by Katie Cherry
“Oh… I… Hi,” he stammers, unsure of what to say.
She laughs again, then bites her lower lip gently and lowers her eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh,” she says apologetically, slowly looking back up at Nathan with a soft smile.
“Oh, I… N-no problem,” he manages to get out, trying not to stare at her red lips as she talks. He clears his throat. “Was… was there something you wanted to say to me?”
She smiles. “Yes… I was just going to ask if you were new here. You don’t seem to be used to the bus, plus I hadn’t seen you last year.”
“Oh… yeah, I am. I just moved in a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, you moved in? Where from?”
“…Tanguay, Sicillago,” he replies, watching warily for her response.
“Really?” Her eyes light up with excitement, and she tilts her head to one side as if inspecting him. “That’s really cool! So you lived with the rich people? I bet you had all kinds of technology that we don’t have here… that’s why you’re not used to the bus, right? Because you had flying cars there?” She continues before he can reply. “Where do you live now?”
“Walnut Creek Drive, here in Pargunma,” he replies. The girl’s smile grows even wider.
“I only live a street away from there!” she exclaims. “You should come over to my house some time!”
“…Yeah, sure,” Nathan replies, surprised at her forwardness. “Maybe sometime this week… I’ll have to check with my mom to make sure it’s okay first, though.”
“Oh, of course! My name’s Angela, by the way. Angela Dove.”
“Nathan Anderson,” he says as the bus stops at a red light.
“So what did you…” she starts to say until a scaly red hand punches through the window next to her, sending shards of glass cascading over her. Screaming, she raises her arms above her head and scoots away from the window. The bus driver doesn’t seem to notice what’s going on as he waits for the light to turn green, humming to himself.
Nathan watches as an ugly red face appears in the window, sneering at him. Its eyes are yellow with pupils that are slits, like a cat’s. Its nose is very small and is raised only slightly from its face. Its nostrils are just small slits in the skin, but they flare open as it breathes in deep, leaning closer to Nathan. Without thinking, he punches it right in the middle of its face. It doesn’t flinch, but his hand is now searing with pain and his knuckles are bloody. The scaly beast laughs at him and reaches its hand in through the window. Nathan scoots back.
What does this thing want? And where did it come from? He wonders as it gropes around. He tries to kick the hand, but the creature is faster and grabs his ankle. He attempts to pull free, but its grip is too tight. With another wicked cackle, it pulls him out of the window, breaking more glass. He hears Angela scream again and the other kids shouting, but it all fades into the background as he focuses on figuring out how to get away from the creature.
It starts dragging him away from the bus as it pulls through the intersection. He distantly hears Angela screaming his name and shouting at the bus driver to stop. “Let… me… go!” Nathan shouts at the creature. It doesn’t respond except to tighten its grip and haul him away a little faster.
He’s lost as to what to do for a moment, but then he smiles as he remembers the ring in his pocket. Nathan pulls out the gold and silver band and slips it on, instantly becoming intangible and sliding through the creature’s grasp. He stands and laughs as the creature turns and rushes at him, arms outstretched. It races right through him, its head passing through Nathan’s heart, then spins around, looking confused and angry. It charges again, with the same results. It narrows its eyes at Nathan as if hoping to see what kind of trick he’s pulling.
Nathan glares back at it, his arms crossed. “Tell me, creature, who sent you?”
The creature glares at him and bares its pointed yellow teeth. “…No one sent.”
“Tell the truth. I know someone had to send you.” The thing shakes its head. Frustrated, Nathan then notices another one, more pink than red, emerge from a bush nearby.
It peers up at him inquisitively. “Yep, we was sent by someone. We too stupid to think up this wonderful plan by just us!”
Nathan looks at the creature in astonishment. The red one looks at the pink one, shocked as well. “You no tell human that! We was told to lie to him, remember?”
“Oh, yeah! Sorry, Gorldf.”
Gorldf snarls at the pink one. “Rosulkip, you so dumb!”
“Yep!” she agrees, peeling back her lips in what must be an attempt at a smile. Shaking his head in confusion, Nathan decides to try and get some answers from the pink one since it seems to be more willing to talk.
