"Kevin's gonna blow his top! Howie exclaimed "We're a half hour late!"

"Chill D" AJ said calmly, still putting on his assortment of earrings and chains. "Nick and Rok are still out shooting hoops, at least I think they are because they haven't checked in with us yet. They gonna be late too, and catch more hell than we will!"

Howie had finally placed the call to the limo and he and AJ gathered up all their gear and headed down to the lobby. The limo was already waiting for them out front.

"The start of another long day." Howie yawned. They climbed in and headed for the hall to meet with the others.

Nick and Brian had just wrapped up their basketball game at the school gym. Nick was elated because he had beaten Brian, three games in a row. He loved not having to do anything this morning and when Brian mentioned having to wrap it up because they late for rehearsal, he frowned. Sometimes he hated the fact that they never had enough free time to just do stuff and be normal. He wasn't looking forward to rehearsal and wanted to prolong his free time as long as he could.

"Hey, Brian, let's walk to the hall, it's only a couple of blocks!"

"I don't think so, Frack. We should get a cab, we're late." Brian didn't really want to walk, it was the start of the afternoon and if they were recognized they would be mobbed.

"C'mon!" Nick pleaded. "We're already late, waiting for a cab will just make us later! It's a great day, let's walk!"

"Are you nuts Nick? We could be killed if we're recognized!"

Brian looked at his friend who had put on his best sad puppy dog face. Brian laughed, Nick was an expert at that face, he could get people to give him just about anything with it. He caved in to Nicks wishes.

"Alright, we'll walk! Just put your hat on okay? We don't need those blond locks of yours attracting any extra attention!"

Nick laughed and jammed his cap on his head and started running out of the school yard.

Nick ran into the hall first.

"Hey, Bri, no-one's here, we're off the hook!"

"They must be here somewhere," Brian said. "Let's look around. It's not like Kev to be this late for something like this."

They split up and searched the hall. A few minutes later Nick came in from the parking lot.

"His car is there." he said. "But no sign of him."

Brian looked over "I found Aileen's purse by the front door, where would they go without her purse?"

At that moment Howie and AJ walked in and were also surprised that Kevin and Aileen had not shown up yet. However, not as surprised as they were when the door opened and they were also confronted with the four strange men with guns.