“How about three?” he asked.
“Three it is,” I said as we got to the door to the other building. After he gave me his address and we walked into class, I spent half of fourth period sneaking peeks at him- and he was almost always looking back at me- and I spent the other half imagining what his parents were like. This was something that I had somehow overlooked before. I was going to be meeting his parents in two days. Am I ready for that? Holy crap!
♀ ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀
When my parents were both home, I decided to just come out and ask them. Like ripping off a band aid, I told myself. I walked into the living room where they were relaxing. My mother is a few inches taller than me, which I hate, with short dyed-blond hair, blue eyes, and a tiny figure. My dad is not quite six feet tall, has brown hair with some grey starting to appear, green eyes, and is somehow always tan. I guess those genes decided to not copy onto his daughter’s DNA. Lucky me- I get to burn at least once every single time I go to the beach.
“How was school today?” my mother asked automatically when I walked in the room. What is it with parents and that question? School is school. The answer is almost always “fine.” But this time I did have another answer for her so I suppressed rolling my eyes.
“It was great.” I had decided to go with a happy beginning to this conversation to soften her up a bit. “Actually I made a few friends with the new students this year.” Wait for the opening…
“Really? What are they like?” She asked, glancing back down at her fashion magazine. And there’s the opening.
“One of their names is Bridget.” I had already thought that it would be better to use their more normal names in front of my parents. “She’s really nice… I was invited to her house this Saturday.” I wasn’t lying; I may not have been invited by her, but it was Odeda’s house too. “She has a friend who is willing to help me prepare for basketball season.” That wasn’t a lie either.
This is where Dad predictably entered the conversation. “Good, you need to start getting ready. This year it’s very important that you work harder than usual.” Dad’s totally into sports; he watches football every Sunday that it’s on and has his UNC Tar Heels to pull for during their b-ball season. He was always the one who tried to come to all of my games, even when I didn’t play a single second all of sixth grade.
“So you’re okay with me going?” I asked hopefully.
“What time are you planning on being there?” my mother asked. I will always be seen as a baby to her- a small child not ready for anything. How irritating is that? It doesn’t help that she’s taller than me. “You know you’re not allowed to drive after nine o’clock. It’s the law.” It must have been some twisted joke of hers to only have one child. I never have anyone else for them to focus on or for them to get angry at the other child’s safety instead of exaggerating everything in my life to monstrous proportions.
“I know Mother. I’ve had my license for three months now; I know the law. I was told to come around three. So....?”
After what seemed like forever, she finally conceded. “You can go.”
“Thank you.” I walked out, grabbed a bowl of cereal, and slipped off to my room before Mother could either change her mind about my going or give me a lecture on how cereal is not appropriate dinner food. Alone in my sanctuary of a room I spent the rest of the night watching TV and reading. I was in a good mood knowing I would get to go to Uriel’s Saturday, and I wasn’t going to let my mother dampen my spirits.
Iris
Chapter 6
Uriel
"We have an order,” Azra said when we were all in the car after school on Friday, “and it has to be taken care of tonight.” I had almost forgotten we were on a mission. Keira constantly preoccupied my thoughts, and that was dangerous. I had to focus; any distraction while carrying out a mission could be fatal. Azra went on, “Evidently, there is a young Nephilim that was born here. The three Watchers that Zev said were spotted have come to lure her over to the side of Chaos. Our order tonight is to reach her before the Watchers do and to keep them away from her.”
“A young Nephilim? But what Watcher would risk bringing another into existence when there is always the chance that the child will choose good?” Odeda asked.
“You’re asking me to explain the Watchers’ ways?” Azra replied sarcastically.
“True,” she allowed.
“When and where?” Zev asked immediately kicking into action mode.
“We know where the girl lives, so a few of us are going to have to follow her until the Watchers make their move. Any volunteers?”
Zev, Odeda, and I were the lucky ones who drew the short straws and got to babysit the girl. Staking out her house, following as she drove to the mall, and sitting in the parking lot waiting for her to come out were not the ways I would have chosen to spend my Friday night. There was no possibility that any Watcher would risk exposure and try something in a crowded mall, so there was no reason for us to tag along on the charge’s shopping.
“So,” Odeda said, shifting in the passenger’s seat to face me, “how’s Keira?” Zev leaned forward from where he was sitting in the backseat, obviously interested in the conversation Odeda was trying to start.
“We’re on a mission,” I reminded them.
“Yeah, shadowing this teen is really something that demands my full attention. Uriel, answer the question.” Odeda can be annoyingly bossy when she wants to be.
“Keira is doing great.”
“Oh, come on, I need something to entertain me on this wearisomely boring mission… Have you asked her to have dinner with you, go see a movie, anything yet?” Taking my silence as the “no” it was, Odeda persisted, “What’s wrong with you? It’s completely obvious that you are in serious like with this girl, so why don’t you just tell her already?”
“You know, Keira commented on how you appear to be this delicate, subtle, sweet person, but there is absolutely nothing subtle about you,” I said struggling to not raise my voice to the volume Odeda was lecturing me at. “You say whatever pops into that ridiculous mind of yours.”
