Tales From Gulinger High: Tale Ten E-Book

Julie Steimle

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Rescued from a Chinese 'fortune-teller' (actually a witch), Bai Nian Chen comes to Gulinger High with a big secret. His family is cursed. The witch had used Chen since his early childhood to extort information from unsuspecting customers with his tactile psychic gifts. But his curse goes deeper than that. So deep, Chen avoids coming in contact with his classmates for fear of what might happen. And though Matt Calamori and friends assure Chen that he is safe at the school, he is not so sure. After all, he knows to what lengths the witch will go to to get him back.

Leseprobe

Julie Steimle

Tales From Gulinger High: Tale Ten

Hundred Year Zodiac

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

An Incident in China Town

                       oh! Look at that! They leave the head on!” Troy Meecham wrinkled his nose, peering at the roast duck in the window display of one of the Chinese restaurants he and his pals looked into. He hunched his shoulders together to keep warm in his coat as small flurries fell from the sky.

Tom Brown lifted his orange eyes to the tanks of fish at the opening of the restaurant, keeping his scarf over his chin. “I hear the Chinese back in China will eat nearly anything. Dogs, cats…”

“Don’t say stuff like that,” Randon Spade turned away, his boots almost slipping on the ice that he hadn’t seen on the sidewalk. The tips of his dark hair had collected frost.

“…Scorpions, rabbits, sea slugs…”

“That is really gross.” Matt Calamori made a face and pulled on Tom’s arm, hoping to get warm someplace else. “Come on. Let’s go to that other shop. I thought I saw swords.”

“…Grasshoppers, silkworms…”

“Would you stop it!” Randon snapped, swatting Tom in the side. “No one is going to believe you.”

“Actually,” Rick Deacon pulled his head down into a shrug, stuffing his mittened hands into his coat pockets, “I’ve been to China on a trip with my dad and mom. And Tom’s right. We ate at a restaurant that served just about any animal that crawled. They even had alligators. And you should see their night market. I saw barbecued scorpions on sale.”

“Don’t say that!” Randon looked likely to scratch Rick. “He said they ate cats and dogs!”

“I’ve eaten rabbit,” Rick reminded him, shrugging more in sheepish apology. He tugged his scarf tighter around his neck, his reddish brown hair hardly peeking out from his hat.

Troy yanked Randon away from Rick. “You forget what you are talking to. To a werewolf, meat is meat.”

“Not true!” Rick barked back, looking likely to pounce, though he kept his eye out for ice this time. “I’ve never eaten a cat, and sea slugs are gross!”

“And you know this how?” Matt smirked at him, rubbing is raw cheeks to keep them from freezing.

Rick glanced the other way then blinked at a shop across the narrow lane through the snowy tufts. “Hey! How about a fortune teller!”

Matt turned with a laugh. “I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff?”

“I don’t,” Rick said, marching backward across the narrow street towards the entrance. “I think the whole thing his hokey. My last fortune cookie from Mr. Wong’s said I would come into a fortune soon and all my troubles would be over. If a fortune could buy me out of my troubles, my father would have already done it.”

“Then explain what happened that last time!” Matt followed him, dodging a delivery boy on a bicycle who had managed to avoid the slick parts in the road. Indoors was indoors, and it was getting colder.

Rick shrugged deeper into his scarf. “Fluke.”

However the moment he walked into that shop he got chills, and he abruptly stopped. No heat. The others followed him in, peering up at the Chinese knots and tassels of gold trim on red-and-black hanging on the walls, watching their breaths puff out. Everything within the shop was trimmed with bright gold fringe, from smiling Buddahs to winking cat clocks from Japan. It was also dark inside. No lights on. And no one was in the front room. However, they heard noises in the back.

Like a jack-in-the-box, a man dressed in a blue police uniform sprang from the back room. All five boys jumped aside. However, soon after they recognized the man’s face and the faces of three other men with him as the men were dragging out a sixteen-year-old Chinese boy dressed in cultural costume.

“Officer Johnson!” Rick followed him as the policeman spoke a strange dialect to the Chinese boy. “What are you doing here?”

A squat Chinese woman chased after the men out of the back room, screaming in Mandarin. “Gei wo ba! Ta wo de hai zi!”

Matt jumped back from her and grabbed Rick’s arm. “Let’s get out of here!”

