Salamander Girl

Seven

The first day I met Lexi Dover was halfway through fifth grade. She was the new kid, and a Mormon, and I so badly wanted a friend. I practically dragged her onto the field to play kickball with the rest of our class, but she kept trying to tell me that she wasn't very good at sports and she didn't like sports, but she played anyway. During her first turn to kick, and she drove the ball right into the side of my head. An hour later, I woke up in my bed at home. I hated her ever since.

Now she was trapped, and so far, I was the only one with enough guts to save her.

Or maybe not, as I was about to lose my lunch.

Tarantula made some clicking and hissing noises again, and it sounded a little like Gollum, from "Lord of the Rings", as sandpaper-y and childish and high-pitched. The exact kind of voice you'd expect an evil henchman to have.

"You can sssstilll reroutessss it, yesssss?"

Lexi sighed, exasperated, "As you wish."

I nearly laughed at the obvious Princess Bride reference. It was the classic Mormon movie for any occasion.

Tarantula chuckled, and it sounded almost like a swarm of bees buzzing. "Good, good."

I couldn't quite tell by her tone whether Lexi was willing or unwilling to help Tarantula, but there was a good chunk of me, I am ashamed to admit, that suspected the first rather than the latter.

"Okay, Sammy, what do I do?" I whispered, adjusting my mask nervously.

"I'm working on it!" there came the loud, very obvious clacking of computer keys at a rapid pace as Sammy frazzledly typed.

"Okay, okay, can you tell what Tarantula wants?" Sammy sounded nervous now. We were both extremely amateur at this. Go figure.

"He's having Lexi reroute something. I think he's transferring the power somewhere..." I trailed off, watching Lexi and Tarantula with their back towards me. Lexi stood straight, with her head held high, not giving Tarantula the satisfaction of looking at him. She didn't trip over her heels or snuffle about how scared she was. She looked determined, in a scared sort of way.

"Who's Lexi?" Sammy asked.

"She's a girl in my science class, Tarantula has her taken captive."

"The police keep saying there's no ransom demanded, so it isn't exactly a hostage situation...Doctor Christian always said that Tarantula wasn't as smart as any other creature in Genesis, he must be using Lexi to do the "smart" work for him."

I snorted. "That makes sense, She's the smartest kid in our grade and the biggest pain in the rear to boot."

"Yeah, yeah, but where is he having her reroute the power to?" Sammy thought out loud, ignoring my prejudice.

"You try and figure that out, I'm going to get a better idea of what Lexi and Tarantula are doing," I started to step out, but Sammy's bark sounded in my ear.

"Wait! Let me upgrade the suit really quick! Alligator hide will be impossible for Tarantula's spines to penetrate!"

I gulped. "Even one that size?"

"There, done! You may proceed!" It was hard to tell whether Sammy sounded confident or nervous. "I'm gonna see if I can figure out if there are any power surges and figure out where they're sending the power."

Sighing, I tried to sneak into the room without Tarantula coming after me, but it was my first mission and I had no training whatsoever.

Also, Lexi may have been the smartest kid in school, but she could not take a hint.