Ethan Daniels: A Thousand Words

Now, I know you're probably dying to know the answers to all this crazy stuff that was going on, but right now I think it might be a good idea to rewind a few years. Let's go back to when I was a kid.

At nine years old (one of my more awkward stages) I realized I was just a square peg in a round hole. When I tried to make friends, I ended up making enemies because they would be the most feared kid in school or the biggest liar of all time. Like the first time I rode the bus to my new school. I got kicked out of the other one for being 'too disruptive' when really it was Marty Chase who was causing all the trouble and I was just trying to get him to stop. I DID tell you I met big fat liars, right? Well, I was in the back row, which I didn't know at the time was the 'row of doom', and hooray for me, who shows up? Lester Malone, the biggest blockhead known to man. Or at least in my opinion.

"Hey, Danny." He said, mockingly.

I glanced over at him. I couldn't help but notice his small, ugly eyes and his big, round face. He looked like a pig wearing a hoodie.

"My name is Ethan, actually," I replied, "maybe you're getting confused with my last name Daniels?"

I was just trying to be nice.

"I know what your name is, Danny!" Some of his spit flew in my eye and I wiped it out, trying not to get upset. "And I also know just where your name will be in about five seconds!"

I thought it over a while, then asked, "Where?"

Lester grabbed me by my shirt and lifted my small, scrawny, awkward nine-year-old body right out of the seat, "On your death certificate, rat-boy!"

Yes, I will explain the nickname. See, when I was a kid, I had the worst case of buck teeth since Spongebob. But that was the only thing about me that resembled a rat. Unless you count blue eyes, freckles and black hair as rodent-like features.

I quickly shut my wide-open mouth to hide my teeth. He brought me closer and I could smell his breakfast as he huffed in my face. Frosted flakes, I think. Or some other kind of sugary cereal. You could tell that boy was a huge fan of sweets.

"Look, I'm not trying to cause any trouble, okay?" I put my hands up, attempting to display my innocence, "I don't even think I did anything worth upsetting you--" I paused, thinking of his name, but remembering he never really introduced himself.

"Lester," he said, spitting in my eye again, "Lester Malone."

Maybe THAT's why he's bitter, I thought. If my parents gave ME a name like Lester I'd be like that too.

"Look, Lester," I said, trying not to laugh, "--can I call you Les?"

Lester pulled me around by my hair and slammed my face against the window of the bus, making my face all smushed in an awkward way.

"Take your last look at this world, Danny," Lester snorted out, "it might just be your last."

You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh at his failed attempt at a threat. But the hilarity soon turned to fear when Lester turned me back around and kneed me you-know-where.

I will take this time to NOT explain the pain. It could have been worse, I guess.

"Hey!" A voice called from the third row, "Back off, Malone! He's mine!"

Just then a girl with a long blonde braid and angry, pursed lips walked up with her hands on her hips.

"Christine!" Lester exclaimed, "Sorry! I am so, so sorry!" His voice cracked really bad, then he dashed off, either from embarrassment or fright. Probably both.

There she stood, a few feet in front of me, her hands on her hips, her eyes burning with pure evil. Slowly she strutted down to me and knelt down to my abnormally short level.

"What's your name?" she asked, "Or should I just call you 'loser'?"

"Ethan," I replied, "But you can call me Danny. That's what HE did anyway." I pointed at Lester.

"Yeah, well, Lester is an idiot." Christine said.

"Exactly."

Sometimes, Ethan, you just need to keep your mouth shut.

I squeezed my eyes awaiting my doom.

"A comeback artist, huh?" She asked, "I like it."

Wait, what?

I opened my eyes, "So you're not going to kill me?"

"No," Christine replied, "not yet."

She patted me on the back and made her way back to her seat. I sighed, half in relief and half in frustration. No matter how hard I tried, I honestly thought I would never make a friend. I really believed it wasn't possible for anyone to like me. I started to miss my little sister Grace. She was my only friend, and she didn't care about my buck teeth and my naive personality.

"Are you okay?" A voice from beside me asked.

I looked over and saw a little boy with fuzzy, dark hair and ridiculous sunglasses.