“You boys! What you do here?” The old woman glared venomously at them.

Tom waved with a hop out the door into the snow, smirking. “Sorry. We didn’t know you were closed.”

That moment Officer Johnson noticed them, or at least he spotted Tom. It was hard not to with how Tom stuck out. “What are you boys doing here?”

“Just wandering China Town,” Tom replied, sticking his hands into his coat pockets as he hopped back to the street. Randon and Troy nodded, following him, though Matt had dragged Rick out of the shop with a tight grip, staring back at the old woman as though she carried the black plague and had full intention of giving it to them.

“Go home.” Officer Johnson glowered at them.

All five boys backed up. He wasn’t usually this angry.

“Yes, sir.” Matt saluted then dragged Rick down the snow-edged alley.

Tom looked after his pal and then back to the police, then back again to his friend again who was seriously hauling Rick away from that place. Randon and Troy rushed after Matt, shrugging to each other as the policemen helped the Chinese boy into a plain automobile as the old woman continued cursing at the car. Tom hopped with a flutter then jogged after Matt who had already dragged Rick into another alley far out of sight. Following the shouting of their imps to where they were crouched behind a rusty snow-topped dumpster, Tom peered at Matt who as struggling to catch his breath.

“OW! That’s hurts!” Rick tried to yank from Matt’s grip, unsuccessfully.

“Shh!” Matt hissed. He then looked up to Tom, waving to him. “Get in here!”

Tom strolled over then crouched down. “What are you doing?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Randon said, hunched near the ground more like someone playing a game.

“She’s a witch!” Matt hissed through his teeth and peered back at the alley opening.

Randon shrank down into a cat with a jerk, arching his little head around the corner his ears turning to hear if she had followed them. Rick’s eyes widened. He stiffened, backing away from the opening of the alley. Troy pulled on him, urging them all to go.

Only Tom stood unconvinced. With a tilt of his head, he closed one eye. “Really? You mean you understand Chinese thoughts?”

Matt rolled his eyes, gazing up at him. “Thoughts are translated into words for speaking. By themselves there is no language. So yeah, I understood what she was thinking. I don’t know what she shouted in Chinese, but her thoughts were screaming that she wasn’t done using that boy. And the way she thought it, it was like that witch that came to the school talked about using your eyes.”

Tom convulsively lurched from the alley opening. “I get it. Let’s get out of here.”

They all ran back to the school, scurrying through the snowy alleys as fast as they could without slipping all the way home.

Chen

“Hey! You missed it!” Selena strolled up to them when they entered the cafeteria for lunch. “We got a new one today. You should check him out. See if he’s a ghoulie or a mafi.”

She was talking to Matt and Tom mostly, though she winked at Rick.

“A new one?” Troy asked, trying to keep his cool. They were all still shaking from their brush with a witch. “What’s he like?”

Selena wet her lips, looking up at the ceiling as she thought. “Oh…not very tall. Asian. Junior. He’s going to be in my class. His English is adequate, but I think it is the first time he’s ever really been among Americans. I heard someone say that his grandmother kept him in a closet most of his life, which is why he’s kinda pale.”

Matt glanced to Tom who nodded then looked to the others.

“No way,” Troy murmured.

“You wanna check him out?” Rick lifted his head to search the room.

Randon rose back into boy shape, nodding to him.

“Where is he?” Matt asked Selena.

Shrugging, Selena gazed at them, blinking with mild curiosity. “You guys are acting funny. Well, funnier than usual. Do you know something?”

“We may have bumped into him on the street in China Town today,” Matt said, peering over the cafeteria now.

“But would Officer Johnson bring him directly here?” Troy asked. “Even I didn’t come directly here.”

“Check it out.” Rick pointed down the cafeteria near the far doors.

There at the end, Joshua stood with that sixteen-year-old Chinese kid they had just seen fleeing the fortune-teller’s shop. He already stood in uniform as if it had been pre-ordered. Glancing to one another, the boys left Selena and marched over to where their friend stood with the new kid.

“Hi! I’m Matt Calamori!” He extended his hand to the boy.

The Chinese kid glanced at Matt’s hand and cringed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We shake hands in America,” Matt said.

Sighing, the Chinese boy said in not so bad English as all that, “I know that. I just…I don’t like shaking hands.”

“How about a bow?” Tom offered with a crooked grin, bowing.

