Part 3 (1/2)

'I don't know. If she can move fruit without any hands, I'm nervous about what else she might be able to do.'

'It's hard to believe she could move anything with her mind when she acts like she hasn't got a brain,' Jackson says.

I smile guiltily. For a split second I feel like I'm at Gate One. Something about Jackson Axe makes me feel accepted. I've noticed that he doesn't care about the stupid Gate One and Gate Two rules; he'll talk to anyone.

Jackson walks me to cla.s.s, telling me how much he wants to teach me to surf one day and how it'll be a great way to improve the balance of my kicks. I should want to get into a wetsuit right now, but I can't shake my worry for Elecktra. Jackson's words rattle around in my head: 'It's hard to believe she could move anything with her mind.' Moving stuff with your mind is impossible, isn't it? Something is wrong. I know better than anybody when Elecktra is up to something and I haven't got time to search her mood board for clues. I need to take action, now.

FOUR.

'Lecky, wait!' I yell as I'm walking home from school. She's skipping up ahead and I race to catch up with her. At the pedestrian crossing, Lecky looks cross-eyed at the little red man indicating to stay put on the footpath. It flashes to green and she saunters onto the road to the sound of cars screeching to a halt. Elecktra doesn't flinch. She's used to stopping traffic. Yeah, she's that pretty.

'Hey! How'd you do that?' I call after her.

'I'm not talking about it,' she says.

I know Elecktra. If I can get her to talk, she'll spill. But I have to get her talking first. I pump my legs a bit harder and finally draw even with her.

'How's things in Year Ten? What are you studying at the moment?' I ask.

'The invasion of Australia by Captain Hook,' she snaps.

'Don't you mean Captain Cook?'

'I'm joking,' she says and speeds up. 'How dumb do you think I am?'

'Lecky, I don't think you're dumb. You're just acting dumb by showing people your magic. It's dangerous.'

Elecktra turns to me, fire burning behind her eyes. 'You want to be a loser?' she asks.

'No,' I whisper, a bit baffled by her reaction.

'A real loser like someone who wears a vest?' We have the choice between a school vest or a jumper. Lecky's right. Only the real losers at school choose to wear the vest.

'No. Never,' I say.

'Then stay out of my beeswax. You're Gate Two, remember? What would you know about the demands of being popular?'

I know that I could be Gate One in a heartbeat if I made it rain for school sport. I'd be a cla.s.s hero - for the wrong reasons. 'It's not about being popular. You shouldn't be using magic at school. Someone will get hurt.'

'What would you know?'

'I know,' I say as firmly as I can.

Elecktra yawns.

'Lecky, please,' I beg.

'Oh no, keep talking. I always yawn when I'm fascinated by what you're saying.' She waves her hand in front of her mouth before pus.h.i.+ng past me.

'Wait,' I call to her, but my breath catches as I feel eyes sink into the back of my head. I turn around slowly. A man revs a motorbike on the other side of the road. He is wearing a black helmet and leather jacket, and strapped to his back are two samurai swords. The bike takes off, zooming towards me. I hear Elecktra shriek as the man draws one sword. At the last moment, I duck and spin away. The motorbike skids to a stop, then revs again. The samurai lifts his sword, the steel blinding in the sunlight. The bike screams towards me. I steady my beating heart and take a deep breath. I leap into the air over the bike, then kick the back wheel. The bike spins away, but the samurai gains control of it and approaches again in a black whir. I close my eyes. I feel the vibrations of the motorbike through the air, pulsating then thickening. I spin once, then jump into the air and hook my ankles around the samurai's neck to haul him off the bike. I summon the wind to flip the bike safely onto the other side of the road and to land us gently on the pavement. I roll out of his way and the samurai stands slowly.

What is going on? Sure, I'm the White Warrior, and the samurai want me dead so they can have my powers, but the Warrior Peace Code says ninjas and samurai can't kill each other in Lanternwood. This dude is breaking all the rules!

'He has just the right amount of leather on,' Elecktra says, standing next to me with her arms crossed.

Before I can even think what she means by that, I yell, 'Run! Hide!'

Elecktra leaps behind a wheelie bin. I dump my school bag, seize my ninja star from my pocket and tear off my blazer. The samurai approaches. I turn once and spear my ninja star in his direction. He evades it, then attacks. I block a blaze of hand techniques - chops, hammer fists, punches - and counter with front kicks, side kicks, spinning hook kicks. But with every move, he is stronger.

I summon the speed of wind and punch him twenty times in the ribs, but my punches are dulled by the mesh in his jacket. I pick up my school bag and swing it at his head. He side kicks me and I block his foot with my bag, catching his heel in the arm straps and twisting his leg up into the air. He smashes to the ground. Before I can take another step, he sweeps my feet out from under me with his remaining sword. I land on the ground face-first next to a 'Stop' sign - I'm fighting badly today. I flip onto my back - and I'm hiding under my school bag like a coward. This is not a great start to being the White Warrior.

The samurai's sword slices through the school bag and cuts my arm. The sting makes me scream.

Fire up, Roxy, I tell myself. I use the bag to block the samurai's spearing strikes. His sword crashes down and slices through the bag again, stabbing my French dictionary. Before I can respond, he lunges again and the tip of the blade glides through my school books and stops at my throat. What kind of White Warrior am I? I can't let a samurai steal my powers only one day after getting them back.

There's a red flash in the sky beyond the samurai's shoulder. I squint. The 'Stop' sign floats behind the samurai, whose sword is still at my throat. The sign hovers for a breath, then smashes him across the head. His helmet snaps backwards, his legs flip over, two spins and he crashes to the ground.

Elecktra rushes over as I sit up. 'I ”stopped” him.' She giggles, then asks, 'Hey, how come you can fight crazy riders on motorbikes all of a sudden?'

'You know I've been taking lessons with Jackson,' I answer. 'How come you can rip ”Stop” signs out of the ground?'

Elecktra wraps her school tie around my bleeding arm. It stings.

'A bit of magic,' she says.

'Lecky, have you told Mum?'

'As if!'

'You can talk to me,' I say as Elecktra helps me up. I limp a little and she slings my arm around her shoulder to support me. I don't need it, but enjoy being close to my sister. Like the times she would give me pool drags at the local pool. I'd clutch her shoulders and she would make me feel safe.

Elecktra shrugs. 'I don't think you'd understand either.'

'Try me,' I say.

An 'ay-yah!' suddenly spins us around. An old lady in a ninja uniform steps out from behind a fence and punches the air fervently with her delicate fists.

'Don't mind me, dearies,' she says in a husky voice. 'I'm on my way to cla.s.s.' As she pa.s.ses the samurai, she calls, 'Serves you right!'

'Thanks, Nanna Ninja,' Lecky says behind her cupped hand and we giggle. We're lucky no one else saw the attack. I hope I'll still be hobbling to training when I have grey hair.

We leave the samurai on the road. It looks like he was in a bike accident, but he'll be okay - I can see his chest moving.

Then, for the first time in ages, Elecktra walks home with me. And not only do we walk home together, but we walk joined at the hip, like the old days. It makes my cut arm feel worth it.

'Race you upstairs!' Lecky yells as we reach our two-storey warehouse apartment and she runs off ahead of me. When I walk into the kitchen, Mum is making Hulk juice at a feverish pace. It's usually just a morning thing, but recently Mum has been making the vegetable juice day and night. I think she can tell something is up and this is her way of remedying it. I have a gla.s.s.