Between school, homework, the play, dealing with K-Unit, hanging out with (partially babysitting) James, trying to fend off the group of girls Tom had dubbed "The Alex Rider fanclub" which consisted of so called "fangirls", Tom himself, cooking, being on constant guard because of Kurosaki and occasionally calling Jack, Alex had very little time for himself.

He had so much to do during the day, that when the night finally came around he was practically dead to the world. He'd never been so awfully busy for a great length of time, unless he was on "vacation" with Ian or a mission for MI6. It was a new experience, and not necessarily a bad one, despite the fact that the "fangirls" in charge of the costumes everyone would wear for the play had somehow found and decided to make him try on the most ridiculous outfits known to man.

On the upside, K-Unit plus James thought it was extremely funny when Tom showed them the pictures of Alex in the various, horrible costumes. And it was generally said that laughing was healthy, that a good laugh prolonged your life or something along those lines.

Although Alex wasn't entirely positive that was a good thing. For all he cared, they could all just drop down and play dead, if only so that he wouldn't have to deal with the constant teasing and the crappy jokes.

Then again, Wolf telling jokes was pretty amusing. Not because the jokes were particularly smart or funny, but because it was Wolf.

Apart from possibly having a psychotic murderer with a disturbing fetish for sharp things hot on his heels, life was good.

~~.._..~~

"And after that, at around six, the play will start – we're going to show it twice, once Friday evening and then Monday around noon, sort of to finish off the Festival. But about Friday – we were thinking that us girls can also dress up in medieval outfits, and sell tickets and tea, coffee and stuff right outside..." Jessica babbled on and on, never stopped, just continued on, talking about the Annual Festival and the how's and when's of it, even if they all knew most of it by now, considering the Festival always was the hot topic for a few weeks this time of the year. And they'd been through the procedure before.

That didn't make Jessica mute her rarely-ceasing-babbling, though. Alex, along with the rest of the male population of the class, had long since tuned the girl out to spare themselves.

The spy was texting back and forth with James, discussing nothing in particular; James was about as bored as Alex was, stuck with some snobby tutor who'd left him temporarily, leaving the teen to write a ten-pages-long essay on religions and beliefs.

Because when a teen is left to his own devices when he is supposed to do something important and school-related, of course he follows through and works diligently. Uh-huh.

James hadn't answered in a while, though, so Alex suspected that the tutor was back. Great, there went that source of entertainment.

Instead, the spy switched to looking out the window, hoping that something remotely interesting would pass by.

Fifteen minutes later, the most interesting thing he'd seen was the stereotypical soccer mum who attempted to walk a humongous dog, carry two full shopping bags and chat with someone over the phone at the same time.

A another couple of minutes passed and Alex caught sight of a dark, hooded figure on the other side of the road, hiding behind a tree in the park. The figure was definitely looking at the school and seemed to be talking on the phone. Because that wasn't at all suspicious.

Alex frowned and shifted in his seat, trying to get a better look at the man.

His internal warning bells rang louder when he saw the man nod a couple of times, look in the general direction of Alex's current classroom and then leave.

Crap. Alex sighed and leaned back in his seat. There was nothing he could do right now, except hope that the "agents" stationed around the school had also seen the suspicious figure and followed him. If they'd done that, then perhaps they'd get lucky and find Kurosaki, and thereby take care of the mess before Alex became further involved.

The teen knew better than to expect anything like that, though, and while he could at least hope for the best... judging from his experiences, it wouldn't be that easy. It never was.

~~.._..~~

With a muttered, "Better safe than sorry", Alex called James when the final bell rang. Few things were safer than cars that belonged to the Sprintz family, and their drivers were always top notch; not to mention the fact that they had special bodyguard training, and were uncannily attentive – coming from Alex, that was definitely saying something.

James picked up immediately – no doubt he had some embarrassing ringtone to identify Alex by – and promised to be pick the spy up in five minutes. They hung up and Alex was left waiting for his friend to show up. As it turned out, it was a good thing he'd foregone his bike in favour of riding with Fox this morning instead.

Most of his classmates had left already; today was the last day before the Festival they actually had off, without rehearsals or anything. The boys had stood up to the girls for once and convinced them to let everyone get a little rest before they plunged on. They were actually done with the play, which was great, but they'd passed onto the repeat-and-repeat-and-repeat-and-repeat-again stage.

The point, however, was that Alex was practically alone on this side of the school. Some classes were still going on, mostly practices, clubs and those sorts of things, but Alex was outside the library department – basically the one part of the school no club used as their HQ – sitting on the stairs to one of the back doors of the school.

The teen glanced at the park he'd been watching earlier today, recalling the hooded figure he'd seen. Something in the air had him on high alert; something was about to happen. A whispery voice in the back of his head stated that it was a bad idea to sit alone in such an exposed place, even with the "guards" stationed around the school. With his aforementioned luck, the guards probably wouldn't be a lick of help.

