It’s July and my mother and father and I just finished traveling all the way from our home in Georgia to my grandparents lake house in Vermont. Every summer we come and stay up here for a week or two. It’s usually the most torturous week of the entire summer. All I think about is all the shit my friends are getting into back home. It sucks here. Nothing but trees, trees, a lake, and more trees. Where are the people? It’s a deadmans land up here for sure. I miss my friends and I’ve only been here for not even an hour. I was dreading unpacking my suitcase. I don’t wanna be here, if I unpack my stuff that’s just ensuring that I’m gonna be here for a while.

Stressed, and depressed I was out in the back of the house having a smoke when my grandfather comes out. “Mariella?” I threw the cigarette on the ground.

“Are you out there? Come here I have someone I want you to meet.”

Who the hell could my grandfather possibly want me to meet? The only people out here are in their 70’s and on the verge of dying. While walking up the steps I see a shaggy haired boy sitting on the front patio. Who the hell could my grandfather possibly want me to meet.

“Mariella!” Said my grandfather.

“This is Sid! I’m so excited for you two to meet. You guys are going to get along so well.”

“His grandfather lives in the big yellow house down the road a ways. He’s up visiting his grandparents for the week as well!”

The shaggy haired boy put his hand out to introduce himself.

“It’s nice to meet you Mariella.”

“Nice to meet you too Sid.”

Once the whole introduction was over I decided it was time to go finish that smoke that my grandfather rudely interrupted. I was sitting on a tree stump thinking about this “Sid” kid. He actually seemed pretty chill. He was pretty cute too. Shaggy brown hair and green eyes are my favorite. Maybe this summer week won’t be so bad after all. Out of nowhere the kid slops down on the stump next to me. “Hey.” He said.

“Jesus Christ you almost scared me to death.”

I hate when that happens. I feel like everytime I’m thinking about someone or something they pop up at that exact time. Almost as if he knew I was thinking about him. He pulled out a smoke as well. “Okay maybe this kids gonna be alright.” I thought to myself.

“So where are you from?” He asked.

“Georgia. You?”

“I’m living in Denver right now. Originally from Vermont though.”

We sat on that stump for nearly 2 hours talking about the weirdest things. Trading stories about our lives at home and all the crazy things we’ve done, and the crazy things we want to do.

The next morning I woke up to a knocking on my window. It was Sid. What the hell could he possibly want from me at this early in the morning. The sun was barely up and I’m used to waking up around noon back at home. I crept out of my bed and opened up the window which made the loudest most painful screech. “Top of the morning.” Said Sid. “Uh top of the morning to you too.” top of the morning? I thought to myself. Who says that. “I was just wondering if you happened to be busy today? I’m going on a little adventure and would love for you to join me.” He had such a evil, yet welcoming grin on his face. “Uhhhh I don’t have any plans at the moment.” I said. “Okay well we leave in 10. Meet me down the trail by the dogwood tree. I will be waiting.” Without giving me time to respond he quickly walked away. A little confused, I quickly put on clothes and hurried to the trail.

When I got to the trail Sid was carrying a giant backpack of who the hell knows what. “Hey.” I said.

“Are you ready to have the best time of your life?” In a almost cocky tone of voice.

“I mean I don’t know if it’ll be the best day of my life, but I’m ready to have a good time, for sure.”

We walked for about 30 minutes before we got close to our destination. Our destination being a tree house built on top of a giant oak tree. I’ve never seen something like this before. It was actually beautiful. We climbed up the trunk on a wooden rope ladder all the way to the top where we sat for hours with a pair of binoculars watching all of the animals roam around the land. We got on the topic of partying and how both of us were probably missing the best parties of the summer while we were in the middle of nowhere with our families.

“Man, why didn’t either of us bring a bottle of whiskey or something.” I said. Sid looked at me with an uncertain, anxious glare.

“What.. why are you looking at me like that?” I said to Sid to break his glare.

“Uh. I don’t know. I uh. I can trust you right, Mariella?”

“Is that a serious question? Tell me!” I yelled.

“Okay well, the other day a few of my buddies and I were hanging out around this lake that the kids at my school always throw parties at.”

“Andddd??”

“And there was this guy there selling this stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“I’m not exactly sure. He said it was some new kind of drug. Everyone was buying it so figured why not. He gave me this piece of paper along with the little vial.” Sid handed me the little draw string bag and rolled up piece of paper.

I’ve never done an actual drug before. I didn’t know if I should have been nervous, excited, or scared. Inside the drawstring bag was a tiny little vial of a blue liquid, and what looked like a tiny little turkey baster. On the piece of paper was a list of instructions on how to do it and what to expect after taking it.

“So what do ya say?” Sid said in a devious tone.

A million thoughts were running through my head. Should I do it? What is I die? What if it’s the greatest night of my life. What if my grandparents find out? What if my parents find out?

“Come on it’ll be fun I promise?”

“Idunno Sid. I mean have you even tried this stuff before? What exactly does it do?”

“I haven’t tried it yet, but everyone I know that has said it was amazing. Apparently it gives you the power to travel back in time until the drug wears off in about 24 hours.”

“Wait so you’re telling me that if we take this blue stuff we’ll be able to travel back in time?”

“Yeah, I think that’s what I’m saying..”

“And you’re sure that I wont die?

“I’m not trying to murder you Mariella. I just think it would be fun, and I think you would enjoy it as well.”

He was so convincing. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe there really wasn’t a reason for me to not do it. I mean I have nothing better to do, right? Finally after 30 seconds of me blankly staring at a tree I came to a decision.

“Whatever let’s do it. But where are we gonna go?’

“What’s one thing that you weren’t alive for but you wish you were?”

One thing that I wasn’t around for. I thought to myself. My god, there’s a million places and things I wish I was around for. How am I supposed to pick one.

“Let’s go back to George Washington’s time.” I said jokingly because that would be awfully boring.

“I was thinking somewhere cool. Somewhere we can do whatever it is that we please.” Sid said with a devilish smirk across his face.

“And where is that?”

“Woodstock.”

‘Woodstock? What is that? Or where is that I should say?” Is Woodstock something I should know about? I thought to myself.

“It’s the greatest music festival to ever happen. It was in the late 60’s. My grandparents went when they were teenagers. They’ve told me stories about it ever since I was a little boy. I used to dream about being there.”

“A little boy dreaming about a music festival. Those stories must have been pretty crazy.”

“So what do you say, wanna go?”

“I’m game.”

What happened next was a bit confusing. In order for this all to work the instructions said we had to follow them very precisely. Step one was to use the tiny strips of paper that came with the little drawstring bag and write down the place, date, and time of where we wanted to go. Sid scribbled in little letters.

“Woodstock, August 16, 1969.”

“Okay so what do we do now?”

“You have to do the same. Write down what I wrote on another tiny piece of paper. Make sure you don’t misspell anything, ‘cause then we may not end up in the same place.”

I was a bit confused as to how this was going to make us travel back into time. Anyway, I copied down exactly what Sid wrote on his piece of paper. The next step was where it got weird.

“So for the record, once we travel back into time we will be gone for what is an hour in reality, but will have an entire days worth of time to spend at woodstock.”

“So our grandparents won’t even know that we were gone, you think?”

“Definitely not. We’re golden trust me.”

“Okay so what do we do now?”

“It says to drip 3 drops of the blue liquid onto the pieces of paper. Says they should dry instantly.”

Sid proceeded to drop 3 droplets onto each piece of paper. They really did dry instantly. It was almost as if the liquid wasn’t really a liquid.

“Now put it in your mouth and hold my hand.”

“Pu-p-put it in my mouth?”

“Yes Mariella hurry.”

We both threw the pieces tiny pieces of paper into our mouths and joined hands. The taste in my mouth was crazy. It tasted like a mixture of rusty nails, dirt, bleach, and I don’t even know what. My mouth started to tingle. and then my throat started to tingle. After a few seconds the tingling sensation took over my entire upper body. Especially my head. A few more seconds later the tingling sensation completely took over my body. The suddenly everything went black. I could still hear and feel, but I couldn’t see. 30 seconds later my vision came back. But it sure as hell wasn’t a vision of what I was seeing before everything went black.

“We made it! We actually made it” Sid shouted.

“Oh my gosh where are we!”

“We’re at the greatest place on earth, that’s where we are. Come on, lets go have some fun.”

Sid put his hand out and grabbed mine and started running through the mass amounts of people.

There was people everywhere. In tents, laying in the grass, dancing, singing. It was

“Where do you wanna go? There’s a list of groups and what time they’re playing over there. Lets go check it out.”

“Joe Cocker!” I shouted.

“Oh you like Joe Cocker? Let’s go!”

We went to the main stage and were swarmed by good vibes and love. Being here felt different than any other place in the world. At times I felt as though I wasn’t in the real world. Well I guess I wasn’t? I dunno. All I know if where ever I was I loved it. We spent the entire day dancing and singing and talking to the most interesting people. I wish that I never had to leave that place. But I knew it was going to come to an end soon. I can’t believe that in order to get here we only had to take a few drops of this blue liquid that seemed to have no negative or drug like effect on our bodies or minds. It was amazing. And then suddenly once the sun went down, my eyes started to do that thing again. My mouth started to tingle, then my throat, and then my upper body, and then my entire body. But Sid was nowhere to be found. What if he doesn’t make it back I started to panic. And then suddenly I was back where I started. And Sid was with me.

“Sid! I thought you weren’t gonna make it back!!”

“Haha. Nope I made it. Would you believe how fun that was?”

“I kinda feel like it was just a dream. But then again I kinda feel like we were actually there.”

“That’s because we were actually there Mariella. And we can go back any time you want.”

We made our way back to the house and everything was perfectly normal. Out grandparents weren’t concerned and I don’t think they even noticed we were gone to be honest. Sid and I left on a note that every summer when we’re visiting our grandparents, were going to take a trip back to woodstock. It will be our version of  summer vacation.

“Are we there yet, we’ve been flying for hours?” said Lando.

“Relax we’re almost there. We would’ve been there already, but someone blew out one of the engines making a trip to the other side of the solar system.” grumbled Jack.

Jumping of the couch Lando said, “You’re still holding that against me? I told you I thought the bounty was 100,000 woolongs not 1000. That decimal could’ve fooled anyone. “

Pinching his eyebrows Jack says, “A grown man can’t tell the difference between a comma and decimal,” Jack throws Lando his jacket, “come on we’re about to jump out of warp space.”

Jack and Lando jump out of warp space near the now inhabited Venus, they dock their ship, the Jukebox, in at Venus’ spaceship garage and take a shuttle down to one of Venus’ most popular casino, Heavy Hitters.

“Our target is here?” asked Lando.

Jack looks around surveying all the people and says, “Yea he should be, but this place is packed more than usual so we can’t just walk in guns blazing.”

Lando smirking says, “You know that’s not my style anyway let me see his picture again,". Jack pulls out his phone and shows Lando the hologram of their target. “What’s his bio?”

Jack says, “The guy were looking for is Micky Robinson, an ex-criminal who used to work for a small organized crime group known as Neptunes. Micky got caught selling one of the galaxy’s most dangerous  drug known as blue tomale. Once he got caught he spilled the beans about his organization to save his own skin. He alone was the cause for more than 15 members arrest. You could say that the Neptunes weren't too happy about that, hence that’s why we’re here.”

“I hate dealing with rats.”

“They really want this guy he's got 15 million woolong bounty on his head.  He's probably under witness protection so don’t do anything stupid when you see him. And make sure he's alive this time please.”

Lando nods and the two of them split up and begin their search. It took them no longer than 20 minutes to find their man. He finds Paul at a poker table drunk and boasting about his winnings.

Lando calls Jack and says, “I found our boy. I could see why they put a hit on his head.”

Jack says, “ Alright stay there I’ll be there in a sec.” Lando hangs up and walks over to the table and sits next to Paul.

Paul yells, “ We got new blood over here now things are getting interesting!”

Lando smiles and says, “ Things about to get a whole lot more interesting in just a minute. So Micky Robinson you come here often? Wouldn't mind spending the rest of my days hiding here.”

“H- how did you know my name?”

“Oh I wouldn't worry about that. Right now the only thing you need to worry about is coming with me, I have a few friends who would like to have a word with you.” Lando then taps his pistol against his groin. “ And don’t get any bright ideas either wouldn't want things to get messy.”

“Who was it, was it the Neptunes? If it was just kill me now I knew I couldn't run forever. At least I spent my last few days having fun. ”

“Oh well that’s the things I blow the bounty if I blow you away.”

Paul stares at Lando. Paul then flips the table on him and starts running. Lando gets the table off of him and starts chasing Paul.

Lando calls Jack and says, “He’s on the move you see him?”

Jack sees Paul running with Lando chasing him and says, “Yeah, gonna try and cut him off, don’t lose him” Jack tries to run ahead, but is slowed down by a crowd of gamblers.

“Where the hell are you I’m losing him?”

“He didn’t pick the most spacious area to get caught.”

“Hold on I got an idea.” Lando pulls out his gun and shoots it at the ceiling. Everyone in the casino starts running for the exit.

“What was tha… you know what I don’t even want to know I’m going out the back,” said Jack.

Paul is pushed and shoved by numerous people as he tries to make his way outside. Paul makes it outside and grabs a random woman running out the casino and pulls out a gun and puts it to her head.

Paul sees Lando and yells, “Leave me alone, let me walk away and she won’t get hurt!”

Lando stops and points his gun at Paul.

