More of the Same

More of the same around here.

We had relatively nice weather over the weekend and spent some time outside.

Other than that not much else happened.

I basted the jean quilt.

I decided not to add batting to this quilt.

It's quite heavy without it.

I did use our king-sized flannel flat sheet for the backing.

It was the perfect size and thickness.

I used every last safety pin in the jar.

I'm not sure how many of these I have.

Let's just say it's well over 300.

Then I resorted to my smaller ones for the border.

As heavy as this quilt is I didn't want to take any chances of it moving on me before it's done.

 I have never tied a quilt before.

I did some research and settled on embroidery floss for the knots.

I also read of a technique to sew them together without

cutting the string until you get to the end of your thread.

I was skeptical at first but it has worked out beautifully.

There's very little thread waste.
-On a side note- The green lines are washable marker and should disappear in the first washing.
I had Connor help me make the marks...some are larger than others. ;-)

Here is one length of thread ready to be cut.

You simply cut halfway between your tying spots.

Then just tie your knot and trim it.

That's it. Couldn't be easier.

While it is easy I forgot about the strain your fingers go through pushing a needle through denim.

This took me a couple of days of sore fingers to get used to.

I hate using thimbles. I can't feel the fabric or the needle.

Some quilters recommend trying out different

thimbles until you find one that works for you.

I found this one in my sewing basket. It fits more like a ring than a hat.

I thought I'd give it a try.

I adjusted it so it fits between my first and second knuckles.

For the longest time I couldn't get a good picture of it on my finger.

This has helped tremendously and saved my fingers!

I almost have 8 finished rows, leaving 7 more to go.

Not bad for less than a week.

I'm really still hoping to finish this soon.

How's that for a vague deadline!

P.S. I'll have some exciting duck news coming shortly.

Plugging Away

Not much going on around here.

We are enjoying a reprieve from the deep freeze.

It's nice to have temps above freezing even if it's for only a short time.

We got a pool out for the ducks to enjoy until it gets too cold again.

I recently finished sewing all the rows together for the jean quilt.

We threw it on the bed to check out the size.

We thought it needed one more row for the length.

I quickly added a row after this photo was taken.

I finally decided on this newsprint fabric for the border.

I have all the strips cut.

Now they need pressed and sewn to the quilt.

I'm hoping I can sew them early this week so I can have it basted soon.

This quilt is getting really close to a finish!

I'd like to have it done soon so we can use it.

It's a heavy quilt that's perfect for winter... and I know we're not done with the coldness yet.

Before the snow melted away Connor made this really cool bear head snow sculpture.

He did an amazing job.

Speaking of great jobs our boys recently got their first semester grades.

Between the two of them they got all A's and one B!

We're a little proud of them. ;)

Quilt Quack 7

It's time for another installment of the Quilt Quack Chronicles.

It's been a while.

The temperatures finally warmed up enough to enjoy the snow.

They were wrestling and she stopped to lean on Dwayne.

She was eagerly waiting for more.

Silly dog.

And since the temps were around the freezing mark we drug out the hose and the pool.

The ducks were actually afraid of the pool at first. How quickly they forget!

Once one of them figured it out and then there was a line to get in.

At one point there were five ducks in that turtle sand box.

It was quite the pool party.

The water was very dirty when they were done.

 ____________________________________________________________________________

On to quilting!

I got my blue jean quilt back out.

I started it last year and put it on the back burner.

I did that because I knew the size was going to change.

I ended up resizing the quilt in my quilting software.

It made it so much easier to do.

I needed to add sashing to 224 squares.

I chain pieced them.

That means you sew one right after the other without cutting threads.

It saves time and thread.

Chain piecing also means that they need to be cut apart.

Luckily I had some eager volunteers!

One of the many things I've learned while piecing this quilt is that it is messy.

There are a bazillion little white threads all over the living room from the jeans.

They stick to me too.

I look like I've been shredding jeans.

It's a small price to pay to quilt using old jeans.

 I have all my rows sewn together and sashing along each row as well.

The next step is to start sewing the rows together.

Can't wait to have this one done!

Friend in the Closet Chapter Four

Click here to read chapter one of Nolan's story.