And true enough, the first shuriken appeared seemingly out of nowhere; Alex had only his quick reflexes to thank for a throwing star less in his chest. He cursed quietly as he grabbed his back and dived for cover behind a trash can, an odd number of small, gleaming throwing stars raining down on him.

Crouching with his bag over his head, Alex scanned the surrounding rooftops for the perpetrator; it was most likely Kurosaki. He couldn't think of anyone else who'd use throwing stars and what with the circumstances... it was a bit obvious.

Eventually, the shuriken stopped coming down and Alex glanced around; still with his bag over his head, he ran to the closest tree – which conveniently happened to be a big, ancient oak with an impressive trunk, and god that felt weird to even think – and pressed himself against it; James would be coming here any minute, which would be a great getaway, but the downside of that was that Kurosaki would see the number plate of the car and quite likely connect it to James, hence putting him in danger. There was little Alex could do about that right now, though, considering his highest priority at the moment was, hm, getting out of this situation alive.

A dull "thud" told Alex that something had just fallen out of the tree he was pressed against. Well, more accurately: someone had just jumped out of the tree he was pressed against. He rolled his eyes at his unbelievable lack of luck and held his breath, taking slow, measured steps to the side, walking around the tree, vainly hoping that he wasn't going to literally bump into Kurosaki.

Halfway around the tree, Alex heard the steps that had previously been matching his own change the direction; he had time to brace himself and duck, before a small knife lodged itself in the tree, where his head had just been.

Kurosaki looked pretty much like he had the last time Alex had seen him, except that he was a lot paler and looked a lot angrier. His black hair was standing in every direction, his trademark ninja-ish clothes unkempt and dirty. His entire exterior screamed, "I've been obsessing over killing you, sworn to avenge my leader and by the end of this you'll be begging for me to kill you", which was just charming and exactly what Alex needed right now.

The teen dodged strikes aimed at his head and neck, retaliating whenever he saw an opportunity; it was a bit hard with his back against the tree, though.

Alex managed to strike out with his knee, hitting Kurosaki's hip, followed by a wholehearted punch aimed at the henchman's stomach; it wasn't much, but it was enough of a distraction to allow Alex to slip away and run a few paces. He was planning on finding a hiding place and just avoiding Kurosaki – Alex wasn't a big fan of actually escaping from a fight, but he did know when to get away instead of losing the fight or, you know, his life – but the plan was ruined when "All By Myself" (sung by Céline Dion no less) made him pause and incredulously reach for his cellphone. James must've gotten his hands on it at some point and changed the ringtone again. Sweet.

"James," he said as he picked up. "The entrance, make sure the door's open and be ready to go fast."

Pausing had been a tremendously bad idea, as had walking slowly while on the phone been, because those few moments were enough for Kurosaki to gather himself and catch up. He plucked another couple of shuriken from somewhere on his body – it was getting ridiculous, the endless amounts of weapons hidden in his clothes – and with a deadly, but predictable, accuracy threw them after Alex.

The teen ran backwards, toward the school again, using his bag as a cover. He almost tripped on the stairs, but managed to stay upright and then, finally, made it to the double doors. Once he was inside he used a surprisingly convenient placed chair to barricade the doors. It wasn't nearly enough to keep Kurosaki from getting in, but it would buy Alex some time.

Now, he knew the school like the back of his hand, which made for a fantastic advantage, assuming that Kurosaki hadn't been doing his homework and studied the blueprints of the grounds. Alex took a long detour, going up and around the English classrooms, swung by the Home Economics before he jogged down three staircases and raced out the main entrance, thanking his lucky star when he saw the dark, supposed-to-be-inconspicuous-but-obviously-luxurious car standing there, one door open and waiting for him.

Alex spared a quick thought to the school and what Kurosaki could do to it, but recalling Kurosaki's behaviour and downright freaky obsessiveness, it was quite unlikely that he'd take that route. Kurosaki wanted Alex dead, the honest way; blackmailing would probably ruin the feeling of smugness and pride afterwards, or something.

So the spy ran, taking long strides and threw himself into the car. James cried, "Step on it!" before the door was even closed. They were on the road a moment later, speeding away and Alex would've been worried about a ticket if he didn't know that A) it wasn't like James would have any problem paying for it, and B) they had a psychotic killer on their tail.

"You're totally filling me in on what's going on as soon as we get home." James stated, with an uncharacteristically stern look. The teen could only nod as he clutched his seat, slightly distracted by the numerous excuses and explanations racing through his mind.

AN: now this is where I had a plan, but I didn't write for so long that I forgot it. I have vague ideas, of course, but I'd love to hear what you'd like to read. Can't promise I'll write it, but you never know. And, yeah, thanks again for being awesome. I have a long list of dedications, but I'll take that another time. You won't feel it if I hug my laptop, but feel loved. :)