by E. J. Krause
He sat up and looked at his Xbox. A few minutes of blasting noobs would bring out a better mood, but before he got up to turn it on, his hand brushed his backpack. He had plenty of homework tonight, and he should get that done first. At least his math. No way he wanted the wrath of Simms twice in one week. He chuckled at the memory of Andi telling him the tongue-lashing would motivate him to do his homework for the rest of the week. She was right, and he didn't want to let her down, too.
As soon as he had his book open to the correct page, his cell phone rang. Andi. He picked it up and said hi.
"Hi, Ben. Sorry to bug you."
"You're not bugging me. You can call me anytime. Except in the middle of the night when I'm asleep, but my phone will be off anyway," he added with a laugh.
"Well, I'll be sleeping, too."
"I don't know. Are your sleep patterns the same as mine?"
It was her turn to laugh. "Yeah, unless you're the weirdo."
"Sorry, sorry. I guess I don't know much about you."
"I'll be happy to fill you in. Besides, I'm sure there's a ton about you that I'll have to get used to. Anyway, I'm not interrupting anything?"
"No, I was just about to start my homework."
"Oh, good, you're not going to blow it off like normal."
"Miss one assignment …" he said with an exaggerated sigh.
"Yeah, I'm sure that was the first one you've ever missed."
"As far as you know."
She must've taken the phone away from her face because he could hear her muffled laughter in the background. A few seconds later, she was back. "Sorry, but that was a good one. Anyway, as hard as it is to believe, I didn't call for this quote-unquote witty banter."
"No, it's just a pleasant side effect." His face was starting to hurt from trying to keep from losing it himself.
"Yeah, sure, if that makes you feel better about yourself."
That did it, and this time he had to take the phone from his ear. Melissa never made him laugh like this, either on the phone or in person. Truth be told, he'd never felt anywhere near as comfortable with her as he did with Andi. And he never would have been quick-witted enough to have a conversation like this. As scary as it sounded, maybe there was something to this belonging together business.
"The reason I called," she said when they'd both composed themselves, "is that we're going camping in the mountains this weekend. My dad and I need to be dragons for a couple of days, and they think it'd be a good time for you to start training with the sword and shield. We'll leave right after school on Friday, and get back late Sunday. Will your parents let you come? Make sure they know it's my parents' idea, and that we'll do homework while we're there."
"Uh, yeah, maybe. My mom will want to talk to your mom first, though, so expect a call."
"Yeah, sure, no problem. We have a tent for you, and a sleeping bag if you need it. My dad says you should bring your stuff over Thursday evening or Friday morning so he can pack the car. We'll leave right from school."
"Okay. I'll ask during dinner and call you later." He'd rather talk to them separately, but if he did that, the one he didn't go to first would be pissed and likely say no out of spite. Hopefully by the time they sat down to eat, they'd be acting civil towards each other.
"Good. So I guess I should let you get back to your homework. I know I have enough, and it's just my second day."
They said goodbye and hung up, leaving Ben staring at his math book. Before he got too far along, Dad called him down to dinner. He sighed. Hopefully the stupid argument about stupid paint was over if not forgotten. This would be the best way to ask about the trip this weekend. Neither could accuse him of playing favorites.
Dinner started quiet enough, with Dad even complementing Mom on the casserole, her specialty, a baked mac and cheese with chunks of potato and bacon. Good, maybe this would prove easy. If he waited too long, though, they'd find something to snip at each other about.
"I met a new girl at school. Yesterday was her first day."
Dad nodded as he chewed, and Mom asked, "What's her name? Is she in one of your classes?"
"Her name is Andi, but she's not in any of my classes. I met her yesterday. We had lunch today, and then walked home together. She hasn't really made any other friends yet."
"That's nice of you to be her friend," Mom said.
"Are you going to ask her out?" Dad asked with a wink.
"Trent, jeez, can't he just be friends with a girl?"
"What? Yes, of course, but if he goes out with this girl, maybe he'll stay away from that other one."
"That's not nice one bit," Mom said, and she looked ready to fight.
Oh no, this wasn't how he needed this to go.
Dad puffed himself up, ready to go at her, too, but Mom surprised them both by striking a smile. "Melissa is a bit pushy and manipulative, isn't she?" She reached over and gripped Ben's forearm. "Sorry, sweetie, we shouldn't be talking about her like that."
He wanted to bust out laughing, but played it cool. This couldn't be going any better. He already knew their feelings about Melissa, and though he never saw any of it before, now that he had Andi – forever, if that was to be believed – he could see it now. After all, she'd pushed for them to date, not him; she'd dictated everything they did and everywhere they went; she'd instigated their one and only make-out session. Though he'd enjoyed himself with her, especially that day they'd made out, he wanted to be on level ground with his girlfriend. She always had the upper hand.
"That's okay. Actually that's kind of where this is going."
His parents continued eating, but he had their attention. He took a bite himself to draw them in even more. His father bit first. "Okay, so where's this going?"
