Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club Chapter 6
Field trip
The mortal studies class the next morning was a field trip. It was the first time Daniel had seen professor Morwen wearing something other than a robe. She looked like a student herself. Most students were also in jeans and shirts as they had been told the day before. Still two boys showed up in robes. Professor Morwen waved her sword and their robes turned into pants and jackets like silly uniforms.
"Remember, no funny business when you are among mortals," commanded professor Morwen with as much authority as she could get.
"Now follow me," she turned around and led the students to the lake.
On their way, Daniel saw Jared. He was with a couple of his friends. They were standing by the road as the first years walking by.
"He looks pissed," said Owen with an unsympathetic grin. "Do you know what they are going to do next?"
"No, not really," said Daniel, but still their conversation flew into his ears.
"That one?" asked Jared.
"Yes," one of his friends answered.
"Are you kidding me?" said Jared with a sneer. "He's not much bigger than the book fairy-I don't know why I even considered your idea."
"He's not that small. He just looks small standing by his giant friend. Besides, size has nothing to do with his powers."
It sounded like Jared's friend was trying to defend himself; but by the sound, Daniel could tell that Jared had turned around and walked away.
"What a relief," he thought. Jared's friend must have suggested asking him for help to find the Golden Club. At the same time, Daniel found himself checking out his classmates. He was definitely among the smaller ones, but he wasn't the smallest, which made him feel a little better.
"Whatever he does, he'd better leave us alone," said Owen heatedly.
They took off at the lakefront. As they climbed, the lake became smaller and the buildings in school shrank into tiny boxes. Soon Daniel found them above the clouds. The ocean looked solid from the air. Under the sun, the brilliant deep blue stretched on and on.
Most students were talking excitedly about their funny encounters with the mortals. As they were getting closer to the mortal world, Daniel started to feel nervous. It felt like he was flying back to revisit his past. He was afraid that someone or something would jump out and say, "No, that's not your past." He just wanted it to remain the same, so he could leave it as it was.
They flew for about twenty minutes before the seashore came into view. Daniel could see that they were flying toward a barren cliff, on which stood a factory with a big chimney. There was thick smoke coming out of the chimney. It formed a big cloud above the factory.
"Now, prepare to land," professor Morwen pointed at the cloud in front of them. "Descend into the cloud and enter the factory through the Chimney."
There was a moment that Daniel was worried that the chimney was too small for Owen, but they all landed safely in the factory without a scratch.
The factory was mostly empty with only a couple of idle machines.
"All the trouble we have gone though during the landing is to avoid being seen by mortals," said professor Morwan. "I won't lecture you about the importance of keeping our world secret...Today, we are going to experience mortal transportation. We are going to a city called Amoy."
At the gate was a bus. Some students took the front door, but most jumped in through the windows.
The bus passed villages and towns. Daniel could see people busy with their daily life. There were mortals working in the fields, behind the windows of office buildings, or just rushing from one place to another. Everything felt strange and familiar at the same time.
He remembered Alverdine said that it wouldn't be easy going back to be a mortal. He couldn't help but wonder why his father wanted him to live a mortal life. He had this feeling that his past was like a black hole. Even though he had lived in it, he knew little about it.
He could see that Kerri wasn't doing much better than he. She was looking out of the window, and not talking to anyone,
Owen was looking out of the window too, but he was talking cheerfully about the things he saw. Daniel managed to keep up a conversation with him by saying yes, cool, eh, or answering a question occasionally.
"Are you OK?" he heard Owen say.
At some point, Owen had turned around.
"Yeah, sure," said Daniel.
"Just want to make sure," said Owen with a grin. In a minute, his attention was back on the street outside.
"Cars are kind of cool," he said. "But I don't think I'd enjoy being tied on a seat."
"Now that's my kind of transportation," he said after a while, pointing at a bicycle.
"I don't think you'll like the speed very much though," said Daniel.
"It's fun, isn't it?" said Owen excitedly about the trip. "You probably don't think much of it-you know, I don't mind the class as much now."
