“Oooh! You’ve really done it this time, Obsidian!” Jade crooned at me as I stared at the broken glass egg, flustered. Hey tan, wavy hair was in front of her shoulders right now, signaling a sneaky mood. Trust me, I know Jade and her many personalities.
“Shut up, Jade.” I hissed, dropping on all fours to try to piece it back together. I admit it wasn’t a clever idea, but I had to time! I could all but hear Mackenzie’s feet pounding down the stairs and her scream.
“Someone’s getting in trouble! That was Mack’s favorite!” Jade continued, her green eyes darting to ears huge piece of fractured glass.
“Shut up!” I growled through clenched teeth. She stuck her tongue out at me, and I sighed. I was always the mature twelve-year-old.
“What was that racke-” Mackenzie, our ‘foster mom’, asked, before gasping.
“It was Jade!” I yelped, backing up and onto my feet.
“Right, okay! Like I believe- OBSIDIAN!” She screamed. “Why couldn’t Jade have been an only child, huh? Why are you so… thick-headed?!”
“Thick headed? Really, Mack? Thick headed?” I growled as I could feel every snake in existence rattling their rattlers and
striking mid-air.
“Yea, that’s what I said!”
“Of all the words, Mackenzie?” I yelped, my eyes slits. She knew I was serious if I called her by her full name.
“THICK HEADED!” She screamed.
I didn’t think. I knew I’d regret it, but it felt good to let my anger loose.
I shed my skin, revealing my true self. A Snake Dragon. That’s where Jade interfered, saving the day- as always. She ran
to her bag- or least tried. With a flick of my tail, she was pinned up against the wall. Too bad she couldn’t transform like me.
A huge mass slammed into my side, sending me rolling down the hall. Things shattered as my side burned. Silver goo with a tint of green slid from a slice in my side. With a hiss, I fought the Dragon that had attacked me, using my tail to grapple with it to make up for a lack of claws.
I couldn’t see which of Jade’s Dragons she had summoned this time. All I could see was a flurry of pale pink scales, white hair, and silver claws as the bloody Dragon sliced them against my body.
With a cry like a hawk, the dragon was thrown, leaving a dent in the tan wall. I had wrapped my tail around it, so it had no chance of fighting any longer. My tail served me as a long, powerful arm when I was in my PinPoint form.
“Obsidian!” Jade screamed from below. I towered above my tinsy-tiny twin. If only it was like this all the time.
She held a mirror up towards me. I glanced at my reflection for only a moment- my black body, with a cape on my neck that had six claws only for decoration. My fangs showed themselves, glinting menacingly with green silver. My rattler freaked out as I backed up, spazzing. My reflection was my only weakness, as I liked to think.
Before I knew it, I was human, panting towards the ground heavily.
“O-OBSIDIAN!” Mack barked, walking right over to me and kicking me to the ground. I curled up feebly. “You have directly broken fifteen hundred rules!” She screamed. “I want you out of my sight!” I scrambled up, to upstairs. Into my room- my only area where I was safe from the world.
The walls were a steel-color. There was a mural of a snake that Jade had so kindly made me. She was so perfect in everyone’s eyes. But it didn’t matter. All I needed were my snakes and-
“Ellion?” I asked, looking at my bland, gray bed. A boy, who was no more than sixteen- my age- was sitting there, reading a magazine. His black, ruffled short hair was cut at the ears and startling blue eyes seemed to stare right through me as he glanced up. “What are you doing here? This place is locked up!”
The child chuckled. “Not for a snake. Its quite obvious that you pass code for the door would be ‘1772’ since you like Key lime pie, and the square root of mathematical pi is 1.7725385. But there were only four spaces, so I jut did the first four.”
“You’re unbelievable, you know that? Now may I ask what you were doing in here?”
He pet the ball python that was curled up in his lap, asleep. “Looking through your stuff.”
“What stuff? Mack doesn’t let me keep much.”
“Through your box of ‘deeply personal items’.”
Not my smartest move to leave that out on my dresser.
“WHAT?” I screeched.
“Calm down, Obs. It’s me, remember? It’s not like I’ll tell anyone else. Unless they pay me for it.”
“Thanks. You’re so trustworthy.” I said, sarcasm stained on my words.
“Fine. I just wanted to ask you about diary entry… April, 23, 2009; who was that fellow who pushed you into the mud before I heroically rescued you?”
“Heroically.” I huffed. If he had gotten the message I was trying to tell him, he wasn’t showing it.
“Whom?” He asked again.
“It just happened to be Caden.” I huffed. I was referring to Caden, whose nickname was tall, dark and handsome. Every girl swooned over him. He was such a jerk.
