his mouth with his good hand.

"It's not funny," I fumed, and jabbed him between the shoulder blades with my baseball bat. "I know," he chortled, "It's just the way you said it, like it was some sort of crime." I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for him to run out of giggles. Danny stopped abruptly and I said, "Good, maybe now we can have a civilized conversation." He shook his head and yelled "No time! They're here!"

I wanted to ask him how he could tell, but before I could even open my mouth, he shoved me into a corner! "Relax, Clara, I've got this. I'm on baseball, basketball, boxing, fencing, and football teams. Don't worry about me," he hurried, and ran off. With my head still spinning from impact, I slurred after him, "You idiot! You only have one arm!" I saw him pull the tree branch in two directions - and it split to reveal a gleaming silver sword. He smiled, and just as he braced himself to fight, the doors of the cafeteria burst open. Hundreds of cloaked figures rushed in and went at Danny.

One by one, he took them on, slashing his way through the crowd. One by one, they fell. In a matter of minutes they were all either running for the doors or sprawled on the ground, dripping rubies. My valiant nutcracker prince looked around for more adversaries, then turned towards me and waved. "It's over, we can go back now," he called excitedly. I smiled and rolled my eyes, but couldn't shake the panicked feeling I had deep in my chest. Then, I caught something behind him out of the corner of my eye. Something moving.

"Danny!" I screamed, and ran towards him. I realized I was still clutching my weapon, and relief flooded through me. At least I had some chance at taking this one down. The dark figure got to him before I did, though. It took advantage of his weak