The River of Shadows by Elektra (great books for teens .TXT) 📕

I think you are.”
“I’m not half of ANYTHING! I look like my dad you peanut butter brain!” I spat back.
“Listen, could you let me walk you to school…” He asked.
“Why would I let some maniac wizard who broke into my house walk me to school?” I asked.
“Because I am a mystery to you, unlike most things, you can’t see what exactly I’m going to do next.” He replied, I hate that he was right!

-___-___-

“Okay, so listen.” He said pulling something out of his pocket, “Wave this, and you will understand that you and I are more alike than you realize.” He revealed the item, it looked like a small stem from a tree.
“This… is a twig.” I said, just looking at it, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes, I know.”
“It’s a twig.”
“I know, but…”
“A twig?”
“I know what it’s called! Just wave the freaking thing!” He shouted.
“Okay.” I replied, closed my eyes, and then waved it carelessly. Suddenly we appeared near a crag and Simon was near the edge, the rock he was standing on broke to pieces and he fell. I looked down and whistled, it sure was a long way down.
“Hey!” He hissed, I turned around, another one of his stupid tricks, “What we’re you thinking about when you waved that?” He spat.
“I was thinking that you should jump off a cliff.” I said, looking down again at the valley below, “Jagged rocks at the bottom… nice touch!”
“Hello! This is not about me falling off that cliff! It’s the fact that you made it happen without even touching me!”
“Yeah, so? It might just be your stupid magic stick.”
“You are so stubborn.” He replied, rolling his eyes, “Just, close your eyes, and think about the thing you want most in the world. Think really hard, want it as much as you can.”
I did as he said oddly enough.
“Now, open your eyes.”
My eyes sparkled, “UGH!” Simon groaned, stamping his foot on the ground, “Is Eric Sarando really what you want most?”
I turned around to see him, I grinned, the well-known snowboarder was still in his snow pants. Eric was plastered all over my locker, all the girls loved him and the guys always loathed him. With his honey blonde hair and crooked grin, who could resist? He was as gorgeous as any movie star, and I could sit and daydream about him for hours.
“How on earth did I get here?” he asked. Simon immediately pointed to me, the little tattle tale, “I gotta go, my girlfriend is getting suspicious of me not being where I said I was.” He said.
“Sorry dude.” Simon replied nodding his head, the movie star disappeared into thin air.
“NO!” I screamed, I wish Simon hadn’t done that.
“Not a human!” He scolded.
“Well, I didn’t want to make something happen that wasn’t already in this world, it wouldn’t be right.” I protested.
“Hmm… maybe you aren’t as un-intellectual as I thought.” He replied.
“You think I’m dumb?” I spat.
“Uh…” He didn’t know what to say.
“I’m getting out of here.” I replied, focusing on getting home, that’s what I wanted now, that’s what I really wanted. I popped up in China. Great, I poofed to the wrong place. At least I was away from that nerdy weirdo. I focused on home. My room, my kitchen, my mom. Closed my eyes tight and let the magic take me there. When I opened them again, I saw nothing but green. On closer inspection, I discovered that my head was surrounded by the leaves of a tree. I had poofed myself onto the roof of my house. "AUGGHHH"
“Hey!” He said, he appeared right behind me AGAIN.
“Ugh… can’t you at least knock.” I sighed, flopping into the shingles.
“So you just sit here? Listen to me Maeve, YOU’RE A FREAKIN ALIEN!” He exclaimed, I was listening, but it was not like I had a choice, “You could meet many people to help further your skills! For crying out loud, you could help me…”
The last thing he said was the only thing that interested me, only because he paused.
“Help you with what?” I asked.
“Uh… it’s none of your concern until you better your skills.” He replied, “Can we just settle on that?”
“What makes you think I’ll be so quick to go along with this Simon?” I asked, my eyes narrowed.
“You long for adventure, you are bored with regular life, and you definitely have a craving for adrenalin. I mean, who wouldn’t wanna get better at magical powers if they had them?” Simon replied, once again, he was correct, I despised that fact more than I despised the fact that I would probably have to deal with him no matter what.

