Page 3 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“Maybe you’re just so desperate for a friend you don’t mind befriending an angry, orphaned girl who actually doesn’t need a friend.” Tara pursed her lips and waited. She looked Shelly straight in the eyes. The other girl seemed to be seriously weighing Tara’s cruel words, but she still didn’t seem putoff.

“I see where you’re going with this”—Shelly nodded—“but I don’t do desperate. It’s not my style. Bitchy, overzealous, too-curious-for-my-own-good, those are definitely me. But desperate, no. I also know you’re just trying to push me away with mean words. It won’t work. Once I decide I want someone to be my friend, then it’s going to happen. You should just accept the situation. It will make your lifeeasier.”

“If that’s so, then why haven’t you made any replacement friends for the ones you lost?” Tarachallenged.

Shelly gave her a “duh” look. “Because I don’twantto be friends with any of the ruthless, abhorrent, demonic, soul-sucking bitches. I’d rather be friendless than have girls who’d just as soon backstab me as they would look at me. They aren’t even loyal to each other. I don’t needthat.”

Tara didn’t know what to say. The truth was, she didn’t want a friend. She didn’t want anyone. She just wanted to crawl into a corner anddie.

“Did you move here after your parents passed because you have family here?” Shellyasked.

Tara shook herhead.

“So who do you livewith?”

“Some lady. It’s a fosterhome.”

“Oh, wait”—Shelly held out a hand—“don’t tell me. I bet I can guess. You’re living with Carol Peters, aren’tyou?”

“How’d youknow?”

Shelly grinned. “Mrs. Carol is the kindest person in this bison turd bowl. She’d give a person in need the shirt off her back and her last dollar if it meant getting them back on their feet. She’s had other foster kids. Some deserved her kindness, some, well, they deserved a good kick in the nuts or vagina, depending on their own personal chromosome. But it doesn’t matter to Mrs. Carol if they’re deserving or not. She loves them all and gives everything she has.” Shelly narrowed her eyes on Tara. “What kind are you going to be? Deserving of her kindness? Or are your girl parts going to need an icepack?”

“Anyone ever told you that you’re pushy andintrusive?”

“Only every day of my life since I came out squawking like a banshee at the doctor who had his head in my mother’s business,” Shelly said without an ounce of shame. “Life’s too short to cater to other people’s sensitivities. If I worried about offending people, then I’d never get to say a word. My head would probably pop right off my shoulders from all the pressure building up with the need tospeak.”

“Look,” Tara started as she stood up from the swing, “I’m sure you meanwell—”

“I don’t,” Shelly interrupted. “I’m serving my own selfish purposes, but please, do goon.”

“I don’t need a friend, and I don’t want a friend. I just want to survive the hell my life has become, and I want to do it alone.” Tara started to walk away but only made it a few feet before Shellyspoke.

“I’ll see ya tomorrow, BFF. Mrs. Carol makes a mean Sunday casserole, and I’ve only missed it once when I had the flu. And that was only because my mom said it wouldn’t be nice to give Mrs. Carol the flu when what I was getting in return was a nice, warmcasserole.”

“Fantastic,” Tara muttered under her breath as she headed back the way she’d come. As she walked back to Carol’s house, she realized one good thing had come from meeting Shelly in the park. She’d been distracted, at least for a little while. Shelly talked so much and so fast it was difficult for Tara to even think about her own pain. Maybe she didn’t want a friend, but it might be that she needed one—especially one as annoying as Shelly—in order to survive hergrief.

But she wouldn’t admit that just yet. Tara would wait and see how the day went tomorrow. If Shelly was able to distract her again then perhaps she’d allow the girl to stick around. If not, well, she’d just have to become one of those ruthless bitches Shelly hated so much. Then she wouldn’t be so determined to be Tara’sfriend.

* * *

Jax sat in a rental car,staring across the road at the park, watching Tara as she sat on a swing, her head downcast. He tensed and narrowed his eyes as a skinny girl approached and took the swing next to her. He focused his inner eye for a few moments—listening, sensing the elemental world around him. Nothing. The skinny girl was completelyhuman.

A new friend.It was exactly what Tara needed. Jax said a silent prayer to Mother Gaia, asking her to ensure this new girl would stay a true friend to his charge. It had been tough on Jax these past two months, watching the girl under his protection have to struggle through the first few weeks without her parents. Without anyone. It had been much tougher on Tara. So many times Jax had wanted to reach out, to talk with her, to offer her whatever comfort he could. But a giant man appearing out of nowhere usually didn’t offer much in the way of comfort. And what would he say anyway? “Hello, Tara. Sorry your parents are dead. But it’ll get better. Guess what? I know who killed your parents. A dark elemental. That’s right. There’s an entire hidden world out there controlled by light and dark elementals. And you are going to be a part of it one day.” Probably wouldn’t go over too well. Jax scanned the area one more time, just to be sure the two girls weren’t being watched by anyone else. When he was satisfied Tara was safe, or at least as safe as she possibly could be under the circumstances, he started the car and drove back to thewoods.

Chapter 2

One year after theaccident.

“Was that Carol? Did you ask her? What’d she say?” Shelly said as she walked into Tara’s house—well, Carol’s house—as if she lived thereherself.

“Why, yes, Shelly. You may come in. Thank you. Would you like some cucumber sandwiches and tea?” Tara asked in her best Britishaccent.

“Oh, come on, you heifer. You wouldn’t eat cucumber sandwiches if they were the last food on earth. They aren’t a pissy food. You only eat pissy food. What the bloody hell did she say?” Shelly bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as if she were four instead offourteen.

“What is pissy food, exactly, and why do you keep coming over?” Tara replied, ignoring thequestion.

“Because I’m a glutton for punishment,” Shelly said. “What’d she say,bitch?”

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