Destruction

Author's Notes: Still not sure what to do about the title predicament. Should I leave it? Change it? If I change it, what to? I really don't like the idea of leaving it simply b/c it's misleading. After all, if I'm going to use a Petshop title, it should be Dreizehn, not Destruction. La la la…. What to do….

Comments:

Araz: Thanks so much! I'm very glad you're enjoying it. Makes it worth writing. /hugs/

.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.

Dreizehn lay curled up on the rug in Amanda's room while the girls sat silently mulling over their thoughts. Ever since they had left Edward's house, they had hardly spoken a word. Only when Amanda's mother greeted them at the door did they attempt to act light-hearted. Now they were sombre again.

"Ellie, don't," Amanda whispered in a sharp tone.

The younger girl dropped the charm on her friendship bracelet.

"It's bad luck," Amanda explained.

"I never heard of such a thing."

"Me neither, but all the same, I don't like watching you mess with it all the time."

"I don't mess with it all the time," Ellie argued.

"Yes, you do."

"Guys," Karen sighed.

"Sorry."

The girls lapsed into silence again, Amanda chewing on her nails and Ellie staring at the Doberman in the centre of the room.

"Why do you think he ran away?" Karen eventually asked.

Amanda's head slid down her hand until her fingers caught in her wavy hair. "Because he doesn't want to be tried for attempted murder?" she quipped.

"You think?" It was not a sarcastic or demeaning remark, merely an absent-minded reply.

"I know I'd try to escape if I was him," Ellie offered.

"I don't know…" Karen rested her chin in her palm and gazed at Dreizehn.

"You…think that's not the reason?" Amanda asked.

"I don't know. I mean…" Karen leaned back on the bed, fighting back tears, "I once thought I knew him and now I find out…he's not at all the man I thought he was."

"Do you think he's going to try again?" Ellie whispered, feeling that the idea was almost forbidden.

Karen stared at the ceiling for several long minutes. Finally, she rolled onto her stomach and draped her arm over the edge of the bed, touching the floor with her fingertips.

"Yes."

"A fortune is a hard thing to pass up. Having tried once, it's easier to try again."

"Having tasted the bitter defeat of failure, it's harder to try again," Amanda contradicted.

"I think he's already plotting," Karen stated.

"Why do you say that…besides the fact that he escaped?"

"Because I got a note."

"A note!" Ellie sat up straighter in the desk chair.

Karen stood up and walked to her dresser by the doorway. Opening the top drawer, she withdrew a folded slip of paper. She read it again and then handed it to Ellie, saying, "I found this on the mirror in my locker…which was locked, by the way."

Ellie read the note and then looked up at Karen in alarm. "This sounds serious!"

"What's it say?" Amanda asked, unwrapping her hair from around her fingers so that she could face the duo.

"Only, 'I'm watching you'." Ellie passed the scrap of paper to the older girl to confirm her words. "And you think he put it there?" she asked Karen.

"No. No, I don't. But I think he got one of the students to. Though…how they knew the combination to my lock, I don't know."

"Maybe your door didn't shut all the way once?" Amanda offered.

"I don't know!" Karen flopped back down on the bed. "I don't know and I don't really care. I just want it all to go away! I loved Edward and now—" her sigh came in tight ragged spurts, "now I don't know."

Ellie nodded, fully understanding. "How can you love someone who killed your family and is now trying to kill you, and yet, how can you not love an old and very dear friend with whom you share precious memories?"

.oO0Oo.

On the way to school the following morning, Karen suddenly stopped, set down her backpack, and started riffling through the contents.

"What's the matter?" Ellie asked.

"I think I forgot to get lead refills for my pencil. I was on my last piece yesterday and—"

"Don't worry, there's a convenience store just down the next road a short ways. Or you could just use some of mine."

Karen smile, zipped up her bag, and started walking again. "Thanks, but no. I'll have to buy some of my own eventually anyhow." Then she stopped. "What about Dreizehn?"

Ellie glanced at the dog. "What about him?"

"Um…yah…nothing. Never mind."

Ellie laughed in confusion. Then, turning the corner, she said, "There's the store. We'll wait for you here."

"Thanks."

Karen smiled weakly at Dreizehn and then strode boldly up to the front door of the small store and started to enter as if nothing was amiss. However, she had not taken five steps when the cashier stopped her.

"Miss, I'm sorry," he said, "but you'll have to leave the dog outside."

Karen swallowed nervously. "But…um…he's an assistance animal. You have to let me keep him."

The young man cocked an eyebrow. "He is? What's he do?"

"Well…he's…a seeing-eye dog."

The cashier glanced at Dreizehn and then back at Karen. "Is that so? Then where's his harness?"

"Um…I…I left it…um…"

"I'm sorry. You'll have to leave him outside."

Karen was about to turn when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw an older man walked up behind the cashier, his arms folded loosely across his chest.

"What's the matter, Johnny?" the man inquired.

"She's got a dog in the store."

Karen looked helplessly at the man, whom she assumed was the manager. He scowled at his cashier.