“Caden? Really?” He asked, rearranging the snake on his lap. It hissed, waking up. Eventually, it settled again.
“Yea. Did you know that Caden is Welsh? It means ‘Spirit of the Battle Field.”
“That’s sort of cool. But do you know what Ellion means in American?”
“Ellion?”
“No. It means ‘amazing’.”
“Good joke.” I said sticking my tongue out. I sat next to him on the bed and sighed. “Will you leave now?”
“I thought we were finally making progress.” He replied. “I have one other question.”
“Fine. Only one question and you leave.” I hissed.
“Who was Ruby? I’ve never seen her before.”
My eyes filled up, showing the emotion I usually kept bottled up. I usually had good control over it, but never when mentioning Ruby.
“Ruby was my… mother.” I admitted. Ellion seemed shocked, but paying close attention. “She died right after me and Jade-”
“Jade and I.”
“Jade and I’s birthday.” I finished, not upset about the interruption. “She… she never really liked me. I was always a burden to her. I never did things right, she was constantly fixing my mistakes. Jade, though, was just like her- a Dragon PinPoint. They were just like each other- always helping me, the imperfection in their lives.”
“Oh, Obs. When will you understand? There is no way you are imperfect. Sure, you have a temper, and sure, you’re a snake, but so what? You’re smart, amazing-” A blush appeared on his checks. “You’re just perfect.” He finished.
I wanted to just kiss him. He was so small but had such a big heart… but I couldn’t. Jade wanted him. And I can’t interfere in plans between Jade and boys.
“OBSIDIAN!” Mack’s voice boomed up the stairs.
“Get out of here!” I hissed to Ellion. He jumped off the bed, the python going flying. I caught it before it reached the ground. Ellion transformed into a coral snake in mid-jump and hit the ground slithering. He went into the corner, like my other snakes would, and curled up in a ball. He seemed to have been there all along, attentive but seemingly asleep.
“Obsidian, you know what you did was very, very wrong! And you still did it!” Mack said as she barged through the door.
All of my snakes- including my newest, transformed guest- jumped and hissed.
“I’m sorry.” I lied through my teeth, clenching my python closer to me. It struggled to get free, but I wouldn't let it.
“No, you aren’t.” She sighed, her shoulders dropping as she stared at me. “Obs, you could be such a good kid. You’re so powerful… you could use it for good.”
“Whenever I try to do good things, they get ignored or fixed. And it was an accident. Accidents happen- just more by me than most people.” I replied.
“Were you… crying?” She asked, sounding a bit surprised. I guess my blotch red eyes gave it away.
“No!”
“Fine. Well, anyways, its school time.”
“I’ll get ready.”
She left the room, running a hand through her hair. I waited about three minutes before I was assured she was gone. “Ellion, you’re good.” I grunted, placing the python on the ground. He seemed to say 'finally' as he slithered over towards the other group of snakes, in the corner opposite of Ellion. I glanced over at him, who was shedding his skin. Next thing I knew, there was a snakeskin on the ground and Ellion was standing up, human.
“Now get out.” I advised.
“Why?”
“Because I have to change!”
“That’s why God invented bathrooms. I brought clothes with me. I’ll change in here.”
“How long have you been here?!” I demanded.
“That’s not important.”
“Well, change in the closet. Mackenzie might come in any moment.”
He gulped, before grabbing a lump on the bed. I hadn’t seen that, I admit it.
“Wait, I need to get my clothes first!” I shrieked barging in front of him into the huge, walk-in closet. I grabbed
whatever my arms could reach first- which happen to be a black collared shirt and jean pants cut at the knee. I couldn't help my eye catching the mirror's reflection.
My looks didn’t hold a candle up to Jade’s. Stringy, black hair plummeted to my mid-back. Green, mellow, dull eyes were the exact opposite of my personality. And don’t get me started about my ugly, small nose.
“Obs?” Ellion’s voice called.
“What? Oh. Right, I’m going, I’m going.” I replied.
Breaking my trance from the mirror, I returned back to Ellion. “You know, if I hadn’t known you for three years, this could be very awkward.” He said, moving past me into the closet.
“Trust me, it still is awkward.” I hissed under my breath. With the rattling of snakes in my ears, I grabbed a fistful of rat tails, hoisting a dozen dead rats to the surface.they dangled above the bulging bag of rats. “Bon Apetit, kids.” I threw them towards my huddle of ten snakes.
I smiled faintly as the already killed rats were struck by the venomous teeth of my snakes. If only I could do that to Jade.
