It was a windy day and Jack was walking home kicking a stone along with her. She had just moved to a new city (Again) and Jack was already being picked on.
She was almost home when she bumped into her seventy-five year old neighbor Mr. Wills and he knew exactly how to get on her nerves “Jacqueline. Hi Jacqueline! Got any new friends today?”He started bursting into a fit of laughter.
“It’s Jack” She muttered under her breath. She knew why Mr. Wills was making fun of her about her making friends; Mr. Wills saw me getting off the bus, papers were being thrown at me, faces were being made and rumors were spreading like wildfire. She grew tired of Mr. Wills’ laughter so she walked up to her house porch, stormed into her house slamming the door behind her.

“That guy is such a pain.” Jack said to her mom when she reached the kitchen. “You just have to give him some time. But I will pick a fight with him if it does get serious.” Jack’s mom has a good potential but sometimes she feels the need to start world war three.
“So what’s for dinner mom?” She saw that her mom was cutting up some kind of vegetable from her garden that wasn’t alive anymore. She had to go job hunting and grocery shopping so there wasn’t much time for the garden.
“Like every night, chopped veggies from the garden but this time it will be steamed--I’m sorry that we can’t have a real dinner but with the money we have and no job I can’t really afford a nice dinner right now. I know that my veggies are not good but that is hardly my fault; Oh and I got some more milk for you honey and you know what to do if you want water right?” Jack was completely lost for a second but refocused quickly;
“Um, yeah mom the water lever thingy in the backyard right?” mom didn’t like it when Jack called something a ‘thingy’ but she let that one slide because the move has been hard on everyone. Then she said,
“How was school Jackie?”
‘Jackie’ was the word that made Jack realize that her mom was irritated, so she answered with,
“It was fine mom.” Instead of saying, ‘I was bullied on the first day so; yeah mom today was fine how about yours?’ Because she knew that would get her more irritated.
“That’s good to know that you did fine at your school than most of them. Did you make any new friends Jack?” When Jack heard the word ‘friends’ she went quiet then her mom turned around, waved her hand in front of her and she snapped awake and answered,
“Oh yeah loads of ‘em,” Jack’s mom knew Jack all too well;
“You didn’t make any friends today did you?” Jack could barely get away with anything with a mind that her mom has.
“No.” She muttered.
“Honey it’s the first day of school you don’t have to have friends on the first day you get to a new school it takes time for that-“
“People are like demons mom they’re never to be messed with.”  Her mom started shouting at her; she hated the word ‘demon’ but only a few words got into Jack’s head.
Just then she sat up with a sense that something bad was going to happen, she looked up to her mother, her eyes stern. The room went quiet. Seconds later there was a tiny knock on the door.

“Wait right here Jack. Don’t move a single step.” Then without a word from Jack she silently walked to the living room to grab one of the many things that were hidden around the house that only she could find which was strange because the house was only the size of a small classroom. She grabbed it and went to the door (and if you wanted to know what that thing was it is a hand held lead dispenser weapon. You do the math.)
There was another knock on the door before she could even move she lost her breath for a second, and then quickly she went back into attack mode and went to the door. Jack could only hear it open a crack before, BAM!
There was a thud. Jack thought that her mother would never kill someone that quickly unless she knew exactly who was at the door which would not be possible. Jack was speechless. She knew that her mom was no soldier but she was pretty good with the things she can get her hands on. Then a shadow appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. She thought for a second that her mom was still alive, but she was wrong. The shadow was much more manly and bigger than her mom’s shadow, plus there was smoke coming off the tip of its finger.

“Did someone say demon?” A cold slithery voice said. Jack was paralyzed.

Out from the doorway of the kitchen were the thing stood the owner of the voice; a scaly demon with a forked tongue.
“Well now that your puny mother is down then I can take you down with her.” The demon chuckled.
He formed a blade out of his hand and charged. But as the blade scraped her sweatshirt something unbelievable happened, the demon was flung across the room.
The demon looked scared for a second the next he said, “Oh crap. He is not going to be happy when he finds out.” the ground shook, “Oh man.” He groaned. Then with a puff of black smoke he was gone. Jack didn’t know what to do, so she just fell to her knees and started to sob.
There was a white shard of light behind Jack. Then a warm hand was on Jack’s shoulder.

Jack stat there for a minute, frozen solid.
Before she could even take another breath a boy’s voice said,
“I’m real sorry. She knew the price for protecting you, my name is Jay and I’m here to bring you back to HQ with me.” Jack slowly turned her head to look into Jay’s eyes but she was more focused on all of his face.
He was an angel, he had bright glowing ice blue eyes, his hair was the perfect mix of black and brown, and his cheeks flushed a peach kind of color that brightened up his otherwise pale face.
She tried to look away but it was almost impossible. Jay finally broke the silence like he was transfixed as well but with Jack’s face.
“So would you like to go now? The HQ isn’t that far away from here. Actually it’s not that far from anywhere.” He chuckled, but Jack did not know what he meant or if it was funny or not.
Jay wasn’t chuckling for long because then his face turned from nice and warm to cold and serious. “We need to go. Now! Common we have no time for you to make your own portal so you’ll have to squeeze into mine with me, but we have to make it quick.” Jack was still confused on what Jay was talking about but before she could say anything about it Jay was gently pulling her to a bright white circle that ended up in the center of the dining room floor. He pulled Jack close to him wrapping his arms around her and jumped into it.

