ere you slimey fucks,” the head man waved his dagger around, “this shouldn’t take long if everyone cooperates. One small peep of trouble from ya will leave yer body bloodied and bruised.” The man stabs the dagger into a nearby desk, causing some students to flinch and whimper out. “Ya got that?”
A goon by the door clicks his tongue, “Lay off boss, they’re just kids. What harm can they possibly do?” He gives a little chuckle, causing a chorus of laughter to ring in the room. Once it dies out, most of the men walk out of the room, leaving a few people to watch over the students. They looked quite cocky, like nothing could stop them from whatever goal they hoped to achieve.
As they closed the door, Irene looked around the room—taking in her surroundings. The captured students are chained up in groups of three, each group separated by a few feet. They seem to be kept in an unused, and seemingly abandoned, classroom: cobwebs in nearly every corner, dust caked on the floor, and furniture stacked along the walls, covering the windows.
Irene is chained with two people she has never interacted with before, though she remembers seeing them in a few of her classes. There’s a girl whose clothes were mostly grey with crimson and teal accents, complimenting her leather jacket and high ponytail. Besides her is a boy with a half-up half-down hairstyle and dark clothes. Irene notes that the two seem very calm considering the situation. A little odd in her opinion, but who was she to judge them?
She could hear a few people whispering, wondering what’s going to happen to them. Honestly, Irene was getting a little worried too. Why were they being kept as hostages? Did anyone notice their disappearance? Will they get help?
“Pssst. Cole, Nya. Over here.”
A hushed voice brought Irene out of her thoughts. The two people she’s tied up with turned their heads towards the voice. Huh, so that’s what their names are.
Curious, Irene glances over in the same direction. The owner of the voice was a guy wearing crimson clothes and had spiky brunette hair. The person next to him, wearing a blue sweater patterned with orange triangles and had fluffy ginger hair, is whispering to a green-clad boy in a separate group. The other person chained with them, with silver hair and neat clothing, is following along with their conversation.
“Lloyd is thinking of doing Glow-Worm to get out of here,” the red guy looks over at Cole, a teasing smirk plastered on his face, “and that means you need to be front and center boulder brain.”
“Nu-uh. Not happening. I would like to have my dignity intact, thank you very much.”
The green boy, which Irene was assuming to be Lloyd, looked a little dejected from Cole’s quick response. The silver boy pipes in, “Would it help you if Jay were to join? He is adept in being loud and annoying.”
A scandalized look from the blue boy, Jay, brought the group into quiet giggles, whispering praise to Zane. Though it seemed they weren’t quiet enough seeing as one of the guards glared at them as a warning. The group tried to hold back more giggles as a result.
Irene looked around but found that no one was paying attention to the (particularly loud) group. They were all too busy being scared or worried for what’s to come.
Honestly, Irene has no idea what to think of these people. They seemed like a group that got in trouble for shits and giggles: childish, reckless, and held little regard for the rules. But at the same time, they gave off a weird aura of experience and wisdom.
Irene decided to ignore it before her head started spinning.
Cole gives a tired sigh before getting the group back on topic. “Alright, I’ll do it. But only if bluebell joins.”
An evil grin forms on the crimson boy, “Ya hear that Jay? Time to use that lightning mouth of yours.”
“Ugh, you guys are the worst,” Jay shoots a soft glare.
“You love us.”
Lloyd interrupts their banter with an annoyed look plastered on his face. “Guys, come on. If there’s any time to start the plan, it’s now.”
“Right”
To Irene’s surprise, they all responded in unison. So far, they have given zero clues as to what this “ Glow-Worm ” plan is, but she’s quite excited to see what they have in store.
The plan seems to kickstart with Cole. He looks around the room, eyes narrowing on the guards currently in the room. His face is a little flushed and he hesitates a bit (probably out of embarrassment based on his previous reaction). He takes a large inhale…
… and starts singing. Very loudly.
