Southern Storms (Compass 1)

It was odd how two weird people could be complete opposites.

* * *

“Let me go!” I shouted as my camp bunkmates dragged me out of the room in the middle of the night. James, Ryan, and the leader of their pack, Lars freaking Parker, wouldn’t let me go. Lars was from my hometown, and he bullied me during the whole school year. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he kept bullying me at camp.

It was pouring rain, and the three guys were pissed at me for making them lose at flag football earlier that day. I hadn’t even wanted to play, and my team hadn’t wanted me to either, but the camp had a stupid ‘nobody left behind’ rule that made me a bully’s prime target.

My dad would’ve liked them all because they were good at that guy stuff.

“Shut up, cry baby!” Lars hollered, wrapping his hands around my wrists as Ryan and James each grabbed one of my ankles.

I hadn’t even wanted to play flag football. I hadn’t even wanted to go to summer camp!

I hated it! I hated it so much I could have cried.

“Let me go, let me go, let me go!” I shouted.

“Oh, we’ll let you go—right after we throw you into the trash bin like the garbage you are,” Lars said. It was clear he was the ringleader of the circus of jerks. Ryan and James pretty much did anything he said. I wondered how people got powerful like that, how they could just get anyone to follow anything they said.

“You’re not throwing anyone anywhere,” a voice said. I looked over my shoulder to see Kennedy standing there in the pouring rain with a bow and arrow in her grip. She held the arrow pointed straight at Lars’s face and ohmygosh weird Kennedy Lost was a freaking psychopath. “Drop Jax and no one gets hurt.”

“Oh look, Jax’s freaky girlfriend came to save the day!” Ryan mocked.

“Oh look, Ryan is so basic he couldn’t think of a better comment to make. Really, Ryan, work on your insults. They lack authenticity, much like your whole persona—or should I call you Lars number two?” Kennedy mocked them right back before I could express that she wasn’t my girlfriend.

That was another difference between her and me—she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself.

“Will you just go away, Kennedy? This has nothing to do with you,” James said.

“Sorry, Lars number three, I can’t let you do this. Just put him down, and no one will get hurt.” She shot an arrow that landed right between James’ feet.

“Are you insane?” he barked, jumping in the air and dropping my foot to the ground.

Kennedy didn’t reply. She simply reached into the backpack she was wearing, pulled out another arrow, and shot it straight between Ry—er, Lars number two’s feet.

He jumped and dropped his hold on my other foot.

Two legs free, two arms to go.

Lars cocked an eyebrow at Kennedy as his two sidekicks scurried behind their ringleader. He held me in front of him and gave her a cocky smirk. “You can’t shoot with Jax in front of me, Kennedy. So you might as well—”

She shot her next arrow straight past me, and it grazed Lars’s ear.

Holy crap! She’d almost given him an ear piercing! I’d have bet if she’d really wanted to, she could’ve put a hole straight through said ear.

“I can do anything,” Kennedy barked, and funnily enough, I was starting to believe her. “Now, let him go because next time, I won’t miss.”

I knew Lars wasn’t showing it, but I felt his trembles as he released his hold on me.

Kennedy reached back in her bag for another arrow but froze when she realized that there were none left.

Lars smirked. “Looks like the freak is out of weapons. Now I’m going to kick both of your butts.”

I began shaking as I ran beside Kennedy. She turned my way. “It’s okay, Jax, just bark.”

“What?” I asked, nervous.

“Bark at them! People get freaked out if you start barking at them and then they’ll leave you alone. Watch.” She turned back toward Lars and his friends and began barking like a dog. “Woof! Woof! Woof!” she howled, leaving me stunned and a little scared.

What a weird, weird girl.

But it seemed to be working. The guys began backing up, so I started doing it, too. “Woof! Woof!” I said, probably sounding more like a poodle compared to Kennedy’s rottweiler, but I kept going until the guys backed off. “Woooooof!”

Lars shook his head while stepping away from us. “Whatever, losers. Come on, guys. Let’s go back to the bunk. If you’re smart, Jax, you won’t come back tonight unless you want to get your butt kicked.”

The three dashed off, and I stood there a bit stunned as Kennedy placed her bow into her backpack and then began dancing in the rain. “See? Whenever someone is bothering you, bark at them. It always works.”