“Didn't you hear me leave me alone or else I’m gonna shoot this lady!”

“That would be a real shame, but I’m not part of a charity organization sorry lady today just isn't your lucky day.”

Woman flails and screams. “You son of a bitch! I hope you go to hell! Get this man off of me!”

Paul points the gun at Lando and yells, “You cowboy scu…”

Lando shoots Paul’s gun out of his hand and shoots Paul in the shoulder. Paul lets go of the woman to tend to his wound. Jack shows up mere seconds after the confrontation and handcuffs Paul. The woman asks, “What did he mean when he called you cowboy, who are you?”

Lando says, “Just a humble bounty hunter ma’am.”

Jack and Lando walk Paul to their ship. Once inside they tie Paul to a chair and tape his mouth and put him in the storage room. They power up their ship and type in the coordinates to Triton, one of Neptune’s moons, and take the warp gate.

Jack begins to cook food while Lando takes a shower. After thirty minutes they both sit down on the couch and eat.

“What you make this time big guy,” asks Lando

Jack says “Chicken stew, we’re kinda low on chicken so there isn’t as much in it as usual.”

“Uhh Jack, there is no chicken”

“Relax it still tastes the same.”

“I don’t think that a stew without chicken would qualify as chicken stew.”

“And why doesn't it.”

“Because there is no chicken!”

"Well we start to miss out on things when you're broke."

"What happened to the 1000 woolong reward we got for that last guy?"

"That's repair money for the warp drive you broke. Just relax, once we turn this guy in we'll have enough money for all the chicken you want."

“We better I’m tired of sitting around with nothing to eat.”

“One more thing I heard what you said back there about the lady did you really mean it, did you?”

Lando scratching his head replies, “Well to tell you the truth I really don’t know. You know we can’t waste our time with every single person that gets in the way. But then again I don’t like being the cause of an innocent person’s death. I usually don’t think about it.”

“I guess I can’t blame you. Next just don’t be so convincing you had me scared for a minute there.”

Lando laughs, “You think too much about the world. You gotta learn to just go with the flow with things. It’ll solve most of your problems,” he gets up pats Jack on the shoulder and asks, “How’s our plant doing?”

Jack says, “He’s in the storage room, he might need to use the bathroom. You think you can handle that?”

Lando walks towards the storage room says, “I was never good at changing diapers so don’t be upset if he’s messy.”

Lando walks in the storage room and finds Paul asleep. He taps Paul’s cheek and says, “Hey buddy time to wake up.”

Paul wakes up and tries to talk, “Mmmmm Mmmmm.”

“Hold on someone put tape on your mouth,” says Lando as he begins to rip the tape of Paul’s mouth.

Paul screams, “You better let me you bastard! I know people, people like you’ve never seen! These guys will flip your sh…”

Lando kicks Paul in the face and makes him fall on his side. “You know you talk too much Paul,” said Lando.

Paul spits out blood laughs, “You still don’t get it, you think a guy who snuffed out most of the Neptunes would go without protection. I got the galaxies finest witness protection program coming for you. You see it’s a policy that those under the program are required to have tracking devices put under their skin. Sure I lose some privacy, but it pays off when hot shots like you try to mess with a guy like me.”

“Like I said you talk too much,” said Lando as he kicks Paul in the face again.

Lando walks out the storage room and tells Jack the news, “We might have a small problem on our hands. Turns out our guy was really under witness protection and has been giving our position to these guys once he got on the ship.”

Jack sighs and says, "Damnit why can't we just get one easy job?"

"How long do you think we have before they get here."

"If they've been tracking him since we left then not that long. Go power up the Little Lady. We’re gonna wait for them at Jupiter.”

Lando nods his head runs towards his hangar gets in his ship and powers up the Little Lady.

Lando radios Jack and says, “I’m in, open the hangar doors.”

Jack replies, “I just picked up 3 ships on the scanner they’re coming out of warp.”

Three small fighter ships appear out of thin space and barrage the Jukebox with lasers. Jack trying to maneuver the Jukebox yells, “The Jukebox is taking hits you gotta get them off of me.”

“I’m on it,” says Lando as he positions the Little Lady behind one of the attackers and fires on the it. The pilot tries to maneuver his ship to dodge Lando’s attack, but is too late. He hits his fuel tank and the ship explodes. “I think that got their attention,” says Lando.

“Don’t get too excited, you got two on your tail,” says Jack.

“I’m going to have to get a little fancy with these guys. I’m gonna try and lure them to Ganymede you to the warp gate and get out of here and I’ll catch up.”

“That’s way too dangerous Ganymede is way too populated for you to have a dogfight on. Go to one of Jupiter’s uninhabited moons.”

“Too late already I’m too close to change moons now. Worry about our bounty and get to the warp gate now!”

“I’ll wait at Triton’s space station you better make it back.”

Lando laughs, “If I didn't know any better sounds like you’re gonna miss me.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself I just need you alive so you can pay me back the damage you did to my ship. So try not to get shot down.”

Jack takes the warp gate and starts his trip to triton. Lando and his 2 pursuers begin to enter Ganymede's atmosphere. One of his pursuers lines him up and makes an attempt to lock a missile on him. He maneuvers by turning off his engine and pulls up. He slows down dramatically causing both his pursuers to fly past him. He then flips the engine back on and lines up one of his pursuers and fires at his wing causing his plane to flip over and plummet to the moon’s surface. Lando attempts to do the same to the last pursuer, but he maneuvers just in time to dodge a fatal hit. Lando then dives down causing his last pursuer to get on his tail. He flies through one  Ganymede's canyon and shoots a missile at the top of the canyon. He then turns on the afterburners to dodge the falling debris, but his pursuer isn't so lucky and is crushed by the debris. Lando flies out the canyon and back into space and makes his trip Triton.

Jack jumps out of warp space and docks in at Triton’s space station. Jack then goes to the storage room to check on Paul and finds him crying.

Paul asks, “Why do you people do this.”

Jack shocked to see him crying says, “It’s a way of life. Don’t know what else I would do without it to tell you the truth.”

“That’s what I thought when I was part of the Neptunes. I had it all fast cars, nice clothes, the big house. Life was good, but then I met this woman about 7 years ago. It didn't make since she was different, she was innocent. She knew I was part of the Neptunes, but she never liked it when worked with them. She always begged for us to run off to some distant planet and get married. I wanted to, but I told her I couldn't. I didn't want them to find her through me so I told her to runoff on by herself.”

“So how’d you end up on Venus?”

“I found out she had a girl and that they were both on Mars. So I went there to see them. They both looked beautiful, but they were having money issues. I started dealing more and gave them almost all of it. I finally got caught and decided it was time to leave the Neptunes. I knew they weren’t going to just let me leave so I made a deal that if they let me go I’ll tell them everything I know about the Neptunes. A few of my good friends got locked up, but it was worth it. I was free and I went back to mars to go live with them. Only thing was she found a new man.”

“Wow did all that work just for her to turn around and marry a new guy.”

“She claims that I wasn't giving her enough money and that she needed him to help put food on the table. She wouldn't even let me see my daughter. So I went to Venus got drunk and decided to live the rest of my days being drunk and having fun.”

“That’s some heavy shit.”

Lando comes out of warp drive and beeps in on the radio, “I made it back how’s our plant doing.”

Jack walks to the bridge of the ship and opens the hangar door for Lando. “He’s doing alright. He uuhh told me some things kinda making second guess our decision.”

“Awww fuck he told you a sob story didn't he come on big guy don’t get soft on me. We went through a lot of trouble for this guy.”

“Ehhh I guess you’re right.”

Lando walks in and asks, “You ready.”

Jack nods.

“Alright then lets get our boy in.”

`Jack unties Paul from the chair and puts him in cuffs. Jack and Lando walk Paul off the Jukebox and take a shuttle Triton. It’s not long before their shuttle touches down.

Paul asks, “Before I die can I ask one favor?”

Jack says, “Sure what is it.”

“Can I call my daughter to see how’s she’s doing?”

Jack looks at Lando. Lando rolls his eyes and says, “Sure why not.”

He hands Paul his phone and dials the number for him. Lando and Jack wait outside the shuttle until Paul comes out.

Pauls says, “Thank you.”

Lando replies, “Time to cash you in.”

They walk to the Neptunes headquarters. One of the guards recognizes Paul and leads them to the main room.

“Mr. Corello your guest have arrived,” said the guard

The guard leaves and closes the door behind him. Corello turns around in his chair and says, “Gentlemen come in. You can call me  I see you found my old friend.”

Lando says, “Yea and we went through a lot of trouble to get him too.”

“I bet you did, but I assure you it was all worth it. 15 million woolong it was right?”

“Yep”

Corello walks over to Paul, pats him on the face and says, “And he seems to be alive and healthy. Very good I’ll have the money in your account right away.”

“Thanks. Let’s go Jack.”

“Oh no you can’t leave yet, you’re gonna miss the show. You see Paul here has done a horrible thing my organization and now he owes me a long and painful death.”

“Ehh I think I’ll pass. Not a fan of watching someone get tortured”

“Don’t like the sight of blood huh? Very well you two enjoy your trip and don’t spend the money all at once.

Lando and Jack turn around and begin to leave the room. Just as they get too the door Jack’s phone beeps.

Lando asks, “What is it?”

Jacks replies, “Got another bounty.”

“On who and how much.”

“It says 50 million woolong for leader of the Neptunes Joseph Corello, wanted dead or alive.”

Lando and Jack both turn around, pull out their pistols and point them at Corello.

Corello asks, “What the hell are you guys doing.”

“Someone just put a hefty bounty on your head and we’re about to take it,” says Lando

“You think my men are going to let you just walk out of here with me?”

“Of course not, but you’re lucky enough be wanted dead or alive.”

Jack says, “If you don’t mind Mr. Corello we’ll be taking Paul too.”

“What kind of people are you,” asks Corello.

Don’t Touch

JEFF’S PROPERTY

BY JEFF

WRITEN BY JEFF

Hey,

Alright let’s get this straight. As I stated in my previous journal, I mentioned all the bullshit I had to go through. The girl I’m in love with played me in front of the whole class, not to mention her jerk-face boyfriend keeps pushing me. One day, I’m going to be rich, and they’ll regret everything they ever did to me.

Anyways, before I get too emotional on you, this journal has one purpose, and one purpose only: to please my mother. I went to a therapist recently because my mom thought I was depressed and all that, which I tried to deny, but she wasn’t having that. Pam, the therapist, suggested that I write everything that I’m feeling, and how my day went, and what exactly what went on.

At first i was like “yeah, definitely, it sounds like a plan” out loud to Pam, but really in my head I was like “man, fuck that”. Turns out my mom was thinking quite the opposite, because right when  we left Pam’s office, she drove me right to dollar tree to get a journal. Now, i’m actually kind of used to writing in a book. Its quite comforting since I have no one else to talk to, that actually understands what I go through. My first journal I filled in so much, I had to wrap it up with a rubber band because it was bursting with loose papers every time I dared to open it. I just decided to get a new one, so my mom gave me the money for it.

Oh, and lets get another thing straight: I’m going to be rich one day. When that day comes, I can sell this journal for money, and become even MORE richer. Please, hold the applause. Anyways, Let me tell you a little about myself, since my other journal is so old you probably can’t interpret anything. Hi, I’m Jeff (as you probably guessed from the cover). I’m 16, I love Nutella, cocoa butter, old school Dell computers, and Forensic Analysis. Yes, i’m weird- I get that numerous times throughout the day. Which I still don’t understand., because I don’t do anything to anyone. Why can’t anyone mind their business? The world may never know.  I also forgot to mention something very imperative: something happened, something big. I don’t know the full story, because my mother still thinks i’m still too young” to know, but I think I understand it enough. From my experiments, observations, and knowledge, there was a bombing. I’m not talking about the soda bombs that the immature “Jocks” put in the nerd’s locker numerous times throughout the school year. I;m talking about an atomic bomb. It was huge. The burnt imprint is still on the sidewalk, one whole decade later.  It left a big mess, and killed thousands. America never told us who it was, and why they did it-but thats nothing new. The government never tells us anything. When it all happened in the year of 2051, thats when things started to go wrong. The air was polluted, the smell of gas and chemicals was everywhere, and people went homeless. Most people’s homes were abolished, or should I say blown to smithereens.  Everything was gone. Pets, food, homes, people, clothes-everything. We slowly recovered by the little amount of grants and stamps that the government gave everyone in my area, called Aksala. My father had the cutest little shop where he sold bait for the river that flowed in our little town. Sadly, it died along with him. My mother and I are doing alright now, just struggling to get through each and everyday. The smell of gas and chemicals is still int he air however, and it annoys me so much.  Anyways, I’m going to bed early to night. It’s been a rough day. I have all this homework I don’t feel like doing, and it’s all due tomorrow (see, i’m no totally a nerd). So goodnight, whoever is listening...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey,

I’ve been working my ass off for this stupid A that i should’ve gotten the previous quarters in history class. I love history, I do my journals, yet I still always get a B. Its not even a low B, its literally an 89.9%. Yeah, I know, its ridiculous. Anyways, that pretty much ruined my day. I’ve just  been so stressed out. Not to mention that Aya (the girl i’m madly in love with and give up my heart, limb, and both eyeballs for), just walked by me in the hallway today. Its not like she says hi to me anyways, because who would. Forget it, lets forget about this sad talk, let just change the subject. I have this really big pond in the back of my house, which all this old gunk and stuff from all the oils and chemicals the government collected from the bombing incident. It stinks, like i’m always complaining about. The creepiest thing happened though. I keep forgetting my new keys that my mom got made just for me on my dresser, so I just go in through the back door whenever I leave them, since the back door is always opened. I hop the fence, and fall into a glob of mud, or whatever it was. I brush it off the gooey brown dirt off of my new pants, then look up to the weirdest thing. Yes, a thing. I’m not sure if I was just seeing things, but it looked like a head. Thats when I started running, because stuff like that creeps me the heck out. When I got into the house, I had to take a second to catch my breathe, i’m not much of a track star. I shouted “MOM” to see if she was home. No response,which I expected. I went right into the shower-I couldn’t take the smell of that dirt on me. I turned on the water to the perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold. I start to think about what I saw, trying to decide if I was going crazy or not. I came to a conclusion: I must’ve bumped my head onto the ground when I fell of the fence to quickly. So i just went with that for the rest of the night. I’m satisfied with that conclusion, because now I can finally go to sleep, since I have to wake early for school, anyways. Which I should do now-so goodnight, whomever.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey,

Today was just like regular day, except a couple of things. Okay, let me explain a little bit. I took a deep breath. It smelled of gas and chemicals. It's just that stupid smell that still never went away. You get used to it though (well not me, my mother has).

