Minutes passed as Justin stared at the name on the screen without opening the message. In small clips, like a movie reel that was cut into pieces, the events in the forest came back to Justin. The strange neighborhood, the beast, the storm, the Indian palace, and the girl who could fly. He had thought they had been some wild dream brought on by his head injury, but now he was staring at a message from the flying Indian girl herself.

Holding back complete panic, Justin swallowed and opened the message.

Dear Justin,

Hello! I found you! I hope you got home safe and dry. I always knew magic was real because I can fly, with the help of my brother's singing of course (he says hi, he is here and made me type that). But I didn't know anyone else could do magic. I'm so glad you found us. I am a little worried though, my mom didn't come home last night from her job at my grandpa's firm and my brother senses something in the house with us. He says it's large, black, and angry, but every time he tries to point it out to me, I don't see it. But I don't think he's lying. You had said something about a beast. Do you think it could have gotten in? Perhaps you could come by and look?

I would really appreciate the help.

Thank you,

Nitara

Justin placed his forehead on the desk. What had he done? All he had wanted to do was escape the storm, but by opening that door, he had let the beast in.

Sitting up, he scooted the chair against the far wall. He gasped as realization set in. He had a letter from the flying Indian girl. On Facebook. A girl who could fly. He had thought it all a wild dream, but he couldn't explain this message away.

I always knew magic was real... The words popped out of the screen, taunting Justin. Magic? Real magic? Could it be? If he had let the beast into their home, what would happen to Nitara and Niraj? He scooted hesitantly back to the computer and, with shaking fingers, he wrote,

Nitara,

Is this really real? Wow, I thought I had dreamed up the girl who could fly. Yes, there was a black wolflike beast. I am so sorry if I let him in. Tomorrow I can come. I will try to sneak out of my soccer practice. Be careful.

Justin

The next day at school, Justin muddled through his classes. He could not think. His mind was halfway across the world, dancing with an Indian girl. At one point his English teacher, Ms. Mayfield, asked him a question and, not knowing what she had asked, he attempted to respond with, "always put yourself in someone else's shoes." The class laughed, and Ms. Mayfield sent Justin to the study room to write her an essay on Call of the Wild. His parents would hear about this and after his incident in the forest, this would not go over well. Finally, the school bell rang, and Justin dashed from his science class.

"Hey wait," shouted Mason, who was right on Justin's heels as he crossed the lawn from the science wing to the parking lot.

Justin tried to ignore the boy as he scanned the cars for his mom's green Subaru.

"Why aren't you going to play dress-up today?" asked Mason. They both stopped as they reached the sidewalk.

"I have practice," responded Justin and as his chest tightened, he willed his mother to get here now.

"Practice? To be a girl?" asked another voice on the other side of Justin and Justin glanced to see Creston standing there.

"Soccer practice," said Justin as he walked along the sidewalk, scanning the cars as he went. Of course, Mason and Creston followed.

"Soccer practice? You're playing soccer?" asked Mason, and he bumped into Justin. "Do you even know how to play?"

"Justin!" shouted a girl's voice and, looking around, Justin saw Lupita stepping out of a blue Jeep, waving at him. Justin waved back.

"Hey, that's Lupita, Luis' hot older sister," whispered Creston.

Lupita jogged over, a wide grin on her face.

"Hey Justin, how are you?" she asked.

Justin shrugged, at a loss for words.

Her smile deepened. "We are taking you to soccer practice. Your mom had a call with a publisher or something and your dad has a parent-teacher meeting."

Justin peered around Lupita to see who was in her family's car.

As if reading his mind, Lupita said, "Luis stayed home sick today. Come on, we have your soccer stuff in the car."

"Hi Lupita," said Mason, stepping around Justin.

Lupita, not even glancing at Mason, turned and started walking back to the car.

Walking around Mason, Justin noticed that the boy's mouths hung wide open. Justin smiled and waved.

"Bye Mason," he said, and then he ran after Lupita.

The joy of seeing the shock on Mason's and Creston's faces quickly faded as the coach paired Justin with Lupita to kick the ball back and forth at practice. Her kicks brought the ball hurtling at Justin like a missile and instead of stopping the ball, he was more like dodging it. When Justin attempted to kick it back to Lupita, no matter how hard he concentrated, the ball seemed to have a mind of its own and refused to roll to the girl. Instead, he sent Lupita running all over the field to retrieve the ball. Luckily, she always came back with a smile on her face.

