Page 13 of Shield and Savior

He keeps his eyes on his shoes. “I’ve had worse.”

Ian comes out. He seems better now than he did a year ago, even better than six months ago. Still, he looks like the entire world could come crashing down on his head if he said one wrong thing. Unfortunately, he’s right to feel paranoid. “How was school?” I say in Russian and watch his whole face light up.

“Lance?” He rushes forward but stops before he hugs me.

His reaction makes me pause. Again in Russian, I say, “You knew I was coming to take you home, right?”

“Yes. You take me home.” His English isn’t what it should be, and I know it’s driving his uncle nuts. Alana thinks it’s because Ian doesn’t have a lot of friends to talk to, and he didn’t have any in Russia.

“You didn’t answer my first question.”

“School bad.”

Drew lifts his head and reacts to me first. “You speak Russian?”

“Da.”

He nudges Ian in the shoulder. “You speak English?”

“A little.” He holds up his fingers, leaving a tiny gap between them.

A little older than the rest, Shae is the final one to arrive. She has a violin case in one hand and her cell phone in the other. Of all the kids, I know the least about Shae. She’s in her pre-teen, I’m-too-cool-for-this era. “S’up, Lance.”

I give her a fist bump, she hands me her violin case. Fair trade. “Alright, let’s go.”

With Maria gripping my hand and the other three next to me, we walk through the parking lot. I hate parking lots. Too many opportunities to get hit by cars.

Opening the doors, I let the boys climb into the third row while Shae settles in next to Maria in the middle. I help Maria into the booster seat and strap her in. She’s about to start complaining she’s a big girl. I can see the words forming on her lips. Instead, I say, “Okay, so Drew back there, his official name is Champ, like the lake monster. Did you pick names for everyone else?”

Champ watches the world from the window as he adjusts in the seat. “No, they can choose their own names.”

“Very diplomatic of you,” I say, slamming the door. Once I’m in the driver’s seat and check every mirror seven times, I continue, “We’re going with a cryptid theme. You can be a magical creature, too.”

Maria claps her hands and bounces in her seat. “I want to be a water fairy. No, a flower fairy. Animal fairy.”

“How about Fairy? This way you can change your type whenever you want?” Shae says.

“Oh yessss,” she lets out a long sss sound.

Shae says, “I want to be Selkie. They’re cool and nice, and like no one talks about them.”

“Done,” I say as I pull out onto the main street. “Ian, what do you want to be? Code name?”

“Man wolf.”

“Werewolf,” Champ corrects. “Do we call you Lance?”

“No, you can call me The Supreme Overload of Awesomeland.” I am so freaking cool. Sometimes I even amaze myself.

Shae/Selkie sighs and buries her head in her phone. “I’m sticking with Lance.”

Champ digs through his backpack, trying to find something, before saying, “Me too.” He buries his head in the bag. “Where is it? Aha!” He pulls out a Switch, and the game chimes to life.

Werewolf makes a little squeak sound and starts digging through his bag too. He produces the same device but in blue. “Play?”

“Yeah, sure!” Champ says, and I know I’ve lost them for a while.

Maria is kicking her feet against the seat. “Lance, I’m hungry.”

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