Читать книгу Genesis of the Guardians - Kevin Qi - Страница 7

So, they weren’t the bandits that you would probably expect them to be. Five of my closest friends were crowded behind a couch, whispering to each other. Seeing this, I figured that Beatrice and Robert were hiding in the dining room somewhere. I went back to the kitchen and peeked into the dining room. Yep. Beatrice and Robert were hiding behind the wall close to the front door. They had been waiting for me to walk in, but they hadn’t heard anything.

So, I stealthily tiptoed up to them, and, because they hadn’t thought that I had even entered the house yet, they didn’t notice me standing right next to them.

Beatrice tapped Robert’s shoulder and asked, “Why is it taking him so long?”

“I don’t know, honey.” Robert replied. “It’s possible Tony saw the wrong person?”

I smiled, and then whispered, “Or maybe Hunter's already inside.”

Robert almost jumped, and then froze. Beatrice shrieked and ran out of the dining room, straight into the living room. Pleased with myself, I strolled into the living room with Robert close behind.

“Surprise!” My friends popped out from their couch. “Happy Birthday!”

Oh, right. Didn’t I mention? That day had been my fifteenth birthday.

Beatrice walked up to me, laughing, “You gave us a heart attack! How did you get in so quietly?” I just shrugged, then turned to Robert.

“Don’t worry, your shout was nice and manly.”

“I’m sure it was,” he grumbled.

My friends, Sam, Blake, Tony, James, and Cory were laughing so hard that James and Sam were actually crying. They had heard my adopted parents’ shouts and found it utterly hilarious. I reminded them that if I had chosen to pop up next to them instead, they’d have done the same thing. They dismissed the thought and wished me a happy birthday, handing me presents.

It was a good party. Beatrice and Robert had moved around the furniture in the living room in a fashion so that my friends and I could set up our computers and laptops. For my birthday, they had bought me a paintball gun and reserved a day at a local paintball place, so after everyone had set up their laptops, Robert gave us a lift.

It was awesome! To be fair, I think I had an unfair advantage, because I had my own store bought paintball gun, but everyone had fun regardless. We started with over 4,000 paintballs, but they run out faster than you would think they would. But still, by the time we ran out and got picked up by Robert, it was already six-thirty. At home, instead of eating the stereotypical pizza, we had homemade tacos courtesy of Beatrice. At seven, we started playing on our computers.

On August 8th, 2015, at precisely 7:43, exactly fifteen years after my birth, my life turned upside down.

Lucas’s digital journal 8/14/15

So, the airplane ride kinda sucked.

The projected flight was about twenty-four hours, and the ride was good for… oh, half an hour? I had just started settling into the provided inflight movies when my brain exploded.

Well, not really. But it hurt a lot, okay? >.<

It was a searing pain, but it was definitely coming from the inside of my head. Which sucked. You know how if you’re hurt on the outside, by reflex, your hand will go up to wherever you’ve been wounded? If nothing else, that contact will provide mental comfort. But the problem with interior pain is that even putting your hands to about where it hurts doesn’t provide even the tiniest comfort, even mentally.

My dad was sitting beside me, holding me, asking me what was wrong. I can’t remember much except that my vision tunneled, and the last thing I saw was a plane attendant picking me up.