by Justin Sloan
“For now,” Allie mumbled.
Her mom took her in a hug and caressed her hair. Before her mom had gone missing earlier in the school year, Allie would have pushed her away and been annoyed. At the moment though, after yet another one of her crazy dreams, Allie leaned into the hug.
“Me and you, we’re not so defenseless.” Her mom walked her to bed and tucked her in. “But I tell you what, okay? Next time you have the dream, you can come sleep with your father and me.”
“Yeah, right.” Allie smiled and turned over in bed. “I may get scared, but I’m thirteen. Get serious.”
Her mom left, but Allie couldn’t sleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, she gave up. She wondered if Daniel was having similar issues. She rummaged around the drawer of her nightstand for a few minutes, found her cell, and texted him. While she waited, she found an outfit for the day, one with long sleeves like all of the shirts she insisted on wearing lately. She glanced down at the dark pattern on her arm, like a tattoo, but with some deep magic that she didn’t understand. It had been carved into her arm by Paulette, right before she revealed herself to be possessed by the evil spirit Samyaza.
Allie had been too scared to tell anyone about what had happened to her last year. She still hadn’t told her dad or anyone else about the craziness of her being a Bringer of Light, or Daniel a Guardian. She hadn’t started a blog about her progress toward her supposed destiny of becoming The Tenth Worthy. And when questioned about Chris’s whereabouts or anything related to the battle at Solomon Mountain, Allie just shook her head and said she had no idea.
Maybe telling people would have been the better way to go, but she didn’t want to seem crazy or put those around her in danger.
A tapping on her window pulled her from her thoughts.
“About time,” she said as she moved aside for Daniel to crawl in.
“For five in the morning, I think I did pretty good.” He took a seat on her desk-chair and swiveled back and forth.
“Pretty well,” she corrected, and instantly hated herself for it.
“Are you sure?” He sat at her desk and had a look around her room. “Finally got to cleaning, I see.”
The boxes that had occupied most of her closet were finally cleared away, and she’d decided that the nerdy posters and fantasy figurines—gifts from her brother—maybe weren’t best for her walls. Not when she was trying to maintain her sanity and think of anything but giants and magic and grand destinies.
“Yeah, well…. When you have nightmares all the time, what else is there to do?”
“Aside from wake me up?”
“Sorry.”
He waved her off. “Honestly, I haven’t been sleeping too well either. I keep seeing that giant with fiery eyes and the way Chris looked at me, as if we’d never met.”
Allie shuddered. “Yeah. Back to school, yay.”
“Think the police will still be around?”
“They get to you yet?”
“Don’t worry, I stuck to the story.” He cocked his head like he was some sort of hero.
Allie smiled at the thought, thinking he definitely was a hero. They had worked together to defeat Paulette, or whatever the deal was with that Samyaza demon-character taking over Paulette’s body, and in the process they had rescued Allie’s mom. All Allie wanted in life was to be a normal girl, but with the Ring of Solomon now in her possession, she knew that wouldn’t be the case. She would never be normal again.
“How about you?” he asked. “What’d you tell the cops?"
“Somehow I’ve still managed to avoid them.”
“Good luck with that.”
She shrugged and they sat in silence for a bit before she suggested playing Minecraft together. He didn’t object, although he reminded her that they were a bit old for it.
“Eh, you’re never too old for an awesome game,” she said. “Well, so Ian says anyway.”
“But he’s a nerd.”
She laughed. “Welcome to the club.”
“Speaking of clubs…. Today’s the big day, right? Soccer tryouts?”
“I totally forgot!” She couldn’t believe it had slipped her mind, after how much it had meant to her when preparing for seventh grade.
“Get your head in the game, Allie,” Daniel said. “Mine’s one hundred percent in the world of baseball, I promise that.”
“Deal,” she said, and they shook on it.
At around seven, Daniel snuck out the window to ring the front doorbell.
“It’s for me,” Allie said as she ran to get the door. “I invited Daniel over for breakfast.”
“You two are spending a lot of time together,” her dad said, reading the morning news on the couch.
“Is that a bad thing?” she asked, opening the door.
He smiled at Daniel with a wave. “No, of course not.”
The look her dad gave her mother was too obvious for Allie to miss. Whatever. She knew what he was thinking, and yeah, she had thought of boys that way—Chris for one, before she knew he was a Strayer. But her and Daniel? He was amazing, in that fun friend-who-helps-save-the-world kind of way. So yeah right, no way.
Allie’s older brother, Ian, was in too much of a hurry to sit and eat, so he grabbed a granola bar and a banana on his way out the door.
“How’s being back at school?” her dad asked, shaking his head at his son’s quick departure.
Allie shrugged and returned to her cereal. It was like that lately, his questions and her awkwardness. Daniel definitely noticed, and when they headed off to school, he asked her what was up.
“I don’t know,” she said with a glance back to her apartment. Her dad was looking out the window after them, his arm around her mom.
Daniel was still staring at her. “It seemed like you were a bit cold to him, is all.”
“Can we drop it?”
“Of course.”
They walked on, neither saying a word. A cool breeze blew by, making Allie wish she had put on a sweater over her polo shirt. The silence was horrible.
