A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 Read Free Page A

might be worth having on you during the zombie apocalypse, though. If you
can’t use it as a weapon, you could build a radio with it.”
    “You guys ready to order?” The waiter
looked down on us from an impossibly tall height.
    “Geeze, guy. How tall are you?” I
asked. But the guy wasn’t paying attention to me. He was busy looking from Tara
to Melody and back to Tara again.
      Tara giggled. “Um,
I’ll have the hummus. But will you bring me an extra pita? Two isn’t quite
enough.”
    “Sure thing,” he said and looked to Melody, who was peering
up at him with an odd expression on her face.
    “I’ll have the Thai-fried rice with pork,” she paused. “Do I
know you?” Her eyes darted to his nametag, which was remarkably anonymous with
only the letter ‘G’ on it.
    The waiter scribbled down her order. “Maybe? I used to live here a long time ago, when I was little.” He turned to me.
    I was distracted watching Melody watching our waiter. “Uh,
yeah, bacon double cheeseburger with onion rings.”
    “Harry?” Melody says, hesitantly at first.
    The waiter’s head jerked to look at her suddenly. “Not
anymore. Just ‘G.’ now.” He paused to consider her
face more carefully.
    “I do know you!” she exclaimed. “You’re Harry Watkins. You
were in my kindergarten class. We used to be friends.”
    Realization dawned on the waiter’s face. “You’re the frog
girl!” he said, suddenly grinning. “Melody?”
    “Yeah! How funny! I knew you were
familiar.”
    There was an awkward pause at the table as Melody and the
waiter smiled and nodded, no one else knowing what to say. I broke the silence,
because I just couldn’t take it anymore. My stomach growled again. “Maybe you
guys could catch up later, after he puts in the order for my cheeseburger and
onion rings?” I sounded like an ass, but I was really hungry and still a little
irked the girls took so long.
    Melody grinned, the waiter looked apologetic, and Tara
giggled again. As “Just G.” walked away, Tara’s gaze tracked him. I decided
that I was going to encourage her interest; at least it would give me a break
from all the crystal sensing crap.
    I just about inhaled my food while Melody gobbled down her
fried rice and Tara made little swirls in her hummus as she peered idly over
her shoulder at The Blossom’s new waiter.
    “You used to know him?” she asked, as transparent as the
quartz she had shown me earlier.
    Melody took a long pull at the straw in her water glass
before answering. I loved watching her do that – naturally pink lips pursing,
oh how I could ki —
    “Yeah. We sat next to each other in
kindergarten, you know, since we both have ‘W’ last names. I had this crazy
thing about frogs, and a crazy frog hat to match. I guess Harry, I mean G.,
remembers.”
    “Well, you’re still crazy,” I said. “Only it’s over useless
crap like AP World History. I mean seriously, Melody.” I paused for effect.
“Whoever needs history for daily life?”
    “You mean like the average person needs geology so much
more?”
    “ Ssh ,” said Tara. “You know it’s
the only class he can pass.”
    I laughed, but secretly that last comment hurt. It wasn’t
that I was stupid or couldn’t pass the other classes. It was that I just didn’t
care. Geology was cool. Rocks don’t change, they don’t lie, and they certainly
don’t talk back. Everyone knows that History is written by the victors and
English is for pussies. The waiter came back just then, which is probably a
good thing, because I had a zinger lined up for Tara, too.
    “So where have you been?” Melody asked.
    She looked up at G. with curiosity, and I had to admit, that
bothered me a little bit. I wasn’t very good at hiding my feelings, and right
now my feelings felt a lot like jealousy.
    “And why do we call you G. instead of Harry?” I interjected.
    G. gave a small smile and ducked his extremely tall head for
a second. “Well, I got tired of being compared to