Found (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 38

"This tastes amazing!" Parisa said, after taking her first bite of the delicious curry dish Blue had made.

"I'm just trying to live up to your mother's skills," Blue replied with a warm smile across her face.

"Isn't your mom a human?" Issac asked Parisa. While his question was totally harmless, I saw Blue and Thomas tense at Issac's words.

"Yeah she is," Jacob replied defensively before Parisa could.

"Oh... cool," Issac replied, his face revealing the red tint of his embarrassment. It's clear Issac was wondering how a giantess like Blue would have experienced a human's cooking.

A silence fell among the table before Issac spoke again.

"I um, agree with Parisa. This is a very lovely dish. I've never had anything likes this before,"

"Thank you Issac," Blue replied with a light smile across her face this time.

"How has soccer been going Parisa?" Thomas asked. Thomas hadn't said much to Issac yet. In fact, it almost seemed like he was avoiding even looking in Issac's direction.

Parisa filled us all in on how this season has been going for the human girls soccer team. This led to Issac contributing his own questions about the human girls league. Sports was definitely a good topic for Issac to engage in. He clearly knew a lot about both soccer and football as well as other sports.

"I think you'd be pretty good at football actually!" Issac said to Jacob.

"I'm not into sports," Jacob stated adamantly.

"Yeah, Jake is way more into stuff like art. Actually he's really good at art. I can barely even draw a stick figure, but Jacob's art looks so real, it's amazing," Parisa shared, laughing once she spoke about her own art skills.

"He certainly has that in common with River. Have you guys seen River's artwork? One moment, I have pictures!" Blue said as she stood from the table, and then returned with her cellphone. She swiped her finger across to unlock the device. She then turned it around to show everyone examples of my artwork. I felt my face flush, seeing everyone gush over my creations. Blue elicited laughter as she showed the difference between her picture of the tree versus my picture of the same tree. I must admit, it was kind of funny how much more intricate and realistic mine looked.

"I think it's cool how you chose to smudge with pencil over using charcoal," Jacob said. I like that Jacob even knew the difference between techniques.

Next, Blue swiped to a picture of my clay rose I'd made. This rose was for Mr. L's art class. It was a piece I was actually quite proud of, but that wasn't why my heart fluttered with a stream of nerves. I watched Jacob lean in, even zooming in on the picture when Blue slid her phone to him.

"That looks a lot like the rose Jacob made for Logan's class," Parisa chimed in.

"Exactly 10 thorns," Jacob said under his breath. How'd he catch such a detail? Yes, I had created 10 thorns, one for each year that I'd spent with Kerry. Could Jacob tell the symbolism behind them?

"I don't know why I made a rose for this assignment," I admitted to Jacob.

"I like it... A lot," Jacob replied, his dark eyes seeming like they were looking into my soul.

"Okay, I think I might have to switch and get you a red rose for Fall Ball!" Issac said, breaking me out of my art trance and pulling my attention to a very tense Thomas.

"This Fall Ball. That's this friday, correct?" Thomas asked.

"Yep. Oh and by the way, I'm so excited to take River. So many of the guys on the team have been dying to meet her. And now Jacob and Parisa are going to come too! This will be great!"