Bab’s New Year’s Resolution 27.

List of Characters.

Barbara. Chief Protagonist AKA Bab’s.
Lola. (Seventeen) Transgendered girl rescued by Bab’s from an attempted murder.
Olivia. (Fifteen) Barbara’s second adopted daughter: Black lesbian girl fostered out of care then adopted with Olivia's consent.

Joyce Banks. Bristol Social worker.
Aaron Talbot Surgical registrar – married to -
Shirley Talbot Lecturer at Local university.
They are a married couple who own a narrow-boat on the canal.

Mickey Talbot (Twelve) Aaron and Shirley’s oldest child.
Jessica Talbot (Eleven) Aaron & Shirley’s middle child.
Bianca Talbot (Nine) Aaron & Shirley’s Youngest child.
Billy Medical colleague of Aaron’s – he also owns a narrow boat
Sandra Her parents also own another Narrowboat in Gloucester.
Jackie Sandra’s friend (a bit headstrong and ‘adventurous’)
Julie Third member of the threesome.
Jason. (Black) Gang member deals in drugs at the children’s homes
Tyrone (Black) Also a gang member, friend of Jason. Also a dealer.
Tyson (White) Also a gang member into drugs and trafficking girls.
Angela (Angie), Olivia’s trafficked, drug-addicted friend.
Sergeant Davis, (Bridie) female police bodyguard for Angela.
Sergeant Davies. (Brian) Bridie’s twin brother.
Inspector John, Heading up the anti-rape-gang operation in Birmingham.
Erica. Another vitally important witness/victim. Very attractive.
Gareth Jenkins, Police office trained in firearms and witness protection.
Belinda Harrington. Lola’s new girlfriend in college.

Bab’s New Year’s Resolution 27.

When the New Year’s holiday finished, the cottage was visited by the architects and the builder who discussed the plans for the extension. The modifications were discussed secretly and in depth between Bab’s and the police protection squad until finally the architect and builder were presented with the supposed family requirements. Those requirements were in fact secret police recommendations to make the cottage more secure if ever the rape gang learned of the cottage’s function and decided to come calling.

The next hurdle was enrolling Erica in the school where Olivia and Angela were now thriving. Fortunately the remote cottage was the first embarkation point for the school bus so it was empty when Erica accompanied her newly adopted sisters on the first morning. The bus driver’s greeting was friendly and her genuine smile put Erica at ease. The second pickup was a young girl in her first year at high school who had long been on good terms with Olivia and Angela and the continued friendly atmosphere served to put Erica at ease. As more children boarded introductions continued and naturally, Erica’s beauty attracted the boys. Being white, she was obviously not blood-related to the well-known Olivia and Angela so questions were inevitably asked.

The cover story worked well because it was essentially true. Bab’s had fostered another kid from care and she was living at the same home as Ollie and Angie. The only difference being that the older boys were obviously interested in Erica’s stunning good looks.

The three girls had already determined what strategy they were going to adopt and basically, Erica was going to act shy and withdrawn while Olivia and Angie were to be her ‘guard dogs’ if any of the boys got too pushy.

When the bus arrived at the school unfortunately, one of the boys had already sneaked a photo on his phone and sent it to his friends. There was already a reception committee of curious boys hanging around wanting to get a good look at the new girl as she disembarked.

The general consensus amongst the ‘glands’ was - ‘Phwoorr! She’s a cracker!’ – and the inevitable sexual interest developed.

“Jeeze! They’re like bloody stags at a rut!” Erica whispered to her ‘protectors’.

“Come on! Let’s get inside. You’re in the same registration class as us.” Olivia replied.

The trio fought their way through the normal hurly burly of ‘first day back’ and Olivia and Angela soon settled into their familiar desks. Erica was introduced to the class registration teacher and presented her registration slip.

On sighting the endorsements the teacher immediately set about re-arranging the seating to accommodate Erica’s ‘special needs’ which had been explained in depth at an earlier ‘staff meeting’ before term had commenced. The teacher already had the note correctly describing Erica as a survivor of abuse and afraid of males.

To avoid too much resentment, the teacher had intelligently re-arranged the seating to accommodate various group friendships. The re-seating plans actually pleased the class while Erica found herself seated beside the window wall behind Olivia and in front of Angela but next to a pillar so nobody could look into the class from the grounds and see her to recognise her.

