Here's another meme. You can appreciate it if you want. It's an accurate one if you ever watched Ben Fankhauser talking through his pre-show things that he does. I don't remember which video it's in because I haven't watched those in awhile. I remember this happening though because Andrew's reaction was very memorable.

I try to move away from this said Chinese gangster who apparently can speak English.

"Listen, I'm not the person you're looking for. I think you got the wrong girl," I try to reason but the guy doesn't even listen and pushes me up against the wall. He yells something at me in Chinese. Apparently he only knew how to threaten me in English. Oh well. Hopefully I don't die due to a lack of communication. The guy stays close to me and pulls a pistol out of his pocket. He probably didn't have to be an English or a French speaker to know that I was seriously freaked out. I have no poker face whatsoever so he probably figured out what was going on right away. He gestures to a nearby car down an alleyway. Oh no no no no no. I'm not going down a freaky alleyway with a Chinese gangster. That was certainly never on my bucket list. He yanks on me off the wall and I see another guy down at the end of the alley waiting. The guy with the gun puts a hand on the small of my back to push me along.

"HEY! Get your hands off of her!" I hear a familiar voice shout. I turn and barely have time to see who it is. The force of Mush Myers' athletic body slams into the gangster, taking him down. The gun he was holding suddenly goes flying away somewhere. Mush stands up and punches the other guy down as soon as he tries to stand. I smile at Mush and he smiles back.

"Thank you! I thought I was a goner for sure," I say to Mush when suddenly the guy just beneath Mush stands back up and tries to push Mush up against the wall. Mush shoves him back and punches him three times in the face, his teal tank top displaying his muscles for me as they are in action. I really couldn't be happier. This guy is saving me from Chinese gangsters, how could this get any better?   Suddenly, there's a pattering of footsteps as more gangsters appear. Seriously, they have nothing better to do than to rob a college student and get beat up by an Olympic athlete? I'm sorry, but for them, that's really pathetic. Mush turns to me and pulls me closer to him by my wrist. My eyes instantly flick to his touch and he doesn't let go for a couple of seconds.

"You okay?" he asks me, keeping me close to him. On the inside, I'm cheering for joy for how close we are. On the outside, I nod quickly.

"I'm fine. I'm not going to be scarred for life or anything," I say with a small smile. Mush beams at me.

"Good. Stay with me. I'm afraid if I let you go to the bus, they'll grab you again," he says gently grabbing my wrist. I smile at him as he keeps me near him. The earlier pattering of footsteps returns and several other gangsters emerge from various corners of the alley. I really hope the rest of the guys are still here. This could be really bad if they're not. Not that I doubt Mush's fighting abilities or anything because his muscles obviously shows those off well. I just really don't want him to die because of some lame gangsters. Mush protectively pushes me behind him. Suddenly, we hear someone shouting.

"Hey, Mush! You're gonna get left behind if you don't hurry up!" a familiar voice shouts, making me jump a little bit from behind Mush. Kid Blink comes running over and then stops right when he sees the gangsters.

"We have a little bit of a problem," I whisper from behind Mush.

"Hiya, boys!" Blink says, raising his voice and looking in the direction of the bus, "Can we HELP you with anything?" I recognize Skittery as he comes running over to stand next to Kid Blink, a curly haired blonde and a red head also come over. More boys come over as they notice the situation. The gangsters look a little more nervous than they did previously. Personally, I already would have been running away but that's just me. A blonde haired guy with a crutch enters the scene and looks at the gangsters.

"What's the problem here, boys? What do we owe ya? Money? Food? It isn't drugs because you will not be getting those from us," he says to the gangsters. The gangsters all exchange confused looks and then start waving their guns and yelling in Chinese. The guy with the crutch swings his crutch up and knocks the gun away. I hide behind Mush a little more just in case.

"Who's that?" I whisper in Mush's ear. Mush looks back at me and I back up a little bit just because we're kinda close.

"That's Crutchie, our coach for the hockey team. You uh, don't want to mess with him," Mush replies quietly. Crutchie makes some kind of a loud karate noise and holds his crutch out a like a bludgeon.

"Yeah, I can gather that," I say, leaning up against the wall behind me. The gangsters sort of look at Crutchie with a worried expression. I peek out from behind Mush, who moves toward them with a couple of the other boys. The gangsters raise their guns and Crutchie leads Mush, Kid Blink, Skittery and a couple of other guys I don't recognize towards the gangsters.

"Get em!" Crutchie yells and the gangsters start shooting bullets. I see Mush fight a gun out of somebody's hand and throw it halfway across the alleway. The fight ensues with guns flying in our direction and then the boys come running back. Mush doesn't look too beat up. In fact, none of the guys look terrible. There appears to be some bumps and scratches but nothing a first aid kit can't fix. Not that I'm volunteering to help with that or anything. Crutchie reappears and sees some bystanders in the middle of the street.