Friend in the Closet

Chapter Four

   The morning came too early for Terry, when he woke up, it felt like he hadn’t slept a wink. Josh ended up being really happy that Terry went out for once, said it gave him character. Neither Terry nor Akane was sure what that meant.
   Terry rode the bus to school and had to sit through Ken’s assaults without Carl’s support. Apparently, he was sick and couldn’t come to school that day. Ken took this as a way to get to Terry even more. His attacks were relentless.
   At lunch, Ken decided to trip Terry. Terry’s food went all over his clothes. He was so pissed he thought about decking Ken right then and there, but the principle was standing nearby, so he restrained himself. Unfortunately, the principal didn’t see what Ken did and thought that Terry had just tripped. So Terry had to suffer Ken getting away with humiliating him in front of the entire school.
   When school got out, Akane greeted him and asked him how the day went.
   “Freakin perfect. Ken was relentless today,” Terry said as he sat down against a tree.
   “Did you deck him?” Akane asked.
   Terry shook his head. He looked to the right and saw Ken and Khan grinning at him. They were headed right for him. Khan was holding a pocket knife.
   “Run,” Terry said as he sprinted for his house.
   Akane was puzzled until he saw the duo sprinting for them. He picked up his pace and passed Terry. They took a right into an alley hoping to lose the two jackals, but they ended up trapping themselves. The alley was a dark and damp one. There was a trash bin wedged against the wall at the dead-end and a chain link fence with a gate at the entrance. Akane slammed the gate shut and motioned for Terry to get next to the bin.
   “Don’t jump in, just get next to it, you tard!”
   Akane ran to his side just as the two bullies reached the fence. They peered into the alley, not seeming to see them. Akane looked at Terry and smiled. Terry cocked his head and then his eyes widened with fear. He sneezed.
   The sound rang out like a shot from a gun, giving their position away like a signal flare. Ken and Khan grinned and kicked the gate open. They walked in, knowing full well that they had plenty of time.
   “What you gonna do now, Starboy?” Ken asked with a wicked grin on his face.
   “You already tried running, maybe your mommy will help you?” Khan waved the knife at Terry.
   Akane turned to Terry. “I’m going to knock the knife from her hand, I want you to go ham while they try to get the knife.”
   Terry nodded ever so slightly and Akane walked over. Khan looked right through Akane. Terry’s heart was thumping hard in his chest, he swallowed bile and frowned at Ken.
   “That’s all you do!” Terry screamed. “You just bully and bully and bully! You are so pathetic!”
   Aken mouthed, “Get ‘em.”
   Terry had every intention of that. “You’ve bullied me for far too long! I’ve been pushed around enough! I’m going to make you sorry you can breathe!”
   Akane took that as his cue. He smacked Khan’s wrist, causing the blade to fall. She looked around for the source of the smack, distracting Ken.
   This gave Terry the perfect opportunity. He rushed at Ken and jumped into the air, connecting his fist with Ken’s jaw. Ken’s face let out a sickening pop and his jaw sagged. He clawed at his face, screaming bloody murder.
   Terry turned to Khan and laughed. Akane was kicking around the knife, making it impossible for her to grab it. She was crawling on all-fours grabbing madly at it. Akane concluded his fun by kicking the knife down a drain.
   Khan watched it wash away and slammed the ground with a fist. “Ugh! How did that happen?” She turned to Terry with a look of terror. “Y-you’re a w-witch!” She stumbled backward and ran out of the alley, screaming for help.
   Akane walked over to Ken and observed his jaw. “You dislocated the sucker, all right. Nicely done.”
   Akane grabbed the jaw and popped it back into place, provoking another scream from Ken.
   “Why’d you do that?” Terry demanded.
   “Leaving him like that’s just cruel. We don’t want to stoop down to their level, now do we? Plus, I don’t think they’ll be bothering you ever again. Not with my being here, that is,” Akane grinned at Terry. “I’m so proud of you. You did it, now go get your backpack, you tard. You left it at the tree near the school.”
   “Where are you going?” He asked.
   “I’m going home, I’ll try and find the math homework you forgot today. Yea, I know about that,” Akane laughed as he ran out of the alley.

