Thank you so much @unicornsarecool47 for the AWESOME cover!
You have Astrid Baros. The teen from Wisconsin, who has had it tough.
Then you have Kleo Scafidi. The kick-butt, black belt, that is on a mission.
I'm quiet. Don't have many friends, and am usually to myself. I'm 14 and my Nana has homeschooled me my whole life. We live in a ghost town, it's called Sascee, Wisconsin. I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life, with my grandma, or as I call her, Nana. I say it like, Naw Naw. It's Greek. My father is Greek, and my mother is Swiss. Or at least they were, before they both got killed in a car crash 12 years ago when I was 2. Some stupid guy was drunk driving, and they got hit from the side. Nana tells me that we used to be pretty wealthy. We even lived in New York City! But sadly, when they died, their will was not found, and the house was sold, along with everything in it. I remember glimpses of my parents, and I remember them saying kind, nice, loving words. My parents were probably the best people I've ever known, and probably the best people in the world, I mean, besides my nana. My pahpoo, (Yeah go ahead and laugh. Get it out of your system. PahPOO. That was halarious.) or grandpa, died of lung cancer 5 years ago, so it's just me and Nana now! My mom never had any siblings, and my dad's brother, Paki, was probably the saddest person at their funeral. Him and his wife, Cate, were devastated. But they live in Rome.
I curl my dark brown, wavy hair into a bun, and cover one of my bright blue eyes, to try to see myself in a different light. I look in the mirror and think about how come my mom was so beautiful, and I look like THIS. I sigh and pull on Nana's old Tampa Bay sweatshirt.
"Astrid! Breakfast!" Nana yells from down the hall. We have only one floor, and our house resembles a lot of a little slave cottage. It is made completely of concrete, inside and out. We have no carpeting, only concrete. We can't afford T.V, or heating, or even a microwave! All we have is an old radio. But me and Nana have lots to do. We will knit, or play cards, tell stories, and read books. And for clothes, we usually knit or go to Goodwill for winter, and sew or wear VERY old hand-me downs for everyday clothes.
"Astrid!" Nana croaks again. I quickly run down the hall, to the sitting room, where Nana is sitting in front of the fireplace, eating cereal.
Nana is a 73 year old woman with white, shoulder length, thin, curly hair, and little glasses. One thing I love most about Nana is her smile, and sence of humor.
I walk over to her and give her a kiss. "Morning Nana!" I say.
"Morning sweetheart." She says back. I walk a few feet over to our kitchen, and pick up my bowl of Captain Crunch. "The Captain was about to board the ship and leave!" Nana says. I laugh at her silly remark at my Captain Crunch.
Once I finish my cereal, I give Nana another kiss, and say, "Bye! I'm going to wolf park!"
"Where else?" Nana says. I smile at her, and walk out the door.
I love the bike ride to the wolf park. We live in a very foresty area. I love the smell of pine, and maple, mixed with a little dirt, from the roads. I love the cool air against my face, as I bike on the dusty dirt road.
I love wolves. I feel like that they are like me. Free, independent, but likes to have SOMEONE around, and most importantly, misunderstood.
The worker, Johnny, loves when I come around. Johnny is 21, and a college drop-out. He has dark blond hair, and is cute. But more in a little baby sort of way. The only reason that these wolves aren't getting sent somewhere, and splitting up, is him. And his, "Wolf park," is more like a reservation, except for wolves. They are all from zoos, and the zoos were going to get rid of them because they didn't exactly, "Get along," with the other wolves. He feeds them, washes them, and breeds them, all by himslef, with the help of me of course. There are 6 wolves, and he loves them all the same. Except I don't. I love one in perticular. His name is Rebel . But first, let me tell you about the other wolves.
There is Darell. He is gray, with a few black stripes, and a white stripe on his forehead. He is the oldest one of the bunch. Darrel is very independent, and likes to be by himself. Like me.