Anyways, as I was saying, today was really weird. As I was coming from that hell hole you call a school, I saw something very peculiar (and yes, that was one of my ten dollar vocabulary words I had to study for Miss Pahomav's class this week). There's this small pond behind my house that was really cute before all the chemicals and waste got into it, and made it all green and muggy. As I walked past it something glowed in the water. It looked like two glow in the dark eyeballs that my friends would by from five-below to scare me. HOwever, I could tell this wasn't a prank.  could've sworn I saw them blink too. That was creepiest part though. I mean, I just brushed it off and walked away, saying to myself "that school lunch must be having some sort of side effect on me", thinking I was just seeing things. Hopefully I don't see nothing creepy like that again.

Once again, i have another essay to write, I men, do they ever give us students a break? its almost spring break. goodness. So on that note, I should probably start my essay, which shouldn’t be THAT  hard since i practically write an essay everyday. So goodnight, stranger.

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Jeff here,

Okay so  it happened again guys ("guys" refers to whomever cares and finds my diary in the future one day when i'm already filthy rich), I saw it again. It actually came up too. It was REALLY weird. Only the head I think. Because it looked like it had really bad weave on top of its head, so I could tell it was girl thing. Maybe I really am going crazy. Or is it just the school lunch? Or maybe its a ghost? I have no idea, but I really need to start bringing my keys, because I'm really getting tired of hopping my fence, only to walk past the pond with that creepy thing in it.

P.s: that essay was not easy, AT ALL. I went to bed at 5 in the morning. 5 IN THE MORNING.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TO WHOEVER:

Alright, I know i’m not crazy, because it actually came out of the swamp/pond/puddle thing thats behind my house, and let me tell you this thing is strange. First, it looks like a glob of mud. Its got a fat person’s figure, with mud on top of it. Basically like a sloppy joe burger. Now, before you think this is one of those boy meets robots type stories- its not. I’m not gonna so indulged into this thing, because I honestly am creeped out, and its me. I threw a stick at it, to see if it would like explode or something. But instead it just blinked again. I figured if it handle a stick, it could handle me (the stupidest concept you will ever hear in your life, yes I know.) The thing that gets me is that it actually moved its mouth. It’s weird. As weird as it might though, it’s still cool. I’m tempted to run  a couple of test on  the thing, but i’m scared how it would react. Will it eat me? will it knock my lights out? We’ll never know. Or will we...? Goodnight, brave world.

Jeff Again,

Okay, I found out something about it: I have no idea what IT is. Okay, okay, I found out a couple of things however. Running some text on the sample I got from it, I came up with a couple of theories. It has some type of critical mass of fissionable material, because it needed to create a chain reaction in the atomic bomb, for it to explode. Isotopes such as  uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were later found in my experiments. Both of these ingredients were both used in the atomic bomb, which makes sense because the glob and chemical was all goes right into the pond/swamp/puddle type thing in the back of my house, which might be the reason why this THING is in my backyard. Yes, I am pretty genius you could say, but what bothers me is how does it move its mouth? What makes it-IT? After doing some research, i found a couple of other interesting facts. For one, there is nothing else like it. There have been no other reports in newspaper, youtube, not even nerd.org is there ANYTHING about a glob monster made from mixed chemicals. So you could say this is an amazing finding, and that i could become famous for this. Actually, while writing this, I just realized how rich I could become from just this glob monster! I could by my own house, my own dell company- or rather all the Nutella I want! That would be real nice.

But would that okay though? All this sounds so nice, but i’m not sure this is going to be the best choice. I mean after I call whoever I have to call, every  FBI agent and police officer would invade my house 24/7, and I don’t think my mom could handle that much in invasion and stress- especially since what happened to do Dad. She’s just been backed up on work so much so thats he can pay for all the bills, which I respect about her, so I won’t call I guess. That Nutella would’ve been nice though. Just for my mom though, which is amazing because i’m actually being considerate. Since that’s all I have to say for now, Ill just go to bed, goodnight- and let the force be with you.

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Hey,

Its the middle of the night, and i’m terrified. I heard some noise outside and looked out the window. Its the glob monster again ( yes, i’m calling it that now). ow, you’re probably wondering why i’m writing this right now, when I’m terrified, when I should be calling the cops or something. “Man, this kid is obsessed with this journal”- well you’re wrong. Its my stress reliever, and like I said before I gotta record almost everything I think in this book for when I’m famous. Anyways, lets get to the point.

I woke up to this vrooom-vrooom-vroom noise. Not like a motorcycle, but like a glowing sound,kind of like how a bee’s trailing sound he leaves behind him when he quickly flies right past you. Yeah, it was creepy. so i went outside, but instead of going right down the stairs, I jumped out of the window. I must say, it was quite painful but it was worth it. I went towards the glowing green light, and as I suspected-it was it. I don’t know what it is with me and sticks, but I always throw them at things. after I there basically a half of a tree branch at it, it shifted. It was like it didn’t feel the branch. In fact, it was like jell-o. I’m not scared of it anymore, its just more creepier than scary.

After it shifted, it kept making those weird noises. “Vrooom-vrooom”. I went closer, quietly, steadily, trying not to disturb it. Of course I slept on a couple of crunchy crunchy leaves and sticks, so I wasn’t as quiet as I thought. I shifted from side to side, disturbed by its surroundings.

I’m Face to “face” with the Glob Monster.

It continues t glow. It continues to make the “vroooom” noise. I hold my hand out, just like the scene in ET, where he touches the alien. I poke it. Worst decision ever made.

It start to grow silver blades as scales. Scales so sharp, it splits my upper part of my finger open. Blood dripping, I move back suddenly.  It starts to make the “Vrrroooom-vroooom” noise louder, and faster. “VROOOM-VROOOMVROOMVROOM”. I moves back, one step at a time. Now, you would think that a normal person would run for their lives, but I tried to make clear before, I’m not that normal. I watch it as it starts spinning, instead of swaying. It starts spinning faster, and faster, and faster- till I’m so dizzy i feel like fainting. It starts levitating , going up slowly, but surely. It’s about 8ft in the air-still spinning faster and faster.

It stops.

Now. Im. Scared.

I started to walk back faster, and faster, until I was basically behind the big bush in my mother’s garden, peeping through the leaves of it. I start shaking, this anxious feeling in my stomach.

Okay let’s stop here:

If someone finds this, please tell my mom I love her. I really do, and I didn’t say anything just for her. I’m really not ready to die, and so far, i’m going out of my mind right now. I’m probably sweating blood right now, thats how scared and nervous I am. So, uh, yeah- just tell her I love her.

Okay, let’s carry on now:

I’m basically shaking the bush right now, but as I watch the Glob monster frozen in time, I touch myself just to make sure he didn’t freeze me too. Good, i’m okay, i’m still here, for now.

It starts to sway once again.

Swaying so smoothly, like hands at a Jazz festival.

It starts to bring apart.

The globs start to scatter everywhere- in random places. Now at first I thought it was going to create mini minions, and starts to attack the earth, and take over everything-but thats just me being worried I guess. Instead, it started to spell “Alaska”. I wondered what it that meant. I mean, its 2067, what is that supposed even mean?

I stays there., jiggling on the ground like freshly poured Jell-O.  I stand up, to see it closer, and its still moving a little. Once again i throw a stick at it, and surprisingly it doesn’t move. I look back at my house to see if my mom woke up, which she didn’t thankfully. I look back.

Nothing is there. I think is sunk into the ground while I was looking,because little part were slowly disappearing into the grass. I just stood there. Silently , waiting for something to happen. Nothing else happened. I waited for another twenty minutes. I hear the crickets, as the leaves ruffle into the air. I start heading back in.

As I open the door, I hear the “vroom” nose, but when I looked back, there was nothing there. I ignore it, and go back into my house, up the stairs, in my bed. I really am kind of proud of myself though. These past few days have been really weird, but i’ve changed a little. I’ve learned to be considerate, and I appreciate things a little ore-such as my my finger (which I need to get fixed). But most importantly, I went ahead and did something out of the ordinary, just like my my dad told me to do. I mean I guess that’s good and all. But what confuses me is what actually happened, and what this means for me. What does “Alaska” actually mean? All their questions, and no answers. Oh well, I’m going to bed, now, because just reading this over gives me a headache. Goodnight, Dad.

_____________________________________________________________________

Wassup,

I haven’t seen anything yet. Not a glob of mess, not a sound- absolutely nothing. Honestly, I’m glad. I don’t want to creeped anymore than I already have. So whenever I forget my key, I hop the fence as usual. I then go to the pond. Nothing is moving, it just still smells of gas and chemicals. It never went away. I wish it went away with the glob monster actually, that would be so nice.

  I always thought I had a great life. Never taking anything for granted, I was so humble. Just looking at my life you would think that I got everything I wanted. That I was set for life. However my family worked for everything we had. Born Jonathan Miles Harris, I am now 16 years old. I have black hair, I am 5 feet 6 inches. I am Milano male(Which is african american and Caucasian), With a heavy accent. I have reddish brown eyes, crooked smile, and I am 150 pounds. Who ever finds this short book will know what really happened to me.

    So to whoever saw my story on the news I disappeared when I was 13, and reappeared on my 16th birthday. From where I was I saw everything that happened when I was taken. Everyone tried to blame my parents for me coming up missing. Because my mother was a former drug smuggler for the black market people believed that she was the cause. Others came up with the theory that because my father was a powerful district attorney. He received death threats from people relating to the inmates, some people theorized that I was taken because of him.

    Breaking down the two theories was the job of the police and detectives, but It was impossible. My mothers past was filled with too many colorful people, and if this was a result of her past we could never know. My fathers was a smidge better, however still was a lost cause. After trying to ensure just for about a good 3 months the police gave up and left my parents with a huge burden.  

    When I was took by “this creature” I was scared for my life. I blinked about a good 130 times to try and see if it was a dream. I pinched myself over and over again, and I prayed continuously. I just wanted to be back in my room making a beat or in the gym. Really I would have preferred to be anywhere but here. I couldn’t stand being in this dark moving vehicle’s trunk. I remember what happened when I was abducted.

    It was a saturday, and I was walking to Acme to get snacks for the movie night my friends and I were about to have. While standing at the netflix box I was tapped and grabbed. Trying to put up a fight against 4 grown individuals was like a turtle trying to escape 4 different wildcats. After successfully getting my eyes and mouth covered I was shoved forcefully into a vehicle. After that I felt a heavy thump hit my leg, which were the snack that I just purchased. A feminine voice said eat these if you want to be partially satisfied during the trip.

    After being in this surprisingly roomy trunk, being tossed my fulfilling snacks, and not hurt during my kidnapping I had a feeling I wasn’t really in danger. Every so often I would hear the same voice ask me was I okay. I would answer yes, but can someone please explain. She would reply the same way each time all in due time. You’ll be caught up in all the confusion shortly sweety. I just knew from her tone that I wasn’t in immediate danger. After driving in a trunk for days, and only having the trunk be aired out once, we arrived in an open field in pennsylvania.

    As the 4 humans get out the car, I hear them speaking a different language.  When they spoke it was almost if they were devising a plan. I tried to listen to see if there were words I knew. After listening for about 40 seconds my thoughts became jumbled. I was so confused and went into a stage if mind where my eyes were completely shut, I couldn't move, but I was conscious.

    After being in this stage for about an hour, I woke up on a spaceship of some kind. Scared to death I yelled and tried to move. I couldn't move because I was strapped down. My throat was closing because the amount of air I had, I wasn't able to breathe. I felt like I was being suffocated, or the driest price of bread on earth. My airway was closing up and at a not soothing pace.

    2 people walked into the room and saw me struggling. One just stood there in amazement, while the other was a girl my age. She recited the words from the trunk and I went into the same stage. As I was laying there I felt a sense of relief as if a new adaptation was given to me. I was able to breathe in space now. As I woke up I remembered feeling safe again.

    However I realized that no person should be able to breathe in space. So many questions formalized in my mind. Why me? What are these things? What do they want with me? I wanted answers and I wanted them now. As I started to look around again the setting I was I'm started to adapt to my room. I start to pinch myself and blink again. Nothing happened I was still in this room.

