He squared up to the men and gave them a confident smirk. Was he enjoying this!? He ran forward, now entirely on the offensive. He targeted the original attacker first, slashing three times so fast I could barely see. Has he been watching fencing or something? How does he move so fast with such a heavy weapon? By this point I had backed into the wall, still ready to dodge an attack, once again holding my brick. Although it may have been a stupid notion, and Kaz seemed to have things under control, I was determined not to abandon my best friend.

Kaz made a final motion that disarmed the first man after blocking a slash from the second. He relaxed and looked at the second guy.

"Seems a bit more fair now, don't you think? Two on one was a low move," he quipped. Since when was Kaz such a badass? He'd always been one of the best in our studio, but this was different. It was like being in this fight gave him new energy to be stronger and faster. It charged him up. He wasn't afraid or even cautious. We would definitely have a talk about this later.

He charged the man and disarmed him in three blows. He then stood there, smiling and proud of himself until he looked at me with a proud grin, as if expecting a pat on the back, or perhaps a round of applause.

"What do you want, a standing ovation? Are we running away or what? How do you know they aren't gonna pull out more invisible swords?" I demanded, super annoyed he wasn't taking this more seriously. Behind Kaz, the man’s eyes locked onto something to my left. Kaz was too busy basking in his success to notice. I never believed that phrase when people say, “it was as if it was in slow motion,” but I can tell you with certainty, it was as if it happened in slow motion. A third assassin jumped from behind the wall and raised his sword above Kaz’s head. By the time Kaz noticed, it was too late.

But like I said, I’m no damsel in distress. I just straight up yeeted my brick at the dude. I don’t think he even saw it coming. It nailed him right in the head and he immediately collapsed. Yeah, Rose Wilson can be a badass too...

"Woah, Rose, remind me not to get on the wrong side of you when you have a brick in your hand!" Kaz said as he bent down and scooped up his backpack from where it lay on the floor.

“Oh shoot! I still have AP Gov homework!” he exclaimed, slapping his forehead. I took that as our cue to start going. The men stayed back because Kaz still had the broomstick and would probably take any opportunity to use it. Plus, maybe they were a little intimidated that I might find another brick. As we ran away, one yelled the most puzzling thing of the night so far:

"You can't get away forever Kahana! Your family isn't going to be able to protect you anymore! Our House is going to win the tournament this year whether you want us to or not!" Then they turned and ran out the other side of the alley as we made it to the dumpster and hopped over to the other side.

"What the heck were—" Kaz once again cut me off with a harsh shushing. His face was now serious again. Where was that confidence from before? Perhaps his self-assurance wasn't as deep as I'd thought.

"We need to get to Pops house now. There could be more of them and now they know you're with me. Don't ask questions, I will explain everything later." The extreme urgency in his voice told me this was no joke, so I knew I needed to do as he said.

We ran the two blocks to Pops' house without stopping, finally reaching it after what could have been seventeen miles.

Pops' was the most unnoticeable house you could possibly own. It blended into the other houses perfectly. A simple one-story, beige home with little defining features in the yard. They never parked their car in the driveway and the lawn took up the rest of the yard. Only a single, lonely basketball hoop stood in the front. We stomped past it and up the driveway to the two stairs of the porch and furiously rang the doorbell. While we waited for his Pops to come to the door, our breath ragged, Kaz looked me over, concerned. When his eyes met mine, his gaze softened slightly.

"Why have you been studying taekwondo all this time when you could just become a professional brick-thrower?" he asked playfully, the ever-present smirk coming back to his face.

"We almost died and you're going to talk about my unique weapon choice? Then again, you should have seen your face when you were fighting those guys." I started miming swinging a sword with a dramatic version of his superhero face, and added in a mocking, whiny, tone, "Two on one, that's not fair!" and continued to pretend to fight. He rolled his eyes in response and shook his head.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I did not look like that."

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Sure, Peter Parker."

