Hello

The opening of the door startled her. Callie whipped around to find herself staring at one of the tallest men she had ever seen. His head went past the door frame as he looked down on her. His head was narrow with eyes and a mouth that was just as narrow. He was dressed in a black, formal suit. She could have sworn he was kin to the butler from the Addam’s Family television show.

“Yes?” His voice was low and sent chills down her spine. She was waiting on a pale faced caped man to appear behind him. What had she walked into?

“That’s alright, Allen. I’m expecting Callie.”

The tall man turned. Behind him Jardan stood smiling.

Jardan was still dressed in his clothes from school: jeans, print t-shirt, and tennis shoes. Seeing him in such a big home changed her view of him. Now those simple clothes looked like they cost a fortune.

The tall man disappeared. Jardan moved to the door and motioned Callie in.

“Hi, Callie. Did you have any trouble finding the house?” He closed the door behind her.

“No…not really.” Callie looked around the enormous room she stood in. It seemed to be as large as her own home with a large, crystal chandelier hanging down from the vaulted ceiling. On each side of the large room was a set of stairs that curved up and crossed each other as they disappeared into the upper portions of the house. They resembled twisting ribbons.

The floor was marble and everything that wasn’t wall or floor sparkled in gold color. Pictures of people Callie could only assume were family members adorned the walls. On each side of the front door were stained glass windows that sent an array of colors dancing across the marble floor and on the walls.

“Let’s go to the atrium. We can talk about the homework there.” Jardan started walking to a door that stood to the left of the room they were in.

Callie followed with eyes wide. They entered a library that rivaled most libraries she had ever visited. It was definitely larger than the library in Shadowfort or the school library. She was not good as estimating, but the ceiling of the large room had to have been two stories high with bookshelves lining most of the walls to the ceiling. A winding staircase led up to a section that wound around three quarters of the room.

On the far side of the room, the wall was all windows. Bright sunlight shone in, chasing any shadows away. The windows reached up to the ceiling not missing any ray of sunshine they could grab.

Jardan led her through the large library and to the set of doors set into the windows on the far side. She stepped out with him onto a large patio surrounded by columns. Dark green ivy and flowering vines wound around the large architectural pieces. The flagstone of the patio had Irish moss growing around it. It was the time of the year that the moss had tiny, white flowers on it.

A large wrought iron table sat in the center of the patio. It was as large as any dining room table Callie had ever seen. She figured it could easily sit ten which was eight chairs than what she saw.

Beyond the atrium was a garden like she had never seen before. Flowers were everywhere from hugging the ground to reaching far up to the sun. She couldn’t help but gasp at the variety of color that exploded around her. Every shade of blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, and white could be seen.

“So beautiful,” Callie whispered.

“Thank you. This is my mother’s pride and joy. She spends most days out here.” Jardan smiled as he looked out at the flowers with Callie.

Callie’s eyes darted around thinking she’d catch a glimpse of Jardan’s mother. She only saw flowers.

On the table were a stack of books and a laptop. Callie grimaced. That was why she was there. They had to work on a school project.

Mrs. Writenow paired them up to work on a ‘multi-dimensional’ report on The Scarlet Letter. Callie just wasn’t sure what that entailed, but Jardan felt confident about it as did most of the other kids in the class. That was why she didn’t hesitate more than a few seconds before accepting his invitation to his house. She needed all the help she could get.

When they settled down, Jardan pulled the books to him and began laying them out on the table.

“Have you read The Scarlett Letter?”

Callie lowered her eyes and bit her lip.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no.’” He smiled when she looked up at him. “No big deal. Many kids haven’t and really don’t want to.”

“I was supposed to read it this year in school before we moved.” Thoughts of her old school was like a knife in her gut. She missed them so much.

“No worries. I’ll walk you through it.” He smiled.

Callie blushed. She wasn’t attracted to him, but such a good-looking boy willing to help her with schoolwork would make any girl’s heart take a small leap. And good-looking he was.

Jardan had black hair that was cut short except on top where it hung a little longer and teased his eyes. Oh, his eyes! They were emerald green with streaks of black through them. Callie found it hard to look away once she looked at them. And the rest of him was just as perfect. Callie shook her head and focused on the work before them.

Over the next hour, they discussed the book and the project around it. Callie had dreaded the entire thing, but it was starting to sound fun. It was not only to be written but audio, musical, video, and artistic. She was a little overwhelmed as she was not too artistic or creative, but Jardan assured her it would be alright.

When they had the entire project planned out, Jardan excused himself to go to the bathroom. Callie looked around the atrium again now that she was alone. She stood up from the table and moved toward one of the large columns surrounding it. Her eyes widened when she realized it was real marble and not concrete or something made to look fake from a distance. Then again, she shouldn’t be surprised considering how wealthy it appeared the family was.

What made the columns so unique was the fact they were not typical Roman or Greek style. Yes, they were shaped like them with the pedestal and foot styles. Each of them represented each column style found in history. But these were round with carvings in them.

The column her hand was one was carved with figures of what appeared to be butterflies. Callie frowned. Why butterflies? She moved around the column seeing many different shapes of the insect all the way up the column and around it. She moved to the next column to find that one featuring bees. The next one showed humming birds.