She worried that the cat might aggravate things, but his presence didn’t seem to bother her.
But was he really a cat?” she wondered.
Or was he still a dragon concealed by some sort of illusion or had the magic truly transformed him when he crossed the bridge? Why a cat? His sisters had taken the form of girls her own age, completely inappropriate girls, but girls none the less. Who the heck knows? So many mystery’s, so many questions. How was she supposed to get her math homework done with all these thoughts running through her head?
She closed her math book and opened the bottom drawer, a place normally reserved for hanging folders, pens, and papers and took out Nana’s sewing box. The one that’d had been left for her with the note. Lovingly, she caressed the box, recalling all of the times that Nana had gone to it for a needle and thread to fix some garment she, in her enthusiasm for life, had torn. The sewing was always meticulous, the garment always returned, as good as new.
She opened the lid, gone were the plethora of multi-
colored spools, the assorted needles of every size, the worn tape measure that was wound up tight and then wrapped with a rubber band to keep it from spreading out like a snake and slithering through the scraps of cloth, the buttons and zippers that seemed to always be in the right size, or color or shape. Save for the few remaining pins that were suck into the pincushion top of the lid there remained in the box only two green apples and a note.
The note. She stared at the piece of monogrammed paper with the jagged words her grandmother had left for her. It was possibly the hundredth time she’d looked at it. With a heavy heart, she gazed around at the pictures of her Nana and Papa she’d framed and hung about the walls around her, almost as warding against evil. A special photo of them sat prominently on her desk, they were smiling warmly as she always remembered them. She felt safe when she looked at them staring at her as though they could still see her.
She looked back at the note,
A, When it’s time. You’ll know. Take these with you.
Everything depends on it. Xo, N
Amanda caressed the apples, they felt warm to the touch, like she was holding something alive. It had been how long since Nana had put them in the box, seven almost eight years? And yet, they still maintained the lustrous appearance of apples, freshly picked. She pondered the meaning of the message. Trevor had said there was a task to be completed but with nothing other than this cypher telling her to take the apples with her she had no clue what was being asked of her.
PING. She looked down at her phone.
“Hey A-girl,” read the message from Devon.
“Hey D-man, What’s up?”
“What did you get for question 6?”
“I haven’t started yet, hang on a sec.”
She opened her text and looked over at the geometry question and after a moment had an answer.
“36 degrees.”
“I got 54.”
“You have to remember to subtract it from 90.” Percy had shown her that, he was a whiz with math, especially geometry. He didn’t even use a calculator. He did everything on his fingers like some sort of rain man. Mr. Knight, their math teacher was always throwing random questions at him and Percy constantly amazed him with his speed and accuracy.
“Ya, thanks. While I’ve got you. Did you have plans for the dance? I was hoping we might go together?”
Damn, she was dreading this moment. Hoping it wouldn’t come. She was waiting for Percy to ask her, but Jack usually kept him late on Friday’s working in the shop. But he hadn’t asked her yet and she really wanted to go. She typed an answer and looked at it for a long time before hitting send and praying that she hadn’t made a mistake.
Amanda Applewood and the Return of the False King: An Everworld Book Page 27
