by Wesley King
Eldon just looked down at me and sighed. “We’re in trouble.”
I practised for a while, until I finally managed to get the hammer out in one smooth motion. Satisfied, Eldon put the hammer and sheath away and walked with me back to Porton and the elevator. He quizzed me along the way, as per usual. When I answered every question correctly, he shook his head and laughed.
“I must say, Laura, I wish my other students would read as much as you do.”
“I guess they’re too busy crushing things.”
He turned to me. “There is more to being a Monster Crusher than brute strength. You must wield the hammer, yes. But you must be a leader. A true leader. And that requires courage, character, and the intelligence to know what risks are worth taking.”
He laid a hand on my shoulder.
“You may not be the best warrior I have ever seen. But you may just turn into a leader yet.” He smiled. “See you tomorrow,” he said, and then turned back for Arnwell.
I climbed into the elevator and headed for the surface. I was so deep in thought that I just climbed out, shut the panel, and walked out of my closet but then stopped immediately. Tom was sitting on my bed.
“Hello, Giant Girl,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Tom?” I said, almost jumping backward through the door. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you,” he replied calmly. “Why were you in the closet?
“Uhh…” Think fast. “Organizing my stuff.”
He immediately folded his arms, which he always does when he knows I’m lying.
“I knocked on your door and called your name,” he said. “You didn’t answer.”
“I dozed off,” I said, sitting down beside him. “No big deal.”
A frown creased his pale forehead. His short blond hair was tousled and standing on end, so he’d obviously been asleep. “You dozed off in your closet?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been sleepy.”
He seemed to think about that for a moment.
“You’ve been acting strangely for the last month. Happy, I guess, but kind of like you’re hiding something. You always take off for bed at 9:30 and sleep late and you never pop into my room to read for me anymore.”
Tom had Braille books of course, but it was true: I used to read to him at least every other night at the old house. I suddenly felt guilty. I really hadn’t been paying much attention to my little brother lately. I’d been busy, but that was no excuse. I was going to make sure I spent more time with him from now on.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I guess I’ve just been trying to adjust.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “Shannon doesn’t like me.”
“How do you know that?”
He sighed. “She’s going out with some guy named Dave. He sounds handsome.”
I stifled a laugh. “What does handsome sound like?”
“Deep and confident.” He paused. “Well, as deep as a nine-year-old can sound.”
“What is with this nine-year-old dating people thing anyway?” I asked incredulously. “Shouldn’t you be worrying about cooties or something?”
“Probably,” he murmured. “But I liked her.”
I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and hugged him.
“If it’s any consolation, the love of my life doesn’t like me either.”
“Is he dating someone?”
I hesitated. “No.”
“Did he tell you he didn’t like you?”
“Not exactly.”
“So how do you know he doesn’t like you?”
I thought about that. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t.”
“Then ask him out, Giant Girl. If he says no, squash him.”
I laughed. Tom didn’t know how close he was to the truth.
“I’ll think about it. Now go to bed.”
“You’re sure you’re all right?”
“Positive.”
Tom got off the bed and walked out into the hall, and I started to close the door before stopping.
“Why were you in my room anyway?” I asked, frowning.
“I had a nightmare. Wanted to see if you were all right.”
“What nightmare?”
He shrugged. “You were fighting a big green monster.”
I looked at him, feeling nervous little tingles creep down my neck. Did Tom know anything about where I was going at night? And why could he see the openings to the Under Earth? It was all very worrisome. It was bad enough that I was involved. There was no way I was letting my little brother anywhere near Derwin or monsters or any of it. I had to keep him out of this at any cost.
I just shook my head. “Sometimes you freak me out, Bat Boy.”
—
It took a little while to finally fall asleep, and when I did, I dreamt of big green monsters too. It wasn’t a pleasant sleep. Needless to say I was a little tired in the morning, enough that I actually fell asleep during the car ride to school. It’s like a five-minute drive. My mom looked over and snapped, “Laura!” and I jerked awake and blinked sleepily. Tom giggled in the back.
“Are you feeling all right?” she asked worriedly.
A sick day! Why didn’t I think of taking one earlier?
“Fine,” I muttered. “Just tired. Didn’t sleep very well.”
“Bully trouble?” she asked, glancing at me.
“Just a lot on my mind,” I said. “I’m good.”
As soon as my mom dropped me off, I spotted Mia and Shal sitting at their usual spot on the portable steps and hurried over, eager to get my mind off of monster training.
“You look tired,” Shal said immediately.
“Thanks,” I said. “Hey, Mia.”
“Hey,” she said brightly. “Dream of Liam all night?”
“Oh, yeah. There was a beach involved.”
Shal wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure he has much of a beach body.”
I laughed. “Neither do I. Unless I’ve washed up on one.”
Mia giggled and then instantly covered her mouth. “Sorry.”
“You do your math homework?” Shal asked.
“Yeah, most of it. I think I missed a few. Did Mia do your math homework?”
Shal smiled. “You know it. And here comes Allison.”
