Meanwhile, the clock continued its annoying BEEP BEEP BEEP. My brain swore the beeping grew louder with each beep.
Shaking myself, I forced myself to sit up in bed. There’s no way my clock could intentionally be avoiding me. Right? That would be crazy...even for this house.
I raised my hand and slowly lowered it towards the beeping clock. The clock darted backward.
“Okay, I know I’m not imagining this!” I said.
Mumford appeared in my doorway. “Oh Miss Nina, you have risen. Because of your clock’s constant beeping, I thought you’d somehow managed to sleep through it.”
“No, I can’t stop it!” I told Mumford.
Mumford pointed. “You just press down on that button.”
Glaring at him through half-opened eyes I said, “I know HOW to turn it off. I just can’t hit the button.”
“Is this some sort of emotional issue?” Mumford asked.
“No!” I said. “I keep missing when I try to hit it. It’s like the clock sees what I’m doing and moves.”
“Now why would a clock want to do that?” He rubbed his chin. “Hmmm. That makes no sense.”
Frustrated, I growled...sometimes the tiger in me escapes! I moved my hand cautiously towards the clock. Much to my dismay, my hand touched the snooze button. The clock fell silent.
“You must have been dreaming,” Mumford said. “It could happen to anybody.” He smiled. “Breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes.” He turned and walked away.
I stood up and stretched. I reached for my phone on my other nightstand. My phone moved away from my grasp.
“What is going on here?” I moaned. “Well, it’s probably best if I don’t bring my phone into the bathroom with me anyhow,” I said loudly though I wasn’t really sure why. I turned and headed towards the bathroom. I turned around again and moved at blur speed towards my phone. I slammed down on it. I felt another small hand land on top of my hand.
I heard an “Uh oh…”
I exhaled powerfully towards the invisible voice.
I heard a gasping. I heard a crash. Looking on the floor I saw a small red creature that looked like a mean, fuzzy-looking teddy bear with gold horns. The creature had big green eyes.
“Morning breath…” The creature moaned.
I bent down and picked him up by the tail. “Let me guess you’re a gremlin.”
“Yes, and you clearly need to brush your teeth,” the gremlin told me.
I lifted the gremlin up to my face.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Would you believe I’m here to check your Internet?” he asked.
I dragged the gremlin out of the room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Lifting him up I showed my family. “Look what I found in my room.”
“Oh no, we have gremlins,” Mom moaned.
I lifted up the gremlin higher. “No, just one.”
The gremlin waved to my family and grinned then burped.
“Honey, gremlins never come alone. They came in packs. They are like dogs, really annoying dogs,” Dad said.
On those words, the Gremlin farted in my face. I released the stinky guy to cover my face. “What did you eat?” I gasped.
“Onions, garlic, and beans are their standard food,” Dad seemed to know a lot about Gremlins.
“Serves you right for using nasty morning breath on me!” the gremlin taunted.
The gremlin leaped onto the table. Stole a banana and disappeared in a puff of smoke that smelled like more farts.
“Wait so there’s more than one of these in the house?” I said.
“Yes of course,” dad said.
The gremlin reappeared on Mom’s head. I knew that was a mistake! The gremlin peeled its banana and dropped the peel on Mom’s head. Mom stood there calmly sipping her coffee.
“The trick with gremlins is not to let them get to you, they bore easily. They have the attention span of a hyper 3-year-old.”
“How did we get gremlins?” I asked.
“Somebody must have put a curse on us,” Dad said.
“That can’t be right,” I said.
“Oh yeah, it's right,” Mom said. Ignoring the gremlin that was now hopping up and down on her head.
“How do we get rid of gremlins?” I asked.
“Easy, we find whoever cursed us and get them to remove the curse,” Dad said.
“How do we do that?” I asked.
“Wow, she asks a lot of questions,” the gremlin on Mom’s head said. “All supernatural beings should know this stuff!” he insisted.
