Zoe, Leo, Logan (Art), and Damon: Age 10
Mystery Boy--Age 12
Prolouge:
"Leo, you say it," Damon said.
"Is that an order?" Leo asked.
"It certainly isn't a suggestion." Art put in. I rolled my eyes.
"Shut up all of you. I'll say it. One, two three...not it!"
"Not it!" They all said together.
"Who said it last?" Leo asked.
"I couldn't tell." Art said.
"Why don't we just do inky-binky-bonkey?" Leo asked.
"Inky-binky-bonky is sad, the donkey died." Damon said, frowning.
"Fine, we'll do Mickey Mouse peed on a house. Nobody dies in that." I said.
"But there's vandalism."
"Shut up Artie." Leo groaned.
"Hold on, I gotta pee." He turned around and pulled down his pants, peeing in the bushes. Leo slapped a hand over my eyes. "Damon!" He barked.
"What?" I heard the zipper of him pulling up his pants and he turned back around. Leo removed his hand.
"Can you hurry up? I have a book I need to get back to." Art looked proud of himself.
"You just like rubbing it in our faces that you can read bigger words than we can!" I fired back.
He shrugged. "Don't hate the overacheiver. Hate the brain."
I was about to tackle him when Damon sighed and said, "Fine I'll be it."
"Count to thirty." Leo instructed. "And no shifting."
"Fine, fine," he grumbled. "Okay, I'm starting. One...two..."
We all ran off in different directions, and I headed for the woods. I ran deeper and when I reached where I wanted to go, I stopped, panting. Old Eden was one of the biggest trees in the forest, and I was the only one who could climb it, even when we were in wolf form.
I knew Damon would cheat and shift. I rubbed my hands together and jumped as high as I could (which was pretty high), grabbing onto the second lowest branch and starting my climb all the way to the top.
When I was finished, I poked my head up between the branches and looked around me, careful to stay hidden, even though Damon would never think to look here. I sighed and nestled myself into between the branches, leaning on a bunch of leaves. I closed my eyes and sighed, soaking in the afternoon air.
I thought I heard something rustling in the branches, but ignored it. It was probably a squirrel or something, and I didn't feel like talking to it right now because Damon would probably hear me. I felt something looming in front of my face and scrunched my brow, but didn't open my eyes.
There was something blowing on my face, and that was my final warning. I opened my eyes and screamed, loosing my balance and falling backwards out of the tree. I heard him shout a curse. I twisted in the air so that I could see the ground getting nearer and nearer and twisted myself back around, not wanting to see what I was about to hit.
I closed my eyes and...
Someone caught me. I nearly cried in relif and opened my eyes to see a boy around my age looking intently back at me. He was holding me in his arms. I squirmed. He immediately let go and I back up a safe distance.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Who are you?"
"I'm not telling you who I am until you tell me who you are."
"I have all day."
"So do I." I sat down cross legged on the ground, folding my arms. He smirked.
"Not uh. Your brothers are looking for you right now."
"So?"
"So, you'd better tell me who you are before they come."
I clenched my jaw. He narrowed his eyes. We glared at each other silently. He had brownish black mussed up hair, brown eyes with flecks of green in them and tanned skin.
"Are you a werewolf?" I asked.
"Are you a werewolf?" He asked.
"Yes."
"Than so am I." He confirmed.
"You are so...icky."
"Whatever. My name's Jace."
"Ha! I won!"
"Whatever." He repeated. "What's your name?"
"Zoe."
"Nice. Okay, look, I have to go, I hear your brothers coming."
"Why can't you play with us?"
"Because I'd get in trouble. My uncle doesn't even know I'm here."
"Ooo, you're a troublemaker."
"Bite me." He flashed a pair of small fangs and hissed and I shrunk back into the soft tree bark, looking at him like he was crazy.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"You're a vampire! And you smell like a wolf!"
"That's because I'm half and half."
I looked at him in confusion. "What?"
"I'm half vampire and half werewolf."
"Is that even possible?"
"Yes!" He yelled indignantly.
"Sorry, sorry. Jeez."
"It's okay." He put his head down and his hair flopped into his eyes. "People don't really like me that much because of it though." He sounded sad. I wanted to hug him, so I did.
His eyes flashed as he looked at me and smiled as I pulled back, suddenly shy. I stuck my hands into my pockets and told him, "I don't really judge.
"That's good." He said smiling that sam e little hal smile."Now I really have to go, your brothers are coming. Can't you hear them?"
I cocked an ear and sure enough, I heard the soft brushing of the leaves as they looked for me. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay, bye Jace."
He walked up to me until our faces were inches apart, looking into my eyes. I froze. He leaned forward and kissed me. He sat back.
"Bye, Zoe." He whispered. And he ran off. I was too baffled to even chase and tackle him.
A boy. Had just. Kissed me.
Me.
I was still dazed when my brothers came into the clearing, Damon and Art play fighting. Leo looked at me. "What happened?"
I just shook my head. He shrugged and let it go. "Whatever. Let's go back home. Art's it."
"Kay." I looked over my shoulder into the woods where Jace had disappeared, hoping to catch one last glance, but saw nothing. I frowned, a little disappointed.
I followed my brothers back. A chipmunk hopped on my shoulder.
"I saw that, Zoe," it whispered in my ear.
"Shhh." I said back. "Zuzu, please stay out of it. It's not like I'll see him again." My brothers couldn't understand me because I was speaking chipmunk. I could talk to animals.
"Sure."
"Thanks."
I saw my daddy at the edge of the woods and ran up to him, jumping in his arms. "Daddy!"
"Zoe!" He laughed. My dad had a big booming laugh. My mommy was standing behind him, her arms folded over her big belly. We were going have a baby sister and brother.
She winked at me and I giggled. My brothers were on daddy's legs and arms, but he was strong enough to carry all of us because he was a werewolf, just like us.
"Look at my big family. Group hug!" She yelled. And that was the signal for us to tackle my dad and hit the forest ground, laughing. My mommy sat on top and squished us all.
"Now, that's not fair!"