I turned and saw Allison coming around the school from the front, accompanied by a few seagulls. I expected Allison to be equally tired after a long night of training last night, but apparently she was just fine. She was wearing her raven hair in a ponytail today, which should have been less flashy, but isn’t quite the same when you have perfectly curled strands hanging down around your ears and are wearing bright-red lipstick. Who wears lipstick in eighth grade? I could tell she was having an “Aren’t I SO hot?” day that usually resulted in twice the bullying.
She walked by us, meeting my eyes for just a second. Mia was already long gone. For a moment I wondered if she would act differently now that I knew the truth about her. “Morning, ladies. You both look great today. Minus the ginger hair and about fifty to seventy pounds.”
Sigh. I guess not.
“You look good too,” I said to Allison. “Minus your sparkling personality.”
Shal looked at me in shock. Allison just smirked.
“Funny,” she said. “Are you a comedian now?”
“I guess that makes you the joke,” I replied. Nice.
The seagulls glanced at me, frowning. Shal looked like she was about to faint.
“Look everyone, the fat girl is growing a backbone,” Allison said. She leaned in close. “Just try not to grow anywhere else. We’re going to have to find you a new chair.”
The seagulls snickered and continued on their merry way, sending people scurrying in their wake. I saw Allison smiling and shaking her head as she walked away.
“Where did that come from?” Shal whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve just got it out for trolls lately.”
The rest of the day
was fairly uneventful. Liam was answering every question like usual, and I was fawning over him from a safe distance. We didn’t even speak all day, though I did get a smile and a wave. Shal had a lot to say on the topic at lunch.
“You can’t just expect him to come up to you,” she reasoned, sipping from a grape juice box. “He’s shy.”
I made a face. “So what am I supposed to do? Ask him out?”
Shal slapped the table. “That’s it. You can ask him out!”
“I thought we went over this?” I said, looking around frantically to make sure no one was listening.
She shook her head. “Not one-on-one. You still have those movie tickets you won for that geography quiz?”
“Yeah,” I said, frowning.
“So me, you, and Mia will go to the movies, and we’ll say my mom already bought me a pass for two, so you needed someone else to use yours on or it will go to waste. Ask him to come!”
“With three girls?”
She smiled. “Exactly. If he turns it down, his own mother will make fun of him.”
I hesitated and looked across the classroom, where Liam was sitting with his two friends, Paul and Steve. The three of them were very similar: they played a lot of fantasy card games and didn’t really talk to girls. They all seemed nice. I thought about something and turned back to Shal.
“Don’t even say it,” Shal said, putting her juice box down.
“It makes sense.”
“What?” Mia asked, sounding alarmed.
“He might as well bring them,” I said.
Mia looked at me. “The other two boys?” she whispered.
“But they’re such losers,” Shal whined.
I narrowed my eyes and she sighed.
“Fine. But I call Paul.”
Mia sat back in her chair, eyes wide. “Tell me we’re not going on a triple date.”
—
It’s a lot easier to talk about asking a boy out than to actually do it. I kept finding excuses. Oh, he’s talking with Paul. Oh, recess is almost over. Oh, the wind is too loud, he won’t hear me. Before I knew it the last bell had gone, and we were exiting the class. I grabbed my books and started for my locker, ignoring Shal and Mia as they hurried behind me.
“You didn’t ask,” Shal said.
“I noticed,” I muttered.
“Well, you tried—” Mia started.
Shal grabbed my arm. “Do it.”
I shook my head. “It’s too late.”
She scowled. “Do it.”
I looked at her and then at Liam as he opened up his locker. My stomach was doing backflips again. I think facing the giant spider was easier.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going. Wish me luck.”
I slowly walked toward him, clutching my books to my chest so hard that my knuckles were white. I could feel Shal and Mia watching. What was I going to say? Hey, will you go out with me? I mean us. I mean will you come to the movie? With Shal and Mia? And Steve and Paul? By the way, I think you’re awesome and can we sit next to each other? Oh yeah, that would work great. I reached his locker. Say something!
“Hey,” I said. Okay, good start. Very natural.
He turned and smiled. “Hey.”
I fidgeted for a second. “Not sure what you’re doing tonight, but Mia, Shal, and I are going to the movies. We’re gonna see Dinosaur Ninja or something ridiculous like that. They already have a pass, and I have that pass from the geography quiz, so I was gonna see if you wanted to come. You can bring Steve and Paul, too, if you want.”
He grinned. “It’s like a triple date.”
I felt myself blush immediately. “Ha, yeah, didn’t even think of that. Well, no big deal if you’re doing something or—”
“I’m in,” he said. “Can’t turn down a free movie. I’ll get the popcorn. And I’ll ask Steve and Paul too. We usually just play vids on Friday, so I’m sure they’re free.”
Did he just say yes? He said yes! Compose yourself. The job isn’t done yet.
“Great,” I said. “I think it’s on at 7:45. Meet you guys at 7:30?”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
I smiled, turned around, and slowly walked back to Mia and Shal, trying not to skip, bounce, jog, or do anything but walk naturally. They pretended to do something by my locker until I was right beside them, and then they both turned to me instantly.
