“Peter! Come down here right now!”Peter’s mom yelled from the living room.
He stood too soon and banged his head on his desk.
“Darn . . . Yea, mom, in a minute!”he replied.
Allan just shook his head and said, “Your system is so fried. What did you do?”
“Nothing. I just clicked a link and it just went blue,”Peter replied.
“But we need to change our report cards, like tonight,”Allan warned.
For a long time, Peter and Allan covered up their vigilante endeavors by shutting off their school’s phone lines, internet, and manipulate their report cards.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work as smoothly this time around.
“Peter! Allan! Now!”Mrs.Starr yelled.
They both got up and went downstairs.
“Mrs.Starr, babysitting is for girls, not guys,”Allan pointed out.
“Don’t you start. This mom gets you your fifty dollars every Christmas. Watching over someone’s kids is the least you can do.”
He just rolled his eyes.
Allan Driscoll has been part of the Starr family for forever. His parents are always working so he would always hang out with Peter until dinner after school.
Bobby, Peter’s five year old brother, ran up to Peter and punched him in the gut.
“What was that for?”Peter asked.
“You never gave me back my mentos!”Bobby said, angrily.
“Well . . . I will buy you another pack in no time.”
“You said that last time about the Pringles.”
“I promise.”
Bobby still looked at Peter doubtfully. Peter has been borrowing Bobby’s stuff for his plans and never actually gives the back. One time, he even broke Bobby’s expensive remote control helicopter by accident.
The doorbell rang out in the house.
“They’re here,”Mrs.Starr announced, excitedly.
Allan opened the door to reveal a man with two skinny kids.
Gosh, does he even fed his kids? Peter thought.
“Hello Mrs.Starr. Sorry for dropping in last minute,”the man said.
“Anytime Calvin,”Mrs.Starr replied.
“Where’s your husband?”
“Oh, working late at the computer shop.”
As the two parents were talking, Peter observed the two skinny kids who he knew were Paul and Asia. Paul seemed to be a little small for a seven year old and looked like a twig. So was his sister who was even more thinner. Their dad, however, is totally normal and even on the tall side. Paul sported ice blue eyes while Asia had a deep emerald. Paul had a slight mix of brown and blonde, while Asia had auburn hair. Not to mention, the coat of freckles they had, thanks to Allan for noticing that.
After the parent’s conversation, Mr.Haddock bent down to hug his ids. When he left, Mrs.Starr eyed Peter to start ‘sitting’.
“Hey, um, I’m Peter and this is my friend Allan,”Peter said nervously.
Paul and Asia just stared at them.
“Okay . . ., um who’s hungry?”Peter continued.
“Okay . . ., um who’s hungry?”Peter continued.
“No, no, Peter, you are doing it all wrong. You have to go like this. Hey! Do you want to pig out on some junk food and drinks?”Allan said.
They both looked lost.
“Junk food?”Paul asked, clearly confused.
Allan slapped Paul on the back, almost toppling him over.
“Yes! Like sour candy, M&M’s, Twix, you name it!”Allan replied.
“You mean candy?”Paul clarified.
“Yea.”
Then they both exchanged understanding. Asia slowly walked up and tugged at Peter’s shirt.
“Can I have yak milk please?”she asked.
“Uh, we have milk but it doesn’t come from yaks,”Peter answered.
“Oh,”she said disappointed, clutching her doll that looked like a t-rex with wings.
Allan was over in the kitchen, explaining the history of junk food to Paul, so Peter decided to talk to Asia.
“What’s that doll you got there? Is it a dinosaur?”Peter asked.
“No, silly. It’s a dragon!”she replied, lighting up with a smile.
“Oh, dragons. You gotta love them.”
“I love dragons! This is a Deadly Nadder,”she said excitedly, lifting the doll’s ail,”this tail can shoot poisonous spikes at it’s enemy.”
“Ah, lethal.”
“Very. And it’s firepower is one of the strongest in the Book of Dragons.”
“That’s cool.”
Clearly, Peter couldn’t add on because he knew nothing about dragons.
“Do you want to read it?”she asked.
“Read what?”Peter asked, in a daze of thought.
“The Book of Dragons! My dad told me not to bring it but I brought it anyway,”she said, walking over the the couch in the family room.
She unzipped her luggage and pulled out a gigantic book that seemed to be her size. Peter helped her place it on the table near the couch. Allan, Paul, and Bobby walked in with a big bag of Sour Patch Kids.
