Saki parked right at the front door of the cinema. Tom, Lela and their friends jumped out and ran straight in. It was going to be close but they should just make the start. Tom and Lela were on drinks and sweets duty and once the all-important seats had been reserved, they rushed back out to the foyer with a list long enough to feed a small village for a week. Ahmad, the Saudi Ambassador’s son, offered to help them carry the food back.
“Hey, Raghead!” came a shout from across the foyer.
Ahmad had never quite got used to jeans and T-shirts. He preferred to stick to the traditional Thoub, a white robe and the Shumagg and Ogal, the traditional head-dress of the Gulf countries. He ignored the shout.
“What did he just say?” Tom was furious and hoped to have misheard the taunt.
“Just ignore them and they’ll go away. Don’t rise to their ignorant jibes,” said Lela trying to calm him down.
“Hey Raghead, you deaf or stupid?” came another shout.
Again, Ahmad ignored the shout. Tom, however, could not. He looked over at the group of boys who were laughing in their direction. There were eight of them, all of a certain type, wearing track-suits, hoodies, trainers, baseball caps, thick gold necklaces and enormous rings. What they lacked in intelligence and education, they made up for in stupidity and ignorance. To Tom, they were known as Neds which stood for Non Educated Delinquents. Every country has them and every country has their own name for them. They even look genetically similar and perhaps are the closest thing in existence to the missing link with their deep set eyes and thick foreheads.
Tom recognised a couple of the Neds from when he was younger and knew they were a couple of years older than him. However, he was not going to stand back and let them insult one of his friends.
“What did you say?” he shouted back.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing Tom?” asked Lela.
“We said, ‘Hey Raghead’, you got a problem with that?”
“Damn right I do. Why don’t you come here and say that to my face?” Tom was now furious and could not contain himself.
“Stop it Tom, they’re idiots. Just ignore them and come on,” said Lela grabbing Tom’s arm and dragging him towards the kiosk.
The group started walking towards Tom, Lela and Ahmad.
“So what’s your problem then?” responded the biggest Ned, walking towards him.
“TOM, leave it and let’s go.” Lela was now pushing Tom and Ahmad out of the way.
“Aw, are the boys frightened and need their little cutie to protect them,” said the big Ned.
“She’s really cute, wonder what she’s doing with those losers, huh? Bit young for me but I bet her mum’s really hot!” he said loudly to his friends causing a roar of laughter.
At the mention of her mother, Lela’s mood changed instantly. Tom saw the anger well up and the tables turn. He grabbed Lela’s arm and pulled her towards him.
“Lela you’re right, let’s ignore them, come on.”
Lela didn’t move. She stood firm, her petite frame belying her hidden strength.
“What did you say?” said Lela to the Ned in a tone which chilled Ahmad and Tom.
“Lela, please!. Let’s go!” said Tom.
“I said, I bet your mum is a real hottie. In fact, I’d really like to meet her. Is she coming to pick you up?”
“Lela, please leave it. They’re idiots, let’s go!”
Lela was not listening to Tom. She was totally focussed on the Ned who continued to make reference to her mother. She felt Tom’s hand on her shoulder and brushed it aside. She stepped towards the oncoming group.
“What did you just call us?” said a few of the Neds looking at Tom.
Tom was beginning to get scared, not of the Neds but of Lela. He had never seen her like that before. As she looked at the Neds, he could see no expression or emotion in her face. Her eyes had become very dark but incredibly alert.
“Tom. Ahmad. Stay behind me.”
They both moved behind her. The tone of the instruction was cold and direct.
The biggest Ned paused to look at the scene in front of him.
“Look at them! They’re pathetic, hiding behind their little girl-friend! Come on, they’re not worth the hassle of getting barred for another month.”
Tom breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although he had stood up to them, there were eight of them and they were all bigger.
“What? You scared of a little girl are you?” taunted Lela. She couldn’t help herself, any mention of her mother stirred a deep and painful emotion within her. This guy was going to pay.
“What the hell are you doing?” said Tom, his relief evaporating as he tried desperately to grab hold of her arm and calm her down. There were eight Neds, what was she playing at?
“I’m going to teach these idiots some manners!” Lela said angrily avoiding his grasp.