“She thinks I’m subtle? Honestly? Has she met me?”
“She said that when you aren’t doing anything and you’re just sitting there, you look… I can’t remember the exact word, but basically you come across as restrained until someone sees those brazen eyes, and then they know you can spit fire.” Okay, by now, I was getting a little impatient, my voice was rising, and Zev was laughing while keeping a safe distance from Odeda who had turned around to slap him for his first snicker and all of the ones that preceded it.
Once she got hold of him, Odeda looked back my way. “Keira said that about me?”
“No, she put it in kinder words and didn’t mean any harm by it. I am exaggerating in an attempt to make you see that you are meddlesome.”
“Well excuse me for trying to know something about your relationship,” Odeda forced a gasp and over dramatically put her hand to her mouth as if she had gone too far, but she was only getting started. “That is, if you even have one. How else am I going to know anything about her, when you take up all of her time?” Odeda said in her irritating “I’ve proven my point” voice.
“I do not take up all of Keira’s time,” I told her, starting to feel defensive.
“Well….” Zev decided to put in.
“Whose side are you on anyway?” I turned on him.
“I’m not taking sides,” Zev told me, “but if I were, I would definitely be on Keira’s.”
That made Odeda turn on him too. “You would pick her over me? We’re family! I’ve put up with you for ages and in one week, this perishable girl wiggles her way into everyone’s heart!?!”
“Don’t label her like that,” I snapped at her.
“You’ve put up with me?” Zev said. “I’ve put up with you. Keira appreciates my talents and jokes, and she makes Uriel happy. What do you do?” He went ahead and answered for her. “You complain about my sports
equipment being left out around the house. And you start fights- like right now!”
There was silence for a few minutes, and then everyone said “Sorry.” We’re a family; brothers and sisters argue sometimes.
We listened to the radio until about quarter past eight when Odeda spotted our charge. It was a younger girl, probably around sixteen, who was five-six or so with dark hair. She was coming out of the mall and walking, rather slowly might I add, even for a human, toward her car. It looked like our mission that night was going to be a waste of time; she was halfway to her vehicle, the night was almost over, we were almost certain she would go directly home when she left, and nothing had gone wrong.
I might have jinxed it with that last thought. “Do you see something over there?” Zev asked pointing to the shadows surrounding the building the girl had just left. After a second, I saw what Zev was looking at.
There was a figure coming up behind her. A few steps further and he was in the parking lot lights. “It’s Arien,” I realized.
“Oh no,” Odeda breathed as we all jumped out of the car. Our charge was within ten feet of her car, so all we had to do was reach Arien before he reached her. Zev and I ran silently straight at the Watcher while Odeda was moving closer to the girl. When Arien saw who we were, he stopped advancing on her. Defensively, Odeda stood with her back to the girl’s car as its engine roared to life, and Zev and I stopped a good fifteen feet from where Arien stood, now motionless, ready to attack if he made the wrong move. Once the girl was a safe distance away, we relaxed. Our mission was successful and there was no reason to fight that night with the one Watcher.
Arien was a powerful operator for the other side, but he was still no match for Zev, Odeda, and me. I stood there staring into his black eyes that were almost completely hidden beneath his long, tangled black hair. His skin was so sickly pale that I could almost see through it, even in the dark parking lot. “You win this round,” he admitted in his hissing, slurred voice, “but we don’t give up easily on the chance to add another to our numbers.” He slowly backed up into the shadows he had come from and vanished.
I heard Odeda sigh in relief. “Not to sound like a Staples commercial, but, that was easy.”
“He wasn’t expecting us,” I said, “or else he wouldn’t have come alone. He isn’t the type to make the same mistake twice so we’ll have to be on our guards from now on.”
“Buzz kill,” Odeda murmured as we started to walk back to the car. Then a little bit more loudly, she said, “You’re not going to be like that when Keira comes over tomorrow are you?”
I let out my breath in an exasperated sigh. When Zev and I closed our doors to the car, I locked them. Odeda stood by hers, with her arms crossed, glaring at me through the window. “Do I dare leave her here?” I asked Zev.
“Azra wouldn’t be happy.” He smiled. “But I’d be laughing all night.”
“I want to, but...” I unlocked the door and Odeda slammed it behind her once she was in.
“Hilarious guys, really.”
♂ ♂ ♂ ♂ ♂
The next morning, I woke up against my will at an unnatural hour. Odeda was vacuuming underneath my bed. “What on earth are you doing? Why are you in my room? What time is it?” I complained, disoriented, while trying to rub the sleep from my eyes with the palms of my hands. When I didn’t get a response I rolled over and looked at the clock. “Six-thirty! On a Saturday!?! Woman, are you mad?” I flat out yelled at her. Odeda’s head popped up like she was surprised. Then she pulled some earphones out of her ears, and I realized why she hadn’t said anything before.
“What?” she said innocently, and then she rolled her eyes and gave me a look that said that I was a complete idiot. “Keira’s coming over today, and the house is a mess. Do you want her to know all of our nasty habits on her first visit over? I don’t, and you guys are pigs,” she said scrunching up her face while looking around at my discarded clothes lying on the floor.