    As Boredom started to rise, I start to interact with the things in my room. I went to play my game, everything on my play-station was the same. To pass the time for a while that's what I did. And every-time I got hungry I went to my mini fridge and got something to eat. I figured that if I stayed there I would get answers out of someone. After a good 6 hours of playing play station it got a knock at my door. It was the girl who saved me when my lungs collapsed.

    When she came in the room was dead silent for about 10 minutes. We both had awkward looks on our faces. Both of us wanting to say something. Until she says you must be confused. I reply kind of, but thanks for saving my life. I start to ask he about why I got here, and question what’s going on. She responded saying she doesn’t really know. We spend a little while talking and she ask me is she pretty? I respond saying yes she is very beautiful. She starts to cry and say that its been a while since she heard that. I ask her why she said that? She starts to tell me about her and her boyfriends latest break up. Conflicted with listening to this girl I just met, and figuring out where I am, I choose to listen to her.

    After talking for a while she ask can she show me around the space-ship. I tell her I am pretty tired, but I would love for her to show me around tomorrow morning. She exits my room and I cannot fall asleep for a while. I just keep replaying all the incidents that went down in the past couple of days. I try to comprehend everything, and even try to use my cellphone. None of that even worked. I was stranded somewhere else, and didn’t even know where I was. I still felt safe though I felt like I would be understood and taken care of. Around 5 o’clock I fall asleep and wake up 3 hours later. I feel really refreshed, and really hungry.

    As I wipe the sleep from my eyes I wake up to the same feminine voice saying goodmorning. I respond hey where am I? She tells me this time “you are better off here”. I say well can atleast tell me why I am here. She says that will be revealed in time.  She hands me a plate of my favorite breakfast, and the remote for my T.V. I thank her. As she walks out she says don’t worry you are safe here. I eat my breakfast and watch the new episode of my favorite show. Then a question arises in my mind how is my favorite show on, and i’m not on earth. As my favorite show is playing I recall what happened during the last episode. As the episode ends, the girl who I now know as jacell walks in.

    I start to get dressed and while i’m taking off my pajama bottoms she stares intensely at me. I know what she wants, but I quickly get dressed. We leave my room and go to explore the spaceship. We go to every area of the spaceship, we look at every attraction and place to eat possible. As we start to be around each other for this extended period of time we both get more comfortable talking, joking and having fun. As we are walking back to my room she grabs my hand. We continue to walk though. It's only when I got to my room she kisses my lips. I felt it coming though, but I was still surprised.

    As the weeks turn to months I am still on this spaceship. Everyone knows me, and pays more attention to me rather then when I was in Philly. I guess you can start to say I love it here. Me and Jacell are in a relationship now. I get to be free as in rules wise, and everyone likes me. In these past months I've had a blast, only things is I miss the people who loved me on earth. As time continues to pass I wonder "will I ever get to go back?" "Do they still think about me?" "What's happening now?". Questions clutter my mind on a daily.

    A years goes by, everything here is good. I still miss the earth but I love being here. I love my new friends, I love that if I go back to earth I can say that I breathed in earth without equipment. I love that I was made into a big issue, I love this spaceship as a whole though. I'm torn between my home and my new home. As I sit and contemplate all these things, I remember that even if I wanted to leave I can't. Then a thought comes to make the best of what I have here.

    Jacell comes and we walk through the park for a little bit. Then we go to the town hall. As we arrive I see all the lights off. I start to piece things together. We seen nobody on our walk, lights off, and I've been here for a year. I assumed it was a party. Unsure I didn't say anything to Jacell. I just walked in after her and as she turn on the lights everybody on the space ship jumped out at me from all angles. I was still surprised and I knew what it was. The party was great, they really knew how to make me feel special and welcomed. As I left the party everybody handed me gifts and I just loved that night.

As me and Jacell left arms full we walked back to my room. As I placed my gifts down, she pushed me onto my bed. Things from there got a little X-rated. I enjoyed her company that night. My one year on the spaceship was better than all my years on earth. As Jacell left in the morning, I got dressed. I'm starting a new engineering class. I still wanted to make music and play basketball, but I wanted to learn too. I get to my class and immediately felt welcomed. We were starting to make transporters.

    As a few more months passed Jacell and I moved into together. This was one of the best decisions I made. We got to be together way more. She would go to her job, and I would go to school. As time passed I became a better engineer. I was too of my class. When graduation came I gave the best speech of my life. Jacell and the lady from before were there clapping and screaming the loudest for me. After graduation I went out to dinner with the two of them.

    A few years have passed, and now I'm a engineer. I own my own company. I do my own things, and I own a house now. I moved out of the room and me and Jacell own a house. I gave fixed the spaceship so many times. Every time I help out, they give me new equipment. On my day off, I had some uranium. Looking at my first project, I replace me small stick of uranium, with a full stick of uranium. By multiplying the magnitude of the travel, this should be able to get me anywhere and back. My plan is to go back to earth and then come back. I tell Jacell my plans, and she says "if that's what you want to do." She tells me not to do it today. I respect her wishes. I wait a week before I leave. During that week I was shunned, and just by myself. I didn't understand it, and just felt disrespected. As I left, I kissed Jacell goodbye. And kissed the ladies cheek and got into the teleporter. As I touched down I wrote these words. "It feels great to be home." I spend a good minute looking at where I'm at. As my chest starts to hurt briefly. I feel as though

The skies were awake on a sunny morning in San Francisco. Most people were heading out to their jobs and students riding the busses to school. It was a ordinary day in the city and neighborhoods. Traffic was moving quickly down at 19th avenue, I was in the car with my dad heading to school while listening to the morning radio show. Most of the time, my dad drives me to school because he goes through the same direction to his job. He carries blue prints in the back of the care everyday to work because he’s an architecture.

My dad turned to Sloat blvd and onto 26th street, driving towards Eucalyptus Dr. He parked at the corner of the school. I stared at the school, thinking it’s going to be a long day. Before, I could get out of the car, my dad slightly turns his head towards me.

“We’ll Michael, this is your stop,” he said.

“My stop to hell,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Don’t say that, you’ll be fine. You know what, how does pizza sound for dinner tonight?,” he suggested.

“I guess that sounds okay.”

“Alright, I’ll let your mom know. But hey, it’s just high school plus you’re only a junior. What do you have to lose? Better things will come in your future,” He said joyfully.

“Hopefully, one more year left and then I get to leave for college.”

“We’ll take care and stop stressing. I’ll see you at home, Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

I grabbed my school bag and headed out of the car. I shut the door and turned to the car, my dad rolled down the window.

“Remember it’s just High School. Have a good day!,” He shouted.

“Thanks,” I replied.

My dad was pretty strange but I wouldn’t change a thing about him. Slowly, my dad drives off down the road.  

~

When I was signing in with my ID, I reminded myself that I have Mr. Greg class first which was physics. I was a A+ student. I didn’t feel any special about being one of the smartest kids at school. I felt completely normal. I walked to the second floor towards the grey lockers to grab my binder. Physics class was down the hall.

When I entered, mostly everyone was present. The class was way too loud, I didn’t know people build up their energy so quickly. For Christ sake, I can’t even get up from my own bed. Lowell High School was a lot different from any other school in San Francisco. Sometimes, I wished that I went to a regular school. The class was completely arrange with groupies. The popular girls were on the right side in the back of the class near the windows. In front of the class, the nerds were watching Japanese Animes. The athletes were on the left, talking about last night basketball game on ESPN. And I, just sat in the middle of the class.

When I got to my seat, David came to class. I’ve known David since elementary school, David is the only latino friend I have. He was wearing a Lakers snapback, dressed in a white V-neck with black skinny jeans along with a nice pair of jordans. Sometimes, he likes to mock me in Spanish. Sadly, I didn’t understood what he was saying because I’m Italian.

David walks towards me.

“Yo Michael, guess what I found out yesterday,” he said

“What?”

“I heard Brittany moved back from New York. I didn’t believe it at first but when I was walking towards the park. I spotted Brittany and her family moving furniture from the truck on 33rd and Ortega. I didn’t say hi to her because I thought she wouldn’t recognize me, It’s been 6 years since she moved,”

“Oh that’s great, I remembered we all went to school together and fooled around”, I remembered her. Back in the old days, she was my crush. I liked her but I never told her.

“Yeah I know, We should stop by and talk to her.”

“Maybe tomorrow.”  

Before David could speak, Mr.Greg entered the room with his leather suit bag. You can tell in Mr.Greg’s face that he looked excited. Mr.Greg looked like he was around his mid 30’s. He was everyone’s favorite teacher. His class was my favorite. The student were curious about Mr. Greg thoughts.

“Okay class, I have a announcement to make,”  Mr. Greg said excitedly.

“Please, take a seat.”

Everyone tries to finds their assign seat. The class was anxious while Mr. Greg seattles his suit bag onto the desk.

“Okay, It’s a truly honor to say that our school is eligible to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. We were picked from a raffle and lucky to have such a great opportunity. More than 1,700 high school students from over 70 countries were provided and within the winner receives a $5 million award.”

At that moment, I retreated into my own head, picturing X. when Mr.Greg kept talking to the class, I faded away from the class conversation and only thought about the competition. A science and engineering fair and a $5 million award, huh? This definitely sounds that would fit me perfectly to achieve. I would have to create something that no one have ever thought about doing. I have to get started right away. All eyes will be on me, I can already imagine. The judges would be surprised and many people will be mindblown. It’s going to be a process but it’s going to be outrageous.

My mind fell out of the zone. I continued to listen to Mr. Greg. I faded away from the class conversation and only thought about the competition. A Science and Engineering Fair and a $5 million award, huh? This definitely sounds that would fit me perfectly to achieve. I would have to create something that no one have ever thought about doing. I have to get started right away. All eyes will be on me, I can already imagine. The judges would be surprised and many people will be mindblown. It’s going to be a process but it’s going to be outrageous. My mind fell out of the zone. I continued to listen to Mr. Greg.

Mr. Greg explained to the class, “From now on, I want all of you to come up with a idea and just generally brainstorm the project based on what you want to present,”

“So folks, We have to work this out and make everything seem possible. I would recommend to start now because the deadline to turn in the project is May 25.”

Its only March, I have time to work on my project. I just need the right idea to work my way through. I looked around the class, I seen that no one was interest and wasn’t planning to do their best. The only thing that I can think of is, It’s my lucky day.

David tilted his head towards me.

He mumbled to me, “This is stupid.”

“It’s not stupid, I can ace this project,” I rejected.

“We’ll you can, not me. It’s science fair project for a stupid company, these days no one is interest in intel.”

“What does this have to do with popularly?”

“Everything Mich, everything”.

~

After settling down with my parents and siblings on the dinner table eating pizza, I explained to them the science fair opportunity. They were glad to see me that I was interest in such thing. They supported me, I was also surprise as well that I was into the fair. I was wide awake, I kept thinking about Intel ISEF. I knew that it was going to be extraordinary. To me, it’s not just a science and engineering fair. It was more of a life challenge, I want to accomplish something that my parents would feel proud of me for once. Now that I realized that I became to obsess with the science fair.

I remembered my dad keeps his tools and blueprints into a little house, that he built in the backyard when I was younger. It was already midnight and everyone else was already asleep. I wanted to take a look at my dad’s private space and to search for the right tools. Soon, I decided to sneak out the backyard but before I can get anywhere my dad keeps his space private. Of course, I would have to get the keys but it was too easy to find them. I got out of my room and walked silently down the hallway. The keys were left in the kitchen. Opened the back kitchen door and ran to the small house.

“Damn, which key is it,” I said frustratedly knowing that there was 20 different keys.

Finally, I found the key to the lock. I slowly turned the lock and opened the door. I switched the lights on, everything seem completely normal. I walked inside and notice there was blueprints laying on the middle table, dust were cover on the shelfs, construction tools were attached to the wall. I didn’t see anything interest nor I found any secret. I knew my dad was hiding something but I suppose it’s not hidden here. I put my hands onto the table and thought to myself.

I notice a red glance between the blueprints, I became anxious. I pushed the blueprints onto the side and saw it was a small red button, I was a coward to push the button but I had nothing to lose. Suddenly, the walls were changing their appearance. The room was transforming I never seen such thing before. There were new silver screens, holograms of DNA’s, machines, and gears. It filled the room with such great technology, I was shocked and wonder why my dad keep this for so long or maybe he was keeping from someone?

I searched around and experiment some new gadgets. To the left, I saw a little creature that was kept inside of a large glass cylinder. The little creature was gray but looked more like a newborn puppy, It was covered with electric wires.  It was marvelous, it blew my mind, I was fantasize.  

“What are you?”,

“What type of creature is this?,”

“Are you alive?,” I questioned.

I noticed on the bottom of the glass cylinder there was a name tag. It was labeled as “Experiment 106”. My dad created a masterpiece. It was unbelieveable, I was blown away from my dad’s secret projects. Suddenly, I had gotten an idea. I thought about the Intel ISEF, I wanted to go beyond than people expected with the projects. I decided to take the creature from the lab and use it for my presentation at the fair. At the same time, I couldn’t take it away. It was my dad’s property. I didn’t know what to do, It would be counted as stealing. Everything was locked, I had to type in a code in order to release the little creature.

I started to guess random numbers,

“45678?,”

“ Access Deny,” the computer lab spoken as it flashes a red light on the pad.

“43579?,”

“Access Deny,”

“26896?,”

“Access Deny,”

“76543?,”

“Access Deny,”

“96780?,” I was getting frustrated. I knew my dad wouldn’t make a random pass code onto the computer. I thought about an important date that my dad treasures, first thing that came in mind was parents wedding date. I gave it a try.

