Salamander Girl

Five

"Oh no, oh no," I started digging through the dirt with my fingers.

"Doctor Christian is going to kill me!" I cried.

"Is everything alright up there, Samantha?" I slapped a hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to yell that loud.

"Just fine, Mom!" I promised. I slammed the door shut. Sammy had to be somewhere in my room. If he wasn't he was as good as dead with Ammon around anyway. And I hated to think of what would happen if he had slithered into the clinic downstairs.

"Sammy? Sammy?" I whispered harshly. It was a long shot, but it worked with cats and dogs. Why not a salamander?

Under the bed. Beneath the covers. Behind the shelf. Inside my boots.

I searched all over the floor, but Sammy was nowhere to be found.

"Oh my, oh my, oh my," I pulled my legs to my chest and rocked myself back and forth. "Doctor Christian is going to kill me!" I repeated.

"I highly doubt that."

My legs jerked outwards and my hair whipped around my shoulders as I looked for the source of the voice.

"Wha- who?" It was too masculine to be mom, or even Abigail doing her Brian Regan impression. It was much too mature to be Ammon, and too high-pitched yet serious to be dad.

I grabbed my skateboard and aimed it at the closet door, the one place that slipped my mind in my search. I swung my board back and forth between being pointed at the closed closet door and the window locked from inside.

"Who's there?" I demanded, "I'll have you know that this skateboard broke James Muller's armin eighth grade!"

"Well, I don't doubt that." The tinny voice scoffed. Listening to the voice now, it sounded much politer than a sneaky thief, yet almost at its wit's end, just like my math teacher's.

I cautiously faced the closet again. It was the closest source I could discern the voice from, but it had hardly sounded muffled, as it would be behind a closed door.

There was a tiny puff of air, like a sigh.

"Down here," the voice spoke again.

I looked at the floor.

The voice groaned.

"On the desk."

I inched around, to face the desk, afraid of what I would see.

Standing on my desk, in front of my laptop, was Sammy.

"Hi there!" The salamander waved one of its front legs up at me.

I nearly fainted, but the chair caught me.

"I've gotta be dreaming..." I mumbled rubbing my eyes. I shut them tight and counted to ten. When I opened my eyes again, Sammy was still on the desk, but now he was standing on his two hind legs. Just like when Miss Susan brought in her dog, Bodie, for his checkup and he tried to jump up on top of the counter to lick me and Abby and Ammon.

"Okay, that's not working," I rubbed my eyes again. "An anthropomorphic salamander...I can't tell if this is awesome or if I should be freaking out."

"Please don't," Sammy requested. "No, you're not dreaming, and you're not hallucinating and I know you don't drink or do drugs so don't try to go back to sleep or smash me with your textbook.

My eyes flicked nervously over to my biology textbook, slightly protruding out of my backpack like a huge "hint, hint," from the universe.

"No," Sammy insisted, and my eyes flicked back to him. Did this little bipedal amphibian already have me wrapped around of his twelve skinny toes?