Cedric’s eyes flared slightly with fear, “Lord Selckar.” He amended.
I hadn’t noticed that I’d pushed myself back into my seat until a person behind me asked me to move. I apologized and slid my chair forward just a bit.
“Well?” she asked.
“Anything out of the ordinary been happening?” Cedric asked.
Her eyes narrowed. She stared at me, which I wilted under, then looked back at Cedric. “Yes.”
Cedric nodded. “Someone has broken the agreement. I was sent to reassure you that it wasn’t Them.”
“Do you mean the Law Keepers or the Observers?”
“Both.”
“Do They know who it is?”
Cedric shook his head. “No. They believed you might have some information, you might be willing to share.”
“They thought it was me.” She folded her arms.
Cedric shook his head. “Actually, They knew it wasn’t you. That’s why I’m here and not anyone else.”
She barked out a laugh. “Everyone else is afraid, you mean.”
Now Cedric barked a laugh. “Blame them? You destroyed our home.”
“I should k…” She started but stopped as she caught sight of me. Ms. Pendragon took a deep breath. “I’ll return our home to us.”
Cedric nodded. “So you have said. You’ve gotten a little side tracked with your crusade.” He rose. “Maybe you should refocus on that.”
“I have not lost sight of my goal.” She hissed. “If you would quit interfering, maybe I could get to it sooner.”
Cedric shrugged. “It should be your first priority.” He hopped over the rail and threw a hundred dollar bill on the table. He looked at me. “That should cover your lunch and mine. Nice to have met you, I’m sure we will meet again. I hope you choose wisely.” He turned to Ms. Pendragon.
“They said not to say anything, but I will.” Cedric drew in a long breath. “They are going to come for you.”
“Let them.” She chuckled.
“This would be much easier if you would change your mind. We used to be friends,”
Ms. Pendragon scoffed at this point.
“And I’d like to think we will be again. Our goal is not that different, but the methods are very far apart. Chaos is not an option.”
“Neither is complete order.” She sighed. “I still don’t understand why they think I want complete anarchy. That has never been my goal. But I will put an end to the senseless selfishness that cost us our home. I will make them pay.”
Cedric smiled. “And that is why They oppose you. The universe cannot function without them.” “And it isn’t functioning well with them.” She said. “Tell them, no. If they think they can do anything about it, let them continue to try. But let them know, when our armies meet, I will not hold back this time.”
Watching her, I could have sworn that the gray streaks in her hair actually grew in the intensity of their grey color.
Cedric watched her as his eyes narrowed. “I truly hope that it will not come to be. For if that happens, no one will win.”
He turned around and walked in the same direction that Tie had gone.
Ms. Pendragon watched him go as her face hardened. Then she whispered, “Tie.”
Tie immediately ran back the way he had come, side stepping Cedric. He stopped by her, he panted mildly.
“And?” She asked.
He frowned. “They haven’t improved. Sad.”
Ester came back to the table. I handed her the money, she smiled brightly at the ridiculously huge tip and left. I rose from the table.
“Ms. Pendragon?”
“Forget what you heard today. Just gibberish from an ex-friend. Nothing more.” She turned to me and put on her best smile. “Are you ready for the dance?”
The smile that spread across my face made it hurt. “Very much.”
“Tsk. You like him that much, huh.”
I blushed badly.
“Only a gold could do that.” Tie said merrily.
“No doubt.” Ms. Pendragon lapsed into a moment of reflection. “Oh, well. Can’t be helped.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “Make the right decision when the time comes, JJ. You’ll only get to make it once.”
I blushed so hard that it spread throughout my body. Does she think I’m going to have sex with him? How embarrassing.
“See you at the dance.” They walked off together as they did when they arrived; Ms. Pendragon in front leading Tie by his hand.
Playful Antics
My chariot raced home with my red treasure tucked safely in back. The jeep bumped into the driveway and skidded to a halt. I leaped and landed upon the driveway in my superhero pose only to see the great beast Cooper come racing around the house. I quickly laid the trap of burger on the ground, which distracted the beast, and continued on towards the dungeon house. His raunchy burp caused me to pause, knowing it foreshadowed the awful gas he’d have tonight. Undaunted, my mind made my body stop at the great door, which blocked my path towards the sanctuary of my room. My breath slowed. Peeking through the living room window; the T.V. was off. With fingers crossed and fervently praying dad was working in his study up-stairs or hopefully, (I prayed real hard on this one), that he was still sleeping off his Sake drunk from last night, I gently pulled back the screen door. Placing my key into the door lock; the key turned agonizingly slow, and with the stealth of a ninja, quietly pushed open the door. The screen door close slowly behind me until it latched and I didn’t bother closing the front door, since my objective was to reach the sanctity of my bedroom before arousing the denizens of the dungeon. The living room was empty. Having passed through the first obstacle, my feet carefully made their way across the threshold and out into the living room. Good, now just to get upstairs. Like a thief in the night, my stealthy journey across the living room to the stairs proceeded without so much as a squeak of the floor. My escape to my room to bury my treasure was almost assured and I was halfway to the stairs when a tank hit the door rattling the glass in the screen door.
