We Fight Dragons (Volume 2, Chapter 3) "Weird"
Frustratingly Spring term had arrived, and then Spring itself, and Jam and Zach still had not figured out if Oli was a Knight.
Having thought about it for so long time, Jam reluctantly realised that if it were possible to test if someone was a Knight then anyone, even a Dragon, would be able to identify them. The difficulty in identifying a Knight was not in fact a problem. It was what kept them all safe.
One spring morning Jam arrived for breakfast and saw Mum and Dad kissing. Before Jam could cough or announce himself, Dad moved his lips down to Mum’s neck and gave her a slow kiss there.
‘Ahem!’ said Jam, thinking that they should know he was getting breakfast.
Mum and Dad leant apart, both blushing.
‘Should I pretend that I didn’t see that?’
‘That’s up to you,’ said Dad.
Mum explained to Jam, ‘Spring is here. Can’t you feel it in the air? Not so long ago you told me that it was like the world was coming back to life and you were part of it, do you remember?’
Jam did remember, but there was still a difference between feeling it, and seeing your parents acting like that. ‘Okay. Okay. It’s normal. I get it.’
‘You will one day!’ Dad joked.
Jam was unsure exactly what Dad meant by that, but was sure that it was something to do with ‘girls’.
‘I have some good news,’ Mum announced. ‘I sent Mels an invitation to the strawberry harvest in Summer, and she wrote back. She’s looking forward to it. I’ll go into the city later this week to have tea with Malorie, her mother, so we can get to know each other.’
‘That good news,’ said Dad. ‘If Malorie wants me to catch up with her husband some time then I can do that too.’
Jam arrived at school still pondering how Mels had stayed in their lives like she had. As Jam approached the front gate, he saw Emma talking with her friends. He tried to ignore the girls as he walked past, but Emma began to flick her hair around in a such an animated fashion that he had to look twice to see what was happening.
‘Oh! Hi, Jamie!’ exclaimed Emma in a high-pitched manner.
‘Uh… good morning. See you… in school.’
Emma and her friends whispered and exchanged looks as if something special had just happened. By the time Break arrived Jam had only a vague memory of the event, by Lunch time he had all but forgotten about, when Emma bumped into him at the top of the stairs to the outside lunch area.
‘Hi, Jamie!’ she said excitedly, as they began down the stairs.
‘Hi, Emma. So, what’s new in the city?’
‘Oh, you remember that I live in the city. That’s so sweet.’
That was the weirdest thing Jam had heard in a long while, because Emma was constantly mentioning the fact to everyone. ‘Um, no problem.’
‘Say, Jamie?’
‘Yeah?” Jam suddenly felt nervous, but couldn’t explain why.
‘I was thinking… you don’t have a girlfriend do you?’
Jam gulped. ‘No,’ he said reluctantly, because any time he had told Emma anything about himself, she had used it as social ammunition against him.
‘Well… you seem nice. I think that I should be your girlfriend.’
Jam missed a step down, stumbled, and caught himself on the railing. ‘You want me to be your boyfriend?’
‘Well, duh! Of course, you would have to be.’
‘Um… okay!’ Jam was surprised by how readily he accepted the idea. ‘What do I have to do?’
‘Well, I catch the train home every day. We could walk together?’
‘Sure then. I’ll be your boyfriend.’
‘Great!’ Emma exclaimed. ‘Meet me at the front gate when we get out.’ With that she hurried down the stairs and towards her friends who were all glancing their way.
As Jam reached the last step, it occurred to him that somewhere down the stairs he had gained a girlfriend! He thought about mentioning it to his friends, but something about the arrangement felt unsettled, so he decided to postpone saying anything until he knew what being Emma’s boyfriend actually required.
Even by his standards, today was turning into a weird day. Little did he know, it was going to get weirder.
When school was over Jam made excuses to his friends, and met Emma at the front gate. As they walked to the train station she told him everything that had happened to her in class that day. She kept on bumping into him as they walked. At one point, he couldn’t figure out exactly when, she had taken his hand when she’d bumped into him and had not let go. Holding her hand made Jam feel sweaty, and like his senses were all on high alert. It was like being nervous, but liking it.
When they got to the station they found a bench on the platform. Emma waited for Jam to sit down, and then sat down next to him so their knees were touching.
‘My train will be here in a minute. Do you want to kiss until then?’
Jam literally froze, unsure of what to do. He wanted to, but he’d never kissed a girl before, except in his imagination. ‘Um, okay… how…’
Emma leant in towards him. ‘Like in the movies, silly. Use your lips,’ she directed, and pursed her own lips in anticipation.
Jam heard a roaring noise in his head, and it grew louder as he leant closer towards her. He felt that the only thing that would make it go away would be to give in to it. He pursed his own lips and pushed them up hard against Emma’s.
