• "Thunder chapter four

    I awoke the next day to my mom toaster surprise, A.K.A. pop-tarts. I walked into the kitchen, smelling the full-blown fruit fragrence.
    "Nothing special today?" I asked. Ordinarily, mom cooks a much bigger breakfast than pop-tarts.
    "No, sorry honey. I didnt get much sleep last night. There was a cat meowing and clawing at my window. It took me forever to shoo it away."
    I was partially shocked. usualy, when mom sees a stray animal, she tries to catch it and take it to the humane society. "Why didn't you call the humane society?"
    "I did today," she answered, "and they should be here soon. so can you do me a favor and take this tuna down thee and feed the porr little thing. She handed me an open can of tuna, which this can had a more rotten odor, like sardines or something. I tried to keep it away from my face.
    I looked into the can, the fish leaving unimaginably horrible tastes in my mouth, and nose, and told her, "You owe me one for this, mom."
    She threw me her "award winning smile" that, apparently, I couldn't resist. "Please, honey? For the kitty?"
    I sighed, "Fine. But, like I said, you owe me."
    "Okay, just please go feed the kitty." she said as she rushued me out the back door. I went to the side of the house and found what would probably be the cat's hiding spot. It was hiding under the house, probably full of fleas, dirt, and everything. But, we couldn't just let the poor little guy live a miserable life under our house.
    "Here, kitty. come and get some food. I know you're starving, little guy." I tried to get the cat over to me. It looked cautiously at me, then the tuna, then back at me, then back at the tuna. Finally, after a while, the cat slowly crept over to get the tuna. I held as still as posible so that I didn't scare it. When it got to the food, I slowly sat it in front of him. He sure ate like he was starving. while it ate, I slowly examined the coin on it's collar. It displayed the cat's name and the adress to take him to. "Oh, Biscut, how long have you been out now? you need to settle down some time, kitty." As he finished the tuna, I picked him up and took him to the adress on his collar.
    The owners reacted with both joy and relief at the sight of their cat. "Thank you so much." The woman said.
    "It was nothing," I told them, "my mom found him under our house. She asked me to give him some tuna then catch him. I noticed the name and address on his collar and came here."
    "We appreciate it very much. Who is your mother, if I may ask?" She looked carefully at the bracelet.
    I held it up so she could get a better look, "If you were guessing Sarah Winters, then you're right." I said with a nervous smile.
    "Well, thank you from the bottom of my heart, Adrian. You know, the day is only about a month or so away." She reminded me ominously/
    I sighed, used to this stupid curse, "I know. But I've been learning some new things."
    She nodded, petting her cat softly, "You should remember to stay close to your friend, Matt. You two make quite a pair."
    I smiled, "Thank you. Well, I have to be off to school." I said. I waved as she did and went back home to change.
    I walked in the door, and found mom on the phone. She was probably talking with Matt's dad about relationship stuff. One conversation that I would never get into with them.
    "Did you take the cat back?" she asked as I walked up the stairs.
    "Yeah, she was thrilled when she saw her little Biscut."
    "Biscut was his name, huh? Sounds cute." I couldn't tell if she was talking to me or Matt's dad, but it worked, i guess. I went upstairs and got ready for school. As I left, I found that mom had migrated into the kitchen, still talking to Mr. Donovan.
    "See you after school mom." I yelled from the front door.
    "don't forget to ask your teacer about elementals." She yelled back. I was silent as I left.
    School was a simple walk from here. Especially if I’d used the shortcut that Matt and I devised (okay, it wasn’t really a shortcut. I guess you could call it the scenic route). Either way, it was a nice way to go. Basically, we’d cross into the park and run through the multitude of trees, huge meadow, and (my secret favorite) the garden. I loved the garden for it’s shade-cloaked benches, and they had really pretty fountains (If Matt heard me saying this stuff, I’d be screwed.).
    I got to school much quicker than the regular way. Probably because I was walking so damn fast out of anxiety to talk with Ms. Tenor about elementals. That is, if she really knows anything about elementals. I’m not calling my mom a liar, but she isn’t always right. I made it to my homeroom class and, as I walked in, I saw Maria talking to Matt. It looks like Matt finally learned his lesson about hitting on girls.
    Matt and Maria seemed to be talking about my relation to the arcane language. I hope he hasn’t told her about my curse yet. It made me wonder how she’d take it. I figured she’d freak out like all the other girls have. Hell, every girl in this school would fall in love with me if it weren’t for this stupid thing. And I’d love to be saying that out of my own ego, if I had one. I sat down next to them.
    “I told you I’d see you again.” I told her casually. She smiled as she looked deep in my eyes, as if she were seeing if I were the real Adrian,
    She simply giggled in reply. Matt filled me in on what they were talking about, “Maria has been asking me a lot of questions about this town’s little…” He paused, obviously trying to find the proper word, “demon and whatnot problem.” I guess he decided to be blunt this time.
    “What is it you want to know?” I asked her. She had stopped giggling, but still kept her gaze on my eyes, and not my bracelet.
    “I was wondering a little bit about this arcane language thing. Plus, what’s the dance of the dead? And what makes you so important to it?
