Checkmate

My face was held just two inches away from the paper in front of me. The dim lamp barely gave enough light for me to see what I was doing. But I was so sure of this picture I was drawing that I could have been blind folded or blind and still work on it. I wouldn't be surprised if I did become blind after this: endless nights of my face pressed up again my sketch book in the dark slowly focusing on the back and forth strokes I made with my pencil.

"Abelinda Rosemary Fern!" my mother yelled. Uh oh. "It is three in the morning! Go to bed, now!"

"Okay," I called back. I went over to my bed and lay down, rolling around loudly so she could hear. I waited there silently until I heard the door to her room close. I jumped up and went back to my desk. I looked down at my drawing.

Almost finished.

I sat back down and picked up my pencil. All I needed to do know was put the people in and then shade where shading was needed.

My eye lids were getting heavier and heavier. I glanced over at the clock next to my bed. It was now five thirty. I yawned hugely. I turned back to my picture and smiled. I held it up to the light.

"It's finished," I said between yawns. And it only took a week. One whole week with barely any sleep at all. I lay my head down on my desk, letting my eyes close and the night wash over me.

"Happy Birthday!"

I gasped and sat up abruptly. I turned to see that my family was all in my room. My mom holding a small cake (chocolate; my favorite) while my dad was holding some presents. My older sister and younger brother were there too, smiling at me. I rubbed my eyes and looked at my calendar. January tenth; I totally forgot that it was my birthday. I was too busy working on my drawing.

"Yup. She forgot again," my eighteen-year-old sister Tammy said then laughed, shaking her head which made her short auburn hair brush against the sides of her face.

"I'm not surprised," Lewis, my younger fifteen-year-old brother, said. He's just an inch or two shorter than I. His hair was brownish blond and cropped short.

I got up out of my chair and stretched. My back really hurt from sleeping at my desk. That was probably not a smart idea. I should have slept in my bed.

"You are now officially seventeen years old. How do you feel? Old?" Tammy said and laughed again.

"Here," my mom said, "lets get out of this cramped room and go down to the living room. Then you can open your presents before you go to school."

We got to the living room and I flopped down on the couch, still very, very tired. I probably only got a half an hour of sleep. I yawned again. My mom frowned. "I really wish you wouldn't stay up so late drawing. I don't like you staying up until three in the morning with barely any light." I didn't mention that I was up later than what she thought. "It's not a very smart thing to do. And now on your birthday you're like a zombie." She handed me a rectangular present. It looked like it could have been one of those boxes that held clothes in it. But it was a bit heavier when I took it. I ripped off the spotted wrapping paper. My mouth turned up in the corners into a huge smile. It was a glass chess set.

"How do you like it, sis?" Lewis asked. "I picked it out special for you."

I threw my arms around him. "Oh thank you, Lewis! It's perfect; just what I wanted!" Moisture filled my eyes. If there was anything I loved in the whole wide world, it was playing chess.

"Okay, okay. Now don't get all mushy on me." He laughed and pulled away.

"All right, open mine next." Tammy put a small box in my hand. It was gold with yellow ribbon. I untied the ribbon and took off the lid. Inside the small box was a ring. I pulled it out and slipped it onto my index finger, examining it. The band was silver with a huge dark garnet gem on top. A silver dragon design wound around the jewel delicately. I fluttered my fingers in the light, watching it sparkle.

"It's so beautiful," I mused.

"I know it's not the one you said you wanted, but I just thought that since you like all that mythical creature stuff....."

"No, no, Tammy. I love it, really. The dragon is really cool. And look," I held out my hand to her, "it's my birthstone."

"I know." She smiled a little smugly.

My mom looked down at the watch around her wrist. "Well, you don't want to be late for school, so why don't you just open the rest of your gifts after you get home?"

"Sounds good to me," I said, sliding my finger across the top of the cake and stuck it in my mouth, enjoying the taste of the sweet chocolate frosting.

"Hey!" Lewis laughed. He took the cake away from me before I could stick my finger back in for more and set it on the kitchen table. I heaved myself off the couch a trudged back to my room. I wish I could just go back to bed.

I decided that nobody would want to talk to me if I was going to be such a drag today, so when I got to my room I quickly opened my mini fridge and grabbed for an energy drink. I took a little sip. Realizing how monstrously thirsty I was, I chugged down half of the can in less than a minute.

Right after I got dressed, the door bell rang. That would be my friend Luna. I promised her that I would walk to school with her. I only lived a couple blocks away from school. I ran to the front door and opened it.

