"Is it just me, or is Deck a moron?" mumbled Max Adams from his place in the back seat of Jamie Raleigh's car.

"That is not a very nice thing to say," responded Yoshi Funakoshi from her place on George Tanner's lap in the front passenger's seat. "Deck went out of his way to put together a good role-playing game for us tonight."

"It was too short," remarked Max. "Besides, if Deck wants us to visit him, he really should disarm the booby traps around that 'castle' of his."

"Hey," smirked Jamie, "at least he gave us a map."

"I think that Max is right," interjected Louis Robertson, Sera High's only African-American student. "I like Deck and all, but I don't think that you should have to have a map just to avoid getting hurt when you go to see'im."

"Look guys," said George, "we have all agreed to accept Deck the way that he is."

"Yeah," mumbled Max as the 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier pulled into Louis's driveway, "no matter how weird."

Louis climbed out of the passenger's side back door. "Thanks for the lift, guys," he said as he started to walk away from the vehicle.

"Are you goin' floating with us tomorrow?" called out Max.

"Yeah," responded Louis. "What time should I expect you?"

Jamie thought for a moment. "About eight."

The car pulled away after the members of Adventure bid their friend a cheerful farewell.

The group had completed a rather short fantasy role-playing game less than twenty minutes earlier. There had been three vehicles, but the remaining players, which included Jamie's cousins Dave, Zack, and Pete, as well as his friends Jeremy, Steve, Buster, Jack and Steve's girlfriend, Leslie, had piled into the other cars and gone to their respective homes.

"Louis is pretty cool," announced George as he wrapped his arms affectionately around Yoshi.

"Yeah," responded Jamie. "It's too bad that people like John Bowers and Freddy Jenks have to pick at him all the time." Jamie looked into the rearview mirror to see an eruption of flame in Louis's back yard. "What the . . .?!" He turned at the next street and circled the block back toward the house.

After parking on the side of the street two houses down from the two-story house where Louis's family lived, the four adolescents climbed from the vehicle and approached the fire. Jamie could now make out the form of a flaming cross. He motioned for the others to stop as he darted silently behind a bush in Louis's neighbors' back yard.

From his hiding place, the young ninja could make out about fifteen figures wearing white robes with matching hoods and cone hats, surrounding Louis's mother, who was standing on a chair that was under the only tree that stood in their backyard. A noose that was attached to one of the more stout branches was tied around her throat. The young ninja glanced up at a second story window of the neighbors' house to see the face of a woman looking out at the spectacle. His anger flared as she turned without emotion and walked away. "She could at least call the police," he mumbled to himself as he motioned for his friends to join him.

As Jamie looked back toward the house, he saw another of the white robed figures, whom Jamie had deduced were members of the Ku Klux Klan, drag Franklin Robertson, Louis's father and Jamie's high school history teacher, out into the midst of the racists. Even from this distance, the young leader of Adventure could see that he was badly beaten, crimson soaking his once white shirt.

Yoshi, George, and Max joined the young ninja behind the bush. As they watched, two more of the Klansmen pulled a kicking and screaming Louis from the house. At this point, Jamie called out, "Adventure, let's get'em!"

The four teens leaped from their hiding spot and charged the white-robed terrors.

Max leaped from the ground as he approached three of the Klansmen. He extended his right foot, slamming it into the chest of the first and knocking him back into the other two. They groaned as they hit the ground with a painful THUD!

Yoshi and George stood back to back. George was not accustomed to fighting without a weapon but, thanks to Yoshi, he had a slight amount of training in unarmed combat. Two of the Klansmen approached them from the side, so he brought his right foot up and lashed out, striking it against the sides of both of their heads. One of them fell immediately to the ground as George kicked the other in the stomach, then punched him in the head.

"Don't get too comfortable in your victory yet," remarked Yoshi as she punched a charging Klansman in his nose. She had pulled her punch, not wanting to kill him. As he lay on the ground, unconscious, she could see his mask slowly soak with crimson.

Another Klansman approached from her left and swung his right fist at her. She caught it with ease. Still holding his wrist, she brought her right foot up and slammed it back and forth, repeatedly across his face. When she felt that he had been given enough, she dropped him on top of his other comrade.

Jamie was surrounded by three of the racists. He grabbed one of them by the arm and twisted it behind his back. As the victim cried out in pain, Jamie used him as a shield to block the punch of one of his comrades. The young ninja, dropping the first Klansman, performed a 360-degree spin, bringing his right foot up and striking the heel across the attacking Klansman's face and knocking him to the ground. The third Klansman appeared to have a change of heart as he turned and ran away.

The young ninja looked around to see what was happening. Two of the Klansmen were still holding Louis, but the one that had been dragging Louis's father had dropped him and retreated. Jamie, hoping that Louis would think to run, reached into the pocket of his jeans and produced a silver ball. He hurled it at the ground at Louis’s feet.

