Monster of a Quest

Chapter 1 Dabria

I wake up with a smile spread across my face. It was early Friday morning, and it was the last day of school. I started getting ready to go to school. I put on the clothes I picked out last night, a nice blue long sleeve shirt, and black jeans. While I am getting ready for school, my mom yells, "Dabria, get down here right now, and explain this." I walk down the stairs thinking what in the world does she think I have done now? I get down there and she is standing next to the dining room table, pointing at some stain on the cloth. "What is this from?", she says in a stern voice. "I don't know. Did you or your date spill something last night", I said coolly. She glared at me for a minute, then said, "You're grounded". "For what?", I retort. "For spilling whatever this is on my good cloth", she said angrily back.

I don't understand how she can blame me for everything she does. I don't know why I don't actually do the stuff she grounds me for. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I lived with my father. I never met my father, he left before I was born, and my mother will not tell me anything about him. While walking to pick up Sam, I imagined how happy I could have been with him. Sam is my best friend. He lives at the edge of the forest by himself. He does not know his father either, or his mother. He has been living by himself for as long as I have known him, and he will never tell me about his parents, only that he can only remember a few things about them. When I got to where I picked him up at, he was already there waiting for me. I say "hi Sam", and he says "hi" back but I could tell something else was on his mind. So I asked what was wrong. "We have that big test today and I can't fail it, it is the last test of the year and I already have a low grade", he says, stressing. Sam really does not care about his grades unless it means getting held back. He always says that he is not planning to go to college, and he is going to live in the forest for the rest of his life, where no one can bother him about math equations.

"Right, I forgot all about it." I did forget about it, but at this point I don't care, which is very unusual for me because I have always cared about my grades. But I am so angry that my mom grounded me because of what she did. I was okay with failing this and it was the last day of school, so how bad could it hurt my grade. "Well, you better get studying then", he says, not paying attention. When we got to school, we went our separate ways to class.

After we complete our first few classes, we meet up again at lunch. As always, we sit together by the trash cans. We really do not care that we sit by trash cans, it is more peaceful there and people do not bother us the whole time while we are eating. "How have your classes been so far?" I ask, trying to start some sort of conversation. "Good" he says, but he seems too busy studying and eating to talk. "How is the studying going?" I say, still determined to start some sort of conversation. Finally he puts down his book and looks at me and says, "It would be better if you weren't distracting me the whole time."

"Why aren't you studying anyway? You are usually the one studying, and I am usually the one talking." He says confused. "Oh, I really do not care about this test," I say while eating my pizza. "What, since when do you not care about your grades," he says confused. "Well, since my mom grounded me, and I still care about my grades, I just don't care about this test,", I retorted. "Ooh, what did she ground you for this time?" he says, not surprised. "Oh, you know the usual, for doing something I did not do." I say, still angry but kind of happy that he is talking to me and not studying. After that he goes back to studying, and I go back to eating. Once lunch is over, we head to our next class, Science. When we get there, we sit and get our pencils, like it says on the board.

Once the bell rings for the second time, our teacher says start. I looked at my paper, and before I could see the first question, someone beside me called my name. I look over and it's Jake, the captain of the soccer team. Oh great, what does he want. He calls again; I answered because if I don't he will just keep calling and get both of us in trouble, and I don't need to be grounded for any longer than I already am. "What", I say in a low voice. "Can I copy off you", he whispers back. "No, you can not", I say irritated but still whispering. "Why not we won't get caught", he says. I really doubt that I always get in trouble when he copies off of me. I am really tempted to just ignore him for the rest of the class, but he will find some way to get me in trouble if I do. So I say, "that is not what I am worried about, I just don't want you to fail because I did not study." I smirk and then he glowers at me and says, "fine I will find someone else to copy off of." By the time I look at my paper there are only twenty minutes left of class, so I just answer the questions real quick. Luckily the test was not that hard, so I feel better wasting my time, and Jack's too. When the bell rang everyone looked so pleased because school was over, and I was kind of happy too, until I remembered that I was grounded.

I wait for Sam outside of the classroom, and like always on test days, he is last out of the classroom. He always bribes the teacher somehow on test days, and he never tells me how, he always says, "If I tell you then it won't work as well." When he comes out, he has an enormous smile on his face, and he says, "I don't know why I studied so hard. That test was so easy. But just in case, I gave the teacher a good reason to give me a good grade." While I was walking Sam home, I told him about how my mom grounded me for what she did. While I was telling him I heard something break, I turn around, and no one was there. Sam looked at me and said, "what's wrong." "Nothing, I just thought I heard something", I say. We kept walking, but I could have sworn I heard someone behind us. It sounded like they were talking about us. It sounded like they were angry they had to come out here. "Can you hear them?" I ask Sam in a hush voice so they could not hear me. "I can", he says. "Then why are you ignoring them", I ask. "Because they might not be talking about us", he whispers back.

I dropped off Sam at the edge of the forest where I usually do. After I dropped him off, I did not hear anyone anymore, which worried me a little. Maybe Sam was right, maybe they were not talking about us. Maybe they just happened to be behind us, and they were going to get someone else. When I got home, my mom was not home like usual, she is never home when I get home or when she is supposed to be home. She always out drinking or on random dates with many men, I am just glad she has a job at least. She works at a Coffee shop in the middle of town, which is where she picks up most of her dates. She goes on one date with them and never talks to them again. Right when I got in the house I saw a long list of chores on the table, and of course the top chore was the dishes because I hate doing the dishes. I feel like having a somewhat pleasant summer, so I mine as well do what I am told. When I was half done doing the dishes, I heard someone talking about the chosen one, but I just ignored it. My mom probably just left the TV on again. When I was washing my last dish I heard something again, I still ignored it but then something grabbed me, then put something over my eyes so I could not see. I screamed out for help, but I doubt anyone could hear me. I tried to fight back and get loose, but something hits me. I woke up, and I was in the back of some sort of truck, Sam was right next to me but he was still out cold. Suddenly he moves. He must have been knocked out a little later than me.