After registration, Erica was whisked away for academic assessment by the form teacher and she spent the remainder of the day completing assorted tests. At lunchtime Olivia and Angela quickly located her and escorted her to the dining hall.

“School meals aren’t bad here. You get a pretty good choice and it’s not junk stuff so take your pick sister.” Angie encouraged her as Olivia stood behind her to prevent unwanted attention.

Erica hesitated momentarily then quickly realised that Olivia obviously had something of a ‘spikey’ reputation for nobody pushed themselves forward as Erica finally made her choices. They made their way to a vacant table and started into their food before three boys approached.

“What do you want?” Olivia demanded.

“There’s spare places at this table we wondered if we could join you.”

“You’ve never joined us before, is it because of miss supermodel here?” Angie replied bluntly.

The raw truth hit home and the boys hesitated before one of them pressed a bit harder.

“Well, there’s spaces here. We’re not taking somebody-else’s places.”

“Okay, sit there if you want, we can’t stop you.”

Olivia motioned to the empty spaces at the other end of the table and shrugged before turning her back and resuming her meal. One of the boys had the wit to get the hint. ‘-Thus close and no closer- ‘. He placed himself towards the other end and nodded to his friends to sit on the far side of him, away from the girls. Olivia caught his eye and gave a very slight, discreet nod to the boy. She knew him from her art and English classes for he was a bright and decent boy. He was also a sporty type and popular in the school. Knowing this, Olivia opened up.

“Been sent by the others to gather intelligence have you?” She demanded.

“Sort of.” The boy replied quite openly as he savoured Erica’s beauty. “What’s your name love?”

“Erica.” She replied very softly. “What’s yours?”

“David. I share art and English with Ollie here. What are your subjects?”

“Dunno yet, I’m being assessed.” Erica continued to almost whisper.

“Oh, what do you hope to study?”

“Don’t know yet. I’ll have to wait and see.”

David sensed the reluctance to reveal anything else so he shrugged and started into his food. This sent the same message to his companions and a brief silence ensued as everybody ate their meals.

After finishing their food, Olivia and Angela chaperoned Erica back to the exam room then turned to confront David who had discreetly followed them at a diplomatic distance.

“You needn’t bother trying to get anywhere with her Dave,” Olivia advised, “she’s like us inasmuch as she’s from a care home and she’s had a rough time of it. However, she’s not like Angie and me insofar as she’s not gay. She was abused just like me and Angie, consequently she’s afraid of boys and still receiving therapy for it.”

The last bit about therapy was a lie but Olivia knew she would have to lay it on thick to get the message through to the testosterone saturated glands that passed for the year twelve and thirteen boys. She finished with a blunt warning.

“If any of you jocks try to harass her or molest her I can assure you it won’t just be the school authorities who’ll come down on you.”

“So back off!” Angela added for good measure.

Dave squinted thoughtfully as he sensed the import of the two black girls’ veiled threat. It was obvious that the lesbian pair were a party to some other issues because their confidence was obvious and assured. He decided to keep his counsel until the girls were more relaxed. Sadly, the picture of Erica taken by the boy on the bus was already spread around the school and was soon to go viral.

When Ollie and Angie opened up there phones during the end of the lunch-time break, they were dismayed to see a string of questions about Erica.

“Fuck! She should never have come to this school!” Angela cursed.

“Trouble is, she wanted to. She just wanted some normality in her life.” Olivia sighed. "With her looks, it would be just as bad as in any other school. Here, at least she's got us to protect her."

“Yeah but just look at all this shit! People asking us for her phone number and there’s one here even asking about her bus.” Angela added.

Even as she said it, a pregnant pause filled the pair with dread then Olivia voiced their fears.

“Everybody in the school knows which bus we take and the route it takes. This must be somebody else; somebody outside the school!”

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Angela cursed. “We’d better warn Bridie. Erica’s cover might be blown.”

“What about our cover. They’re also after me you know.” Angie observed. “And you for that matter.”

Olivia was already dialling; first Bridie then Bab’s and Brian at the house.

“Don’t get the bus home,” Bridie ordered, “Brian will pick you up.”

Armed with this knowledge, the pair asked to see the headmaster as they had been previously instructed when they first the attended the school. Plans were set in place immediately and pre-arranged preparations commenced. Three hours later, before the school day had ended. The three girls found themselves in a disguised ‘media company’ van outside the school monitoring all the parental traffic that arrived to collect children.