”What the f*** do you think you’re doing little girl?!” exclaimed the biggest Ned, looking down at the small girl squaring up to him and his mates.
Lela struggled to control her anger. She had never felt like this before, the Ned had made her snap, insulting her mother and threatening Tom.
“Well, asshole, last chance to apologise?” her eyes blazed with anger. She desperately wanted to make the big Ned feel the pain she felt inside.
Sinead had caught up with Kevin who had managed to see the last of the kids disappear into the cinema as he had drawn up into the car park.
“Did you see them?” she asked hopefully.
“No, they sprinted off the bus and ran straight into the cinema. The little Asian guy’s just standing by the entrance behind me,” replied Kevin, indicating over his shoulder.
“Damn,” she replied watching Saki stand nonchalantly by the door. Sinead was no fool and had met some very experienced people. That level of nonchalance was well practised, the little Asian knew exactly what he was doing.
“Did he make you?” she asked.
“What, the little guy? No way!” replied Kevin insulted at the suggestion. But Sinead was not convinced. Through the corner of her eye, she had seen him look over at them twice. If he had made Kevin, he had now made her. This was not good. She called Conor and explained the situation.
“What do you think we should do?” she asked.
Conor took a second to consider what she had just told him.
“Send in the boys, you and Kevin stay back. If he’s made you, you’ll just blow the whole thing.”
“OK, good idea. I’ll call them and tell them what to do.”
Sinead hung up and called the three crew members waiting in the car.
Tom and Ahmad followed Lela, they had to stop her. She was nearly at the Neds and was staring unblinking into the face of the biggest Ned. As they approached her, she put her hand out behind her back and raised her palm.
“Stop, Tom,” she commanded. “Don’t come any closer.” The tone was such that both Tom and Ahmad involuntarily stopped. Their hearts said keep going but the message delivered to the brain, overwhelmingly overrode them.
The biggest Ned towered over Lela and was becoming increasingly irritated by this girl. He was also beginning to lose face in front of his gang. This was totally unacceptable. He unzipped his white shell-suit jacket and held one side open long enough for Lela to see the handle of his knife.
“Back off and I won’t carve up your boyfriends,” he threatened with a knowing smile. His gang laughed.
Lela snapped and punched the big Ned so quickly that nobody knew why he suddenly winced and grabbed his nose, blood pouring down his face and ruining his best white jacket. She grabbed the knife from his belt, as his hand made towards it, spun it round and holding the blade, threw it with such precision and force into a nearby door frame, it would take a hammer to remove it. The Ned tried to lunge at her but before he had moved an inch, Lela delivered a massive disabling blow to his groin.
Tom, Ahmad, and the gang of Neds all winced as the big Ned gasped and fell to the floor, his face turning white. The other Neds looked at each other; they couldn’t run from a girl so they lunged towards her in unison.
Lela spun round and caught the first Ned with a high kick to the chin, lifting him two feet off of the floor and depositing him against the wall. The next received a kick to the stomach which slammed him through to the female toilets. This was Lela’s first real fight and although she knew every pressure point and nerve ending in the body, she had no idea how hard she should punch or kick. Her hands and feet were used to punching and kicking boards and bags. She realised from the first three blows that she was hitting too hard. She wanted to hurt the Neds, not kill them. She blocked a punch and delivered her own, this one was about half the power she would normally manage against a block of wood but it was still too hard. The Ned lifted two inches from the floor before dropping to the ground, knocked out. The power, speed and accuracy of her movements were astonishing.
The speed with which she had dispatched half the Neds was such that the others had not had the chance to re-evaluate their situation, they just kept coming, their momentum driving them forward to an inevitable beating. Lela took the next two out with a sweeping high kick, leaving only two to deal with, She spun round and caught one with the back of her fist as he tried to come up behind her on her blind side. He dropped to the floor. Lela cursed herself again, she needed to hit more softly. The last Ned stood before her.
“Not so funny now, is it?” she asked menacingly. That Ned had laughed the hardest at the Big Ned’s comments about her mother.
He opened his mouth to reply but Lela wasn’t interested. She spun round, threw out her leg and caught his midriff. He flew across the foyer and slammed into a bin, emptying the contents all over himself.