   Terry was so happy he didn’t know what to do. On the way to get his backpack, he skipped and bought himself some ice cream for the first time in forever. The taste was amazing and on the way back, he got some for Jennifer, he knew she’d like it. After picking some up, his dad rolled up in the truck. Terry smiled and waved at him.
   Josh laughed. “Figured I might find you here, my you look happy. What’d you do?”
   “I took care of that bullying problem I’ve had forever,” Terry said with a smile.
   Josh’s look darkened. “Did you hurt them seriously?”
   Terry shook his head as he got in the truck. “Nah, they’re fine, but they won’t be bothering me for a long time.”
   Terry noticed Jennifer in the back row of the truck and handed her her ice cream. Her eyes bugged out of her head and she thanked him repeatedly. He laughed and tousled her hair. She wanted to share some of it with him, but he told her he’d already had some and that this was a special treat.
   Jennifer smiled at him. “I love you, Terry.”
   “Aw, I love you too, sis,” he held her hand and smiled at her.
   That’s when he felt something was wrong. He looked at Josh and found Josh sweating and wide-eyed. Josh looked at Terry and shoved his head down, covering Terry’s body with his. A window shattered and Jennifer screamed. Then the impact hit. Glass flew everywhere and Jennifer stopped screaming. Terry doesn’t remember what happened, but I do.
I’ve been narrating this from a third person so far, but I think it’s necessary to switch now. I, Akane, was on top of the truck cap at the time. I was thoroughly enjoying the sunlight, when I saw the sports car careening down the road. I didn’t know what to do at first, and then remembered the people below me. I moved as quick as I could. I shattered the back window and pulled Jennifer out of the truck cab. The poor girl started screaming, but I didn’t show her myself. That would have only made things worse, but she still looked into my eyes. I don’t know what it was, but when she did that, she stopped screaming. I couldn’t explain it at the time, but I didn’t care. I wrapped my tail around her and went in for Josh. Then the car hit.
   Somehow, time stopped and I began to move faster, or at least that's what it felt like. I ripped Josh from the cab and flung him into the bushes next to the road. I threw Jennifer after him and then ducked in for Terry. I’ll never forget the sound of the metal colliding. It was like two metal chalkboard being scraped on at the same time by a knife. It was horrible. What was worse was seeing my human being crushed by metal. I almost didn’t save him. I wrapped my arms around Terry and launched myself through the air. I curled myself into a ball and let my body absorb the impact from the road. The pain was like nothing I’d ever felt before, and like nothing I’ve ever felt since.
   I don’t know how long we were laying there, but eventually Josh found us. He pried me off Terry and took both of us to the emergency room. I’m not sure how, but Josh could see me.
   By the time we got to the ER he realized that others couldn’t. So he only told them about Terry. I was bleeding profusely, so Josh took me into the bathroom and bandaged me as best he could in there.

   The next few days were a blur of pain and sleep. I remember waking up and seeing Terry lying in bed next to me, bandaged all over. The next time I woke, he wasn’t there. I managed to sit up after minutes of trying. I looked around to find myself in Terry’s room. I moaned and clutched my side to find it bandaged with bloody wrappings.
   “You’re awake, Mr. Monster,” came a voice from my right.
   I turned to see Jennifer sitting on Josh’s lap. She was smiling so warmly at me, and surprisingly enough, so was Josh. He was sitting in a new chair next to the bed.
   “How’re you feeling, Akane?” Josh asked.
   “I-I ache H-how do you know my name?”
   Josh chuckled softly. “Terry told me everything. I want to thank you for taking care of my son, I know he’s had to grow up so quickly, with his mom dying and my not being around all the time. It’s nice to see him acting like a normal teen now.”
   “He’s back to normal?” I asked, the ends of my mouth curling down.
   “Well, no, he’s never been normal, so this is a first. But, yes,” Josh answered.
   “Why do you have three eyes?” Jennifer asked.
   I smiled. “I have one eye for a different kind of sight. I can see in the dark with one, see heat with another, and see normally with another.”
   “That’s cool,” she said with amazement. She hopped onto the bed and gave me a hug. “Thank you for saving us, Mr. Monster.”
   I was overcome with feelings. I hugged her back, I've never been hugged before. I withdrew and smiled at her. Josh was smiling.
   “I would like to welcome you into our home, formally. If you want to stay, you can,” Josh offered.
   “St-stay? Like, as a part of your family?” I asked incredulously.
   Josh nodded. “It’s the least I can do for what you’ve done for us. If you don’t want to stay, that’s fine too.”
   “N-no, I’ll stay. I just can't believe it. In all my years, I’ve never been offered a home.”
   “You can be my new brother,” Jennifer said, smiling.
   “Is he awake yet?” Terry asked, entering the room.
   He saw me and stopped moving. His eyes watered and he ran over to me. I leaped off the bed and embraced him in a tight hug.
   “I thought you were dead,” he said, his voice cracking.
   “I thought you were all dead until I did something about it. I can’t believe I managed to do that.”
   “Neither can I,” he released me and looked at Josh. “Did you say he could stay?”
   Josh nodded.
   Terry sighed and frowned at me. “Now you’re stuck with me.”
   “Or you’re stuck with me,” I said with a genuine smile.

   The years following were the best of our lives. I helped them with their math and they helped me build a room for myself in the basement. Josh considered me a son and I was okay with that. I really didn’t know how to be a son, but he said I was good at it. Guess I was, because Terry kept telling me that I wasn’t going to take his place. We’ll just have to see about that.
   Now Terry’s twenty-six and he’s moved into his own house. That’s fine with me, I can move between the houses freely due to the closets. Terry’s thinking about walling off the closets in his house, but I know he’s messing with me. He better be.
   Josh is doing amazing. He’s the head of his own automotive shop now, “Josh’s Monstrous Cars”. You can thank a certain monster for that name. He’s put me as the heir of the shop, which is fine with me. I can’t wait to own a shop. I’ve perfected my human form, so that’s not a problem.
   As for Jennifer, she’s sixteen and needs my help now more than ever. Josh is wholeheartedly with me on this one. The problem is much different with her, she got boy problems. As in, she can’t decide which one to choose. Josh has made it pretty clear that if I ever let her choose one, I lose the company. So my job is pretty cut out for me.
   Akane the Monster is now Akane the Almost-Human. I’m fine with that change. I think the title’s great. Not that I can share it with anyone. My life has certainly turned out perfectly. I can die happy knowing that I helped raise a perfectly good young man and am helping a decent young lady. Anyway, Terry texted me just now and said that he wants to play some video games. Guess I gotta go whoop him again. This is Akane, and I am the Friend in the Closet.