Chapter 3

The last thing I wanted to see when I first came to school and opened up my locker was right there.
“I love what you’ve done with your locker.” He said, I pointed to the picture of Eric Sarando, “Never mind.”
“Okay who did this to him?” I asked. I saw Sam snickering from across the hallway.
“Theres your boyfriend, now you’ll never lose him!” Sam spat.
I clenched my fists, “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You were the one who did this to me?” Simon asked, Sam nodded, a sneer on his dumb face, “Then, EAT MAGIC SUCKA!” Simon’s cyan eyes glowed and there was a puff of smoke, when it cleared Sam was on the floor, his thumb plunged into his mouth, I just had to laugh. Sam's friends didn't say a thing. With wide eyes, they turned and booked it out of there. Simon crossed his arms, his ego must've been through the roof.
"Oh, Simon. You're my hero." I said, sarcasm heavy in my voice. He glared at me and began to pout.
"Let's see you do that without burning down the school." he snapped. I scowled and stomped away. It wasn't my fault I sucked.
__________________

I sat in my chair at the back of the class as usual, of course my day was better than it had started out. Since Sam had passed out in the middle of the hall, or so everyone thinks, he went home. So I was free to sit at the back of the class without his rude remarks. I was thinking over what was all going on these past few days.
“You say I suck,” I finally whispered to Simon, “But you have had many years of training. If you’re so good at what you do, why not teach me?” I said, a devilish grin spreading across my face.
Simon looked to the ceiling, as if he was deep in thought. When he finally looked back at me, he pushed his glasses up his nose and said, “Well, I suppose. It’s not like I have anything else to do in my spare time.” He grinned at me and looked back to the front of the class.
“Well, regretably, Sam will not be joining us today,” the teacher said at the front of the room, “He had a nervous breakdown and is with the counseler now.”
I had to snicker, maybe Simon wasn’t that bad, he had a sense of humor at least. I lazily took notes as the rest of the day wasted away. On my way to gym, Simon snuck up from behind me holding an orange.
“See if you can turn this into something else.” He said to me, placing it in my hand.
“Um, okay.” I said, looking at the orange and concentrating. I closed my eyes and let myself breathe. I cautiously pointed my finger at it. At first it turned into a cookie, but then it morphed into a pineapple.
“That was very close for a beginner.” He said, trying to assure me.
“Yeah right, It’s not close at all.” I replied.
“Maeve, you didn’t even know you had powers since a day ago, I knew my whole life, its not as hard for those who were born knowing.”
I shrugged and walked into the girls locker room as Simon walked further into the gym toward the guys locker room. I went into my locker and groaned, my gym clothes were gone.
“Looking for something?” I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was, Scarlette. You know that blonde, bratty, cheerleader that’s in all schools? Well Scarlette was ten times worse, and she had deep, brown hair with red highlights. Just about the coldest heart in the whole town of Lumanburge, compared to her, Sam was a saint.
I turned around to look her in her blue eyes, she held up a pair of soggy gym clothes that had once been mine.
“They looked like they could’ve used a good swim.” She said, sneering.
I rolled my eyes and went out into the gym, I then stopped dead in my tracks. I would show Simon, I would show them all. I grinned and ran back into the locker room. I went back into the corner where I would have my things, where just about no one else would go since Lillia didn’t have gym with me. “You have to get this right, you don’t want to go out there in your underwear.” I said to myself, I pointed at myself. At first, nothing happened, it was as if it didn’t want to work. “Come on!” I hissed. Finally, I completely forgot where I was, my tounge lashed out of my mouth. I had no idea what was going on, I had no control. My skin became cold and I finally pointed at myself once again. When I finally snapped myself out of it, I realized that dry gym clothes were on my body. I grinned and strode out of the locker room, my head held high. I ran out to the gym and out to were the teams were being formed. I have a feeling that Simon had made the teacher put us on the same team, then again, it could’ve been irony, either way he was standing next to me as the game went on.
“Hey, I gotta ask you about something.” I said to him, “Something weird happened in the locker room. Well, you don’t know her but Scarlette, the typical popular girl had soaked my gym clothes in the sink. So I tried to do some magic to get dry gym clothes.”
“Obviusly it worked.” He said nodding.
“Yup! But before it worked, something weird happened.” I explained.
Simon simply nodded, as if it was a normal thing, “Yeah, that’s a Gekian thing.”
“Gekian?” I asked, a bit puzzled.
“Well, our magic works best when we are in true Gekian form,” He replied. “Our eyes become snake-like, our tounge becomes forked, and our flesh becomes cold.”
“Oh, so that is our… species?” I guessed.
“Mmhm.” He said, “After school I can take you to our world, Samirisus, named after an unknown godess of lizards.”
“I’ve never heard of her.”
“Well, she was one of the ancient godesses of my world.” Simon explained. It only seemed like a few minutes, but the bell rang instantly. I began walking with Simon until he went behind the school and zapped us to his home.
“Hi Simon!” called a woman from another room.
“Good afternoon mom!” He called back.
His mother walked into the room, her hair tied back in a bun, apron covered in flour. It is how I would have pictured any typical mom. Unlike mine who went into all these crazy fads. One week she would take dance lessons with my father, another, she would be sky diving. But what really stood out about Simons mother was that she had round, pink eyes.
“Oh, Hello!” His mother said, grinning at me.
“Mom, this is Maeve, a girl