Endangered Page 9

  Chrys shrugged. “I don’t really know, is there a difference in places to sleep?”

  I nodded. “Oh yeah. Just you wait.”

  We finally found a hotel that had a suite open with three bedrooms. I really was just asking for two but A.J. insisted on three. He was a jackass.

  The room, however, wouldn’t be ready until another couple of hours. They let us leave the bags of clothes there, thankfully, as I didn’t want to be carrying them all over London, and said they would put them in the room once it was clean. I thanked them and then we headed back into the city, looking for more things to explore.

  As we headed down the street, I spotted a ferris wheel. It had been such a long time since I had been to a carnival. “Hey, Chrys, look! There’s a carnival. Do you want to check it out? They have a bunch of games and stuff.”

  She nodded. “Sure. That sounds like a lot of fun.”

  We started for where I saw the ferris wheel, and when we got closer, I realized it wasn’t just a carnival.

  It was Oktoberfest.

  This day was just getting better and better. Chrys could change our IDs back to saying eighteen, we could drink a bunch of German beer, go on rides. This was going to be great.

  “There are a lot of people here, are you sure this is a good idea?” A.J. asked.

  I shook my head. “Oh, this is going to be the best idea ever. This is a festival the Germans created long ago, to kick back and relax after a plentiful harvest.”

  “Oh, so this is like a festival for my grandmother Demeter?” Chrys asked.

  I shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. The point is to drink and be merry. Ready to have a good time?”

  Chrys shook her head. “Of course.”

  Oktoberfest in London was a blast.

  We went on all the rides at least twice. It was so much fun to see how loud Chrys could scream as the rollercoaster plummeted down, and how freaked out A.J. got on it was priceless. I will be poking fun at him for a long while.

  Now, the beer was delicious. So much beer, oh my god. We all got steins because that’s what you do at Oktoberfest, right? I tried a couple of German beers and then a couple of English beers too. It was a lot of beer and I didn’t think I could have so much at once and not feel that bad off. It must have been because I was the living dead or something. I wasn’t quite sure how my body worked on Earth, if there was a body here and one buried wherever in the United States, if anyone even bothered. It was all rather confusing and I tried not to think too much about it. Especially after alcohol.

  Chrys, on the other hand, had lost count of how many beers she had. She was that little girl you didn’t think could hold their liquor but really could and could out-drink most men. I didn’t know if it was because she was a goddess or if it was simply her personality. I could see her mom getting drunk fast, one martini and she was dancing on the bar, although that might have nothing to do with alcohol. Her father, though, I could see being a silent drinker, one that you don’t realize has drank five glasses of whiskey, yet could still be fine and outwit and fight anyone who dares cross them. Yeah, I had a feeling she took after her dad.

  I could tell after the last one that she was starting to get tipsy, starting to slur her words. I decided that she better not have anymore, especially if we were going to go to school tomorrow. In fact, it was getting late and I knew we would want a good night’s rest after all that we drank.

  Hm. That was a first that I thought about that. Was I becoming A.J.?

  Chrys had definitely changed me, for the good I might add. Years ago, when I was alive, I would probably have stayed here until it closed, then gone to some kind of bar, got wasted, or even shot up with something I bought on the street. And god only knew whether or not I would have shown up to school the next day. I wasn’t in a good place when I died, and lucky for me that I landed in the Underworld where Chrys was, instead of hell where a lot of people screamed at me saying that was where I was going.

  Showed them, eh?

  I wondered how long it would be before Chrys sends me on my way, sick of having me be her tutor, not that I really tutored her in much anyway. Sure I gave her information I knew, whether it be good or not, but most of it was from textbooks that she had found. She could have easily learned things straight out of them without my assistance, she was pretty smart after all.

  But maybe she didn’t just see me as a tutor, maybe she saw me as a friend. I had given her the friendship bracelet, but she didn’t really say anything. Should I have not done that? She didn’t seem to mind though, but I had put her on the spot.

  A.J. had been in the palace since he died four thousand years ago. Maybe I would have the same chance as him, being her friend. Maybe even more…

  No. That wouldn’t happen. I was just a human, one that hadn’t conquered a land or developed some kind of weird revolutionary thing. I was just some kid who grew up on the wrong side of town, hung out with the wrong people, and destroyed his life before he was even an adult. I wasn’t anything special. There was no way she would ever want me.

  As we walked out of the Oktoberfest, Chrys grabbed my hand and leaned her head on my shoulder. “That was a lot of fun, Huntley. I wished we could do the same thing in the Underworld.”

  She was being a lot more intimate now that we were out of the Underworld, and more importantly, away from her father. Maybe I did have a chance, but even so do I take it? If I wanted what was best for her, I knew that I shouldn’t.

  “Yeah, but there is a lot of other fun things you can do in the Underworld that you can’t here.”

