The Academy: Ashland

The Picture

            “We heard you were kidnapped by munchkins,” Kelsey said as she, Trip, Camron and Seth walked into the rec room.

            I looked up from where I was getting paper and grinned, “Yeah. They dragged me here against my will.”

            Inside the fort, I heard Ian and Kara laugh. “We like her. We’re keeping her. You can’t have her,” Ian said.

            Seth laughed, “Is Ash okay with this?” he asked.

            “That’s not relevant,” Ian said. “Ash is ours now.”

            Trip pouted, “But she’s my wifey,” he said. “You just can’t take her.”

            “We’ll give you visiting privileges,” Ian said. “Or we’ll try a time-share.”

            I rolled my eyes, “What is this? Custody court?”

            Kelsey nodded, “It seems that way.”

            I grabbed a stack of paper and crawled back into the fort, “What are you doing?” Seth asked.

            “Reading to us,” Ian said.

            “Really?” Trip asked as he, Camron and Seth crawled into the fort with the kids and I.

            I leaned my head on Seth’s shoulder and Ian handed me the book I had been reading, “Ash reads good,” Ian said. “She does all of the voices.”

            Kelsey laughed as she crawled into the fort and laid her head in Trip’s lap, “Is she better than Markus?” Camron asked.

            Kara nodded and wrote, ‘She does everyone the right way. No weird voices for the bad guys and stuff.’

            Seth grinned, “But that makes it fun.”

            Ian and Kara both made faces and started drawing, “You too,” Ian said to me as he and Kara pushed a pile of crayons and paper over to me.

            I nodded and grinned, “I will now draw a picture to put on the fridge!” I declared. Everyone laughed and I drew a picture with blue, red, green, orange, black and gray stick people.

            “Are these supposed to be us?” Kelsey asked.          

            “You’re red,” I said, helpfully.

            “Maybe you should label it,” Ian said.

            I sighed and rolled my eyes before I wrote everyone’s names under their stick person (Kelsey was red, Trip was green, Camron was purple, Seth was gray, Kara was orange, Ian was blue and I was black).

            “You forgot the adults,” Seth said.

            I huffed and drew Jack in neon pick (“What? He’s flamboyant!”), Markus in dark yellow (“Shut up Seth. It’s my picture, I want him to be dark yellow.”) and Taven in scarlet (“Trip give me the dark pink!”) before I held up the picture, “Happy?”

            “The Captain, Laura and Walt,” Camron said.

            I stuck my bottom lip out and glared, “Fine!” I grabbed the dark blue and drew the Captain (“Why is his face deformed?” “Shut up, Trip.”) before I drew Walt and Laura in yellow-orange (“They’re the same cause they’re twins, Seth.”).

            “Happy?” I asked. Everyone nodded. “I feel like this is the government, everyone’s got to approve.”

            Kelsey laughed, “It’s going on our fridge.”

            “I like it,” Ian said while Kara grinned and nodded.

            I grinned, “Thank you small ones,” I said as I messed up Ian’s hair and poked Kara’s side.

            Ian smiled, “Can you read again?” he asked, holding out the book I had been reading to him and Kara earlier.

            I took the book and nodded, “Sure.”

            Seth grinned, “What are we reading?” he asked.

            “Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment,” Ian said. “Ash picked it out. It’s good.”

            Camron grinned, “Of course it is.”

            “Where did we leave off?” I asked Ian.

            “Ella and Dr. Martinez,” Ian said.

            I laughed and flipped through the book, “Alright,” I said, looking around at everyone before I started reading.

* * *

            I finished reading the first Maximum Ride book an hour after Kelsey and the boys walked in and, by the time Taven and Markus came to get us for dinner, we were halfway through the second book in the series.

            “Dinner time,” Taven said as we heard him walk into the rec room. “We’re eating in the mess again.”

            We all groaned as Taven and Markus poked their heads into our fort. Ever since we came back from “Inter-team Team Building” everyone has had to eat in the mess with their whole team. I’ve been trying to skip meals to keep away from Justin and Amber (they keep “accidentally” dumping their food on me), but no matter where I hide, Taven finds me (I think he has some super special ninja power or something).

            Markus shook his head at us and looked over at Kara, “Hey Ian, Kare-bear. Are they setting a bad example for you?”

            “Yeah, they are,” Ian said with a smile as Kara nodded.

            “Good,” Markus said. He raised his eyebrows at us, “What have you all been doing in here?”

            “Reading,” Kelsey said.

            Kara wrote something in green crayon and held it up. ‘Coloring.’

            Markus and Taven looked down at the pictures we drew and laughed, “Cute,” Taven said when he saw my picture. “But why is Jack pink?”