Xilaskar
Natalie
Every 21 leap years a Xilaskar is born, regardless if the other one has passed away. This wonder of the world is a human with the powers of the Gods. Some say the Gods sent the Xilaskar to the earth to be a savior—but this human is capable of both great good, and great evil. And throughout the many millenniums the Xilaskar has taken its toll on the world, in both good ways and bad. Some of the worst devastations were caused by the Xilaskar, like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. But over the years it has redeemed itself by cleaning up its predecessors messes and renewing the love and trust of the people all over the world. The last one died just before its 90th birthday in 1921 leaving about a seventy-five year difference for the next one to be born. The latest one was born in the year 1996 and is now fifteen years old. No one knows who this Xilaskar is or where he or she is. So far this Xilaskar hasn’t made itself known to the world. Once in a while a story on the news would pop up about these random acts of heroics, most of them happening in the big city of Chicago. The reporters are left wondering if the acts of goodness are due to the unknown Xilaskar. And still no one knows.
At home a girl named Natalie, the same age as the anonymous Xilaskar, sits at her kitchen table trying to figure out her sophomore level math problems. She twirls her number 2 pencil in her wavy blonde hair while tapping her manicured peach glossy nail on the table. One of her eyebrows was raised high in confusion with her tenth word problem. She kept staring at the problem, possibly hoping it would solve itself if she gave it a frightening enough look. Or maybe if she looked at it long enough the answer would come to her. But the longer she stared at it, the more frustrated she became. Natalie stopped twisting her hair around her pencil and with her thumb put pressure on the top of the pencil just below the eraser. The pencil snapped. “UGH!!” she exclaimed. “Why do I have to do this stupid homework?! It’s pointless. I wouldn’t even have to go to school if it wasn’t for you and your obsession with finding the Xilaskar!!” she exclaimed to the only other person in the house, her father, Hayden. He was sitting in his lab chair in the living room where he had a table set up. It was only for his paper work though, which he was working on now. For his experiments, he went to the basement.
“Now, Natalie, you know the Xilaskar is your age. They must be in school too. What American isn’t in school now days? And they are too young to drop out, same as you. So you will continue to be schooled until you are eighteen, then you may choose to drop out, and that is only if the Xilaskar has been discovered before then. While you are in school you still have a chance in finding them for me.”
“And what if I don’t?” Natalie crossed her arms and frowned.
“It’s a big school, anything can happen.” Hayden replied. He was silent after that. His eyes traced another paper, and soon he was gone all over again. He was in this own little world, reading his papers, reading other scientists books. He was working on something, something big. And Natalie was one of the few that knew what he was doing.
* * * * *
It had been about a month since school started at Amundsen High. Homework was flying out of the teacher’s hands and into the student’s homes. Fun was limited to the weekends. The football team had already had a few games and homecoming was right around the corner. Their team would walk the hallways proudly in their football jerseys.
Natalie stood at her shiny, thickly painted red locker where some of the paint had peeled off by the handle. She grabbed her biology book and sprinted to class. She was almost tardy for class, but not that Mr. Higgins would care. He took a late attendance anyway.
Natalie took a seat by Dominic who smelled like he had been smoking weed, as did Nathan, the boy across from her. Samantha was chewing tobacco. But not all of Amundsen High was full of pot smokers and druggies. There were quite a few very intelligent students there. Even she, Natalie, was one of the better and smarter students, one of the top ten in her class.
Class started. Mr. Higgins passed out a lab and had the class get into partners. The room buzzed loudly for a moment as friends got together with friends. Natalie didn’t bother to move from her table. Instead she looked at her lab and started to do the problems herself.
Mr. Higgins came by her table. “I know you are smart and can do this on your own, but I would much rather you do this with a partner. Rose doesn’t have a partner, why don’t you partner up with her?”
Rose just sat back down. She also tried working her problems out herself, but she wasn’t getting it done as easily. Mr. Higgins walked Natalie to Rose’s desk. “You two can work together on this.” he said. He then walked away and sat at his desk. Once he sat down he instantly faced the computer and started browsing the web.
Natalie didn’t like working with others. She didn’t like anyone. She had no friends. Her father told her she didn’t need friends when she was a kid. When she was older she realized why he told her that. He just wanted to keep everyone’s nose out of this business. She tried to have friends before, but they always let her down in some way. They never did anything the way she wanted things done. She had a few boyfriends before her sophomore year, but a couple of them cheated on her, and the others didn’t really love her. They just wanted sex. She had one boyfriend she really loved, but he died in a car accident when he was out with his friends. She had counseling at school for a little while until Hayden found out they were asking questions about home and the counseling ended right there and then.
But with all that aside, Rose was sweet. Natalie didn’t think much about her. She actually didn’t mind working with Rose and wasn’t going to be a jerk to her. Rose never hurt her, there for; there was no reason to hurt Rose. Rose was average, she was middle weight, her hair was a medium brown, and she had a bitter sweet side. She was quiet. And she was only bitter when provoked. Rose was known for her perfect attendance, she never took a sick day. You would almost put her in the nerd category, except that she wasn’t super smart in anything.
Rose tried to help work out the problems with Natalie as best she could. But she was not the best at science. Natalie liked that Rose at least tried to help in getting the problem instead of enjoying the free ride. By the end of class, their lab was finished. Rose wrote both of their names at the top of the lap paper and turned it in on her way out.
Natalie threw her book bag over her shoulder and walked up to the front of the room, glancing at the other lab papers as she walked to the door. She could already tell the first couple papers had wrong answers. One of her classmates drew a pot leaf on one of their papers. A different paper had a penis-smiley face, as if the teacher wouldn’t notice. Natalie shook her head and left to her next class.