It became apparent quickly that Justin would not be the Raptors' star player. After a while, Coach Sanchez paired Lupita with a player of similar ability and had Justin kick balls into the goal by himself. More often than not, his ball missed the open goal as well.

As the practice went on, the coach called for the team to scrimmage, but he did not call for Justin. They easily forgot about him. Justin was used to this and had expected it to happen.

He looked around him. No one looked his way. Even his dad, who had shown up ten minutes earlier, animatedly talked to another parent, not watching the field.

Justin kicked the ball with all of his strength. Proudly, he watched as it soared through the air into the pine trees on the outskirts of the field. For the first time, the ball went where Justin had aimed. Racing after the ball, the canopy of trees quickly engulfed him. As the sounds from the scrimmage match became muffled, he sighed. He turned to the right and gazed toward his forest. He was going to be in so much trouble for this, but he had to try. The beast was his fault.

A branch snapped behind him. Whirling around, he found Lupita standing there with her hands on her hips.

"That bad, huh?" she asked.

Justin raised his eyebrows and lifted his palms up. "I am horrible."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"There is somewhere I have to go."

"Where?"

Justin sighed and walked towards his forest. "To see a girl."

Footsteps thumped behind him.

"A girl?" Lupita asked with more incredulity than Justin would have hoped. "What girl?"

"An Indian girl. Don't you need to be playing?"

"Ten-minute break."

He continued to walk, willing Lupita to go back but not having the courage to say so. They walked in silence for a bit, and once they reached the giant redwood log, Justin turned.

"I am not going back to practice," he said.

Lupita reached out and grabbed Justin's hand and whispered, "Has this something to do with your brother?"

Stomach clinching, Justin wrenched his hand away and ran around the log. Lupita followed.

"No, this doesn't," he paused, thinking of the beast. This forest was where his brother was last seen. "Well, maybe."

He looked up into the sky, cupped his hands to his mouth, and hooted. He then continued into the denser brambles, Lupita following behind him.

"Justin, you can tell me, what is going on?"

"You won't believe me."

"Try me."

As he untangled himself from a thorn, Justin said, "last Friday I was in these woods... In here I imagine I am the wizard who rules over the woods..."

And as they walked, Justin told Lupita everything. He told her about the owl, the part of the ocean he had never seen before, the archway of glowing flowers, the strange neighborhood with even stranger houses from all over the world, the lightning storm, and of the beautiful Nitara. All the while, he continued to search for a way back to her.

"Could I be a princess of the forest? A witch princess?" asked Lupita right after Justin had finished his tale.

Justin smiled. "Of course. The archway should be here somewhere. My knight, the owl should show us the way."

"Oh, I would like to meet this handsome knight!"

Justin giggled and pushed on.

"So," said Lupita, racing past Justin. She whirled around, stopping Justin in his tracks. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Justin coughed, but it came out more like a hacking noise. "What?"

His kingdom fell around him.

"You heard me," said Lupita.

Cheeks flushing red, Justin shook his head.

"Do you want one?"

He shrugged, suddenly becoming very interested in the moss-covered tree roots at his feet.

"I like that answer," she said, and Justin looked up to find her smiling. She shrugged and continued to walk. "I don't know, I just think... Well... There is just so much else... I mean there are a few boys who have told me they like me but my throat constricts..."

"Loss of words?" Justin asked as he pointed up ahead to a clump of browning pine trees. "We should be close. The ocean should be up there."

"No, it's like a noose tightening around my neck," Lupita replied. "You know, we aren't anywhere near the ocean."

"Cambria is on the ocean," stated Justin. He could feel a rope constricting around his own neck. It had to be here, Nitara had to be close.

"Yeah, but we are on the other side of town from there." Lupita stepped close to Justin and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey this has been fun, but we should get back. Do you want to have dinner at my house tonight? My mom is cooking your favorite, red mole with chicken."

Justin wheezed as he forced out the word, "wait," and ran to the browning pine trees.

"Justin!" Lupita shouted.

Ignoring her, he ran on.

The archway should be here, right here.

He hooted again, desperate for the owl to show him the way. This was his forest. He reached the trees and leaned against the nearest one. Slowly, he peered around it to see nothing but more pines, blackberries, and poison oak.

"Please tell me you are not going in there?" asked Lupita.

Justin leaned against the tree and sighed. "No."

"Come on, let's go," said Lupita, smiling and holding out her hand. "I've had enough pretend for one day."