"I met Andi's parents today after school, and they're going camping this weekend. They're glad she made a quick friend, so they wanted to know if I'd like to go with them. It's up in the San Bernardino Mountains, near Big Bear. They even have a pup tent and sleeping bag I can use."
"What's wrong with your sleeping bag?" Dad asked. "You don't think your little girlfriend will climb in with you when she sees it's the Power Rangers?"
Ben groaned and his mom shouted, "Trent, that's not appropriate."
"I'm clearly joking, Heidi. I wish I could pinpoint when you lost your sense of humor." He turned to Ben. "You knew I was kidding, right?"
Ben nodded and managed a weak smile.
"It's still not a good message to send our son." She turned to Ben. "Don't listen to him. You shouldn't be letting this girl climb into a sleeping bag with you, no matter how it's decorated."
Now Dad groaned, and Ben wanted to join him. He was sure his face was beet-red, but he jumped on the opportunity they presented him with. "Her parents will be there, so she won't be able to get into my sleeping bag," then quickly added, "Not that I'd let her anyway."
"Good catch," Dad said.
"So I can go?"
"We didn't say that," Mom said, while Dad said, "Not so fast," at the same time.
"But …"
Mom put up her hand, and he stopped. If he played this cool, he might still get them to agree. If he fought them, they'd say no and stick to it out of principle.
"You hardly know this girl or her parents."
"Her parents are nice." Well, her mom was, anyway. Her dad didn't seem to like him one bit.
"I'm sure they are. Do you have their phone number? I'd like to talk to them before we decide one way or the other." She looked over at Dad, but Ben could tell she did so grudgingly.
"Your mother is right."
Ben did his best not to show relief. No doubt if they talked to Mrs. Thomas, they'd let him go. "Yeah, it's in my phone. I'll bring it down after dinner."
The rest of the meal went relatively smooth. Ben managed to ignore the few verbal jabs his parents threw at each other. As soon as they were done eating, he retrieved Andi's home phone number, and his mom promised to call soon.
Once he was back up in his room,
his cell rang. Melissa. Crap. He picked up and said hi.
"Hi, Ben. Take me out this weekend. We'll go to dinner and a movie. Dance Like You Mean It comes out on Friday."
"I, uh, can't this weekend. I'm going out of town."
"Where are your parents taking you?"
"To the mountains. I'm going camping."
Her disbelief dripped through the phone. "Your parents don't seem like the camping type. You never mentioned anything like that before."
"I didn't say I was going with my parents."
"So who are you going with? The new girl?"
"Goodbye, Melissa. I have homework to do." Wow, had he just said that? He'd never shut her down like that before.
The brief silence on her end proved she noticed. When she spoke again, malice laced her voice. "Listen, Ben, you need to choose between me and her. And if you choose her, I'll make it my business to show you she's no good for you. I'll get the whole school on my side." With that, she hung up without saying goodbye.
Great, just what he needed. As if learning he was a Dragon Guard wasn't enough, now he had to worry about the whole school ganging up on him. He sighed and fell back on his bed.
Chapter 7
Ben and Andi sat at a planter near the math building, finishing their lunch. He'd asked if she had raw steak or something, and she replied, as if his question had been serious, that she preferred ham and cheese at school. Then she winked to show she knew he was kidding. He also asked if she spit fire. No, dragons spewed acid. The fire myth came about because the acid was highly flammable. Sometimes dragons lit their breath for a more devastating result.
As they finished, and he threw both their lunch sacks away, a thought struck him. "How many times have you gone to high school? I mean, you've been about this age awhile, right? At least by human standards."
She got a far away look in her eyes and said, "I've been going to different schools for almost a hundred years. I start as a freshman, and stay in school until I'm a senior, usually leaving sometime during the year. Then we'll move away so I can start the process over again. Sometimes I'll take a few years off if we're living where no one will notice. That way we can stay put that much longer."
"Wow, it must get boring to go through the same grades over and over."
"At first it was exciting, but, yeah, it got tedious pretty quick. It doesn't help that I never learn much."
"How come?"
"I already know so much, more than the teachers." She blushed and looked at the ground. "It sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm not. It's just how it is."
He nudged her and put a mocking tone in his voice, trying to get her to smile again. "So dragons are smarter than everyone else?"
"Yeah. Our brains are different from yours. Plus my parents home schooled me since I was a baby. And I've been a voracious reader since I could get books, so that helped with my education." She blushed even brighter. "Now I sound like a pompous ass, don't I?"
"No, you don't. You're just answering my question." He rubbed her back and shoulders, and she gave a shiver. A good one, he knew, because he felt the same. It was amazing how comfortable he was around her, especially after just a couple of days.
"Anyway," she continued, "school was important. Not for the book stuff, but for learning to be with people. I lived a pretty sheltered life, and I can probably count the number of friends I had on one hand for my first 650 years. Now I just go because it's socially expected. Mom and Dad don't even care anymore. I still like coming, though. It keeps life interesting."
