Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Four

Leala

By the time Leala had rode her bike back home, both of her parents were back from work and dinner was being served.

"Sorry I'm late!" Leala called, walking from the garage to the bathroom to wash her hands.

"Where have you been?" Leala's father asked, holding a bowl of vegetables. "Zeke said you would only be gone for about an hour."

"Just biking around town. I just lost track of time, sorry." Leala responded, deliberately taking longer than usual to scrub her hands clean. It was an anxiety tactic that really only delayed the enviable.

"Well, we're glad you're back. But just make sure to let us know next time." Her mother spoke up. "Now, let's all sit down and eat."

Leala quickly sat down at her place at the table, next to Zeke. He gave her a strange look. "Why do you smell like antiseptic?"

"Just some hand sanitizer." Leala lied, whilst also giving her brother a look that subtly told him to keep his mouth shut. He seemed to get the message, and dropped the topic.

Her parents brought over a few plates of food and they all sat down. After saying a quick prayer, they dug in. While the food was good, Leala wasn't feeling too particularly hungry. She kept thinking back to talking to Robin, and wishing that she had talked to him more.

She thought about it so much that Zeke had to shake her shoulder to get her to come back to reality. "Leala!"

"Huh?" She jolted upright.

"I was asking you how your last day of school went?" Leala's mom asked.

"Oh! It was pretty uneventful." Leala admitted.

Zeke shrugged. "It was boring for me. I'm just happy I don't ever have to go back to middle school again."

"Yeah, you're going to be a freshman in fall." Leala's dad smiled. "And you're going to be one of the big seniors, Leala."

Leala gave a half smile, a bit uncomfortable at the mention. "Don't remind me."

"You're not excited?" Leala's mom asked.

"Not really. This is my last official vacation as a high school student. Next year, I don't know what I'll do next." Leala moved a few vegetables around on her plate. "Heck, I don't know what I want to do when I'm done with high school."

"Well, you still have some time to decide before you make an official decision." Leala's father reassured her. "After all, from next year on, you're done. What you do from then on is your decision."

The thought excited Leala, but it also terrified her. The "real world" seemed so vast and full of possibilities, but she didn't know which ones to pick. More than anything, Leala wished for change. After having lived her entire life in the same small, somewhat peaceful town, she yearned for excitement and adventure. But the biggest question was where to find that adventure.

"Anyway," Leala's dad spoke. "Are you both packed up for the week?"

"Yup," Zeke spoke in-between eating.

"Leala?" He looked to his daughter.

"Just about." Leala replied. "I only have a few more things to take care of."

"Well good." He nodded. "So tonight, it's important for all of you to get a good night's sleep. We have to get up a bit earlier in the morning if we're going to make it through traffic. It's a long journey ahead."

"Right."

Once dinner was finished, Leala and her brother helped her mother clean up the table and wash dishes. Usually making her hands busy distracted Leala from overcrowding thoughts, but the shock of Robin's seizure seemed to haunt her memory more at that moment then it did before. Perhaps it was just reality settling in, and the gravity of the whole situation finally had a meaning to Leala, trapping her in that instant of time.