"Son, that's…" he wiped his mouth, "that's about the rudest thing I've ever heard you say! I know the little Miss is cute, but to insult her escort like that is…well, it's not something I will tolerate in this store! I'll be garnishing your wages for this week." His son started to protest, but the manager cut him off with an upraised hand and a sterner scowl. To Karen, he said, "Ma'am, I'm terribly sorry for that. I'll give you a twenty dollar discount on anything in the store."

"That's alright. I only came to get pencil lead."

"For a mechanical pencil?"

"Yes, sir."

"Point five?"

"Yes, sir."

"Wait right here, I'll get it for you."

With that, the manager was gone. Johnny stared at Karen. Karen tried not to feel self-conscious.

"He is a dog!" the cashier finally proclaimed.

"I know," Karen whispered. "Just…can we not talk about it?"

Johnny shook his head, perplexed, and then returned to his station. Soon the manager came with the lead, apologised again, and then also returned to whatever work he had to do in the office.

When Karen stepped out, she found both of her friends loitering around the entry. "I thought you were going to wait over there," she stated, pointing to the intersection.

"We were," Amanda affirmed, "but there was a creepy guy across the street watching us."

Karen pulled her Doberman closer to her and tried to make her words sound confident. "I…I think we'll be okay as long as Dreizehn is with us."

Her friends nodded, satisfied, and walked back to the road. To their relief, the man was gone.

.oO0Oo.

When the three girls finally arrived at school, they were accosted by a large group of female students.

"Who's the new guy?" "Is he your date?" "Can I have his number?" "Sorry, about last semester, can we be friends again?" "Want to go walking after school?"

Karen unconsciously stepped a little behind Dreizehn in order to distance herself from the onslaught. Taking that as his cue, Dreizehn stepped forward and glared menacingly at the students. A low growl began to build in the back of his throat.

"Um…guys? You might want to back off. Dreizehn's not a student, he's—" Amanda paused, realising that no one was listening to her.

She raised her voice. "This is Dreizehn. He doesn't speak English. He's Karen's body guard. He will attack!"

Her words, coupled with the dangerous look in Dreizehn's eyes finally got through. The clamber died down, but the girls did not disperse.

"I hate to rain on your party," Amanda continued, caustically, "but Dreizehn is really protective, and since he can't understand English, I have no way of explaining to him that your conduct is not suspicious. Please, for your own safety, back off."

"Why doesn't Karen explain it to him, then?" one of the cheerleaders asked, playing with her curls.

"Because she doesn't speak German," Ellie stated flatly. "Now run along unless you like broken arms and bloody noses."

With shuffling steps and dirty looks, the majority of the girls sauntered off and recongregated into their respective cliques. Only three students remained.

"What do you want?" Karen asked, more pleasantly than she felt.

"I was serious about being friends," the shortest of the three said. "And I really am sorry for putting jam in your milk last semester."

"Yah, it's okay," Karen sighed, trying not to roll her eyes.

"And I really do want his autograph," the second girl said.

Karen looked at her dog. In her mind's eye, she saw him taking a pen in his paw and attempting to write his name on a sheet of paper. Stifling the smile that threatened to rise, she turned back to the student. "Sorry, but I don't know how to tell him that."

"Can't I just give him the pen and paper? Surely he'll know what to do."

"I don't think so. He's trained in military things, not show-biz." She looked at Dreizehn again, seriously hoping that he still wore a military uniform and not a T-shirt and jeans, or worse yet, Hawaiian tourist garb.

"Can I just touch him?" the third girl asked.

Karen chuckled. "Sure, why not?"

Immediately, all three girls glommed onto him. One took hold of his left arm, another hugged his right, and the third ran her hand down the front of his coat. Karen cast him an apologetic grin.

"Alright, now. You've touched him. Go away before he thinks you're trying to violate him."

"Who says we aren't?" the shortest one asked with a wink.

"SCAT!"

When the students were finally out of earshot, Karen sighed and looked from Amanda to Ellie and then slowly back and forth. Resigning herself to her fate, she said, "Go ahead. Laugh."

.oO0Oo.

School was a normal, boring day for Karen. She correctly answered eight out of ten questions on her quiz in American history and actually answered two of the class questions correctly in biology. She managed to stay awake after lunch in her English class and, best of all, there was no note in her locker. After school, she met up with Ellie and Amanda in front of the school.

"What are we going to do this afternoon?" Ellie asked while picking at her nails.

Amanda shrugged. "Maybe we should wait until this evening. 'Horizon Lines' comes out in theatres today."

"Sounds fair by me. What do you say, Karen?"

"Um…" She rolled a pebble on the ground with her foot. "I was hoping to spend some time with Aaron."

The two girls just looked at her.

Finally, Amanda scratched the back of her neck. "Uh…have you even met him?"

"No."

"And you're going to skip going to the movie with us to hang out with some questionable guy that you've never even met?"

"Well…"

"That's stupid, Karen," Ellie stated. "Besides, how are you going to contact him?"

"The phone book." She looked up with a bright smile. "I know his name after all. There can't be too many Moores."

"You'd be surprised," Amanda murmured. More audibly, she added, "Well, if you're determined, I guess the least I can do is point you in the right direction." She took Karen's shoulders and turned her around. "See the tall blonde?"

