Number 10

I find it

I have always, always had this " gift". I was the only one, besides my best friend Emileah, or emi as I call her, to know about it. Not even my parents know. It's rather embarrassing, like no one would believe me. We've been friends since she was three, when she moved next door. Our yards happened to have a gate connecting to each other. When I turned seven, ( we are a year and a half apart), her mom entrusted me with her, allowing us to go to the park at the end of the cul-de-sac. That was our favorite thing to do. She is going on 14, and I'm 15. We still enjoy going there, although we can't fit the little kiddie slides and stuff, we just sit on a bench or on the swings and talk about things. She never really brings up my "gift", and I don't either. I bet you are wondering what it is. Well, it's rather wierd, but my little "gift" is being able to tell how dangerous someone is. Like, on a one to ten scale. Weird, right? I thought everyone had it till Emileah was six. I was walking to the mini grocery with her to grab beef sticks ( our favorite treat) and I jokingly pointed to a policeman with a handgun and said" wow, he's really scary! Not too many #7 around here!" She looked at me really confused. " ummm, what do you mean, Joshua? What do you mean by a #7?" with a worried look on her little face. " Oh come on emi! Stop playing dumb! Besides, what's my number? I bet I'm higher than you!" " Joshua?" " Yeah?" " Well... you don't have a number. I really, truly don't know what you are talking about. What do you mean by a number anyway?" "Ummm... like, the way you know how dangerous people are? I don't know? Doesn't everyone have that?" "No, Joshua. I think your the only one! What is my number, anyway?" By now, we had gotten our beef sticks and we're hiding in our little cave that we found. It was only big enough for us to both sit in cross legged, foreheads touching. "You are a number 2. My daddy is a number 5. Mom is a number four, and so is your mom. Why can I tell this? What is different about me?" "I don't know joshie. Don't tell anyone about it though! It needs to be a secret! Pinky pwomise? (Her 'R's' still came out funny)" " Pinky promise" I said, hooking my pinky finger with hers. "You want to know somthin funny Emileah? I've never seen a person that has a number ten. That would be scary!" She shuddered.

Emileah is a home schooler. (A.N. I am too! Home schooling rocks!) I attend the private school in town. Today was the first day of school and I was soooooooo tired. I was on my bed, finishing up the last of my homework. All of a sudden I heard the call of a female red tailed hawk. I grinned. This has been me and emileah's secret call since she was in 3 grade and did a study on raptors. We both became raptor fanatics, the perigrine falcon being our favorite. However, we found its call too hard to imatate. So we settled on a red tail call, our second favorite. I went to the window and imatated the male call. I saw her dart across my yard, coming toward the front door. I finished up the last tiny bit of my homework before she got up the stairs to my room. "How was school joshie?!?!?" She asked, using my nickname. "OK I guess. Not great though." I sighed. "What's up." She said as serious as she could.
"Emi.... I saw one."
Her face fell.

Cliffhanger!!!! Ha! Can't wait for the next chapter! Thanks for reading, guys! Please fan me and comment!
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