There is Iggie. She is about mid-life. She is the social one, and has a romantic interest with one of the other wolves, Randy. Iggie is all white, except for she has a black tail. She is very mischeivious, and playful.
Then Randy and Rigbey. The two twins. They are both brown with slashes of black The boy, Randy, is very stubborn, and clean, while his siter Rigbey, is messy, and jaunty.
Then you got Roley Poley. She is completely brown. She is best friends with Rigbey, and they are always pulling pranks.
Fianlly, Rebel. My favorite. He is completely black, and has 1 brown eye, and 1 blue eye. He is always independent, but likes to cause trouble. The main reason I like him is because he is hard to work with and misunderstood, like me.
"Hey Astrid, would you wanna help give Rebel a bath? You are the one he likes the best!" Johnny says, gesturing me to go along. I jump off the wood bench and run up to Johnny.
"Uh-Coarse!" I say.
"Great! I'll go get Rebel, you just wait in the bathing room, I'll be there in a sec." I give him a nod and started to walk into barn. I push the dusty barn doors open and cough because of the dust. I have bathed Rebel a few times, but I'm still not used to the barn.
When I get inside, I grab the flashlight by the door, and flick it on. There is no light in the barn, and that does sometimes make it a little hard the bathe the wolves. As I walk down the hallway I pass the grooming room, breeding room, and a small kitchen and bathroom. As I pass Johnny's office, I couln't help but peek my head inside. I had never seen his office before because the door is usally locked. I had meant to just peek inside, but the room drew me in. I just loved all of his paintings, sculptures, and scetches that were pinned all around the room. As I drew closer, I could see that they were all related to The Bible. Some were the fruit that Adam and Eve ate. Some were of The Garden of Eden, and some were other Biblical allusions.
There was a picture taped to the front of his compuder screen, so I sat down in his chair to get a better look at it. I moved the mouse so the compuder light would go on, this way I could get a better look at the scetch. When I put the compuder on, it was opened to Johnny's email. I felt a little bad snooping, but I just had to when I saw my name as a subject of an email.
I turned around to make sure that Johnny wan't watching me. I turned back around and slowly moved the mouse to the email and opened it. It read:
John-
I appreciate the new news about Astrid Baros, and I think we should concider asking her about S.C.A.T., and if she would like to join us. After the months of your incredible observations on her, I would be honored if she would join S.C.A.T. Reply to me by Monday, because I have VERY important information about The Garden.
-Noah Scafidi
I don't know why I did this. I NEVER do things against the rules like this. But I don't know, I felt like I HAD to. I clicked reply. And I wrote:
Noah-
I have asked her about S.C.A.T. She didn't have a clue what it was. Should I tell her? Anyway, what did you find about The Garden? Please send me an email, ASAP.
-John
I clicked send, before I could convince myself to delete the email. I guess that Noah was on his email becase I got an email almost immediatly. It read:
John-
Thank you for the feedback. I think that you should tell her what S.C.A.T., is and when she will come to Isreal. I will tell you the news about The Garden when she gets to Isreal.
-Noah
At this point, my heart was racing. I had so many questions. What is The Garden? Who is Noah? Why I am so important? And, WHAT IN THE HECK IS S.C.A.T.?
After I read the last email, I heard Johnny scream my name. I quickly jumped out of the chair and ran as fast as I could to the bathing room that it at the end of the hall.
"Sorry." I said to Johnny.
"Where WERE you!" Johnny asked.
"Um, I had to go to the bathroom." I said.
"Ok. Well you know the drill for washing Rebel. I'll be in my office if you need anything." I gave Johnny a nod and a smile as he left the room.
"Ok, Rebel. Just get in the tub for Astrid." I whisper to Rebel as I lead him to the metal tub. Johnny had everything set: The water was in the tub, Rebel's shampoo was ready, and the brush was in it's usual place. As I was scrubbing Rebel I thought about the emails, and the question that kept on bothering me was, "Why was I so important in all this? And why was Johnny, 'observing' me?"