“Easy,” mom said to me, still ignoring the gremlin. Her hand shot up so fast I didn’t even see it move. She grabbed the gremlin by the hair on the back of his neck. She pinched him. The gremlin passed out. “When this one comes to, I’ll question him in my special way.”
“Honey, the best way to deal with these creatures is to not pay any attention to them until your mom gets this one to talk, which she will,” Dad said. “Just go to school and enjoy yourself like any other day.”
Nina Note: Now that was probably going to be easier said than done. But, it made total sense...in a world where nothing else made much sense at the moment. At least I’d have an interesting story to tell Ruby during the car ride to the school.
Chapter 5: Science Unfair
Our drive to the school took a little longer than usual because apparently one or two of the gremlins moved Aunt Mika’s keys. We only got the keys back when Aunt Mika offered to write a song about gremlins.
“I find it so incredibly amazing that your family has gremlins!” Ruby gushed. “I love having you guys in my life!”
“It's not quite as amazing when you are living it,” I said with a weak grin.
From the front driver's seat, Aunt Mika grumbled, “Gremlins are incredibly painful. Once, I find out who cursed us with gremlins, I'm going to have Anna curse them with something worse!”
“What’s worse than gremlins?” Frank asked.
“Cursed used car salesmen,” Aunt Mika said. “They call you at all hours and try to get you to buy a car that barely runs.”
“I’m anxious to work on our Science Fair project,” Ruby said. “Your mom seems so cool.”
“Yeah just don’t make her mad,” Frank, Aunt Mika and I all said at once.
Ruby sat back in her seat. “Good to know.” She smiled. “I signed us up on the website last night. We can expect the mind games to begin when we get to school.”
“Wait? Mind games? There are Science Fair - mind games?” I said.
“You betcha,” Ruby said. “We’ll be competing against the best and brightest minds in the school, of course, they take this VERY seriously. That's why I usually avoid this contest.”
“Oh great! I LOVE games!” Frank said.
I figured I’ve dealt with ninja phantoms and gremlins and worse. I could handle anything a bunch of middle schoolers could throw at me.
Ruby looked at me. “I guess the only bad thing about you being grounded is that it cuts down on the time you can see Jimmy. No SLOW walks home.”
“We have lunch time and hallway time,” I said, trying not to sound lame. “We’ll make it work.”
“Will you smooch?” Frankie asked me. Acting like a two-year-old, he was making kissing lips sounds.
I showed him my fist.
Frankie dropped back into the passenger’s seat and turned forward. “I guess that’s a no?”
“That’s a ‘mind your own business’ bro,” I ordered.
“Right. Got it,” Frank said.
Walking into the school, I smiled when I saw Jimmy waiting for me by my locker.
It was as if he could sense us. He turned slowly and his smile lit up the whole area and my heart. I tried not to make the smile appear to be that obvious, but it was hard for me not to smile when I saw him.
Frank nudged me and grinned. “I love it when you smile, sis. You like him, I can tell!”
Ignoring my annoying little brother, I walked
up to Jimmy.
“The bus ride wasn’t the same without you,” Jimmy said. He looked at his watch and said. “You’re so late, I was starting to worry that you wouldn’t come to school today. What happened?”
Opening my locker I put most of my books away. “We have gremlins,” I said softly.
“Really?” Jimmy asked.
“Really,” I said. “If I was going to make something up I would come up with something better than gremlins.”
“They are cute but annoying and have bad farts!” Frank said.
“Kind of like little brothers,” I said. Yeah, it was a dig but he deserved it after that kissy face comment.
“Yeah, I guess I do fart,” Frank said, giving the issue more thought than it deserved. He pointed at me. “But your farts are bad too! Dad says he thinks your farts could be used for crowd control and…”
“Ha ha!” I told Frank moving towards him. “Very funny joke, bro.”
“But I’m…”
I cut Frank off by letting the fangs in my mouth show. I smiled at him. Hoping that Frank would get my not very subtle hint.
Frank laughed. He patted Jimmy on the back. “I’m kidding about Nina’s farts. They smell like roses mixed with apple pie.”