"Nothing to see here, everybody. The situation is under control," Crutchie says gently shooing us towards the bus.

"Come with us," Mush says reaching for my wrist which I shyly pull away. I like my space, thank you very much. Mush doesn't look upset and I run after the boys toward the bus.

"Thanks for saving me," I say as Mush opens the back door of the bus. He helps me inside and sits me down in the back row on the inside chair. Mush climbs in next to me, shielding me from everyone else's view. Skittery and Blink climb in next and sit across from Mush and I.

"You sure you're all right?" Mush asks me quietly once the door shuts and the bus starts moving.

"I'm fine, really," I say and in the dim lights that the bus has, I can see nasty scratches across Mush's knuckles, one runs across the bottom of his chin. I hope these boys have a first aid kit.

"You seem like a gentle person and I know that wasn't something you were looking forward to happening," Mush replies.

"Being gentle doesn't make you weak," I say quietly, "Gentleness has its own strengths."

"True," Mush says and then he checks his phone. I gaze out the window watching Beijing go by as we drive away. How in the world did it come to this? I've done more things in the past couple of days that I never would have done in the span of a normal week. I guess that's what happens when you meet new people. Mush interrupts my musings, "You know I don't think you ever told us your name."

"I didn't?" I ask surprised at my self for forgetting to tell them what my name was. They ran into my library, I went to one of their hockey games with Tanner, and now they're saving me from gangsters....and through all of that they don't know my name.

How could I be so foolish? These poor boys....I feel terrible now.

"No, I don't think you did," Mush answers looking over at me, "We've been through enough together that I would kind of like to know who I've had the pleasure of getting to know."

"I'm Selah Dixon," I say, "Sorry I never told you before. Usually I remember these things."

"You're good. There has been a lot happening the past couple of days," Mush says, shrugging his shoulders in a fairly nonchalant manner.

"That's true. There has been," I remark, going back to gazing out the window.

"I can walk you to the subway stop just outside of the hotel if you like. I'd hate for something to happen to you again," Mush says quietly.

"You don't have to. I understand if you need your rest. After all, you're in the Olympics..." I start to say but Mush cuts me off,

"I'm walking you to the subway stop and you're not changing my mind." I smile at him and nod.

"Thank you. I appreciate it," I say trying to stay unnoticed by the rest of the bus. It's a miracle I'm doing as well as I am. Although, in high school, people wouldn't always notice when I was gone on days that I missed. Stealth, most of the time, is a skill that comes easily to me. I have a feeling that I won't go unnoticed by the more extroverted members of this group for very long. Oh well, I'll do the best with the time I have. Besides, that's more Mush's issue than mine, isn't it? These are his friends, right? I don't know these people while he most certainly does. At least I hope he does. They're a hockey team so he should be familiar with his teammates. Skittery leans over from across the aisle.

"Hey, book girl. You alright?" he asks. Mush looks up from his phone for a brief second and I try to move around him. Skittery's demeanor changes notably after a couple of seconds and I lean around so I can see Mush's face. He chooses that moment to lean back and we bump into each other.

"I'm sorry," I say quickly, backing up into my seat. I feel my face grow hot from the unexpected contact. I probably made that really awkward for both of us. Oh well. 

"Hmmmm?" Mush asks out of complete oblivion. Thank goodness, he probably forgot about it already.

"Nothing," I say quickly before sitting up a little bit higher in my chair to call out to Skittery, "Skittery? You can call me 'book girl' all you want, but my name's Selah if you wanted to know. I'm doing fine. Thanks for asking."

"Nickname suits you better," Skittery mutters nonchalantly. Kid Blink punches him in the arm and pulls away quickly in pain, probably because of the bruises that I can see peppering his knuckles.

"Selah is a beautiful name! You should call her by her real name! Besides, if you don't, then Mush is gonna.."Blink starts. Mush cuts him off,

"Blink..." I look in between the boys to see that there's some kind of silent conversation going on and I have no idea what it's about.

"In Skittery's defense, I forgot to introduce myself at the library the other night so, it's really my fault," I say quietly, hoping to break the tension. It seems to work. Mush goes back to scrolling through his phone and Skittery looks up at me.

"You'll always be book girl to me," he remarks. Blink shoots him a glare and his gaze flickers to the briefest of instances toward Mush. What is this? A 'who can get the girl' contest? Well, at this point, they're all losing.

I am not beneath a juvenile masculinity contest. I refuse to be the subject of one. 

Not that it seems like I get much say in it anyways. And all of my friends wonder why I'm still single. Two words (and I'm not entirely sure one of them even qualifies as a word.)

Ugh, boys.

Every female who's ever uttered these words is probably nodding her head in agreement right now.  

