Chapter 4

Back to Keeper Business

Azalea's P.O.V.

Although the discovery of Wanda as my mother had helped me heal, it didn't completely cover the wound left by my grandmother's passing. I returned to school the following week and caught up in all my classes relatively quickly. Lunch, the best time of the day, had arrived and I sat alone at a table waiting for Finn to show.

I had to wait a good five minutes until he arrived. "Has Lousy Luowski seemed different lately?" he asked, tense.

"Why hello to you as well," I replied sarcastically.

"I'm being serious."

"More zits, might have gained another ten pounds after his daily serving of stupid. I tend to avoid the dude, I wouldn't have noticed. Besides, if you're asking about anybody looking different it should be Sally."

"Sally?"

"Ringwall. She's in my gym class. She had those contacts that change your eye color. She changed hers to green." We ate in silence until Finn broke it once again.

"We rescued Charlene."

"Rescued?"

"We think she was under some kind of spell from the Evil Queen," he said, pulling two photos from his pants pocket. One showed the Evil Queen talking to Charlene and she looked like she was listening to the witch.

"You kept this from us?" I replied.

"We kept it from Charlene, yes." I rolled my eyes and attempted to eat the food they called a salad from the cafeteria.

"Is it even legal to serve food like this to children?" I asked.

"Maybe Luowski looked different to me because he was wearing green contacts. Think about it, the Evil Queen talked to Greg, Sally, and a bunch of other kids. Then they come into school wearing green contacts. Green means Maleficent."

"I think you should take it easy on that baked potato," I said, referencing his school lunch.

"Its chicken and rice," he responded. "Never mind, go over and look at his eyes."

"Are you crazy? If he sees me he's going to try and serenade me again."

"Well if he sees me he's going to go all Neanderthal on me," Finn retorted. I rolled my eyes as went to throw out my lunch. As I passed Greg on the way to the trash can I noticed his green eyes and a shiver went up my spine. I mouthed 'green' to Finn as I made my way out of the cafeteria. As I made my way to my locker, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I unlocked my phone to see a message from Philby:

Meet at Crazy Glaze after school we have to talk.

I grabbed my books for the next class and headed for math. After school, I told my dad I was staying after to finish a test and would be home by five. I grabbed my skateboard from my locker as well as my helmet and pads. What? I'd rather skin my knees by running from OT's then from hitting a crack in the sidewalk.

I rode to Crazy Glaze where Jelly motioned me in and pointed towards the back room. I nodded in thanks and walked into the room to see Maybeck and Philby already there. I placed my bag and skateboard down before sitting at the table with my fellow Kingdom Keepers. We waited until everyone, minus the sisters who were grounded, to arrive before starting.

Finn apparently had a run in with Lousy again. "The OT's have recruited kids from our schools to be OT's in training," Willa stated.

"They're there to keep an eye on us, to intimidate us," Maybeck replied.

"But why the green contacts, it makes them stand out," Charlene retorted.

"To show that they're a part of a clique. It makes them feel superior, like they can beat us with just a glance," I said, crossing my arms.

"I talked to Jess today in school. She had another vision. It was this military guy or something. Like an officer."

"Well that leads us nowhere unless we can properly analyze it."

"I say, if we're not doing anything, to gang up on one of these OT's in training. Not one-on-one more like a four-on-one situation. Let's see how strong they are then," Terry said, arms crossed.

"I'll have to agree, who's our target?"

"Sally, I have two classes with her, she doesn't have that much common sense so we should be fine," I replied.

"So it's agreed." We went our separate ways afterwards, me making it home at four o'clock. I walked through the door and put my skateboard in the closet.

"I'm home!" I shouted. I placed my backpack in the corner and walked in to see my mom at the counter sorting paperwork. She had moved back in with us after Uncle Marty went back home. Aunt Patty was now running the bakery. "Where's Dad?"

"Upstairs in his office, don't disturb him he's on an important phone call." I nodded and sat down at the table to do my homework. After I finished my homework I helped Mom make dinner. My dad came downstairs afterwards and we ate dinner. After dinner, I went outside with Morris and played fetch. I threw a stick for him and he retrieved it.

"Good boy, hey, what's that you got there?" I asked. I grabbed the stick out of his mouth and pulled off the item off of the stick. I unraveled the cloth surrounding it until a stone was revealed. On it was scratched a message.

Beware the kiss and the spindle. Know friend from foe and which friend is which.

I raised an eyebrow. It wasn't signed by anyone which was part of my suspicion but I kept the rock, just in case a problem arises that this would help solve. "C'mon boy, let's go inside," I said, having to drag Morris back inside, which meant dragging him through mud, which meant giving him another bath. "You couldn't be a whiny toddler when there wasn't any mud now could you?" He barked in response. I rolled my eyes and set to work washing the mud off of him. "You're lucky you're cute."

The next day was the day that Amanda, Charlene, and I were going to corner Sally. Charlene showed up around lunch, handing us each a pantyhose. I pulled it over my head distastefully and hid in the band room along with Charlene. When Amanda pushed Sally inside Charlene and I sprang into action. Charlene ran at her except Sally knocked her away like a rag doll.

I lunged at her next, piggy-backing her, chocking her with my forearms. She retaliated by throwing me into a wall. I groaned, getting back up and lunging at her once again, this time pinning her, using her strength to my advantage. She couldn't get out of my grip. "What do you want?"

"Power. Doesn't everyone?" she replied.

"I meant from us," I stated.

"You think you're so special don't you," she growled.

"What are you getting out of this huh? Doing someone's dirty work? What does that make you?"

"A part of the future," she cackled. I stared in horror at the girl I had successfully pinned.

"How many of you are there?"

"More than your imagination can contain. More every day. By this time Saturday you'll be defenseless to stop us, Kingdom Keepers," she replied.

I gave Charlene the signal and she nodded. After three seconds I released Sally and the three of us sprinted up the staircase to the mob upstairs. The noise behind us sounded like a rhino running through a china shop. I didn't look back. After we entered the mob, we made our way to the cafeteria to tell Finn what we had found out. But he wasn't there. Where could he have gone?

A.N. A filler, sorry, next chapter will be better, promise!