B0075M2D1U EBOK

by Julie Cassar

  Chapter 2

  It’s the beginning of summer vacation and I just finished my junior year of high school. I am soooo looking forward to spending long days at the lake (when I’m not working) or reading a book in the garden (when I’m not working) or hiking through the woods with Jeremy (when I’m not working.) Wait. Have I told you about Jeremy yet? Jeremy is my best friend. Next to Anya that is. Jeremy is about six feet tall, kind of skinny for a guy, also with jet black hair (which I’m pretty sure he dyed, because it used to be brown.) Jeremy wears all black. All the time. Black jeans, black t-shirts, black Chuck Taylors…. Black, black, black. He didn’t always though. The all-black-I’m-going-to-a-funeral kind of punk-thing started only about a year-and-a-half-ago. I don’t really know why. I think he’s just doing his teen rebellion thing. You know, trying to be different, push some buttons, grab some attention, that sort of thing. Jeremy and I have gone to school together since we were five years old. He was even my first boyfriend….when we were five. Because, ahem. Jeremy isn’t really into girls anymore. At least not in that way, if you catch my drift. Not many people know that Jeremy prefers boys to girls though. Just his mom and me. Oh yeah, and Anya and Brennan. Yeah – he knows them too. But he doesn’t know they’re fairies. In fact, I think he kind of has a crush on Brennan. Even though, as far as I can tell, Brennan doesn’t roll that way. I know, I know, I should tell my best friend this super-huge thing about myself – that I can see fairies – but I just can’t. Once I realized everyone thought I had “imaginary friends” when I was little, I just figured it was easier to keep quiet about my little knack for seeing the magical creatures. Plus, after I met Anya and Brennan they made me promise not to tell anyone about their true identities. Anyhow, Jeremy and I always spend most of the summer together. Even though his fashion sense has gone berserk-o, he’s still one of my best friends.

  I was looking forward to a summer with Anya and Jeremy…and probably Leo and Brennan too…those pains in my ass!

  The first Saturday of summer break and the clear blue sunny skies definitely put me in a good mood as I rolled out of bed a little after 10:30 in the morning. The other thing that put me in a good mood was the fact that I didn’t have to work today. Yahoo! As I slowly made my way down the hardwood stairs in my bare feet, red t-shirt and plaid boxer shorts, I was greeted by the sound of the vacuum cleaner. I saw my mother balanced precariously on a chair, leaning over the side of it vacuuming the curtains hanging on the window. Her hair was tied back in a navy blue scarf and she had denim cutoffs on. She was barefoot too. My dad always asked us why we never seemed to have shoes on (unless I was wearing my favorite tennis shoes) and Mom would always answer, “We like to feel the earth under our feet.” I would just shrug. Eh. It’s more comfortable, I always thought. Plus, I was too lazy to put my shoes on when I was around the house.

  “Oh good! It’s about time you’re up,” my mother exclaimed as she twisted around to greet me. “You’ve got chores young lady.”

  I rolled my eyes and held my hand to my mouth as I let out a yawn. “Geesh, Ma, gimme a break! I woke up like two minutes ago. I need my chocolate cereal first.” I walked through the living room into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of my favorite cereal. My dad was at the kitchen table, with greasy car parts spread all over newspapers, tinkering away. I don’t know what the heck he was doing. I don’t think he did either. But, he loved working on broken down cars. Hey, at least when I saved enough to buy a junker for myself, I knew my dad could keep it running for me. Well, probably he could. Maybe.

  I shoved some of the newspaper to the side and sat down to eat. “So Rubes, what’s on your agenda for today?” my dad asked while not taking his eyes off whatever part he was cleaning with his greasy, white rag.

  “Uhhh. Not much of an agenda Dad. I’m a teenager, remember? It’s Saturday,” I answered while I shoveled in another mouthful of chocolate puff cereal.

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he replied, as he glanced over the top of his reading glasses at me. Ugh. I shook my head. Just then, the phone rang. I jumped up from the table and grabbed the yellow phone from the wall. When in the world were my parents going to move into this century and get a cordless phone?

  “ ‘Lo?” I managed to get out as I swallowed a mouthful of cereal.

  “Oh good! You’re up! What’s up, Buttercup?” the all-too chipper voice replied.

  “Hey Jeremy. Whaddya mean what’s up? I just woke up. Nothin’s up. Not since last night when I talked to you,” I crabbily answered. Duh. I have no patience in the morning.

  “You wanna hang today?” he said, ignoring my snarky attitude.