“Honey, will you let Cooper in, please.” My father’s voice floated down from the second floor.
Closing my eyes and cursing under my breath, I let out a sigh of frustration. “Okay.”
Cooper was jumping up and down with excitement as I opened the door. He rushed in and sprinted for the kitchen. His water bowl sounded like a bell being rung for church as he drank. When I turned back around, Dad was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking at me with his usual ‘my daughter is mental if she thinks she can out smart me’ look accompanied by his silly grin.
He stepped off the bottom stair and casually strutted towards me with his best ‘I know what you are up to’ walk and stopped in front of me.
“Next time,” he started, “If you want to hide something from the old man, maybe you shouldn’t skid to a halt under his window.”
My whole demeanor deflated and I cursed myself for forgetting his study window overlooked the driveway.
“You got me, again.” I said sheepishly and hung my head in defeat. “Can’t out smart you, Dad.”
“Well, I am the best.” He flopped into his favorite chair swiveling around to face me. “So.”
“So…what?” I said.
He pointed to the box that I had tried to casually conceal behind me with little success because as he brought his attention to it, it slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground with a loud ‘thunk’.
Cooper came racing around the corner with his mouth dripping with water and raced towards the box.
“No!” I screamed turning and protecting the box with my life.
Dad grabbed Cooper around the chest and pulled him in saving my treasure from ruin.
“That…what.” My Dad nodded towards the box. “How much did you spend? God, I hope you are not like your mother in that regard. She didn’t shop to shop but when something caught her eye…boy…” He trailed off without finishing his sentence. He often did that when talking about Mom.
“Well, don’t worry. You can afford it for your little girl.” I smiled at him.
His face softened. “I’d buy you the moon if it would make you happy.” He told me.
And I knew he would. “Well, it didn’t cost you that much, but you better put some extra time in on your work.”
He winked. “I’ll do that. So, let’s see it.”
I hesitated.
“Honestly!? You aren’t going to show me?” He sounded actually hurt.
I stood there torn between wanting to show him and not wanting to show him. This was actually causing me a lot of stress and the biting of my lower lip confirmed it.
But he bailed me out.
“Fine.” He got up. “If you want this Gabe character to see it first, I’ll just have to wait in line.” He grumbled some other thing under his breath about being mistreated, and that life wasn’t fair, and something about wanting to play golf, as he passed me by.
“Dad.” I called.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Yes.” He said dejectedly with his most pathetic, comical, pout.
“I love you.” And smiled at him
His face immediately brightened. “I love you more than anything, Sweetie. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I won’t.” Cause I love him more than anything too.
“Honey?”
“Yes?”
“Do we need to have the…” He put up his quotation finger, “play safe talk.”
“Dad!” I blushed so hard. “No. I took the sex education course at school.”
Relief flooded his face. “Good. The video I found wasn’t very good. I…”
“Go.” I shooed him up the stairs. “You are so embarrassing at times. Way to ruin our moment.”
“I want to be a responsible parent, JJ. I don’t want any rug rats running around.” He continued. “Though a granddaughter would be nice.” He yelled from upstairs.
“You are insufferable.” I yelled at him and plopped down into his chair. Frazzled, my fingers fumbled opening the box and the gleaming red dress brought back the joy I had been feeling all day.
“A little girl would be nice.”
“That’s what I’m saying.” Dad yelled down.
“Go away!” and laughed as I closed the box.
“You going to eat that?” Brooke said.
I shook my head. It was Monday and the lunch period was a complete and utter disappointment.
My treasure had been hidden safely in my closet that day, taking steps to make sure Dad wouldn’t go snooping, not that I thought he would, but he can be snoopy at times, then went to bed. Sunday went by without any of my Dad’s usual teasing, which I was grateful for and found myself in bed early in hopes of getting to Monday faster. My mind fell into one of those beautiful dreams; large fields of rice blew gently in the wind, along with cherry blossoms floating freely upon the wind. Contented, I rose early before my alarm, dressed, put on a bit more make-up than usual, and suffered through my friends making fun of me, because they of course notice my nicer clothes and extra make up, just to find out that Gabe wasn’t at school today. What a disaster.
“He’s sick, whatcha going to do.” Brooke said gobbling down my dessert.
“Yeah. It’s still three weeks to the dance.” Kennah offered. “You’ll get lucky before then.”
“Shut up.” I growled.
They laughed. My mood grew darker.
“Hiya.” Kaylene said bopping up to the table. They greeted her, I continued to brood.
“What’s up with JJ?” Kaylene looked around the lunch room. She always watched the activities going on. She loved watching people.
“Lover is sick.” Brooke teased. “She’s heartbroken.” She sighed and fell into Kennah, who laughed and pushed her away.
I ignored them.
“Oh, how cute.” Kaylene cooed.
She loves a good love story.
My mood changed when, just as another round of comments were about to commence, Christian started to walk our way. It was clear that Brooke hadn’t seen him and I sat calmly as she continued to levy incendiary comments at me.
“And…” she began when he touched her shoulder. Her face lit up like a beacon in the night and I pounced.
“Is that red, I see.” I laughed.