Justin peered back around the tree and again saw only forest. Taking Lupita's hand, he returned her smile.

They ran together all the way back to the soccer field, leaving the forest behind them. When they returned, the coach turned towards them and held up his hands.

"Oh good, you found the daydreamer. Great. Practice is nearly over. Lupita, you take point guard and Justin," he paused and then sighed, "just go stand over there."

Lupita squeezed his hand before letting go and racing onto the field. Justin turned to see if his dad noticed his absence, but he was still talking animatedly to the other parent, his back to the field. Justin nodded to himself and then turned and watched Lupita score a goal.

Only minutes later, the practice was over, and Justin dragged his feet over to his dad.

His dad turned and smiled at him. "Hey! How did it go?"

"Okay," said Justin.

His dad frowned. "Just okay?"

Justin shrugged. "Hey, is it okay if I go to Lupita's house for dinner?"

His father's jaw dropped. He stared at Justin for a moment, not speaking or blinking.

"Dad?" Justin asked.

His dad blinked, and then an enormous grin spread across his face. It was the largest grin Justin had seen from his dad in a long time. There was a flicker in his dad's eyes, kind of like a moving candle flame, that Justin had thought had been blown out for good.

"That's great!" his dad said with more enthusiasm than necessary. "That's outstanding! I mean, as long as it's okay with her parents."

"I will go ask," said Justin.

"Wait," said his dad, and then he grabbed Justin into a tight hug, his cheek on Justin's head.

"I love you," his dad whispered.

"I love you too," Justin whispered, squeezing his father back before pulling away quickly to talk to Lupita and her parents.

Justin was dropped off at home by Lupita's mom at ten PM, an hour after Justin was supposed to be in bed. Lupita's mom had called Justin's parents to apologize. Their family tended to eat way later than his own. They also sat around the table laughing and talking long after dinner was finished. A lot longer than his family would. Justin's parents usually ended up in front of the TV after dinner, leaving Justin to his imagination for company. Even Luis had laughed and talked to Justin as if he hadn't been making fun of him these last few years. Justin knew it was only because he was a guest in Luis' house and his parents would ground him for acting any other way but welcoming, but Justin appreciated it. It almost felt like when they were young. Luis had even asked about Mrs. Nesbitt, Justin's beta fish that was over four years old. Once, Luis and Justin had fed Mrs. Nesbitt a tadpole and had both screamed when the fish had swallowed it whole.

He tiptoed past the kitchen, hoping to not wake any sleeping parents. Heading down the hallway, he found light spilling from his mom's writing room. He tiptoed up and found his mom, reading glasses on, staring at the computer screen with her knees pulled up, feet on her chair, one arm wrapped around herself and the other holding a full glass of wine.

Too lost in her search to take a drink, he thought.

"Hey mom," he whispered.

She jerked, her wine sloshing over the glass onto her lap. She ignored the wine and dramatically pointed up to the ceiling.

"Bed. Now," she said, but then smiled. "Did you have fun?"

Justin nodded. "Yeah, it was really nice."

"Good," she said and held his gaze for a moment before turning back to the screen.

"Find anything?" he asked before he could stop himself.

"Maybe," she said and then added, "we will see."

Nodding, he turned away. He went straight to bed but found he could not sleep. His mind was too full of dark beasts and beautiful princesses.

Why couldn't he find his way back to her? He had been there. He just knew it was all real.

He sat up when he heard footsteps outside his door that shuffled past and continued into his parents' bedroom. Then he heard a soft click of a door closing.

Carefully climbing out of the top bunk, Justin lightly stepped across his room. As slowly as possible, he opened his door, willing it not to squeak. It opened without a sound. He tiptoed down the hallway, freezing when he heard talking from his parents' bedroom, soft murmurs of words whispered to not wake Justin. He smiled and continued on. He skipped the second to last creaky stair and landed undetected on the landing. He went to his mother's writing room, sat in her chair, and flipped open her laptop.

Large bright red letters glared out at Justin, Missing Children of Nevada. Justin clicked open a new window and logged onto Facebook. He had two new messages, both from Nitara. He inhaled and opened the first.

Justin, we did not see you when we thought you would come. Are you okay? I hope so. We need your help, Niraj says the beast is angry. This isn't good. Please come as soon as possible. Also, our mom hasn't come home yet.

Nitara

A lump formed in Justin's throat as he clicked on the second message.

The beast took Niraj. I cannot wait for you. I'm going after my brother. Please come find me.