Taken

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I wake up on the couch in my room. The floor is littered with books, maps, and charts. Ash is sorting through them. I smiled when I saw his familiar face. "Hey," I said.
Ash looked up. "You really don't know what a doggin is?" He asked.
I shrugged. "Considering how yesterday's test went, I really need to teach you a lot." Ash continued. " We will start off with the friendly monsters then go from there.

Ash pulled out a ook with a red cover and silver writing. "Guide to Giants." The cover read in golden lettering. This was going to be a long week.
"I thought Giants were big bad beasties. You know 'fe fi foe fum.'" Ash rolled his eyes at my statement.
"Folk lore. 99% of the time false." He stated.
"Yeah but their versions are less confusing." I defended.
"It's just twelve Giant kingdoms. Grendonhow, Tresergrove, Contortale, Fintersum, Crenn, Sanandergate, Hapencrown, Euphorianda, Biterdand, Deshgond, Ishcapia, and Rendia. It's not that hard." Ash retorted. "Now, your turn. What are the names of the twelve kingdoms?"
"Grendonwhat, Treesgrow, Contortan, Winterplum, Crenn, Sandedgate, Hapscrown, Eutopia, Biterface, and Desmond the moon bear." I said defeatedly.
"Not even close." Ash said and I rolled my eyes. "Grendonhow."
"Grendonhow." I repeated.
He continued his lesson and I followed along, adding a few sarcastic remarks here and there.
"Grendonhow, Tresergrove, Contortale, Fintersum, Crenn, Sanandergate, Hapencrown, Euphorianda, Biterdanad, Deshgond, Ishcapia, and Rendia." I finally said correctly.
"Good!" Ash praised. "Okay, moving on. Grendonhow was famous for its beautiful springs. That kingdom had 1 queen. They choose there queens by using the plant their kingdom is named after, Grendon. When the plant blooms it chooses a lady. Nobody knows how the plant chooses it's lady. The plant just knows. The Grendon plant blooms every 15 years so a new queen is chosen every 15 years."
"Okay. Grendonhow is the freaky plant kingdom." I said.
Ash sighed and moved on to the next kingdom.
I sat in boredom until Trip came to rescue me from my misery. "Your 9th test, Miss Rachel." Trip said gladly. I sighed and left the room.

School was never my favorite subject. Everything bored me. I couldn't focus. I would look out windows and imagine being somewhere else. I would doodle until my pencil tip ran flat or sometimes just skip class.
But this was torture. There were no windows to look out and no pencils to draw with. No way out either. Ash lectured me and taught for hours on end. You thought school was bad? This is worse. Much worse.
Eventually I finished the test and went back to my text book invaded room. Ash sat on the floor. He held his head in one hand, a piece of paper in the other. He looked up when I entered.
He sighed and I looked down. "Did I do that bad?" I asked innocently.
Ash nodded. "You got an 89 out of 95 questions."
I was stunned. "6 wrong. I did that good!?!?! I friggin passed!" I shouted.
"Congrats." Ash said. He got up and hugged me. I blushed but I didn't pull away. "Good job." I smiled against his chest. He let me out of his comforting embrace and stepped back.
"How about we skip a lesson today to celebrate?" Ash asked.
I nodded. He grabbed my hand and lead me into the hall way and down stairs. We walked into the kitchen to see Lisa and Trip waiting at the table with 4 glasses of wine and 4 plates filled with 5 star restaurant worthy food.
Ash pulled out my chair and I sat down. He walked over to the chair across from me and took a seat.
Lisa smiled at me warmly. "To Rachel." She said and lifted up her glass of wine. Trip, Ash and I raised our glasses in response.