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.The woman had been too scared to scream, terrified that the bear was going to charge, but instead, it seemed more interested in her children's swing set.It climbed up the sliding board and across the monkey bars where it stretched itself out in the warm sunlight.She'd managed to take a picture of the bear with her phone that showed it looking directly at her with its large brown eyes.That photograph had appeared in the next morning's newspaper and become quite famous.But since then, no one had seen the bear, at least not directly.They'd found overturned trash cans and torn open bags of garbage strewn across the lawns.Old Mrs.Bonner, who lived down the road from the O'Neil's had all of her bird feeders yanked down in one night, raided by the bear.And now there were dozens of people crashing through the woods, searching for it.It probably just wants to be left alone, Alana thought.If anything, Alana felt bad for the bear, because all it was doing was being its normal self.James, Alana's older brother, said, "The bear must have come down from the mountains looking for food.They've inhabited this area a lot longer than we have.I don't see why everyone is so upset.If you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone.Unless you spook it.Then it will probably eat you."It was the kind of thing James said when he wanted to sound like the man of the house, and Alana rolled her eyes and ignored him.She didn't appreciate him trying to act like he knew more than she did all the time, or that he had all the answers and knew things about everything there was, including bears.But, in reality, even though she'd have never admitted it to him, she believed he was probably right.This time.In some ways, Alana also felt jealous of the attention the bear was receiving.If people knew about the real mysterious creatures in the mountains, they wouldn't be so excited about a stupid bear.You could see a bear anytime you wanted at the zoo, or on TV, or online.They were everywhere.But dragons?Dragons were special.They were magical.They could fly, and they were absolutely, totally, completely secret.The only other person who knew about the dragons was James, and he refused to talk about them.Almost like he was trying to pretend he hadn't seen them on the night they rescued Star, or fought off the wizard Prospero, or they were rescued by Lady Moon.Alana walked back into her house and picked up her gray cat, Mister Six, and stroked him along the back of his neck until he purred and nuzzled against her.Mister Six had been there as well, and acted quite differently than any normal cat, but ever since that night, he'd done nothing except lay around like his usual self.Alana held the cat close to her and petted him, but her eyes searched the woods as they always did.Not for the men in the white jumpsuits or for the wildlife agents, or even for the dumb old bear.She was looking for her friend, Star.She missed him, and more than anything, she wanted him to come back.Alana was tired of people leaving.She hated it.Last year, her best friend in school, who was her best friend ever since kindergarten, moved away.They'd tried to stay in touch, but it wasn't easy, and when they did talk, all her friend wanted to talk about was her new school and new friends.Her father had left even before that.He'd been gone so long, Alana sometimes had trouble remembering what he looked like.One of their favorite games used to be the times he'd take her hand and rub it along the scruff of his chin until she squealed with laughter.He was a great snuggle-buddy too, from what she could remember.They used to sit on the couch and watch movies, cuddling under a warm blanket while he stroked her hair.And even when he got mad and yelled, like all parents do, for something the children were doing wrong, which all children do, he'd bark at James and rant and rave, but when he spoke to Alana, his voice would grow soft and he'd say, "You are my little princess, please don't do that anymore, love."When she was old enough, they'd gone to her school's Father/Daughter Dance, where everyone dressed up and the school's music teacher played the "Chicken Song" and "YMCA" all night long.Some of the little girls carried around bouquets of flowers, and others had come to the dance in white stretch limousines.A few of the fathers had even dressed up in tuxedos.When Alana's father let her out of the back of the car in the school's parking lot, he looked at the other fathers with wide eyes and said, "I suddenly feel underdressed."He was wearing jeans and a nice button down shirt and as he looked around at tuxedos and limousines, he quickly tucked it into his waist.Alana had worn a nice dress, with stockings and shoes, and her mother had braided her hair back.She put her hand in her father's and they crossed the parking lot to go into the school."Nobody said this was a formal event," he whispered to her."Formal means fancy."Alana looked around at the other girls, some of whom were dressed like she was, in regular dresses, and then at the ones who were dressed "formal" in great balls of taffeta fluff, and she shrugged."I'm just glad we're here.""Me too," her father said, patting her on the hand.They walked into the school's gymnasium and the speakers were pounding with loud party music.There were scores of girls gathered at the juice table, and others picking at the trays of cookies and popcorn, while others were simply standing off to the side with their fathers, looking at the empty floor in front of the DJ's booth.No one was dancing."You want to get some juice?" her father said."Nah.""You hungry?""Maybe later."Alana held her father's hand as she looked around, wondering if she'd see any of her friends and they'd save her from standing against the wall with the rest of the crowd for the whole night, when she noticed her father's right foot was bouncing up and down."Uh oh," he said, raising his voice so she could hear him above the music."What's wrong?" she shouted back.His foot was now bouncing and kicking and hopping around, as if on its own, and her father said, "I must have accidentally put on my dancing shoes tonight.They hear the music and want to dance!" His other foot was doing the same thing now, dragging him toward the dance floor, and her with him."I can't help it! It's got me.""Dad!" Alana complained, looking back nervously to see that none of the other girls were dancing, and none of the other fathers were pretending to have on dancing shoes.He started wiggling his hips and said, "Oh no.It's in my pants now.My clothes are dancing by themselves!"She laughed as he spun her around and around, pulling her close to him and then backing away so they could shake and jump and shimmy as much as they wanted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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