“Fine,” she said. “It’s….”
“Yeah?”
“Ever since we got back, with my mom and all, it’s been like that with him.” She looked at the gray clouds forming in the distance, annoyed to be opening up right now. But if she couldn’t talk to Daniel, that left nobody. “It’s like, if I can’t tell him about the ring and all, it’s keeping secrets, you know? And I’ve never kept secrets from my dad before. It feels like lying.”
“Of course you’re feeling weird. It’s like you’re pushing him away, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You can’t push away the people that matter most. If you do, who else will be left?”
“Right.” She glanced over at him, thinking how serious he was. Such a grown-up, always talking about feelings and watching the History Channel. Once again, she asked herself how she had ended up best friends with someone like him. Not that she would change it for the world.
When they reached school though, a lump formed in her throat. The police were back, and they were waiting in front of the main entrance with Principal Eisner. Allie was sure they were waiting for her.
“Come on,” she said, pulling Daniel around the hedges.
“It’s like a Band-Aid,” he said. “Just get it over with.”
“I don’t think so.” She pulled him in the other direction, but nearly collided with a tall boy who looked to be a few years older than her. She hadn't seen him before, and she would have remembered if she had.
“You okay?” the boy asked, stopping to look back and tuck his wavy black hair behind his ear.
“Yeah, um, thanks.” She stared after him, forgetting herself until she heard Daniel clearing his throat. She spun on him. “What?"
Daniel frowned, and then nodded to her left. When she turned to see what it was, a badge was inches from her face. Officer Dunlop. Great.
“There you are, Allie,” Principal Eisner said. She walked up beside
Officer Dunlop and smiled in her way that said keep to the story. “I'm sure you won’t mind giving the officer a bit of your time.”
“Of course.”
“Right this way, ma’am,” the officer said.
He led her to the principal’s office and closed the door once his partner had joined them. The interview was pretty quick and painless, though, and she didn’t trip up when telling them the story of getting beaten up by Chester and Vince, and that she had no idea where they or any other kids had gone. Still, it wasn’t easy, and every lie she had to tell brought back memories of Paulette and her eyes glowing like fire, or the army of Strayers in their black cloaks.
Allie darted out of the office as soon as the cops said she was dismissed, but collided with Principal Eisner in the hall.
“You must be more careful,” Principal Eisner said as she straightened her hair. “Especially with everything going on this week.”
“This week?” Allie asked, her heart pumping. Seeing how Principal Eisner had been involved in the whole Bringer of Light and the Tenth Worthy stuff, if she said it was going to be a big week, this was going to be big indeed.
“You’ve been assigned a new gym class.” Principal Eisner handed Allie a piece of paper with a room number on it.
“That’s all?” Allie asked.
“Sure,” the principal replied with a smile. “That’s all.”
With a glance at the paper, Allie saw that it was her first class of the day. Great, she would already be late. It was bad enough that she had missed more than a week of classes while she was out saving her mom and then recuperating.
The paper said class was in the basement, room 001. Allie hadn’t even known the school had a basement. But after asking around, a teacher pointed her to the far end of the hall. It took her outside to where a door led to the basement. Here goes, she thought, already looking forward to the distraction of P.E. class and the chance to forget about her recent adventures for a while.
Chapter 2: P.E. Class
Voices came from a staircase to Allie’s right, a good sign in this gloomy corner of the school basement. The walls were all dark brown wood, just shadows in the dim light streaming in from narrow windows where the ceiling met the walls. Cobwebs covered the corners at each turn. Floorboards creaked. As the smell of old wood grew stronger, the voices softened.
Everything felt wrong, and Allie started to wonder if she was in the wrong place.
She was about to give up when she turned a corner and found a door in her path. Room 001. She waited, her hand shaking as she reached for the doorknob. Why was she so nervous? For a moment she wished Daniel was there with her, sharing the dread of the first day in a new P.E. class. But hey, at least with this new class she wouldn’t have to deal with Ms. Trallis again.
She pushed at the door. The sun shone bright, blinding her momentarily. A fresh scent of wet pine drifted in and she saw clear skies—a surprise since the morning skies had been full of swirling gray clouds.
Twenty feet of hardwood floor spread out before her, and other students that looked to be her age talked nervously. Between them and a forest was a large circle of dirt where older students performed breathing exercises. Great, Allie thought, wondering if she was enrolled in some sort of hippy kung-fu P.E. class. She looked around and saw the boy from outside the school, the one she had almost bumped into.
Then a thought registered—how was this possible? She had walked down several flights of stairs and should have been directly underneath the cafeteria. This sunshine-filled sanctuary didn’t seem to belong at all.
A shadow fell over her and she turned to see another girl had just joined her, standing at her side. The girl wore a nervous smile and a brown sweater that matched her long brown hair.
“What do you think?” the girl asked, gesturing to the kids in the circle and then to a yellow wall to the right that Allie hadn’t noticed. The fifty-foot wall went out as far as the dirt circle, and then curved away from them to where, if Allie craned her neck, she could just make out two marble pillars that framed snow-white translucent drapes. Through the drapes she could somewhat make out a door tall enough for a giant.