Our conversation was interrupted by a stern, aged face we both knew well: Pops. While he was certainly a crotchety old man, it was clear that in his prime he had been a tall, handsome, athletic man. But the years had covered up most of that, leaving behind the grumpy, retired man we now saw before us. However, Kaz and I both know that every once in a while, Pops' old self shines through. As of right now, we had the old man, and he looked very annoyed at our frantic doorbell ringing and apparent stupid argument. It snapped us back to reality and our previous seriousness returned.

"What are you on about!? I was watching Star Wars in the—" He stopped as soon as he saw Kaz's face and he turned serious too. I had known Pops almost as long as I had known Kaz; he basically considered me a second grandchild, even allowing me to call him Pops, but I had never seen him be so serious. Granted, he was often scowling, but this was different. As he ushered us quickly inside, Kaz whispered quietly, "You were right Pops. They came after me. I'm sorry, I should have been more careful." His grandfather looked satisfied with that, although still somewhat disappointed in his grandson.

"Your ol' grandpa does know a thing or two, so maybe You. Should. Listen. To. Him." He punctuated each of the last words with a not-so-light smack with his cane to Kaz's right arm. Satisfied he had ingrained the lesson for today into the future generation, he turned and began leading us farther in.

At this point, I was done just going along with things. Seeing Kaz take on some thugs had been cool, but now it seemed like this was something they had known about! Why didn't they tell me? What could possibly be so important?

"Okay, can someone please tell me what the actual heck is going on!?" I yelled. Pops looked sternly at me, and I was suddenly aware he might turn his cane-whacking technique on me too. It wouldn't be the first time. Pops saw Kaz and I as moldable young children in need of being taught a lesson or two.

"Patience child! I'll explain everything on the car ride," he barked. "Now, call your mom and tell her I had a surprise trip to Palm Springs planned, something about getting out of LA for a weekend for Kaz's birthday. We'll be gone at least until Sunday night. Tell her you'll have your own bedroom. No monkey business while I can still swing this cane. I don't know, whatever people do when they... 'relax'," he put finger quotes around the last word; Pops wasn't one for relaxing. "I'm not going to abduct anyone's child, but I will take you even if she says no."

"Isn't that the definition of abducting a child?" Kaz mumbled bravely, which earned him another whack.

"Just do it! We're leaving in 15 minutes. Don't argue with me!" Then he stomped off to his bedroom.

"Well," I said to Kaz, "I guess we're going to Palm Springs."

----------------------------------------

Within 5 minutes, we were in the car and driving; the fear of Pops' cane certainly gets you moving. Pops was driving and Kaz won rock-paper-scissors which meant he sat shotgun. At first, no one said much. Everything was all so sudden and we were completely out of breath. We just stared out the windows as the nighttime suburbs whizzed past. A blanket of dark clouds shrouded the moon, although I decided not to take that as a bad omen. We drove for at least ten minutes in silence, still processing what had happened just a few minutes ago. The fact that I was in Pops' car at 10 o' clock at night, going to some unspecified location after being jumped by two guys with invisible swords finally brought me back. I broke the silence by yelling, perhaps a bit too loudly, "Alright, if you don't tell me what's going on right now, I will find a way to jump out of this car!" Pops sighed from behind the wheel, obviously not excited to tell me what's going on. He seemed to accept I wasn't going to take no for an answer, because he finally gave in.

"You better get your ears ready, because this is going to be a long story. You deserve answers, and this information may very well save your life. Where to begin? Well, a long—" Pops had just begun to explain, when Kaz (very annoyingly) cut him off.

"Sorry to interrupt Pops, but... uhh, could we stop for food?"

"If I wasn't driving, I would knock some sense into you child!" However, his gaze softened and he glanced down to the glove compartment. "There's some snacks in there, kid. Can't have you driving to Palm Springs on an empty stomach now." While Kaz rummaged through the collection of snacks, Pops took a deep breath to collect his thoughts.

"Well Rose, as you may have guessed, there are a few things Kaz and I haven't told you about..."

"Few is an understatement..." I muttered under my breath. Pops scowled but didn't acknowledge my comment. He readied himself like a bard preparing to woe us with legends and and myths of great heroes of days yonder. I could tell what I was about to hear went far deeper than anything I had thought previously. Finally, he began his epic tale, one that has since shaped my life.