“Anyone want some?”Bobby asked.
“Absolutely,”Peter said, grabbing and tossing a hand full in his mouth. Asia paid no attention because she was busy mesmerizing her book that looked ancient.
“Woah, that thing needs to be dealt with gloves,”Allan commented, looking over her shoulder. She didn’t reply.
“Ouch, no reply,”Allan teased.
“Why is this page filled with weird sticks?”Bobby asked.
“That’s the written Old Norse language. We learned how to read it. This book was written in the Viking era of our island,”Paul answered with his mouth full of sour gummies.
“Okay, Vikings. Rough and tuff. Peter, we should go to school with horned helmets and hammers,”Allan said.
“You’re on. Monday?”Peter said.
“Perfect.”
Peter looked to back to see Asia talking to Bobby all about dragons. They were open to a page with a black dragon drawn all over it.
“Woah, is that a over grown salamander with wings?”Allan asked.
“Woah, is that a over grown salamander with wings?”Allan asked.
“It’s a Night Fury. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself,”Asia quoted.
“How does she know all this stuff?”Allan asked Paul.
“I don’t know. She is the dragon lover,”Paul replied.
Peter looked a little more closely at the pictures. One was a boy placing his palm on the head of the dragon. There were lots of pictures of this twig-like boy with the dragon. Playing, riding, hanging out, etc.
“Who’s that?”Peter asked.
Asia just shrug her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“That’s Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. The first Viking to actually train and ride a dragon,”Paul explained.
“Wait, Vikings train dragons? Somehow that seems so un-Viking like,”Allan commented.
“What I don’t get is that dragons are real,”Peter said.
“Of course they are. They just been extinct for several centuries in the depths of the ocean,”Asia said.
“Yea. Hiccup also discovered a powerful dust a few years after he trained dragons,”Paul added.
“Powerful dust? What do you mean, pixie dust?”Allan asked.
Peter laughed. “Pixie dust doesn’t exist.”
“Actually, yes it does. My family calls it starstuff. It can make you fly and do a lot of other things,”Asia said.
Before she could add more, Paul covered her mouth.
“Actually, we can’t tell you this stuff because it is a family secret. We kinda gave too much away but promise that you won’t tell my dad. He will kill me,”Paul pleaded.
Peter and Allan nodded, eager to know more.
“Do you have the dust with you?”Peter asked.
“Yea.” Then they both pulled out matching gold lockets with their initials engraved on them.
“I have a job for,”Peter said.
Paul nodded.
Then Peter led led Paul upstairs to his fried computer.
“Can it fix this?
“Sure it can.” Then Paul flicked the locket open which filled the room with light and bells. Allan and Bobby were grinning their face off while Paul and Asia were busy pouring a little bit of starstuff on the mother board of Peter’s computer.
Peter felt like he recognized this starstuff.
Suddenly, dizziness overcame him when he was flogged with different visions.
A chest, flying over a island, rocket, train, fireworks.
He collapsed to the floor, gripping his head. The world seemed to be doing flips in his eyes and made him want to throw up his dinner.
Paul noticed this and immediately shut the locket.
“Peter!” Paul screamed, breaking Allan and Bobby out of their trance. They tried to get a response from Peter. Nothing but anguished moans.
“Peter? Honey, is everything all right up there?”Mrs.Starr asked.
Allan ran to the door and mimicked Peter’s voice,”Everything’s fine.”
Peter slowly regains control of the dizziness and sat up.
“Are you alright?”Paul asked, clearly feeling guilty.
Peter shook his head and opened his eyes.
“I think so,”he said, unsure if the dizziness will come back. He didn’t want to mention about the strange visions.
“Good news, the computer is back up and our report cards are clean,”Allan said, playing on the computer.
“Paul, what is your dad?”Peter asked.
“He is a Starcatcher, They protect this stuff,”Paul replied.
Somehow I heard about this before, Peter thought.
“He’s at a Starcatcher meeting nearby,”Asia added.
“You know what? We should sneak in on their meeting,”Allan suggested.
“That’s not such a bad idea.”
“I don’t know,”Paul said, unsurely.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”Asia and Bobby chanted.
“It can’t hurt, Paul. Besides, we can use the starstuff to fly,”Peter said.
Paul thought this over and nodded.
Soon enough, they were all sprinkled with starstuff and flew out the window.
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