“09197,”

“Access Approved”

My heart began to beat fast, It was nerve wracking. The red light had switch to green and the wires began to untangle from the creature body. There was a green water inside the glass cylinder that kept the creature in place, it began to empty itself until there wasn’t anymore liquid inside. My hands were shaking, I slowly took the glass cylinder. I tried to avoid my thoughts and the consequences that could happen. I approached the middle table put everything back in place, I pressed the red button, everything went back to normal. I made sure I locked everything with the right key. As I gotten back outside, I checked both sides and ran to my room.

~

I woke up the next day, It felt like I was in a dream. I looked under the bed and saw the creature laying inside of the glass cylinder, I knew it wasn’t a dream but it was now reality. I reach for my phone and called David as soon as I can, He was the only person that I trusted. I dialed the number.

“Hello?” David answered.

“David, meet me at the local park”.

“Why?”

“Because, it’s an emergency. You have to come now.

“What happened, are you alright?,” David became frighten as I heard in the tone of his voice.

“Yes, I’m completely fine. It’s about something else.”

“Alright, I’m on my way,” David ended the phone.

I got out of bed and took the glass cylinder inside of my school bag, I rushed to change clothes and headed out the door. I bumped into my mom before I can exit out of the front door.

“Michael, Where are you going at this time? You haven’t eaten your breakfast yet,”

“I know, I’m going over a friends house,” I lied.

“At this time?”

“We have a big exam that is coming up soon and we have to study.”

“But it’s only saturday.”

“Practice makes perfect, right?”

“Yeah but…” My mom didn’t know how to respond.

“Hun, just let him go. He’ll be fine.” My dad said.

“But…”

“Just let him go” He suggested.

“Alright, just don’t come back too late. Okay?”

“Thank you.”

I rushed to the door and headed my way to the park.  

~

Luckily, when I got to the park no one wasn’t there. I waited for David to come. I had a feeling he was going to freak out when he see’s the creature. I checked my bag and realized the creature wasn’t breathing nor moving. It stood silently still or maybe the process wasn’t complete as I thought it would be. David finally arrived, I was expecting that he might freak out but I knew he would understand.

“What’s the emergency?” David asked.

“I don’t know where to start but what i’m about to show you is top secret”

“Okay?”

I took out the glass cylinder from the bag, David began to freak out.

“Michael, What the hell is that?” David said with the scarness in his tone.

“I’m not sure what in the world is it but I found it at my dad’s laboratory in the back yard”

“Is it dead? It’s not moving.” He questioned.

“Hopefully, it’s not. I need it to be alive for the science fair?

“Wait wait, you stole this creature from your dad just so you can win the fair?

“Its not just any fair, it’s just…,” David stopped me before I could finish my sentence.  

“This is about the money isn’t it, the 5 million award? Your parents are already rich, What more do you need?”

“I don’t want the money,”

“I just want to go big and do the best that I can.” I tried to explained.

“Look, I understand you want to go huge on this but isn’t this just too much?”

“No, I know this can work but…”

I felt something shaking, it was the little gray creature moving around in the glass cylinder. The creature was opening it’s eyes. They were shaded blue but form like a goats eyes. It looked furious. Inside, the creature was going insane. I got scared and threw the glass cylinder across the grass. It had hit a tree and broke the glass, I absolutely made a huge mistake.

“David, stay calm.”

“What the hell are we going to do,” The fear in his voice he cried.

The creature slowly got up from the ground and onto it’s 4 legs, it started to stretch like it was asleep for many years. The creature looked from both sides, it was confused and lost. A coat of fur began to grow on the body and claws were getting sharp by the minute. Within the time, the creature started to get big,. The create  was getting upset, so it begun to howl and hiss at us. Step by step, It was slowly moving towards our direction.

“Run!,” I shouted. There was no time to lose, we had to make a run for it.

We ran and ran deep into the woods, we noticed it was endless. We were being chased by the grey coated creature. I was losing my breath, my heart beating like crazy, the warm blood were rushing in my veins and sweat were dripping down my face.

“This is hopeless, we have to climb a tree!”

“No, we have to go back to my house?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“This is my fault... I’m the one who caused this problem and now I have to fix it,”

The woods seem like you would see something from a horror film. There wasn’t any sign of the creature so we stopped behind a tree to catch our breath. We stood completely still in one place.

“So whats your plan? How are we going to get out of this crap?” David said silently.

“There has to be sometime injection inside my dad’s laboratory”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive, I remember seeing a green chemical inside the lab. It should be able to work. The creature is created made by genetic, on the other hand it’s a clone. It is able to be stopped.”  

I was hoping, my plan would work. I don’t want to fail. We heard footsteps, it was getting closer and closer.

“Whatever happens, just keep running.”

“Alright then, this just better work!,”

“I’ll distract the thing, while you make a run for it.” David suggested.

I was afraid. The creature found us hiding behind the tree. The creature was aiming at David, as he was distracting the wild beast. David dodge when the creature tried to jump on him, he soon grabbed a wooden stick and slam the creature against the tree.  

“Go, Go!” David shouted.

We ran for our lives.

~

We were running like the speed of lightening. We put as much energy as we could before the creature was able to attack us. This mess was all my fault, I shouldn’t have touch anything. I was way over the top to think a creature for a science fair would be a good idea, I was wrong.

We finally got to the house and noticed the creature kept chasing us. Me and David ran inside but luckily the door was open. We shut the door before the creature was able to get inside. The moment was intense.

“Dad, Dad!” I shouted.

My dad rushed downstairs. He questioned, “Michael, what is going on?”.

“You have to help us,” I begged.

“Dad, Listen I’m sorry. I stole your experiment from the laboratory, I shouldn’t have took done such thing in the first place. You have to help me, it’s coming after us.”

“You took experiment 106? Michael, that clone is way too dangerous,”

“Did you not read the label that was above the glass cylinder?,” He said angrily.

“That’s why I need you to help me, I know you have an injection that can stop this creature.”

“Michael, you put me and the family to crisis!”

“Where is experiment 106?”

“It’s outside.” I was disappointed in myself.

“In public? You let it out in PUBLIC?”

“The glass cylinder broke and got away, I wasn’t able to stop it”

The door was banging, it was the creature. I looked to the side of the living room and seen  my mom holding the twins tight in her arms by telling them, that everything is going to be okay. Deep inside, they were scared to death.

“Honey, take the kids upstairs.” My dad requested.

My mom obeyed and took the kids to the room upstairs.

“Michael and David, I want you both to go upstairs as we’ll”

“Dad, This is my mess. I need to fix it.”

“No, it’s too dangerous,” My dad said with a worried in his face.

“I can handle this, I swear I can,” I wanted to be brave.

“I can too sir.” David said.

“Alright follow me.”

My dad requested us to distract the creature while he was able to get the injection from the laboratory.

“Hey, hey. Over here you little freak” Shouted David as he was slamming against the trash cans.

I as we’ll took slapped the metal trash cans together. The creature was running back and forth, it seems like the loud banging voice of the trash cans were bothering it.

“Tackle it and hold it still” My dad cried.

“How?”

“Grab it from the behind, It may be strong but its the only way.”

We ran towards the creature. The creature growled so hard that it even hurt my hearing. Next thing, I noticed was that me and david were wrestling the creature. It was strong and husky, the creature pulled out it’s claws and scraped my face and arms. I was bleeding and so was David. Our clothes were getting ripped and dirty from the mud. We put as much strength as we could.

“STEADY, keep it still.”

“Hold on,”

“Watch out!”

The needle was the size of a nail tool and the liquid inside was bright green but thick as blood. It made me nauseous just by looking at it.

“That will do, It’s a injection that is able to kill the creature. I kept it secure for in case of emergencies.” My dad explained.

The creature was slowly closing it’s eyes, and wasn’t putting force onto itself. It was slowly dying. I was glad, the situation was almost over.

“Here, that will do… for now.”

I was finally able to breath, I was exhausted.

Later that day, My dad set up a bonfire. The only solution to keep this creature away was to burn it into ashes. I watching the creature melting into the fire, It was unbelievable scene. The creature was now gone.

The beginning .

“Mom! Mom! I got my letter.”

Having the letter in my hand looking at it. I was so happy, and enhances. it few like I was waiting for this letter for years when it was only 7 months. Most people like to be the one to open their letter but I was scared. I didn’t know if I was going to get into to the high school that I wanted. My mother walked in the room looking confused.

“What letter are you talking about ?”

“My Letter is here, my high school acceptance letters. I’m scared to open it can you open it for me ?”

I felt like I was going to cry when I gave her the letter.

“Sure sweetie, are you ready?” with a smile on her face.

“I remember when I got me my high school acceptance letters. It was years ago.”

“Mom can you tell me the story later and open the letter”

I want to say mom I don’t care,  just open the letter you're taking to long.  

“Okay okay” she said .

She started to tear the side of the envelope, that how she open it. She don’t like to open it from the top. She says that opening it from the side is much easier. She started read the paper out loud.

“Dear Ms.Jean Here are your five schools you applied. If you don’t get into any of the schools you will not be allowed to go to high school. You will Have to go get your blue papers and start look like for a job that will take for. ”

I didn’t want to start working yet, I wanted to go to school to get more education before looking for a job. I started to remember when My mom told me about when her mother was a kid and everyone have to go school. And if you didn’t go to school you would get a good job. But this was in the year 2041, and it 2094 and a lot of things changed. My mom looked at me and read the schools name.

“Reddy Science High - accepted”

I like that school but it’s not my dream High school.

“Union High school - accepted”

This school with one the the biggest school I applied to. I’m scared it might be too big.

“Mac Smith Math High - accepted Dream High - accepted ”

These school was my safety school. I know I would be able to get in. I have a 38 GPA and the highest GPA is 45.

“And last but not less the High school I know you want to get into Central High School -- accepted.”

My mom gave me the letter . I wanted to start crying but I was to in shock to say anything. Today was a day that I will never forget. Central High school is one of the top school, I get to live at school and meet new people. This is the only school I really wanted to go to. Everything change, the stories I would hear about how My great grandma would Went to college and got her master and still couldn’t get a new job. To me that sounds sad, I didn’t understand how that could happen.

First day !

First day of Central high school the school was so big. We drove 20 miles from the city to the suburbs. There wasn’t a lot of noise outside. It was like no one was there walking on the sidewalk. Looking out the window Waiting to see the my dream school My mom started to talk to me.

“Sweetie I’m really going to miss you. It’s going to be different without you being there with me.”

Tears started to come down her face.

“I remember when you was a baby, changing your diapers, doing your hair and making sure you ate your vegetables”

“imma miss you to mom,” I said.

“Now I want you to work hard not get into any trouble at the school. You know they will kick you out if you do. ” she said wiping her tears.  

“I know mom I know mom.”

We go up to the front out the school. When there were hundreds of kids just like me waiting to start their first day. I got out the car went to the truck and got my bags and suitcases. My mom came over and help me out. I looked at the mansion-like building. Everyone was walking through the big front door. As me and my mom follow everyone else , there was a Man wearing all black suit. He had blue eye and blond spiky hair.

“Welcome to Central high school my name is Eric. I’m the Dean of the school. I will be making sure you kids who are young adult now, get the best education. If you can come follow me, I will be showing where your kids can sign in, get there rooms, and their food card.”

I was so happy, I know I was going to make new friends. Their was 5 line so the students can sign in. I hope this don’t take all day. 30 mins passed I get to the front of the line.

“Next! ” Said Mike, it was on his name tag.

“Hey” replied back nervously

“What your name?”

“My name is Carly Jean”

“Here’s your Room number 307 here is you key, you will be rooming with two others girls. If you lose your key come to the office and they will give you a new one, but please try not to lose it. Here your food card. You get breakfast, lunch, and dinner free. You will have 2500 points for other foods like snacks throughout the year.”

“Thank you”

Eric walked in the room with this big smile on his face. His smile make you feel like you going to drop to the floor how pretty his smile is.

“You might being having the dean as your new father.” My mom turns to look at me.

“ Ill mom, don’t say that ...” I look at her like she crazy. I can’t see my mother being with the dean of Central high school the school. He probably makes more money than my mother plus some of the parents. I can see him in his big house with lots of cars.

“It looks like everyone is almost done here. This is the time when the student and parents say their goodbyes. If the parents have any question you can come to me call the school or email me. I will answer any of your question. We will be seeing you in three months for visiting day.” Eric said .

“My baby is all grown up now. You can call me anytime to talk. If you need anything call. I love you Carly Jean.” saying While my mom hugged me so hard that I felt that I couldn’t breath. I tried to move my arm up so I can hug her back.

“Mom I can’t move.”

“Im sorry” I pick my arm to give her a real hug. After the hug my mother gave me a kiss on the forehead. She started to walk away from me. I remember I didn’t say I love you to her . “Mom I love you!” I yelled not caring who seen me.

“Okay student everyone grab a map of the school and go to Central Living building there are 10 floors in that building. Whatever is the first number to your room number you will be the floor your room is located. After finding your room you will have until 1:30 until we will meet at the ballroom.” Eric told us.