“What did he say?” Shal asked, grabbing my arm.
I grinned. “We better go home and get ready. The three of us have dates tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
We decided that a sleepover was the only possible way to deal with this new development. Actually, Shal did. I couldn’t see how I could sneak into the closet to get to Derwin without the girls noticing, but I had never had a sleepover before, and Shal was making some forceful arguments, so I decided to risk it and let myself be talked into it. For one, we all had to get ready together. I’m not sure why, but Shal insisted that was a necessity for triple dates. And we had to go back to the same house afterwards so we could discuss and analyze every single thing that had happened over the course of the evening. I just had to hope my closet didn’t rattle too early. And, besides, I was glad for the company.
I was also freaking out.
Mia was worse. She looked terrified. I’m not sure she’d ever even spoken to a boy before. She barely spoke to any girls. I had been hanging out with boys for the last month in Derwin, so I was at least slightly more prepared. Of course, those boys were also warriors from around the planet, so the conversation would probably be a bit different.
“Too curly?” Shal asked, turning to us from the mirror.
She’d curled her auburn hair into little ringlets that fell to her shoulders and highlighted her blue eyes. For a girl who had apparently not wanted to go on a triple date, she was putting a lot of effort in. She was wearing a new white top and faded blue jeans, and she’d been painstakingly applying makeup for the last hour and a half.
“Perfect,” I said.
I had gone a little simpler. Actually I was just wearing jeans and a graphic T-shirt—same as every other day. I had allowed Shal to curl my hair just a little, and I had put on some concealer, eye shadow, and blush. It didn’t look bad actually. I was just really happy Allison wasn’t here.
Mia sat beside me on the bed and stared into a little oval mirror. Her hair was up in a messy bun, which she never did, and she too was wearing makeup—another first. Along with a green shirt and yoga pants that Shal had made her buy, she looked really cute.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“No,” she said.
“You’ll be fine.”
“I’ve never even spoken to Steve,” she said, looking at me with wide eyes. “Not even hi. Hello. Once he looked at me, I think. But I’m not even sure about that.”
I sat down at the computer and scrolled through my profile. “You don’t have to marry him, Mia. You just have to sit near him. Not even beside him, if you want.” I paused. “How are we going to arrange the seating?”
Shal glanced at me in the mirror. “They’re boys. They’ll sit together. Your only chance will be before and after.”
“Makes sense,” I said thoughtfully.
“What if Liam wants to sit next to you?” Mia asked.
Shal snorted. “Then she’ll throw us both on the ground to make room.”
I stopped on Liam’s old message to me and smiled. “Probably.”
My mom poked her head into the room. I think she was more excited than anyone. As someone who loved to dress up and put on makeup, she was thrilled that her tomboy daughter was finally going on a date. She looked at me and hesitated.
“I still think a nicer shirt—”
“This one is fine,” I said.
She smiled. “It’s definitely fine. The hair is so cute. You girls all look adorable.” She glanced at her watch. “We should probably get going. Don’t want to be late.”
“All right, meet you down there,”
I said.
She gave me one last happy grin and hurried down the stairs. I sighed deeply.
“She’s going to talk about this for weeks.”
“My mom looked like she was going to faint when I told her,” Mia said.
Shal pouted into the mirror one last time before turning around. “And my dad warned me that boys are all scoundrels and to be avoided,” she said. “That’s what parents are for. Shall we?”
We hurried down the stairs, where my still-beaming mother was waiting by the door with her keys. Tom and Stache were in the living room watching TV. Stache glanced back as we put our shoes on.
“Leaving?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said.
“Call me when the movie’s done,” he said. “Not a second later. Don’t let those boys get any ideas. You stick around and they’ll think it’s kiss-in-the-moonlight time.”
I made a face. “Can we never talk about this again?”
He turned back to the TV. “Agreed.”
Tom looked over from the recliner. “Love the outfits, ladies.”
Shal and Mia looked at me in confusion. I just rubbed my forehead.
“Thank you, Bat Boy. Can we leave, Mom?”
“Absolutely,” she said happily, pulling the door open. “Come on, girls. Don’t want to leave the boys waiting.” Just saying that made her smile even wider.
She ushered us to the car and turned to me as we pulled out of the driveway.
“Now remember what I said—”
“Even boys like please and thank you?”
She smiled. “You’ll be great.”
I looked out the window, feeling my stomach turn. I really hoped she was right.
—
The boys were waiting awkwardly by the front doors when we arrived. I had been a little afraid that Paul and Steve might not show, since they hadn’t technically agreed to come. But everyone was here, Shal and Mia were smiling nervously in the back of the van, and my mom was squeezing my hand and saying, “Have fun, sweetie.”
Oh crap. I was actually going on a date.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
We climbed out, said our goodbyes, and went to meet the boys. As soon as I saw Liam, some of my nervousness disappeared. He gave me a quick smile as we approached.