Here's chapter 3! I hope you like it! Thank You for all of the reviews!
Chapter 3: More than a Pretty Rock
Sara's face blanched at the news of a pop quiz in Geometry on what they had learned with the substitute.
"That evil, old bat!" Sara thought fiercely. Unfortunately, nothing Sara thought could stop Mrs. Alen from passing out the papers.
She looked at the paper with a hopeless expression. With a sigh she picked up her pencil and stared at the paper. She went to write only to have her mechanical pencil run out of lead; not a promising sign.
Sara reaching into her pocket for her package of lead and found that there was something else in there as well. The crystal shard.
Sara nodded remembering that she had put it in her pocket to show Zoë. She touched the shard and smiled at its comforting warmth. She glanced back down at the paper, trying to remember what she had learned about the chapter.
Suddenly, as if a movie was playing in her head, Sara remembered everything that the sub said; being it was one of the few days she actually paid attention. With a smile, Sara began to scribble down all the answers.
"You what?" Zoë asked in disbelief, her mouth hanging open.
"I aced the quiz!" Sara said nearly jumping up and down. Mrs. Alen had graded their papers while they worked on their homework and had called Sara up to her desk; at first Sara thought she was in for another reprimand for her bad quiz score. But normally, Mrs. Alen didn't smile when she gave her scoldings.
"Excellent work Sara," Mrs. Alen said showing Sara her test score, a twenty eight out of thirty, "I see you are finally putting in the work. Keep it up." Sara had been too shocked to say anything. The whole time she thought she was in a dream and couldn't wake up, no matter how hard she tried to explain to herself that she could never get an A on a quiz in Geometry.
"Whoa… how did you study? You have to give me your secret," Zoë said, obviously impressed.
"I have no idea. Hey, I didn't show you this did I?" Sara pulled out the shard and handed it to Zoë who looked it over. "I think it's real crystal, not glass." Zoë turned the crystal over in her hands for a few times, at one point holing it up to the light and looking at it's thickness.
"No, it isn't glass. Glass is green and you'd be able to see the color change with the light. Where'd you get it?"
Sara told Zoë about the construction sight and the box. Zoë agreed with her explanation of the box. "It was probably some kid's toy safe where he put a crystal he found and lost it. But it was metal?"
"I pretty sure it was, but it was very light." Zoë shrugged and handed the crystal back to Sara.
"I heard crystals were lucky somewhere; maybe it helped you out on the quiz." Sara smiled and nodded.
"I hope it will help me out at soccer tryouts today."
Sara sat in her English class taking her test that she had completely forgot about. Sara stared at the paper but found no assistance. Unlike Geometry, she didn't remember what her teacher had said.
"I've got to start paying attention in class," Sara thought. She glanced around the room, watching people's pencils fly over their papers marking the answers down. She looked at question 1:
What is the difference between third person limited and third person omnipresent?
Sara glanced over at the other student again, wishing that she knew the answer as they did. Suddenly, she heard one of the kids speak out loud.
"The difference between third omnipresent and limited is limited can only be seen through the eyes of one character, where omnipresent sees all."
Sara glanced up to see the teacher's and students' reactions to this outburst. There were none. Sara quickly wrote down the answer and moved on to the next one, slightly startled; maybe they didn't hear the kid.
As she moved through the test, every one Sara was stuck on came to her in the voice of another kid. No one besides her seemed to notice this. Why?
Once the test was over Sara pulled out a book for the last five minutes of class and pretended to read. Her mind was completely focused on something else entirely.
"Why am I hearing voices in my head?" Sara thought. It seemed like the only logical explanation. What was strange was that all the voices told her answers to the test, and they were her classmates' voices as well. Not just one, but a variety of kids.
The bell rang signaling the end of school. Sara gathered up her books and headed quickly out of the room. She pushed the thoughts of her sudden telepathic abilities out of her mind; she needed to be in full focus for her soccer tryout.
Sara bounced on her toes, cold despite the warm weather. She was at soccer tryouts; there were about a fifty girls there, each hoping to make the varsity team. Unfortunately only sixteen would make it; the others would be divided into other teams as junior varsity players.
Sara touched the crystal in the pocket of her windbreaker jacket; she was able to keep it in her pocket but she hoped it wouldn't fall out during the tryouts.
A whistle blew and all of the girls an over to the head coach, Mr. Baker. "Ok girls, everyone got their number?" There came a unanimous yes from the crowd. They had each been issued a number like the ones marathon runners wear so the coaches could mark down their skills and faults.
"Good; first, who are trying out for Goalies?" Zoë and five others stepped forward. "You all should go with Mr. Hampton," Mr. Baker gestured to the goalie coach. "And for the rest of you… you have also been given a number one or two. Ones go to your left, twos to your right."
The girls dispersed and Sara was in the scrimmage group, where they would play a couple quick games to see how the players' skills were as a team. They were then split into two groups; one group given red mesh vests to mark them as a team, Sara not one of them. Sara was placed as the right midfielder, who job was to help the offence and defense out if they needed support.
With a whistle the kick off began. The meshed shirts team managed to gain control and dribble the ball down the left side of the field. Sara stayed in her position and watched her team member battle for control. She smiled when she saw Zoë as her team's goalie. The mesh offender took a risk shot at the goal, but it was easily snagged out of the air by Zoë.