I was scared I didn’t know anyone in the school. I was hope the my roommate was going to be nice and fun to be around. I was so nervous that I was thinking of how I was going to say Hey to them . Hey my name is Carly Jean I'm your roommate. Or Wassup my name is Carly Jean. I also wanted to know if my roommate was going to me all freshman or mix of classes? Their was so many question in my mind. I follow everyone to central living building. There were elevator and stairs . I didn’t like the elevators because one day I got stuck in between the 3rd and 4th floor of my mothers jobs. She works as a Lawyer at so fancy building. After that day I never want to get on the elevator. So I took the stair as some people waited for that elevator to come back down.

When I got to the 3rd floor I started to look for my room. The hallway was long and narrow, It felt like I was walking for year looking for my room. I finally found my room 307. I used my key to open the door. I felt like I was a grown person. I didn’t have my mom here, and i didn’t know anyone. One I open the door I see a tall girl with long black hair. She was so pretty that i felt like the school was fill with beautiful people. Looking at the girl she made me feel like I wasn’t as pretty as I was People always told me that I was pretty but looking that her she made me feel avenger looking.

“Hey my name is Carly Jean.” I said not knowing if she was going to be nice or mean to me. I was hoping we like the same thing so we can get alone.

“Hey Carly nice to meet you! My name is Helen.” Said Helen with a big smile on her face. She even had straight teeth.

“Nice to meet you Helen.”

“So I picked my bed it’s this one” she point to the bed on the left of the room. There was three twin size bed in the room. Three working spaces with lamps and a flat screen t.v, they even have refrigerator. One bed was on the left side against the wall that the one Helen pick. One bed was in the back right next to the window I wanted that one. I wanted to look outside and see everywhere. I come see the fields and the mean building where we are going to be learning at.  The other bed was on the right side it was against the wall. We all had desks next to our beds. all the beds look alike and so do the desk.

“I think I’m going to pick the bed right to the window.” I said to Helen as I walk to the bed.

“Are you ready to take the test?” asked Helen as she unpack her things.

“Ugh I’m scared I want to do well on this test .” I replied

“You're going to be fine just don’t think about it too much.” she said smiling.

I started to unpack my things as I see a short girl with glasses on walk through the door. As she walk in,

“Hey everyone ! My name is Rita”

“Hey Rita my name is Helen”

“Hey Rita my name is Carly”

“We pick I bed already the only bed left is the right side one.” I said pointing to the bed.

“Hey you guy It’s almost 1:30. We have 15 mins, we should leave around leave in ten minutes.” Helen pointed out to us.

“Rita you ready for the test their about to give us” I asked

“I don’t know, I didn’t know what type of test it would be? I’m nervous”as she unpack her thing on to her bed.

“I know I’m not going to finish unpacking right now.” Helen said.

“Same here” rita and I said at the same time.

“Let stated going to the Ballroom before we end up being late.” Rita said

When we got to the ball room everyone was taking their seat. Helen, Rita and I sat right next to each other. Eric walked in the room and went to the stadium.

“Alright everybody take a seat we’re about to get started. So as many of you know you’re going to be taking a test. This test does not affect anything just let us know what you know already. Try your best and we will help you become smarter. Goal is to make sure that everyone has a IQ of 1800 or more.”  Eric said.

“That high number for the IQ test” Rita look worried saying it.

“The test will start after this speech. You will be ok, just try your best. Everyone will get a going to a class room. the teacher will come and count the people to go to the classroom. ” Eric said

A teacher came over to where I was sitting and started counting us off. The teacher walk us to the classroom . We all sat down, they gave us a the test and pencils.

“Here the test no talking. If you don’t know something you can skip it, It will have all the time you  need to finish the test. Good Luck! ” The teacher told us .

The test was a package, I felt like I wasn’t going to finish this all today. I started to look in the test to see what i know in the test. It really wasn’t that bad. I got a lot done in about 40 mins, but most of the people felt the classroom. There was some question I couldn’t answer so I got up and walk to the teacher gave her the pencils and test.

“Ok your done you can go get some lunch and class will start 2 days from now.” The teacher said quietly .

I turn to see if Rita and Helen was still taking the test, but only Helen was in the room. So I walk in the cafe, think to myself, if I did good on this test even if I there no good or bad grade for this I will still want to be very smart. I finally got to the cafe. I walked up to the lunch line to pick something to eat . They had everything that you can think about from pizza to hotdog. Everything you wanted was here. I got a hotdog and an apple juice. I started to look for somewhere to sit.

“Carly ! Carly over here, I have a seat for you ” Rita was yelling and waving her hand.

I walked over to her and took a seat.

“Hey how long you been here ?” I asked

“I got here 5 minutes ago. They have everything here, I ever have so much food and one place.” Rita

“I know right! Well we have two day to look around and see everything here.”

“Oh yes, I want to see everything. I hear they have a pool, I think we should go swimming.”

“That sound funny!” I said

Later that day I was walking around that until I got lost. These hallway all look the same after a while. But I seen Eric walking so I started to walk behind I didn’t want to yell. But he walk in this room. The room was filled with computer and scientists.

“They kids are so dumb . They would be able to get 1800 on the IQ test. Do you have what I need? ” Eric said looking mad.

“Yes , Sir . I’m done make the GS shot. This is will make sure they will get higher than 1800 on the IQ test.” a scientist said with a smile on his face.

“Good we will started tomorrow! These kids are not going to make my school look bad .” as he started to walk back to me. I started to look for somewhere to hide. I was behind the door. I was still lost and I didn’t want to ask Eric after finding out that he going to give us shot to make us smarter. I started to think the I wasn’t smart . But I didn’t know where I was at so I follow Eric until I got to the cafe again. I ran to my room, where Helen and Rita was there.

“Hey where you been ?” Helen asked

“I got lost and guess what I seen Eric and some scientists, and they made a shot called the GS shot. It’s how the students get smarter. I don’t like the idea of this. What if we die, or what if we get something for it . I don’t like the sound of this. Eric keep saying that we was not smart and we all need the shots.” I said.

“What that not right! “ Helen said.

“I think we should tell everyone what happening.” Rita said .

“Yes, but we need to show them the GS shot.” I replied .

“We will need to go to the lab and get the the shot” Helen said.

“We should go to the lab tonight and go get the GS shot I want everyone to know about it,” It started to make me mad that he call me dumb. I was one of the told people in my class. “ let go right now because I think he is not in there now” I said

“Your right let go” Rita said putting her shoes on.

We all went downstair to the stairs to the lab. I looked inside to see if there was anyone in there but there wasn't. We all slipped up to look for something call the GS shot.

“I found it” Rita yelled.

“Lets go” I said.

We ran up stair but in to our room, locked up our door.

“Tomorrow I going to call the police and tell the school.” Helen said.

“Yes let go to sleep.” Rita said.

In the morning we got when to go get something to eat people was talking about the meeting with Eric. After eating Eric starting his meeting in the cafe

“Goodmorning student, today I’m going to be talking to you about a shot the you're going to have to get. This shot will make sure you don’t get sick, ” said Eric

“You're lying!” said Rita.

“Yea you're lying!” said Helen.

“We know what's the shot is for to get us smarter you say that we was the dumbest student. And I have the shot with me.” I said  Showing everyone “It’s call the GS shot. He made scientists make it so we can get smarter. But we don’t know if it can hurt us or even kill us.” I said.

“How did you get that ?” said Eric.

The police walk over.

“Do you know Illegal for shot like this ? You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?” said the police officer walking away with Eric.

“Yes we did it now we can learn without no chemicals in our body,” Rita said.

Chapter 1: First Day

Samantha

“Don’t be nervous Sam. Everyone is nice at this school. Trust me,” June cooed as she drove past a grey old barn that had a tall corn field engulfing it.

“That’s what you said about the last three schools,” I muttered and she shot me an old fashioned “I’ll pull over and bite you” glare.

“This school is filled with kids that are unique like you. It took some digging but I think I found a good fit for you this time. I’ve already talked to the dean and some of the teachers,” She said smiling to herself as if she had discovered the cure to cancer.

“Sure. And as soon as you leave I’ll get to really see what the kids are like. We’ve been down this road before June,” I said and sighed softly.

“I swear it’ll be different this time. Give this a chance and try it,” She said and nudged my arm that was resting near her.

“No, I mean that we’ve been down this road we’re on twice now. This is the third time I’m seeing that old barn,” I huffed pointing out the window.

“Oh! I must have read the directions wrong. Let’s see. We’ll try making a right over here,” She commented and began talking to herself as she drove.

I laid my head against the window, staring at the barn in boredom. Something looked out of place, so I sat up a little to see better. There was a boy standing at one of the big windows with his arms out in front of him as if he were telling something to stay away. His back was towards me so all I could see were the broad shoulders and light brown skin. It might be caramel. I watched closer and could see figures in the shadows of the barn. A long blade emerged from the barn and sliced at the front of the boy hitting his chest and he fell from the window to the ground.

I must have screamed because my aunt June slammed on the breaks. I undid my seat belt and bolted out of the car launching myself into the corn field. I could hear June yelling my name, but I blocked it out as I started running towards the barn. After a couple minutes I found myself outside the barn with my heart pumping in my ears with cuts all over my arms and legs from the corn stalks. I scanned the area and let my eyes rest on the bloody body of the boy that had fallen.

I quickly knelt down by his side and ripped off his shirt so I could see the wound. There was a long gash down his very muscular chest and stomach. Closing my eyes I started drawing in the energy of the sun and let it build up in my stomach. After a minute I leaned down opening my mouth licking across his wound, letting the energy come into direct contact with his gash and heal it faster.

Lucas

I opened my eyes slowly as I felt a warm sensation against my skin. I stared up at the sky watching the clouds float by me. Feeling a sudden burning on my stomach I gasped aloud. I tried sitting up and ignored the aching of my back and head. Propping myself up onto my elbows I sat face to face with a girl on fire. Her hair was flowing in the wind with sparks flying off it like someone was lighting a match. Her skin was all yellow and orange with a glow that almost blinded me; and her eyes. Her eyes were the perfect shade of forest green with a ring of volcano red around it.

Her eyes widened as she noticed that I was conscious but then she put some hair behind her ear and dragged her tongue across my chest bringing back the burning sting of heat. I tried to speak, but no words would come out. All I could do was bite my lip through the pain and stare into the eyes of the girl on fire. After a couple minutes she stopped and I caught a glimpse of her tongue that was small and pink but had a yellow and orange glitter on the tip of it. Her eyes focused on me for a second and then she started touching my arms and legs to check for other cuts.

I looked down at my chest and the gash from Danny’s blade was completely gone. All that stayed was the warm feeling from her tongue against my skin. I looked over at the girl as she started poking my ankle, which was twisted in the most unnatural way. After a moment her hands caught flame and she looked up at me. A normal person would have probably screamed and tried to crawl away. But all I could do was stare at her. She kept her eyes on mine as she pressed her hands to my ankle and I let out a scream feeling the heat on my skin and bones. She gripped my ankle tighter and then my ankle made a cracking sound. Everything went black after that.

Samantha

“Shit,” I said while biting my lip.

I could hear talking and footsteps in the barn as I sat staring at the unconscious boy on the ground. He passed out while I was healing and realigning his broken ankle. I tried to be as gentle as I could but the bone had to be put back into place. And now people are coming because they heard him scream.

I got up slowly and stumbled a bit feeling dizzy from using my powers. After a moment I bent down and grabbed the boy off the ground wrapping him on my back like a bookbag. He lets out a soft groan as I start walking towards my car. My cheeks flare up a bit as he breathes against my neck and nuzzles my hair like it’s a pillow.

“Where the fuck is he?! I dropped his ass right here!” A guy’s voice booms from behind me, making crows fly up into the sky.

“I don’t know. But I’m picking up the scent of someone that isn’t Lucas,” Says another voice that’s male but less intimidating than the first. I start moving through the corn as quietly as I can.

“Do you recognize it from anywhere?” Asks a voice that’s soft and angelic from a girl.

“No. I have no clue who it is Nick. Maybe it’s someone from out of town,” The second guy said.

“Damn it Jack just find them!” Nick growled and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

“Nick, relax. We’ll find Lucas,” Said the girl; trying to sooth Nick.

“You better! I don’t have time for this shit! I need to be focused on finding the Phoenix Child. That is the ONLY thing that matters,” Nick barked and I heard a car start up.

I started walking faster towards my aunts car when Lucas let out a soft groan against me. I stood still as I heard soft footsteps and Nick’s car turn off. I took a deep breath and weighed my options quickly in my head. Leave this hunk of a boy here to get hurt again, stay and fight the people who hurt him, or sprint my ass to the car. I heard light footsteps coming into the cornfield and all the hairs on my neck stood up. Sprint my ass to the car it is. I fixed Lucas on my back closing my eyes to take in some of the suns energy and bolted through the corn. I could feel my flip flops rip off of my feet as I ran but I ignored it. The only thing that mattered was getting Lucas and myself to safety. Which was away from the kill happy teenagers near the barn.

As I skidded to a stop by the car I quickly swung the door open and slid inside with Lucas sagging against the seat. My aunt June spun around in the front seat staring wide eyed at me and Lucas but I put my hand up to stop her from saying anything.

“Just drive. Now! This kid just fell and hurt himself and he needs medical attention,” I lied watching as corn stalks moved as the mysterious teenagers ran towards us, “Go!”

“Okay! Okay!” She shouted gripping the wheel and punching her foot onto the gas petal.

“Thank you. Just drive to the school. I think he might be a student there,” I said softly as I slid a seatbelt across Lucas’ body and then on across mine.

“Will he be okay until we get there? I might get lost again,” Aunt June said with panic starting to rise inside her.

