strangles myself I feel bad, way bad. I had finished this part for so long, yet I haven't posted, at all. Moving to Harker Heights took longer than I expected, and I haven't even posted Chapter 4; I'm disgusted with myself. I never knew high school would be so hard, especially with 4 PRE AP classes, so I had to drop two of the classes. And to top it all off, I'm somewhat anemic, or so that nurse told me when I went to go get my physical for tennis. I really can't believe this. I am very, extremely, and deeply sorry for all my great readers.
Chapter 3:
Night had already fallen on Jump City, though that didn't stop people from going on with their daily lives. Usually, the Rayley's mansion would be completely dark, with the exception of the kitchen, which was always on, but this time the light of Ember's room was on, which was strange. It was one o'clock in the morning and they were going to serve pizza at lunch during school. But surprisingly, she wasn't going to school today. In fact, she wasn't going to summer school anymore; her father had told her this earlier.
Why he decided for her not to go to school she didn't know. All she knew was that she had gotten furious, and she wasn't the only one. Her mother, Molly, was the one who wanted Ember to attend summer school in the first place.
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"You're just dilly-dallying, right?" Molly had choked as she ate her salad during dinner.
To Ember's and Molly's surprise, Ulrick shook his head.
"I'm not dilly-dallying at all. I think it's time we stop pressuring Ember from all this advanced education." He turned to Ember and smiled. "You already know things that eight graders are barely learning. And besides, you always kept telling us that you hate Mrs. Picket."
"But Ulrick, be reasonable!" Molly said. "She has to get all the education she needs in order to earn a spot in Princeton or Harvard! Why, if she doesn't make it there by the time she's eighteen, goodness, who knows what might happen?"
"Now Molly, I really think you're over reacting. See here, she doesn't need all this schooling-"
"Ahem"
"But Ulrick, she could become a famous doctor and save a life or-"
"Ahem"
"Oh Molly, really, she needs to get a rest from school-"
"AHEM!"
Both Molly and Ulrick turned around to see Ember, who had been the one pretending to cough all this time.
"I don't think I want to leave summer school just yet dad," she said rather dryly.
Ulrick's smile turned into a frown, but Molly seemed to be stopping herself from jumping and give a loud whoop.
"See here Ulrick?" boasted Molly, smiling and crossing her arms. "She still wants to go to school. I don't think you'll want to change that, will-"
But he had put his hand up signaling for her to be quiet. Molly didn't like it when he did that, and neither did he, but this meant he was being serious. He looked at Ember very sternly before breaking the small silence.
"What's your reason for wanting to go to summer school?" he asked as though it was a death question.
Ember shrugged and tried to look convincing. "Um…because I like it there?" she muttered, though she was sure he wouldn't believe that answer, and she was right.
Ulrick smiled at her and raised an eyebrow. "Do not try to fool your own father," he said. "I know you too well. Now, what's the real reason why you want to keep going to summer school?"
Truth is, she wanted to see Roy again, and not going to school would mean that she would have cancel the date he had made with her on her birthday without telling him. Well, she guessed it wouldn't technically be canceling, more like standing him up, if that was what you would call it, but that wasn't the point. She just really wanted to see Roy, that's all, but that would be another excuse for her dad to tell her not to go to school.
She shifted in her seat slightly, looking down at her meatloaf.
"There isn't really a reason," she mumbled. "I guess I'll stop going to school then."
Molly looked like she was about to throw something. Ulrick however, seemed pleased and clapped his hands.
"Well then, that settles it!" he exclaimed. "You're not going to summer school anymore. I'll call the Attendance office in a little bit, and you'll be relaxing for the rest of this summer."
He helped himself to the rice on his bread before speaking again. "I have more news," he said thickly, though this was because his mouth was full of meatloaf.
"What is it now?" spat Molly.
"You and Ember have been appointed bodyguards and they will go everywhere with you."
"WHAT!"