“Rosulkip, you aren’t dumb!” he begins, hoping to flatter the beast. “You are a very, very smart… thing… person.”
Rosulkip looks confused. “Is… is smart good thing?”
“Oh, yes! It’s a very good thing!” he assures it. Rosulkip beams.
“Rosulkip very, very smart!” It grins and starts dancing around in a circle. “Smart, smart, smart…” Nathan can’t help but crack a smile. It’s like a little kid, he thinks.
“Rosulkip, who sent you to find me? …Um… because I want to tell them how very, very smart you are,” he tells her.
“Don’t tell him!” Gorldf snarls at the pink creature. It ignores him, thankfully.
“Zarafa, of course!”
“…Zarafa? Who is that?”
This time, Gorldf tackles Rosulkip before it could say anything else. “It is no one,” it growls at Nathan.
“It? Is… it… human?”
“Yep, yep! Well… not exactly…” Rosulkip peeps before Gorldf stops her.
Gorldf scowls at Rosulkip. “Shut up, Rosulkip, or I’ll kill you.” Rosulkip’s thin, pale grey lips snap shut at the threat, although it doesn’t look happy about it. Gorldf turns back to Nathan, undisguised hatred on its face. “We be back,” it sneers, snapping its clawed fingers. With a puff of smoke that smells to Nathan a lot like rotten eggs, the creatures disappear.
Nathan sighs and pulls off the Matter Ring. He has no clue who this ‘Zarafa’ is or why they seem to be out to get him, but he has other concerns at the moment. He missed the bus, and that meant he had to run in order to get to school on time. He didn’t want to be late on the first day.
*****
Twenty minutes later, Nathan arrives at the school, panting and sweating. He looks around through the crowd of teenagers, hoping to find the bus so he could get his backpack. Finally spotting the worn number eighty-five, he jogs over. He nocks on the doors and the bus driver lets him on. The old man smiles at him with his twinkling blue-grey eyes. “Yes, sonny?” he asks him, acting like nothing out of the ordinary happened just a few minutes before.
Nathan clears his throat uncertainly. The bus driver seemed nice enough… but you never can tell who wants to help and who wants you dead. And since the bus driver hadn’t even stopped when Nathan was snatched, it seemed more likely that he wasn’t a good guy.
“I think I left my backpack in here.”
“Hmm, I seem to recall that the girl you were talking to took it so she could get it back to you. I would go find her.”
“Oh… thanks,” Nathan says, confused, as he turns to leave. He feels a heavy hand on his shoulder before he steps off. His breath catches in fear.
“Be careful.”
“Of… of course…”
“T. Call me T.”
“Okay… thanks, T.”
“No problem, kiddo. I’ll see you later. You might want to hurry to class now,” he suggests, removing his hand from Nathan’s shoulder. Nathan jumps off the bus, relieved to get away from the weird bus driver. He glances at his watch. His first class was going to start in two minutes.
*****
He bursts through the door about ten seconds after the tardy bell rang, drawing the attention of everyone in the classroom. Nathan lowers his head and starts to
slink to the back of the room, but is stopped by his teacher, Mrs. Sternile. Her shrill voice freezes him in his tracks. “Stop right there!” she demands. Gulping, he turns around to face her. Only one inch taller than him in her two-inch heels, she’s quite intimidating. Her brunette hair pinned up in a tight bun, her business-like attire and her thin lips, pinched tight together with disappointment, reflect her no-nonsense attitude. Nathan takes a tiny step back.
“Name?” she demands.
“N… Nathan Anderson,” he stammers.
She repeats this into the tablet in her hand, then turns back to face the class. “I do not tolerate tardiness in my class, Mr. Anderson,” she scolds. “Starting today, every time one of you is tardy to my class, your name will be recorded in my tablet. For every tardy after that, I will put a tally mark by your name. For every mark I put, ten points will be deducted from your grade. After the first three, each mark will take twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and finally, one hundred. Mr. Anderson, I am giving you one tally for being late on the first day and taking so much time from the class.”