Friend in the Closet Chapter Three

Click here to read chapter one of Nolan's story.

Friend in the Closet

Chapter Three

   Terry opened his eyes and immediately closed them; way too early to wake up. He sighed and sat up, throwing off the covers, he stumbled to the closet. The closet door was slightly open and Terry found this odd. He always shut it before going to bed.
   Terry was surprised to find a book knocked off its pile. He shook his head and, this time, set it on the floor next to its pile. Having done that, he selected a dark grey hoodie and blue jeans for the day. He slipped out of his pajamas and hung them up before slipping into the day’s attire. His eyes drowsy and his mind foggy he stumbled to the bathroom.
   The bathroom wasn’t going to cooperate with him. At first, he couldn’t find his comb and then he couldn’t get the faucet to work. He ended up using his percussive maintenance skills to get the water to come out. The water came out as a small trickle. He ran his hands under the water to find it colder than winter snow. He yanked his hands back and wrung them spastically. He decided upon wearing his hood up that day.
   Jennifer walked with him down the stairs, helping him not to fall. That was one thing Terry never understood, how could small children have so much energy at all hours of the day? Whenever an adult asked him what happened to his happy-go-luckiness and his youthful energy he would tell them he killed them and buried them a long time ago.
   Josh was already in the kitchen cooking some eggs for them when they sat down at the kitchen table.
   “How’d you sleep?” Josh asked with the same energy in his voice as Jennifer.
   “I slept fine!” Jennifer squirmed in her chair and giggled.
   Terry rubbed his eyes. “Slept to the point where I’m still tired.”
   Josh chuckled. “How does that work?”
   Terry shrugged. “No idea, you tell me.”
   Josh scooped two three thick eggs into three plates and placed them on the table. “If I’d figured out how it worked I wouldn’t be tired most of the time.”
   That was what was unique about Terry’s father. He’d wake up claiming to be tired but always acted the opposite. He never understood this. What he did understand was that both of them were very efficient at getting ready quickly. After eating their eggs, they rushed to their rooms and got ready for the day’s activities. Terry stuffed his books into his backpack and came downstairs to wait for Josh. As quick as Josh was, he wasn’t as fast as Terry.
   Josh jogged out of his room and to the door, keys in hand. “I forgot, I have to be at work early today. Which means I gotta leave right now. Get in the truck or it goes without you!”