Less than ten seconds had passed from throwing her first punch to when she turned back towards Tom and Ahmed. Both stood open jawed at what they had just witnessed. Lela hadn’t even broken sweat as she smiled at them. She had very much enjoyed her first fight and most importantly had learned a lot from it.
By the time the security guard had been alerted to the commotion, Lela, Tom and Ahmad were peacefully queuing at the kiosk. Tom and Ahmad were still in shock and left Lela to place the order. The guard laughed at suggestions that the little girl at the kiosk had beaten up the Neds. He banned the Neds for six months for fighting amongst themselves. The Big Ned, however, was in no condition to leave. Having thrown up from the pain numerous times, an ambulance had been called.
Saki came running into the foyer just as Tom, Lela and Ahmad were heading back into the cinema.
“Lela? Tom?”
“Yes Dad?” replied Lela. Tom and Ahmad were in no condition to talk.
“Are you OK?”
“Yes, fine thanks. What’s wrong?”
“I just saw some boys being escorted out, as though they’d been in a fight?”
“It was nothing, just some Neds, you know what they’re like, fighting each other all the time,” replied Lela casually.
“Are you sure that was all?” he asked knowingly, looking straight into her eyes.
“Yep,” she said winking, they would talk about it later.
“OK,” he winked back and smiled, laughing to himself as he made his way back to the door at how unfair the fight had been. Eight boys against his Lela, they hadn’t stood a chance. She was the best student he had ever taught and certainly better than he was at her age.
The three had just begun to make their way towards the front door when the little Asian man had bolted inside. They had no idea why, but whatever it was, it had him moving very quickly. They paused and looked for Sinead. She was nowhere in sight. She had moved around to the back with Kevin after being spotted. One of them gave her a call and explained what had happened.
“Follow him you idiots, see if you can spot the kids,” she ordered.
By the time they had made it into the foyer, the little Asian man was making his way back outside, laughing to himself. However, his face changed the minute he spotted them.
Saki had been imagining his little Lela’s first fight and was wishing he had been there when he suddenly caught sight of three pairs of eyes looking at him. He recognised two of the faces. He scanned his memory and recalled both faces. They had been jogging outside the estate within the last two weeks but not together, separately. He had put his earlier concerns about the motorcyclist and the woman down to paranoia. It may be coincidence. However, Saki didn’t believe in coincidence. On the other hand, he didn’t want to spoil Tom’s birthday party unnecessarily. He took his mobile from his pocket and dialled a number.
Sinead called Conor.
“I’ve just heard from my guys, they’ve just been made by the Asian guy.”
“Jesus, you’ve only been there five minutes and he’s made all five of you, you’d think you were a bunch of amateurs,” fumed Conor.
“Conor, I’ve told you this job is bad news. I have a really bad feeling about it. We have no idea what we’re up against. We should just get the hell out of here while we still can.”
“You don’t understand…” Conor caught himself, Sinead didn’t need to know about the deal. She just needed to do her job. “Have you even confirmed if the kids are there yet?”
“No but I’m fairly certain they are.”
“OK, hang around. If you get an opportunity, take them. Otherwise, we’ll take them at the house later.”
Conor hung up, Sinead’s bad feeling was contagious, a knot was developing in the pit of his stomach.
The three took their seats as though nothing had happened. Ahmad had been sworn to secrecy as they had entered the dark theatre. The trailers were already running.
Ahmad whispered to Tom as they sat down.
“Did we really just witness Lela kicking those guys’ arses or am I dreaming?”
“I think we both must be,” replied Tom. He knew Lela’s training was special but had no idea just how amazing it was until then.
Ahmad had always had a soft spot for Lela, most of Tom’s friends did, but Ahmad was now completely smitten.
“You really have one wicked sister!” he exclaimed as he replayed the scene in his mind. “I’ve never seen anything like that, not ever, not even in the movies.”
Tom was also reliving the moment. However, the memory for him was slightly tainted. He had stood helpless while his sister did the fighting, it just seemed wrong somehow. But then you couldn’t argue with the result, she really had kicked their arses well and truly. You definitely couldn’t argue with the result. Ahmad was right, he really did have one seriously wicked sister. He smiled.