I stomped on his foot. Sometimes little brothers can be so painful!
“I hear you three are going to be in the Science Fair,” Jimmy said, cleverly changing the subject. “I know you are really strong and smart but are you ready for the pressure?”
We started walking towards class. “Jimmy, I'm pretty sure we can handle anything this school throws at us! Right, Ruby?”
Ruby hesitated for a second or two then said, “I entered the Science Fair a couple of years ago. I found it so intimidating that I decided never to enter again - that is - until I met you. I figured, you are a super strong vampire weretiger and Frank is as strong as bull…”
“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad,” I mocked.
I saw Barb Bash quickly walking towards us. Alongside Barb was a tall golden skinned girl with dark hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. Somehow it looked elegant on her.
“Let me guess. That’s Sasha with Barb,” I said.
“Yep,” Jimmy said. “That girl scares me. She’s pretty, not as pretty as you of course, but she is so so cold.”
“I don’t feel any cold coming from her,” Frank said.
“Wait till she gets closer,” Ruby said hiding behind me a bit. She shivered a little.
This felt weird. Ruby got along splendidly with my mom, the vampire queen, yet an upperclassman scared her. I needed to shut this down quickly and let Barb, Sasha, and anybody else know that I am not a person to mess with. Yes, I am my mom's daughter.
“I hear you and little miss science here are going to be in the Science Fair,” Barb said with a cynical tone.
“Hey, that rhymes!” Frank said. “And I'm on the team too!”
Barb snickered. “You, we are definitely not worried about!”
“Thanks,” Frank said proudly.
I could see why these girls weren’t worried about Frank being a part of a team. But he would be useful for lifting things.
“Who’s your friend, Barb?” I asked.
Sasha held out a hand. “We’re not friends, we are teammates. We figure we are the two smartest people in the school so we are teaming up for this fair.”
I shook her hand. Jimmy was right, it was cold. “We’re looking forward to competing against you,” I told Sasha.
“You certainly don't know us then,” Barb said. “But we will enjoy beating you.”
I fought back the urge to say, ‘bring it on girl’. Instead, I said, “I'm sure you'll find we won’t be easily beaten.”
Sasha smirked. “I actually look forward to the challenge. You’ve only been in this school for a short time, Nina, but you’ve caught a lot of attention.”
“Ah thanks,” I said.
Sasha stayed cool. “Of course, attention can be bad, if you have something to hide.”
“Luckily, I have nothing to hide,” I said.
Sasha winked at me. “Please, darling, everybody has something to hide!”
“I don’t!” Frank insisted.
Sasha nodded. “Yes, that I believe handsome.”
The bell rang.
Sasha grinned. “I look forward the competition,” she said insincerely.
Barb looked me up and down. Then she waved to Jimmy, smiled and said, “Hey Jimmy. Glad you aren’t a part of this!”
Nina Note: As annoying as gremlins could be, I had the feeling that Barb and Sasha were going to be even more challenging and difficult to deal with. I've known Barb for a few days now. It appears she's not a girl who likes to lose. She's really smart and driven and seems willing to do anything to win. I couldn't get a read on Sasha, which was weird. Normally I can read humans well. Her scent told me she was human. However, there was something different about her.
Oh, I did love the idea that Jimmy was waiting for me by my lockers...even though we were super late!
Chapter 6: Lunch Break
During lunch, I sat at a table with Jimmy, Ruby, Frank, Timmy Taylor and a couple of his friends, Wayne and Chris. Wayne and Chris, like Timmy, were a bit on the slight side; they both wore glasses and loved all sorts of geeky stuff. They felt secure sitting at our table with Frank as their protector. Truthfully, Frank is big and as strong as an ox and a great fighter...but he is really more of a pussycat. Of course, he can be a lion when defending those who can’t defend themselves. Yeah, I could see why so many girls loved Frank.