I don't hate boys. They just...baffle me. Probably means I haven't found the one for me yet. Mush nudges me, pulling me from my thoughts.

"We're here. We'll wait until everyone else goes inside and then I'll walk you to the subway station," he says quietly. Blink and Skittery stand up and start to make their way towards the exit.

"Bye, Selah. See you around?" Blink asks me.

"Better see you around, book girl. We don't save random girls off the street," Skittery retorts. I worry my lip nervously in thought.

"You'll see me again, I hope. I'll try to get Tanner, that's my cousin, to go to another hockey game with me," I say with a smile. Speaking of Tanner, he has no clue where I am. I should probably call him on the subway ride back to the apartment.

"Good," Blink says as he starts to walk off the bus. Skittery nudges Blink towards the front of the bus.

"Let's go. Some of us need our sleep which means no more crappy 80s movies all-nighters," he groans and Blink starts to move towards the exit at the front of the bus.

"Not all of those were true crappy 80s movies," Blink protests as the two of them move to get off the bus. Selah laughs quietly at the arguing going on between the two boys.

"I'll walk you to the subway stop," Mush says with a smile as he allows me to exit our row of chairs. The two of us make our way to the front of the bus. I step out into the cool refreshing evening air and Mush follows behind me. I see a large group of boys standing just inside the hotel doors, talking loudly and joyously with one another. I only let my gaze linger for a moment before I'm seen. Mush and I begin walking slowly down the street.

"Thank you...for everything," I say quietly, keeping the distance between us, "I wouldn't have been able to fight off the gangsters. I would have been too afraid to."

"That's why you have friends like us. We're hockey players, we're not afraid to get our hands dirty," Mush responds, respecting my desires to keep our distance.

"No, you're not and I'm very thankful for that," I say, fiddling with my hands and my purse, "My life has become significantly more interesting with you and your friends in it. Things changed that day when the five of you ran into the library."

"You got to meet that angry Chinese gangster," Mush says to me and I laugh.

"He probably thought I was someone important to you. My guess is that someone from that gang was stalking me," I respond with a laugh, "I'm nothing more than an acquaintance."

"An acquaintance?" Mush asks, looking at me with a slight chuckle, "Just an acquaintance?"

"Mush, You've ran into my library one time, I've been to one of your hockey games, you and your friends saved me from Chinese gangsters one time..." I stop at the end of the list and think for a moment, "Oh forget it. You're my friend. We've been through too much together not to be."

"I accept the title," Mush says in an attempt at a pompous voice. It doesn't work very well with his New York accent. I roll my eyes and turn to see the subway station just ahead of me.

"Good. I'm assuming you reciprocate it?" I ask. Mush nods and watches as I start to walk down in the subway station.

"Of course!" Mush says as he starts to follow me into the station. I raise an eyebrow at him following me into the station.

"You don't have to ride with me all the way to my stop. I'll be alright. The gangster would have to be pretty desperate to ride the subway all the way across town," I say, starting to venture further towards the ticket swipe. I swipe my card against the detector to get my ticket. Mush leans against the ticket dispenser, watching me as he does.

"If you say so," he says before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old receipt from something.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I grab my ticket from the printout slot and place my card back in my wallet. Mush looks at my purse.

"May I borrow a pen?" he asks kindly. I reach into my purse and hand him one. Mush places the old receipt on the side of the ticket dispenser and starts to write something on it. After a few seconds, he hands it to me. My eyes widen at what I see on the back. Digits. In increments of threes and fours with dashes in between.

No. This never happens to me. People never give me their....numbers.

"What's this for?" I ask, gesturing to the receipt in my hand skeptically. Mush hands me back the pen.

"Security reasons," he replies nonchalantly.

"Okay...." I say, dropping the pen into my purse, "Do you mind sharing what those are?"

"Text me when you get home. I want to make sure you get there safely," Mush says, "Just sign it with your name so I know who's texting me."

Oh.....so it wasn't really "security reasons", it was really a security reason. He's just trying to be nice. Really...at this point, it's too soon to tell anyways.

Guys would never give me their numbers in the past...I had one guy ask for it once and I denied him because he was prank calling people. 

I'm seriously beginning to regret that now. Even it was just for a prank call.

I mean at least I honestly got Mush's number from him. He didn't seem too concerned about giving it to me. That's a good sign.

"Thank you. That's very sweet of you," I say, trying to erase any kind of disappointment from my voice that may be there. I'm a diehard introvert but my feelings appear on my sleeves. I have no poker face whatsoever.

"You're welcome. I also wanted you to have that for....other security reasons," Mush says after thinking for a moment.

"Oh? Can you share those reasons?" I ask, starting to move towards the place where I get my ticket checked so I can board my train.

"I want to keep you up to date on the hockey games and other Olympic events that I might be going to and you need to have that because you're my friend. That's one of the way I communicate with my friends," Mush says with an easy smile on his face.