  She let out a slight laugh. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

  I glanced over at A.J., wondering if he had any ideas. He gave me one of those, you dug the hole, get your own self out of it, looks. Such an ass.

  “Helping the dead. There’s only so much you can do on Earth to help people, but in the Underworld you have enough power to help the dead get where they need to go. When you are in power, I bet you will make sure there are a lot less lost souls out there, and that you will be compassionate and fair. That’s the difference.”

  “I guess you have a point,” she whispered. She stayed silent as we kept on towards our hotel. I flipped A.J. off where Chrys couldn’t see.

  “And, Huntley?”

  “Yeah Chrys?”

  She paused for a moment. “I’m sorry about your shoulder. I didn’t realize I had hurt you.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, it’s almost healed anyway.”

  She made a little bit of a smile, but I could tell it wasn’t real. She worried about hurting me, I knew. But it didn’t matter, she couldn’t stop me from trying to help. I wouldn’t leave her, not for anything.

  A loud bell rang, making me jump.

  Huntley put his arm on my shoulder. “It’s okay, those bells are there to tell us we have five minutes to get to class, then there will be another bell letting others know that they are tardy.”

  I nodded, as if I understood. I really didn’t but I didn’t want him to know that. I wanted to appear collected, as if I had this under control.

  But in reality, I really didn’t. There were teens everywhere, of all different types, as Huntley put it. He pointed out the jocks, goths, punks, rich kids, cheerleaders, misfits, and others. I didn’t know what any of those meant, how a word could define a person like that. I asked what we were considered and he said it was complicated, but that A.J. could go sit at the jock’s table during lunch and that he would fit right in. Whatever that meant amused Huntley, but left A.J. and I feeling confused.

  Maybe this was a bad idea.

  Huntley guided us to our first class, which apparently was a room where a grumpy old person yelled at students for an hour or so. It didn’t sound like fun and I was confused as to why so many teens would take part in such a thing.

  “Just roll with it, alright?” Huntley said as we sat at a table in the back. “Don’t worry about seeming normal, if you are seen with me you will never seem norma
l.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant by that either but as the other bell rang, which made A.J. and I both jump again, an older gentleman stepped into the classroom.

  Teens all over were still loud, talking amongst friends, or sometimes enemies Huntley said.

  “That’s enough. Settle down,” the teacher said. I watched as people around us reluctantly turned their attention back on the teacher. Was he going to be like my mentors? He didn’t seem so as he frowned, looking down on all of us. A mentor would never do that to me. Then again, he didn’t know who I really was. “Good, now we will begin with going over Shakespeare. Open your textbooks to page 112.”

  I looked at Huntley urgently. He simply leaned over to another table and grabbed a guy’s book. “Borrowing this, give it back at end of class.”

  The guy glared at him but didn’t do anything to get his book back. I wondered how Huntley could do that and not get into trouble, or maybe he just didn’t care. Either way, the three of us shared the book.

  The class was so boring. Shakespeare was interesting, I knew, he had been my mentor. But this teacher made his work seem boring. It was remarkable that he could do it in such a manner, then get mad when students didn’t understand. Yet, at the same time, he was degrading Shakespeare’s great work. I thought about commenting on some of his wrongful ideas of the sonnets but I doubted he would believe me. He seemed stubborn in his false ideas.

  Next class was math, which was, well, math. That didn’t change since it was the fundamental science. Then we had chemistry.

  “Why are we wearing these things?” I asked as I put the goggles on. “They seem ridiculous.

  Huntley nodded. “They are, but sometimes they are for safety. Apparently though, some kids are troublemakers and cause chaos. This is to protect those around the troublemakers.”

  A.J. sighed. “How come I have a feeling you were one of those troublemakers?”

  I let out a little laugh as Huntley appeared to be hurt by AJ’s snide comment. I thought it was cute when Huntley acted offended and innocent, though he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone. Even with all the trouble he got into, or got away with, I knew he always meant well by it. Mostly he did it to make me smile. I wondered how long it would be until he was tired of doing such things for me and would want to leave for Elysian Fields, just like the others.

  Huntley responded, “I would never ever cause trouble in a place as dangerous as this. There are chemicals everywhere. You know how bad someone could get hurt if someone did something they weren’t suppose to?”

  A.J. just shook his head, not believing his innocence. “What did you do in a class like this?”

  “I may or may not have lit someone on fire. It was an accident, I swear, I didn’t think his clothes would be that flammable with acetone on them, honest. But yeah, I got kicked out of the class for a whole year. It was fun.”

  “I don’t think that would be my definition of fun,” I commented. Even I was a bit afraid in here. I didn’t want something to happen, not when I didn’t know the rules of the bodies A.J. and Huntley possessed currently. It took me a while to get them breathing when we came out of the water, and if my hunch was correct, their bodies were mortal again.