The school day ended. Natalie was back at her locker where she began her day. She started putting her books on the top shelf of her locker when she heard some excitement down the hall.
“WOW!!” someone exclaimed. “How did you do that?!”
This was something she was trained to seek out. Something her dad assigned her to do. She was supposed to be looking for the Xilaskar, that’s why she was here. Maybe her father could be proud of her if she found the Xilaskar and killed it, then presented it to her dad.
At home a girl named Natalie, the same age as the anonymous Xilaskar, sits at her kitchen table trying to figure out her sophomore level math problems. She twirls her number 2 pencil in her wavy blonde hair while tapping her manicured peach glossy nail on the table. One of her eyebrows was raised high in confusion with her tenth word problem. She kept staring at the problem, possibly hoping it would solve itself if she gave it a frightening enough look. Or maybe if she looked at it long enough the answer would come to her. But the longer she stared at it, the more frustrated she became. Natalie stopped twisting her hair around her pencil and with her thumb put pressure on the top of the pencil just below the eraser. The pencil snapped. “UGH!!” she exclaimed. “Why do I have to do this stupid homework?! It’s pointless. I wouldn’t even have to go to school if it wasn’t for you and your obsession with finding the Xilaskar!!” she exclaimed to the only other person in the house, her father, Hayden. He was sitting in his lab chair in the living room where he had a table set up. It was only for his paper work though, which he was working on now. For his experiments, he went to the basement.
“Now, Natalie, you know the Xilaskar is your age. They must be in school too. What American isn’t in school now days? And they are too young to drop out, same as you. So you will continue to be schooled until you are eighteen, then you may choose to drop out, and that is only if the Xilaskar has been discovered before then. While you are in school you still have a chance in finding them for me.”
“And what if I don’t?” Natalie crossed her arms and frowned.
“It’s a big school, anything can happen.” Hayden replied. He was silent after that. His eyes traced another paper, and soon he was gone all over again. He was in this own little world, reading his papers, reading other scientists books. He was working on something, something big. And Natalie was one of the few that knew what he was doing.
* * * * *
It had been about a month since school started at Amundsen High. Homework was flying out of the teacher’s hands and into the student’s homes. Fun was limited to the weekends. The football team had already had a few games and homecoming was right around the corner. Their team would walk the hallways proudly in their football jerseys.
Natalie stood at her shiny, thickly painted red locker where some of the paint had peeled off by the handle. She grabbed her biology book and sprinted to class. She was almost tardy for class, but not that Mr. Higgins would care. He took a late attendance anyway.
Natalie took a seat by Dominic who smelled like he had been smoking weed, as did Nathan, the boy across from her. Samantha was chewing tobacco. But not all of Amundsen High was full of pot smokers and druggies. There were quite a few very intelligent students there. Even she, Natalie, was one of the better and smarter students, one of the top ten in her class.
Class started. Mr. Higgins passed out a lab and had the class get into partners. The room buzzed loudly for a moment as friends got together with friends. Natalie didn’t bother to move from her table. Instead she looked at her lab and started to do the problems herself.
Mr. Higgins came by her table. “I know you are smart and can do this on your own, but I would much rather you do this with a partner. Rose doesn’t have a partner, why don’t you partner up with her?”
Rose just sat back down. She also tried working her problems out herself, but she wasn’t getting it done as easily. Mr. Higgins walked Natalie to Rose’s desk. “You two can work together on this.” he said. He then walked away and sat at his desk. Once he sat down he instantly faced the computer and started browsing the web.
Natalie didn’t like working with others. She didn’t like anyone. She had no friends. Her father told her she didn’t need friends when she was a kid. When she was older she realized why he told her that. He just wanted to keep everyone’s nose out of this business. She tried to have friends before, but they always let her down in some way. They never did anything the way she wanted things done. She had a few boyfriends before her sophomore year, but a couple of them cheated on her, and the others didn’t really love her. They just wanted sex. She had one boyfriend she really loved, but he died in a car accident when he was out with his friends. She had counseling at school for a little while until Hayden found out they were asking questions about home and the counseling ended right there and then.
But with all that aside, Rose was sweet. Natalie didn’t think much about her. She actually didn’t mind working with Rose and wasn’t going to be a jerk to her. Rose never hurt her, there for; there was no reason to hurt Rose. Rose was average, she was middle weight, her hair was a medium brown, and she had a bitter sweet side. She was quiet. And she was only bitter when provoked. Rose was known for her perfect attendance, she never took a sick day. You would almost put her in the nerd category, except that she wasn’t super smart in anything.
Rose tried to help work out the problems with Natalie as best she could. But she was not the best at science. Natalie liked that Rose at least tried to help in getting the problem instead of enjoying the free ride. By the end of class, their lab was finished. Rose wrote both of their names at the top of the lap paper and turned it in on her way out.
Natalie threw her book bag over her shoulder and walked up to the front of the room, glancing at the other lab papers as she walked to the door. She could already tell the first couple papers had wrong answers. One of her classmates drew a pot leaf on one of their papers. A different paper had a penis-smiley face, as if the teacher wouldn’t notice. Natalie shook her head and left to her next class.
The school day ended. Natalie was back at her locker where she began her day. She started putting her books on the top shelf of her locker when she heard some excitement down the hall.
“WOW!!” someone exclaimed. “How did you do that?!”
This was something she was trained to seek out. Something her dad assigned her to do. She was supposed to be looking for the Xilaskar, that’s why she was here. Maybe her father could be proud of her if she found the Xilaskar and killed it, then presented it to her dad.