Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:51:16 -0500
From: Chris Geszvain <gustopher31@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 10 Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club

Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club

Chapter 10
Jared and Michelle's request

	On Friday afternoon, Daniel was in the library working on his homework.
Friday afternoon was usually less crowded in the library. Most students had
class and those who didn't have class liked to play sports in a sunny
afternoon. Only a few students scattered about in the library. Miss Leventis
looked bored behind the check out desk. She, however, was keeping a close
eye on everyone. Daniel heard someone walking up toward him. It was Jared.
	"Can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Jared.
	"Sure," said Daniel. He stood up and walked out of the library.
	Daniel had actually seen this coming and wanted to avoid causing a scene in
the library. On his way out, he saw Miss Leventis give him a funny look.

	They were standing under the big tree outside the library. The stream
running through the dorm garden ran lazily under the tree. The sunlight went
through the leaves of the tree and was reflected on the water. A breeze
passed. The leaves moved, and a fish-scale ripple appeared on the water.
Daniel found himself showered by rays of sunlight coming from all
directions. For a moment, he almost forgot why he was there.
	"I'm sure that you heard someone stole my Golden Club," said Jared
deliberately, breaking the harmony. He was leaning on the trunk of the
phoenix tree, his arms crossed. "It's really important to me. I want you to
find out who stole it."
	"How can you be sure that you didn't drop it yourself, like in the ocean?"
said Daniel. He couldn't help being sarcastic.
	"I'm sure," said Jared. "I put it away the night of the Moon festival. I
didn't want it to fall out during the performance. I bet you never have to
worry about that with what you have."
	"I don't think I can help you," said Daniel.
	"Why?" demanded Jared.
	"I don't want to waste my time," said Daniel.
	"Really nice attitude," said Jared. He didn't seem to be bothered by what
Daniel had said. Or he had never really listened. "I can pay you. Besides,
having a friend like me can be beneficial."
	Daniel thought for a moment. He knew that the money would come in handy,
but he didn't want to do it just for the money-he couldn't find any other
reason that he should do it. If he helped Jared out, he would become the
accomplice of someone he disliked. That was not what he wanted to be.
	"I'm not interested," he said finally. "And I have better friends."
	"You know I can make you and your friend's life very difficult," said Jared
maliciously.
	Even though Jared's threat seemed childish, it still made Daniel mad. He
managed to keep his cool, but his own voice sounded funny to him.
	"Why don't you try it?" said Daniel. "I see and hear a lot of things. I bet
there is something you don't want other people to know," he said, although
he didn't know exactly what Jared didn't want other people to know. It,
however, seemed to have an effect on Jared.
	"You know, I could break you in half," he said, moving closer to Daniel.
Then he stepped really hard on a rock. The part of the rock under his foot
turned into white powder. Even though Daniel had heard about Jared's power,
he didn't expect him to be that strong; but for some reason, he knew that
was just a vacant threat.
	"Think about it," said Jared. "I'll talk to you later." Jared turned around
and walked away.

	When Daniel got to the dinning hall for dinner, he found Owen sitting with
Tom and Mike. He and Tom were talking, and Mike was trying to join the
conversation. They were talking about a team sport that they were playing
after the combat class. It was called flyball. It seemed that Owen was so
good that everyone wanted him in his or her team and no team wanted to play
against him, so now all he could do was to be a referee for the games.
	"You've got something to tell me?" asked Owen when they were alone after
dinner. "Not some chore like last time, right?"
	"I thought you enjoyed bossing Kerri around," joked Daniel. He went on to
tell Owen what had happened outside the library.
	"Now, this is better-so he threatened us?"
	"I don't think he's serious," said Daniel. "He seems to want the Golden
Club back badly though."
	"I think I can take him now that he doesn't have his club," said Owen. He
was apparently still thinking about the threat.
	Daniel knew that Owen would like to have a duel with Jared, but he didn't
think that it was a good idea. Owen was a natural fighter and Jared's power
was strength. It was hard to know which one of them would win if they had a
duel.
	"You know that you could kill each other or get yourself kicked out of
school, don't you?" said Daniel. He didn't want anything remotely close to
that to happen. "Besides, I think I can handle it myself."
	"That's no fun," said Owen, rolling his eyes, but Daniel had him promise
not to get involved.