  Besides, I didn’t come to school to get into trouble, I came to have fun. I came to see what life was like for humans. Then again, causing trouble was what life was like for Huntley before he came to the Underworld.

  Huntley raised an eyebrow. Yup, he was a troublemaker. I had fallen for a troublemaker. Father would be so happy if he knew of Huntley’s true nature, that was if he didn’t put two and two together already. I didn’t know what he would hate worse, if I did eventually decide to make him be my betrothed, the fact he was human or if he found out I had found his soul wandering the rivers in despair.

  But that wouldn’t happen because I wouldn’t make Huntley have to endure the same eternal despair that my father has to endure being married to my mother. Their relationship was the only one I was ever exposed to, and if that was what marriage was truly like, I would take no part in it.

  “Oh, yeah? Watch and learn.” Huntley grabbed one of the bottles from the table and sniffed it. Nodding, he poured a little on the table. “This is the stuff.”

  “What stuff?” I asked. I could smell it barely. It was a little sweet and very strong.

  “Magic.” With that, he squeezed the flint and a large flame engulfed the table. He simply laughed as A.J. and I jumped back, both falling to the ground. I had no idea Huntley could do such a thing. It was incredible.

  “You three! Principal’s office right now!” The teacher yelled.

  Huntley put his hand to his head and saluted. Neither of us were sure as to why Huntley did that gesture, A.J. and I awkwardly saluted as we followed him out of the classroom. Apparently teachers were part military or something. Who would have known?

  When we got out to the hallway, it was quiet, which was a large contrast to how it was earlier when we had ventured down it to class. I preferred it this way, it was much easier to travel now. A.J. looked pissed, and once we were away from the door, he shoved Huntley. “What did you do that for, you idiot?”

  Huntley pushed him back. “Because we are only here for a day. We might as well have fun.”

  A.J. shook his head. I was really surprised he didn’t slap Huntley for touching him. I wasn’t sure if he was warming up to him or if he hadn’t even noticed as he was still glaring. “Is that what you did when you were human? You are despicable.”

  “Whatever,” Huntley turned around. “You don’t know what it’s like nowadays. The world is so disorganized, everyone just needs to lighten up.”

  I wasn’t sure what Huntley meant by that. He seemed to really hate being in this place, I started to regret forcing him to come to the school. I should have listened to him, but I was too preoccupied in seeing what humans did during the day. All of this was new to me, forbidden even. I only had this one chance to have hands on experience with the mortal realm and I didn’t want to pass it up. But it definitely wasn’t what I thought it was going to be like anyway.

  Huntley led us down the hall. Apparently he knew where we were supposed to be going. He said it wasn’t his first time to the principal’s office, but that still didn’t answer how he knew where it was in this school. Did that mean all schools were constructed the same? I had so many questions but I was afraid these were all repetitive and that I would only get on Huntley’s nerves if I kept asking him these things. So I decided to only ask the important questions when need be.

  We stopped in front of a door with half glass. There were a few chairs against the wall, one of them already occupied by a male student. He had brown hair, a soul patch, and had almost the same smug look that Huntley usually carried. He was probably a bit like Huntley, getting into trouble just as we did.

  He looked us over. “What did you all do?”

  A.J. glared at Huntley. “You mean what did he do? Started the table on fire with magic.”

  I elbowed A.J. He should have known it wasn’t really magic, but some kind of science. Then again, he hadn’t been on Earth for four thousand years. A lot of stuff back then was magic to him.

  The guy simply nodded, a bit confused but didn’t seem to care that A.J. had said ‘magic’. “I see.” He looked at me for a moment, his eyes sweeping up and down. I felt a bit self-conscious about what I was wearing. Maybe I should have worn something better? I didn’t see anyone else wearing Oomph! hoodies, which I thought to be strange since they are the best band ever. “Haven’t seen you around before, are you new?”

  I answered. “I, uh, just came from out of town. First day.” I tried to smile innocently. Apparently I was bad at lying, my father and Huntley were right. I just hoped my father wouldn’t ask questions about where I was. I probably would break down sobbing and beg for his forgiveness.

  “Ah, well, good luck. This high school is a bit hectic at times. But at least you made some good friends,” he glanced at Huntley with
a sarcastic smile.

  Huntley appeared as if he were going to say something and start a fight, but I intervened. I didn’t need a reason to get kicked out earlier than need be. “What about you, why are you sitting out here?”

  “Oh, nothing much. Just argued with the teacher about a sonnet by Shakespeare. He was wrong on how Shakespeare was portraying love, but he also doesn’t like being corrected.”

  I smiled. He understood as well. “I know, right? I noticed that during class too. He had it all wrong.”

  The guy laughed. He had a really good laugh, one that I could listen to over and over again. Wait, what was I thinking? I wasn’t interested in him in any way, he just reminded me of Huntley a lot. Except instead of causing trouble he was just arguing what was right.

  Okay, maybe not exactly like Huntley.