Runaway
Suzi Goode
language
(Kestryl Publishing, Dec. 16, 2013)
What’s a seventeen year old guy supposed to do when his parents are constantly arguing and engaging in the divorce battle of the century?Drink beer.Relax by himself.Take a driver’s exam.Hang out with the only real friend he ever had, and is now falling in love with. Her middle name is trouble. Jason Sommers doesn’t want to end up like his parents --forever fighting about trivial matters--but with Oshi, a self-styled princess from the past, he has no choice. She gets under his skin in a big way.She’s a law to herself. In her eyes, she can do no wrong. She thinks she knows everything when she doesn’t.Is she real or is she a figment of Jason’s imagination?A driver’s license will allow him to run away from his parents, Oshi, and his problems. Oshi, however, is making trouble for him in the back seat and the examiner thinks the young driver is talking to himself. Will Jason ace the test and make good on his promise to run away for good?Excerpt:Frankly, Oshi was a devil. Seventeen year old Jason Sommers wasn't sure whether to love her or hate her. His safest bet was to tell her that he at least liked her. A lot. If he didn’t, she might lock him up inside a tree trunk, and there was no telling but that he might be there for hundreds of years. Oshi claimed she’d been stuck in one for two centuries, through no fault of her own. He didn’t believe her though. If she had been as mischievous then as she was now, no wonder the sorcerer had thought it was a good idea to give her some cooling off time. However, his notion of locking her away hadn’t worked. Oshi still got into everything. Luckily for Jason, she wasn’t with him now."Are you ready for your driver's test?" his father asked, keeping his eyes on the mid-afternoon traffic. Mr. Sommers navigated onto the I-5 ramp. Jason hoped he wouldn't be asked to jump onto the freeway during the practical exam. With Oshi at his side giving not so practical advice, he'd practiced and practiced driving the mini-van. But he was still uncomfortable with entering the freeway with other people on the passenger seat beside him. Normally Jason would have nodded but he figured the movement would have been wasted on his dad since the older man's focus was on the road. Instead, he said, "Yeah." He didn’t add everything would be fine—as long as Oshi didn't come along. She had a habit of throwing him out of kilter simply when she was around.She didn't look or act like an average seventeen year old. She twisted her midnight-black hair into two long braids and wore a leather headband woven with multi-colored beads. A real eagle feather jutted out from the band and her mid-knee dress was made of soft tanned leather. The kids at Woodlawn High thought she looked real cool as she acted out the part of a Native American princess, but Jason knew she was the real thing. And, he thought she had the hots for him. Which was ridiculous. He didn’t like girls. Your problems began when you started liking them. You couldn’t do anything wrong, or try as you would, right either. His mom and dad were living proof.Her name was interesting too. With a straight face, she claimed Oshoni meant 'Messing with Spirits'. Jason couldn't decide whether she was being serious or not. Most of the time, she wasn't and she seemed to enjoy getting him into mega trouble.4200 words