Leo Perry and the Scrolls of the Druid

     - CHAPTER TWO -

     Storms and Frogs

     Eleven years had gone by since Jake’s eventful night that he had lost his wife. His son with his amazing blue eyes and dark brown hair had grown into a young boy. Jake now lived in a house on Hilton Road with his son. The house was small but big enough for just the two of them. Their home was just on the outskirts of town and it was surrounded by fields and farms.

     The inside was like any other house. There was a bottom floor that had a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a computer room. On the second floor there were two rooms. The largest belonged to Jake and the smaller one was where Leo slept.

     Leo’s bedroom had a bed off to one side, two dressers and a desk that was cluttered up with papers and books as Leo liked to draw and read. On the desk there were also many pictures of Leo and his father. Some had a younger boy with the same brilliant blue eyes that belonged to Leo. The most recent ones had a skinny boy with his blue eyes and brown hair. This boy, Leo Perry was still lying in his bed on a sunny Tuesday morning.

     ‘Leo,’ Jake tapped on his door ‘Leo you’ve got to get up and get ready for school now.’

     Leo got out of bed. He went into the bathroom and started his shower. Then he went downstairs. He saw his father sitting at the table in the kitchen. He stood up as Leo entered.

     ‘I’ve got to head out to work now, so hurry yourself up and don’t miss your bus.’

     ‘You have to go to work already?’ his dad didn’t usually leave until a while after Leo got out of bed, ‘Why so early?’

     ‘I’m not leaving any earlier than usual, it just seems that way because I let you sleep in for a while. It is your birthday, you know. Aren’t I allowed to be nice some of the time?’ he joked. Leo had forgotten all about his birthday until just then.

     ‘I’m eleven now,’ he realized as he glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall. It told him that today was the twenty-ninth of May. He followed his dad to the front door.

     ‘Your Aunt Julia is coming over for dinner tonight too,’ Jake said heading out the door, ‘Happy Birthday, Leo.’

     Leo grinned with anticipation. He loved when his Aunt Julia came over. He knew that his father thought she was strange. That’s what made him like her so much though, she was strange. He didn’t fit in with kids his age either. He was considered strange because he didn’t like to do every day normal things, like doing schoolwork or playing games at recess. He found these things boring. He preferred to use his imagination. That is why he liked to read and draw so much. In addition reading and drawing provided a temporary escape from the other kids. He seemed to be a lot like his aunt and he couldn’t wait to see her.

     In the meantime he would have to get ready for school.

     After a quick breakfast, Leo gathered his homework from the night before and packed it in his backpack beside his lunch. Then he went into the bathroom to comb his hair. He looked in the mirror and there he was. The skinny, short boy with blue eyes and brown hair stared back at him. He actually wasn’t that short. He was made fun of because he was “short” only because the kids who picked on him most were extremely tall.

     Leo headed out the door just in time to catch his bus. Ten minutes later he arrived at school. As he got off of his bus he tried his best to keep to the side of the school so that he wouldn’t be noticed. He would be at the school doors in a moment and then he could escape to the classroom inside.

     ‘Hey! Perry!’ called a voice.

     ‘Oh no,’ Leo sighed. He turned and saw a boy who was almost six feet tall, walking toward him. This boy, Chris Gosport, made sure to torment Leo every day of his life. In the same grade as Leo, Chris was so much taller than him only because he had failed three times.

     ‘Hey, weirdo! How’s the weather all the way down there?’ he asked. It wasn’t the attempted insults that bothered Leo, because Chris obviously wasn’t very good at them. What bothered Leo was the fact that everyone always sided with Chris, no matter how stupid he sounded when he opened his mouth.

     ‘You know, that wasn’t even clever! And I have no doubt that you stole that off some forty-year-old without a clue anyway. See, the pathetic thing is that you don’t even make up your own stupid jokes!’ Leo said. Even though Leo was treated like a dead skunk lying on the side of the road, he wasn’t going to sit there and be insulted (however stupid the insults) without saying anything back. This rarely worked for him though as it seemed to make Chris torment him more.

     ‘Yeah well, your eyes are ugly and annoying!’ Leo rolled his eyes as the bell rang for classes to begin. The sound of the bell seemed to confuse Chris and Leo found his opportunity to run to class.

     He was the first one into the classroom. His teacher, Miss Dornum was at the front of the room. She was writing math problems on the black board. Leo didn’t like Miss Dornum that much. She was nice enough, but she wasn’t any help with anything. Whenever Leo had a problem with his schoolwork, she never showed him how to do it, she basically did it for him. So he wouldn’t learn anything and still had a problem. Luckily Leo had his dad to help him out with things like that. There was still the matter of Chris and the other kids though. Whenever one of the kids would pick on Leo, Miss Dornum always seemed to think that he was the guilty one. He had even been sent to the principal’s office a few times.

     ‘Oh. Hello Leo,’ Miss Dornum said as she looked up and spotted Leo. He was unpacking his homework from the night before. He muttered a ‘hello’ back and sat down in his desk as the other children in his class filed into the room. Leo was happy to see that Chris wasn’t among them.

