Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight (3 page)

"You talk to her yet?" Danny asked, trying to
puzzle out his own emotions.

Chris shrugged. "Yeah, but I think I'm stuck
in the category of 'just friends.'" He held up his hands and made
little quotation marks with his fingers to emphasize his point.
"What class do you have next?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Uh," Danny said, digging in his pockets and
pulling out a half-sheet of white paper, "Science. What about
you?"

"Shop class, Ann is in the same class."

"That should be fun."

"Yeah, we'll see."

The time passed slower than Danny would have
liked. The first day of school was always the worst. It was the
distinct and final end of the summer, a time of freedom and
exploration. The start of school signaled the end of fun and the
beginning of learning.

Fantasies and daydreams danced through
Danny's head as Mr. Ingram explained the rules and outlined the
activities of the year. Occasionally, Danny would hear something
that caught his attention, but he spent most of the time staring at
the new girl or lost in his own creative delusions.

At long last, the bell rang, an indistinct
tone came through the school’s intercom system.

"Thank god," said Marie and, for once, Danny
was inclined to agree with her.

"Which way you going, Danny?" Chris asked,
standing up, stretching, looking in the opposite direction.

"I have to go to my locker and get my science
book." Danny followed his friend's gaze and saw Ann in deep
conversation with another girl. "I'll see you later, man."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, later, man." He waved
and walked toward the group that held Ann's attention.

Danny searched the dispersing group and found
what he sought. Sabrina Drake was about to walk out of the double
doors on the left side of the gym. He needed to hurry if he was
going to find out where her locker was.

Danny made quick time to his own locker,
surprising himself as he remembered the combination without looking
at the piece of paper in his pocket. Pulling out his backpack and
stuffing the science book inside, he slammed his locker shut, spun
the lock and darted off down the hall. He felt a rush of excitement
as he dashed in, around, and between the busy students of the
crowded hallway. Taking an immediate right down the smaller hall
that led to the stairs, he weaved between two groups of bodies. He
took the steps two at a time; he knew he had to hurry if he was
going to catch her. By his calculations, she should be halfway down
the upper hall. Luckily, this part of the school was much wider,
giving him ample room to maneuver.

"Stop running in the halls!"

Danny knew that voice didn't belong to a
student. Strong arms gripped him, grinding his progress to a
shuddering halt. Danny tuned around to find Ms. Samantha, the art
teacher, with an iron grip on his backpack. Tied up in a ponytail,
her long, blonde hair draped just past her neck, leaving her
focused brown eyes to peer into Danny's frightened gaze. Her
expression was firm, but carried an air of kindness.

"Walk, please," she said with a slight
grin.

Danny nodded, "Sorry."

"That's alright, just don't be in such a
hurry next time. You still have five minutes till class starts."
She smiled and relinquished her grip, allowing Danny to disappear
into the small stream of quick-moving students.

Danny trudged along in annoyance. He would
have to find her locker some other time. He sighed and realized
that he was close to science class at least. With the need to hurry
over, he descended the stairs located in the middle of the long
hallway and located the large, green double doors, the entrance to
the science labs.

Taking out the small piece of white paper, he
found the classroom and sat in a desk near the back.

The room, separated from the other classrooms
by a series of thick boards on wheels, was in the shape of a crude
triangle. Six science stations, each equipped with a faucet and
sink, test tubes and stools lined the back of the room. Above each
station were slanted windows with white blinds, shielding the room
from the sun. The entire science area was one large octagon, with
six classrooms constructed in the east and west corners, three on
each side.

Danny could hear voices coming from the labs
on the other side of the building, most likely sixth or seventh
graders. He heard two familiar voices echo down the hall, nearing
the room. Danny recognized the quick-tongued boy as none other than
Alonso; the other, a rather loud, high-pitched voice, had to be
Matt Mickler. The two youths strolled past the wheeled wall and
entered the room.

Danny was happy to see the pair of familiar
friendly faces.

Matt Mickler, somewhat overweight, kept his
bulk concealed beneath oversized shirts that tended toward the
darker shades of the color spectrum, featuring his favorite metal
bands printed across the chest. His jet-black hair was just long
enough to get in the way of his purple eyes, causing him to adjust
a pair of black glasses with thick lenses and heavy frames. Due to
his tendency to be a bit hyperactive at times, in combination with
his nerdy appearance, Matt was often the target of bullying. His
quick wit and sharp tongue never seemed to help matters. He usually
found victory in conflicts of rhetoric, but disagreements of the
physical nature tended not to end in his favor.

"Hey, Danny!" Matt yelled. "Wait till you see
my new card. Did you bring your deck to class?"

Danny nodded and dug through his backpack,
pulling out a small rectangular box.

Over the summer, Danny and his friends had
gotten involved in Knights, a popular card game, where creatures of
fantasy and knights of legend were used to defeat the opposing
players. The players were divided into three factions: Light, Grey,
and Dark. The game pitted the forces of good, neutral and evil
against one another. Danny's box portrayed the emblem of Light, an
intricate circle of glowing white chain intertwined with links of
black, engulfed in tendrils of darkness.

Matt pulled a small card box from his own
backpack, with the symbol of Grey emblazoned upon it, a weave of
grey chain linked in a circle. Matt had chosen the neutral faction
for his deck, using technology and fanatical knights to win
battles, while Light used righteous knights and holy dragons to
defeat opponents.

"Look at this," Matt said. He pulled a deck
of cards from the box, took the top card from the pile and held it
up for both Danny and Alonso to see.

