Young Writers Society

Best thing about going back to school? Mr. Neil's field trips. Second day of school, every new semester. The only science class at Silver Creek High to go, and with a teacher who's actually kind of cool, too. Freshman year, it was the Aquarium in August and the Farm in January. Sophomore year? Behind-the-scenes access to the Zoo in August. And Mr. Neil has just informed his class that they will be getting a hands-on tour at a local Science Lab where they do everything from Quantum Mechanics and Cancer Research to Biological studies. Maybe going back to school isn't so bad... Even if it is below freezing outside.



Exclusive access keycard. Lab coats. Goggles. Heck, someone might mistake these teens as being actual scientists. Every room and area of study is more fascinating than the last. And the most interesting of all? The Biological research. Animal crossbreeds? Cool! Advancements in evolutionary studies that could change the way we see the world? What year is this again? And the coolest part of all? Getting hooked up to that machine that tells the scientists all kinds of stuff about your body. The next big leap in medical technology... or so they were told.



January is a common time to get the flu. But when every kid in the class starts having odd symptoms, they begin to wonder if it's not just the flu. What did they say that chair does, again?



The laboratory agreed to let them do a tour for one very specific reason: they needed lab rats. Their hybrid research had taken a new leap, and they were ready to test it. What if humans could turn into animals? What if they could go back and forth at will? What if there was a way to alter human DNA to have this ability? And what if... they knew exactly how to do that simply by hooking someone up to a chair and releasing a certain kind of radio wave at the same time it injected a serum into their body that would change their DNA... forever.


Twelve high school students around the age of fifteen/sixteen go on a field trip to a laboratory where they are unknowingly experimented on with Human/Animal hybrid technology. A few days after the field trip, they all start to come down with strange symptoms. Everyone is a little different, and no one has any idea what's going on. Until one by one, they begin to have the ability to morph into an animal. There is one specific animal they can morph into, and every student has a different animal. Some may be able to control it, some may not. Just as they catch onto the fact that it all started at the laboratory, they find out the laboratory burned down. Maybe they can ask Mr. Neil? Nope. He's gone missing. And the weirdest thing of all? Some of them have felt like they're being followed... But by whom... they have no clue. Anything could happen, and with a sinking feeling there's someone out there who knows a whole lot more than they do, they have to be careful with their every move.


Light language is okay, but limit F-words please.
Romance is fine, just not too graphic.
No killing off characters without permission.
You may have up to two characters.
Characters should be between fifteen and seventeen, unless there is a genius kid who is fourteen. Please limit those to one or two.
There can only be one of each animal. One house cat and one tiger is fine, just not two house cats. A dog and a coyote is fine, even two different kinds of birds are fine. Just not the exact same animal.
Try to post at least once a week.

The main events of this storybook are in the present. I will be writing my part in First-Person, but you may write in 3rd if you like.

Template:

Code: Select all

[b]Name: [/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Family:[/b]
[b]Strengths:[/b]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
[b]Their Animal:[/b]
[b]Other:[/b]

If you have any questions, feel free to message me or post on the board. Also, I'm open to alternate names for the Storybook. Just throw me your ideas. Thanks!

-Lefty

In my opinion, there's no better way to start a Monday morning than with Alt-Rock. Rehearsing with my band that day before school, I was the happiest I was going to be all day. In fact I was almost looking forward to algebra. Algebra. That's how happy I was that morning. I began singing the chorus, pouring all my focus into sending my low voice wailing into the Microphone. (It was off, of course, but that didn't really matter.) A small crowd was gathered near the door, watching Silver Creek High School's most gifted (And only) band play. It's not like the name "Stint With Fiction" Was whispered in the halls or anything, but watching us was better than cleaning whiteboards or something. The bell rang for class to start, and the band members set down their instruments and filed off the stage steps. I jumped off the edge and joined my friend Emma, who was waiting quietly by the doorway. "Whassup?" I grinned. Emma shrugged. My smile widened. Good ol' shy Emma.
"Awww, what? Do you not wanna talk to me?"
Em gave me a small smile. "You can be a bit much at times." She joked. I swatted her arm playfully.
"Hey now, if your'e gonna criticize, tell me something I don't already know, Emmy." I rapidly changed subjects in that attractive way of mine "hey, that song you wrote was really good. When're you planning to stop making me take credit for 'em?"
Emma's face went pink. "I already told you, I don't want any recognition for this."

"Oh, come on. You've got talent, Em! Don't tell me you don't, I've heard you play piano."

"You're the one who wants fame, not me."

I shrugged "true."
I didn't want to argue with her right on the first day of school, so I let the matter rest for now. And besides that, I probably wouldn't have said anything right then anyway, because Oliver Pascal had come walking down the hall. I stopped and watched him pass, a little short on breath. I felt my cheeks heat up. I'd been crushing on him since freshmen year, but so far I hadn't really talked to him. Mostly because I was afraid I'd say something stupid and end up looking like an idiot.
Emma followed my gaze and gave me a knowing look. "Tell you what." She said. "I'll start taking credit for my songs when you ask him out on a date."

I gave the journal in my arms a little squeeze. "I might do it, you know." I said.
No answer.
"What? I might! You never know."
The late bell rang and I bit my lip. "Gosh dangit! See you in English!"
I dashed off to class, where everyone was already taking a seat. The teacher, A small bespecticaled man with a face like an anxious marmoset, gave me a sharp look. "I see our friend Riley has decided to put down her guitar and join the rest of us." he squeaked. He sounded a bit like a marmoset, too.
I grinned. "Yessir! Now the wide world of numbers is complete!"
"Sit."
I strode languidly over to a desk in the middle row. Someone behind me poked the back of my head with a pencil. I looked behind me at a sneering bot in a Rainbow Dash T-shirt.
Ugh.
"Nice song, loser." He hissed. "Maybe if you worked at it you could land a job playing in a subway."
I glowered at him. "Nicepony shirt. Who dressed you, your mom?"

The day went on pretty normally from there. Pretending to listen in Algebra, trying and failing to listen in History, actually listening in English and Music, and so on. The last class of the day was Biology. I wasn't really paying attention until the end, when Mr. Neil started talking about the field trip. I looked up from my journal.
Last year it had been an Aquarium, This year, Mr. Neil informed us, we'd get a behind the scenes tour of the Zoo. "And, a hands-on tour of a local science lab."
A few kids started whispering excitedly, but I was more focuses on the Zoo. Science labs were for scientists, not me.

....


Leaning on the wall outside waiting for our rides, Ryker, another friend of mine, and I were joking about the tour. "Hey, it could be cool." He smiled "What if we got superpowers from a lab accident or something?"
I nodded with exaggerated excitement. "Oh, that sounds like a good Idea! Alright, here's what we do: I'll get "accidentally" trapped in the experimental radiation chamber, and you smash the controls with a monkey wrench!"
We laughed at the joke and made up what kind of powers we could get from that. In no time a sleek black sedan had pulled up in front of the school. I shrugged my backpack onto my shoulder and trotted over to the car, waving at Ryker before clambering in.

“Uwaah! I’m gonna be late!”

Neon scrambled out the door, racing down the street, crimson scarf blazing behind him. His feet pounded the tarmac as he desperately gripped a piece of toast between his lips. “Wait! Wait!” His cries were muffled by the warm veil of crispy bread and jelly.

The school bus lurched forward, rumbling down the street. Neon raced after it, his backpack bouncing against his torso. His lungs burned with the effort. “Slow...down!” he cried.

The golden carriage ground to a halt at the end of the street. Neon could almost see the bus driver meticulously the road checking before the turn.

Desperately, he ripped a bite from his toast, praying to the toast gods for strength. Neon put on a burst of speed, his feet hammering the pavement. He could see the bus slowly starting again, turning left.

Neon stomped the ground, leaping forward, palms outstretched. His fingertips seized the bumper just as the bus lurched around the turn.

Groaning with effort, he hoisted himself up, clinging to the back of the bus. Using his free hand, he brushed his messy black hair out of his eyes. He sighed, taking another bite of toast. “Whew...what a way to start a day.”

He hung there for a while, as the school bus sputtered its way towards Silver Creek High. Watching the world roll away behind him, he gave out a small chuckle. Then another. Then a giggle.

Neon burst out into laughter, swinging precariously over the rushing road. His mad glee rippled across the air, drawing plenty of alarmed looks from the other drivers.