	Daniel was in the dinning hall having breakfast the next morning. He saw
Michelle walk in alone. She didn't take any food but walked to where Daniel
was and sat down by him.
	"How's it going?" she asked.
	"Fine," said Daniel.
	After a couple minutes of chit chat, Michelle went right to the point: "I
heard that you and Jared had a little talk yesterday."
	"Yes," Daniel said. He hadn't expected this. He had no idea why Michelle
would be interested. Other than the confrontation at the beach when Jared
stirred up the sea, he had only seen Jared and her together a few times, and
they acted like mere acquaintances.
	"How come you don't want to help him?" asked Michelle.
	"I think it's better that he doesn't have the club," said Daniel.
	"What do you mean?" asked Michelle, looking interested.
	"You saw what he did to the merpeople?"
	"Not really," said Michelle.
	"If you had gone down to the mervillage after he stirred up the sea like I
did, you'd know what I mean," said Daniel.
	Michelle was quiet for a while. Then she said, "He's not a bad guy-he's
just spoiled."
	"How do you know?" asked Daniel. "Besides, that's a fine line, don't you
think?"
	"I've known him my whole life," said Michelle. "We grew up together-he's my
cousin. We don't really get along, but I know quite well that he's not a bad
person."
	"-I'd really appreciate it if you help him. I mean I would consider it a
real favor from one friend to another."
	Daniel looked at Michelle. He found it really hard to say no even though he
never really considered them friends. She had always been nice to him. She
was the first person that helped him settle in when he first came to the
island. In a way, Daniel did feel like he owed her a favor.
	"I'll help him if he apologizes to the merpeople," he said finally.
	"I'll talk to him," said Michelle. She stood up and left the dinning hall.

	Daniel spent all day Saturday by himself. He played the conversation that
he had with Michelle in his head again and again. He didn't like how he had
sounded. He didn't know whether that made him arrogant judging what other
people did. He went down to the bottom of the ocean. There he heard
merpeople singing in a language that he didn't understand. He swam close to
the village. In the fields outside the mervillage, merpeople were collecting
special seaweeds and some of them were planting new ones. Further away where
the seabed was rockier, a few merwomen were collecting shells. Daniel saw
something shiny inside the shells.
	The merpeople were singing to each other. One of the mermen on the fields
sang a few lines. Then he stopped and waited. One of the merwomen would pick
up where he left off. It was like that back and forth. They seemed to be in
a very good mood. When one of them spotted Daniel, he nodded at him with a
smile. The other merpeople noticed him too. Some of them stopped what they
were doing and stared at Daniel, which made him feel uncomfortable; but
after a while, most of them resumed what they were doing. An older looking
merman swam forward. He reached out and shook Daniel's hand.
	"I saw you playing with the dolphins," he said. "They are special creatures
that only approach people with a kind soul-you're welcome in our village."
	He swam back to the field and the singing started again. They seemed to
have put the disaster behind them. Daniel was thinking of visiting the
mervillage, but didn't know whether it was overstepping his welcome. He
waved goodbye to them and swam to the cliff. Looking up, he saw that
professor Alverdine's window was open. Daniel felt the joy well up inside.
It, however, was followed by a wave of nervousness. He had almost forgotten
about his financial problems. He didn't think that his performance in school
was brilliant and it probably fell short of professor Alverdine's
expectation. He also wondered whether there was any news about his father.

	Michelle joined him and Owen at lunch the next day. Daniel could tell that
she was upset even though she was trying not to show it.
	"Owen knows," Daniel told her before Michelle could ask Owen to excuse
himself.
	"I'm sorry," She said to Daniel. "Jared won't apologize."
	Daniel didn't know what to say. Owen made a snorting sound.
	"I don't blame you for not wanting to help him," said Michelle. "He can be
such a prick sometimes." She apparently wasn't enjoying the task at hand.
	"Sometimes," Owen interjected.
	"But what if the club is possessed by someone evil?" asked Michelle,
ignoring Owen's comment. "It could cause more damage."
	Daniel had never thought about it in this way before. He had to admit what
Michelle said was right even though her telling him this was not completely
selfless.
	"Think it over, no pressure here," Michelle stood up and left them.
	"Yeah, no pressure," said Owen after she left. "She can be so manipulative
sometimes-you're not going to help Jared just because of what she said, are
you?"
	"I don't know," said Daniel.

	The talk with Michelle kept Daniel thinking. He didn't want to see the
satisfaction on Jared's face, but what Michelle said was true. Still there
was possibility that the Golden Club was taken away by someone with good
intentions. If Jared could have the club back without any real effort or
learning a lesson, he was going to take things even more for granted. He
realized that in a way, the reason why he didn't want to help him wasn't
totally innocent either.
	On his way back to the dorm, Daniel ran into Tony. His face was red from
running.
	"I have been looking for you everywhere," he said. "You've got a message
from professor Alverdine." He pulled out a piece of neatly folded paper from
his pocket and handed to Daniel.
	On the paper was a short message: "If you could spare some time, I would
like to meet you tonight at eight."

The book is available at barnes and noble, amazon online bookstores.
Search by the title.
Author's blog: 360.yahoo.com/gcgustopher