Merganzer's school for the advanced and talented

                                                                                    CHAPTER 1

                                                                                         Aelous

The name Aelous is Roman. My parents say it fits me but I don't think it does. You see my great- great-great-grandfather's father was Roman and my parents said that if you're in our family we have to honor that, and supposedly I look a lot like an emperor.  Aelous is an old emperor's last name. I don't see it in me. I get bullied in school a lot .

That day at school was the worst  I've had in a long time but all that turned around when I got the mail. I handed over the stack of taxes and ads, all but one that was addressed to me. I ran up to my room and tore it open. Inside there was just one word and an address. "Come". 5733 Marconi st. Tampa FL.

"I wonder why I feel the need to go there?"

"You start feeling the need to go anywhere when you're stuck up in dis house." came an apparently disembodied voice.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Well who da ya think, I'm ya Gerbil! Ya don't talk enough so I gotcha talking!"

"Shush, my parents might hear you," I pleaded.

"Ha! Yo parents can't hear, me only you can!".

"So...I can talk to animals?" I asked

"Well why else would ya get that there letta!"