“Well then I guess you better not get lost again. His life is in your hands,” I mumbled and I saw her hands tighten more on the steering wheel until her knuckles turned bleach white.

“Promise me that you’ll explain all of this to me later?” She asked looking into the rearview mirror so our eyes could meet.

“I promise. I just want to get him to a doctor right now,” I said giving her a little smile and I saw her eyebrows relax a little bit.

“Alright. Do you even know anything about him? Was there anything in his pockets? Did he say anything?” She rambled as she made a couple turns.

“His name is Lucas. I heard him say it before he passed out,” I began biting my lower lip a little. Luckily my aunt was watching the road so she didn’t notice.

I didn’t feel like it was the right time to mention the three people yet. My aunt might not take it as well as I did. She might throw Lucas out the car or think that I’m having delusions. I wanted to keep her as calm as possible so that she could drive us to the school because I had no idea of how to get there. Right now was the time to keep information on a need-to-know basis. And that included leaving out crazy people and giant swords.

Lucas let out a soft groan and his head laid back against the headrest. I touched his right cheek gently and kept it there until his body relaxed. This isn’t the day that I thought it would be. And I had a feeling that this was only the beginning of a series of dangerous events.

Chapter 2: Resting

Lucas

“He’s fine Miss Daniel. I don’t see any serious wounds at all on him. Are you sure he fell from a window?” It was a man’s voice. It sounded a little like Dr. Fin.

“I’m sure. I watched him fall myself,” Said a young female voice and a shiver went down my spine as she spoke. I slowly opened my eyes as I kept listening to the voices.

“Well then he’s one lucky laddy. I always knew him to be a durable little tot,” Said the voice with a laugh.

Yup, definitely Dr. Fin. No one else calls me a little tot or laddy. The female voice let out a light giggle that made my heart skip a beat. It was so relaxed and soft but it could bring any guy to his knees. I turned my head slowly and saw Dr. Fin standing by his desk with a small girl that had long walnut colored hair and cocoa toned skin. She smiled up at him with dimples digging into her cheeks creating their own little happy faces on both sides of her mouth. She wore a light blue tank top with a kitten curled up around yarn on it and jean shorts that had loose tassels on the bottoms. My gills protruded from my neck as I looked at her perfectly shaped legs and waist. She was gorgeous and my animal side was going berserk. I turned my head away forcing my eyes shut and took deep breaths until the gills went back into my neck and my nostrils flared.

This girl was dangerous and she would be the death of me. I could feel it in my bones. I opened my eyes back up as footsteps came near my bed. My gaze was met by forrest green ones that looked giddy with happiness. She smiled looking at me and said something but I didn’t hear it. I was lost in my own head with my thoughts swimming with all the things that made her look attractive. And her eyes; they looked so familiar.

“Is there something on my face?” She averted her eyes from me as she wiped her hands over her face.

“N..no. Your face is perfect,” I croaked and began to slightly blush, “I mean uh. Your face is fine. I’m sorry for staring.”

“I’m glad,” She said giggling and covered her mouth with her hand. Odd.

“How are you feeling Lucas?” Dr. Fin stepped closer to me and checked my forehead.

“I feel great now,” I sat up slowly and watched as Miss Daniels eyes glided over my bare chest where my tattoos were.

“That’s good. Can you tell me what happened?” Dr. Fin sat in a swivel chair while summoning a notepad out of his pocket with a small black pen.

“I don’t remember everything...I was told to go to the barn for some meeting for the most talented students here. But when I got there only Nick and his posse were there and they tried to get me to sign some contract..” I shook my head trying to process everything as I said it.

“I don’t know of any new club for just the most talented students. Or of a club that requires students to sign a contract. Did you sign it?” Dr. Fin scribbled on his notepad so fast that the point of his pencil went from being sharp to a nub in a matter of seconds. He stopped writing and looked up at me.

“No I refused to join. I don’t really like clubs,” I scratched my head softly and there was a leaf in it, “I don’t really remember anything after that...”

“They attacked you Lucas. I watched you fall,” Miss Daniel clenched her fists seeming to become angry that I got hurt, “I wanted to hurt them but I had to get you to a doctor...”

“Samantha I’m surprised you were able to carry Lucas away. He’s almost twice your height,” Samantha smiled a bit.

“I work out and do sports a lot.”

“So your name is Samantha Daniels?” Damit. I said that out loud.

“Yes it is,” she giggled and put some hair behind her ear, “Oh um..what’s a Phoenix Child?”

“That is a very good question,” A voice boomed as the infirmary doors swung open. The Dean of Students comes in with Nick Pitella behind him, “A Phoenix Child is a rare person on the Earth that can harness the energy of the sun and technologies around them and use it. Another name for them is an “energy being.” This person has never been found though, which is why it’s somewhat of a myth now.”

All the hairs on the back of my neck went up as he spoke. I remember why Samantha looked so familiar now. She’s the Phoenix Child. I saw her when she found me outside the barn. I looked at Samantha as the dean spoke and noticed that the tips of her hair had started to flicker between its regular shade of brown and a glowing gold. I quickly leaned forwards without thinking and yanked her ponytail pulling her down onto my lap in the bed. She let out a high pitched yelp as she fell into me and everybody stared at me in shock.

“What are you--”

“Saving your ass. Your hair is glowing,” I whispered in her ear and then looked up at everyone’s wondering eyes, “Sorry about that. I just wanted to give her a hug. I haven’t seen her in so long.”

“So long? You know each other?” The dean arched an eyebrow at us.

“Yes. We met a beach a couple years ago. I really liked her in the bikini she wore. What design was it again Sammy?”

“Oh um..It was a black bikini with rainbow butterflies on it,” She blushed a bit and her cheeks flared a bit.

I pinched her cheeks with my thumbs and pointer fingers to cover the glow, “I missed you when you left that night. And then I lost your number while we were swimming.”

“Well since you know Miss Daniels so well then you can give her a tour of the school. She’s our newest student. How’s that sound to you?” The Dean gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and Nick kept his eyes locked on Samantha.

“That sounds fantastic,” I slid Samantha off my lap as I got out the bed stretching.

“Good. And maybe stop at your dorm room for a new shirt,” He motioned his eyes to my chest and turned leaving the infirmary but Nick stayed rooted to his spot.

“What’s wrong Nick? Cat got your tongue?” I smirked while watching as he blinked and let a glare form on his face.

“Screw you Lucas. We still have business to discuss later,” He glanced over at Samantha briefly, “Bring her with you.”

“I go where I want to go. Don’t make plans for me,” Samantha got up putting her hands on her hips and glared at Nick with her eyes flickering red and he took a step back.

“I...I wasn’t talking to you. Just bring her to the gym later Lucas,” Nick spun on his heels and practically ran out the room.

I sighed running my hands through my hair and sat back down on the bed. Dr. Fin walked over to Samantha looking at her eyes and gave a little smirk. She blushed and looked down at the floor with her cheeks glowing a dull yellow. He tilted her head back up and nodded as if coming to a decision in his head.

“You are the Phoenix Child, daughter of Diana Samantha Isle. I knew I’d meet you one day,” He smiled and took a step back to look at her.

“How do you know my mother?” Samantha’s body shed its hard demeanor and she sat next to me on the bed.

“She was my cousin from my dad’s side. We grew up together,” He gave a slight smile but then it faded as he thought about something, “You shouldn’t be here. If the Dean realizes who you are he’ll put you into the experiment.”

“What is that supposed to mean? Damnit Dr. Fin you said you didn’t know anything about the special group,” I got up grabbing Samantha’s hand suddenly not wanting to be anywhere near Dr. Fin right now.

“Wait! I can help you,” He stepped between us and the infirmary door, “I couldn’t save my cousin, but to make up for that I’ll save you both. We have to hide you until you get a grasp of controlling your powers. Glowing cheeks and flickering eyes will get you found out sooner or later,” He walked over to his desk grabbing a small satchel and a hat.

“You may be right about that. But Before I trust you completely. Tell me what happened to my mother,” Samantha planted her butt on the bed and crossed her legs at the ankles.

“She was put into the special group. The group is supposed to extract the special powers of students and then use them together as cures for the diseases in the world,” Dr. Fin went over to his desk fumbling around for something.

“That doesn’t sound bad. I don’t mind being apart of the cure and saving--”

“Shut up!” He snapped at her and grabbed a ring of keys out a drawer, “If your powers are extracted you will die. I am not losing my cousin’s only daughter. Let’s go.”

Samantha stared at him in shock as he marched out the room through the back door. I crouched down next to her and patted her knees. She looked at me with eyes getting watery so I lifted my hand wiping them gently. She blinked pulling away and looked away from me.

“All this time...I thought she left me to go be with my father. I hated her for leaving me and this whole time she was dead,” She started breathing faster and sniffling.

“I know...but come on. Make it up to her by staying alive. Keep her legacy going through you. Let’s go and find out what you’re really capable of,” I gripped both her hands pulling her up onto her feet.

Chapter 3: Protectors

Samantha

“Sit here and close your eyes. Try to relax,” Dr. Fin said and closed a big metal door locking it.

“Relax? After finding out that my mother is dead and someone is trying to kill me as well as other students? How am I supposed to calm down?” I replied with heat building up in my whole body.

“Easy Sammy...calm down. You’re glowing again.” Lucas said from his chair in the corner of the room.

“He’s right Samantha. And this is exactly why I brought you here. You have no control over your powers once your emotions flare up,” Dr. Fin said walking past me and patted a chair in the opposite corner of Lucas, “Now sit.”

I sighed heavily while running my fingers through my hair and sat in the short blue chair. Dr. Fin smiled a bit and then walked over to a yellow chair at the center of the room sitting down. He put a briefcase on his lap opening it up and pulled out small daggers. He laid them on the floor while then pulling a lighter and bottle of alcohol from the case.

“What is that for? Are you gonna teach me how to fight drunk or--” I let out a scream closing my eyes and putting my hands out in front of me as he threw a dagger straight at me.

“Samantha...open your eyes.” Lucas said.

I opened my eyes and there was a glittery yellow bubble surrounding me with the dagger on the floor. Lucas got up from his seat to get a closer look and I just, stared at it. I never made a shield before. I didn’t know that I could make one. I looked up as Lucas tried touching the bubble. As his finger tapped the shield it electrocuted him and he dropped to his knees holding his arm. I slid out my chair making the bubble disperse.

“Lucas are you okay!? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to..” I said reaching for his shoulder but he pulled away from me with his eyes looking different.

“Don’t touch me…” He said with his voice hoarse and skin pale. His pupils had changed from the circular shape to a large rhombus with two little ones on either sides of it. And his irises were cyan blue instead of the usual sky blue.

“Here Lucas. Take this,” Dr. Fin walked over giving him a small blue orb.

“Thank you…” Lucas said taking the ball and it started glowing as soon as he touched it.

The orb’s glow started to shine in a pulse like a heartbeat and gills sprouted out from Lucas’ neck. His hair became a midnight blue as his skin flushed to a normal color. I sat back on my butt and pretzeled my legs while keeping my eyes on him. I knew he was special, but I didn’t know it was ocean special. Kane looked up at me with his eyes wide and gills flaring.

“I um..I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you...” I said and looked down at my sneakers feeling ashamed.

“It’s fine. You don’t know your own strength. And that’s okay. I don’t mind getting shocked if it’ll help you become better,” Lucas replied and my cheeks glowed a dim yellow.

“Alright Lucas. You ready to show Samantha your powers?” Dr. Fin said picking up the lighter and alcohol bottle.

“Sure. Hold this Samantha,” Lucas got up passing the blue orb to me and it sent a chill through my whole body.

Dr. Fin took a swig of the alcohol grinning a bit and flipped the lighter open. He exchanged a quick nod to Lucas and then motioned me to move out of the way. I took a couple steps back with the orb starting to freeze the tips of my fingers. Dr. Fin lit the lighter and inhaled the flame closing his eyes. When he opened them his eyes were red and then he open his mouth shooting a giant wave of flames at Lucas. Every hair on my neck went up as I watched Lucas just stand there without trying to block it. Right when I was about to say something, Lucas lifted his hands in a fluent motion and shot a blast of water at Dr. Fin meeting his flames in between them.

Lucas’ eyes widened and his blast increased pushing Dr. Fin’s flames back. So Dr. Fin puffed up his chest making his flames increase. After a minute of the back and forth pushing, Dr. Fin’s flame started to falter as he became hit with fatigue. I could see that Lucas wasn’t lightening up and that it would probably be bad if a fire breather was hit with water. I needed to do something but I didn’t know what to do exactly. I looked down at the orb and noticed that it had completely frozen my hands into a block of ice.

“L..Lucas?...” I said and walked over to him holding up my hands.

“Oh shit!” He replied and dropped his hands to grab the orb out of my hand.

“Watch out Lucas!” Dr. Fin said as his flames came spiraling towards us.

“Lucas move!” I said pushing him out of the way and felt the flames blast against my backside.

“Samantha!” Lucas got up to grab me but stopped as the flames started to spin around my body like a tornado.

“Lucas don’t touch her,” Dr. Fin walked over watching as the flames just kept spinning around me and melting the ice from my hands, “You are truly the Phoenix Child.”

“I guess she is,” Lucas replied while staring at me.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I felt my cheeks burning red as I blushed and I turned away.

“Look at me,” He said and I could hear him walking over to me.

“Don’t come any closer or you’ll get hurt again,” I replied turning to look at him.

“I don’t give a damn about getting hurt,” Lucas stepped closer grabbing both my hands and the flames dissipated, “See. I’m fine.”

