Tiger's Beginning

Chapter 11: Teams

My footsteps pounded in my ears as I walked down the long stairway.

One step after the other…breathe, just breathe. It’s not like they will hurt me or anything, will they? Oh gosh I can see the headline now, Girl Dies Mysterious Death Deep in the Indian Jungle. Well, at least when I go, it won't be boring. Ok almost there, breathe.

The steps seemed to keep appearing before me until my feet touched the cool walnut wood. I took one last deep breath and walked into the kitchen.

The whole family sat at the cozy breakfast table. Ren and Kelsey seemed to be discussing something quietly; Anik and Raj looked like they were arguing. Kamala was preoccupied on her phone.

I walked into the doorway, and stood there. No one noticed me, so I cleared my throat. Of course it was ten times louder than I wanted it to be in the small room, and everyone practically got whiplash from turning to look at the source of the noise.

It was quiet for a few seconds, before Ren gestured for me to come and sit by Kamala. I started walking over, and both boys jumped up and shoved each other to pull out my chair. Anik won, and gave me a dazzling smile, to which I responded with a timid one of my own. Raj sulked across the way.

Kamala had set her phone down, and was watching me closely. I had a feeling she knew what I was going to say by the way she was biting down on her lips trying not to smile.

I folded my hands in my lap and nervously twitched my thumbs.

“I have had time to think about everything over the past few hours. That isn’t a lot of time, and I don’t know if this is the right decision, but I don’t think you can even know if a decision is right until you see the end of it. So…I have decided that…I’ll help you.”

Everyone was very quiet and I was afraid that I had said something wrong until Kamala blurted out.

“I knew she was going to say yes! Thank goodness too because I don’t think I could handle staying here with these boys by myself all summer again!”

Kelsey squeezed my hand and smiled, and Ren said,

“Grace, you don’t know what this means for our family. We will never be able to pay you back, but we will spend our lives trying. Hopefully all of this curse buisness will be finished once and for all. I'll start research on possible destinations right away.”

I finally allowed myself to smile and realized I had been clenching my jaw so tightly that it was a little sore.

“Well, I hope I can do what you need me to. I’m just warning you I don’t know if my parents will be up for this.”

Kelsey looked at Ren and he nodded. She turned to me,

“Grace, honey your parents aren’t coming.”

I frowned slightly and replied.

“Well the last time I saw them it sounded like they were…unless something changed?”

“Your parents wont be joining us on this trip because we explained to them your place in the situation. They agreed to let you decide what to do.”

My parents agreed to whatever I choose? Since when does that happen?

“How did they agree to that?”

“Kamala had a vision, that if they tried to fly over, they would die in a plane crash. We didn’t give all the details of how we knew, just that I lost my parents too early, and it would be horrible if the same happened to you. We told them it was a research trip also; for the remainder of the summer you will stay. We don’t know how long it will take for the gate to be closed.”