Ruby pulled out her iPad and showed everyone around the table her design for the Science Fair. Yes, Timmy, Chris, and Wayne were also a team for the Science Fair, but being the good scientists they hoped to be, they were all about sharing ideas and information.
Her iPad had pictures of a windmill, connected to a battery, connected to a switch and connected to a light. “I think our plan should be to not only create energy but to store it in a battery and then use it on demand to light a light bulb.”
“That is cool,” Wayne said.
“I hope you’re going to use a LED light bulb cause that will look brighter,” Timmy said.
“Agreed,” Chris looked impressed.
“Good ideas, guys,” I told them.
Jimmy shook his head and grinned, “I find it amazing how you guys share your information and ideas with others.”
“Yes, science is meant to be shared,” Ruby insisted. Shaking her head she added. “I don’t get why so many of the other teams are so cut-throat when it comes to this fair.”
“Because they care more about winning than science,” Jimmy said.
Looking up, I saw the cheerleading duo of Randi and Sandi sauntering up to our table. Timmy and his friends fell silent once they figured out the girls were coming towards us.
“Hi, Jimmy!” the two said as one, both waving.
“Randi, Sandi,” Jimmy said with a nod.
“We’ve actually come to talk to Nina here. We miss her not being on the bus with us,” Randi said.
“Hey, that rhymes,” Sandi said.
The two looked at each other as if they had just invented sliced bread. They looked back to me.
“Nina, your school needs you,” Randi said.
“True,” Sandi backed her up.
Against my better judgment, I asked, “How so?”
“We are down one cheerleader,” Randi said.
“Yes, poor Micki May was forced to quit the team,” Sandi was almost in tears.
“Ah, why?” I asked.
“She suddenly became allergic to pom-poms. We can’t have a constantly sneezing cheerleader!” Randi explained. “No cheer there!”
“Okay…but how does this affect me?” I asked...kind of afraid to hear the answer.
“We’ve seen you in PE class. The way you can leap and run and stuff. You are amazing!” Sandi said with her cheerleading smile on.
“And you’re pret
ty, not as pretty as us, but still acceptable,” Randi said.
“Look, ladies, I’m flattered,” I said as sincerely as I could. “But I don’t have time for cheerleading between my school work, martial arts training, and this Science Fair...I’m totally booked.”
“Oh, that silly Science Fair. I don't know why people in this school pay so much attention to science!” Sandi whined.
Ruby spoke up, “Because science is life. Science helps humanity. Science is knowledge!”
“Yes, but cheerleading makes people grin so it’s a win,” Randi smiled at her own play on words.
Sandi nudged Randi. “Girl, nice rhyme!”
“Thanks,” Randi said.
“And science can lead to a lifelong career!” Ruby said. “Can cheerleading?”
The two cheerleaders exchanged glances. They both gave Ruby a look of pity. “Dear sweet, naïve, young Ruby.”
“I’m the same age as you girls!” Ruby pointed out.
“Dear sweet, naïve, Ruby, cheerleading can lead to modeling jobs and everybody knows top models make more money than the top scientists!”
Ruby’s face turned bright red with anger. That’s what I loved about Ruby; she had so much conviction for the things she loved. Still, there's a time to argue, and a time to shake your head and move on. This was not the time to argue. I put a steadying hand on Ruby’s shoulder.
“Down, Ruby, down,” I whispered.
She calmed down and said, “Science isn't just about the money, it's helping people and the world.”
“Yeah,” Timmy agreed.
“Rock on!” Wayne punched the air.
“The money can be pretty good too!” Chris added.
Before the cheerleaders could counter, I cut them off, “Ladies, I’m flattered that you asked me. Truly I am. But I have no time to be a cheerleader. Maybe, next year. Now please, LEAVE US ALONE,” I said using my hypnotic voice.
Sandi and Randi’s eyes glazed over. “We will leave you alone.” The two turned and walked away.
“Good riddance,” Ruby mumbled.
Jimmy leaned into me and whispered. “Man, that hypnotic voice power is awesome. No wonder my mom is afraid of you.”
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