     Miss Dornum began the class by taking up their math homework from the night before. Five minutes into the class there was a knock on the door. Miss Dornum went to the door and opened it. From where Leo was sitting he couldn’t see who was at the door, but he soon found out.

     ‘Mister Gosport, where have you been?’ she asked.

     There was a muffled answer outside the door. Leo was sure that it was some made up story.

     ‘Well, next time try to get into the school before they land,’ Miss Dornum asked haughtily. Chris walked into the class behind Miss Dornum who was shaking her head in disbelief. Chris flashed an evil grin at Leo on his way by.

     The morning proceeded in its usual manner. Homework was corrected, new lessons were taught, and new homework was assigned for that night. Leo groaned, he didn’t want to spend the evening of his birthday doing homework.

     Suddenly Miss Dornum looked down to a piece of paper lying on her desk at the front of the room.

     ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘Everyone, its Leo Perry’s birthday today!’

     ‘Oh no,’ muttered Leo.

     ‘Let’s have everyone sing Happy Birthday!’ she launched into song. She was the only one singing. As the song ended Chris turned to look at him.

     ‘Happy birthday,’ he said, once again wearing his evil grin.

     ‘Soon the bell was ringing again, signaling lunch time. Leo went to his backpack and pulled out a sandwich(ham) and drink(apple juice). He sat down at his desk once more. He was almost finished with his sandwich when Chris came over to his desk.

     ‘Happy birthday, weirdo!’ he said. There were two other boys standing behind him, sniggering at everything he said. ‘I should give you your present now, down you think?’ He picked up his own sandwich off a table nearby and went to throw it at Leo. Leo managed to duck out of the way just in time.

     The bell rang for recess and Leo ran out the door. He ran to the farthest edge of the playground, hoping that nobody saw him. He sat there as long as he could and then slowly started back to the school.

     WHAM! Something hit Leo in the face. He looked down to where the thing had fallen and saw a half-eaten sandwich. He looked up and saw Chris and his cronies standing right in front of him.

     ‘Ha! That was hilarious! You should have seen your face, freak!’ cried Chris, laughing hysterically.

     ‘Oh it was hilarious, eh?’ Leo said coolly, ‘Congratulations you can say a big kid word,’

     ‘Shut up!’ Chris said, no longer laughing. Kids had started to crowd around to see what was happening.

     ‘Before you know it,’ Leo continued, ‘You’ll be out of diapers!’ A couple of kids laughed at this and Leo felt proud of himself.

     ‘You’re dead!’ Chris said. He charged toward Leo.

     ‘What’s going on over here?’ Chris stopped charging. The teacher on duty had come over to see what was happening.

     ‘He was going to hit me, sir,’ said Chris innocently before Leo could say anything.

     ‘You horrible little-’ the teacher looked at Leo.

     ‘He’s lying! He was going to hit me!’ Leo cried. The teacher looked at the innocent look on Chris’ face.

     ‘You’re the one who is obviously lying,’ the teacher spat, ‘Go to the principal’s office.’

     ‘No,’ Leo said, staring the teacher in the eye.

     ‘I said go!’ the teacher cried.

     ‘I said no, Leo replied, ‘HE IS LYING! HE WAS GOING TO HIT ME!’As Leo pointed his finger toward Chris, the strangest thing happened. There was a blinding flash of light and suddenly there was a huge thunder cloud hanging over Chris’ head and only Chris’ head. As he tried to run away from it, it followed him as if it were a huge puffy hat. He was getting drenched and every now and then a bright light would appear under the cloud and Chris would howl in pain. As he came closer to Leo, he looked as if he was crying, but Leo wasn’t sure as there was water running down Chris’ face from the cloud.

     The teacher watched as Chris ran around and then he suddenly turned on Leo.

     ‘You freak!’ he cried, ‘Go to the principal’s office at once!’

     Leo was so frightened that he ran. He didn’t run to the principal’s off ice though. He ran to the classroom and grabbed his backpack. He ran out the front of the school but was caught and sent into the principal’s office anyway.

     ‘You’re a freak!’ cried the principal, ‘First you try to attack a student physically and then you... you... you did that thing! You’re a freak! How could you? How dare you!’

     ‘But I-’ Leo tried to defend himself.

     ‘Don’t talk to me! I don’t want you doing your thing to me! You freak! How could I allow you at my school? This will be your last year here! I will allow you to stay until the end of this year if you talk to no one. And if anything weird happens in my school before then you will be out of here so fast! I cannot have freaks in my school! Think what the people will say...’ He rambled on and on like this forever. He constantly referred to Leo as a freak and said ‘weird’ as if this word was evil.

     Leo was in his office for most of the afternoon. Leo guessed that the principal was just as shook up about the incident at lunch as he was. Leo kept wondering what happened. What appeared to happen surely wasn’t possible. Did he really do it? He didn’t know. The principal decided to write a note to Leo’s father. He gave it to Leo when he was finished and told him to give it to his father and sent him out of his office.