His giddy smile only grew as the bus hurtled around a turn, throwing him sideways. “Yes, yes, yes!” he cackled. “Upon this morning, I have conquered this school bus! And soon, all will tremble before my-”

The bus slammed to a halt at the school, crushing Neon and his toast against the window. Dazed, he fell backwards off of the bumper, crashing down on his back. The toast dropped from the window, plopping onto Neon’s face, smearing his nose with jelly.

Neon groaned slightly as the bus doors opened, letting the students off. Blindly, he punched a fist in the air, grinning beneath the mask of bread. “Made it.”

------------

He walked in the door just as Riley and Emma were finishing up their song. They weren’t quite amazing, but they made up for it with sheer dedication. Riley was mesmerizing, singing each note with ease. The crowd watched with impartial interest.

Gradually, the song drew to a close, and the audience dispersed. The band members snapped their instruments back into their cases and scampered off, hurriedly saying goodbye to Riley and Emma, who started talking at the doorway. Emma said something with a small smile, and Riley blushed slightly.

Neon smirked. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were talking about. He could easily see that Riley was head-over-heels for Oliver Pascal.

“It’s simple,” he muttered, walking forward with his head down. “The bonds between souls...invisible, and delicate, like a spider’s web.” He exhaled, lips reforming into a smile. “And those who can see these threads are the deities who pull them. And in this world of puppets, I am a god!” He struck a dominant pose, clenching his hand triumphantly. Placing his fists on his hips, he chuckled heartily, grinning.

“Um...Neon?”

The two girls were staring at him strangely. Neon’s laughter died down slowly as a cold wind blew through the school foyer.

Instinctively, he knew what to do. Quickly, he positioned himself in the wind so that it blew into his scarf, sending the scarlet tails flaring out. He pointed an imperious finger in the girls’ direction. “So, we meet again, Riley West.”

Just then, the late bell rang. Riley jumped. “Gosh dangit! See you in English!” Turning on her heel, she dashed down the hallway.

“What the- Hey! Get back here!” Neon yelled, starting after her.

A timid voice interrupted him. “Um...shouldn’t you be getting to class too?” Emma asked tentatively.

Neon gritted his teeth, sighing. “Fine. I suppose this battle is your victory. But stay on guard,” he warned, staring intensely at Emma. “Our paths will cross again.”

Not waiting to see her reaction, he dashed down the hall, his scarf streaming out behind him. “Today, I conquer this hallway! And my classes! And tomorrow, the world!”

My alarm goes off at the same time everyday. 5:45 AM sharp. Enough time to make it to school to have an hour of peace, and music. So when my alarm started blasting Tear In My Heart by Twenty One Pilots I wasn't that concerned. That was, until I saw the clock.

6:15 AM

"Dammit!" I yell. (Okay, actually I whispered but that's beside the point) I quickly get up, and rush to get ready. Basics first. Which includes brushing teeth, deodorant, tinge of this old lavender perfume my mom got me, messy bun, eyeliner, concealer, and glasses. (No time to look super cute today) After I get ready I quickly slip on a gray sweater, black leggings, and sandals.

There.

I run down the stairs to see my mom cooking something that smells amazing, my my dad watching the news on the tv from the table, and then there is my brother and Michael sitting at the counter stuffing their faces with my moms famous bacon. He rolls his eyes when he sees me. (I'm usually gone by the time he gets here)

Jerk

"Honey, where are you going? You need to eat breakfast." My mom says.

"Don't worry mom I'll just grab something on the way." I reassure her.

"You'll be fine if you're 30 minutes to your-"

"Mom." I interrupt her as I motion to Michael with my eyes. No one really knows about the whole music thing. Well, except Riley and Gwen of course.

"Oh." She says. "I mean. Yeah, just make sure you're home by dinner."

"Thanks mom." I run over and give her a kiss on the cheek. Then, I quickly grab some toast from a plate and make a run for it. "Love you!" I shout.

"Bye kid." I hear my dad yell from the kitchen. I also hear
"Later loser." From my brother. (That's what we do, make fun of eachother, but we actually get along quite well.)


I actually run to school. Crazy right? And to think I actually manged to do it without tripping more than three times.

Go me.

I make it to the music room about 30 minutes later than I usually do. It's not that big of a deal, but...it's special to me. I spend the first 20 minutes working on a new song for Riley. I even sing a little bit. Nothing too loud though. But those 20 minutes end the same way they always do. Me pounding on the keys and sighing loudly.

I'm pushing myself to hard.

But I don't care.

"Hmm. How about a little Paul Cardall to finish me off today?" I ask myself.

Sweet Escape

It's not a difficult piece, but its still one of my favorites.
Just as I'm about to hit the ending I hear a crashing sound coming from the hallway.

"Hello?" I stand and make my way to the doorway.

A fallen music stand?

Was someone listening?

It doesn't matter now though. Probably just being paranoid. Whoever it was has run off now.

I check the clock. If I go now I can catch the end of SWF's rehearsal this morning. I grab my book bag, and my new copy of The 5th Wave off the piano and head out.
After SWF finished up Riley and I walk to first period. I watch as she makes googly eyes at Oliver Pascal.
Oh my gosh why doesn't she just ask him to hang out already?

Then again, kind of a hypocrite in this situation.

My first few classes were fine, but I mean it is school. There's only so much you can expect from it.

Lunch time is the highlight of my day. It's not because I get to see Ryker. It's mainly because I don't really have to do anything. Just nibble on some pretzels, read, and make awkward eye contact with Riley and Ryker the whole time. Riley and Ryker both try to get me to talk, but I guess I don't really have much to say.

Do I? Ugh never mind.

I decide to leave lunch early today. The smell of fish sticks is making me a little queasy.
Go lunch ladies. Poor things have such a rough time.
I walk the halls for a few minutes before nearly tripping over someone sitting on the floor.

Dan.

"Oh! Hey Emma!" He quickly stands up scratches the back of his head. A nervous habit I noticed.

"Sorry Dan. I wasn't watching where I was going." I slightly laugh.

"What?" He asks.

"A little weird seeing you before last period." I joke.

"Yeah." He let's out a small laugh. "Uh. Hey, Emma...would you...you know like to maybe..uh-"

"Tutor tonight?" I ask.

"Yeah. That's what I was trying to say." He blushes. I feel like that's not what he was gonna ask, but I push that thought away.

"I'm sorry I can't. I wish I could, but mom wants me home early. Tomorrow?" I ask.

"That's the field trip." He says.

"Oh yeah I forgot... We can always figure it out later."

"Yeah totally. Uh...Emma?"

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Actually, never mind it's stupid. I gotta go." He rushes off without another word.

"Bye..." I say. It's weird how easy it is to talk to him. Even though we both barely get out any words in regular conversations. Unless you get him talking about animals or books and then his face lights up, and then he can't stop talking. It's kind of amazing.

The bell rings I head to the rest of my classes for the day. It's a pretty normal day if you ask me. I walk home by myself after the bell rings.
My mom isn't home when I walk in. (Neither is Ashton. Probably at practice) I find a note on the counter.

Went out for groceries. Be back soon. If you want you can invite Gwen over for dinner.
-Love mom.

I smile and head upstairs where I quickly text Gwen.

Me: Mothership offers food. Do you accept?

Gwen: Duh. Need a good reason to not pay attention to my English homework. Plus your moms cooking rocks!

Me: Sound good

I go downstairs to my backyard where Gwen soon joins me. We sit on my old swingset sharing a bag of Starbursts that my mom buys in bulk.

"Not too bad of a day?" Gwen asks.

"Not too atrocious." I reply. We both laugh enjoying the sounds of Spotify spilling from my phone, and the fruity taste of Starbursts.

Not too bad at all.

Michael was a heavy sleeper. When his alarm would go off for school, he would snore over, it turning to his side. His mother tried once, and failed, pouring cold water on him. The end result was a soaking bed and a cold Michael. If he finally woke up, by some chance, then he would yawn and try to argue a point that it was too early for the sun to be up or the clock is wrong or better yet, it is daylight saving times. His brother, who is a year younger, looks up and tries to reenact how Michael is feeling which causes tension and fights.
Today was a different day. Mostly instead of sleeping in late, Michael was the first one up. He was sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee between his hands as he stared intensily at an open book. The sun was barely up as the sky was turning different colors of pink and blue and orange, with the wonderful sounds of birds chriping. His mother woke up for work-at-home every morning, sitting down at the oak desk in the lounge while filling out papers for a part-time job to support the family.