"Uh, yeah." I said, half expecting him to be another bully who would make some stupid comeback to my reply. But he nodded and smiled, then looked away. I looked away too, until I heard his voice again.

"I'm Shiloh Banks." He said, holding out his hand.

I took it and smiled, "Ethan Daniels."

Suddenly, his eyes widened, "Ethan Daniels?" he asked, astonished, "THE Ethan Daniels?"

I brought my head back in confusion, "I... don't really know what you mean." I said.

Shiloh scooted closer to me and pulled a book out of his backpack.

"The Book of World Records?" I asked.

"Mhm." Shiloh smiled, "you're in here, right?"

"Uh..."

He started flipping through the pages until he made it to about the middle of the book. He started reading:

"Nine year old Ethan Daniels was the winner of the young magicians prize, being the youngest to ever receive it. Unfortunately, he never accepted it because his parents announced they 'do not believe in magic'. This aspiring magician supposedly managed to create the illusion of five crops rising out of the ground and developing into fully grown tomatoes. He did all of this in his neighbor's backyard."

I shook my head in disbelief, "What does that mean?" I said, "Its got to be a different Ethan Daniels. I don't do magician stuff..."

"You mean magic?" Shiloh asked.

"Yeah, sure."

"Well, look." Shiloh showed me the picture in the book of the tomato plant, "Is that your neighbor's backyard?"

I looked at the picture, closely, "Yeah. That's definitely their backyard," I said, "but that doesn't prove anything."

"Man, maybe you have magical powers and you don't even know it!" Shiloh shouted.

You're a wizard, Ethan, was all I was thinking. Fortunately, I refrained from making a dorky reference.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said, trying not to sound too sarcastic.

Finally, the bus arrived at school.

***

When the clock struck recess, Shiloh bolted towards me and sat on the swing opposite me.

"During math class, I was thinking." He said.

"Okay...?" Once again, he was confusing me.

"I mean, not about MATH. About your superpowers."

"I don't have superpowers, Shiloh." I said. And why would I have thought differently? I don't think anyone would have expected me to believe I was bitten by a radioactive tomato or something.

"Okay, maybe not superpowers," Shiloh stated, "but maybe a special ability. You DO believe in that stuff, right?" He pushed his sunglasses up his nose.

"Why? Do YOU?" I asked.

He looked at my expression for a while, then replied, "Nah." His eyes shifted away from me and his leg started to shake.

"Are you okay?" I asked when I noticed his leg acting like it was on caffeine.

"Yeah, yeah." He held onto his leg until it stopped being weird, then looked back at me. "Do you wanna come to my house for a while?" he asked.

"Um," I felt a little awkward, "I'd have to ask my parents."

"Then we can go to your house."

He was starting to sound desperate.

"We just met, man. Can't we wait a little while? You know, see if we actually wanna be friends first?" I asked.

"No- I have a really cool idea! Please!" he swung back and forth on the swing, making that awkward squeaking sound that nearly covered up what he said.

I sighed. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Maybe we would end up being best buds.

"You know what?" I said, "Sure. We can have you over for dinner. I'm sure my parents would love to have you over. And we can ride the bus home and sit together."

Shiloh shook his head, "I hate the bus. I only took it this morning because I--" he paused, "well, just because."

I tried not to act suspicious, "So, what? We'll walk?" I asked.

"Yeah. I hate sitting in a bus that spews out all those horrible gases into the air, destroying our environment."

Oh, great. He was one of THOSE people. Not that I really have anything against them. Tree-huggers just tend to despise people like me. I use paper and electricity just about all the time.

"Right," I said, "then we can walk. Walking is good exercise. Plus, its kinda fun."

Yeah, back when you had TWO legs.

"Great!" Shiloh said, smiling.

After swinging a bit more and attempting to avoid Lester and Christine, it was time to go back to class. I had to get my math book out of the locker, but I told Shiloh to go ahead without me. My locker was number 376, and it was kinda far from the view of any of the classrooms. You know what THAT means, right? No witnesses.

"Hey, Daniels!" Christine appeared beside me and was rocking prissy, attitude filled, angry freak expression. "Did you think I forgot about you?"