     Leo did not return to the classroom. Instead he went outside and waited for the buses to arrive and take him home. He did not have to wait long. He had been in the principal’s office longer than he had thought. He got on his bus and waited ten minutes for it to fill up with students. Another ten minutes saw Leo home.

     As he stepped off his bus, he saw his father’s car in the driveway. He had come home early today. There was no other car in the driveway, Leo spotted after a quick glance. He had hoped that his Aunt Julia would already be there. She could be though, he remembered. He had never seen his Aunt arrive in a car. Come to think of it, he had never seen his Aunt arrive at all. She had always just been there before he got home.

     He burst through the door and saw his father and Aunt Julia sitting in the living room. He felt suddenly happy and forgot all about hi horrible day.

     ‘Hey, son,’ Dad said, ‘How was your day?’

     ‘Er...fine,’ he lied, ‘Hi Aunt Julia!’

     ‘Hello Leo. Happy Birthday!’ Aunt Julia was a small woman. She had straight, light brown hair. She had a pretty face that was always smiling and she was wearing a violet blouse and a navy blue skirt.

     ‘Thank you,’ he said politely.

     ‘I’ve brought you a present,’ she said searching her bag which was sitting at her feet. ‘Oh, maybe I’ll just keep it for myself,’ she joked seeing the look of anticipation on her face.

     ‘Well, while she’s looking, here,’ Leo’s dad handed him a large present wrapped in bright blue wrapping paper. Leo wasted no time opening it. Inside was a box filled with many different things. There were candies, a new book to read, a CD with Leo’s favorite music on it and also a movie that Leo planned on watching later. At each present he pulled out of the box Aunt Julia looked more and more surprised.

     ‘Here,’ she said, finally handing Leo a package rapped in bright green wrapping paper. Leo opened it quickly and found another box. This one was much smaller than the first, but Leo was still happy when he opened it.

     ‘Wow! Candy!’ the box was full to the top with different kinds of candies. Leo had never heard of any of them. ‘What’s a chocolate frog?’ he asked looking at his aunt.

     ‘Well, open it and find out,’ she said. He did so and inside the package he found a frog made of chocolate. He ate it quickly. It was the best tasting chocolate that he had ever had.

     ‘This is great!’ he told Aunt Julia, ‘Thank you.’ Then he looked down at the package and saw that it had a card inside. He looked at the card, which had the name ‘Albus Dumbledore’ and there was a picture of a man with the longest beard that Leo had ever seen, who was wearing glasses in the shape of half moons. The picture was waving at him.

     ‘Its waving,’ he said in disbelief.

     ‘What?’ His father took the card from him and looked at the picture. His eyes grew wide, ‘Er, Julia could I have a word with you in the kitchen?’

     ‘Certainly,’ Julia said and she followed him off to the kitchen. Leo couldn’t help but notice that his father took his present from Aunt Julia with him. Leo snuck to the door of the kitchen which was closed and on the other side he could hear his father whispering something. He pressed his ear to the key hole of the door.

     ‘What are you thinking, giving him a present like this?’ Dad said furiously.

     ‘Well... I just wanted to...’ Julia said.

     ‘You know that I don’t want him to know about it,’ he said.

     ‘But, Jake he has the right to know! His letter will come soon and you can’t hide it from him for ever!’

     ‘Well I can try!’

     ‘Jake he needs to know! Besides there’s nothing bad about it. He’ll go to school and he’ll learn our ways,’

     ‘And wind up dead like his mother! I’m not going to lose him too! It killed Kora and I won’t let it kill him!’ he said stubbornly. Leo had never heard hid dad speak this away about his mother. He didn’t know how his mother died, he only knew that she had died giving birth to him. He heard his father walk to wards the door and he ran back to the living room.

     ‘Well, Aunt Julia found that her present has gone bad. I guess she bought it too early for your birthday.’ Dad said walking back into the room. Leo looked puzzled and disappointed. Aunt Julia didn’t look happy at all.

     ‘Oh, don’t worry, Leo she’ll get you another one.’

     Leo tried to have fun the rest of the evening. He watched his new movie with his dad and Aunt Julia and they all had hot dogs and birthday cake later on. Then Leo went upstairs to his room for something and when he came downstairs he found that his aunt had left.

     ‘Where’s Aunt Julia?’ he asked his dad.

     ‘Oh she left,’ his father replied.

     ‘How?’

     ‘She got a ride.’ Leo asked no more. He decided now would be the time to tell his father what happened at school that day. He went and got the letter from the principal and gave it to his father. After his father read it, Leo explained what exactly happened.

     ‘So it wasn’t my fault. But I don’t know what happened and I want to know why it happened and how it happened and I’m so confused.’

     ‘I understand, Leo. We’ll talk about this some other time. Now off to bed, it’s getting late.’

     Leo headed up to his room, pulled on his pyjamas and hopped into bed. He sat in bed awake for a long time. He thought about his whole day and wondered what had happened at school that day. He also thought about the conversation in the kitchen between Aunt Julia and his dad. Leo wanted to know so much more. Were these two things related? Was ‘it’ why the rain cloud appeared at school today? It had happened out of nowhere, just like magic.