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Ember sighed as lowered the covers of her large bed from her face. Knowing she had to be followed by a gruesome man was shocking indeed, though she did not know what she was being protected of. Her father had told her not worry; her bodyguard was only there in case of an emergency. Strangely though, he seemed a bit nervous as he quickly introduced Ember to the man that would be following her every move on the same night. Ulrick seemed to like him for his size, but Ember absolutely was frightened.
Pale, oily skinned, and about as tall as a basketball player, Greg was certainly not the type of person you should talk back too. He had the personality of a rotten cabbage and seemed to have the nerve to knock out anybody near him with his massive hands. When Ember said hello feebly to him, he merely stared at her, as though she was a lingering piece of fresh meat. His voice sounded more like a hiss and he had what seemed to be a British accent, but Ember wasn't sure.
Ember shivered as she heard him grunt in his sleep outside her door. It was horrible. She couldn't go anywhere since he was guarding the door.
Stretching, she yawned and looked at her clock. It was already two in the morning.
"G'night Jump City," she whispered, turning off her small lamp and finally drifting on to sleep and started to dream.
"Hey! That's not funny!"
A girl was sitting down on a circular couch, laughing hysterically while a boy sitting next to her crossed his arms and frowned. The girl stopped laughing after a while and stared deeply at the boy.
"How can it not be funny?" she smirked. "You just got told off by a kid."
"I did not get told off by a munchkin!" the boy said. "He just merely-"
"Told you off?"
The girl giggled, reached out to him, and ruffled his hair, saying "little tyke."
The boy just shook her hand off without effort, though he did smile mischievously at her. The girl raised an eyebrow.
"What are you smiling at?"
He edged closer to her, making her slightly uncomfortable. She backed away from him a little, but he kept creeping close to her.
"Seriously, what are you smiling at?" she asked shakily.
He was way too close now; his knees were bumping into hers.
"I just want to know if you'll still laugh after I do this."
In a swift motion, he grabbed her head and inched it closer to his.
"Get up you lazy-ass."
Someone deliberately had tried to poke Ember in the shoulder, but had surely missed, and poked her closed eye instead. Feeling pain in her right eye, she sat up straight, only to find out that Greg was the one that had poked her. She gave him a dark look, only to get it back.
"What was that for? And who gave you permission to come into my room?"
"I said get up, you lazy-ass," he repeated, ignoring her questions.
Cursing under her breath, she got out of bed, stretching her arms and scratched her head. She looked at her clock and dropped her jaw. It was barely seven in the morning. She had only been sleeping for only five hours.
"You woke me up at seven in the morning!" she bellowed. "What gives!"
He stared at her like if she was nothing. "I have some early business today, and your father told me that if I was going somewhere, you had to come as well, so get dressed."
"Why should I listen-?"
"I SAID GET DRESSED!"
She didn't need telling twice, though she made a mental note to tell her father that she had been yelled at. Running as fast as she could, she opened her closet door, but stopped for a fraction of a second, and looked back. Greg was still there.
"Do you mind?" she snapped. "Or are you going to watch me change as well?"
He merely grunted, walked out the room, and slammed the door, making her jump. Ember made a rude hand signal at the door before going back to her closet.
"This is going to be a long morning," she murmured.
And indeed it was. In his beat up pick-up truck, Greg had taken her to moldy dark shop that sold guns, which made Ember shrink back into the corners while Greg examined a particular large sniper. After that, they went to this small café that only had two tables. Greg had ordered himself scrambled eggs, but didn't get Ember anything at all.
"You don't get anything yet," he told her, his mouth full of eggs.
Ember was already getting sick of Greg. He treated her as if she was a stray dog that was following in order to obtain food. People seemed to notice this as well. A woman had asked her if she was lost, but Greg had pulled her away before the woman can get an answer. It wasn't until two hours that Ember began to get hopeful.
She had escaped Greg's clutches at a Wal-Mart and prowled around the Pet aisle. Ember actually had the nerve to fish out a goldfish and throw it at her bodyguard's face at this point.
"He's evil," she snarled, "He's a good-for-nothing-"
"Who's evil?"
She felt a hand place on her shoulder. Getting a feeling that Greg had found her, she turned around and faced Roy.
