Chapter 2

The Phoenix Stone

"Jake! Time for school! Get up boy or you're going to miss the bus!"

Jake is snatched from his dream, and reluctantly starts to get ready. As Jake is getting dressed he remembers his dream. He remember how real it felt. How he could feel the heat from the firebird, he knew to be a phoenix. How the fire on its body burned brightly in dazzling oranges, reds, and yellow. How when he touched it, it felt like a warm silk cloth moving swiftly all around his hand, but the thing that Jake remembers most is how he felt. How when he was rubbing the phoenix, all the troubles went away. Nothing else was there. Just him and the amazing creature that he had heard about in the story so many times.

"Jake!"

Jake is once again torn from his thoughts, runs to the bathroom and brushes his teeth. He looks at his hair in the mirror and thinks; A hat should take care of that. He runs back into his room, grabs his book bag, darts into his closet and pulls out a coat. He races downstairs, snatches his lunch money off the table, darts out the door, and into the driveway. The bus is still a few houses down and Jake is walking around in the middle of the driveway. He kicks a few rocks, and notices something. The bus comes close. Two more houses until it reaches him. Jake kicks the rocks again, and more of the pebble-like stone is shown. One more house. As Jake reaches to pick it up he feels all care. All worries leave his body. The bus starts to pull up to his driveway. Jake can feel heat coming from the bright orange and red stone, a heat that matches that of a scolding fire, and yet the closer he gets to the stone, the better he feels, without any sensation of burning. The bus comes to a halt, and swings open the door. Jake turns around to look at the bus, and then looks back at the stone, but when he looks back it's gone. He has no time to wonder about this now. He grabs his bag from off the ground, swings it onto his back, gets on the bus and sits in a seat beside one of his best friends, Mark.

Mark has been there for Jake ever since he moved here to live with his Grandpa. Also it is always good to have someone like Mark as friend. The reason being is that he is smarter than half of the faculty at the school. Also, Mark loves homework. So being the good friend that Jake is, he kindly gives Mark his homework assignment that he "forgot" to do. Mark simply glances at the worksheet, and in the twinkle of an eye is handing it back to Jake.

"So. How was your weekend?" Marks asks

"It as okay. How about you? Did you get that new game working?"

"Naw. I still have to calibrate the pixels per graphic ratio. After that though it is smooth sailin'. Did you get to the lake and work on the cabin?"

"Nope. We had to do yard-work all weekend, so I didn't get a chance."

Ever since the spring that Jake moved in with his Grandpa, he has been building a small cabin. Nothing special, just a tree house, without the tree. All he had to has to do now is hinge the door and he is done.

The bus comes to a halt and lets in a sophomore, named Jeremy. Jeremy like Mark has always been there for Jake. Also like Mark it is good to have Jeremy as a friend, since he is practically the hulk to everyone else in the school. Mark and Jake move over so Jeremy can get in.

"Hey man. What did y'all do this weekend?" Jeremy asks while handing Mark his worksheet packet.

"Nothing much. I did yard work and Mark worked on the game. What about you?"

"Aw, well I went huntin', and boy let me tell you I saw a perty buck just sittin' there. I didn't have the heart to shoot it though. Hey, my mom made some deer jerky. Y'all want some?"

Jeremy pulls out a big bag of deer jerky, and Jake , who never refuses free food, sticks his hand deep in the bag and grabs a handful.

"Damn boy. Did they feed you over at your house?"
"Yeah, but I slept late and didn't have time to eat breakfast. Mark you should really try some. It's delicious."

"Sure. I think I will try a piece."

He reaches into the bag, and at the same time hands Jeremy back his paper.

"Man, I don't know how you do it. This was a five-page packet, and you finished it in what, three minutes. You're a machine." Jeremy says while putting his paper and deer jerky back into his bag.

"Well thanks. Man! This jerky is good."

"See I told you. Hey Jeremy, ready for the test today in geometry?"

"Dang. That is today isn't it? I completely forgot about it."

He slowly turns his head towards Mark. Mark catching on says,

"Are you out of your mind? Come one. You know I can't cheat. The teachers already suspect I do your homework, even though I deliberately leave answers blank or get them wrong. But cheat on a test?"

"Okay. At-least tell me what's goin' to be on it."

"The 30-60-90 stuff."

"Hey Jeremy, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't study either." Jake tells Jeremy.

"Yeah. At-least now I know I'm not the only one who is goin' to fail."

"Well here we are." Jake says as he grabs his bag and stands up to get off the bus.

"Hey, maybe if I'm lucky I'll sit behind Martha." Jeremy says.

Martha Boal is the second smartest person in school. She somehow, switched all her classes to match that of Mark's, but since Mark is always rapped up in his studies, he hardly noticed. (To be continued…)