Light and Darkness
By Genevieve Marie Noling

Chapter 1

It was dark outside, despite the time, and Leaf Olson couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t the cold, though that probably had something to do with it. The eerie silence that was always left when her sister wasn’t there also probably had something to do with it, however, even though she didn’t like to admit it, it was kinda freaking her out. It probably had more to do with the fact that her stomach was growling so ferociously, due to her not eating dinner, that she was sure that there was a lion in it. But that was just plain ridicules, for how could she swallow a lion? She’d have to cut it up to eat it, but then it wouldn’t be able to say anything! Sighing, she sat up, turned on the light, and, blinking tiredly at the sudden brightness, she got up and went downstairs for a midnight snack, dragging her feet as she walked.
Leaf was a very beautiful girl (even with her hair messed up and wearing her blue polka dotted PJ’s), who basically looked good in everything, but her favorite color was blue. She had a different shirt with a different shade of blue for all 365 days of the year, and she had dyed her hair to match. She always wore the same type of jeans during the day, and at night wore one of 180 pajama outfits, all in different shades of blue as well.
To match these outrageous dressing habits was Leaf’s mother, Kasha. Only difference was that Kasha wore………pink. Leaf hated pink. She hated it more than anything else. Likewise, Kasha hated blue. They were always bickering about which color was better, and dragging Leaf’s dad, Train, and twin brothers, Roy and Ricky (who’s real name is Ricardo), into the brawl. The only annoying (and slightly amusing) thing was, they liked to battle it out. They enjoyed shouting at each other, calling each other names, dragging the rest of the family into the fight. They considered it to be a game. They never went so far as to get violent, but they never let the fight get boring either. They would try to confuse the other by using long and complicated words and sentences. However, the only conclusion they ever managed to make was that they would have to continue the fight some other time. Then the whole process would start all over again.
Leaf yawned widely as she opened the fridge and got out the milk. Still yawning, she took out a cup and poured herself a drink. Holding it in her hands, she stared tiredly at the floor a few feet in front of her, not really seeing it. Finally, she drained her cup, put it in the sink, and walked back upstairs to bed. The last thing she saw before sleep took hold of her was the little dragon figure on her bedside table as it looked straight at her.
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“Morning mom, morning dad, morning Cat.” Said Leaf tiredly the next morning.
“Morning Leaf!”
“Morning honey.”
“Good morning, Leaf.”
“Well, I hope I do well on all these tests today. I’ve got a test on every subject, all in one day.” Said Leaf unconcernedly. “If I don’t ace all of them I might not go on to the next grade.”
“I know! It’s the same for me!” cried Leaf’s little sister, Cat (her real name was Catalia, but everybody called her Cat for short), piteously.
“ Well, they don’t call it Test Day for nothing, do they?” laughed their mother.
“Yeah, but all in one day?” asked Leaf before her sister could say anything. Then, as her dad opened his mouth, “I don’t really care either way, ‘cause I’ve been studying for weeks, and I’m fairly confident on getting all the answers right. Besides, who can worry about tests at 5:30 in the morning on a Monday? Hey, what’s the date?”
“It’s October 27, 2005. Oh, what are you doing? Heeeey!!!” said Cat, as she saw that Leaf was looking over her notes. “You said that you weren’t worried about the tests. If that were true then why are you looking over your notes?”
“It can’t hurt to have another peek while I can. Anyway, we’d better go. Come on Cat!” Leaf picked her backpack up and threw it over her shoulder. With a last, longing look upstairs toward her bedroom, she walked out the door, not waiting for her sister, who was putting her shoes on.
“You know the least you could do is wait for me.” Said Cat unhappily once she had caught up with Leaf at the bus stop.
“Sorry, I just want to get today over with, it’s not your fault. Really, I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?”
“I guess. But that’s a week worth of Fanta from the school vending machine.”
“Alright, alright!” Leaf threw her hands up in defeat. “By the way, did you study at all?” she asked innocently. Leaf wasn’t going down so easily.
“Ugh! Can I borrow you – “
“No.”
“You won’t even hear me out!”
“I don’t need to hear you out. There’s no excuse for not studying. If you fail all your tests, that’s not my problem. But….” Lily looked slyly out of the corner of her eye at her sister.
“But?” Cat asked hopefully.
“But, if you were to do me a favor, then I might find that my notes slip, right into the hands of somebody right next to me.” Leaf voiced her words carefully. She knew how to handle her sister, and that was likewise for the both of them. They might not look even remotely alike, but they were twins, and knew everything about one another. Leaf was wearing a light blue/indigo shirt which she called “Blue Everon”, a pair of regular old jeans, and had dyed her hair the same shade of blue as her shirt. Cat was wearing a checkered pink and black skirt(it was only pink because she couldn’t find it in any other color), a punk-style top, and her silver chain belt had skulls on it. She had nine different earrings on each ear, two on her belly button, and one on each of her eyebrows and her tongue. Her pure black hair had red streaks in it, and she had a tattoo with a skull with black wings, and the words “if you only knew what I did to your boyfriend last night” right underneath it.