Sara and Zoë made eye contact and Sara knew the ball was coming to her. With a strong heave, Zoë tossed to ball to Sara who stopped it with her chest and took off down the field. She saw the defender coming at her and she saw her team's left offender open, running parallel to her.
Just as the defender reached her, Sara chipped the ball over to the offender and continued to run in case her teammate needed to pass, hoping her shot was accurate. Fortunately, the kick was perfect and the offender easily stopped the ball and blasted it at the upper right corner of the net. The goalie got there barely in time to tip the ball away and get a good hold on it.
The scrimmage continued, both teams having strong points and weak ones. Sara's left defenders and midfielders weren't doing so good, so most of the action stayed away from her. Zoë, as expected, was doing an excellent job at guarding the goal, as was the other goalie as the other end of the field.
The coaches gave the two minute warning after another save by Zoë, who punted the ball out to the center midfielder. The midfield managed to get the ball to the center offence who gave it a sharp kick at the goal, the goalie deflected it, causing the ball to bounce away from the action on the left side to the right.
Sara sprinted for the ball as did the goalie, Sara knowing that there was no way she'd be fast enough to reach it, but the next thing she knew she was right in front of the ball, the goalie still diving for it. Using a slide attack, Sara managed to hit the ball just before the goalie touched it, and bounced it into the goal.
The coach blew the whistle and the scrimmage was over. The two teams gave each other handshakes and then ran over to the sideline of the field to change places with the others who had been working on drills.
"How did you do that!" Zoë asked Sara, looking at her in amazement as she ran over.
"Do what?" Sara asked.
"You flew! I've never seen you move that fast! You should do sprinting in track!" Zoë replied.
As Sara thought about it, she probably should have never been able to reach the ball before the goalie. Sara was still thinking about it when Zoë gasped and shouted, "What happened to your leg?"
Sara looked down to see a steady stream of blood running down her thigh and on her socks and shin guards. All the other girls heard Zoë outburst and started screaming, the coaches running over to see what the problem was.
Sara sat on the bench by the field watching the others tryout, holding some gauze to her leg. It turned out that when she slid there was a piece of broken glass on the ground, and she had ripped a long, nasty cut along her thigh. The coaches assured her that she would be fine and she would be judged on her performance in the scrimmage.
Sara sighed and reached into her pocket, pulling out the crystal shard. As she looked at it, it was not only very warm, but it seemed to be glowing. Sara shrugged and put the crystal back in her pocket. It was probably just the sun or something shining on it.
Mr. Hampton ran over to Sara to check on her cut. He pulled the blood soaked gauze off of it and took a close look at it, seeming surprised.
"Wow, this already seemed to be healing," he said setting the gauze back down. "At this rate it should be healed in two or three days." He smile reassuringly at Sara and walked back over to the goalies that were practicing blocks.
Sara pulled the gauze up again and looked at her wound. It had stopped bleeding and a scab had already formed. That was just odd; wounds didn't heal that fast. As Sara sat on the bench thinking about all of the strange things that had happened that day, completely ignored the glowing crystal that sat in her pocket.
All of the students spoke in excited whispers about what Draka had told them. They were looking for an ancient Yautja artifact on the human home world. They all had heard the legend, but they never thought it was true.
Sater Kreshebon, the Crystal Shard, was a legendary crystal that supposedly had the ability to lend its possessor certain powers of mind and body. That was at least all the students could remember about the myth, but the Blooded undoubtedly knew more.
The students were told that the Elders, upon hearing that the, supposedly lost, Crystal Shard had been found ordered the ship to go to the planet and find it immediately. That meant that all of the unblooded were to go along as well.
Not only were the students excited about this surprise hunt and the possibility of finding something with that sort of power, but they had never seen humans before, except for their studies they were required to take involving prey species.
Illi'thus and Ven'tise wondered aloud what the creatures where like. They really couldn't remember the exact lessons and were curious, in spite of their leader's warning of how dangerous they could be.
"They look too weak, how can they be dangerous?" Ven'tise asked Illi'thus. Illi'thus gave him a look as if to say, "I look weak, but I can hold my own."
"The Elders say they are sneaky and cowards and don't fight fair. They would be a bit of a challenge if you were unarmed and they had a gun."
Ven'tise nodded and asked, "What if you meet one?"
"Meet one?"
"Yes, what do you think you'd do?"
Illi'thus thought for a moment, "If it tried to kill me I'd fight it, if not, we are supposed to leave them alone." Ven'tise smiled and Illi'thus knew what he was thinking. If he met one, he probably would try and scare the thing to death by uncloaking a few feet away from it to see its reaction.
Illi'thus smiled in response and thought quietly to himself. What would he do if he met one of these "dangerous" humans? Illi'thus shook the thought away; they probably would not even catch a glimpse of the humans.
"Hopefully," He thought, "I'm wrong."
Did you like it? I hope so! Please Review and the next chapter will be soon! If you have any questions about soccer terms or anything, just ask and I'll tell you. And the next Ancient World chapter is on it's way! Amouthea and I just have to put our part together and it will be up ASAP!