“It’s a little intense,” Allie finally replied.
“Intense?” the girl said with a laugh. “Yeah, I’ll say. The name’s Brenda, second year.”
“Allie. You mean eighth grade?”
“No, I mean, yes, I am an eighth grader, but that’s not what I meant. I’m a second year Guardian. How about you, Guardian or Bringer?"
Allie couldn’t believe it. “You mean…?”
Brenda smiled as if sharing a secret. “You must be new. This is where the Guardians and Bringers of Light train.”
“You’re telling me this P.E. class is like our warrior training or something?”
“Uh,” Brenda looked at her like she was slow. “That’s what I just said.”
In the circle of dirt in the midst of the clearing, the older kids were moving their hands with deep breaths, stepping in sweeping circles. Allie thought she recognized forms, similar to the katas from her one month of karate as a child. She didn't want to tell Brenda that she would rather be playing soccer. Something about the girl bothered her. Maybe it had to do with recently being burned by older girls she had met—namely Paulette.
“So, you must be new then?” Brenda asked. “Not a transfer?”
“Yeah, just moved here with my mom,” Allie said. “Well, a couple months ago.”
“I mean a transfer Guardian. You’re just starting?”
“Oh, yeah, that.”
“Allie!” a voice said, and she turned to see Daniel standing behind her, all smiles. He had entered with someone else—the boy she’d almost bumped into outside of the school that morning.
“Can you believe it?” Daniel continued. “I get to train with you!”
“That’s awesome,” she said smoothly, not wanting to look too eager in front of this older boy.
“Another noob?” Brenda asked, and the older boy nodded. She sneered at Allie and Daniel. “Don’t worry, you guys will catch on fast enough, I’m sure.”
Allie heard the sarcasm in her voice, and Daniel must have too, because he said, “We’ve had our fair share of excitement.”
The older boy turned to Daniel with a look of interest. “Like what?”
But before Daniel could get out another word, Brenda said, “Me and Troy here are always the best at obstacles, you’ll see. If you need any pointers, just ask.”
“They’ll do fine,” Troy said. Brenda scowled at him and crossed her arms.
After a silent moment, Daniel noticed a short Japanese girl standing nearby, seemingly listening in.
“Hi,” he said, but she blushed and walked off. Brenda, apparently bored with the teasing, left as well.
“Don’t worry about Brenda,” Troy said. “That’s just how she is.”
Allie was contemplating a witty remark, something to show him how funny she was, but suddenly all of the students were silent, looking over to the marble pillars where a man had just emerged with a group of older kids behind him. The man gave the kids a nod and they ran off to the trees. Turning back to Allie and the others, he said “Form your classes,” and took a spot in the circle closest to the pillars.
His red hair shifted lightly in the wind—Allie wondered if it was a toupee. He barely had eyebrows, they were so light, but his eyes shone like two sapphires. If she weren’t so nervous, Allie might have laughed at his white t-shirt tucked into blue Levi’s.
“First years, hurry and get changed and meet back in the circle. The rest of you, through the doors. Hustle now.”
Allie shared a what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into look with Daniel, and then hurried off after Brenda to the locker room. She noticed Troy and some of the older students lining up in front of the teacher as she went.
In the locker room, Allie quickly changed into her gym shorts. They weren’t so bad, but she still would have preferred to wear sweats or jeans. She tr
ied to ask what they’d be doing, but Brenda just told her that she’d have to wait and find out, and when she asked the Japanese girl again, all she got was a nod before the girl turned to finish dressing.
When they were all in the circle back outside, Daniel standing beside her, the man with red hair returned from the tree line and looked over them, assessing each student.
“So you are my seventh graders huh? My first years. Go ahead, have a seat in a horseshoe around me. I am Mr. Phael, Raphort Phael. You there, what’s your name?”
“Tom,” a small boy said. He wore plaid shorts and his hair curled in a swoosh at the front.
“Good name. Tom here is a strapping young lad, ready to take on any challenge that comes his way.” Several girls giggled. “And what is it, do you suppose, that brings you all together here, Tom?”
Tom looked up from commenting quietly to his friend. “Uh, we’re all first years?”
“Not exactly, Tom. Something more. An endless potential. You each have something that drives you. You each have the ability to channel that energy, like the boys and girls you saw practicing here before class started. And I will expect you all to practice often as well, to practice channeling your negative energy into positive energy. Do you understand what I'm saying?” He stared right at Allie.
“No, Mr. Phael,” she said.
“You look familiar, what’s your name dear?”
“Allie. Allie Strom.”
“Indeed.” His look told her he must have known her mother at some point. “Each of you are meant for wonderful things. You will guide others, teach them, bring the best out of them. It’s not important that you understand clearly today. What’s important is that you keep an open mind. Can you do that for me?”
Several boys and girls nodded, but Allie just wondered what the heck he was talking about.
“Allie,” Daniel hissed. She looked over to see him motioning toward the teacher with his eyes. “He just called on you.”
She looked up at Mr. Phael, and saw he and everyone else was staring at her. “Um, what was the question?”