Click here to read Chapter 2 Part 2
Dragon Guard
Chapter 3
Part 1
Andi walked into this new house
and yelled out, "I'm home!" even if it didn't feel like home yet.
"In the kitchen," her
mom called. "Come in and tell me about your day."
As she breezed through the short
entry hall, a strange scent hit her. It was mostly cleaning disinfectant, but
something she couldn't place lay underneath it. Something that hadn't been
there this morning. Something yucky. It faded as she passed through the living
room, which still had boxes stacked against the bare walls. Mom must've tackled
other parts of the house today.
She pushed into the kitchen and
found her mom pulling plates out of the dishwasher and stacking them in one of
the cabinets above the sink. When she saw Andi, Mom stopped and turned towards
her.
"How was your first day?"
"Same as any first day, I
guess."
"Meet any nice
people?"
Andi shrugged, and though she
tried her hardest not to, her face flushed. "There was this one guy."
Her mom had started stocking the
cabinet again, but that statement froze her. Only her amazing dexterity kept
her from dropping a plate. "Doesn't sound like a normal first day to
me."
"Whatever. Not like it
matters. Even if I liked him and started going out, it wouldn't mean anything.
We'll still have to leave in a couple of years."
"What's wrong with having
fun until then? Be a teenager."
She wanted to. For some reason,
she really liked Ben, even though she didn't know anything about him. Sure, he
looked good, with his playfully unkempt brown hair and understated fashion
sense of a plain t-shirt and simple jeans that actually fit right, unlike how
many boys wore them nowadays. But aside from his looks, there was something
different about him, something she'd never noticed in any of the other boys
she'd met. She felt it from that first second they locked eyes at break. And
what about that shock when she'd touched his arm after lunch? That was
definitely a first.
"I guess," she said.
"Do we have any venison jerky left?"
"Sorry, your dad polished
it off. We'll get more this weekend." Mom turned to the mostly empty
fridge. "We do have bacon. I can heat it up, if you'd like."
"That's okay. I like it
cold." Andi opened the package, peeled a strip off, and took a bite.
Mom took a seat in one of the
chairs opposite her. "So, tell me about this boy. His name wasn't Ben, was
it?"
Andi stared at her mom.
"How did you know?"
Mom had a hard time hiding a
smile. "That poor boy had an interesting morning. I told him to say hi if
he saw you."
"Wait. What's going
on?"
"We had a couple of, uh,
strange visitors this morning, and poor Ben got caught in the middle on his way
to school."
Andi got up and crossed to the
refrigerator. "Did you buy any soda yet?"
"Wouldn't you rather have
milk?"
"Not after I found out my
mother's trying to set me up with boys. So what do you mean by strange visitors
and him being caught in the middle?" She found a can of generic
caffeine-free soda and popped it open.