Leaf watched her sister carefully. She knew what was coming next, she was just having fun watching her sister puzzle out whether or not to do as she had asked.
Finally, “Alright, what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to write this report for me. That’s all.” Leaf smiled serenely at her sister.
“Fine. But I had better ace all of the tests, or I’m going to make sure that you get an F on this report. Got it?”
“Sure as rain. Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Said Catalia, just as the bus pulled to a stop to pick them up.
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“Ugh! I can’t believe we had an English test, math test, literature test, creative writing test, and a P.E. test one after another without a break!” moaned Cat as she made herself fall onto the bed that she and her sister shared.
It was a water bed, and luckily, too, thought Cat, watching her sister plop her school bag onto the desk across the room and begin pulling out her assorted things. Cat’s eyes were drawn to the little statue of a dragon that Leaf had had for as long as she could remember. There was something strange about that dragon that made Cat curious. But Leaf didn’t talk that much about it, so Catalia didn’t either.
But there really is something strange about that figurine, she thought wearily, and not for the first time either. Nor would it be the last, it turns out.
“Hey, by the way, how did you manage to finish the literature test in five minutes? Not to mention the English test that took you all of two seconds!” Cat’s mind was still partially on the dragon figurine, but she tried her best to pull it away from that.
“What, were you timing me, or something? Anyway, all I did was study, that’s all, nothing more and nothing less. It’s as simple as that. Now, where did I put it? Aha! Here it is!”
“What is it you were looking for?” Cat sat up, trying to get a better look at whatever it was Leaf was holding. It was a velvet purple bag, with a pale blue silk in lining. It looked expensive.
“I was looking for - this.” Leaf pulled something out of the bag and handed it to her sister.
“It’s just a regular old crystal.” Said Cat, puzzled.
“But look at its shape!” Leaf said excitedly.
Cat looked closer at the crystal. It was in the shape of a dragon was looking at its reflection in a pool of some kind.
“Well, I guess a dragon needs a companion, right? Here you go, little guy.” Catalia put the crystal dragon next to the other dragon and regarded them critically.
“Hey, you do realize that it’s your turn to set the table, right? Shouldn’t you get going on that now?” Leaf looked up at Catalia from her seat at the desk.
“Crap, I was hoping you would forget, and I could blame it on you. Then I wouldn’t have to do it.”
“Better get crackin’ to it or mom’ll be pissed.” Said Leaf idly.
“Good point. Hey can you come with me? It’ll go faster with someone to talk to.”
“Alright, fine. I was actually going down there anyway so I could get something to drink, so I suppose it won’t hurt to stay down there a bit longer than I intended.” Leaf got up and made her way to the door.
“Well, are you coming or not?” Leaf noticed that Cat hadn’t moved, but instead was staring at Leaf’s dragons as though she had never seen anything quite like them. “Come on, you.” Leaf grabbed her sister’s arm and dragged her downstairs, where they talked about this and that, though the talk was half-hearted, and not very interesting.
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“Hi mom. Hi dad.” Chorused the two without trying. It was twelve o’clock and the girls had just woken up…and were still tired.
“Hey sweeties.” Said their mom quietly.
“Hey, so the two of you finally woke up, huh? Did you sleep well enough? Cause you still look like you could use some sleep!” said their dad, laughing.
“Ugh.” Said Catalia.
“Ugh.” Agreed Leaf.
They looked at their father and said in unison, “Don’t remind us, dad!”
“Remind you of what?”
“The fact that we’re dog tired and – “ started Cat.
“That we have to go meet our friends somewhere.” Finished Leaf, sitting down next to Cat.
“Well, you guys seem to be in sync this morning. And when I say that, I mean more than usual.” Said their mom, laughing quietly.
“Indeed.” Agreed their father.
The two sisters looked at each other, then looked back at their parents. Finally they looked down at their plates full of pancakes and silently started eating.
Later that day, the two girls said goodbye to their parents, and left for the mall. They met up with their friends outside Old Navy and went inside to completely waste their allowances on clothes and accessories. When the two sisters had said goodbye to their friends, they headed straight for home and collapsed on their shared water bed. They were instantly asleep.
Quietly, two crystalline shapes made their way over to the bed to gaze down upon the girls, particularly Leaf.
“She’s so beautiful when she’s asleep.” Sighed the new dragon the Leaf had just bought. Her name was Crystal.
“Isn’t she?” agreed the other dragon, whose name was David. “But however much I may want to stare at her for an eternity like this, we have jobs to do.”
“Alright.” Muttered Crystal.
They cleaned the mess the girls had made, pulled the comforter that was under the girls up to their chins, fluffed their pillows, opened the window, and then returned to their spot in the shadows of Leaf’s desk, and watched Leaf quietly as she slept.