"Fair enough," I say with a smile. It's fine, really. Besides, a very wise person (my mother) once told me that you marry your best friend. Not that Mush is my guy best friend....yet. But, we're heading in a good direction and texting him certainly won't hurt. I'm not really sure I want to rush into my first relationship. If I let things happen on their own time and if they're supposed to happen, they will happen.

These things just take time. 

I turn to stick my ticket into the slot next to the gate so I can walk through. Mush calls out one more time,

"Hey, do you work tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I do," I reply, my fingers hovering over the slot to place my ticket in.

"I might come visit you," he says.

"My lunch break starts at 12:30," I inform him, a sly smile creeping up on my face. Mush catches the hint.

"I'll see what time I can be there," he responds, "Stay safe, Selah."

"You too, Mush. Thank you for everything and I'll text you!" I call out as I slip my ticket inside. Mush waves and then runs up the stairs and out of the station. I navigate the rest of the subway station and wait for my subway to arrive. During this time, I pull out my phone and add Mush and his number to my contacts. The subway eventually pulls up and I board it. The whole way home, my mind whirls of thoughts about the events of the last two days. How has my life changed as much as it has?

These boys seem to have a knack for doing that.

After a while later and much more complicated thoughts, the subway pulls up to my stop. I walk out and hurry into my apartment. I check my phone to see texts flooding in from Tanner. I text him back with,

"I'm fine. I made it home. It was a very long story and I'll tell it to you next time I see you."

That should make him happy...or terrified. I stay out of trouble, I really do. Tanner just doubts my ability to keep myself safe. Pulling up Mush's number, I text him that I made it home. I sign the text with my first and last name. Exhausted from the crazy evening, I walk into my room and shut the door, ignoring my roommates and the rest of humanity for awhile. Except for Mush, he's an acceptable human right now. My phone buzzes about a minute later with Mush saying that he was glad to hear it and hopes that I have a great rest of my evening. I smile and drop my phone onto my chest. I turn on the small TV in my room, looking for some kind of a movie or TV show to watch. I find an episode of Psych to watch and turn it on. As I watch Shawn and Gus navigate way through their mystery, my eyes begin to flutter shut and with my mind whirling of thoughts about Shawn and Gus to Mush and his friends, I fall asleep.

AN:/ Sorry, this took way longer than anticipated to get out. Oops. Oh well. ;) It's done now and that's all that matters. You already know this because of my Psych book but, I don't own Psych or the characters in it. So, I hit a writing brick for this book. I'm like in limbo between Newsies, Star Wars, and Back to the Future right now. I also love Psych too and yeah, it's just driving me a little crazy. It's hard to write right now. I put another Back to the Future draft into my books section and I was having a "oh nuts, what am I doing?" moments. I don't think that one will ever get published just because I'm more into writing the Star Wars book and I already have a Back to the Future book out right now that needs worked on. And of course, my Newsies stuff. I found a couple of Newsies drafts that haven't been worked on a whole lot and my brain for a second was like "Hey! Those would be fun to get published" and then the other part of my brain was like "But Star Wars and and Back to the Future and the Newsies stuff you already have out and your Psych book that you have completely lost steam on."

Yeah. Fun times. I'm working on it though. I'll try to keep this book going since it doesn't take a whole lot of effort and thought to write this one.  I love the nickname Skittery gave Selah. He's never going to actually call her "Selah" and it's gonna be great. Also, I love the way Mush gave Selah his number. It was very cute and since she and I are basically the same person (I feel like I'm gonna be kind of skeptical the first time a guy honestly to goodnessly gives me his number if it ever happens), we've had similar boy issues. All in good time though. I just love the way this chapter turned out because I feel like me personally blended really with the little differences that Selah and I have (which mind you, aren't many. She's the only OC who I think verbatim is my personality minus a few things. Nobody else, I've consciously or unconsciously written that similar.) so, yeah. I'm excited to see where she goes in this book and how her friendships with the boys develop.

Eventually, she will meet everybody. It just wasn't time yet and I'm trying to make her meeting everybody coincide with how Jules had Selah meeting everybody so that way this is a true side story.

Oh dear goodness, this is a really long author's note. I'm gonna wrap it up. Thanks for reading and doing whatever it is you all do. Feel free to drop your thoughts as you read. I appreciate reading them, they make me laugh out loud sometimes. Thanks for reading!! Hope you enjoy it!! See you soon, friends!!

-Aisling.

P.S.

Hey, if anybody's a Back to the Future fan, could you go read that book? It need some work done on it. I still like the plot but, I'm having issues moving forward and....I hate the way I wrote Marty's narration so, if anybody wants to go over and suffer through, I mean, read through that and give me feedback about how I can fix it, please do. I would love it and you. :) Thanks.