I finished scrubbing Rebel and he jumped out of the tub, and shook all of the water off him and unto me. I sighed and pick up the nearest towel, and dried Rebel off, then I dried myself off. I then led Rebel back to the large in closed area where they run around outside. "There you go Rebel!" I say as I clip the leash off.
I walk back inside the smelly barn, and make my way back down the hallway. When I was starting to pass Johnny's office, I started to walk quieter, so maybe he won't hear me. When I got to the doorway, he said, "Stop." I sighed and didn't even bother coming up with an excuse for what he was about to tell me. I was caught, and that was that. "Sit." Johnny said, gesturing to one of the wood stools in his office. I quietly sat down, ready for the news. I was all prepared for him to start screaming at me, by instead, he just said, "There is such a thing as, 'sent mail.'" He said with a wink. Darn! I didn't think that he was going to check his sent mail! Who does that anyway? I guess Johnny does.
"So......" I say.
"Don't pretend, Astrid," He says, "I know that you know that I've been watching you, and you probably know all about S.C.A.T. Now too."
I slump my back against the wall. "Actually, I have no idea what S.C.A.T. is." I say.
"Oh. Then I guess I should tell you." Johnny said. All of a sudden my ears perked up, and a sat straight again. "Well, it stands for, 'Scholars of Creed And Time.' Well, that's what our group is called." He said. I was completely confused and I guess he could see that because he said, "THAT means that we study The Bible, and what happened to the landmarks. We are working on finding The Garden of Eden right now. None of us believe that it just vanished. Some people think that it disappeared due to God flooding the earth, but wouldn't the water evaporate over time?" I could tell that Johnny was getting excited talking about this. "And we believe that The Garden is somewhere below Jerusalem, in Israel."
"I stil don't understand why I am so important in all this." I say.
"Well, you mom and dad were part of our group, and right before they passed away, they told me to keep an eye on you, and not just to make sure your safe, to see if you would be able to handle S.C.A.T."
"Of coarse I can handle it." I say. "Wait, does Nana know?"
Johnny laughed and said, "Of coarse she does!"
"So did everyone know about this but me?" I said, raising my voice a little.
"Not everyone! Just me, you mom, your dad, your nana, your pahpoo, and the 20 or so people in S.C.A.T!"
"Oh, yeah, JUST like 20 people!" I say sarcastically.
"Astrid, It's not like that. I joined when I was 15, a little older than you are. I felt the same way, but really, when you think about all the billions of people in the world, 20 people doesn't seem so bad."
"I guess." I say.
"So, are you going with us?"
"Where?"
"To Israel. It is our very first long distance searching. We have gone around the states for meetings, but never this far! I'm actually surprised that this is our first trip out of the country because everyone in S.C.A.T. Is from all around the world. There are people from the U.S., Jamaca, Italy, England, Finland, Spain, Australia, Peru, and even Egypt! Sorry, I'm rambling, so will you come to Jeruslahem with us?"
"Sure." I say. I tryed to be all cool about it, but I still had many questions, and I was super nervous to go to Israel and leave Nana.
"I know you still have questions, and they will be answered when we get to Israel. We leave on Thursday, and I will meet you at your house Thursday morning at 5:00. Our flight is at 7:00."
"THURSDAY? That leaves me TWO days to pack! How long are we going to be gone?"
"I don't know. Like a month to a month and a half." Johnny says while muching on potato chips.
"WHAT?!?"
"I said-"
"I know what you said! I just can't believe it!" I say.
"Well, believe it."
"This must be a dream." I say, holding my head.
"Nothing THIS incredible can be a dream. Ever."
I got up, and walked out the barn doors. I just needed some time to think this all through.
On the bike ride home, I could feel that I was going to cry when I told Nana that I knew about S.C.A.T. I wonder is Nana and Pahpoo where in it too. I can't stand being away from Nana a WEEKEND, how am I supposed to last almost TWO MONTHS.