Everyone immediately takes notice and the other students stare at him like he’s crazy—singing at the top of his lungs (“… Glow little glow-worm. Glow and glimmer!…”) . And for all that Irene can see, he is. Very crazy that is.
To make matters worse, Jay pipes in and starts talking—or in Irene’s opinion, screaming—about the most random topics like birdhouses and junkyards. He even starts complaining about the current situation, never sticking with one topic for longer than a few seconds (“Of all the places you decide to keep us in, did you really have to choose a smelly old classroom? Bleh. Oh! Did you know that birdhouses in Europe were originally traps to capture eggs and birds? In fact, they—”) .
Irene starts to panic when she sees the guards walking towards them with an annoyed look in their eyes and hands covering their ears. “Shhhh— What are you doing?! Can’t you see that—”
She’s interrupted by a harsh nudge on the shoulder courtesy of Nya. She looks at Irene with an apologetic smile and discreetly nods towards the crimson boy. “Oh don’t worry. You see that red hedgehog over there? That’s my brother, Kai. He’s a walking lock pick. We should be out of here lickity-split.”
And just as she said that, the chains around Kai, Jay, and Zane loosen. They immediately jump into action. Jay and Zane fight off the incoming guards. Jay’s moves are quick and agile as he zips through the guards, similar to lightning striking a metal pole. On the other hand, Zane’s moves are more grand but are scarily precise. It was almost like he was gliding on ice.
Meanwhile, Kai moves between the groups to free them, going towards Lloyd’s group first as they’re the closest. Lloyd joins the fray while the other two people previously chained with him sit there confused. He moves around with purpose, taking the guards down with efficiency and strength.
When Kai unlocked the chains around Irene’s group, Cole went up to Zane as he held out something made of ice. Where did he get that? … Is that a key?!
A giggle from Nya breaks Irene out of her thoughts. Nya pats her on the shoulder before kicking a guard that was about to sneak up behind Lloyd. Her moves were quite graceful and fluid, but also harsh and powerful like the waves in a storm.
Cole and Kai run around, freeing the other groups while simultaneously fighting off guards. Kai’s fighting style reminded Irene of a large forest fire, feeding off of the surrounding dry kindling. Cole, on the other hand, moved like a devastating earthquake but with a lightness that seemed like he was dancing.
Seeing the strange group fight off the guards, Irene decided to get up and do something useful. She walks up towards the windows, takes one of the chairs, and swings it with all her might. The shattering sound caused some to startle, but other students were starting to get the memo and got up to do the same.
If Irene were to describe what the scene looked like later on, she would have said chaos. There was a colorful group of high schoolers successfully fighting off armed guards. People were smashing windows and helping others get through without cutting themselves. Grown adults, albeit immature, looked panicked and were fighting sloppily.
Irene was by the windows when the boss came rolling in. He was greeted by a sight to behold: nearly all of the captives had escaped, his men were lying on the floor in pain, and six teenagers were standing over them. Furious, the man took out his daggers and threw them at the teens. All of them were expertly dodged and countered.
“Who the fuck ya think ya are huh?! Thinkin’ you can escape that easily!” The man continues to throw a barrage of daggers at the teens. And again and again, they dodged the sharp points like ninjas.
Irene couldn’t believe her eyes. There’s no way these are the same people who were joking around earlier…
While staring at the captivating scene, Irene forgot where she was for a moment. She was snapped back to reality when someone grabbed her hand and pulled her out the window. By then the authorities had arrived. Irene was taken to get checked over. The paramedics treated multiple bleeding cuts that she didn’t realize were there (man adrenaline is crazy).
While she was being patched up, Irene could hear the glass of multiple windows breaking in the distance, followed by bouts of laughter. It seems like everyone made it out alive. That’s good.
That was the last thing she thought before her eyes started drooping. She could faintly hear the strange group being escorted over before she was greeted by darkness.
“You know Cole, you did not have to sing. You could have emulated Jay and talked in circles, or found other ways to be distracting.”
“WHAT!”