Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club
Chapter 10 Jared and Michelle's request
On Friday afternoon, Daniel was in the library working on his homework. Friday afternoon was usually less crowded in the library. Most students had class and those who didn't have class liked to play sports in a sunny afternoon. Only a few students scattered about in the library. Miss Leventis looked bored behind the check out desk. She, however, was keeping a close eye on everyone. Daniel heard someone walking up toward him. It was Jared.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Jared.
"Sure," said Daniel. He stood up and walked out of the library.
Daniel had actually seen this coming and wanted to avoid causing a scene in the library. On his way out, he saw Miss Leventis give him a funny look.
They were standing under the big tree outside the library. The stream running through the dorm garden ran lazily under the tree. The sunlight went through the leaves of the tree and was reflected on the water. A breeze passed. The leaves moved, and a fish-scale ripple appeared on the water. Daniel found himself showered by rays of sunlight coming from all directions. For a moment, he almost forgot why he was there.
"I'm sure that you heard someone stole my Golden Club," said Jared deliberately, breaking the harmony. He was leaning on the trunk of the phoenix tree, his arms crossed. "It's really important to me. I want you to find out who stole it."
"How can you be sure that you didn't drop it yourself, like in the ocean?" said Daniel. He couldn't help being sarcastic.
"I'm sure," said Jared. "I put it away the night of the Moon festival. I didn't want it to fall out during the performance. I bet you never have to worry about that with what you have."
"I don't think I can help you," said Daniel.
"Why?" demanded Jared.
"I don't want to waste my time," said Daniel.
"Really nice attitude," said Jared. He didn't seem to be bothered by what Daniel had said. Or he had never really listened. "I can pay you. Besides, having a friend like me can be beneficial."
Daniel thought for a moment. He knew that the money would come in handy, but he didn't want to do it just for the money-he couldn't find any other reason that he should do it. If he helped Jared out, he would become the accomplice of someone he disliked. That was not what he wanted to be.
"I'm not interested," he said finally. "And I have better friends."
"You know I can make you and your friend's life very difficult," said Jared maliciously.
Even though Jared's threat seemed childish, it still made Daniel mad. He managed to keep his cool, but his own voice sounded funny to him.
"Why don't you try it?" said Daniel. "I see and hear a lot of things. I bet there is something you don't want other people to know," he said, although he didn't know exactly what Jared didn't want other people to know. It, however, seemed to have an effect on Jared.
"You know, I could break you in half," he said, moving closer to Daniel. Then he stepped really hard on a rock. The part of the rock under his foot turned into white powder. Even though Daniel had heard about Jared's power, he didn't expect him to be that strong; but for some reason, he knew that was just a vacant threat.
"Think about it," said Jared. "I'll talk to you later." Jared turned around and walked away.
When Daniel got to the dinning hall for dinner, he found Owen sitting with Tom and Mike. He and Tom were talking, and Mike was trying to join the conversation. They were talking about a team sport that they were playing after the combat class. It was called flyball. It seemed that Owen was so good that everyone wanted him in his or her team and no team wanted to play against him, so now all he could do was to be a referee for the games.
"You've got something to tell me?" asked Owen when they were alone after dinner. "Not some chore like last time, right?"
"I thought you enjoyed bossing Kerri around," joked Daniel. He went on to tell Owen what had happened outside the library.
"Now, this is better-so he threatened us?"
"I don't think he's serious," said Daniel. "He seems to want the Golden Club back badly though."
"I think I can take him now that he doesn't have his club," said Owen. He was apparently still thinking about the threat.
Daniel knew that Owen would like to have a duel with Jared, but he didn't think that it was a good idea. Owen was a natural fighter and Jared's power was strength. It was hard to know which one of them would win if they had a duel.
"You know that you could kill each other or get yourself kicked out of school, don't you?" said Daniel. He didn't want anything remotely close to that to happen. "Besides, I think I can handle it myself."
"That's no fun," said Owen, rolling his eyes, but Daniel had him promise not to get involved.
Daniel was in the dinning hall having breakfast the next morning. He saw Michelle walk in alone. She didn't take any food but walked to where Daniel was and sat down by him.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"Fine," said Daniel.
After a couple minutes of chit chat, Michelle went right to the point: "I heard that you and Jared had a little talk yesterday."
"Yes," Daniel said. He hadn't expected this. He had no idea why Michelle would be interested. Other than the confrontation at the beach when Jared stirred up the sea, he had only seen Jared and her together a few times, and they acted like mere acquaintances.
