The final bell of the school day rings and I let out a sigh of relief. I wrestle my way out the door through the crowds of excited teenagers eager to get out of this place and notice Dad waiting for me on the school steps.
"Hi Mr. Grimes," the kids in front of me say politely as they pass by him. He smiles and returns their greetings.
"Hi, is something wrong?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Hi honey, nothings wrong, I just need to talk to you. And Dan too. Where is he?" Dad asks.
"Uhm he should be out here pretty soon," I shrug, looking back at the door.
I step to the side, letting some kids get by me and readjusting my back pack on my shoulder.
"So how was your day?" Dad asks and I freeze, hesitant to tell him.
"It was uh... fine," I say, stuttering a little bit. I'm trying not to keep everything to myself anymore, but it's kind of a reflex.
I can see from the look on his face that he can tell that it wasn't fine.
"You want to tell me about it?" He asks.
"I.. I don't know," I say, biting my lip
Daniel walks out and I wave at him so he sees us.
"Hey, I've been looking for you all day. Is something wrong?" Daniel asks, looking at me and then Dad.
"Dad wants to talk to us," I reply.
"Not here," Dad says, looking around at the crowds of teenagers secretly wondering why Dad is here.
Brooke and Eliza walk by us on the steps, giggling about something and I suck in a breath.
"Hi Mr. Grimes," they both say in sing-song voices. I force myself not to make a face. I won't play their game.
"Hi girls," Dad replies. They both start giggling loudly again and walk down the steps.
I shut my eyes for a second, reopening them when I'm calm enough to talk.
"Anyways, we'll talk at home," Dad says, giving me a look to let me know that he caught that.
///
"You both obviously know about the threats from Castlebury for the past couple of months," Dad begins and I look over at Daniel. He looks just as confused as I am.
"We're not afraid of them, but we are taking them seriously. They want half of our harvest because most of their crops died in the drought this summer. We said no because obviously we can't possibly give that up, and they're retaliating. Damning up our water supply as you witnessed that day, threatening to simply take it in an all out war, doing anything they can to push our buttons. Now they've done something that's taken it too far. Last night, they knocked out two of our watch guards and trampled down some of the gardens, which means they're in our city. They didn't damage enough to make a dent in our supplies, but enough to send the message, so now we're going to send a message back. We have spies in Castlebury, as I'm sure that they have in our city. Our spies have left a message for us in the woods, and I need you two to go get it for me."
