7. Experimenting

As Brooke sits in the waiting room to finally face against a master guardian, she meets some interesting characters.

Brooke stood in the shadow of the academy building. She took the confirmation letter out of her pocket and stared at it. Her stomach twisted into unpleasant knots and they twisted even tighter. Her cheeks felt light and airy; her feet groundless. Why was she so nervous? She had waited for this so long. She had prepared for this so long. Anxiety intruded in her skin and made her shiver. She also wondered if she was mentally ready for this. She had witnessed an awful scene with her father destroying her mom’s diary. She hoped she hadn’t exhausted her emotional welfare. She needed to be alert. She shook her head, cracked her neck, and entered the double doors of the academy.

Brooke smelled the polished floors and suddenly she was conscious of her feet. A long hallway stretched before her, appearing as an endless illusion. Her mind went blank and she forgot where she was supposed to go. An ivory toned elfin woman exited a room and Brooke called after her, “Excuse me! “ The woman stopped and clasped her hands within one another. ”Are you student here?” The woman had a thick, husky voice, sounding as if she originated from a cold climate area.

 “No.” Brooke cleared her throat and repeated, “I mean no I’m not; I’m here for the audition.”

 “Oh okay, well, follow me then.” Brooke nodded and obeyed. They turned down one hall and then another. They approached an interior double door. She opened it and they stepped into a lounge. A sleeping boy lay sprawled over the cushions of a leather couch. Adjacent to the couch was a girl reading a magazine and sitting on a sofa chair. They seemed comfortable. Brooke relaxed, feeling herself give into a pleasant jasmine aroma that comforted her nostrils. The ivory woman chuckled. “It iz not jazmine.” Brooke turned to her. “It iz a special herb made specifically to calm ze nervez.” Most likely the herb was from the royal gardens or maybe the Wilderness. Brooke didn’t know. “You wait here and guardians will see you.” Brooke nodded. The woman left her alone with the boy and girl.

Brooke sat on a sofa chair across from the girl. She had not turned away from her magazine. Bangs shadowed her thick brows as she brushed aside a short lock of hair, leaning more into that magazine. The boy fluttered his eyes open. He rose, stretched, and shook his hair, brisk and spiky. “Did they call me yet?” he asked the girl.     

The girl still didn’t look away. “No Brother.”

The boy groaned and scratched his leg. “Damn it, I took a full hour nap and they still haven’t called me in.”

 “Be patient,” the girl said.

 “I’ve been patient for the last hour.” He turned his attention to Brooke and smirked. “And who are you?” Brooke did not respond, only stared. His smirk broadened. “Must be the shy type.” Brooke frowned. “Okay, Shy Girl, I’m Alex, and that’s my twin, Angel.” Brooke still didn’t respond.

“Stop pestering the woman,” scoffed Angel, closing the magazine and setting it on an end table to the side of her, and to the side of that was a metal security door.

 “I’m just trying to be friendly; let’s face it, we’re all nervous about the audition.” He wasn’t lying. The herb stopped a portion of her nervousness. The knots had not stopped forming. “Of course, I have a strategy, and so does Angel, what about you Shy Girl?”

 “Strategy?” asked Brooke.

“Yeah, I figure the master guardians have to be like extra smart, extra strong, and I- a mere human.” Alex laughed. He opened his jacket and inside the flap pocket were two blue pills. Brooke looked at Angel, and she held two green pills in between her fingers. She glanced from the pills to Alex’s face, concluding that he was intending to cheat. Brooke thought it was foolish. Alex seemed as if he spent his time hacking into computers and sat in the back of the classroom playing his PSP, badmouthing the teacher if he/she were to interrupt. Angel was a bit of a surprise. She seemed like a library girl, someone who would know how to hack a computer, but wouldn’t because that was a bad thing to do.

“I know you’re just dying to know what these do, huh Shy Girl?” Not really, but Alex continued, pushing his round-paned glasses up the bridge of his small nose. “The blue pills enhance all human abilities; I got them from some guy in the market.”

“You might be releasing too much information, Alex.”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t think Shy Girl here’s gonna tell, right?” Brooke’s care for other people only went so far. Tattling was not something Brooke liked to do or will do in this situation. As long as they had nothing to hinder her, she didn’t care. Brooke shook her head in response. “See?”

“I suppose.” Angel grabbed another magazine. Brooke shifted in her seat and wished the master guardians would call in Alex already as he was beginning to annoy her. She had a low tolerance for delinquents.

“And the green pills enhance strength; Angel just isn’t the muscle type as you can see.” A light blush appeared against Angel’s porcelain skin. “The only things she can lift are a stack of books.” Angel leaned her head back and swallowed the green pills while Alex swallowed his pills.

“You can’t even read a stack of books,” Angel retorted.

All of them went silent as the metal security door opened and revealed two male master guardians. One wore a dark green button down jacket that stopped at his ankles clothed with black boots. The boots had a golden flapping bird on the side, Alagracia’s insignia. The other master guardian wore a lighter green jacket with a popped up collar. Both had robes hanging off their necks, trailing in their shadows with the kingdom’s insignia on them.

Another guardian entered the double interior door, but this one was a woman, a dark skinned elfin woman. She also wore a button down jacket that cupped at her ankles. The three master guardians met before Alex, Brooke, and Angel. “Good afternoon,” said the woman. “I am Master Guardian Kirin.”

“And I am Master Guardian Basil,” announced the one with the dark green jacket.

“And I Master Guardian Dill.”

“You will be auditioning with us today,” Master Guardian Kirin continued. “Girls will audition with me and boys will audition with Master Guardian Basil.”

Master Guardian Dill’s dark brown eyes tightened seeming like crushed earth. He buffed his chest and sent a glare towards Alex. He inhaled and frowned. “Fools!” he shouted. Brooke’s eyes ricocheted around the room and she wondered whom he was talking to, though she had a good guess. Master Guardian grabbed Alex by the shirt. “Do you play me for a fool, boy?”

Alex’s glasses dropped to the floor beneath his lifted feet. “U-u-h?”

“Hey!” objected Angel, but the other maser guardians restrained her.

“Do you?” asked the angry master guardian.

“N-n-no sir, have I done something wrong?”

“I can smell the pill a mile away, boy.”

“What?”

“Zexel pills have a particular odor to a trained nose.” Master Guardian Dill shoved Alex on the sofa. “Consider yourselves rejected.”

Alex stared at the master guardians before standing, shoving his hands in his pockets, and leaving without a word. Angel ran after him. “You Brooklyn Keeper?” asked Master Guardian Kirin. Brooke nodded. “Let’s begin.” Brooke rose and followed her into the metal security door.

Author's Note

Dear Reader,

I wasn't sure if I should have deleted the scene between Alex, Angel, and Brooke. Alex and Angel don't show up anywhere later in the story. I was just experimenting with characterization so you can almost skip the majority of this chapter. The parts where the master guardians come in is the emphasis of this chapter. You meet Master Guardian Kirin, Basil, and Dill; they are important.

I chose this picture because the herb is the symbol of absorbed nervousness for Brooke.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely JazzSoulKeke,

God bless