Wind Warrior (4 page)

Lying back on his bed, Xander tossed a
softball into the air. He deftly caught it as it fell before
shifting its weight in his hand. Scowling, he threw it back into
the air with enough force that it struck the ceiling with a loud
thud. Xander caught it again as it fell before tossing it angrily
toward the corner of his room.

A soft knock on his door startled Xander. He
propped himself up on an elbow and stared at the closed door.

“
Who is it?” he asked,
dreading the possible answer.

“
It’s your mother. Can you
open the door, please?”

Xander sighed and slid his legs over the
side of the bed. He strode across the room and unlocked the door.
Without bothering to open it for her, he stormed back to his bad
and laid back down.

His mother opened the door softly and
stepped into the room.

“
How are you doing?” she
asked.

“
I’m fine,” he replied
sarcastically. “Dad sent me to my room like I was a child. He does
know I’m twenty, right? He does know that I’m going to graduate
from college soon, right?”

His mother stood stoically, her hands
crossed in front of her lap. She listened to him complain, nodding
appropriately as he spoke.

“
I can’t wait to move out,”
he continued. “Get my own place and not have to put up with him
anymore.”

“
Don’t be too hard on your
father,” she offered. “He really does have your best interests at
heart.”

Xander turned sharply toward his mother. He
knew his anger was misdirected but he felt it was necessary to stop
her before she continued.

“
Don’t do that, Mom,” he
said flatly. “You don’t have to play mediator between me and him
every time he decides to be a jerk.”

She walked over and patted his legs,
encouraging him to move over on the bed. Xander swung his legs over
the side and scooted toward the headboard, giving space for his
mother to sit beside him.

“
Your father can come
across a little rough around the edges—“

Xander huffed at the understatement.

“—
but he means well,” she
continued as though oblivious to his derision. “You may not fully
understand it or even appreciate it right now but he really does
have your best interest at heart. He’s just trying to protect
you.”

“
He treats me like a
child.”

His mother smiled and placed her hand on
his. “That’s only because you’re our child.”

Xander couldn’t suppress his smile. “You’re
so corny. You know that, right?”

“
That’s exactly why you
love me,” she said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. “Now
forgive your father so I don’t have to listen to the two of you
ruin another dinner.”

“
That’s the ulterior motive
for this entire conversation?” Xander joked, feeling his
frustration bleeding away. “You just wanted a civil dinner
conversation?”

His mother shrugged. “I’m pretty simple like
that.”

She stood and walked toward the bedroom
door. “Get some sleep tonight, dear.”

Xander found himself smiling at the
diminutive woman. She seemed such a gentle counterpoint to his
father’s abrasiveness. “Goodnight, Mom.”

She pulled the door closed softly behind her
as she left. Xander collapsed back onto the bed and stared up at
the ceiling.

The next morning, Xander grabbed his
backpack and cursed again at the time on the clock. He didn’t
intend to oversleep but he felt ridiculously drained after the
excitement of the day before. Hopping on one foot, he pulled on his
second shoe. The loaded backpack threatened to pull him over and he
had to cling to his drawing table to keep from collapsing onto his
bedroom floor.

He threw open the door and rushed down the
stairs, his tennis shoes slapping loudly against the wooden
staircase. He wasn’t too worried about making a lot of noise, since
both his mother and father had already left for work. Only his
grandfather would still be home but he was usually in bed until
late morning.

As he reached the foyer, Xander had to slide
to a halt as his grandfather stepped around the corner from the
living room. Xander clutched his chest again, growing steadily more
angry at the series of surprises that seemed to encompass his life
over the past couple days.

“
You scared me half to
death,” Xander huffed.

“
We need to talk,” his
grandfather said, ignoring Xander’s irritation.

“
I can’t right now,
Grandpa. I’m already running late for class.”

Xander stepped gracefully around the old man
and reached out for the door. “Maybe we can talk when I get back
tonight.”

“
It’s…” his grandfather
began before sighing heavily. “Fine. Go. Just promise me you’ll be
careful today.”

Xander smiled, though he was genuinely
confused by the conversation. “I’m careful every day, Grandpa.”

With a quick wave, Xander opened the door
and rushed out to his car.

“
Sean!” Xander yelled over
the crowd crossing the street.

Sean stopped, turned at the sound of his
name, and waved as he caught Xander’s eye. Xander ran up
breathlessly and had to lean over to catch his breath before he
could speak.

“
What’s going on,
Xander?”

Xander raised his pointer finger, asking for
a moment. He had run nearly the entire way from the parking lot
after noticing Sean’s car already there when he arrived.

“
Today, after school. What
do you have going on?” Xander said when he had caught his
breath.

Sean shrugged. “Not a whole lot. Why?”

Xander smiled at his friend. He placed a
hand on Sean’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’ve got something you’re
going to need to see. Meet me after class.”

He rushed off so that he wouldn’t be late to
class, leaving Sean standing perplexed on the sidewalk.