"Roy? What are you doing here? I thought you said you had a doctor's appointment?" she asked.
He seemed to be pleased. "I have a dog back home, so I usually come here to buy dog food, and my appointment won't be until about thirty minutes. But what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school? "
Ember turned red. She didn't want to tell him that she couldn't go to school because her father simply said no, but he had been honest with her. She explained everything about her not attending school anymore. When she finished, he just shook his head.
"So you're just not going anymore? And your dad didn't tell you why?"
"No."
"Well, that's odd. There has to be a reason why he doesn't want you to go."
"Well," Ember admitted. "He did say that I had too much schooling and I needed to get a rest from it."
He still didn't look convinced. "So, who are you here with anyways?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
"I'm here with my bodyguard," she muttered.
Roy laughed uncontrollably when she said this. Ember turned to an even darker shade of red.
"Oh," she cried, "please don't laugh! It's bad enough to have barely found out that I was actually going to have a bodyguard just yesterday! You don't know what its like, do you? It's a living nightmare, honestly. He treats me like a shabby dog and doesn't even let me go to the bathroom. He's grouchy, bad-tempered, and-STOP LAUGHING!"
"I'm sorry," he said, wiping a tear from his eye, "but it is amusing. I thought you, out of all people…"
"Yes, it's amusing, isn't it?"
Holding some hair-products, Greg was standing right behind Roy, whose smile fell as he turned around. Roy quickly backed up and stood next to Ember, as though if she was refuge. Ember, though, frowned at Greg.
"Get out of my sight kid," he spat at Roy. He turned to Ember, who was still frowning. "And you hurry up. I need to pay for all this."
"You're not the boss of me," she snapped. "And you have no right to tell Roy what he should do. You are my bodyguard, and yet you have failed to show me respect. My father will here about this. I'm going to make sure you get sacked."
"You will regret that," Greg said. "You have no idea why your father hired me, don't you? I work for the police kid (he took out a shiny badge from his jacket), so you better respect me. My boss is far worse that me, believe it. She- I mean, he shows no patience with failure." He punched himself in the arm as though he was being challenged by himself. Both Ember and Roy blinked, but he continued to talk. "To make a long story short, I'm stuck with you until tomorrow- I mean until your father says so. So, deal with it."
Ember raised an eyebrow as he finished talking. What did Greg mean that he was only going to be with here until tomorrow? That didn't make sense. Her father specifically told her in front of Greg that he would stay with her until further notice, certainly not tomorrow. And why did he punch himself when he accidentally mentioned that his boss was a woman, and then quickly said that his boss was a man? It was strange to her at the moment, but decided not to worry about until later.
"Uh, yeah," squeaked Roy taking some steps backward, "I'd better go now. Nice seeing you Ember"
He was about to leave the aisle, much to Greg's delight, but to Ember's despair. She knew what she was about to do was stupid, but she couldn't stand another solitary day, especially with Greg.
"Wait!"
Roy stopped and looked back.
"Can I have your phone- phone- phone number?"
There, she said what she wanted to say, realizing that she was turning from red to scarlet. Greg rolled his eyes with disgust. Roy, however, smiled and took out a fancy wallet from his pocket. He pulled out a small piece and of paper and a miniature pen from his wallet and began to scribble numbers on it.
"Call me whenever you like," he said as he handed her the paper. "We're still going to see each other at the video store tomorrow, right?"
Ember nodded and said, "Yeah."
"Ok, how about around five?" Roy suggested. "I want you to meet my caretaker."
Ember nodded again. "That's sounds reasonable," she said.
He grinned and took of quickly without saying anything. Ember smiled and looked at the tiny piece of paper that was crumpled in her hand.
467-9051
Call me if you ever need anything. I don't care if it's midnight or two o'clock in the morning. I'll be there for you.
Roy
Ok, for the most part, I think it lacked detail, or I'm just losing my touch. I was hoping to make this …interesting but I messed up. Hopefully, I'll have chapter 4 up soon, with better ideas.