They were entering the shopping district of the city. The bus was full of cheerful chatter and laughter from the excited students. Even with the method professor Alverdine taught him, Daniel found himself in a sea of sounds. People were talking on the sidewalk. Cars and buses grunted as they battled through streets. Different kinds of music flew out of different stores. Rap, pop, R&B and jazz all mixed together in the streets. There were also so many things to look at. Huge display windows exhibited merchandise from appliances to yoyos. The streets were lined with billboards selling everything under the sun. And there were people everywhere in different outfits and with different expressions.
After a few minutes of telling everyone to be careful and to come back on time, professor Morwen finally let them off the bus.
"You don't care if Kerri comes with us, do you?" Daniel turned to Owen.
Kerri was still sitting on the bus when most of the students had already disappeared in the crowd.
"No, not really" said Owen, but from his tone, Daniel could tell that spending half a morning with Kerri was not exactly his idea of fun.
Daniel walked up to where Kerri was seated.
"Want to join us?" he asked.
For a moment, Kerri almost looked startled; but after a second of hesitation, she joined them.
As they walked down the street, all of a sudden, Daniel realized that he didn't have any money, either mortal money or immortal money if there was a different kind. He found himself sweating over the problem. Money had never been an issue for him since his father paid for everything; but now he was on his own. He didn't even know how he could pay for the school-from what he had heard, the school was not free.
He took a look at Owen. He was still happy and cheerful, even though he was quiet since Kerri joined them. Daniel couldn't help but feel mad at his father. He wished he could have a family just like Owen's, and a past as simple.
"Have you started studying for the mid-terms?" he was surprised that Kerri was the first to start a conversation.
"No," he said, still uneasy inside.
"Me either," Owen sounded slightly annoyed. "It's a little early, don't you think?"
Once the ice was broken, He started talking and asking questions again.
Part of Daniel wanted to sulk and not talk, but he knew that would be selfish and unfair to Owen and Kerri. He tried to put his problems aside and told Owen what he knew about the merchandise, the stores and the people.
Daniel soon found that Kerri also listened attentively. He realized that she hadn't had any chance to go to a store, even though she was born in a mortal family.
Kerri looked more comfortable as they went on and started asking questions too. Some were as na‹ve as Owen's.
"Excuse me, you're supposed to pay with cash," Daniel heard someone say shortly after they entered a mall.
Turning to where the sound came from, he saw three of his classmates in a store. They were at a check out desk. All of them had new clothes in their hands. One of the girls was paying with silver coins. She took the coins back from the clerk and looked at the other two. There was a moment of confusion and then they all started giggling.
"Wait," called the clerk. "Where did you get those coins?"
The girls already returned the clothes to the shelf and were out of the store.
Owen looked amused, but didn't make any comment. Daniel could tell he was restraining himself because Kerri was with them. Kerri, however, looked like someone had just poured a bucket of cold water on her head. Daniel could tell that she just realized she didn't have money either.
They kept on moving with the flood of people, Owen with the same enthusiasm; but Kerri's spirit had been dampened. At times, Daniel caught her looking at the clothes in the stores with deep longing, but she looked away quickly every time someone looked her way.
"What's that place?" Owen pointed at an arcade after they had visited a toy store with the fake weapons and robot-like action figures. Before that, they had been in almost all the stores except the fashion stores, the cosmetic stores and the furniture stores.
"A game arcade," said Daniel.
It was much darker than the other stores. There were a lot of kids about their age battling it out with each other or the computer. Among them were Mike and Tom, another small boy in their class. They were playing a combat video game. Tom was a technohead. He didn't even have to put coins in the machine to play the games. He looked frustrated with Mike, who was no match at all.
"You know how to play, don't you?" asked Owen excitedly.
"A little," Daniel said, trying not to sound too encouraging. He didn't want everyone to know that he had no money to play.
"Can you teach me how to?" asked Owen. He had already taken over the machine by Tom's side.
Daniel was about to say that those weren't his favorite games when Tom jumped over.
"I'll teach you," he said to Daniel's relief.
Soon they were fighting on the screen like they had been playing it for years.
"Wow, you are good," said Tom in admiration. "I can't believe you have never played before-but, of course, the games were just a simplified imitation of the real combat."
The arcade was as noisy as the outside. It was full of screaming and shouting from both the machines and the players. There were also the recorded sounds of car racing, gunshot, and sword fighting.