"Michael! What are you doing up this early?" his mother had asked, turning the corner and glaring at the clock. He shrugged, turning the page quietly.

"Today seemed the kind of day for waking up early."

His mother sighed, walking towards the coffee pot. Her pink robe rubbing on her legs, as her messy blonde hair poofed out. His mother could have been a model but before college- and before Michael was born- she met his dad and had a part-time job. She tried to make money for food and whatnot only coming short a few bucks at the end of the week. Soon Michael was born, and that thought of being a model was thrown out the window.
His mother leaned back on the counter, sipping peacefully. Michael closed the book, standing up from his seat.

"Today is a special day."

"Oh really?" His mom asked sarcastically. He glared at his mother from the corner of his eye while preceding to put his coffee mug in the sink.

"Yes, really. If hopefully you signed the permission slip."

His mother choked on her coffee. "P-permission slip?"

"Yeaaaa. The one I gave you last week?"

His mother put down the coffee mug on the counter. She then fumbled around the papers by the oven, grumbling under her breath about bills and papers. Michael raised an eyebrow as he walked past to his bedroom. When he returned, his mother has her head in her hands sitting at the desk.

"You okay, mom?"

"I kinda forgot to sign that permission slip."

Judgement grew in his stomach. He had hopped his mother would have cared enough to sign his permission slip to go on the field trip.

"Can't you find it and sign it?"

His mother mumbled. Michael sat down in a chair. "What?"

"I threw it away, thinking it was a bill that I payed."

Michael sat back in his chair, resting his hands in his lap as his mother sighed.

"I didn't mean to, Michael."

"I gave it to you last week," said Michael sternly.

"Yes-"

"Last week you could've signed it."

"I know-" his mother began as Michael interrupted.

"You know how long I wanted to go on this trip? For days. When I first started school, they talked about the trip to Quantum Mechanics and Cancer Research to Biological Studies. I wanted to study the natural habit of animals as a job. This trip, compared to the rest of the trips, is more educationally and I wanted to go. But no. You forgot to sign a simple piece of paper and no, that's not it. You threw it away," Michael let out a chuckle. "And to think I thought you were prepared."

His mother blinked. It had a been awhile since Michael spoke to her like that- mostly, after his father had died. He was more reserved and staying in his room, away from family members. Even his grades went downhill, before he could change them. It was a hard death and his mother still feels the pain of trying to raise three kids, each with something special and needing something everyday.

"Couldn't you get a new paper and I could come down to your school and just sign it?" His mother asked. Michael let out another chuckle.

"You don't get it! I have to turn it right when I get to school," he replied, looking at the clock.
Michael sighed, getting up and walking to his bedroom once more.

"I have to get ready for school and maybe get to go on the trip." His mother sighed, sipping what was left of her coffee and getting ready for her planned workday ahead. Minute later, Michael left the house without saying goodbye to his mom.

He walks to school, watching the cars passing and sometimes wishes to have one. After his father died, his mother used all the money in his savings account for a car on bills and hospital visits. Most of his friends would suggest rides with him, debating if it was a good idea or if the car was safe. He would reject and walk to school, with the fall wind blowing around him.

When he got to school, he saw some people he knew. His little group wasn't fully made yet as he settled in the library with his laptop. Around him, most people were getting her whining about how it was a Monday and not wanting to be here. People like that annoyed Michael as he sighed, grabbing headphones and zoning into his own world.

Soon- an hour and half later- the school bell rang, signaling for the classes start. They blurred, making the next class seem shorter than the last. It was until Mr. Neil's class. It was a fun class, with most people he wished he could ignore or agrue or just listen. The clock seemed to move slower and slower, wasting the time of studying animal's parts and movements. Michael propped open his laptop and started to listen to music, as Mr. Neil started to ask if anyone had turned in their slips or needed one. No one raised their hands.

"Okay class, today we are going to learn about organisms. Yes, yes I know. 'But Mr. Neil, we learned that in first class.' Well now, flash back.. what is today? Thursday! Throwback Thursday..." throughout the class they talked about organisms, animals, and beyond. At the end of the class, Mr. Neil asked again if anyone needed a permission slip. He looked over the class and saw Michael with his earbuds in.

"Michael! Michael!" he called out but it was no use. He gestured to a kid next to him to remove his earbuds. Michael blinked and mouthed 'what'. The kid gestured to Mr. Neil as Michael nodded.

"Sorry about that, Mr. Neil."

"Do you need a permission slip for the field trip?"

Michael nodded, walking up to the desk and receiving looks. He shrugged them off, walking back to his desk while jamming out to his music. The bell rang dismissing everyone from any class, leading a swarm of bees to their nest.

Michael saw Charlotte looking down at her books, paying no attention to the door ahead. He jogged ahead and opened the doors for her. Charlotte smiled, walking through shaking her head as Michael smiled to himself.

__________________________________________________________________________

When he got home, his mother was sleeping. Michael settled his stuff on the bed, and before, put the note on kitchen table. He slept for most of the day, hoping for the trip tomorrow.

I always walk to Silver Creek High, preferring the crisp morning air and the sweet sound of twittering birds over a claustrophobic vehicle spitting stuffy heat into my face. In rain or snow, I'll simply bundle up. I like wet hair, anyway.

On that particular morning, the weather was nice, and the sun seemed to be greeting me to the new school semester. I avoided the main entrance that was clogged with cars and buses and climbed the grassy slope towards the track. I could see a few of my cross country friends already clustered at the top of the stairs, waiting for the coach to arrive. I joined them.

"Hey, Charlotte!" Layla said, smiling.

I was very grateful for Layla's friendship. We were in a few classes together last year, when she taught me how to draw a few things with her epic art skills, and over the summer we had grown closer during cross country and track practices.

"Hey!" I said. "Where's Coach?"

Layla shrugged. "She'll be here soon, I guess."

"Do you think we'll have to run today?"

"Gosh, I hope not. It's the first day since break."

I didn't want to run either. My hair was all pretty and I was wearing more makeup than usual for the first day of the semester. Makeup and sweat? Not the greatest combo.

Coach Dossley is a sympathetic person, thankfully, and after going over the season's plans, gave us a free period to do as we wish. So the cross country team got to stay pretty, and Layla and I had enough time for a drawing lesson. We ended up goofing off by the end of the period, finding ourselves drawing random scribbles on each other's papers instead and trying to make sensible drawings out of them with a few embellishments. I called it Picasso Art.

English was the second period of the day, where I sat in a corner by myself and listened to the teacher's introductory lecture. He was pretty funny, actually. Next was European History, where we learned that we had a three page essay due the next day. Fun. So much fun. The teacher also had an intimidating black beard.

On my way to Spanish, I passed by Oliver. "Charlotte! How's it going?"

"Well, I have a three page essay due tomorrow, but otherwise I'm good. You?"

"Eww," he said. "I'm good too, I guess. Most of my teachers are good, but my math teacher's pregnant. I've already seen some signs of mood swings. She's thrown a pencil at Neon already."

I laughed. "Really? What's her name?"

"Something like Tangerine..." he checked his schedule. "Ah, Tangeman. Mrs. Tangeman."

"Great," I groan, recognizing the name on my own schedule. "I have her too. Math is terrible enough without a terrible teacher."

He grinned, and slapped me on the back. "We'll be fine. Just get on her good side and avoid flying pencils."

"Yeah," I said, laughing. "See you later!"

Spanish and Math passed in an uneventful blur. I was eager to get to Biology and hear more about the field trip. When I stepped into Mr. Neil's classroom, I was pleased to see several familiar faces: Michael, Daniel, Layla, Gwen, among a few others.

"Charlotte," Mr. Neil said, tapping the table in front of him, "you sit here." I nodded quietly and slipped into the seat. Sitting next to me was a very tall guy. Like, very tall. Why'd the teacher have to put a dwarf like me next to a giant?

Mr. Neil switched on the projector and opened up a Google Slides presentation. It was titled, Day One: Partner Activity. I swallowed.

"First," Mr. Neil said, "introduce yourselves."

I turned my head towards my giant partner. "Charlotte," I squeaked.

"What?" he said.