"Hey, Luna," I greeted warmly. I was in a very good mood today, despite the major loss of sleep.

"What's up, Abby?" When my mom wasn't angry at me and using my full name, people just called me Abby; short for Abelinda. Naturally.

I stepped out of the house and closed the door behind me. "Nothing too exciting. My family just ambushed me in my sleep with cake and presents; nothing new."

Luna laughed her high pitched childish laugh. It matched her long wavy bright red hair and freckles. She was about a head shorter than me. She really did look like a child. "I'm serious though," she said.

"Well, I'm so tired right now that I could drop dead any second, and yet I'm feeling a little shaky from all the energy drink I just had."

"So how much sleep did you get this time?" She laughed once.

"Oh just about a half an hour at the most," I answered innocently. I turned to smile at her. She just raised her eyebrows at me. I probably looked and sounded crazy.

"Jeez, Abby. Am I going to have to follow you home every night and make sure you get enough sleep myself? It really isn't good for you!"

I rolled my eyes. "My God, you sound just like my mother!" I grimaced. "I'm totally fine; trust me." But then I straightened up with bit of a smug smile. "Besides, I finished it."

Luna gasped and stopped walking. We were almost to the school grounds now. I was actually going to be early today. "Seriously? Let me see it! Let me see it!" She started jumping up and down while my eyes followed. It was making me dizzy.

"Stop!" I commanded, grabbing her shoulders. "You're driving me insane!"

"Like you aren't already insane," she scoffed and shook my hands off. We started walking again. "Now, when am I going to get to see it?"

"Be patient. I'll bring it to lunch."

"Yes!" Luna just loved looking at my drawings. And it has just been killing her this past week when I wouldn't even show her how much I got done. I wanted it to stay a surprise until it was completely finished. That was a first. I usually didn't do that. Especially since she's my best friend, you would think that I would at least show her the quick outline or sketch.

We were entering the front doors into the school when Luna said, "Oh yeah, Happy Birthday, by the way. What did you get? Or did you not open any gifts yet?"

"Uh, no, um," I was a little lost in thought. I always got this way while thinking about drawing. "Lewis got me a chess set and Ellen got me a ring." Luna frowned. Probably because I failed once again to give her every single last detail. I sighed and continued. "It's a glass chess set. Really cool. The ring has my birthstone and a dragon design. I love it." I lifted up my hand to show her. My voice was dull and boring. The energy drink didn't help. I felt a huge yawn about to break free. It sounded like Luna said something but I couldn't hear. My loud and rude yawn drowned it out. "What did you say?"

"I said that that's really cool. Ooh, speaking of chess, I got my own chess set yesterday. But I don't know how to play. Do you think you could teach me? It's in my school bag."

I smiled. "Sure, no problem. I'd love to teach you. Bring it to lunch." And then a loud bell rang indicating that first hour was about to start in five minutes.

"See ya." Luna waved then quickly ran in the direction to her locker. Huh, so I was going to be late after all.

First hour I had Study Hall, which was good. Maybe I could catch up on some missed sleep. But then I remembered that I had unfinished homework due for French next hour so that idea flew right out the window. Luckily though, I was very good at speaking and writing French, so the assignment was a breeze. I finished it within ten minutes.

Instead of sleeping though I decided to pull out my sketch book and draw. I flipped open to the picture I finished last night (or early this morning). In the picture was a huge castle and around it a whole town stood. People walking in the streets, visiting with friends and family, and some even sitting and playing chess. A hand was sticking out one of the castle windows. Just a hand waving. It was supposed to be the princess's hand. I decided to draw my silver dragon ring on the hand.

On the other pages of my sketch book, were pictures of the rooms that were inside the castle. And on other pages I drew important people. Like knights or the bravest warriors. I flipped to a page with two knights on it. These were the men who were to protect the princess.

I was just staring at the knight on the right side of the page when all of a sudden, he winked at me! I jumped back in my seat a little bit. I shook my head. I was losing it after all, wasn't I? The answer was right there in front of me. Pictures don't talk, they don't move, and they especially don't wink! So for the rest of the class period, I just sat, watching the knight.

It was the same when I entered my second hour French class. I wasn't really paying attention to what the teacher was saying. I just sat, staring...

Fifteen minutes passed and I was even refusing to blink. I didn't want to miss it if he moved again. But then the knight turned his head and looked straight at me. He smiled.