It only took a couple of seconds before Jay removed his arms from Jack. She opened her eyes to see a large number of kids about twelve and up standing in front of desks with screens jumping out of them. The desks were all around the large room that it made Jack feel claustrophobic.
The kids were so focused on their work that they barely knew that Jay and Jack was there, then a girl about the age of eleven and the smallest of the rest spotted them and announced,
“Hey everyone Jay is back!” They pried their eyes away from their screens to see Jay and Jack; they were so excited they all ran to Jay at once Jack was almost turned into road kill with the amount of kids heading toward Jay, with their voices spilling with questions. Jay must have been used to this because he was very calm and answering every question that was asked but they were loud that Jay had to yell to answer the questions but no one seemed to notice. Then two kids who were about sixteen maybe seventeen emerged out of the cloud of kids and everyone quickly shut their mouths. But Jay who was not bothered of them he gave them a big smile and said;
“It was beautiful up there; we have to take them there sometime. You haven’t even set foot up there in a million years. This would be interesting for you too I mean-“The Boy interrupted at once;
“Enough Jay, we have heard this every time you have been up there and we have always said no so what makes you think that we will change our minds this time? You weren’t even supposed to be up there until dawn tomorrow. We were worried sick and-“
“I always sneak up there without telling you and besides, this was important, the treasure could have been killed by a Slathon demon this afternoon so this time I had to go without telling.” Jay snapped.
The girl with her arms wrapped around the boy did not seem mean, she looked quite friendly. She gave a little squeal and said,
“The treasure is here? Now!? We haven’t even finished her room yet! Where will she sleep? We haven’t even placed the bed in the room yet. Where is the treasure? I would love to meet him!” Jay found this very amusing but said;
“Jack come on out.” Jack hesitated but then walked up to meet Jay and the other two. The girl gave a small shriek in excitement; she dashed to Jack and hugged her;

“She’s a girl! And she’s my age too! This is so much easier; hi my name is Lora, and Mr. Grumpy over there is my boyfriend Ryan! It’s so nice to meet you! It’s been a while since we had a girl treasure that’s my age, usually we get boys or girls that are about the age of ten or eleven or even twelve.” Jack looked at her in astonishment and embarrassment but then thought of something;

“Well, why did you think I was a boy I mean you guys have a lot of equipment and computer desks, not to mention magic, so how did you think that I was a boy; Because of my name?” She stared at them with confusion until Lora stepped forward and said,

“Jack, we thought that you were a boy because of your name yes, but we couldn’t find out about you because you keep moving so the computers go nuts. But we also can’t find anything else about you because you’re the treasure. Every time a treasure comes to us it’s most of the time unknown to how they turn up. But the only thing that makes you more wonderful than any other treasure, is because you-“

“Okay that’s enough bonding, come Lora we need to redo the room for her, Jay do you mind taking Jack to the training room please.”

“But Ryan, the room will take a whole week to redo. How are we going to finish it in time?”

“We have magic people all around here Lora; there are hundreds of people who can help us with the room, why didn’t you even go to one of them in the first place?”

“Because I just wanted to do something that I would be proud of, without magic, and without help.” Ryan and Lora argued all the way to what looked like Jack’s room. Then when they were gone Jay said to the others,

“Okay guys, I have to take Jack to go trian, but don’t worry ‘bout nothing I’ll be back to answer the rest of your questions okay, so get back to work.” The others groaned in irritation but went back to their desks and started to get focused on their work again. They weren’t fooling anyone though, they kept glancing back at Jack and Jay whispering loudly.

Jay took Jack to the training room; it was a room filled with demon dummies, and the floor was filled with padding.
“This room was build for mostly training they say, but what I think is that they mostly build the room for bouncing off the walls. The floor is stupid really, but I had no say in it, Lora and Ryan wanted to keep our soldiers safe while doing training, sometimes we fall over doing attacks though; a floor that you will never get hurt on but what I say is-“Jay was going on and on about the floor padding that Jack could barely keep up.
She finally put her hand in front of Jay’s face and started to shake it to get him back to his senses,

“Oh sorry ‘bout that. Now let’s start by using your powers without the aid of anger, because let’s face it, you cannot control it once you’re angry, no one can. Watch me,” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and held his hand out so when his mind was cleared his hand formed tiny crystal-like material forming in the palm of his hand. When at least a dozen crystals formed he flung it at a dummy and they all ended up in a perfect circle.

“See Jack there is nothing to it now you tr-“

He froze and fell to the floor in a flash,

“So we meet again Jay, hello baby.” The demon that had killed her mother was back, and he looked bloodthirsty. “How would you like to make a deal, hand your powers over and old Jay can go free and unharmed, or keep your powers and Jay is done for. The clock is ticking so make a choice quick and wisely.”

Jack did not know what to do or what to say; she just stared at the motionless lump on the floor that was Jay. Moments went past before the demon said;

“Time’s up baby, so what’s it goanna be huh? Are you going to give up your powers or are you going to save your powers and never see Jay again.” The demon looked like he was staring to get bored and said, “Well, since you don’t know yet why don’t I speed things up a little bit,” He took out a knife engraved with symbols and plastered with blood, he picked up Jay by his hair and started digging the knife into the skin on his face, blood was streaming every were.
“JAY!!”

To be continued…