The boy blinked at him, especially staring at Tom’s white hair.

“We saw you in that shop,” Rick said, nodding to him. “Do you remember us?”

Immediately the Chinese boy’s eyes grew wide. He pulled back. “Don’t send me back!”

“Why would we? She’s a witch,” Randon replied, glancing to Troy who nodded.

“Do prefer a salute?” Tom lifted his hand to his forehead like a soldier.

Glancing at Tom, the Chinese boy relaxed a little. “You know that?”

Matt nodded, meeting his eye with a grin. “I can hear people’s thoughts when they say things.”

The boy blinked at him.

“Or maybe a whistle?” Tom stuck his fingers in his mouth to give a shriek, but Troy slapped his hand over Tom’s mouth before he let out one.

“What’s your name?” Rick asked.

Lowering his head, the Chinese boy frowned. “Bai Nian Chen. I’m from the Bai Nian clan. That means hundred years. I’m under a curse.”

“Really? So am I?” Rick and Randon both said together. They looked at each other then smiled.

“So what do we call you? Bai?” Matt asked.

Rick shook his head. “No. Chinese names give the family name first. His given name is Chen, right?”

He looked to the new boy who nodded.

“Yes. But how do you—?”

Tom leaned in, smirking. “His dad’s rich and travels the world. Say…if you don’t like shaking hands, what do you do?”

“Is shaking hands part of your curse?” Rick asked.

Chen nodded. “It is. So, please, don’t make me.”

“What kind of curse is it?” Randon stuck his head in like a curious cat.

But Chen shuddered and shook his head, unwilling to say.

“My mother and sister were witches,” Randon added, hoping to encourage him. “They turned me into a cat. Is it as bad as that?”

Looking Randon up and down, Chen tried to hide his puzzlement.

Rick elbowed Randon in the ribs. “Show him.”

Nodding, Randon shrank down into the black cat with the kinked tail. Again Chen’s eyes went wide as he stared at Randon. He then looked to Rick.

“Are you also like that?” he asked.

“Mine’s worse,” Rick replied with a shrug.

Randon regained shape. “Says who? No one calls a secret word and forces you into your shape.”

“But they can blow a wolf whistle and it does the same thing,” Rick snapped back. “Besides, you keep your clothes. Mine tears, and I lose stuff because human clothes obviously don’t fit me when I’m like that.”

“Can I see?” Chen asked.

They all looked to him, watching Chen stare at the pair with yearning.

Rick shrugged. Then he and sighed, loosening his tie. “Alright, but hold on. This thing always chokes me.”

In three seconds, he stretched out into wolf shape, falling on all fours and kicking off his shoes. His back paws shrank into his pants, and he let out a small yelp as he slipped on the hem.

“Amazing.” The Chinese boy shook his head.

As Rick pulled himself together as a boy, shaking off all the hair, the other boys looked to Chen expectantly.

“So, what’s your curse?” Matt asked.

Chen glanced nervously to Matt and then Tom. “I don’t want you to hate me. Nai nai said people would hate me if they knew.”

“Why would we hate you?” Rick pulled up his pant legs as he stretched his back wolf legs into human shape again.

Smiling at Rick, Chen shook his head. “Not you. You would understand.”

“They’d understand too,” Rick said, gesturing to them.

Randon nodded.

Blinking at them, Chen leaned back most especially from Tom.

Sighing with a shake of his head, Tom removed his glasses and grinned at Chen. “We’re all ghoulies, Bye-bye boy.”

“It’s Chen!” Rick barked at him. He grabbed one of his shoes to throw at Tom.

Snickering, Tom hopped away in a featherweight float, skipping behind Matt who rolled his eyes at being made the human shield once again.

Bai Nian Chen nodded slowly then peeked to Joshua who grinned. He bit his lip and peered at Matt, then the others. “I’m cursed with the zodiac.”

They all stared at him.

“The what?” Rick asked, still holding up his shoe.

Chen looked to him. “If I touch you or shake your hand, I can read your past.”

“All of it?” Tom cringed, settling on the floor.

Recoiling, Chen looked ready to cry. “See. You hate me.”

“No. No.” Matt cast Tom an over-the-shoulder glare. “It’s just…most people like to keep their past a secret. Like their thoughts.”

Chen met eyes with Matt and nodded. “Yes. You understand. People hate you because you know what they think.”