"Charlotte."

"Oh, Charlotte. Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Jinx."

I nodded. "Cool name."

"Thanks."

"Number two," Mr. Neil read from the powerpoint, "Describe the color of your partners' eyes. You are not allowed to use the words 'blue,' 'brown,' 'green,' 'gray,' or 'black.' Be creative."

Against my will, I lifted my head and locked eyes with my partner. He returned the gaze with piercing blue eyes. Wait - no, not blue...

"Coffee," Jinx said to me. "With, er... an amber flare in the center, around the pupil."

I blinked. "Yours are like the sky, on a stormy day."

Mr. Neil lead us through a few more activities, and by the time he started talking about the field trip, I had decided that Jinx was a pretty nice guy. I was a bit mad at myself for being so afraid of him just because he was so big. Talk about judging a book by its cover. (Jeez, Charlotte.)

The bell rang and I rose to leave, juggling my pencil bag, math textbook, Spanish workbook, and two binders in my arms. I must not have been paying much attention, for if Mike hadn't been there to open the door for me, I might've just crashed right into it. My face flushed red when I saw him smiling at me.

Gosh darn it, Michael Anthony, I remember thinking. I hate it when my face turns colors.

I jolted awake as my alarm went off. I turned it off, yawned and looked tiredly around my room. My copy of 'Red Rising' was still next to me open on my pillow exactly how i had left it the night before. I sighed. It was the first day at school. Back to the old grind. I got dressed in my usual clothes;dark blue t shirt, black hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers.

I checked myself in the mirror as I went down, decided I looked decent and went down the stairs and into the kitchen. My parents were in the kitchen, preparing to go to work. My sister had left early for school, as usual.

They wished me good morning as they quickly ate their breakfasts. I sat down at the table, and my mum pushed a plate with a slice of toast and a fried egg in front of me.

I ate mechanically as my Dad said "Good bye." and rushed off.

My mom did the same a few minutes later, but added a "Get to school on time. Love you." I sighed.

My parents were always working. They had been ever since I was born. My siblings had gotten more attention, as my parents had been less busy then, but not me. Unlike some kids who, growing up in environments like this, become very attention-seeking, I had come to expect no attention. I hated that feature of myself.

However, I pushed that to the back of my mind and instead looked at the portrait of a peacock that hung on the wall. That was one of the few things that my Great-grandparents had brought with them from India when they immigrated.

I was fourth generation born American, and neither me nor my parents had ever been to India, but we still remembered our roots. I quickly shook myself out of my thoughts as i saw that school bus had come, and ran out the door and boarded it.

The bus was crowded, with everyone chatting with their friends. All but me. I sat in the back as I usually did,and plonked my bag on the seat next to me, where no one would ever sit, me being mostly without friends.

It had been like that ever since Jim and Derek, my best friends had left town, their parents getting transferred within weeks of each other. Now the only people whom I could call friends were Gwen, and possibly Emma.

I looked boredly out the window as the city flew by. My day brightened up when I heard a shout as I saw Neon running after the bus. I grinned in amusement as he managed to jump onto the back and grab onto it.

Then he proceeded to cackle madly, and declared “Yes, yes, yes! Upon this morning, I have conquered this school bus! And soon, all will tremble before my-” At that point the bus stopped at Silver Creek High and he fell down onto the ground, the piece of toast he was holding falling directly on his face.

At that point I burst out laughing, as did several others. I was still giggling as I left the bus.

I walked past Neon as he said "Made it!" and punched his fist in the air.

"Good job, Neon!" I called out as I past him, "You conquered the school bus! Maybe next time you can conquer the toast as well!" and chuckled as I made my way to the school.

I walked through the door ans wandered the halls for a while, as I usually did to pass time while waiting for school to start. Then I heard a voice. I tilted my head as I listened to it. I was surprised as I realized that it was Emma's!

She was singing and playing the piano. While Emma didn't know it, Gwen had told me about her involvement with the band, and I thought she was a really good songwriter. But I had never heard her sing or play before.

I walked towards the sound until I stood just outside the music room, afraid to go in as I knew that it would embarass Emma. I leaned against a music stand as I listened. She really had a amazing voice and was great on the keyboard.

Then I gasped as the music stand toppled and fell with a crash! I quickly ran out of there, fearful of what Emma might think of me if she found me there, as of yet she didn't know that I knew she wrote SWF's songs.

I made it to the hall just in time to watch the last few minutes of Riley and the band's practice. I saw Emma come in through the other doorway, and my heart sped up. She looked really cute. I debated with myself whether to ask her out, as I did every day. As always, fear and nervousness won the day, and I sped out of there as soon as the song ended.

As I went to class, I debated in my mind when, if ever, I would ask Emma on a date. In fact, I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't notice Terence Matthews. I don't know how I missed that, as he was tall and big, and was standing right in front of me. By the time I noticed him,I had bumped into him. He turned to me with a look of rage, and grabbed the front of my shirt. He slammed me against the wall.

"You'll pay for that, shithead." He hissed as he raised his fist. "Let him go!" ordered a voice from behind him. He turned and I saw that it was Layla. Saved by a girl. Again. Man, I am going to feel the effect of this later. I thought as Terence released me and said "Sure thing, babe." and smoothed back his hair. He had a crush on Layla, and everyone knew it.

I thanked Layla and ran off as he started to ask her for a date, which i knew she would refuse.My first few classes were fine. Latin first, then Math, and then finally English before lunch.

I was walking through the halls on my way to the lunchroom when I saw Gwen walking ahead. A page fluttered from her notebook and landed on the floor, right in Mike's path. I quickly snatched it up, looked at it and ran to catch up with Gwen.

I caught up to Gwen in the lunchroom and said "Gwen, look what fell out of your notebook. Right in front of Mike! Don't worry I grabbed it before he could see it."

She snatched it out of my hands and blushed before saying "Oh my gosh, thanks Dan! That would have been embarassing."

I grinned and replied "Why embarassing? I think you set a new record! I've never seen Mrs.Gwen Anthony written so many times before."

She smiled and said "Shut up! By the way, do you want to sit with me, Emma and Riley for lunch?"

"No thanks," I replied,

"I'm gonna go talk to Layla and Charlotte. Given where we're going for our field trip tomorrow, and given our fields, it's bound to make for a lively discussion."

Gwen rolled her eyes and replied "Fine, but I don't know how you can stand Layla."

I shrugged and said "Everyone has their likes and dislikes. See you soon." and I went off. As I got my lunch, I wished that Gwen would give up chasing after Michael. While I had long ago gave up any hope of getting her to go out with me, I just didn't want her to get hurt when she finally realized that Mike just wasn't interested. but she wouldn't listen to me when I mentioned it.

However, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head as I ate my lunch while talking about the field trip with Layla and Charlotte.The three of us were very excited. Behind-the-scenes access to the Zoo and a hands-on tour at a local Science Lab? This was our chance to see how zoologists and biologists actually worked! We were still talking about it when I saw Emma leave the lunchroom early.

My heart quickened, and my mind whirred. She was now in the perfect place for me to ask her out.She was alone, so neither her nor I would feel too nervous, and there was no one to hear if I refused. I muttered something about having to go and leaped out of my chair and ran after her.

A few minutes later I couldn't find her, and just gave up. I felt incredibly conflicted. On the one hand, I really liked her and it would be amazing if I could be her boyfriend, but on the other hand, if she said no, then it would embarass both of us, and possibly ruin my relationship with her.

Torn, I leaned against the wall and slumped to the floor. A few moments later, I felt someone's foot connect with my leg.

I turned and saw Emma, who looked like she had just nearly tripped over me, and got up hastily before saying "Oh! Hey Emma!" At that moment, I decided to finally ask her out. I scratched the back of my head, which was one of my nervous habits.

"Sorry Dan. I wasn't watching where I was going." she said, and laughed slightly.

"What?" I asked, looking at her curiously

"A little weird seeing you before last period." she said jokingly.

"Yeah." I let out a small laugh. Then I took a deep breath before starting nervously "Uh. Hey, Emma...would you...you know like to maybe..uh-"

"Tutor tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah. That's what I was trying to say." I felt my cheeks warm up, and I knew I was blushing. I really wanted to ask her out, but fear always seemed to get the better of me.

"I'm sorry I can't. I wish I could, but mom wants me home early. Tomorrow?" She asked .