By the time Xander made it inside the
lecture hall, most of the rest of the students were already seated.
Jessica was sitting near the front with some of her sorority
sisters. Xander waved when he caught her eye, but he chose to take
his normal seat in the back of the room.

As he slid into the aisle, he noticed that a
woman was already sitting in his seat. He didn’t recognize her,
which was odd in such a small class. Her blonde hair fell over her
face, leaving only a faint view of her button nose beneath the
loose strands of hair. As she looked over her textbook, she reached
up and pushed her hair back behind her ear. With her hair brushed
aside, she noticed Xander watching her from a few seats away. She
looked up from her book, her pale blue eyes sparkling in the dim
lecture hall lighting. She flashed a full smile at his gawking
expression.

“
I’m sorry,” he said as he
started to slide back out of the row.

“
Don’t be silly,” she said,
her voice an angelic whisper. “There’s plenty of space in the row.
Pull up a seat.”

Xander felt suddenly self-aware as he took a
seat beside her. He couldn’t tell one specific feature about her
that struck him as insanely beautiful but he found her completely
irresistible.

“
Hi,” she said, flashing
her entrancing smile again. She extended her hand. “I’m
Sammy.”

“
Xander,” he said as he
took her hand. “Your hand is really warm.”

Sammy’s mouth froze in midsentence but, to
her credit, she didn’t withdraw her hand.

Xander blushed furiously. “That was perhaps
the single most awkward thing I could have said. I might as well
have followed it up with ‘it puts the lotion in the basket’—”

“—
or it gets the hose,”
Sammy finished with a laugh. “Yes, that would have made it much
more awkward.”

Xander laughed with her before realizing he
still had her hand. He let it go and dropped his hands to his
lap.

“
Do I know you?” Xander
said, trying to casually change the subject. “I haven’t seen you in
here before but you seem so familiar.”

“
I just transferred here. I
was lucky enough to be let in after the semester
started.”

“
That’s got to be rough,”
he said, trying to shake the feeling that they’d met somewhere
before. “Don’t you have a lot of catching up to do?”

Sammy nodded. “I do, which is probably why
we should listen to the professor.”

Xander turned toward the front of the room
and saw the professor halfway through his first slide. He reached
into his bag and pulled out his books hurriedly. As he did, he saw
Jessica staring at him disapprovingly from the front of the room.
Xander shrugged sheepishly as he set his books on the table in
front of him.

By the time the professor was on the third
slide, Sammy leaned over to him. “Is this class always this
boring?”

Xander hid his smile. “I wouldn’t know. I’m
usually asleep or doodling by this point in the class.”

“
Oh, lucky me, I chose the
brainy type. So, show me these doodles of yours.”

Keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the
professor, Xander flipped back a couple pages in his notebook until
he revealed a sketch he had done of Jessica’s profile.

“
You’re not half bad,”
Sammy whispered appreciatively. “I mean, you’re not half good
either.”

“
Way to endear yourself,
new kid,” he joked.

As he flipped back to today’s page and began
taking notes on the lecture, Sammy reached over and doodled on the
corners of his paper. Her drawings were atrocious, but he let her
draw for a few seconds before playfully swatting at her hand. They
laughed before receiving a stern look from the professor. They both
cleared their throats before another small chuckle escaped.

By the time class was over, Xander couldn’t
recall a single important thing the professor had taught that day.
He and Sammy stuffed their books into their bags and stood. As he
turned toward the end of the row, she pushed him playfully from
behind and he nearly stumbled into Jessica, who waited impatiently
at the end of it.

“
Hi, Jessica,” Xander said,
oblivious to the obvious danger promised in her stern look. “I’d
like you to meet Sammy.”

Sammy waved but tried to avoid direct eye
contact.

“
Hi,” Jessica said sweetly
before taking Xander’s arm. “Have you thought anymore about taking
me to the formal?”

Xander felt himself being pulled away and
turned apologetically to Sammy. Sammy jutted out her bottom lip and
waved as he disappeared out the door.

When they were outside, Jessica leaned
against his shoulder. “Who is she?”

“
Sammy? She’s a new
student, just transferred here.”

“
She transferred to White
Halls College? Who does that?”

Xander shrugged. He hadn’t given it much
thought while they were talking—or flirting, as Xander allowed
himself to realize—but it did seem a little odd.

“
So what did you guys talk
about?” Jessica asked. Xander could feel himself slipping into an
inescapable bottomless pit in the conversation.

“
Nothing important,
really,” he answered honestly.

“
You guys sure talked about
nothing for a long time.”

Xander swallowed hard. As much as Jessica
truly was a sweet girl at heart, she was also president of the
campus’ largest sorority. Every now and then, the sorority sister
in her emerged and she became someone Xander didn’t like. As much
as she frustrated him when she was acting jealous and possessive,
he wasn’t in the mood to be confrontational.