The One
Chapter One:
The girl crouched, waiting for a peacock to come and eat the feed from her palm. The security guard at the zoo had told them to not feed the peacocks because they had no training, and they would just bite them. But Rachel wasn’t worried, animals usually loved her.
So I wonder why Mom and Dad won’t get me any pets? she thought. Anyway, I’m almost 18, then I’m technically an adult and can make my own decisions. Only 2 more years. Technically 1 more year, since it’s the summer of sophomore year in high school. Squee! She started to daydream, If I had a pet, it would be a huge and fluffy male cat. Ginger and white. His name would be Biscuits. And he would be the sweetest thing in the world…..
Rachel was jolted out of her thoughts by a brightly colored beautiful peacock strutting toward her. If there were peacock models on the runway, they would walk like that. Like the most important, most proud, most arrogant things in the world. The peacock was definitely male, judging by it’s demeanor and feathers. In bright turquoise, deep navy, cyan, cornflower, rich cobalt, teal, cerulean, canary yellow, golden yellow, and even lavender. Rachel whistled, That’s one decorated bird, I don’t think I’ve seen that many shades of blue all in one place before. The bird came right up to her, not afraid at all. Closer and closer. It bent, sorry, he bent down and…… almost bit Rachel’s finger off!
Rachel jerked back, her finger slightly bleeding and stinging. While tripping in surprise, Rachel also managed to hit a stroller with a baby inside. The baby started wailing, and the mother shot her a dirty look. Nearby tourists whipped their heads around to look at her too. Rachel looked down, Typical, I’m just that clumsy. Her face was cherry red. The peacock was close, eating the feed Rachel had dropped it on the ground.
Pain in her finger forgotten, Rachel rubbed her eyes and stared. She was probably imagining it…… But it seemed like the peacock was making letters, with his claw, scratching them out in the dirt and feed. She shook her head. No way. She was probably hallucinating. But when Rachel looked back, it was still there. I wonder how no one else has noticed…… she thought. Now it had written words! 2 of them. She stood up and walked around so that it wasn’t upside down to her anymore. The peacock moved out of the way, as if he knew what she was doing. Unbelievable. The words wrote out a name. Her eyes widened in shock. She turned to face the peacock so fast that she almost face planted on the concrete. The peacock made a little self-satisfied noise, and shuffled (waddled?) to the little seeds arranged into a name. He scratched his claws around so that it messed up the letters and so now the seeds looked like they were just scattered around randomly. He swaggered away, shaking his tail feathers as he went. Rachel watched him until he was out of sight.
That was one extremely intelligent peacock…….. Suddenly, the realization of what just happened struck her full in the face, giving her an extreme headache. She swayed, I wonder why I didn’t just faint from the weirdness of this all a while ago, she pondered. She looked down at the ground where the name was written moments before, as if it was still there. Nope. Just some seeds, looking so casual, so innocent, like they hadn’t just blown her mind.
Because the name on the ground was
Her name.
The rest of the visit to the zoo passed in a daze, Rachel was still trying to absorb the events from earlier today. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like she had imagined it or had a very realistic daydream. But Rachel knew, that without doubt, that her mind was only trying to cover up the fanatical incident because it didn’t understand and/or didn’t want to believe it. No matter how she tried, however, she had to face the hard truth.
But it wasn’t logical, not at all
She was very confused. By the time she got home, it was already 4:00 pm. She had stopped by Starbucks to grab a sandwich for lunch. But still, she was hungry. Her stomach rumbled, as if in agreement.
“Rachel!” someone called.
“Yeah, Dad?” Rachel replied. Her dad came barging into her room where Rachel was listening to her music while drooling over epically cute pictures of kittens. “There’s a letter for you.” Her dad waved an envelope in her face.
“For me?” Rachel asked.
“Yup.” her dad nodded.
“Where’s the address?” Rachel inquired.
“That’s what you mother said.” her dad replied. “Well. That’s not my problem.” And with that, Rachel’s dad left. Rachel inspected the letter.
“Who even writes letters anymore?” she wondered aloud. “E-mail’s are the same, but faster and way more modern.” Rachel heard someone sniff with disdain.
“Well, excuse me, but some people appreciate the classics.” that person chided. Rachel’s eyes darted around wildly. There was no one. Great, well now I’m hearing things, she thought sarcastically. With her friends, Rachel was known for her sarcastic attitude and comments.
There was a bluebird on her windowsill. It was staring at her. Rachel stared back.
“What are you looking at?” the bird seemed to say in a sassy voice.
“Hey! You started it! Don’t give me attitude!” Rachel shot back. A startled giggle burst out of her. “Great. Now I’ve started to lecture birds. I’m definitely going crazy.” The bluebird tilted its head.
“Is that what you think?” it pondered. It appeared to be thoughtfully thinking about that statement deeply or something.
“Well, what am I supposed to think?! Huh?!” Rachel practically screamed at the annoying bluebird.
Wait. Rachel. Calm Down. You think more clearly when you’re calm.
Rachel took a deep breath.
In. Out. That’s it.
Rachel took several deep, calming breaths. Trying to absorb what was going on here and at the same time thinking frantically for solutions.
How is this even possible? Why is this happening to me? Wait. Calm down again, Rachel. You’re getting panicky.
Rachel closed her eyes and blocked out everything except her thoughts.
Ok, all good. Where was I? Oh yeah. What do you know about the situation? Blue bird that apparently can talk or me going crazy? Let’s go with magical bird.
Suddenly, Rachel had a flashback of this morning.
The peacock! Maybe the magical bluebird right now has connections to the other magical peacock scenario this morning! I’m a genius! Yes!
Wait, magical bird? No! I’m crazy! I’m absolutely, positively losing my mind.
Maybe the birds aren’t magical but are still related somehow. I bet it has something to do with…… Hmmm……
Ugh! I have no idea! They’re probably just birds that are blue.
Wait! Blue! That’s it! They’re the same color!
Ugh! Seriously? That’s all you could come up with, stupid brain? Useless.
The birds acted surprising human too. Oh yes! I’ll ask the bird! Wait, that sounded weird……
“Hey!”
The sound shattered Rachel’s thoughts as she turned to glare at the bluebird on her windowsill, only to see that it wasn’t there anymore. Instead, there was a blue jay.
What is up with all this?
“Yes?” it answered, “What?”
Rachel sighed.
It was still the same bird, maybe it just looked different in the light. That even sounded doubtful in Rachel’s own mind.
Whatever, here goes.
Rachel breathed in deeply. “Ok, so. Bluebird. Uh…… I mean, former bluebird? Yeah. What? Nevermind. Ok. Blue jay. Do you happen to have any connections to a peacock? Very bright and gaudy colors?”
“Well,” it replied. “I wouldn’t say gaudy, more like bright and cheerful.”
“Whatever! Just get on with it! Also what are you doing here?!” Rachel exclaimed impatiently.
The blue jay seemed to smirk. “First of all, I do happen to know a blue peacock with bright and cheerful tail feathers-”
Wait, what? I didn’t say anything about tail feathers……
“- it’s me!” the blue jay continued. The blue jay tittered at Rachel’s stunned expression. “Clearly you didn’t that one coming,” it mocked. Rachel shook her head, too confused for the insult to even register in her brain.
“Furthermore, I am here because of something very important.” it said pompously.
“What could be so important for a bird?” snarled Rachel. Her mood was quickly dropping lower and lower.
“Excuse you.” the bird said, sounding offended. Then it smirked again.
“I am here to recruit you.”
Rachel was speechless.