"That's the field trip." I replied.

"Oh yeah I forgot... We can always figure it out later."

I nodded before replying "Yeah totally." and then, starting to have second thoughts, I said "Uh...Emma?"

"Yeah?" she asked, looking at me curiously.

I looked and knew that I would never want to ruin my friendship with her. I really liked her, and didn't want to ruin our friendship for anything. And she'll probably say no. I thought to myself. So I blurted out "Actually, never mind it's stupid. I gotta go." And I rushed off without another word.

As I walked away I gave myself a thorough mental beating. You are a complete coward, Dan. I told myself. It was the right place, and the right time, and what did you do? You chickened out. I continued like this until I reached world history, which was the first class after lunch.

I walked in and sat down in my usual place at the back of the class, next to Neon. While I and neon didn't talk much, I enjoyed seeing the little comic strips he drew during class.

Mr.Nelson called for our attention to him. He made an imposing figure, as he was tall, and while his hair and beard were greying, he looked tough. He was strict, but always taught us in interesting ways.

He then began speaking. "Hello, class. Today, on the first day of school, I don't want to bore you with uninteresting topics, so today we will discuss the Third World War. Daniel, can you tell us something about it?" I sighed.

Teachers always called on me to answer questions because I was smart. But I hated being the 'teacher's pet' all the time. That led to me being constantly bullied.

However, I answered "Yes, Mr.Nelson. The Third World War was fought between USA and China, as a direct result of USA's conquer of Da Nang, a city of Vietnam, a province of China."

"Very good, Daniel.Now, what other significant countries were involved in the war? Jack, perhaps you'd be able to answer this?"

Jack was a 'teacher's pet' like me. Teachers usually alternated between the two of us when asking questions.

Jack answered "The European Union and India were on the side of USA, and Russia and Japan were on the side of China." Mr.Nelson nodded, pleased.

He then turned to me and asked "Now we are sidetracking a bit. Europe is made up of many countries. Yet they fight as single military power according to their agreement. What did this agreement entail?"

I replied "The agreement stated that all the countries of Europe, while being autonomous states, would not attack each other, and pool their military strength and make such decisions concerning armies together. This was done so that the countries of Europe would not be taken advantage of by foreign powers."

"Good." the teacher replied and then asked "What was the result of the war?"

Once more, I dutifully replied "The war ended with a peace treaty agreed to by both sides."

Mr.Nelson nodded and said "Very good, Daniel. However, it was not a total peace. Japan now heads the axis that was once led by China, which lost some power during the war while Japan rose, but those territories are still hostile to USA. Travel between the two sides is not permitted. Tensions between them are rising, although we say we are at peace. Sooner or later, they will rise to a breaking point, and that will be a terrible time for people all over the world." Everyone in class seemed to at least feel a little scared at this ominous message, except for Neon.

He was busy adding to the stash of paper airplanes that he kept in his bag. I had once asked him why he needed so many airplanes, and he had replied very seriously 'to conquer the skies'.

At that moment, the bell rang and the period ended. We all left, but Mr.Nelson's words rattled around in my head for long after.

The next period was Creative writing and my thoughts turned from possible war with Japan to Emma, and how I had blown my chance of asking her out.

The next period was Biology, and I was sitting next to Emma. I wish I could've asked her out then and there, but with so many people about, we would both have gotten embarassed.

I didn't really listen throughout Mr.Neil's class, but he never mentioned anything, as teachers tended to be more lenient towards me due to my high grades. Towards the end, he spoke about the field trip, and I felt excited again at the prospect of it.

But on the bus home, my thoughts became focused on Emma. I realized that I was fixating on one of my mistakes, which was a sign that I was becoming depressed again, but I didn't try to stop it. For once I let it flow over me, and at home, I sank into a deep depression in which I remained for most of the day before the field trip.

Mornings were never Jinx's strong suit. When his fifth alarm- that is, his emergency, "If you do not get up now you are probably dead" alarm- began screaming, he finally lurched to a sitting position and blinked blearily. He pawed at the blankets beside him for his phone and squinted at the bright screen for the time. 7:35 AM.

''Sh--" he hissed, ripping off his blankets and swinging his long legs over the edge of the couch he had claimed as his bed. He cringed as his feet hit the cold tile, and goosebumps rose on his naked chest. Snatching a pair of jeans and a likely-clean shirt crumpled on the floor, he dashed into the restroom, reemerging moments later, dressed and chest heaving. Not the best outfit for first day impressions, but Jinx had never been very good at that anyway.

He ran his hands through his curly hair as he rushed into the kitchen and snatched up a granola bar for breakfast, then his car keys and backpack; it was empty, save one sad, ripped binder.

Dad was still out, thank God. Jinx couldn't stand disappointing his father, and being late to the first day of school wasn't exactly impressive. He hoped the new night watchman job would work out in the end, but it was a bit lonely eating meal after meal alone every day. School would help with lunch, at least.

His father had taken the city bus so that Jinx could have the truck, likely guessing that Jinx would miss the school bus no matter what. Jinx ran out of their small apartment, locked the door, and dashed to the truck. He flung his backpack in the back seat and slid into the driver's seat, breathing hard, praying that maybe, just maybe, he could actually make it to school on time. The ratty pick-up that had taken Jinx to kindergarten grumbled unhappily when he twisted the key, and the engine light flashed.

Jinx closed his eyes in horror. Just his luck that the crap machine would die today, of all times. He lashed out angrily with his palm, striking the wheel, and inciting a furious blare of the horn.

"AH!" he cried, cringing with embarrassment. He had most likely woken up the entire apartment complex. He tried the key again, begging the stupid car to work under his breath, despite knowing the futility.

Finally he twisted his fingers through his hair in hopelessness, recognizing that it was past the school start time by now. He gritted his teeth and flung open the truck door, stomping around the car and giving the wheel a furious kick.

Cursing furiously, Jinx grabbed his backpack and began to trek the two miles to school.



A demerit on his report card, already. What a surprise. Two more late arrivals, and he'd
be liable for a detention.

He had been in sort of a daze all day, drearily receiving syllabuses on the course work to come. His one binder was now stuffed with forms and papers, which he had promptly doodled all over. Normally, he would have been looking forward to escaping this hell-hole that they called school at the end of the day, but now he faced telling his father of the misadventures of the morning.

He knew that his father loved him no matter what, but he hated disappointing him. What would he say? At least he had managed to convince the nasty office lady not to call or email his father about it. Jinx would much rather tell Dad himself.
He was so lost in his thoughts during biology class, slumped uncomfortably at his desk, that he didn't realize that the girl beside him was speaking to him for a beat too long.

He blinked and shifted his body in her direction, shaking himself from his bleak thoughts.

"What?" he blurted.

The girl seemed to recede into herself shyly, her small form completely dwarfed by his.

"Charlotte," she repeated, brushed a strand of strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes.

"Oh, Charlotte," Jinx mumbled dumbly. "Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Jinx."

He mentally berated himself for being unobservant, slow, et cetera, et cetera. He tried his best to focus and have a decent conversation with her.

By the time Mr. Neil had led them through a few partner get-to-know-you exercises, Jinx determined that he was perfectly fine with having Charlotte as his neighbor. He liked her. She was pretty, and she seemed smart. Maybe she'd make biology a bit more bearable. He needed all the stimulation he could get, after all.

"Make sure you have your permission forms to me by today or tomorrow," Mr. Neil instructed, regarding the field trip the next day. The teacher's dark eyes glinted and he adjusted his geeky tie. "This is an opportunity you don't want to miss."

Jinx made a mental note to catch his father that evening. He had completely forgotten about the field trip, and suddenly he was anxious. A full day with kids he didn't know, in a place that he wasn't familiar with, with a teacher he wasn't sure he liked? Sounded like a recipe for social disaster. But no matter. He'd survive.

A thought occurred to him. He raised his hand.

"Yes..." Mr. Neil glanced at his roster, unsure of Jinx's name. "Mr. Gray?"

"Will there be a bus to take us there?"

Mr. Neil smiled. "Of course. Just get to school on time and we'll meet at the front doors."

"Right," Jinx responded slowly. He tried to fight the dread in his stomach about the following morning. Wouldn't it be dreadful if he slept through the cut-off time?

As he left the classroom, his tall form sliding among the surging masses, he decided perhaps a sixth emergency alarm was required for the morning. A grim smile twisted his lips. He didn't want to miss this.