It wasn’t long before the police observers sharing the van, took an interest in an Audi taxi that simply parked up with the rest of ‘the school run’ while the ‘parents’ did not emerge.

“D’ you recognise the number?” One of the police observers asked his colleague who was already checking the national database.

“Birmingham registration – owner known to the police.”

“There’s three men in the car, so I doubt if that’s a legitimate ‘school run’ vehicle. Here Erica, have a good look at the screen.”

Erica shuffled across the cramped space and studied the screen.

“It’s hard to tell with those tinted windows. Hey-up. One of them’s getting out.”

It only took a moment for Erica to give a frightened whimper as she recognised the man.

“That’s one. He’s one of the guards who held us prisoner in Nottingham then drove us to Dover. He beat the shit our of another girl before we were separated. I never saw her again.”

The third observer promptly brought up a file of faces on his screen and asked Erica to study them but it was Angela who recognised one of the girls before Erica.

“That’s Mo! She’s from Manchester. We were together in Birmingham and Nottingham.”

Having been reminded of the girl's name by Angela, Erica now remembered.

“I think that’s the one he beat up. We stopped in a motorway service station and she tried to escape. They caught her right in front of crowds of people at the car park and then took her away. I never saw her again. Nobody even tried to help her and she was crying for help. They just looked at her as though she was some sort of hysterical scum.”

The police officer fetched up a file confirming the site where her body had been found. It was not far from the motorway service station that Erica had now remembered as yet more memories previously buried by her trauma were released.

“She was wearing skinny jeans and a cream top.”

The officer promptly brought up crime scene pictures that confirmed Erica’s observations. Erica started horrified at the extent of Mo’s fatal head injuries then she promptly fainted.

“Jesus Jack! Bloody warn us before you pop up your bloody video nasties! Hasn’t this kid been through enough?!”

“Sorry Ted. But at least it confirms the girl’s statement. That bastard’s a killer and he’s just standing there as large as life.”

“Dammit, where are the ARU boys?”

“Don’t worry, the lads are here. Look.”

He changed screens to interconnect with the CPU traffic cameras to reveal the armed response unit already deploying discreetly at several junctions around the school.

“Sneaky bastards aren’t they?” Ted remarked admiringly.

“They’re waiting until the school kids have dispersed.” Jack added.

“They won’t have long,” Olivia added as she nursed Erica back to consciousness.

“That’s our bus about to leave,” Angie cautioned then added, “and that big bastard is getting back into their car,”

“They obviously know which bus is ours but they arrived too late to check if we had got on it.” Oliva added with relief evident in her voice.

Even as she spoke, a police van pulled out to block the Audi but it swerved desperately to avoid the trap. School children scattered in terror and one child was knocked sideways. Olivia was desperately relieved to see her get up and curse the Audi as it sped a few hundred yards before finally being trapped by a determined pincer movement between two more patrol cars.

In the van, both the police observers and the girls watched in horror as two of the men emerged and tried to hijack one of the patrol cars. Shots were fired and one of the unarmed officers collapsed to the floor. Children were scattering in all directions as ARU officers tried desperately to stop the gunmen without injuring any one of scores of children diving for cover.

It was now quite obvious that the rape-gang gunmen were trapped and quite desperate. Their car was pincered by the patrol cars and the driver had surrendered. The gunmen’s next move was to try and grab a child to use as a hostage but the children were too alert to be caught. Every time the gunmen popped up from behind any parked cars they were forced to duck down by the marksmen. And each time they ducked for cover; more children took the opportunity to get away.

One unforeseen benefit was that the children all wore school uniforms, or some personalised variant, but the dominant colour was the bright cherry-red jackets or jerseys that immediately identified them to the police marksmen. The slightest flash of a bright red coat or jersey reassured the police that the target was safe.

The police quickly realised this and the officer with the loud-hailer quickly instructed the kids to make their red coats or jerseys as obvious as possible. Realising this, the older kids additionally suggested that kids with both blazers and jerseys, shared out their clothes with kids who, on hearing gunfire, had dashed out from the school without grabbing coats. The plan worked and eventually there were only a couple of children who could not escape the gun-men’s field of fire. It remained for the police marksmen to prove their worth.

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