The One Who is Artemis’ Link

“Get your wings off of me!”

“I would if you’d stop getting feathers in my bowl!”

I groaned. The only thing the little ones seemed to do nowadays was argue over the smallest things. They should be happy that they’re being taken care of or weren’t sent to the Bad Place. I shook my head and tried to block out their arguing as I looked out the window into vast white, fluffiness. My gosh, it’s too feminine up here. I don’t understand how the guys can stand it.

“Hey, Artie!”

I growled under my breath. I really hated being called ‘Artie’. I’ve spent years trying to convince people to call me Aaron, but do they listen? No. They still see me as the baby I was when I first came here and continue to treat me as such.

“Hey Jake,” I greeted the ten-year-old girl as she bounced over to me. Her name’s Jacqueline, people usually call her Jackie but I call her Jake, spelled like the guy name but pronounced like Jack. “Shouldn’t you be eating with the other kids?” I turned to look at her as she nodded, sending her brown curls flying.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to deal with the flying elbows,” she responded. “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be at school? It’s your last week, isn’t it? Before you become a full-fledged GA?”

GA stands for Guardian Angel for you humans who can’t figure that out. Yes, we have to go to school to learn how to be guardian angels. Depending on how old you are, you become a Guardian Angel to a human on Earth. For example, I would be a Guardian Angel to a sixteen-year-old boy or girl. It’s about time, too. Spending sixteen years and a few months up here with these constantly happy people is really starting to rub off on my nerves. It’s like the only emotion they feel is happiness. Well, I can see why because they wouldn’t want to go to the Bad Place.

“To be precise it’s the day before my last day and I’m waiting for Andy,” I responded as I ruffled her hair and stood, stretching my wings out. I got stuck with white wings that were so white they had a really light blue tint to them. I didn’t have a choice though, all the boys had these wings, and the girls had really light pink ones. I’d rather have blue than pink but I also would rather have like…grey, something a little more masculine. “It’s about time I can get out of here,” I mumbled as I started to walk back to my room to grab my school books.

“What do you think Earth is like?” Jake questioned as she followed me, having to run a little bit to catch up with my stride.

“From what I’ve seen it’s a lot better than it is up here,” I responded.

“You don’t like it up here? You can’t get hurt up here,” Jake pointed out.

“Exactly. We can’t take risks we can’t be normal kids while we’re up here. We’re either in school, studying, eating, or sleeping. We don’t get to play that much and Mary makes sure that we don’t while Joseph is out doing God knows what.” I sighed heavily. “I need a change of venue.”

“But Earth is a dangerous place. I mean, I know we’re all going to have to go down there eventually, but Earth is different than it is here. There’s wars, violence, fighting, heartbreak, pain, anger, sadness,” Jake listed. “The waters are polluted, the ozone layer is depleting, there’s Global Warming, and the obesity rate is rising.” She scoffed. “Sounds like Heaven on Earth.”

I rolled my eyes and lightly shoved her. I fell back when Andy jumped in front of me. He always tried to scare me. It was a sick thing that he found enjoyment in. He’s been trying to scare me since I came here. He told me many stories about what happened on Earth or what went on in the Bad Place. They never made me scared; only more interested in what my life can offer than ever before. Despite that, Andy’s my best friend up here.

“Hey man! We get to find out our Links today!” Andy said as he pulled me to my feet. Andy is the same age as me, sixteen, but he hasn’t lived here as long as most people. He arrived two months ago, after a bad car accident. He was in really bad shape when he arrived. He was bitter at first and didn’t talk to anyone; he stayed silent and scowled all of the time. Mary and Joseph took him to talk to Father and he came back with a totally different attitude. He’s still mad about having come here so early in life so I have to constantly remind him that he was lucky to have lived on Earth that long.

“Links?” Jake questioned.

“Who we guard while we’re on Earth,” I explained. “Once the teacher’s determine whether or not you’re ready to guard people, you find out who your Link is. Then you move to Earth to pose as a kid or an adult, depending on who you are, as long as the person needs you there.”