The boys shared looks, some of them exhaling. Several of their classmates were listening in, leaning over to hear better. A new ghoulie always made school interesting.

“I don’t know about hate,” Troy murmured, glancing to Randon.

“Matt is the most well-liked ghoulie on campus,” Randon replied, nodding.

“Except for Rick,” Troy retorted, starting into the debate they had clearly gone into before.

Randon shook his head. “Well-liked and popular are not the same thing. A lot of people are scared of Rick. Nobody is scared of Matt.”

Chen looked to Rick who had dropped his shoe down and was now adjusting his sock as his human foot regained all its toes and lost its claws. “Scared of you?”

Rick shrugged. “I’m a werewolf.”

But Chen blinked at him with no understanding. Obviously it wasn’t part of Chinese culture.

“There is no problem with you reading my past,” Tom at last said to Chen, which surprised the rest since it sounded not at all mischievous. Tom stepped closer with an open hand. “But it must really bug you to know all the dirty facts about people. Right?”

Chen cringed, nodding with an anxious peek at their faces. “Yes. Nai nai made me write it all down.”

“For blackmail,” Matt muttered with a glance to the others.

Tom nodded to him, grinning. “That’s what the witch has been using him for.”

“Hold it. Hold it.” Rick stepped between them. He walked to Chen but faced the others. “Before we make crazy assumptions, maybe we ought to ask him what Officer Johnson picked him up for.”

The new boy pulled back.

Joshua put an arm around Chen’s shoulder to calm him, but also to keep him from running. “It’s ok. Tell them. They’ll be better friends to you than anybody here.”

“Friend?” Chen looked up at Joshua. He then peered at Rick, Tom, Matt, and the others. They first shrugged then nodded.

“What was that old woman using you for?” Rick asked him, turning around.

“My nai nai?” Chen asked, blinking. He shrugged. “I told the fortunes. Because I can read their past, I can guess a future. We earn many money for my work.”

“You mean she just makes you work for her?” Randon rolled his eyes with a step back. “And here you were freaking about such an easy curse for nothing. Officer Johnson was stopping a con artist is all.”

Matt stepped on Randon’s foot with a dirty look, nodding to Chen. “Well, you don’t have to work for her anymore. Now let’s go get dinner.”

Looking to Joshua first, Chen smiled for the first time and nodded. “Xie xie.”

More to It

“I think he’s whiney,” Randon grumbled. “All that complaining for nothing.”

Troy snorted. “Yeah, but you remember how Rick was when he first got here?”

Randon cast him a dark look, pausing before the doors. “Rick was never whiney. Just cranky.”

Nodding, Troy smirked, thinking about it. “Yeah. And it was the full moon.”

Just then a rabbit ran past. Two fourteen-year-old girls chased after it, shrieking for joy. One of the girls was a ghoulie that often clung to the older ghoulies’ for attention, a girl that was cursed with chameleon skin. They could see where she obviously had grabbed someone in a school uniform. The pattern of the pants pocket was still on the backs of her hands. Her face also had the fold pattern of clothes on it.

“Where did they get a rabbit?” Randon watched them scurry off in giggles.

Troy shrugged. “I don’t know. Just don’t let Rick see it. He’d probably think ‘Ooh lunch’.”

They both laughed, walking through the study hall doors.

“OK! Who’s streaking!” A teacher shouted from the floor below, his voice carrying into the room. “Deacon! Are you a wolf right now?”

“Uh oh.” Troy looked back into the hall. “I guess Rick is hunting for rabbit too.”

“Am not.” Rick walked out of the study hall with his arms full of his books, completely dressed, and going straight to where he had heard the teacher.

The pair of them blinked after him, even as he pushed through the two-way door.

“Maybe Tom’s streaking,” Randon whispered to Troy.

Busting into fits of laugher, Troy covered his mouth. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“So, Chen, I hear basketball is popular in China,” Rick said as he walked with him from the boy’s locker room into the gym the second day after his arrival. The junior boys were playing eighth grade boys that day. “Are you any good?”

Chen ducked his head. “I was never let to play outside. My nai nai said she didn’t want people to see me. She said people would kill me because of my curse.”

Scratching the back of his head, Rick nodded. “I know how you feel. People hunt me because of my curse.”

“Zhen de? Really?” Chen’s face paled to ashy yellow.