    Damn. I was hoping she wouldn’t ask those questions. At least, not at the same time. I had no choice but to answer her truthfully, “Uhh, which one do you want to know first?" I asked. Well, I wasn't technically lying. I just averted the subject.
    She put her finger up to her chin. Trying to look cute, "How about what makes you such a key thing in the dance of the dead? I wanna know really bad because everybody keeps talking about you and it. they keep refering to it as 'that day'."
    I was hoping she'd ask about the arcane language first. Well, I'm a man of my honor, "well, it goes back abnout eight years ago. I was chosen to fight death. When fighting death, you either win, which nobody ever wins against death. You lose, and die. Or you refuse, and suffer a punishment worse than death."
    She eyed me with concern, "What happens if you refuse? And what could be worse than death?" I really didn't like where this was going.
    I held the bracelet up to her, rotating it to show her every detail of the dreaded thing, "This is the mark of my curse. This is what I have to live with because I was too stupid to just accept the challenge and die!" I tried to hold back the tears. The curse was a very pressing matter for me. Four years of my life were wasted as an Ice sculpture at that hellhole.
    She saw me holding my tears back. She immediately hugged me, "I'm sorry. I'm just curious. If it hurts, I'll ask someone else. I didn't think it would hurt." It felt like she was stifling tears herself. As I slowly cluthced her, my tears seemed to fade away. She felt so soft. Her skin was silk to my face. I didn't want to let go. And she smelled so sweet. It was her pernfume, but it smelled so amazing. Cotton candy, I think. Then I realized, I'm hugging the new girl in the middle of homeroom, and the both of us were just crying our eyes out in front of Matt, and a few other people in the room.
    I Tapped her on the back, the only spot I could reach, at this point. "What's wrong with this picture?"
    She stayed still for a moment. "Were hugging and crying our eyes out in front of people?"
    We Instantly left each other's arms, and I continued with my explanaition, "Every year, for one year, A horde of creatures called shadows take me to a place called the black citadel. Where I'm cast into an ice sculpture, and my body is preserved while my soul lives out a year of sorrow."
    She looked straight down, giving me a mental apology, "That must hurt really bad. I'm sorry, I won't ask anymore questions."
    "I don't mind answering your questions. I was just hoping you would have asked that one last." I told her.
    Then it hit me. Maria and I were just hugging and crying our eyes out in the middle of homeroom, and not a single person made a snappy remark, talked to us, or even looked at us. "Alright, why is nobody saying anything?"
    "Okay class, did everybody finish yesterday's assignment?" She looked toward Maria and I, "Oh, and we have a new student. Everybody welcome Maria Daniels."
    I heard Marcus come into the introduction, "We already met. Adrian was hugging her and they were crying their dignity away." He said coldly, and turned away. Dammit, Marcus. I hate the guy so much. He's always so cold hearted to people. It makes me so angry.
    "Nobody asked you." I told him off as cold as he did. He simply ignored me (like he always does). Can't wait to be away from him.
    “Slick move, Adrian.” Ms. Tenor said sarcastically. I felt a twinge of jealousy in the air.
    Maria pointed to Marcus, “Who is he?” She barely whispered.
    I didn’t bother whispering, but spoke quietly enough for Ms. Tenor to speak, “That is Marcus Houston. I hate the guy with a passion. He’s always so cold-hearted to people. He acts so stuck-up all the time, he drives half the girls who like him away.” Which is really shameful, because tons of girls ask him out daily. They must think that they can make him more of a social person, or something. I wonder if it’s just because he’s gay. If he’s gay, that is.
    Hey,” she changed the subject, “Would it be okay to come over to your house tomorrow? Maybe study together?” She started fidgeting as she asked.
    I smiled to comfort her, “Sure. But I have to work around 7:30.”
    “What do you do?” She asked curiously.
    Part of me kept telling me “Don’t tell her. Don’t tell her, whatever you do, Adrian.” I met it at the halfway point, “I could show you better than tell you.”
    She smiled, “Okay, I’m really curious now.”
    I smiled back, and put my focus on Ms. Tenor’s lesson.
    "You aren't seriously thinking about telling her about that, are you?" Matt asked in a very serious, but quiet tone.
    I replied similarly, "Not yet. But in time, I'll have to."
    "But does she have to know so soon?"
    "Yes. Even the high circle would agree. she had a vision in her dreams."
    "So? People have visions in dreams all the time. It's nothing special."
    "Yeah, but It was way too broad to be a normal vision. She saw that she was the one fighting death during the dance of the dead. And that I jumped in to protect her. That'd not a normal vision, Matt." I peeked and saw Maria glancing over at me as she noted down the stuff Ms. Tenor was talking about.
    "I understand. Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" There was a long pause before Matt whispered another conversation. "Man, Ms. Tenor's hot and all, but I hate music appreciation."
    "Then why did you take it?" I asked.
    "I need the credit," he answered. Then he added, "And Ms. Tenor's hotness."
    I rolled my eyes. Everybody constantly talks about how hot and/or beautiful Ms. Tenor is. She has so many teacher's pets that I could open an animal shelter.
    The bell rang. Time for the rest of the day.