‘Not that hard,’ she complained, after freeing her mouth from his.
Grateful to find that he was still able to control his own actions, Jam relaxed and softened his mouth. Slowly, it became more and more pleasant just to sit next to Emma and kiss.
As he relaxed, so too Emma relaxed, and as they relaxed together Jam felt like he was falling inside his head, while at the same time he was becoming hyper-aware of everything around them.
As Emma’s train approached she leaned back to separate from him, but Jam was so absorbed in the moment that he leaned into her and his lips came up against her neck. He remembered his parents in the kitchen that morning, and he kissed Emma on the neck.
Emma forcibly pushed him away. ‘Yuk! What are you doing!’ She seemed upset, even angry. ‘Ew! That was icky!’ She wiped at her neck with her sleeve. ‘You’re gross!’
Jam was about to apologise, but then he remembered his parents kissing that morning. And Dad wasn’t gross. And Mum liked it. In the past he usually hadn’t reacted when Emma teased him, and he momentarily wondered if that was why she wanted him as a boyfriend. However, today was already turning out to be very different.
‘No! I’m not gross. I didn’t do anything wrong, and if you think I did… then you’re gross!’
Emma stood up abruptly, looking way more ruffled and affronted than Jam thought the moment deserved as she snatched for her bag. ‘Oh my god! I can’t believe I let you kiss me!’
‘Let me? Let me! You practically told me to!’
‘That is so untrue. I don’t want to talk to you!’ Emma boarded the train, and sat down out of sight.
Jam waited for the train to leave, just in case she changed her mind. He was hoping she would apologise for what she had said, because then he could apologise for how he had reacted. But he didn’t see her again until the next day at school.
The next day at school was worse than if the previous day had never happened. To Jam it seemed like everything he heard was the opposite to how it had really occurred.
Emma had arrived early, and by the time class started it seemed like every girl in his year had heard some flawed version of what had happened at the train station. Emma even wore a scarf around her neck, occasionally lowering it to show a set of obvious teeth marks to anyone who enquired.
‘Did you really bite her on the neck?’ Oli asked excitedly, scandalised.
‘No! I just kissed her, and her neck didn’t look like that! I swear she's done that to herself!’
‘Maybe she has,’ added Tracey. ‘Personally, I don’t trust her.’
‘But how?’
‘Pretty simple. Get a pair of fake teeth, and do it to yourself.’
Zach looked at Tracey as if he was seeing a side of her that he didn’t particularly like.
‘What! Zee, I’ve never done it! I’m just saying.’
The quietest member of their group was Tobes. Jam noticed his silence, and asked what he was thinking. Tobes took his time to reply and then spoke carefully. ‘My dad’s a policeman, right, and he’s always talking about evidence. And opportunity, and I… I’m sorry… I don’t know what to think right now, Jam.’
Jam was stunned that Tobes didn’t trust him.
‘Jam, you didn’t even tell us that you were going out with her. Why not? I think my dad would say that’s a bit suss.’
Tobes avoided talking to Jam for the rest of the day, which was painfully obvious because they sat at the same table.
When school was out, Jam confronted his friend at the front gate.
‘I can’t believe that you’d fall for her lying.’ Surely, thought Jam, a Knight should be able to sniff out lies.
‘Do you think your story that she bit herself on the neck makes more sense?’
‘I know it sounds wild, but I swear it’s true. It has to be.’
‘Or my best friend is a liar!’ Tobes blurted out without thinking.
Tobes hadn’t meant it to sound like it did, but it cut Jam to the core. Jam heard the rushing noise in his head, and he clenched his fists. He was about to do something he would regret, when a strong grip spun him around.
‘Snap out of it! You have to control it!’ Zach scolded him quietly. Apparently Zach already knew things about being a Knight that Jam had yet to learn. ‘And you,’ Zach said to Tobes, ‘You need to ask yourself how Emma let him get close enough to bite her in the first place. He’s not a bloody vampire!’
Tobes nodded sheepishly. ‘Fair point. Okay, sorry Jam.’ He shuffled his feet and looked at them. ‘Are we good?’
Jam held out his hand, and they slapped palms. ‘Yeah. I don’t blame you. The whole thing barely made sense, even at the time.’
Like all Dragons, Nambodius could go without sleep, and it had been continuously circling high above the town for several days.
The Dragon was confident that it knew who the Torquar were, posing as real estate agents so they could move around town freely. However, it was surprised when it detected a surge of energy from a young schoolboy who had almost struck his taller friend.
That boy was probably a Knight, which was good to know.
However, the taller friend who he had argued with would prove to be more useful.
It was time to strike!
Nambodius followed the taller boy as he walked home alone, and he descended to whisper in Tobes ear.
‘What if he is lying… it is a cold world and you must keep your eyes open for liars… and take every opportunity to make them pay…’
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