  “Yeah, but I gotta do my chores first,” I announced loudly as I glanced over at my dad who was still polishing whatever part he had in his hand.

  “ ‘Kay. Meet me at the lake ‘round noon. If you talk to Anya or Brennan, tell them too.”

  “Sure thing,” I replied.

  Click. He hung up. I hung up the phone and shuffled back over to my bowl of cereal as I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

  “Jeremy?” my dad asked.

  “Yep. We’re gonna meet at the lake later, ‘kay?”

  “As long as your chores are done,” he said, still tinkering away.

  “Yeah, yeah…” I grumbled. Did he not hear what I just said to Jeremy on the phone? I was standing three feet away from him. Sometimes, I don’t think parents pay very much attention to their kids. I finished up my cereal and put my bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. Then I reached under the sink and grabbed the stuff to dust the furniture and clean the upstairs bathroom (my lovely weekend chores).

  As I walked past my mother again (this time she was vacuuming the sofa), she called out, “Wake up your brother too, the trash cans aren’t going to empty themselves!” She was dancing around humming the theme song to the “The Wiz,” while she was sucking up crumbs from under the couch cushions.

  I passed my brother’s room in the hallway on the way to the stair case; I set down my cleaning supplies and pounded on his door with both fists as hard as I could. “Rise and shine CLEOpatra!” (Heh heh…I loved calling my brother all kinds of girly names. He absolutely hated it.)

  I heard my brother grunt and then…THUD! I heard him roll off his bed and onto his hardwood floor. He shouted,“DAMMIT RUBY! You made me fall outta bed!” I snickered and started to skip away from his door, “Ooohhhh! You’re gonna get it! Mom heard you swear!” I laughed. He came thundering out of his room, hair all disheveled, and chased me down the hallway. I scurried up the stairs, using my hands as leverage on the steps as he grabbed at my ankles. “MOMMMM! Leo’s grabbing me!” I squealed. “I AM NOT!” He retorted, while still struggling to hang on to my left foot as I kicked him in the face with my right. He turned his face and exclaimed, “Geesh Ruby! Do you ever wash your feet!?”

  “Shut up. Mom told me to wake you up. You have chores Dragonbreath.” Ugh. Little brothers are so immature. My mother finally turned off the vacuum and came down the hall to investigate the ruckus we were causing. Leo instantly let me go and I scrambled up the stairs.

  “Hey Ma. ‘Sup?” my brother casually nodded as he flicked his shaggy, sandy blonde hair out of his eyes and leaned against the staircase railing. My mother, not a stupid woman, knew we were up to our typical sister-brother shenanigans and sternly scolded, “Get to work, Leo.”

  I finally finished my chores around 11:30 a.m. Just as I was reaching into my dresser to put on my swimsuit to go to the lake, I heard the familiar soda-pop fizzing sound behind me. I turned with a smile. There, suddenly standing in my room were Anya and Brennan. I don’t know how they could keep doing that, coming up out of thin air (well, swirling misty air) and never get caught. Since I introduced them to my family and Jeremy four years ago, they’ve never accidentally appeared in front of them. Boy. That would be a shocker – huh? Anya said it has something to do with their magic and how they can sense if I’m alone or whatever. I have no idea. It’s really over my head,
so I don’t try to overanalyze it.

  “I’m glad you guys popped in,” I said, “Jeremy wants to hang out at the lake today.”

  “Yeah, cool,” answered Brennan. Anya added, “We just have to pop over to our house and get our suits.” Anya looked simply radiant, standing there in silver flip flops, white shorts, a bright yellow tank top and her shimmery beautiful black hair curled up just right. Brennan looked…eh. He looked like Brennan always looked. Kind of sloppy. He had on khaki cargo shorts, a faded blue t-shirt, and his dark hair was sticking up in every direction. He was about five or six inches taller than me and I suppose he had a decent build compared to some of the boys I knew, although I’ve never really given it much thought. He’s usually annoying me so much that I can’t get past the pain-in-the-ass part of him. Oh, and he was barefoot. I knew why I was barefoot; I was standing in my own house. But why the hell was he? Even I put shoes on when I go places.

  “Do you ever wear shoes?” I shook my head at Brennan. He looked down; seemingly unaware that he wasn’t wearing any. “Huh. Guess I forgot. No biggie. We’ve got to go back to the cottage anyway, right, Anya?” Anya nodded.