“You’re so that lucky my powers stopped working when you touch me.” I said and looked down at his hands that were still holding mine.

“Samantha I was trying to wait to find you your Janshi,” Dr. Fin said while going inside his briefcase, “But I think you already found him.”

“My Janshi?”

“The only person on the planet that can disable and calm your powers. Each Phoenix Child has one somewhere on the Earth. It seems that Lucas is your Janshi.”

Journal Entry  May 5th, 2050 Age: 9

The Flash People, that is what I see when I wake up. Only for a few seconds though, before they fade away into nothing, but what do they mean? What do they want? Do they have others to speak to? I told my mom about it once and she said that its all in my head, or it was just a dream. Can you be asleep and wake up into a dream? If so, does that mean you were in a dreaming about sleep?If not, then was I then that means in my dream, I wasn’t dreaming at all, but thats means I couldn’t be asleep. I don’t know. Maybe she’s right, maybe it is in my head, but that doesn’t explain the zaps I always feel. I learned in school that when you rub your feet against a rug that you would create static electricity, but even when I’m not rubbing my feet against the floor. Maybe I’m a superhero, like Static Shock. I can’t tell anyone though, can’t let my secret identity be discovered by my enemies. I need to make a name… how about... Lightingbird. Yes! Because I have lightning powers, and my name is a bird, genius! I will defend New York City and rain lightning down on all evildoers.

From the new hero,

Eagle Waynes aka The Lightningbird       

Journal Entry March 2nd, 2058 Age: 17

I wake up to the typical engine sounds and birds yelping back and forth to one another like an endless conversation held by the beloved. It wasn't until my eyes reveal to me the world that I am reminded of my divergence. The beaming flashes that pulsate in and out of my peripherals seeking attention before I can understand them. After a few blinks I come to terms before fear takes its hold. Then I begin to sense the world around me. Energy surrounding me in hope that maybe I may provide a purpose to their meaningless endeavors. The visions, the senses, all branches to the tree of my existence. I can control electro-magnetic impulses within myself and the world around me. The pulses of electricity that freely go about our bodies control our movements, however, its more than that for me. My body works like a generator, greatly increasing these pulses to god-like levels. I’ve learned to control such energy, but as far as the vision, I’ve yet to decipher their meaning or relevance. I cannot make out any faces, except one. A man, maybe in his late thirties, he says something, before everything fades into my current existence. I do not speak to my mother about this, I’ve heard what they do to people like me. A life of hiding, fearing imprisonment and the sacrifice of my own humanity. I know this because they wouldn’t consider me human, therefore a non-human doesn’t deserve humanity. No one must ever know of this.

Journal Entry March 2nd, 2058 Age: 17

School today was much of the same, much isolation without much conversation. I understand that it is for the good of me and my family but I wonder how for how much longer. The one girl, Jennifer, is the only person I consistently find myself conversing with. She is an extraordinary individual, strong, smart, and beautiful. But bigger things are at play at the moment other than lust. I walked in the door to find my mother, crying in a corner with a picture in her hand. On closer inspection, it was the picture of a group of people. I ran to her side and asked, “Mom! What’s wrong?”

Sniveling, she replied, “Nothing sweetie I’m ok.” My mom had shown me the picture before, her and my dad were both in it, everyone was smiling and celebrating but my mom never told me who the other people in the photo were. I asked, “Who are these people?” My mom then took to the kitchen in such haste not even the the new sound speed Lamborghini's could keep up. I evaluated the image some more and have taken it to my room, what does the picture mean, who are these people in it, and why is my mom so upset about it? My mom has been acting very strange lately but why? I only wish I knew, maybe I could do something about it.

Journal Entry March 7th 2058 Age: 17

These past few days, these visions have seemingly become more vivid. I can almost make out faces to these Flash People, as what I called them once before. Men, women, and children all seem to be the people in these visions. The visions also becoming less broken up and more detailed and sensible instead of halting randomly. I see people tripping over each other, running, falling, dying. But what chills me the most is… I feel like I can feel what they feel. Fear, desperation, pain, and misery. I’m not sure what is going on. Am I going crazy? I feel like I’m in a large box, conversing with my own echo to provide the illusion that I’m not alone. Maybe that’s the case, maybe I am in this mental box with just my journal as an echo. Can I even really control electricity, or is that yet another trick I’ve fooled myself to believing? I don’t know, I’m so confused, I’m so lost, and no one seems to be able to help me.  

 Journal Entry March 9th 2058 Age: 17

I’ve hit a bit of a crossroad these last couple day. Jennifer and I have gotten really close recently. I don’t know, there’s something about her that hibernates this ravenous animal I feel inside. Why just yesterday I used the holographic facetime app on my phone for the first time to talk to her. I may not be a normal person, but who ever said that I couldn’t try to be normal. All my life I’ve been expecting the worst but hoping for the best, maybe its time for me to stop sitting around hoping I find my purpose and go out and create one for myself. With any luck, I may no longer need to write in my journal to cope with this longingness. Hopefully, I may finally find peace within myself. then in helping myself, I can help the world around me.   

Journal Entry March 29th 2058 Age: 18

It’s my birthday today! Been a few weeks since I wrote in my journal. I’ve just been, happy for the first time in so long. I finally feel like for once in my life, I don’t view the world from a barren moon, decelent and alone. Me and Jennifer have been spending a lot of time together, both in and out of school. I finally ditched that one lonely table in the back of the cafe at school, now sitting with Jennifer and her friends Sammy and Brian. The Flash People visions happen a lot less frequently now. Even when I do see the Flash People, I don’t think about them as much and I can just continue my life. I feel like, maybe life doesn’t require all the answers, sometimes you have to just accept what reality and not question it. You’d think the world is perfect but… it’s still the thought in the back of my mind that if they knew who I was, they would reject me. I’m still not sure if I can trust Jennifer, or anyone at that to reveal who I am too. I finally feel like I’m actually a part of society, instead of an undercover agent among humanity. I’ve also gotten into poetry a little bit since me and Jennifer been hanging out. It helps me cope with the part of me that different. I fear that I cannot hide from who I am forever. Eventually someone will know, whether I tell them or not, and it will be my responsibility to bear whatever comes next.  

Poem: Day Time

Is the sun ever really gone?

At sunset,

does it set off?

In cloud cover,

does it cover up?

Even when stars dominate the sky,

the sun never dies.

Even the moon borrows its light to become bright and illuminate the night.

No matter what,

the sun cannot hide from who it is.

It is everything.

Poem: The Underworld

I lived my life in the underworld,

digging deeper and deeper like a mole,

trying to find a deeper meaning.

However, I am blind,

feeling my way through the darkness,

unaware of what I’ll find.

The world above is but a mystery,

a forbidden landscape for which danger lies like the stench of a dead animal.

Yet even in my sanctuary of darkness,

I long for the light.

what it feels like,

what it sounds like, What it looks like.    

Journal Entry April 3rd 2058 Age: 18

A dark cloud has been thundering in my head, lashing out on whatever bit of sanity I had left. The vision are back, but not only in my sleep, I see them constantly through the day as well. With every flash, it feels like another part of me is consumed, even in class today I had to shock myself a few time in order to prevent a breakdown. For some odd reason, I long for Jennifer. I haven’t seen her these last few days and that too is driving me mad. Is she ok? Did something happen? Could I have prevented it? Why? Why do I feel like this? We cannot be together, if she knew who and what I was she would reject me. Not only that but I will not include her in this curse I’m forced to bear, knowing someone could come knocking on your door and snatch you up to never be seen again. Yet, I feel like without her, I truly am a pariah. Forced to walk and stand alone in the emptiness of my mind. Anyways, whether I like it or not, my mom has to find out about this. I fear that without someone to tell, I will fall further and further into this pit of despair that is my mind. Maybe this secret I’ve been forced to pair all this time is why I’m experiencing this. Clearing my conscience may be able to clear my mind, and inturn, clear up this madness.

Journal Entry April 4th 2058 Age: 18

This morning, I told my mom everything. About the visions, the powers, and my own thoughts on it. I also showed her my journal, with everything I’ve wrote over these years about these things. She lashed out at me, “Why have you waited so long to tell me something like this!?”

I replied, “My own paranoia won out, I felt as though if you or anyone else knew, you’d reject me, or worse, I’d put you at a certain amount of danger.”

“Danger how!?” She said.

“You’ve seen the movies mom, even the nature programs. Whenever people find something or someone who’s different, that individual is destroyed either physically, mentally, or both. It’s just human nature mom, to destroy radicals.” Her face then went from anger and frustration to a great deal of sadness. She ran into the other room, leaving a river behind where she stepped. I feel bad now for dragging my mother into this. She has dealt with so much, having to be a single mother raising a child like me. Maybe I should’ve just kept this to myself but…

Journal Entry April 5th 2058 Age: 18

I think I finally understand. I understand what the visions are, what they mean. They are flashbacks of the last time I saw my father. My mom showed me a picture, the same picture she was crying about last month. She pointed at a man and asked me, “Did you see this man in your visions?” I I observed the man closely and then it hit me. It was the one man in the vision whose face I could clearly decipher. I replied, “Yes.” She took a hard sigh and said to me, “I hoped I would never have to explain this to you Eagle.”

“Explain what?” I said.

“(Sigh) Remember when I told you your father died in a car accident with an astroid on his way to pick you up from Cosmic Playhouse?”

“Yes.” I replied

“Well, that wasn’t at all true.”

I paused for a second then asked, “My father is the one I see in my visions, isn’t it?”

A single tear fell from her eye and she answered, “Yes.”

I paused again to take in everything, then I asked, “What happened?”

“Your father and I had were like many others, we opposed the law set by the Higher Family to send children of age to live on the new one of the three new planets chosen by government in order to graduate college. The idea is to use the carbon dioxide we excrete to fertilize the plant sanctuaries on those planets until the plants produce enough oxygen to support life on the planet. We formed a radicalist group called The Birds, to stop children from being sent to hazardous conditions in order to be a graduate and make a choice of will. Though our movement was peaceful, the Higher Family was notorious for opposing opposition with violence, therefore we were more than willing to exercise our second amendment. We marched, we rallied, and we occasionally had conflict with the Higher Forces, but we never needed fired shots. It even got to a point where your father sold our weapons and gave money to poor communities. Your father…  was such a great man, always putting himself last. Eventually, he lead us as far as a meeting with the Higher Family. We were overjoyed, finally, The Higher Family sees wrong in their ways on the graduation system and are willing to hear us out. But…”

“Let me guess, it was a set-up?” I asked. My mother chuckled a little. “You’re as sharp as your father you know.” Then she continued, “Your father was suspicious when it was requested that the entire Bird movement be at this meeting, however he didn’t want to risk losing this opportunity, so he agreed.”

“But what does this have to do with me?” I asked. She paused a minute to gather her thoughts, and then spoke, “Because you had to come.” My eyes widened like two ripe tomatoes. “Me? Why did I have to go?”

“Your father thought it would be safer, then to leave you at home with the hologram.” She said. “When we arrived, we were put in a room with a large stage and one door. The floor creeked from deterioration and there was a somewhat earyness to the place. I asked him, why have a meeting of this scale in a place of this scale. He answered back, I have a bad feeling about this. He directed us to the side of the where the floor seemed to be more stable. Then out of the blue, all you heard was a large boom and the crackling of broken wood. Your father then yelled, Birds to the door! As we made our way to the door we realized that the sound we heard was the floor exploding beneath us. Then we started hearing gunshots ring from the direction of the door. We stopped, the your father guided us a the hole. As we reached the bottom, we stumbled over broken wood and dead bodies. Your father turned around  and said that he needed to guide what was left of the Birds to safety. (Crying) I didn’t want to leave you, but I needed to get you to safety. As I ran, I felt a large burst of energy, then nothing.”

“So what happened after that?” I asked.

“We woke up in a hospital. The doctor said I was lucky to survive, but you… you were in surprisingly great condition. I asked where you and the doctor said you were in the playroom now. I always did ask myself, why weren’t you affected by the blast, but I never realized you absorbed its energy somehow.”

“I guess we know why now… Mom, can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“Why didn’t you ever try to bring the Birds back if you felt so strong about its purpose?” She paused for a minute, collecting her thoughts, then she spoke, “Because I spent all these years waiting for the day that he would come home and do it himself.” She answered as tear started draining off her face like a downpour in the forest. “Your father was so strong, and so devoted…. I just wish I could have him back.” She said. I sat silently for a few seconds and watched the emotion spill from my mothers face. “Mom.” I said.

“Theres one more thing.” She said while wiping her face clean. “Your father told me that you were destined to one day be a symbol, which is why he named you after the Birds. I never knew what he meant by that... but Eagle, you owe it to the world to use your gifts for good. That’s what your father would say.”

“Mom, I need to know, where is my dads grave?”

“It’s down on 55th avenue.”

“Can I go there?” She paused for second and replied, “Yes.” I left the house and walked to 55th avenue. All could think about was what my mom told me. The Birds, my father, this mysterious weapon, and me. What made me and my mom so lucky as to survive this weapon where others have perished to it. I arrived at the cemetery. It took sometime but I finally found the grave, Jonathan Waynes. The engraving was hard to read, but its message was clear. It said, “Fight for what is true, live by what is right, die for who you love.” I dropped to my knees and stared into the stars. I saw the Aquila constellation and then my moms words started to echo in my head, “You were named after the Birds.” Then I spoke, “I am The Lightningbird.”