The alarm next to my head goes off with loud, obnoxious beeps. I groan. Consider throwing it against the wall, but decide against it.

I open one eye and look at the clock. It reads: 6:30AM. I reconsider the ‘throwing the alarm against the wall and going back to sleep’ concept. Instead I roll out of bed and shuffle over to my closet. The sky is pretty clear and bright today for it being January, but it still appears to be cold and foggy. I throw on a grey hoodie with our towns college sports team logo across the front: 'Go Huskies!'. Blue jeans, a loose knitted hat and fur-lined brown boots complete the outfit. Brush my teeth, throw a comb through my straight blonde hair and put some very light eyeshadow and liner around my eyes. Good enough.

I make my way down stairs. As usual, I catch my dad just as he’s going out the door. He gives me a quick wave and tells me to have a good day at school. Mom is pouring herself a cup of coffee and my little brother Danny is eating cereal in front of the television. Spiderman cartoons, of course. He yells and punches fists into the air as if he’s helping Spiderman fight his advisories, announcing his moves much like a sportscaster would the replay of a football game.

“Mom! When I’m older, will you take me to where Peter Parker went so I can be bit by a spider and have spidey powers, too?”

“You really think you can get abilities by going to a lab and having your DNA altered by a spider bite? Dare to dream, little bro,” I say as I pour myself a cup of coffee. He ignores me and goes back to fighting imaginary foes. I sit down at the kitchen table and pour myself a bowl of cereal. Frosted Flakes. Milk. Earbuds go in my ears. I flip open a notebook and a pen goes into my hand. I’m off in my own little world for a few minutes eating, listening, and drawing before Mom walks up and starts waving her arms around in front of me. She’s learned if she’s subtle that I won’t even know she’s there. I pull out a bud and raise my eyebrows at her in question.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she says.

I turn off my music and pull the other bud out of my ear. “Shoot.”

“Okay,” Mom sits down across from me. “What would you think of your cousin coming to stay with us for awhile?”

“That might be fun… I’ve been curious to get to know my cousins better.”

“Maybe show them around town… Keep an eye on him at school?”

"I could probably manage that—” I stop. Him? “Wait, which cousin are you talking about?”

Mom hesitates. “Cole. Cole would be coming to stay with us for a semester.”

I shake my head. “Oh, no. You can’t be serious. Mom, he’s been to juvie. He doesn’t understand privacy or respect or, or… not being selfish. He’s going to steal from us and I just know, I know he’s going to go through my stuff.”

“Yes, he’s gotten into some trouble lately and that’s why we need to let him stay with us for a while. His mom thinks a change of lifestyle will be good for him. He comes from a broken family and I think it would be really good for him to see what a non-broken one looks like,” Mom explains.

“I don’t feel comfortable sharing our house with that kid. And you're planning to enroll him in my high school? He could easily make my life a living hell at school.”

“Well, I’ve already arranged for him to stay with us. I would have talked to you beforehand but when your Aunt Sarah called me she was panicked and didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t leave her hanging. I also thought you’d be okay with it.”

I sigh. “I guess I don’t have much say in it then. When is he coming?”

A car horn outside the house answers my question before Mom gets a chance.

I flop my hand down on the table, the spoon clattering against the wood. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

~ ~ ~

I haven't been around Cole a whole lot, but I've known since I saw him at a wedding a few years back that he really gets under my skin. Mom told me she would be driving Cole down to Silver Creek High today to enroll him in school and offered me a ride. I opted for my bike, as usual. It's how I prefer to get there and Mom driving Cole is only more of an incentive.

Cole had come into the house, a duffle bag slung over one shoulder, a backpack over the other. I tried to act polite, he acted moody and sarcastic as usual. He looked a lot like I remembered him, although he's taller now and his hair is longer, which looks ridiculous in my opinion. Fortunately, I was able slip out with the excuse of having to get to school early for track. So I grabbed my backpack, pulled my bike out of the garage, slipped on my fingerless brown gloves and went on my way.

~ ~ ~

When I get to school, I chain up my bike and head through the front doors, toward the girls locker room. I find myself ranting in my head as I walk down the empty halls, only working myself up more about the situation. So when I turn a corner just in time to see Terence Matthews shove Daniel Torson-a friendly acquaintance of mine-up against a wall, I have even less tolerance for the event than I usually would. "Let him go!" I growl. Terrence turns to look at me and a moment later, lets go of Dan's shirt.

"Sure thing, babe," he says as he smoothes back his overly-greased hair with the palm of his hand. I have to suppress the urge to roll my eyes. He's pretty open about the fact he has a crush on me and has asked me on a date many times. My response? Not if he was the last guy on Earth.

Dan hurries away in the opposite direction as Terence struts over to me. He leans up against one of the lockers and gives me a nod. "I let your friend go. How about you do me a favor. You. Me. Friday night?"

I have to suppress a shutter. "How about this... You stop picking on kids and I won't kick the crap out of you."

"So, that's a no, then?"

~ ~ ~

I get out onto the track field a few minutes before 8:00AM. Charlotte comes out onto the field a minute or two after I do and I realize I'm happy to see her. Maybe she'll help take my mind off of my home invasion.

Luckily, Coach Dossley decides to go easy on us and not make us run today. So I spend the hour drawing with Charlotte. She always puts me in a good mood. It was a really nice way to start off the day.

The bell rings and we go our separate ways. Charlotte to English, me to Math. I grab a desk in the middle of the room. I look at my schedule, curious who my Math teacher is. "Mrs. Tangeman... Hmm..." I haven't had her before. Maybe she'll be better than the grumpy teacher we had last year.

More kids begin to file into the room and I look up just as Oliver slips into the room. Excitement flutters in my chest. Yep, it'll be better than last year. He slides into a desk one row forward and two seats to the right from me. He sets his backpack on the ground, unzips it. Pulls a Math book, two notebooks and a few pencils out. Zips it back up, hits the math book with his elbow and sends it to the ground. He quickly bends over and grabs it, then turns back and knocks the pencils off. They fall with a clatter to the floor and begin rolling away. He clumsily dives half out of his seat and grabs them before they roll away and even more clumsily tries to pull himself back into the seat. I can't help but smile at him. He kind of looks around to see if anyone noticed, then sinks a little deeper into his seat. Then I realize I'm staring and turn away before anyone notices.

Neon struts into the room. He heads for one of the desks in the front row, as usual. He can't take over the world from the back of a class room. He has to be front and center. He turns on his heel at the last second and goes up to the chalk board. He writes "Mr. Kingsley's Class" on the board, and settles down in the teachers chair, crossing one leg over the other on the oak desk.

Wow. First day of school. The kids got guts.

The teacher walks in and closes the door behind her. And I know from the second I see her face that she's not going to be a fun teacher. She clearly doesn't want to be here and she doesn't look like the overly forgiving type. When she sees Neon, her mouth draws into a hard line. "Out of my chair."

"This is my class room. Please have a seat and we'll get started. World Domination 101."

"You have five seconds to get out of my chair before I send you to detention," she says.

"Fine..." He pulls his feet off the table and slips into his front row seat.

The teacher clears her throat and steps behind her desk. "Hello, class. My name is Mrs. Tangeman. Please flip your books to page 32. We're going to be focusing on Algebra today."

"Algebra? Seriously? I learned that when I was ten," Neon says. "I thought we could work on some Calculous?"

"You may have learned everything you need to know about Algebra already, but other kids in the class probably haven't. So, we are working on this today."

"It's because you don't know Calculous, isn't it? See, I told you I should be teaching the class."

Mrs. Tangeman ignores him and flips open a binder. "First, I'm going to take attendance. Just to see who all is here."

"Are we really here? I mean, are any of us really here? Aren't we all just made up of atoms? What make you and me different from that swivel chair?" Neon says.

"Mr. Kingsley..."

"What is life? What is the definition of 'here'? What about the spaces between spaces?"

"Mr. Kingsley."

"And what is reality? Are we really here or are we in a Matrix of sorts? And if we are in a Matrix, what's the point of learning Algebra when there's a whole world out there at our fingertips just waiting to be conquered?"

"Mr. Kingsley!"

"What's to keep us from walking out that door or even walking through that wall, going out in the world, kicking ass and taking names? Then we really wouldn't be here would we?"