"In the red and white shirt?"

"Uh huh. That's Aaron. Now…have fun and don't worry about deserting us."

Karen spun sharply around, a worried look in her eye.

"I was teasing!" Amanda laughed. "Gosh! You think I wouldn't do the same thing? You'll owe me one, though!"

Karen smiled, threw a small wave to her friends, and started to walk away.

The Doberman followed.

"Dreizehn!" she hissed. "You have to stay."

The dog paid her no heed.

"Did you hear me? Stay." She punctuated the command with her hand and repeated, "Stay."

This time, Dreizehn did not follow her.

.oO0Oo.

Aaron saw her coming. In fact, he had been watching her the entire time that she was talking with Ellie and Amanda. As soon as she broke away from her friends, he rested his arms on the shoulders of two of his guy friends and turned them a little away from her.

"Max? Philip?" He looked up at the third boy through his long sandy bangs. "Enrique? I need you boys to do me a favour and suddenly become scarce."

Max and Philip traded glances. Enrique looked over Aaron's shoulder, grinned widely, and tagged Aaron's arm with his fist.

"Come on, guys," he called to the other two. "We won't be needed for a while."

Max and Philip, still a little clueless, followed Enrique to the other side of the building and were out of sight before Karen arrived.

Aaron leaned against the brick, pointed his face to the sun with his eyes closed, and ran a hand through his golden locks. Karen chuckled.

"Hey. I got your note."

"Oh?"

"Yah…you did leave a note in my locker, right?"

"I did."

"Well…" She suddenly realised how little attention he was giving her. "Did you mean what you said?"

"I did."

"Then, would you mind at least looking at me? It's kind of hard to talk to someone who looks like he's posing for an underwear commercial.

Aaron peeked at her with one eye and then suddenly broke out of his pose. He knew from girlfriends past that a woman's hands placed that firmly on her hips usually didn't bode well for the man to whom she was speaking.

"That's a great improvement," Karen said, her tone as flat as the Kansas prairies. "Now, I just wanted you to know that Dreizehn and I are not dating."

Aaron nodded his head over her shoulder. "Then why is he still waiting for you like a jealous boyfriend?"

She turned her head and spied Dreizehn standing military straight, alone. He had stayed, like a good dog, but he had refused to leave with Ellie and Amanda.

She shook her head in wonderment. "He's just my bodyguard. He doesn't even speak English, and before you ask, no, I don't speak German. So see? How can I date someone I can't even talk to?"

"Mm. So, that's all you wanted?" He was back to posing, this time with his arms crossed and his chin raised higher than was practical for conversation with a shorter person.

"Well, no…." She threw him a coy grin that went unnoticed. "I was also wondering if your evening is free."

The chin came down. "And if it is?"

She shrugged. "There's a new coffee shop in town."

He smirked. "You want me to spend an evening in a coffee shop?"

She frowned.

"Of course," he quickly recovered. "Drinks are on me. When should I pick you up?"

Karen laughed and handed him a blue slip of paper on which she had previously written her address. "Five o'clock?"

"I'll be there."

.oO0Oo.

Karen woke up with a start. Observing through blearing eyes the algebra textbook, which had been her pillow, she made a mental note that lying on the bed to do her homework on a lazy afternoon was probably not the best way to study. She grinned at her messy hand-writing, the last numbers hardly decipherable, and then stared at the incense burner, wondering who had lit the stick. Then she shifted her gaze to the alarm clock until her mind registered the time.

Nearly five o'clock.

She slowly sat up, yawned, and glanced at the rug in the centre of the room.

Suddenly she was completely awake, for there on the rug, was Dreizehn, but not Dreizehn the Doberman Pinscher. This was Dreizehn the fiercely hansom man from the memories of a blind child. He lifted his head and gazed at her through his long, black bangs. Karen gasped and barely managed to keep herself from leaping off the bed to hug him.

"What's gotten into you?" Amanda asked, incredulously, from her sat at the desk.

Karen started at her friend's words and turned to face her, quickly trying to construct an answer. "Um…" She looked back at Dreizehn and then suddenly deflated. He was a dog again. "Oh…nothing," she finally answered. "I guess I was still half asleep." She forced a nervous-sounding chuckled. "I thought I saw him as a man…I mean, a dog. Silly me!"

"Indeed!"

Amanda studied Karen for several minutes, unsure what to think. Then she stared out the window to the street. After a few minutes, a black Porsche convertible pulled into the driveway and stopped. "Hm. Seems that Aaron has finally arrived," she noted. "Mind if I go out with Dreizehn while you're away?"

"Yes, actually. I'm taking him with me."

"On a date!" Amanda's jaw remained slack.

"Well, yah. He's my bodyguard."

"But it's a date!"

Karen shrugged. "I'm sure Aaron will understand."

.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.

Last notes: Mwa ha ha ha! That last section was lots of fun to write. /big smile/
BTW, Amanda does have a brother…. I just haven't found a good place to introduce him. And now that it's gotten so far into the story, if I suddenly have him walk into the room or something, everyone will be like, "Huh? Since when did Amanda have a brother!" Well…since the beginning of the story, actually.