Once what she was saying registered in my still-asleep brain, I retorted, “Well it’s not like I’m expecting her to wander into my room. What kind of man do you think I am?”
“Uh, I am going to be giving her a tour of the house; it’s the first one I have actually liked since the Victorian era. The exterior has the same qualities don’t you think? So… get up and clean up,” she demanded, and she stomped out leaving the vacuum in the middle of the room still plugged in like I was going to use it or something. I rolled back over and instantly fell asleep; that is, until Odeda stomped back in and yelled some more.
After I stood up and put some pants and a shirt on, I dragged myself downstairs for some breakfast. “What do we have this morning?” I asked Azra, Dagan, and Zev who were sitting with their backs to me at the dinner table. They simultaneously turned around, and I saw that they had been woken up unwillingly the same way I had. Dagan and Zev’s eyes were sagging halfway closed and Azra’s hair was atypically disorderly.
“You eat whatever you make,” Dagan spat at me. He had a bowl of cereal in front of him and was obviously not happy with his cold breakfast. “Odeda wouldn’t make us anything,” he sounded rather pathetic as he said this and slurped a spoonful of his Captain Crunch.
“Learn to cook for yourselves!” Odeda advised as she popped out of the kitchen door with yellow rubber gloves on, a sponge in one hand and some cleaning spray in the other. “This is the twenty-first century, and I don’t have to do everything for you any more. So ha! Learn to make your own damn food.” And with that she disappeared to do some more scrubbing.
I walked over to sit down with the others. “We have eight and a half hours until Keira’s supposed to be here.” I pointed out to them. They just nodded, knowing that this fact would not make the woman of the house slow down any. She was a cleaning machine. No matter how much she went on about the twenty-first century or women’s rights, she would always be old fashioned about being the picture of perfection when it came to being a hostess and presenting her home to others. The house would be spotless in a few hours, and Odeda would spend the remaining time stressing over everything in sight that was already faultless.
When she was finished with the kitchen and started working on the den, I got up and left my brothers looking like they were ready to pass out. Odeda might be the expert chef of the family, but I could at least make myself a decent breakfast. I made my way over to the refrigerator and got out a couple of eggs and the milk. Within minutes after the bread hit the frying pan, Azra, Dagan, and Zev were hovering around the stove practically drooling over the French toast I was making. The first piece was mine, and after I added the powdered sugar and syrup and sat back down at the dining room table to enjoy, the others were begging me to make them some too. Once I’d had my fun, I made more to share. “Do not get used to this,” I warned them. “I am not going to start making you three breakfast in the morning.”
Around a mouth full of toast, Azra asked me, “When did you learn how to make French toast?”
“A couple decades ago. I didn’t want to be dependent on Odeda and her ever-changing moods to make sure that I could eat what I want, when I want. Plus it’s easy.”
“Speaking of what you want,” Dagan puffed out through the powdered sugar coating his mouth, “-that being Keira- I don’t have to help out with the basketball stuff when she comes over right?”
Ignoring his sly comment, I answered his question, “No, Dagan, you don’t have to leave your little couch in front of your little game the entire time Keira’s over. In fact, I would prefer it if you did stay hidden away; then you can’t embarrass me.”
“Whatever. As long as I don’t have to help out with your little games.”
“Hey! Basketball is a sport,” Zev spoke up, “not a game. It takes real skill and real muscles to play, not just your thumbs moving a stick up and down and left and right.”
“It’s called a toggle.”
Zev busted out laughing. “Like that’s any better; you’re not helping your case any.
” By this time, Azra and I were smiling and shaking our heads at the never ending argument that those two get into at least once a week.
“Some things never change,” he said.
I heard Odeda start the vacuum up again, and corrected, “Some people never change.” Azra smiled more widely but didn’t speak his amusement. He would never say anything that could bring about the wrath of his lady while she was in the same building as he. “So, what should we do while we wait?” I inquired.
“Why? Are you getting nervous?” Dagan asked as he and Zev finished up their debate on the definition of sport. I hadn’t noticed really- probably because I was doing my best not to think about it- but my stomach was starting to work itself into a knot, and it was not because of my cooking.
“No,” I denied it to him as well as myself, “we just have time to kill, and I’m getting bored. So think of something.” They all shared a blank look. When we’re on a mission, we don’t usually have that much free time.
“I have an idea,” Odeda snuck up on us, “you could all get off of your lazy asses and help me clean.” Nobody offered a response, so she turned her preference into a demand. “Everyone has to make certain their bedrooms are presentable, and then report back to me to see what else there is.” When we all sat there staring at her, she insisted, “Now! Go!”
“She’s got a mouth on her when she’s cleaning,” Dagan whispered to me as we obediently left the room.
“I heard that!”
♂ ♂ ♂ ♂ ♂
By two thirty, I was glancing at the clock every two minutes. After everyone had accomplished the impossible, that is, Odeda was actually satisfied with our cleaning job, we decided to watch some television. Right then, Dagan had the remote and was searching for something good. “Wait, go back,” Zev told him. Dagan went back one channel.
Defiant Destiny Page 5