Tyler attacks

Xander leans over to Ms. Wildstar and points down the row of paper. "Look, it's someone new."

A boy, maybe fourteen years old, wearing blue jeans and t-shirt ambles towards them.

"Hey, kid, what's your name?" Ms. Wildstar stands and pulls Xander up with her. She whispers, "Something about him doesn't look right. Get your slingshot."

"I don't have it." He eyes the boy. "November is over. You and Nekar said to stay armed all November. We're over halfway into December. I got sick of carrying that stupid rusty slingshot around."

"You idiot!" She glances up at the desk looming over them. "Haven't you heard her? She's resumed her regular writing sounds. She's here again, not toting her computer off to those write-in things she kept mumbling about. That means she's either cleaning up those stories or done with them."

Ms. Wildstar backs into the wall of paper. The thin edges of the sheets press into her back. "We've got to get out of here!"

Xander spins around. "What about your slingshot, Ms. Always Prepared?"

Ms. Wildstar checks her nametag and lets out a relieved sigh. "Hey, that's not my name. Thankfully. That would be horrible."

"I'm beginning to see why you got cut," he mutters. "Concentrate! Where is your slingshot?"

"I used it on a boy with a weird silver pinky finger a couple weeks ago."

"You never told me about that."

"What, are you jealous or something? I killed him, just like we're supposed to do."

"Of course not."

The boy is hunched over, reading a passage from on a crumpled paper.

"Is the slingshot a one time use sort of thing?"

She blushes "Not is used correctly."

"Why the hell are you blushing at at time like this?"

"It's what I do. Character flaw, or something." She crosses her arms over her chest and pouts.

"Seriously? Pouting now?"

"Oh shut up. I wasn't written at the same skill level as you, Mr. Smarty Pants."

Xander resists for a second but then glances at his name tag. "That would just be cruel." He shakes his head. "Really though, what are we going to do about that kid?"

"Hello there. My name is Tyler. Have you seen my story? I seem to have been seperated from it when I fell from the almighty desktop." He looks wistfully to the dark desktop high above them.

"Okay, that was creepy," Xander whispers. "He was over there, and suddenly he's right here."

"Victim of a story with missing scenes. He's able to jump ahead in time." She smiles at Tyler. "I think I saw your story over there. How about we help you find it?"

Tyler regards her with empty eyes. "That would be nice. Thank you."

Xander and Ms. Wildstar fall into step a few yards behind Tyler. "Why are you being nice to him?"

"I'm not. Go get Nekar."

"You'll be all right with Tyler alone?"

"I'll smile a lot at him. It's what I do best."

"Right." Xander lopes off though the paper lined paths.

"So, Tyler, what is your story called?"

"Sidewalking."

"I remember her talking about that. Bicycle on a sidewalk right?"

"Yes! You've read it?"

"Uh. Yeah. Of course. It's right here." She opens up a still bright white wad of discarded story. Go in and have a look."

He climbs up the crinkled side and into the opening at the top. "This is it! You found it!"

"I'll let you in on a little secret. The way to get back into your story is to read it a couple of times."

Tyler goes silent. Ms. Wildstar taps her foot. "Where are they?"

Xander comes runing down the path with Nekar, carrying a crate of adverbs, close behind. "Where is he?"

She nods to the paper wad. "In there."

"Good job," says Nekar. "I'll take it from here. You kids go on now. You don't what to be around for this."

"He's right." Ms. Wildstar takes Xander's hand and leads him away. Behind them they hear Nekar scale the paper wad with his crate in hand.

They both turned around for a moment. At the top, Neker pauses and draws out a handful of words. He hurls them at the boy inside. Sharply follows deadly and pointedly. "Take that you half-formed NaNo cast off."

Nekar pulls another handful of words from his crate. They turn away.

Xander cringed. "What's he going to do?"

"Haven't you ever read his character bio sheet?"

"No, why?"

She smiles. "He's an assassin."