The Amulet of Kryshar

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The first three lessons passed by very quickly. Too quickly. By the end of the second lesson, biology, I was desperate for anything to put off the math test. I would have even been willing to listen to Mr McVan yammer on another whole hour about a cell's mitochondria. Judging by the looks on the faces of all of my friends, they seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

We left biology and walked down the long corridor, headed towards our math classroom. Lena looked paler than usual, in stark contrast to her raven black hair. Thoughts started swirling around in my head. I can't possibly pass this test. I will get everything wrong! I don't want to have a zero on my report card for math! My head suddenly throbbed painfully and my fingers twitched. Not that as well. Not now.

"Hey, Ruby, wait up!" I stopped and smiled when I saw my little brother run up to me, while his friends waited for him down the corridor. His shaggy brown hair was flopping over his left eye. Despite that, his right eye shone blue as he ran up to me and gave me a one-armed hug. He was a bit short for his age, but that just made him even more adorable in my opinion. I slung my arm over his shoulders and ruffled his hair. The hair was really the only thing my brother and I had in common. But even his hair was a lighter brown, kind of a mix of blonde and brown, while mine seemed to be a dark chestnut colour. My brother looked a lot more like our parents than I ever did, even as a child. He had Mom's straight and long nose and blond-brown hair, Dad's dark blue eyes and square jaw. Instead of having a square jaw like my parents, I had a rather pointy jaw and brown eyes.

"What's up, Dylan? Did you have a good time yesterday?" Aww, I loved my bro, he's so cute! According to my very trustworthy source, Lena, who in turn heard it from her little sister, who in turn was in the same grade as my brother, the girls in Dylan's class were all over him. It was a miracle that he still didn't have a girlfriend. Just the way he was just staring up at me with those little freckles across his nose was simply heart-warming.

He waved the question away. "Yeah, yeah, that's not important right now. I heard about the math test." He frowned and then smiled innocently. "You look terrible, by the way. I have absolutely no hope whatsoever that you are going to pass this test, sis. You didn't study, right?"

I ground my teeth. I kept on forgetting why he still didn't have a girlfriend. I also didn't think that he would get one any time soon with that attitude. I had to answer his question though. "I didn't." I narrowed my eyes at him, daring Dylan to say something.

"Aw yeah! That's my sis!" He pumped his fist and grinned at me, unabashed. I playfully punched his arm. He yelped.

"Come on, that wasn't hard at all! You're a softie, Dylan." I couldn't stop the grin creeping over my face when I saw my little brother beaming up at me.

He laughed. "Yup, you're right! But at least I don't have to do a math test that I didn't even know about until today." He stuck his tongue out at me. I retaliated by pressing his nose and pushing him down the hallway towards his impatient friends. My brother could be so immature at times. I loved it.

He yelled back over his shoulder. "Good luck, sis!"

"Thanks! We'll need it." I whispered the last part to Lena. I felt slightly better now and, by the looks of it, so did Lena. She had a ghost of a smile graced her lips.

***

I walked into the class room and plopped down at a desk, defeated. No turning back now. I crossed my arms on the table and rested my forehead on them. The throbbing was as bad as ever. I glanced up as Lena sat down on the table behind me. Judging by that frantic look in her eyes, she looked like she was about to pass out. And yet, she pulled out several sheets of hastily scribbled notes I helped her write down on the bus. I couldn't read most of my writing. Yeah, that would be a problem for her. But what was I supposed to do? She threatened to glue my hand to the pen if I didn't start studying for real. My hand then got a weird burning feeling and along with the bumpy bus ride, my normally neat handwriting turned into illegible chicken scratch. Absolutely not my fault. All I heard around me were hushed whispers.