"Here you are," Daniel heard a woman say among all the noises. "Yichishee. I'm very disappointed of you."
What interested Daniel were the accent and the name, but he couldn't see the woman or her child. The machines blocked his view.
"You should be home studying," said the woman. "How can you expect yourself to be great if you don't study hard enough."
"What if I don't want to be great, mama?"
They got into a heated argument, but in their own language and in lower voices.
It, however, didn't sound like any human languages that Daniel knew of.
Daniel took a look at Owen and Tom. Both of them were concentrating on the screen. Both Mike and Kerri looked bored, but neither of them seemed to notice the conversation. Daniel walked quietly to where the woman and her son were. They were just about to leave. The woman didn't look out of ordinary, except that she was very young and beautiful; but the boy was strange-he was wearing sunglasses even though the arcade was dark. He looked pissed but had stopped arguing. Looking carefully, Daniel could see through the sunglasses. What surprised him was that his eyes were not like human eyes-the pupils were bright yellow.
"What are you looking at?" snapped the boy when they passed by Daniel.
"Timmy!!!" his mother scoffed in a dangerous voice.
The boy turned around and made a face at Daniel.
Daniel wanted to follow them, but knew that wasn't a good idea. They were supposed to be back at the bus in about half an hour. It also seemed wrong and could be dangerous. He went back to where Owen was. They were still fighting on the screen.
"Wee-jee-shee-wuu-does it sound familiar?" he asked Mike in a small voice.
"No-why-where did you hear of that?"
"Somewhere in the mall-could be just my imagination with all the noises."
"OK-" said Mike, giving him a funny look.
"Sorry," said Owen with an apologetic smile as they left the arcade. "I swear I had no idea I spent that much time in there."
"Guess playing the game makes people hungry just like the real combat," he said as his stomach started growling.
After a couple of minutes, Daniel found that Owen was leading them to the food court.
"I'm not hungry," said Kerri, looking uncomfortable.
"Me either," Daniel added quickly. Neither of them had money for food.
"It's on me," said Owen with a grin. "I don't like to eat alone."
"You won't be alone," said Daniel. "There are plenty of people in there-you know you are supposed to pay with mortal money, don't you?"
"Yep," said Owen, showing them the money in his pocket.
"But where did you get the money?" asked Daniel.
"My parents gave it to me before I left home," said Owen. "They said that I might need it. Never could understand how a piece of paper could be of any value. Wish I had enough to buy a video game though."
"I don't think they are allowed at school," said Kerri bluntly. "I wouldn't have time for that even if I had one."
Daniel could detect some jealousy in Kerri's tone, which he totally understood. If he hadn't known Owen so well, he probably would have mistaken Owen's generosity as showing off.
He was glad that Owen didn't say anything back.
Owen ordered for all of them. Kerri stared at the food for a few minutes but ate the food eventually. They had to run back to the bus just in time for roll call.
On their way back to the school, Daniel found that most of the girls were in their new clothes. It only took him a few minutes to figure out that some of them had enchanted pieces of paper into cash. Tom was sitting with them. He and Owen had suddenly become the best buddies. They were talking about the video games.
Daniel didn't join their conversation. He was still thinking about the kid and his mother. Were they some kind of immortals? If they were, the kid apparently didn't like it very much. Could his father be just like the Kid-a runaway from the immortal world? Could his father have been distracted by something in the mortal world-distracted enough to leave the immortal world? Or was he trying to run away from the pressure in the immortal world? Daniel dismissed the thought quickly. It sounded too ridiculous to him-his father impulsive like a kid!!! He had no sympathy for the boy.
"If only he really knew what it's like to be left alone in a mortal world," thought Daniel bitterly.
The uneasiness he had felt was getting stronger as they were closer to the school. He had been taking for granted that everything was paid for in school. The trip helped him realized that nothing was really free. He didn't mind that he could not afford toys or clothes, but he wanted to be able to continue his studies on Jade Island. It was where he belonged. He took a look at Kerri. She didn't look comfortable either.
I would really appreciate it if you could tell your friends about the book. Thanks. The book is available at www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com. Search by the title. Author's blog: 360.yahoo.com/gcgustopher