The Ancient One

Chapter 4

  Mid-August  

"Uncle Jake, you ready?" Sam asked, as if Jake hadn't already been waiting more than 15 minutes.

"Yeah, let's go," Jake said. Sam wasn't sure how he'd managed to get his uncle to keep taking him to school into the second week, but he kind of liked it. His uncle was really cool.

"Bye mom. Love you," Sam called out. They both heard his mom's muffled reply, not that they could actually hear the words, but they knew what she'd said.

When they arrived at the school, Sam jumped out of the car, threw a quick, "Thanks and bye," at Uncle Jake and walked into the crowd of kids. Week two of school still hadn't lost that beginning of the school year excitement. Not yet, anyway.

Sam was a little surprised at the number of kids already going to the school. It was brand new, after all. He'd expected there to be barely any kids, but the place was packed.

Unlike eighth grade, they didn't have homeroom, and went straight to their first hour class. Although it was different, Sam kind of liked it. Though a good student, always maintaining mostly A's, Sam still didn't like being at the front of the class. As such, he'd already established himself in the back in every class, and oddly, most of the rest of the kids pushed to the front. He assumed it was because they were all motivated kids, which left a handful of empty desks in the back for him to choose from.

Just after he sat down, a somewhat small girl came in. Although there was still some seat shuffling going on, so he didn't know everyone in the class yet, he was certain she was new.

Aside from being a little smaller than most other girls, she was pretty, and he knew he would've noticed her before, despite her rather youthful,appearance. Her hair was so blonde, it was almost white, and it was pulled back and held with some kind of really fancy hair thingy.

Aside from what he'd already seen, her backpack then caught his eye. It kind of looked like Hello Kitty, but the colors were wrong. Instead of the pink, there was purple, and there was more black than white. At their grade, she probably shouldn't wear such a childish backpack, but again, she did look rather young. Maybe she was one of those super smart kids that was moved a couple grades ahead.

Her clothes kind of said that, as well, being that they looked a bit younger than their grade, not that he was much of a judge of girls clothes. However, he did see what the other girls were wearing, and the new girl was dressed a bit fancier, and 'younger' looking than they were. As he looked a little more, he realized her clothing actually made her look younger.

"Guten morgen Klass," the teacher said, just after the bell rang.

"Guten morgen Frau Voss," the class replied. The new girl, he saw, remained silent.

"It seems we have a new student," she noticed, and motioned for the new girl to stand up.

"Wie heißt du?" Frau Voss asked.

"Ich bin Kristiana, aber ich heiße Kristi," the girl said, but with an odd accent, which was noticeable even speaking German.

"As much as you're able in German, tell us how much German you have studied, and a little about yourself, please," Frau Voss said.

Kristi spoke in German so fast, using words Sam had never heard, that he had no chance of understanding. Even Frau Voss seemed to be struggling to keep up with her.

"Slow down, Kristi. Your accent is somewhat difficult with you speaking so fast. It's almost like hearing a Bavarian accent. Let's try that in English, please," Frau Voss said.

"I Deutsch speak sehr gut. I vierzehn jahre alt. My favorite color it is lila. I not know English well enough say more what I say in Deutsch," Kristi said.