Blinking, Rick nodded. “Yeah. But don’t worry about it. No one will hunt you in this school.”

Chen did not look convinced.

“Trust me,” Rick put a hand on Chen’s shoulder. “A hunter once chased after me and—”

“The entire school rose up to protect you.” Chen peered at Rick, growing amazed with each second.

Rick glanced at his hand. It rested just a little against Chen’s skin. He lifted it off. “It’s not just a handshake that does it, isn’t it?”

Chen shook his head, frowning. “No. I don’t like shirts with short arms.”

“Sleeves,” Rick corrected. He drew in a breath and looked over at his classmates who were staring at Chen. Some of them, such as Lee, prepared to warn Chen from Rick, whereas others just smirked at the new kid. “Don’t worry. They can order special clothes for you if it helps. Just explain to the school nurse your full condition. She’ll make adjustments for you.”

“Really?” Chen still didn’t appear convinced.

Rick nodded. “Yeah. She’s a ghoulie’s ally. She helped me change the school’s meal plan so there are more garlic-free options.”

Chen looked confused, but Rick didn’t have time to explain because the coach called them all over to start the game.

Despite all of Rick’s hopes, Chen really wasn’t a good basketball player. His team discovered that early on. And though Chen tried to learn the game, he was really not that coordinated. In fact, he often tripped over his own feet. But then who could blame him? For a boy kept indoors most of his life, he could not possibly be up to scratch anyway. Rick felt sorry for him. He felt even sorrier when he saw Chen crash into one of the other juniors.

The effect was instantaneous. Unlike with Rick and Randon, the change came so fast he could not see it. Chen’s P.E. shorts tore apart. His shirt was in shreds, and all the boys backed off as an enormous ox now stood in the middle of the basketball court.

“Holy cow,” Rick murmured, blinking at him.

The ox bellowed, galloping out of the gym into the boys’ locker room to get out of sight. Rick followed at a walk, shaking his head.

“Is that a were-cow?” Lee shouted out, getting over his shock the moment he saw Rick go after him.

“Shut up!” Rick growled at Lee.

He ran into the locker room, following the dents in the wood floor that that the ox left in his wake.

“He ruined the gym floor!” someone complain after they left.

“Do you think Rick will eat him?” someone else asked.

“Chen?” Rick followed to where he saw the ox sit his huge rump down, bellowing out sobs. “Hey. Chen. Why didn’t you just tell us you became a cow?”

The ox turned its head and lowed.

Rick blinked. “Hmm. So you’re like Randon. You can’t talk when you’re in that shape. Huh?” He walked over and sat next to Chen-the-cow. Drawing in a breath, Rick then exhaled, sighing. He patted Chen on his large back. “Don’t worry. A few people might complain, but they’ll get used to it.”

The ox merely lowed with tears rolling from its round eyes. Its overlarge nose was growing mucousy.

Peering over him, Rick leaned on his elbow. “Hmm. How long do you have to stay in that shape anyway? A few minutes? An hour?”

Mooing more, the ox shifted its heavy weight with a glance to the clock. It mooed again then stopped.

“That’s your clothes in the headmaster’s office, isn’t it?” Rick said. “You were the streaker.”

The ox mooed again then sniffed.

Rick blinked. Sitting next to him was Chen again, shrunk back down in a puff of steam, and buck-naked. Rick averted his eyes then stood up. “Ok. I think I can get you some clothes.”

“You don’t hate me?” Chen asked, looking up.

Making a face, Rick snorted. “Why should I hate you? You’re a boy who becomes a cow. So what?”

Chen frowned.

The coach walked into the locker room, peered at Rick then Chen. “Are you taking care of this, Deacon?”

Rick nodded.

“Ok, fine.” The coach turned and walked back.

“See?” Rick said, smiling with a wave back to the gym. “They’re used to this sort of stuff. This is Gulinger High. Not the real world.”

Chen looked up. “Not the real world?”

Rick’s smile fell a millimeter. “That woman was right about one thing. Normal people would freak if they knew about people like us. But that’s why we go to this school. Chen, I want to be your friend. Will you trust me?”

Contemplating it, Chen then nodded, rising.

Turning quickly, Rick rushed to the lockers. “Let’s get your clothes first.”

*

“So he can become a cow and read people’s pasts. So what?” Tom snorted then bit into his sandwich.