"No, I just hoped so." I tried to keep a nice long stare into her hate-filled eyes, but I could only manage it for a few seconds at a time before breaking eye contact and looking down at my feet.

Christine scoffed, "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint."

Actually, her company wasn't all that bad. But I assumed it would be awful soon, seeing the way Lester Malone reacted when all she did was talk.

"Christine," I said.

"Don't Christine me, Daniels!" she replied.

"Oh," I cleared my throat, "Sorry. Um... YOU. I don't want trouble, okay? I'm the kind of kid who just wants to make friends."

"And I'M the kind of kid who HATES those kinds of kids!"

Whoa! Harsh. I tried to act like what she said was cool and all, but to be honest, it hurt my little nine-year-old heart.

"Okay, then why don't you leave me alone?" I asked.

"Because," she said, "you're different."

She started playing with her braid as she looked around suspiciously, then pulled me to the other side of the locker.

"You're special, aren't you?" she asked.

"I... don't think so." I answered.

She stared right into my eyes. It felt like she was attempting to penetrate my soul. She looked down at my hands and grabbed them. She started examining them in hers.

"Okay!" I remarked as I pulled my hands away, "What are you trying to do? Make me look stupid or something?"

Christine glanced up at me again, "Are you an earth-bender?"

"An earth-whatter?" I asked.

"Earth-bender." Christine lowered her voice, "Earth-benders have the ability to control things of the earth with a swipe of the hand or a stomp of the foot. Ethan--" she shook her head "--I mean Daniels, I think you're one of them."

"Are you crazy?" I asked, "This is some sort of joke, right?"

"No, listen," for the first time her eyes were filled with wonder rather than pure evil, "your eyes are blue. Your hair is black and your skin is pale." she leaned in closer, "All traits of an earth-bender."

"So?" I said, "Tons of people have black hair and blue eyes."

"Yeah, but can all of them do THAT?" Christine pointed to my leg.

Out from the window, across the hallway, and wrapped around my leg was a long, green vine, and it was slowly spiraling its way up my leg.

"What the--" My heart raced a thousand beats per second and the quicker it raced, the faster the vine spiraled up my leg. I stared down in shock as the vine made its way to my knee.

"You've got to stay calm, Daniels!" Christine's more recognizable tone returned, "being a baby about it will only make it worse."

I tried to calm myself down. I really didn't want to die young, especially not before I'd seen all the Harry Potter movies. I slowly exhaled and closed my eyes. I thought nice, happy thoughts until finally, the vine started spiraling down, until my leg was free from its grip.

"Well THAT happened." I remarked.

"Yes, it did. And that only happens to terrified earth-benders. Which proves BOTH of my points." Christine smiled her annoying smile.

"Both?"

"One: you're an earth-bender. And two: you're terrified of me." She made a small jump in my direction.

"Ahh!" I flew backwards and hit my head on the locker.

Christine laughed, "Dork!" she smiled sarcastically, "You'd better get brave soon or you'll be a human grapevine for the rest of your life."

"I don't get it," I said, "First of all, how did you know about all that earth-bending stuff? And secondly, why haven't I been attacked by a vine before?"

"Ugh!" Christine sighed, "I'll answer your stupid dork questions, but I'm gonna make it quick so I can get back to class."

Well at least she wasn't one of those bullies who forgot was school was really about.

"I know because I used to have a friend, Viggo Meyers, with the same ability."

"USED to?" I repeated.

"He died... actually, he was murdered." I could tell she was forcing herself to continue acting like Christine, or at least she was trying to act like the Christine everyone thought they knew, "You really shouldn't ask personal questions like that, Daniels!"

"Sorry," I said, feeling terrible, "I'm a curious person."

"Well stop it..." Christine straightened her shoulders and got back into Answering-My-Questions mode, "You haven't been attacked before because you weren't thinking about earth bending. But just now, when I was explaining it to you, you were. You had to have been."

"But," I thought about what she said, "what about the tomatoes?"

"Okay. I'm going to class." She clearly thought I was trying to be funny or something because she rolled her eyes and started towards class. She stopped and turned around to add one more thing, "I'm still not done with you, Daniels."