"Those first 650 years must have been lonely," Ben said. Not that he had many friends himself, but at least he got along with most everyone at school. He could always find people to talk and joke with in his classes. And he hung out with Randy, Jay, and Vince when he wanted, though he doubted he'd see them very often anymore now that he had Andi. It wouldn't take them long to forget about him, either.
"I didn't know any different, so it was fine, but when I started school, there were suddenly a bunch of kids my own age – relatively, I mean – who I could talk to and have fun with. I learned so much those first three years, and then was heartbroken when we had to leave. It wasn't like I could keep in touch with them."
She looked out amongst the campus as if remembering a time long past. He sat quiet next to her, letting her choose when she wanted to continue. Besides, this way he could look at her, admire her perfect beauty, without feeling like he was staring. After a moment, she said, "This cycle continued at the next couple of schools until I told my parents I couldn't take it anymore. Instead of fighting me, they moved us out into the country where I didn't have to go to school. We stayed there for about five years until I figured it out."
"What?"
"They have to move every few years, too. I don't think it bothers my dad very much, but I'm betting you can guess my mom is a people person. I know she misses the friends she made. That's when it dawned on me; I'll be losing friends my entire life. That's the curse of being a dragon." She gasped, tears overflowing in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. "And I've cursed you, too."
Ben gathered her in his arms and wiped a few of the tears away. He didn't trust himself to speak; none of this dragon stuff, this long future with her, seemed real yet, despite the things he'd heard and seen. He did know that he liked her, and it likely went beyond that. No doubt she was his girlfriend now, and they hadn't even been on a date yet.
She turned towards him and smiled, and he did the boldest thing of his entire life, as far as he could remember. He leaned into her and gave her a kiss. If it shocked her, she didn't show it. The kiss didn't last long, wasn't much more than a peck on the lips, as they were both aware many people could see them, but neither let that diminish the moment.
They pulled apart and smiled at each other. He wiped the remaining tears from her cheek, and she snuggled into him. He took a quick peek around to see if anyone was staring, but everyone was going about their own business.
Except Melissa. Uh-oh. She'd seen it, and was stomping away, he long, curly blonde hair trailing behind her. This wasn't good.
"Melissa saw us," he said.
Andi turned and looked. "Guess now she knows she needs to go find somebody else." She gripped Ben's arm and giggled. "She needs to stay away from my man."
"You don't understand," he said, and relayed the threatening phone call from last night.
When he finished, Andi said, "Welcome to high school. This sort of thing has been going on since I started."
"Yeah, but not to me. I could always ignore it when it happened to someone else."
She reached up and caressed his cheek. "It'll blow over. Don't worry."
"Easy for you to say," he said, and she chuckled. Then a thought struck him. "You said you always start as a freshman, but you didn't this time. How come?"
She didn't answer for a minute.
"I don't know," she finally said. "For some reason, I thought it was important for me to be a sophomore. My parents didn't argue." She shivered, and looked at him, a bit of fear in her eyes.
"What?"
"I guess it's just that now we know why." She scrunched her nose and frowned. It was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. "Fate is weird."
He let that thought sink in while enjoying her sitting so close. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch before he was ready. She stood slowly, also not eager to part. As she picked up her backpack, she said, "Go show 'em what an awesome soccer player you are."
"Yeah, my mad PE skills of trying not to sweat will blow them away."
She giggled and leaned forward for another kiss. This one wasn't much longer than the first, but their tongues met for a split second. She gave a quiet moan, and he had to fight hard not to grab her in a hug and keep the kiss going. When they broke apart, she smiled and bit her bottom lip, then said goodbye and hurried towards the math building. He watched her go and wondered if he was in love.
*****
"I enjoyed talking to your mother, Ben," Mrs. Th
omas said. "She was very nice."
"Thanks, she is." When she's not fighting with my dad, he wanted to add, but didn't.
He and Andi sat in the back of the SUV on the way to the mountains. They weren't yet too far from home, heading east up the 91 freeway. With the music on, old rock songs from the 60s, most of which Ben had never heard before, he and Andi could talk quietly and not feel like they were being listened to. As they discussed their days at school, he still had a hard time believing how easily he could converse with her, more like they'd been a couple for years instead of days. He couldn't tell for certain, but with certain looks she gave him, she felt the same.
"So, Ben," Mrs. Thomas called from the front seat, "did Andi explain what was happening this weekend?"
"Sort of," he said, while Andi chimed in with, "Not really."
"There's not much to it, anyway," Mrs. Thomas said. "Basically these two," she motioned to Andi and Mr. Thomas, "are going to spend all day Saturday and part of Sunday doing dragon things deep in the mountains. While they're out there hunting and frolicking or whatever, the two of us will practice with your sword and shield."
"We don't frolic, Cassandra," Mr. Thomas growled from the driver's seat.
"How would I know? I've never been invited."
"You're not a dragon."
Mrs. Thomas rolled her eyes and then winked at them. The way Andi laughed, it must've been an old argument, long played out and now done just for fun. He vaguely remembered his parents doing that before every fight became serious.
"Dad and I will bring back an awesome dinner tomorrow." She smiled and nudged him. "One of the perks of having a dragon for a spouse."