  “’Kay, hurry up then. I told Jeremy we’d meet him at the lake. Usual spot.” I said. “Now get out. I gotta change.” I shoved at Brennan’s shoulders and started to shoo them away. Suddenly, I was pushing at nothing and a huge “POP!” startled me still. Although they usually don’t surprise me when they arrive, they almost always scare the crap out of me when they leave. You see, when fairies “disappear” it isn’t a slow fizzle, like when they appear. It’s a quick POP, like a cork popping out of a champagne bottle. And then they’re gone. Just that fast. I quickly put on my red tank swim suit, pulled on my jean cutoffs and slipped on my white (well, kind of grey now) Converse. I went to the linen closet in the hallway, grabbed a beach towel and draped it around my neck. I hurried down the stairs and headed for the back door.

  “Hey! Where ya goin’ Scooby?” my brother yelled from the kitchen. Nice. Ever since my brother realized that the cartoon dog’s name rhymed with mine, he’s called me it ever since. “None of your freakin’ business Cleopatra!” I hollered back as the screen door slammed shut behind me.

  I walked through the gardens in the back yard and headed down the well-worn dirt path carved through the woods at the back of our property that lead directly to the lake. I enjoyed looking at the flowers blooming while I strolled towards the water. Scattered along the path were the white trillium and little baby-blue bunches of goodness called forget-me-nots, and I even saw some of the treasured morel mushrooms that tourists came looking for. The birds and bees seemed busy today too. I noticed a couple of bright blue and crimson red dragon flies zipping around. Those were always fun to see. I spotted a few fluttering fairies and smiled as they gave me a wink. It seemed like everyone was enjoying this beautiful, summer day. It was only a three or four minute walk, so I knew I’d be early. As I got closer to the beach, I could hear the familiar sounds of seagulls squawking overhead. I emerged from the wooded path and walked down the grassy embankment that led to the beach. It seemed pretty deserted to me, which was weird because it was a Saturday. I suppose it’s still early in the season though. Not too many people were on their vacations – most of other schools weren’t out for the summer yet. I liked it when I had the beach to myself. It’s such a serene place, with the white sandy beach, the dark, blue-green water and sounds of the seagulls overhead. The best part was that there was no saltiness in the air. You only get that if you go to the ocean. But Michigan is surrounded by the five great lakes, all freshwater. It smells….clean. Like fresh, cool water coming from a garden hose. The lake behind our property wasn’t anywhere near as huge as Lake Michigan, but it’s still pretty big. I love that I can swallow water and not gag on the salty grossness, or take a swim with a huge wicked cut on my foot (which happens often since I’m always bare foot, let me tell you), and not have it sting to high heaven. The best part was that my hair and skin never felt dried out from the water.

  I slipped off my shoes and carried them in my hand as I walked barefoot through the sand towards our usual spot on the beach. There was an abandoned lifeguard tower (there’s never any lifeguard there) and a huge, old fallen tree in the sand next to it.

  I laid out my towel, threw my shoes on it, and sat down on the driftwood log. I propped my elbows on my knees and just stared at the calm water lapping in on the beach. That’s when I saw it.

  I wasn’t sure that I saw anything at all at first. But then I saw it again.

  Chapter 3

  It was out towards the middle of the lake where I saw it. A large, dark hump surfaced above the water, then disappeared again. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. Probably a piece of trash, or a loose buoy, I thought. Then I saw it again. Only this time, the large hump seemed to surface for a little longer and glide along the surface for a few feet before submerging again. I squinted and put my hands up to shield my eyes from the bright sun, hoping to catch a better glimpse of the dark, moving mass out in the lake. What the hell was it? Last I heard, the Loch Ness monster was somewhere in Scotland, not hidden in some lake in northern Michigan. I stared intently at the water, searching for any sign of it again. I had heard the urban legends that Lake Erie had a lake monster. I think they called it Bessie. Maybe old Bessie decided to take a summer vacation and visit our little neck of the woods?

  Jeremy’s voice startled me out of my revelry, “HEY! Whatcha lookin’ at?” he called out as he came jogging up to meet me at our driftwood on the beach. He was wearing a black swimsuit (big surprise) and a ratty, old Ramones t-shirt. Kickin’ it old school I guess. I dropped my hands and shrugged, “Nothin’ I guess. I thought I saw something out in the water, but it’s gone now. Probably just a loose buoy or some tourist’s trash thrown from their boat.” They tend to do that. The weekenders come up, speed around the lake half-drunk all day, then they throw their bags of trash and bottles over the side of their boat instead of lugging it back to shore with them. It’s so annoying.