"How come you don't want to help him?" asked Michelle.
"I think it's better that he doesn't have the club," said Daniel.
"What do you mean?" asked Michelle, looking interested.
"You saw what he did to the merpeople?"
"Not really," said Michelle.
"If you had gone down to the mervillage after he stirred up the sea like I did, you'd know what I mean," said Daniel.
Michelle was quiet for a while. Then she said, "He's not a bad guy-he's just spoiled."
"How do you know?" asked Daniel. "Besides, that's a fine line, don't you think?"
"I've known him my whole life," said Michelle. "We grew up together-he's my cousin. We don't really get along, but I know quite well that he's not a bad person."
"-I'd really appreciate it if you help him. I mean I would consider it a real favor from one friend to another."
Daniel looked at Michelle. He found it really hard to say no even though he never really considered them friends. She had always been nice to him. She was the first person that helped him settle in when he first came to the island. In a way, Daniel did feel like he owed her a favor.
"I'll help him if he apologizes to the merpeople," he said finally.
"I'll talk to him," said Michelle. She stood up and left the dinning hall.
Daniel spent all day Saturday by himself. He played the conversation that he had with Michelle in his head again and again. He didn't like how he had sounded. He didn't know whether that made him arrogant judging what other people did. He went down to the bottom of the ocean. There he heard merpeople singing in a language that he didn't understand. He swam close to the village. In the fields outside the mervillage, merpeople were collecting special seaweeds and some of them were planting new ones. Further away where the seabed was rockier, a few merwomen were collecting shells. Daniel saw something shiny inside the shells.
The merpeople were singing to each other. One of the mermen on the fields sang a few lines. Then he stopped and waited. One of the merwomen would pick up where he left off. It was like that back and forth. They seemed to be in a very good mood. When one of them spotted Daniel, he nodded at him with a smile. The other merpeople noticed him too. Some of them stopped what they were doing and stared at Daniel, which made him feel uncomfortable; but after a while, most of them resumed what they were doing. An older looking merman swam forward. He reached out and shook Daniel's hand.
"I saw you playing with the dolphins," he said. "They are special creatures that only approach people with a kind soul-you're welcome in our village."
He swam back to the field and the singing started again. They seemed to have put the disaster behind them. Daniel was thinking of visiting the mervillage, but didn't know whether it was overstepping his welcome. He waved goodbye to them and swam to the cliff. Looking up, he saw that professor Alverdine's window was open. Daniel felt the joy well up inside. It, however, was followed by a wave of nervousness. He had almost forgotten about his financial problems. He didn't think that his performance in school was brilliant and it probably fell short of professor Alverdine's expectation. He also wondered whether there was any news about his father.
Michelle joined him and Owen at lunch the next day. Daniel could tell that she was upset even though she was trying not to show it.
"Owen knows," Daniel told her before Michelle could ask Owen to excuse himself.
"I'm sorry," She said to Daniel. "Jared won't apologize."
Daniel didn't know what to say. Owen made a snorting sound.
"I don't blame you for not wanting to help him," said Michelle. "He can be such a prick sometimes." She apparently wasn't enjoying the task at hand.
"Sometimes," Owen interjected.
"But what if the club is possessed by someone evil?" asked Michelle, ignoring Owen's comment. "It could cause more damage."
Daniel had never thought about it in this way before. He had to admit what Michelle said was right even though her telling him this was not completely selfless.
"Think it over, no pressure here," Michelle stood up and left them.
"Yeah, no pressure," said Owen after she left. "She can be so manipulative sometimes-you're not going to help Jared just because of what she said, are you?"
"I don't know," said Daniel.
The talk with Michelle kept Daniel thinking. He didn't want to see the satisfaction on Jared's face, but what Michelle said was true. Still there was possibility that the Golden Club was taken away by someone with good intentions. If Jared could have the club back without any real effort or learning a lesson, he was going to take things even more for granted. He realized that in a way, the reason why he didn't want to help him wasn't totally innocent either.
On his way back to the dorm, Daniel ran into Tony. His face was red from running.
"I have been looking for you everywhere," he said. "You've got a message from professor Alverdine." He pulled out a piece of neatly folded paper from his pocket and handed to Daniel.
On the paper was a short message: "If you could spare some time, I would like to meet you tonight at eight."
The book is available at barnes and noble, amazon online bookstores. Search by the title. Author's blog: 360.yahoo.com/gcgustopher