Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear by J. Joseph Wright Page A

darted to the door, to Jack, and again to the door. Then he did his best Tom Cruise imitation, hugging the wall, sliding toward the exit in a room full of lasers.
    “Really, I was just talking tooooo…” Jack clung to a shred of a chance he might have redeemed himself. Hopeless. Keeping his distance, Lenny slipped out. “To myself. I was talking to myself! People do that, you know! Oh, heck with it!”
    He studied the room more carefully, making sure no other spies were lurking. No harm done. He shrugged.
    After a few more minutes, he figured plenty of time had passed for the regular, afterschool stragglers to clear. Dillon and Mike had probably gone, along with Wendy and her entourage. The buses usually filled up quickly and the drivers didn’t waste much time. Nobody wanted to stick around long after that last bell rang. That’s why Jack was concerned whether Amelia had kept her word. He knew she rode the bus normally, and missing it meant a long walk home to Tangled Trail Townhouses.
    He approached the school’s main entrance, convinced she’d be there. She was a trustworthy person, he reminded himself while passing through the doorway, emerging into the damp spring day. He scanned the schoolyard. Empty. She’d caught the bus. His mood sank and his feet went into autopilot, taking him on a direct course to Winmart.
    “Boo!” wearing a radiant smile, Amelia sprang from behind the thick shrubbery. “Did I scare you?”
    “Yeah,” he chuckled, fidgeting with the strap on his pack. “You did.”
    Something strange happened in his bag. He felt the thing shift its weight, and though he’d already seen the creature move and even talk, it made him unsettled.
    He ripped the pack from his shoulders and dropped it on the sidewalk. “I can’t handle this anymore!”
    “What, Jack? Handle what?” she continued to smile, though nervously.
    He felt the butterflies again. “It’s in my pack.”
    “What is?” her grin shrank.
    “Oh, man. I thought it was just my imagination at first. I mean, how can this little thing be alive, you know? It just sits there. I mean, it doesn’t move at all. But it does move. I mean, it has moved. It’s done things. It saved my life, really. And there are more of them, at least two, probably even more. I think they live in the store disguised as toys. Why, I can only speculate. It’s perfect camouflage, though. Little cryptids, hiding in plain sight, living right under our noses. They’re like a lost species from the…”
    “Jack!” Amelia shook his shoulders. “Slow down, okay? Breathe with me. Relax.”
    He copied her, taking a couple deliberate breaths.
    She used a serene tone. “There. Doesn’t that feel better?”
    “Yeah,” he agreed. “It does. A little.”
    “Good. Now let me see what’s got you so freaked out,” she reached for the backpack with surprising speed. She almost had the drawstrings untied, and was close to peeking inside when he reacted, grabbing and choking the bag shut.
    “Seriously,” he backed away. “I’ve got to explain something to you first.”
    Amelia put her hands on her hips and raised her left brow.
    “Do you remember last night when you told me I was going to have a lot of big things happen in my life, and I’ll have historic…what was it?”
    “Historic events,” she shifted to the other heel. “I said your life will be distinguished by historic events.”
    “That’s right. Do you still believe that?”
    “Yes, of course. But what does that have to do with anything?”
    “Amelia, I think it’s happening. I think what you predicted is coming true?”
    “Already? Listen, Jack. I meant someday…in the future.”
    “Well, today does qualify, technically.”
    “Jack, I intentionally missed the bus, waited outside, in the rain and wind I might add, and now I get the feeling you’re not being very truthful with me. What’s going on?”
    “No, no, no. Please. I’m not trying to prank you or anything like that, believe