  “Losers.” Jeremy shook his head.

  “Who are losers?” Brennan asked as he and Anya suddenly walked up behind Jeremy, surprising him. He spun around to greet them as he exclaimed, “Hey guys! I didn’t see you there!” I covered my snicker with a cough. Jeremy didn’t see them because they weren’t there about three seconds ago. He hadn’t noticed their soda-pop fizz appearance behind him. Brennan had on blue board shorts, just a few shades darker than his ice-blue eyes, with his faded blue t-shirt that he had on earlier, and Anya had on a bright yellow swimsuit with a long white sundress over the top of it. I’ve got to say the girl did like wearing yellow.

  “Oh, nobody,” I answered. “Just the boof-nut losers who dump their trash in the lake.” Anya crinkled up her nose in disgust. “People are just so inconsiderate sometimes,” she said with annoyance. I nodded my head in agreement, but couldn’t shake the fact that I didn’t really think it was someone’s trash. It seemed too organic and fluid in its movement. It didn’t just bob up and down, like a buoy or a bag of trash would. I looked out to the water again. Well, whatever it was, it didn’t make another appearance.

  “Cool board shorts,” Jeremy said, eyeing Brennan up and down, “They are shagtastic!”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Thanks,” Brennan answered while he pulled his t-shirt off over his head. “Who’s going to swim? Last one to the water has to smell Ruby’s feet for two minutes!” He was laughing and running backwards towards the water. “SHUT UP!” I retorted, “You’ve been hanging around Leo too much!” I stripped off my cutoffs while I took off towards the waves. I swear he was just as immature as my brother. Jeremy and Anya followed, with Jeremy being the last one into the surf because he was complaining it was too cold. He kept hopping around in ankle deep water, complaining, “Come on guys! How c-c-can you just run in like that?! This s-s-stupid water is f-f-freezing!”

  After about an hour-and-a-half of Brennan trying to dunk A
nya, myself and Jeremy and swimming around, one by one we dragged ourselves back up the beach to our towels, looking like a bunch of drowned rats.

  I plopped down on my towel as Anya gracefully knelt down onto hers. “I am famished!” she declared. “We need to get something to eat before I faint.” Anya always spoke like she was ten years older than us. She had her share of giggles and fun, but she was much more reserved than most 18-year-old girls I knew. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was a southern belle debutant, schooled in etiquette. But, really, she was just wise beyond her years. Most fairies I met seemed to be very proper. Except maybe Brennan, that is. Sometimes he spoke like he was from another time, but usually he was just a pain in the ass. I nodded in agreement as I began to lift the sides of my towel to pat myself dry wherever I could reach. Just then, the boys came running up from the water’s edge, kicking up sand on us. “Hey!” I yelped. “Quit that! We’re trying to dry off here.”

  “Oh yeah?” Brennan sneered and then began to shake his head back and forth like a dog, spraying us with the cold wet droplets from his hair. “Ugh! Brennan!” I screamed. Anya added, “Really, Brennan. Grow up. You’re 17, not 12.” Jeremy grabbed up his towel and draped it around his shoulders, shivering while he stood in the sand and whined, “I’m cold again. And hungry. Where are we gonna eat?” Brennan stood there laughing; his arms folded across his chest, dripping like a wet dog, his hair sticking out in every direction again. Just then, I noticed a group of guys messing around and walking up the beach towards us. I scanned the group quickly, and my eyes stopped when I saw him.

  Nick Martino. He was almost six feet of pure hotness. About 5’10”, already golden tanned, broad shoulders and muscles that no boy our age should have yet, with emerald green eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair, he looked like he belonged on the beaches of California, not northern Michigan. Nick’s parents owned the pizza place in town. Every time I was near Nick, my heart started beating like crazy and I seemed to lose all ability to speak. Oh sure, I’d dated a few other guys before, but most of them turned out to be losers. Like Brad Gordon, for example, who I dated when I was in tenth grade. What a douche bag. After three dates and a few make-out sessions, he thought his old tree house, a sleeping bag, flashlight and a condom was a romantic and appropriate fourth date. Ugh. Like I said, douche bag. But nobody made me feel like Nick Martino did. Sigh. He was just gorgeous. And he made my insides feel all twisted up and nervous and jittery. Anya leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Is that him?” I nodded my head, not taking my eyes off Nick as he walked towards us. I watched as he tucked his golden locks behind his ears and sauntered up to us in his orange and white board shorts. Oh yum. He was just too beautiful.