"That game is stupid," Alonso said, sighing,
taking a seat in front of Danny.

Ignoring the boy in front of him, Danny
leaned over to inspect his friend’s new card—a heavily-armored
knight in brass-colored armor sitting upon a jet-black steed. The
artwork, as with most of the cards in the game, looked quite
detailed.

"Wow, that's going to be tough to beat," said
Danny, taking the card and admiring it. Opening his own deck box,
he pulled out a crisp, glossy card. The picture on the card boasted
a monstrous silver-scaled dragon. Written in bold, black lettering
on the upper left of the card was the name of the dragon,
Tyramear
. Handing the card to Matt, Danny said, "I got that
about two days ago, had to trade some of my best cards to get
it."

"Wow!" Matt said, taking the card, looking it
over. "We still have a few minutes before class. You want to
play?"

Danny was about to say yes when a familiar
face passed through the doorway and entered the make-shift room.
"Um… no, I don't think we have time," said Danny, handing Matt's
card back with a quick jerk of the hand. Retrieving his own cards,
he put the deck box back in his pack.

Sabrina Drake crossed the row of desks and
walked down the aisle next to Danny's, sitting next to him.

Danny's palms began to sweat, and the room
seemed to jump twenty degrees.

"Hi, I'm Sabrina."

Danny's heart thumped with a heavy throb. He
felt like he was about to pass out.

"Hi, I'm Matt," said the purple-eyed boy as
he reached across Danny's desk with an outstretched hand. "Nice to
meet you," he added with a smile.

After hesitating, with a look of puzzlement,
she took Matt's hand and shook it, returning the smile. "You guys
play Knights?" she asked, looking at the deck of cards in Matt's
opposite hand.

"You know all about Knights!" Danny said,
forgetting about his awkwardness.

Reaching into her small book bag, Sabrina
pulled out a pale-colored deck box with the emblem of Light on the
top.

"You play with the Light army?" Danny
asked.

Nodding, Sabrina pulled out a handful of
cards. "I like dragons and Light has the best-looking dragon
cards."

Danny nodded, already knowing this simple
fact. The truth was that he liked dragons as well.

"You want to play?" Matt asked.

Sabrina shrugged. "I don't think we have
time."

Already, the room was filling up with a
gathering of faces and a massing of voices.

Matt sighed, an obvious signal that he
agreed, but he was also disappointed.

The final bell toned and an adult, Danny
suspected she was their teacher, entered the room and held up her
hand, ordering quiet.

"Alright, quiet down," she said. "My name is
Mrs. Turner; I'll be teaching you biology this year." She was
slender, with dark-red hair, with a voice that demanded
attention.

However, that didn't stop Danny from focusing
his attention on Sabrina as she slipped the white deck box back
into her pack.

The hour passed more slowly than Danny could
have imagined. He fluctuated between daydreams, the lecture and
staring at Sabrina, who sat attentively next to him.

After what seemed like hours, the bell rang,
signaling the end of the class. Looking over, Danny noticed that
Sabrina had her science book open in front of her, as did anyone
else who had been paying the least bit of attention. Looking down
at his own empty desk, he realized that he needed to buy some time
if he was going to walk with the new girl.

Bending over, Danny rifled through his
backpack, attempting to give the appearance that he was searching
for something. Looking over, he noticed that Sabrina was just about
done packing.

"You coming, Danny?" Matt asked.

Looking up, Danny sighed.

Matt and Alonso were waiting by the exit.
Matt's left foot thumped with impatience.

Standing up, Danny pulled his pack over his
shoulder and looked over to find Sabrina smiling at him, still
getting her things organized.

"Bye," she said in a musical tone, returning
to the task of putting her book back in her bag.

"Bye," Danny said, he stalked off to where
his friends waited.

Two more classes remained, history and
English. Danny walked into his history classroom and sighed; he saw
Steven Rooney sitting at the back.

At least the day is almost over,
he
thought, taking a seat toward the front. Danny wanted little to do
with the troublemaker in the back of the room.

back to top

anny awoke to the same sound most mornings, the
high-pitched voice of his mother yelling his name.

Stretching, he yawned and went through the
motions of the morning. He got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed his
teeth, gave his mother a goodbye hug and went out to meet the
bus.

The universe seemed right. Once again, Alonso
plopped down next to him in the same seat that he always did,
continuing to make meaningless small talk. Danny had come to learn
that Alonso had a tendency to tell some outrageous fibs from time
to time, yet they tended to be more amusing than anything else, so
he felt content to let his friend babble.

A month had gone by; the sun rose just as it
always did, casting a warm glow onto Danny's left cheek, Alonso
continued to tell his tall tale.

The bus door screeched open and Danny
followed in the tradition of standing up behind his friend, even
though he'd been sitting toward the back. It would still be a
little while before the line started moving. After a few moments,
he worked his way to the front of the bus, greeted by chilly air.
Winter hinted its approach, but he found the cool breeze
refreshing.

The school day progressed just like any other
day. Danny participated in a heated game of baseball during gym
class; he struggled to make interesting small talk with his lab
partner, Sabrina, in science class and he ate lunch with Matt,
Chris, and Alonso. At least, it seemed like a normal day.

"Hey, Firoth!" an obnoxious voice yelled out,
loud, deep, and throaty.

Danny stopped in mid-step. He was almost to
the bus. He sighed, he knew whose voice had beckoned him. Turning,
his fears were confirmed as he spotted Steven Rooney and his goons
walking straight toward him.