Suddenly, Mrs. Tangeman throws a pencil at him. It bounces off his shoulder and lands on his desk. Neon's mouth snaps shut and his eyes widen. Mrs. Tangeman looks like she's about to have steam come out her ears.

"MISTER Kingsley. Leave my classroom, RIGHT now."

He shrugs and casually puts his backpack back on. "Be good, class. I'll see you minions later." He struts out of the room with a slow, royal wave of his hand. I can't help but roll my eyes at him. Who does that kid think he is? Charlotte slips into the room at the last second and finds a seat in the back of the room. A class with Charlotte and Oliver? Maybe the class won't be so bad.

~ ~ ~

I have a nice lunch with Dan and Charlotte, talking about science stuff and thoughts on the field trip. Mr. Neil hasn't given us the dirty details yet, but it should prove to be an interesting experience.

After lunch I head for my locker to grab a few things for my next class. Some kid in a hoodie walks past and bumps into my shoulder hard enough for me to stumble to the side. "Hey, watch it!"

The guy turns around and to my execration, it's Cole. "Have we met before?" he says, obviously sarcastic.

I sigh and turn to him. "Did you hit me on purpose?"

"What if I did?"

"Whatever... Any idea how many classes we're in together?"

"How could I possibly know without seeing your schedule?" he says.

I sigh again and snatch the his schedule out of his hand. "It looks like we have three or four..." I pause. "Wait, you're in Mr. Neil's science class? You've got to be kidding me."

He shrugs. "Some girl dropped out. There was an open spot. Why not?"

"Of all the classes you could have joined, you joined that one. Since when do you care about science?"

"Since today when they said 'hey, there's an open spot. Wanna take it?'"

"Fantastic." I roll my eyes and push past him. Yep. He's going to make life a living hell.

I was awakened by a loud thunderstorm. Of course, it wasn't an actual thunderstorm, but my Sounds of Nature alarm clock. I don't know how people can stand those annoying beeping ones, it just puts me in a bad mood waking up to one of those. I actually find waking up to a thunderstorm sets a better mood for my day.

I rolled over and hit the switch that made the thunderstorm cease its thundering and grabbed my glasses from my nightstand. I sat up and put them on. I was blind no more! Of course, I wasn't really blind, just didn't have that 20/20 vision.

Today was going to be a great day! Why you ask? Well for one, I just got my license last week so I'm allowed to drive myself to school now (in grandma's old and beat up Saab but hey, transportation is transportation), and two, I get to see the hotness that is Mike.

Mrs. Gwen Anthony. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it? In fact it has a perfect ring to it.

Nothing could possibly ruin this day for me! It was going to be chilly out, but it was still bright and sunny and cheerful.

I got out of bed and proceeded the painful process that is coordinating an outfit. You see, I'm not the most fashionable girl ever, I like the simple things in life; those being jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie and tennis shoes. And yet, the process was still painful.

I dug through my closet until I found a long sleeved shirt, it was simple, just a solid color of magenta and threw on a pair of jeans. I had planned to leave the house earlier than usual to try to catch Emma before class. We were wayyy overdue for some girl talk. And by way overdue, I mean we hadn't talked in two days. That's a really long time for me to not go on and on and on about Mike Anthony to Emma.

I went to the kitchen and made myself a bagel. My grandma had offered to make me bacon, but I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat meat, so I declined.

"How can you not like bacon? Bacon is delicious!" teased Joey who was sitting across from me.

"Do you want me to tell you how they treated that pig in the slaughterhouse or do you wish to remain oblivious and ignorant so you can hold your bacon down?" I retorted.

"Oblivious and ignorant please, I don't want to have pity or sympathy for my food. I wish to eat guilt-free."

"Have it your way."

"Well I am going to try to get to school early, I'm going to try to catch Emma before class. Peace out girl scouts!" I said as I grabbed the keys to grandma's car and walked out the door.

I was about to start the car when I saw Neon bolt out his front door. He had missed the bus. I was about to get out and offer him a ride to school so he wouldn't have to walk when I saw him jump onto the back of the school bus.

I chuckled. Typical Neon. I sighed. I do worry for that boy. One of his stunts is going to get him into trouble or hurt or something. World domination is not healthy. He's as harmless as a kitten! I mean, a kitten could scratch you, maybe bite, but a kitten isn't going to do much damage. They're fluffy and cute. What Neon needs is a good therapist. Or to stop watching so many superhero movies.

I started the car, pulled out of the driveway and headed to school. I was a few cars behind the school bus, but I was close enough to see that when the bus stopped, Neon slammed right into the back of it. Gosh that must of hurt.

I parked the car in the parking lot and headed into the school. I made my way to the music room where Emma generally hangs out. Then I caught sight of Dan. I stopped dead in my tracks. I hid behind a stack of fold-up tables in the hallways, I was curious to see how he would react to her music and singing. He knocked over a music stand. I saw Emma call out after him, and I would have gone up to talk to her then, but a teacher had walked up to me.

"What are you doing behind those folded tables young lady! Get out of there before I write you a detention slip!"

I put my head down and walked wordlessly away. Just then the bell rang and I scurried off to my first class.

I found math class boring and found myself doodling yet another page in my notebook with hearts around "Mrs. Gwen Anthony". The bell rang and I was off to lunch. I picked up my notebook and binder and quickly exited the classroom. And then I caught sit of him. My cheeks burned a bright read and I made a beeline for the cafeteria.

I reached the lunch room and was about to head over to my usual table with Emma when Dan stopped me.

"Gwen, look what fell out of your notebook. Right in front of Mike! Don't worry I grabbed it before he could see it."

I blushed and snatched it out of his hands. "Oh my gosh, thanks Dan! That would have been embarrassing."

"Why embarrassing? I think you set a new record! I've never seen Mrs.Gwen Anthony written so many times before."

I smiled. "Shut up!" and then I added, "By the way, do you want to sit with me, Emma and Riley for lunch?"

"No thanks, I'm gonna go talk to Layla and Charlotte. Given where we're going for our field trip tomorrow, and given our fields, it's bound to make for a lively discussion."

I rolled my eyes at him. I couldn't stand Layla. "Fine, but I don't know how you can stand Layla."

He shrugged "Everyone has their likes and dislikes. See you soon," and he took off.

I had lunch with Emma, where I obsessed over Mike for the entire time. Emma could barely get a word in. But when she finally did I choked on my sandwich.

"Do you think Dan likes me?" She asked.

"Wait what?"

"Everytime he tries to talk to me he blushes" she poked at her grapes.

"No, I don't think so, he blushes when he talks to me too, I think he's just painfully shy or something."

"Maybe you're right."

And we left it at that.

My last class of the day was Biology with Mr. Neil, my only class wit Emma and Dan. We were going on a field trip tomorrow. We were going to some research lab and get behind-the-scene access. Something about it didn't sit right with me, I had no idea why. I mean it was just a field trip, nothing could go wrong aside from somehow becoming genetic experiments and we gain superpowers and would superpowers be so bad? They would be pretty cool.

We had some ice breakers to get to know everyone. But I'm painfully shy, when I spoke it was barely about a whisper and my partner- I think he said is name was Olive or Oliver or something, was kind enough to not make me repeat myself. He tried to alleviate the awkwardness with some humor. He was pretty funny.

I passed in my permission slip for the trip.

When class ended I went straight home. I wanted to catch dad before he went to his second job, he had worked a double shift at the hospital- he was a janitor- so I didn't get a chance to see him this morning.

I sped home only to be disappointed. Dad had left for work already. Poor thing was working like a dog to support us, I guess that's how he keeps his mind off things as well. Since mom died he became almost like a workaholic. I don't think he wanted to think about mom not being around anymore. I mean, I don't either. Thank goodness for Emma, she helped me through it all. She's a good friend.

I went to my room and did my homework. I was almost done with the English homework when I got a text from Emma.

Emma: Mothership offers food. Do you accept?

Me: Duh. Need a good reason to not pay attention to my English homework. Plus your moms cooking rocks!

Emma: Sound good

I left a note from Grandma and my Dad telling them I went to Emma's for dinner and I set off on the 10 minute walk to her house. I found Emma in her backyard on her old swing set with a bag of Starbursts. I sat down on the swing beside her and joined her.

Not too bad of a day?" I asked making some smalltalk.

"Not too atrocious."