He bites back a complaint and just nods. “Now then, please find a seat so we can begin.” She walks back to her desk, her heels clicking on the hard floor. Nathan saunters slowly over the shiny black floor to a desk in the corner of the room, aware that every pair of eyes in the room followed him there. He sighs. This is going to be a long year, he decides, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.
The teacher starts her lecture, but Nathan isn’t listening. His mind is far away, in a land where trees sing, and grass dances with a girl who saved his life countless times, although she would never admit it. He smiles a little as he watches as she dances in the snow, laughing, her blue-gold eyes shining with mirth as she teases him and laughs… He sighs a little, feeling a pang in his chest.
It had been almost four months since he last saw Crystal Dragon, and he was starting to really miss her. She was his first thought when he awoke in the morning and the last thing he sees before he falls asleep at night; she was a part of him that was missing. She was his best friend.
“Mr. Anderson!”
Nathan bolts upright, flinging his eyes open to find the teacher standing in front of him and everyone in the class watching him and laughing. He swallows hard. “Y… yes, Mrs. Sternile?”
“Pay attention, Mr. Anderson. I am deducting another ten points from your participation grade. Unless you can tell me what I was just talking about?” He shakes his head ashamedly. Nodding, the teacher walks briskly back to the front of the classroom and resumes her lecture.
Nathan sighs and rests his head on his hand and pretends to pay attention, but he sees something in the corner of his vision. Turning, he sees Angela a few desks away from him, waving to get his attention. He blushes, wondering how long she had been doing that before he noticed. He raises his eyebrows at her, asking what she wanted. She bites her lip, thinking, then pulls out her trans-tablet and the e-pen that goes with it and starts writing. He watches as she does so, confused and curious. She puts it on the floor once she’s finished and it turns into a mouse and scurries over to him. He picks it up, and it returns to normal. Oh, she wants to talk to me… I guess passing notes would be the best thing to do with this teacher.
“Nathan,
Oh my goodness! Are you okay? What happened with that ugly creature? Why did it take you? How did you get away? Is your hand okay? It’s bleeding a lot! Oh, and I have your backpack. I guess I can’t get it to you until after class, is that okay?”
He smiles a little at her concern. He picks up the e-pen and writes a reply.
“Angela,
I’m okay. I don’t know what that creature wanted from me, but it wasn’t too difficult to get away from it. It was really stupid. All I had to do was tell it that I was the wrong person and it left… my hand is fine, it’s just a little blood. I can still move it without much pain. And thank you for grabbing my backpack! I’m glad it wasn’t lost somewhere on the bus with that weird bus driver. …By the way, can I sit with you at lunch? I don’t know anyone else in this school yet… if you don’t want me to, though, that’s fine too.”
Putting the trans-tablet on the ground, he pushes the mouse button, and it quickly scurries back to Angela with his reply. It comes back to him a minute later.
“I’m so relieved you’re okay! That was really lucky… and I think you should go to the nurse for your hand, still. Just to be safe. And of course, you can sit with me at lunch! I should warn you, though… my friends are major flirts, so if you think you can take it, you’re welcome to join us! :) …The teacher’s watching. Talk to you later!”
“Thanks, Angela! See you then,” he replies, then quickly sends the trans-tablet back while the teacher’s back is turned.
The rest of the class is uneventful, and Nathan can’t even try to concentrate on the lecture about Quazek history, so he daydreams and waits anxiously for the bell to ring. When it finally does, he quickly stands and heads toward Angela, feeling the teacher’s eyes on him the entire time. Angela smiles at him and hands him his backpack, then starts heading towards the door. He follows her.
“What’s your next class?” Nathan asks her.
She smiles. “Gym.”
“Me too!”
“Really? Awesome! Now I may have some competition!”
“What do you mean by that?” he asks, curious.
She laughs. “No one can keep up with me when I run. I beat them all so easily it makes me feel like I’m alone. But you got here really quickly- not too long after the bus did, in fact- so I assume that you can run pretty fast.”