   Terry might not have been a teen of an extravagant life, but he was a teen of routine. Everyday Josh would drop him off at school at 7:30. Then Terry would meet Carl at the drinking fountain near the shop at 7:45. They would screw around until 8:05, then get to their classes.
   His first class of the day was math, specifically Algebra 2. That class was an easy one if you paid attention. Terry did a good job of that. He had to, math was his archenemy. That day they learned more about the standard form of an equation. Headaches were math’s sidekick.
   After that he had English. In English, there was an activity that forced him to mingle. He had to get a partner and figure out which two sentences were similar to each other in structure. At least English was something he understood. His partner turned out to be a girl named Stephanie. She had long blonde hair that was braided into a long strand that looked like a tail. She had hot pink braces and small, round glasses. Terry thought she looked pretty good, but he kept that to himself. Love was a concept he didn’t have time, or the patience, for.
She insisted that two sentences went together when they didn’t. This made Terry want to punch a wall. Apparently, she was one of the most stubborn kids in school. She wasn’t mean about it, she was just very adamant about what she wanted. Terry eventually got her to listen to reason and they eventually won the little game. She was ecstatic about winning and punched Terry in the shoulder good-naturedly. He smiled weakly at her, but other than that, he didn’t show any enthusiasm about winning.
   Then came Ag class. It was Terry’s favorite class, but not because of the subject. The subject was fine, he liked dealing with engines enough. It was just the lack of people he had to deal with in the class that made it great for him. That and Carl was in the class. They were working on an engine that had been giving them trouble for weeks. Every time they got something right, something went wrong. The most recent development was the piston. The piston absolutely refused to go into the cylinder. They used everything they could think of. Today they were trying the method they hadn’t used in days, doing it by the book.
   “Did you find the ring compressor?” Carl asked and he lubed the cylinder.
   Terry walked over with a blue and silver gadget it in his hands. “Yea, found the hex key too. Er, quad key, I guess.”
   Carl finished with the oil and looked over. “Quad key?”
   “Yea,” Terry held up the bent metal piece. It had four sides, true to Terry’s name for it, “four sides.”
   Carl shrugged. “As long as it fits the ring compressor, I don’t care what you call it.”
   Terry handed him the quad key and fitted the ring compressor around the piston head. He held it in place while Carl cranked it tight enough to fit into the cylinder. Terry inserted the piston connecting rod first. The piston fit up to its head, but wouldn’t go any further.
   “Mallet,” Terry called automatically.
   “Mallet,” answered Carl handing him the near-broken mallet.
   Terry slammed the handle into the piston head again and again, but nothing happened. Finally, he gave up and tossed the mallet onto the table. He leaned against the wall and looked at the grime on his hands. He chuckled. If he moved his hands around on a clear sheet of paper, maybe some fool would think it modern art.
   “I’m gonna go get Mr. Joan,” Carl called as he ran into the classroom.
   No sooner had Carl left when Ken strolled over. He was wearing that stupid grin and twirling a wrench in one hand. He leaned on Terry’s table and looked at the mess of engine parts. He snickered and poked the piston with the wrench.
   “Could you not?” Terry asked drearily.
   “Where’s the fun in that?” Ken asked as he poked the engine some more.
   “C’mon, man, we only have so much time. Get your stuff done before Mr. Joan sees you messing around,” Terry warned.
   Ken looked at Terry with astonishment. “Are you telling me that I’m being lazy? That I’m getting nothing done?”
   Terry took a preemptive step back. “I’m not saying anything.”
   Ken had stopped listening. He grabbed a hammer and slammed it into the piston creating a massive dent. Terry took another step back but said nothing. Ken reduced the piston to a mangled piece of debris. He chuckled, tossed the hammer onto the table and walked away. Terry walked to the engine, picking up the piston and stared at it. He ran his hands over the piston, feeling the grooves in the bent metal. He sighed and set it down.
   “What happened?” Carl ran over with Mr. Joan.
   Mr. Joan saw the piston and immediately looked at Ken. “It was Ken, wasn’t it?”
   Terry shook his head dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”
   “Don’t worry about it? Don’t worry about it!” Carl raged.
   “He’s just a bully, retaliate and he’ll keep coming. Don’t give him what he wants,” Terry looked over at Ken without malice.
   Mr. Joan shook his head. “Carl, go get another piston. We can’t sand this one down now,” Joan waited until Carl was out of the room and turned to Terry. “You expected this, didn’t you?”
   Terry nodded. “Ken’s an eventuality I chose to accept. No use in stopping him, he’ll just keep coming.”
   “That’s...very mature. Don’t worry, I’ll put a stop to him,” Mr. Joan said as he moved away from Terry.
   Terry grabbed his shoulder. “Please don’t. That’ll just make him want to do it more often. He’ll stop, just give him time.”
   Mr. Joan looked Terry up and down. “What happened to you?”
   Terry looked him dead in the eye. “Life.”
   Carl jogged in clutching a piston. Mr. Joan dropped the subject and helped them put the piston in. Turned out the piston before was bent around the edge of the head. The one Carl had got was new and went in just fine. Mr. Joan lingered in the shop for the duration of the class, watching Ken with cold eyes. Terry felt sorry for Ken, he was only getting himself into trouble. Trouble in school wouldn’t help him later in life, and Terry didn’t want that for anyone.
   The class seemed to fly by, before Terry knew it the bell rang and he was on his way to art. He enjoyed art, it gave him a chance to create beautiful pieces. Then again, he wasn’t the most talented, that was for sure.
   Today he painted his sister with grey and gold. To him, the picture looked wet and mushy, not unlike mud after a storm. He sat in his chair and drooped. His teacher, Mrs. Kay, walked over and observed the piece. She smiled and encouraged him. She told him what every other teacher told him daily.
   “You did great!”
   “Good job on that test!”
   “You really improved here!”
   “It looks great, it’s not easy to get it perfect.”
   He was tired of it. He got the same message every day. He was tired of his mediocre life. What was the point of life if it was just the same things every single day? He didn’t know. The only reason he could think of for living was Jennifer and Josh. He couldn’t let those two down, and as long as they were happy and alive, he’d keep going. He told this to himself daily. He needed to.

