I frowned. My grass blade wasn't even up to my knee. I glanced around at the other students and their work.
One boy had gotten his to be a whole three inches tall. And all the others had at least an inch.
The teacher examined each of our blades based on size and color. Though mine was a healthy bright green, it was too small to pass. He sighed as he got to my blade. "Dismissed." He waved his hand and all the other kids hurried back to their tents while I stood there awkwardly. The teacher picked up a bag and headed back to his tent, too.
But I wasn't alone for long. Nathen jogged up as soon as he was sure no one else was there.
"You guys can do that!?" he asked with wide eyes.
I raised my eyebrows. It was common knowledge that Minniemons could supernaturally encourage plant growth. Even for the Upperlanders.
"All of us can. Well, all except me that is," I mumbled, staring down at the pitiful blade of grass in front of me.
"You obviously have no idea how cool that is."
"If you think it's so cool, then why does your kind undo it?" I blurted.
He shrugged. "Overgrowth. It's unhealthy. Also, it's pretty much in our blood."
"Great excuse." I rolled my eyes.
He raised an eyebrow and approached the tallest grass blade. It shriveled and turned brown as he ran his left hand over it.
I grabbed his wrist, yanking his hand away from the grass.
"You've been doing that on purpose?" I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
He shook his head and hesitated before saying anything. Blushing, he mumbled just above a whisper, "It's magnified when we feel anything negative.”
It didn’t occur to me until later that he was embarrassed to say he was afraid. Which, in my opinion, was the stupidest thing ever. Anyone who shrank on a random day with a random Minniemon tribe, and seemingly no way to reverse what had happened, well, that was certainly a person with a right to be afraid.
I half-smiled. "Could we possibly be any more opposite? If a Minniemon gets excited or happy about something, it, as you say, magnifies the ability." My smile went from half to full while I was talking. Something about his green eyes seemed to make such a heavy subject seem so light.
What felt like hours of just staring into his eyes passed until a banging noise came from behind me, snapping us both out of our trance.
I turned around, trying to find the source of the disturbance.
Miss Martha peeked from behind a tent a few feet away, a pile of watering buckets lay at her feet.
I tilted my head at the odd picture. Why was Miss Martha out alone? Why was she out at all?
Seeing the noise was nothing more than the town's crazy lady, the people moved on without a thought about helping the poor woman with the fallen buckets.
After some slight self-debating about whether or not I should get involved, I jogged over and helped her stack the buckets back up.
Nathen followed close behind. The goal of keeping him hidden didn’t seem as important anymore.
Miss Martha glanced back and forth between the two of us. A smile spread across her face.
"Miss Martha . . . are you okay?" I asked as I stacked up the last bucket.
She stood there, her smile somehow getting bigger by the second. I wouldn't have been surprised if she squealed like an excited little girl.
"I'm perfectly fine. Actually, I'm better than fine." Her eyes gleamed.
I bit my lip. Never before had I thought of Miss Martha as creepy, but just then, she was being rather creepy.
"Let me be on then. Y'all continue with your day." She smiled and walked back toward her tent.
I glanced beside me where Nathen stood, staring with a blank face at Miss Martha as she walked along.
"You guys aren't all that way, right?" he asked.
I chuckled. "Nope, she's one of a kind."
I thought for a minute, then pursed my lips and threw back my head in frustration. Not a single thought or memory of anything or anybody else that could help us put things back to normal came to mind. Truth was, I was still in shock over all of it.
An Upperlander literally shrinking down to a Minniemon's size. The very idea was insane!
A shiver snaked down my spine and brought me out of my thoughts. The world was darkening as night arrived. Hesitantly, I decided that there was no better time to take action.
Chapter 5
Stuck With an Upperlander
"COME ON," I MUMBLED and stood straight. "There's a burrow not far from here where you can stay the night." An abandoned armadillo burrow I had seen the day before flashed in my memory.
After a few moments, we neared the hole. It provided little protection from the wind, but it would have to do for the night.
Slowly, I walked to the nearest bush and bit off a leaf from the stem. After folding and placing it in one rounded corner of the burrow, I became aware of the almost hopeless expression on Nathen's face.
Staring at the ground, many thoughts rushed past. Some part of me wanted to run back to my tent and leave him alone, but I knew that facing the problem head-on was the only real option. Still, I hesitated when going to bite off the second leaf. If he was going to stay the night here, I was, too.
Taking a breath, I called Lucifer. After a minute, the lizard scurried up, happy as ever.
"I'll be back in a minute," I mumbled and mounted the excited beast. I guided Lucifer over to the family tent and tied him to a post outside.
I slipped in through the tent flap and tiptoed to the part of the tent nearest to the food, knowing my family would probably be eating dinner at the time. Sure enough, they were all seated on the floor munching a fruit salad of some sort.
Noticing my spot set up next to Mom's, I quickly sat down. They paid me little attention and went on chatting about their days. It wasn't the first time I'd been late for dinner. In fact, more often than not, I'd come in after everybody else was done eating.
That never made Mom happy and she rarely gave me anything to eat, saying that if I wasn't going to dine with the family, I wasn't going to dine at all. I'd typically just shrug off her lecture and go to bed, only to find myself grounded the next day for disrespect.
I took a bite of the cool fruits stirred together in my bowl and let out a tiny groan.
It occurred to me that Nathen probably hadn't eaten since that morning, and a wave of guilt washed over me. I'd had soup for lunch, and then I was having dinner, but he probably had an empty stomach. After deciding that I'd bring him a portion of my food, I started listening in on what my family was chatting about.
Mason sat beside me, babbling between mouthfuls of strawberry about how the kids at group had the coolest toys. When he'd stopped talking to listen to our responses, I told him I did indeed agree the blacksmith's son was very lucky to have a father that made him metal cars, then turned to my parents and worked up the courage to ask them about tonight.
"I was invited to spend the night with some friends," I lied in hopes I could stay in the burrow. Mom and Dad exchanged glances and nodded.
"You know the rules about staying up too late talking and the amount of sugar you eat. Just promise to stay out of trouble, and you may go," Dad said. After promising not to do anything crazy, I finished eating the half of my dish I’d set aside for myself in silence.