"Gah!" I jumped up out of my seat. "I knew it! I saw it! He moved!" I pointed at the drawing. I looked up to realize that everyone in the class was looking at me. Except the teacher. She was scowling at me.

"Miss Fern," she said through her teeth, "did it just slip past your mind, the fact that I was in the middle of teaching a lesson?" She crossed her arms. "That's a demerit. Now, sit down and be quiet!"

"Sorry," I muttered, embarrassed. I felt my cheeks get red and warm when I heard some kids in the back laughing at me. I sat back down and quickly shut my sketch book and set my other books on top of it.

I didn't look or think about the moving knight at all for the rest of my classes up until lunch time.

I sat down next to Luna in our usual spot in the lunch room. She noticed my irritated mood right away. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You look a little angry."

"It's nothing," I replied, though my voice didn't hide that it wasn't nothing.

She raised her eye brows, not buying it.

"Where's Michael?" I asked, changing the subject.

She shrugged. "I went to the movie theater with him yesterday and he didn't look so good. He probably just has the flu though." Her voice was sad. Michael is her new boyfriend. They've been too close to be just friends since seventh grade. He finally asked her out three months ago.

Then she smiled big. "Can I see your drawing now?"

I sighed. "Sure." I pulled out my sketch book and opened it. I first showed her the drawing of the castle and towns people. "This is Flutura. My own little world I made."

"Cool!" She snatched the sketch book right out of my hands to get a better look. She pointed her finger to the top of the picture. "Are those dragons in the sky?"

I smiled. "Yup. Flutura is filled with mythical creatures. You can see at the gates there are two guards standing there. Well, they're vampires." Her eyes strayed to where my finger pointed to.

"Vampires?" she gasped.

"Don't worry, they're good." I laughed. I pointed to another part of the picture. I started to say something but she interrupted.

"Hey, that person's ring looks like the one you're wearing now!"

"Yeah, I know. I did that on purpose. It's the princess's ring."

She thought for a moment. "So this is what took you a week to draw?" Her tone of voice was insulting.

"No, this is what took me a whole night to draw. What took me a whole week was drawing all the rooms inside the castle and the important people." I right away thought about the moving knight.

"Tell me what's wrong," Luna insisted. Damn, why did she have to be so observant?

"I'm fine, really." I flipped the page. "Here. This is the ball room. For dances and special occasions." It was a huge room. Bigger than the gym in our school. It had a glass ceiling so that the moon could show through at night. There were long giant windows on all sides with huge gold curtains. Always opened during the daytime.

"Sweet! Those people are going to have some party!" She laughed at her own joke. But then she frowned. "Where's the DJ? And the disco ball?"

Now I laughed. "It's not those kinds of castles, Luna. Flutura is kind of an old fashioned place. Just imagine the Renaissance time. Well, not exactly like that but sort of, I guess."

"Oh."

I flipped the page. "Now, this is the princess's room." It was a big room with a green and purple theme. I never really liked the whole "Princess Pink" idea where everybody was convinced that a princess's room should be bright pink with flowers everywhere. Yuck. The floor of this room was wood with a soft lavender carpet next to the bed. The walls were covered with landscape paintings. On both sides of the bed were a table with a vase full of roses, violets, and tulips. The bed was of course huge and had a dozen of green and purple pillows that matched the green blanket.

After I showed her all the rooms in the castle (while eating our bag lunches slowly) I moved on to showing her the people.

"This is a close up picture of the two vampire guards. They both have different jobs though besides just guarding the gates to Flutura." I pointed to the vampire guard on the left side. "This guy has all the keys. The key to open the gates. The key to the castle dungeon. Every single key that's needed to get into a door with a lock. And the other guy is wearing more armor than the other one. That's because he is also a warrior vampire. They're called War Vamps."

Luna snickered.

"What?" I asked

"War Vamps?" She laughed again.

"Well I've got to call them something! Now, do you or do you not want to see the rest of my pictures?" I glared at her.

"Yes, I do. Please continue." I could tell she was trying to surpress another laugh.

"Fine then." I flipped the page again.

"I just have one question," she then said.

I sighed. "What is it?"

"What does the princess look like? You did draw her, right?"

"Er, no actually," I admitted. I drew an arm sticking out of a window, did that count as drawing a princess?

"Why?"

"I don't really know." And that was the truth. I didn't know. A little voice inside my head told me that is was better if I just left it a mystery. Either that or I was just too tired to draw anymore. I flipped the page to the two knights. This was the last drawing I had to show Luna.

But when I turned the page, it was blank.

The knights disappeared.