   When Terry opened the house door, he found it empty. He set his backpack down on the counter and looked around in the yard for Miss Leron and Jennifer, but he didn’t find them.
   He returned to the house and looked around for a note. He checked the fridge and saw a note saying Josh had gotten home early and had taken Jennifer to the zoo.
   Terry smiled. He loved it when Josh would get home and treat Jennifer. It wasn’t a matter of preference of children, it was just that she was smaller and innocent. Josh and Terry had agreed that they should pamper Jennifer as much as possible. Not spoil, though. Josh couldn’t do that even if he tried.
   A crash came from the living room that ripped Terry from these thoughts. Terry ran into the living room to find the lamp in the corner destroyed on the floor. Standing on the table where the lamp should’ve been was a creature that gave Terry chills down his spine. The creature was roughly human-shaped, the only things that betrayed the mold was a long tail and three ridges on its head. Its skin was as black as tar and its three eyes were bright street-light red with horizontal, black pupils. Its hands were soft looking but, had long claws jutting out, razor sharp. Its feet were normal sized but had three large toes with thick, pointed claws. Its face was contorted in a snarl revealing a top row of wicked sharp canines, but the bottom row looked like human teeth. It had no perceivable nose under its eyes. The ridges atop its head were bony and stretched from just behind its eyes to the base of its skull. Terry looked for ears on the sides of the head but saw none.
   Terry ducked into the kitchen and stood, frozen in place. What had he just seen? He didn’t care, he had to get rid of it before the rest of his family got home. He grabbed a kitchen knife and jumped into the living room. The creature had moved to sitting on the couch. It held a piece of the lamp in its hands and licked it.
   “Hey!” Terry yelled. “What’re you doing?”
   The creature dropped the piece and hissed at Terry, baring its teeth. It put its hands in front of it and spread its claws.
   Terry leveled the knife at it. “Get out of here!”
   The creature didn’t move, but it did change its facial expression to one of mystery. “You can see me?” Its voice was smooth but firm.
   Terry dropped the knife. “Y-you can talk?”
   “Yes, I can talk. Can you see me?” It repeated its question.
   “Of course I can!” Terry retrieved his knife. “And I know you can hear me, so get out of this house before I’m forced to use this!”
   The creature laughed. “You’re the kid I’m supposed to help! Oh, man.”
   “What do you mean, ‘kid I’m supposed to help’?” Terry demanded.
   The creature lowered its claws and they retracted into its fingertips. “Will you put the knife down?”
   Terry didn’t move the knife. “”What are you? W-where did you come from?”
   “I’ll answer your questions when you get friendly, okay? I’m not going to hurt you,” the creature relaxed on the couch, confident that Terry wouldn’t hurt it.
   Terry lowered the knife, slightly.
   The creature thought this was enough. “My name’s Akane, what’s your name?”
   Terry blinked. “Uh, Terry. Why-”
   “This is a nice house, Terry. Your family seems nice too. No mother, though. To be expected, tragedy is almost always the reason I have to do a job,” Akane seemed to be voicing his thoughts rather than speaking to Terry.
   “What is your ‘job’ exactly?” Terry asked.
   Akane looked at him. “My job is to provide children with all kinds of help, from fighting help to friendship. I’ve been helping children for millennia. What’s your job?”
   “Uh,” Terry blinked and smacked his forehead, “this is too weird. You can’t be real. I’m dreaming, or hallucinating.” Terry said, moving the knife to his left index finger.
   He cut a small slit and then dropped the knife, clutching his finger.
   “Knives are scary,” Akane said. He moved to Terry’s side and put his hand over the finger.
   Terry tried to move away, but Akane was too quick. Terry’s finger tingled and stopped hurting. Akane removed his hand and stared at the finger. He licked up the blood from the finger and licked his lips.
   “What did you just do?” Terry asked in a daze.
   “I healed you, one of my skills. So what’s your problem? Crack? Cocaine? Girls?” He said the last one with a grin and a wink from two eyes.
   “What? No. I don’t have a problem, my only problem is you,” Terry sat on the couch opposite from Akane and stared at his finger.
   Akane sat on the other couch and leaned toward him, staring him in the eyes. “Do I scare you? I shouldn’t, I’m your friend.”
   Terry shook off his daze and looked at Akane in full. “So, you’re really my friend?”
   Akane nodded. “Yea, man. That’s my pleasure, not really my job. Jobs aren’t fun.”
   Terry could take this, he’d handled worse than a monster for a friend. “Okay, so do you have a place to stay?” Terry stood up and walked into the kitchen.
   Akane followed shortly behind. “I live in closets, I’m a monster, after all.”
   “Oh, so it’s you knocking my books over,” Terry glanced back at him.
   Akane laughed. “Yea, sorry about that. They just smelled bad. Like you humans.”
   Terry pulled out bread and meat and started to make a sandwich. “You really are a friend. Already making fun of me.”
   “From what I’ve seen of your school, that’s what Carl does, and he’s your friend.” Akane crawled onto the ceiling and sat upside down.
   His tail hung down and smacked Terry in the back. Terry swatted at it and looked up. Akane laughed at him and pulled his tail up to wrap around his neck like a scarf. Terry shook his head and ate his sandwich. He grabbed his backpack and walked to his room, Akane followed on the ceiling.