There was a small explosion from the ball, then a cloud of black smoke arose from it, covering Louis and his two attackers. Jamie could hear a commotion from within the cloud as he ran forward to help his friend. By the time that he got there, the smoke had cleared, leaving a coughing Louis standing over the unconscious forms of the two Klansmen. Puzzled, Jamie started to say something, but was cut off by Yoshi's words. "They are escaping!"

Jamie whirled around to see the remaining Klansmen running from the scene. Disgusted, he called out, "Let them go. Louis and his family are safe." His eyes again settled on Louis, still coughing from the young ninja's smoke bomb.

* * *

Jamie sat alone in his bedroom in the new trailer that his parents had just used to replace the house that they had torn down two weeks earlier, reading Bram Stoker's Dracula . . . And being terribly bored. He stared around at the walls of the room. Posters of ninja, Spider-Man, and environmental issues covered his walls, with pictures of his friends and Shawna, his girlfriend, tacked to any empty spaces.

After the fight, the police had arrived. Apparently, the neighbor had called the police. Jamie had asked Louis nothing about his captors. Had he wanted to tell him, he would have volunteered the information. Jamie really didn't care to know, anyway. He was having problems of his own at this time. The nightmares about the school and what had happened there six and a half months earlier still filled his sleep every night.

Jamie's phone rang, so the young ninja climbed from his chair and answered it, "Hello?"

"Hey, babe," replied the feminine voice on the other end. It was Shawna. "Are we still going floating tomorrow?"

"As far as I know," he replied. "Why?"

"I was just wanting to know if Rena was going to be going along," stated the young honor student.

"Unfortunately," remarked Jamie as he thought of the arguing that would probably take place between Max's girlfriend and every other person going.

"I don't like her," stated Shawna bluntly. "Max can do better."

"I don't like her, either," muttered Jamie, "but he thinks he’s 'in love.'"

"He fell in love with the wrong person," mumbled Shawna. "By the way, I took the liberty of inviting Alex." At a time before she had met Jamie, Shawna had experienced some problems with her mother and had been put into foster-care for awhile. She had grown to be quite good friends with her younger foster-sister, Alexandria. Even after she had gone home, she had kept in contact with her new friend. Coincidentally, Alex, Max, and Jamie's niece, Elizabeth, were in the same Tae Kwon Do class together, but Alex and Max rarely talked. Jamie had met Alexandria a few times and sort of liked her. She seemed friendly enough.

"We should have enough room," said Jamie, "considering the fact that Buster, Sly, and I are all taking our vehicles."

"Sly's coming along?" asked Shawna.

"Yep," replied the young ninja as he fidgeted unconsciously with the corner of the bookmark that was holding his place in his novel. "I know you don’t like him . . .."

"He’s as bad a flirt as Zack," interrupted the projected valedictorian.

Jamie chuckled. "But girls actually like for Sly to flirt with them.

* * *

Jamie lay on his bed, thinking about Shawna. He had just hung up the phone and, as usual, she hadn't responded to him when he had told her that he loved her. After the two of them first started seeing each other, she had been the first of the two to mention that word to the other. But, as of late, she hadn't seemed too comfortable with it. Over the past six months, Jamie had discovered a great deal about his girlfriend, things that very few people ever dreamed about.

First, there was the foster-care thing. Apparently, Shawna had gone through a phase where she had difficulty getting along with her mother. She had even tried to kill herself once, and this was when she was placed into foster-care at the Rhee's home in Aurthur. She had only been there for a few months, but she had grown quite fond of them and kept in touch with them. They were a fairly religious family, so she had started attending church while she was there. Her walk with the Lord had taken away her interest in suicide.

None of this bothered Jamie or lessened his love for her. Everyone has secrets, he often thought when these things came through his mind. How many secrets have you kept from her? How long did you keep your past a secret from even your closest friends in Sera?

Jamie was brought forth from his daydream by the sound of movement in the living room. "Mom," he called out, "is that you?" His parents had gone out for the evening, something that they didn't do very often, since his father had emphysema.

There was no answer. Jamie climbed off of his bed and walked to the door of his bedroom. Taking hold of the knob, he slowly pushed it open. Peering out, he saw what appeared to be an empty trailer. Walking slowly out into the hall, he made his way to the living room. His eyes darted around, hoping to catch a glimpse of what it was that made the noise. He passed through the living room, then the kitchen, then walked silently into his parents' bedroom. Noting that it was empty, he stepped into their small bathroom, but it, too, was lifeless.

Suddenly, a sound made him whirl around to find . . . his father's Chihuahua, Chico, having one of his asthma attacks from next to Pam’s dresser. Jamie, with a sigh of relief, leaned over and patted the old dog on the head. "You nearly scared me to death."

Jamie calmly walked back out into the kitchen. Stretching, he let out a loud YAWN! It was then that that something slammed into him from behind . . .