He grins. “Yeah, you could say that. Although I haven’t run full-out for a few months…”
“Mmhmm,” she murmurs teasingly. “That’s just your excuses so it won’t look so bad when you get shown up by a girl!”
“What? No, it’s true!” Nathan replies, laughing as well. “I just jogged here this morning, I wasn’t sprinting. I just used some shortcuts.”
“Uh huh.”
“Whatever. I guess I’ll just have to show you in person.”
Angela smiles charmingly at him. “I would love that,” she replies, her eyes sparkling. He suddenly gets butterflies in his stomach. Why… why does she make me feel like this? I don’t get it… I was less nervous visiting dragons in Zilferia! He shakes it off. First thing’s first. This girl needs to get humbled!
*****
“Ready?”
“I was born ready,” he replies to Angela’s taunt.
She laughs. “Then don’t cry when the inevitable happens, and I win. …After all, you were born ready to be defeated!”
Nathan laughs in reply. “Good one, but I’m not going down.”
“We’ll see…”
The gym teacher and cross-country coach, Jim Hefferson, walks up to the group of kids with a hearty smile. “Angela has pulled me aside to request another race.” Half the class groans, but Nathan grins. “After the race, you may play basketball or tennis.” The kids cheer up at this. Nathan’s smile deepens. He had spent a majority of the summer running and playing sports such as tennis to spend some time out of his head and had become rather skilled at tennis. “Alright, everyone line up! We’re going for a mile today. Four laps, then you’re done.”
Nathan crouches next to Angela in the front of the class. She smiles at him. “Good luck.”
“Won’t need it,” he replies, turning back to the track. He takes a few deep breaths to prepare himself.
“Alright, on ‘go,’” Jim says, standing next to them, his hands on his hips. “One… two… three… go!”
Nathan and Angela take off. Nathan quickly starts pulling ahead of her. Two minutes later, however, she pulls up beside him, smiling. He gets flustered and stumbles. She pulls ahead, laughing as she runs. Growling, he picks up the pace and catches back up to her. He stays on her tail for a while, then pulls up even with her again. He taps her on the shoulder. “Hey,” he says, then laughs and
pushes even harder toward the finish line. He’s almost there when Angela overtakes him and crosses first, with him just a split second behind. The teacher jogs over, laughing.
“Well done, son! I’ve never seen anyone so close to Angela in a race! You’re amazing, kid.”
“…Thanks,” Nathan pants, his hands on his knees. He then looks up and glares at Angela. “But I… should have… won.”
She giggles and shakes her head, panting as well. “I warned… him, coach, I really… did!”
He laughs. “I’m sure you did, Angela, but a guy like him doesn’t back down from a challenge like that! …What’s your name, kid?” He asks.
“Nathan Anderson.”
“Well, you’re welcome to join cross-country, Nathan. We could use someone like you.”
“Well, I did… Track and Field at my last school… but I don’t know about… cross-country.”
The coach winks at him. “I’m sure you’d do great, Nathan. I’ll let you think about it. If you want to come, there’s a meeting in my room on Monday right after school for those interested in joining. Just think about it, alright?” He says, patting Nathan on the back. The coach then starts to walk away. “Oh,” he adds. “And Angela is the queen at tennis… just so you know. …In case you wanted to get her back,” he adds, chortling.
Nathan glances at Angela. “Well? Feel up to a game of tennis?”
She chuckles. “I’ll take you on any time, anywhere, Monster Slayer!”
“Monster Slayer? I told you, all I did was talk to it!”
“Sure, but Monster Slayer sounds better, doesn’t it?” she winks. “Well, come on, then! Looks like you still need some humbling!”
“We’ll see who gets humbled this time!” he retorts, following her onto the court.
*****
“You want to serve?”
“Nah, ladies first.”
She grins. “Alright, then- but you asked for it.” She tosses the ball in the air. It seems to fall in slow-motion. Nathan tightens his grip on the racket. She hits the ball. It soars down the court so quickly Nathan can hardly see it. Gritting his teeth, he whacks the ball back to her. It flies past her right leg, barely missing it.