Winged

7: Alfred

"What are you doing here?" I asked as soon as I was out the front door.

"Like I said, I had to see you."

"But why now?"

"Can't you just accept that you are being snuck away from your house at night by a strikingly handsome guy," he winked, "to go sit under the moon and be interrogated with some possibly embarrassing but really fun questions?"

"Say what?" I stared at him.

"Don't worry, I came prepared." He gestured to a dark red backpack slung over his shoulder.

"You are pathetic."

"Pathetically awesome."

"I don't even think that's a thing."

"Sure it is!" He started walking down my driveway and I found myself following.

"Where are we even going?"

"Wherever the wind leads."

"You mean you don't know?" He shrugged.

"Do I have to?"

I had to think for a second.

"Under normal circumstances, I would think that a guy showing up under a girl's window would have some semblance of a plan..."

"And I do. We are going to sit somewhere under the moon, which could be almost anywhere, and I am going to interrogate you."

"And I have no say in this?"

"Nope."

"Thanks." I rolled my eyes at him.

We walked in silence for a couple minutes.

"I know a tree."

"Oh, you do? What's his name?" I grinned mischievously up at him.

"Alfred."

"Ah, of course."

He flicked my ponytail, making it swing back and forth.

"This way." He placed a hand on my elbow, gently guiding me to a grassy area under a giant oak. He started pulling blankets out of his pack. I walked over to the trunk of the tree.

"Why, hello Alfred. I'm Ester, Toby's tutor." I tried to make myself sound lofty. "I've heard ever so much about you! How lovely to finally make the acquaintance!" I laid my hand on the bark.

"Technically I only told you his name."

I turned my back to the tree and folded my arms.

"Technically, you also told me he was a tree."

Toby had spread a black blanket out on the ground, and held a blue one out to me. I gladly accepted it and settled myself down on the ground. We bundled up tight, then Toby reached once again into his backpack. This time he pulled out a small notebook. I looked at him questioningly. He didn't seem to notice my curiosity as he flipped open to the first page.

"What is that?" My curiosity got the best of me.

"Oh, this old thing? Hmmm... Can you keep a secret?"

I nodded.

"This, this is my Ester-inary." He grinned as though he had just solved world hunger.

I blinked.

"Which is?"

"Everything I ever will need to know about you will be recorded in this booklet. Then someday if I need to rescue you from a group of super-secret government-employed ninjas, I'll have all the information I need."

A laugh escaped my lips.

"You will never fail to baffle me, Toby Parsard."

"Mission accomplished!" He pumped his fist.

I bit my lip, yet couldn't help but smile.

"Now, let's get started. First off, what would your name be if you were a dragon?"

***

A/N- Can I just say, I'm the kind of person that really needs to keep people-inaries, but I don't, because that would freak people out. So instead I'm just continually asking them the same things like 'what's your favorite chocolate?' and they're always like, 'I've already told you twenty times, I'm allergic to chocolate!' and I'm like 'how can you be allergic to chocolate?' and they just sigh, and yeah.

I need people-inaries.