“So, it’s possible to only be there for a day.”

“Depending on the situation, yes. Now, enough questions, I have to go to school. You should be getting ready for your classes too,” I commented as I ruffled her hair. Andy lightly hit my chest and tilted his head, signaling that he was ready to leave. I nodded and unfurled my wings. Jake took a few steps back, giving us room to run forward and take off into the air.

I smiled to myself when I felt the wind beneath my wings, easily keeping me up in the air. It gently caressed my face and moved my bangs off of my forehead as we flew towards the large “high school” building. I loved flying, in a way I felt powerful as I flew because I decided how fast and how far I wanted to go. The rest of my life was being dictated. I loved the feeling of the cold, or warm, air being the only thing holding me up.

We landed on the ground in front of the school and flocked in with the other students. I moved on autopilot to get to our class room. As soon as I opened the door a smile came to my face as well as a nervous flutter. Sitting on each desk was what looked like a bowl, but it was actually what told us who our Link was.

I moved over to my desk and sat down, making sure not to hit anyone with my wings as I pulled them in. you could barely see them through the slits in my t-shirt as I settled back in my chair and yawned. Angel, whose real name is Evangeline, smiled brightly at me as she sat down in the seat next to me.

Angel and I became friends based solely on the fact that we were both brought here at the same time. Well, not the exact same but close enough that we consider each other our long lost twin siblings. “How’d you sleep?” She questioned.

“Badly. I had The Dream again,” I responded.

“Aww,” she pouted. “What do you think will stop it?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed as I rubbed my eyes. “But I hope I can find the answer to that soon. Being kept awake by The Dream is bad enough, but being kept awake by the Little Ones’ snoring is really getting on my nerves too. I can’t wait to get out of here.” Angel frowned. I caught it. “What?”

“You aren’t even going to miss me?” She questioned.

“Angle, of course I’ll miss you. If we’re lucky we can be assigned to Links that are friends. If not, I can still contact you pretty easily.”

She remained silent and nodded. I guess it never occurred to her until now that it was possible that we wouldn’t see each other for a while. I looked up as the teacher came into the room. Mrs. Serenity, but we all called her Helena. She always seemed to come in with the breeze. Her rosy lips parted into a smile as she stood in front of the class.

“As you all know, tomorrow is your last day of school and then you will go to Earth to help protect the ones you’ve been linked to. Instead of building suspense I’ll just let you all go ahead and see who your new Link is.”

I let out a slow breath and wiped my sweaty palms before griping the edge of the bowl and leaning forward. The cloudy gray liquid slowly brightened to white and opened up, showing a picture of a house. I stared intently as movement from inside the house reached my ears.

“Mel, don’t forget your lunch!”

“I got it Mom!”

I squinted as the front door was pulled open and a teenage girl stepped out. She pulled her jet black hair back into a ponytail before dropping on the front step and shoving a brown paper bag into her backpack. A few seconds later a bus pulled up and she ran to get onto it. The white cloud closed up and words started to form on the top, it was the information of my new Link.

Full Name: Melody Charlotte Wicker

Commonly Referred As: Tune or Mellow

Age: 16

Location: Orlando, Florida

School: Bayview High School

Misc.: Is somewhat of an outcast at her school. Is reserved and doesn’t relate to people well. A junior in high school and has an adopted blind little brother.

Great, I’m stuck with an unsocial chick, I thought as I rolled my eyes and sighed. Angel leaned over and looked at the information of my Link. “Aaron, don’t forget there’s always a bigger reason behind why we’re assigned to certain people.”

“Like what, she’s bulimic? Big deal, what can I do about that?” I questioned.

“Tell her she’s beautiful?” She asked with a shrug. “We’re in the same state at least. At least try to be supportive or whatever it is you guys think you are when she needs your help. Ok?”

“Fine.”

Boy, won’t this be fun?

Note the sarcasm.