   Terry let Akane into his room and then shut the door. Akane laughed at him, his laugh was deep and gravely. Terry found it disconcerting.
   “Why shut your door?” He asked, his tail swaying in the air with amusement.
   “I don’t want my family to find you. They’d freak.”
   “Oh,” Akane widened his eyes, “you’ve gone from wanting to kill me to hiding me cause you care. How interesting.”
   Terry looked at him dully. “No, I don’t want you giving my family a heart attack. I could care less about you.”
   Akane raised a finger. “Ah! But you do care.”
   Terry just looked at him. Akane laughed again and dropped to the bed, crossing his legs and watching Terry. Terry pulled out his math and sat on the floor.
   “Homework? I can help with that,” Akane said as he launched himself into the air.
   He landed next to Terry and scanned his papers. He flipped through them and looked at Terry, quizzical.
   “What?” Terry asked.
   “These are dumb easy.”
   Terry laughed. “Great, a monster friend who just happens to be good at math. I’m going to bash my head in,” Terry said, resting his head in his hands.
   He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Akane looking at him sympathetically. “It’s aight, dude. It took me years to get good at math. You’re, what, fifteen?”
   “Sixteen.”
   “Sweet Lord, such a difference,” Akane slit his eyes. “You just need to spend time with it. A long time with it. Don’t worry, you’ll get good eventually. With my help, you’ll be a genius.”
   “Okay, help me with this problem.” Terry turned one of the pages over.
   He pointed at a problem that took up a good portion of the page. Part of it was the problem’s fault, but mostly it was his large handwriting. Akane looked over it and then looked at Terry.
   “Okay, what’s the deal? You don’t know how to do it, or?”
   “I can’t get the stupid thing to work out inside the square root. Keeps turning out negative,” Terry said with a frown.
   “Do you know what an imaginary number is?” Akane asked.
   Terry smacked his forehead. “Duh, don’t know why I didn’t remember those.”
   Terry erased some of the problem and worked it out. Akane left him to his paper and turned to Terry’s closet. He found the side of the wall that had pants and tried one on. He walked to the mirror to admire himself.
   “What are you doing?” Terry asked.
   “I should wear pants more often,” was Akane’s reply.
   Terry stopped working, thought about that statement for a second, then returned to his problem. Akane walked in with a smug grin and socks to accompany the pants. He sat down next to Terry.
   “Why are you dressed like that?” Terry asked.
   “Sexy, right?” Akane grinned.
   Terry shook his head. “You’re something alright.”
   Akane glanced at the problem and smiled. “You got the right answers. Anything else?”
   Terry ran his hands through his hair, exhausted. “No, actually, I don’t have anything else.”
   Terry shoved his math homework in his folder and tossed that in the general direction of his backpack. He meandered to his bed and sat down. Leaning back, he grabbed a knife from under his pillow and pulled a sharpener from his pocket. Akane watched him as he sharpened the knife, wondering what Terry’s problem was. It might be just math trouble, or it could be something much bigger. Then again, from what Akane saw at Terry’s school it could be bully problems. Akane just didn’t know, and he hated not knowing.
   Akane joined Terry on the bed and picked at the ridges on his head. It made a horrendous sound, causing Terry to stop what he was doing at glare at him.
   “What?” Akane asked with an innocent smile plastered on his face.
   “Make another sound like that and I’ll throw you out of this house,” Terry muttered.
   Akane snapped and looked like he’d had a revelation. “That’s it! You’re too grown up! It all makes sense now!”
   Terry put his knife back under his pillow and pocketed the sharpener. “What’re you talking about?”
   “Your problem! You’re too grown up, too mature. You’re sixteen, you shouldn’t be this adult. You need to learn to live,” Akane was getting excited.
   “Let’s suppose you’re right. How do I live?”
   “By going out, seeing people, hanging with your friends. I bet you don’t have a girl, do you?”
   “What? No, I don’t need one,” Terry blushed slightly.
   “That’s the thing, right there. At this age, hormones should be driving your mind to be with someone. Okay, leave a note for your family, we’re going out. I need to fix you,” Akane pulled off the pants and socks and hurled them into the closet.
   Terry grudgingly wrote a note on a piece of paper. “Don’t just throw that clothing on the floor!”
   “Quit momming me! That needs to stop! Make your room a mess, have some fun, personalize,” Akane yelled from the closet. “But not right now, right now we’re going skating.”
   “Ice skating?” Terry asked nervously.
   “No, you dip, roller skating! Now get downstairs and put that note on the fridge. If you don’t come with me I’ll drag you by force. Trust me, I can do it.”
   Akane ran downstairs and waited by the door, holding Terry’s shoes with his tail. He watched him stumble down the stairs and heard a smack in the kitchen. Terry ran out and searched for his shoes.
   He frowned when he saw Akane holding them. “You want to go, or what?”
   Akane lowered the shoes and let Terry have them. “I’m going to make you have fun. We’re going to fix this problem of yours and then I can bust this joint.”
   “You seem awfully desperate to get out of here, why?”
   Akane froze. “Uh, no reason. Now, let’s go, it closes at six and we’ve already got about an hour. Let’s roll.”