Brooke’s cheek turned even deeper red.
“H-h-hi.” She stammered.
“Something wrong with your voice?” my voice sounding concerned. “You didn’t have any trouble just a few seconds ago.” I turned to the others. “Did something just happen?”
Kennah creased her brow. “Did it just get hot in here?” She asked. “Seems to be a lot of heat coming from a certain direction…passionate heat.”
An overloud giggle escaped my lips.
Christian turned his head slightly toward us and his eyes appeared brighter and had a red hue like a picture taken with a flash. Confused by the sight, I wondered if any of the other girls had seen it. Suddenly a funny smell reached my nose like really bad BO. I looked around to see who could be so stinky.
“Let’s go.” Brooke said in her best dismissive voice. They left and went to sit at another table.
“I don’t think that’s far enough, it’s still hot in here.” Kennah yelled.
As we laughed, Mr. Resler walked over to our table.
“Any reason to be yelling, Ms. Knowles?” He asked.
“No. Sorry.” She said embarrassed.
He nodded and walked away where he sat down next to Brooke and Christian much to Brooke’s annoyance. While I watched them, my mind raced to remember all the insults I would say to her to make up for her forked tongue comments, when his eyes flashed red again. Stunned, I turned to the others to see if they had witnessed it. They hadn’t and the smell had dissipated too.
“Did you see that?” I asked them.
“What? Brooke seething.” Kaylene said.
“No. Christian’s eyes.”
“I’ve been watching his eyes since freshman year. They are beautiful.” Kennah sighed.
“Auh.” I turned back to them, Mr. Resler had gone and they were both absorbed with each other. Must have been my imagination. Light is streaming in from the open windows in the walls. They must have hit his eyes right and made the illusion. But, there isn’t any light over at their table. I shrugged. Must have been a reflection.
The bell rang and the lunch room cleared. Brooke wandered over to us, clearly light of foot and feeling good.
“You sicken me.” I said to her. “What did Mr. Resler want? If you could pull yourself away from Christian long enough to listen.”
“Something about the game on Wednesday.” She cooed. Clearly she was still in her warm thoughts and not thinking of answering my question.
As an afterthought. “Did you notice anything interesting about his eyes while you were talking?”
She stopped and looked very seriously at me. “You know….I did.”
Oh my god. She did see them turn red!
“My reflection.” She smiled, turned and walked to her class.
“You suck.” My voice carried over the din of the lunchroom.
She flipped me off in response.
On Mondays, I sub in the administration offices during Fifth period. Mrs. Douglas was a nice elderly woman that pretty much ran the office. Everyone knew that if you wanted something done in a timely fashion, you went to Mrs. Douglas for it.
I entered the office, Mr. Resler’s door was cracked and he appeared to be in a meeting with someone.
“Hi Mrs. Douglas.” I greeted her walking up to her desk.
Her Kenny Chesney calendar hung behind her as she turned to me. “Ah JJ. How are you?”
“Okay.” I sat in the chair at the end of her desk.
“Ah, young love.” She placed her hand on her heart.
My face turned hot. “I’m not in love.”
“Of course not.” She winked at me.
“Does everyone know about this? He just asked me
to the dance.” I complained.
Her eyes sparkled. “We are a small family, JJ. We take interest when one of our students suddenly begins dressing and acting differently. Least in your case it is a happy occasion.” She turned around and put away a file.
I knew she was making reference to Loralee Phippin. She was a senior last year and had gotten into some really bad stuff off campus. If Mr. Resler and the staff hadn’t taken matters into their own hands, despite her parent’s denial that nothing was wrong, Loralee would most likely have killed herself. And in gratitude for saving her life, her parents brought a nasty lawsuit against the school. Mr. Resler and the board never flinched in fighting it. It is still in litigation.
Mrs. Douglas handed me a file. “Go sit outside Mr. Resler’s office and give him this file when his meeting is done, will you dear.”
I frowned. “Do I have to sit outside his office? It will look like I’m in trouble.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Then don’t worry about it.” She waved me forward.
I rose and wandered the fifteen feet to his office and sat down. With my body turned inconspicuously away from the hallway, trying not worry about who might come down the hall and see me, my ears picked up the conversation going on in Mr. Resler’s office.
“Mrs. Intolerantiae, I assure you that Mr. Gibson is following the curriculum set by the Regents.”
“Then there is something wrong with the curriculum, Mr. Resler.” She said. “I believe that Mr. Gibson is wrong in forcing my child to dress that way.”
“Mrs. Intolerantiae, I can tell you that no one is forcing anyone to do anything. The point behind the Cultural social studies class, which is an elective, is to teach tolerance among the different cultures by exposing our students to their culture.”
“I’m not upset about the exposure, but having my child dress like a Muslim is just wrong.” She complained. “I don’t want him dressing like them.”
“Wearing traditional garb is a way of showing them the prejudices associated with first impression because of the way they dress. It isn’t any different than the stigma associated with rappers, rock stars and politicians.” He told her. “The point of the class is exposure. You received the release form that was sent home?”
Dragon Amour (Dragon-Half Breed Book 1) Page 14