   The skating rink wasn’t too far away. Terry and Akane made it there without any problems and found shoes for Terry pretty quickly. Akane was surprised by the sheer amount of teenagers in the small building. The lights were darkened and the music was loud, perfect for fun-having. He strolled out onto the floor and skated around without any problem. Gliding around, he looked back at Terry to find him sitting by himself on a bench on the side of the rink. Akane sighed and rolled over.
   “You tard, why are you over here? Get out there and have some fun. Maybe you can impress those girls over there, they’re already looking at you,” Akane said as he sat beside Terry.
   Terry glanced over at them. A small group of girls was sitting across the rink and giggling, occasionally looking in his direction.
   “Probably cause they’ve never seen me here before,” he looked at Akane. “Speaking of which, why aren’t these people freaking out at you?”
   “They can’t see me, only people I let can see me. That or they’re my next job. I only get one at a time, so no worries there.”
   “Also, how can you skate around without any skates on?”
   Akane laughed. “Dude, my feet are uber slick when I want them to be. Skating is a joke. Now, let’s get out there and show them what’s what!”
   Akane strode out onto the floor and taunted Terry to follow. Terry frowned at him and stood up. On wobbling legs, Terry slowly made it over to Akane. He moved with the painful slowness of a newborn deer. He teetered from side-to-side, barely maintaining balance. Thankfully, Akane was standing next to a pole which seemed to be reaching out to Terry, ready for his crash.
   Crash he did, but fall on his face he did not. The friendly pole saved him. Someone started laughing hysterically at him and Terry looked around.
   “Akane, it’s not funny, get over here and help me,” Terry growled.
   Akane shrugged and pointed to a kid gliding around the rink almost as well as Akane. He was wearing that same smug grin he was notorious for. Ken.
   He slid over to Terry and circled him. “Well, I see you finally decided to come out of your father’s basement. Oh, my bad, I forgot that a cardboard box doesn’t have a basement!” Ken laughed and so did the rest of his gang.
   Ken’s gang included a small girl with purple hair and a skull tattoo on the right side of her jaw. She was known by many as, “Khan”. Terry wasn’t sure why, just that she was crazy and didn’t like anybody. She laughed alongside Ken and leaned against Terry’s pole.
   “You nerd, you can’t even skate without screwing it up. Can’t imagine what your grades are. Is that why your mother died? Couldn’t deal with how stupid her child was, I bet,” she stuck her tongue out at him and skated away.
   Terry leaned against the pole and closed his eyes. He had to calm down.
   “What’s the matter, Starboy? Gonna cry? I bet you’re gonna cry, pitiful,” Ken laughed.
   Akane tripped Ken and moved to Terry’s side. “You need to punch his teeth in, I know you could. I would beat him up, but that'd be too weird.”
   Ken got up and rubbed his forehead. He glared at Terry and rode off to get some ice.
   Terry blinked hard and a hot tear ran down the side of his face. Akane saw this and anger boiled inside of him. He snarled at Ken and Khan, but he did nothing else. He simply guided Terry over to the counter and helped him take his shoes off. Terry gave them to the employee and walked outside. He sat down on a block of cement and listened to the music. He let a tear slide down his cheek.
   “If I could…” muttered Akane.
   “I don’t know what to do,” whispered Terry. “I want to hurt him, or at least try, but I know that isn’t right. I don’t want to stoop to his level.”
   “How long has this been going on?” Akane asked.
   “Years.”
   “Dear Lord, you need to do something about this. If he’d just started, I’d say leave him alone, but he’s been doing this for years. You need to do something, Terry. It’s okay for you to defend yourself,” Akane lectured.
   The door to the rink slammed open and Ken walked out with Khan following close behind. They didn’t seem to see Terry until they were right next to him. Ken looked surprised to see him there.
   “What are you still doing here, Starboy? Shouldn’t you be home crying for your mommy right about now?”
   “Yea, go cry for her. See if she answers,” Khan echoed.
   Terry glared at them. No, now was not the right time, there would be too many witnesses, and he wasn’t exactly defending himself. He stood up and walked toward home. Ken and Khan followed him a short ways yelling at him and telling him to kill himself. Terry closed his eyes, sighed, opened them again, and kept on walking.
   “Little worms,” muttered Akane, but that was all he said.
   Akane simply walked beside Terry, and let him cry.

Click here for chapter four.