We laughed and I grabbed Emma's phone to play my favorite playlist. I love Emma's taste in music, it's amazing.

Her mom came home shortly after and made the best potato pancakes ever. Emma tried to convince me to stay for a sleepover, but I had to go home.

I got home, made sure my grandma was ok and brother was in bed and put some leftover potato pancakes for dad in the fridge. Then I went to bed. Today was a pretty good day. I thought to myself before drifting off to sleep.

"This is going to be so lame."

The cab driver pulls up to the front of a suburban, two story house. Family CRV parked in the driveway. Kids bike left in the front lawn. Nice front porch. I roll my eyes and slump my head against the seat. The cheesiness of the cookie-cutter family vibe this place gives off make me want to throw up. Thank goodness Mom sent me here after Christmas or they'd probably give me a matching sweater and make me be in their Christmas card photo. Ugh... This is the last place I want to be.

The driver waves to me and I pull my headphones off. "Okay, kid. We're here. That'll be $80. Did you're mom give you money or are the people your staying with paying?"

"I don't need my mom to pay my cab fare. I'm seventeen. I have money of my own." I give him a wad of four twenties and push the door open. He pops the trunk and I pull my duffle and backpack out, slinging them over my shoulder. I walk up to the front door as the cab drives away and I rap on the door with my fist.

After a moment, the door opens and Aunt Jen is on the other side. "Cole! It's so nice to see you again! Come on in."

I readjust the strap of my backpack and come inside. I look around the inside, taking it in. Living room to the left where a boy watches cartoons. A couple other doors in the back of the living room. Bathroom and den maybe? Stairs to the second floor directly in front of me. Kitchen and kitchen table to the right where a teenage girl-who looks vaguely familiar-sits eating breakfast. When she sees me, she stands up from the table.

"Hey... Cole, right?" she says.

"Last time I checked," I reply.

Aunt Jen closes the door and I put my bags down on the ground. "It's so nice to see you again," she says, giving me a big hug. I don't return it.

She pulls away. "We're clearing out a room for you upstairs next to Layla's room. It should be ready for you by the end of the day. Make yourself at home and if you need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask. We're thrilled to have you."

"I think the last time we saw each other was at that wedding, right?" Layla says, clearly trying to make conversation.

"Right... Didn't someone spill wine all over your dress?"

Her face turns slightly pink. "Something like that. Didn't you get caught stealing from the church donation box?"

"Layla..." Aunt Jen snaps.

She shrugs. "What?" Aunt Jen gives her a hard stare until she sighs. "I'm glad we were able to help you out. Maybe we'll get some time to hang out and get to know each other better." The words are so forced they almost seem painful for her to get out.

"Yeah, I bet you'd like that..."

She blows a forced breath out her nose and Aunt Jen cuts in. "Hey, you know... A new semester at Layla's school starts today. We should probably head down there so we can get you enrolled. How does that sound?"

"Fantastic."

"Great! Well, there's a bathroom back there if you'd like to freshen up after your long trip. Then we can jump in the CRV and head down there. Layla, since I'm going down there anyway, why not ride with us?" she says.

"I... actually need to get going. I should get there early for track. You know, don't want to be late on my first day back. I'll just ride my bike like I always do." She grabs her backpack and heads for the front door. She takes a glance at me, probably feeling like she should say something else, but she just purses her lips and leaves. At least the feelings mutual.

+ + +

By the time they get me my schedule and let me out of the wardens office, the day is half over. I throw the notebooks and binders Aunt Jen got me into my new locker and head for the cafeteria. Apparently lunch is going on and I was told to head there to "get acquainted" with my fellow classmates. I could hardly care less. I casually walk past the buffet of food and slip a muffin into my pocket without anyone noticing. I grab an empty table towards the back of the room, slip my earbuds in and keep to myself. New school, new kids, yet it's no different than my old school. Every school is the same, no matter where your mom ships you off to or how many schools you drop in and out of.

The day is relatively uneventful as it always is. Last period, I head into the science class Layla got all worked up about me being in. About half of the seats are already filled and other kids continue to casually file in behind me. The teacher turns to me and looks pleasantly surprised. "Hello! I don't remember you being in this class. Are you new?"

"Yeah, I enrolled this morning. Apparently there was an opening in this class?"

"Yes, we had someone drop out just before the semester started. Welcome! I'm Mr. Neil," he says, then scratches his short, black beard. "We have a field trip scheduled for tomorrow, which I'm sure you haven't heard much about but don't worry, I'll be explaining it in great detail today. Here, take a permission slip. If you'd like to join us, just bring that in tomorrow morning, signed, and we'll get you a spot on the bus."

I take the slip. "Thanks."

"Let's see..." Mr. Neil looks around the classroom. "Why don't you take a seat next to Emma? She's in the grey sweater."

I nod and make my way over to her. I slip into the seat and plop my backpack down next to me. The girl looks over at me, uncomfortable, then goes back to reading her book. I watch the kids who come into class. Some of them give me curious looks but most don't notice my presence. Mr. Neil assigns them all seats. Layla comes in, notices me but doesn't say anything, then goes to her assigned seat.

"Welcome back, everyone! It's wonderful to see you again. Or, at least most of you. We have a new student with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

I hesitate, then stand up and stuff my hands in my pockets. "Hey, I'm Cole. I just moved here from Boston. I'm Layla's cousin. And... there was an open spot in this class. So...I took it..."

"Thank you Cole. You can sit down now." Mr. Neil adjusts his glasses. "Lets start off the class with a few ice breakers. We're all friends here, right? Well, we will be by the end of the year with these icebreakers. Lets start of simple. Turn to your partner and introduce yourself."

I turn to the girl next to me. "Cole."

"My name's Emma," she says shyly.

I nod in recognition. Murmurs of other students continue for a few moments before the room becomes silent again.

"Great! Now, tell your partner three things about yourself," Mr. Neil says.

I sigh. These icebreakers are so lame. Why should I have to tell anyone anything about myself?

I face Emma. "Lets see... I like playing baseball. I'd like to take a cross-country trip with my friends... And I play the electric guitar."

Her face lights up at this. "You play the guitar?"

"Yeah... You?"

"Piano! Mostly I mean... I dabble in other things..." She gives me a embarrassed smile.

"So, that's one."

"One? One what?"

"One thing about yourself."

"Oh! Right... I really like to read and... I love Twenty One Pilots."

"Are they aware that you love them all or do you keep it a secret?"

"What?" She looks at me, deeply confused. Then her eyes widen. "Oh! The band! I love the band. I'm not in love with twenty one pilots, that would just be... wrong. I mean, not wrong... people can love whoever they want to love but..."

"Hey!" I throw my hands up. "I'm not here to judge."

She sighs. "I like the band Twenty One Pilots. I'll just leave it at that."

I can't help but smirk at her. Does she usually ramble this much?

+ + +

"Okay! Before I lose track of the time, I want to be sure and talk about tomorrows field trip! The laboratory we will be visiting is very top secret. It's called the Miles Eximius Laboratory, named after it's creator, and they don't normally allow field trips to do tours because the stuff they're working on in there is revolutionary and they generally don't want kids running around and messing with their projects. But! I just so happen to be close friends with one of the head scientists who work their and they agreed to let you guys see what they're up to. Pretty cool, huh? We'll call the lab M.E.L. for short." He shuffles through some papers in his stack. "We'll all meet up at the front of the school at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow morning. Make sure to have your signed permission slips with you. They'd prefer if you didn't bring cameras in there as there is some... sensitive stuff they're working on, but I encourage you to bring a notebook and a pen, because there is going to be a lot of interesting stuff to write down. This is definitely not a field trip you want to miss."

He answers a few questions, then the bell rings.

"Ah, see. I knew we were getting close. Have a good rest of your day and I'll see you all in the morning! Get a good nights sleep. You're going to need it."

Oliver sat on his bed, early morning darkness flooding the world outside and darkening his room. As he stared at his alarm clock, the minutes ticked by in neon green. 5:45 AM. His mind was racing through all sorts of scenarios, as quickly as it could, which wasn't as quick at this hour as it had been a few hours before. Snailing, Oliver decided, was what his mind was doing. His mind was snailing through all sorts of scenarios for the coming day.
Normally he'd stay up reading or pondering things or even attempting to write a poem, but he was too nervous today. It was the first day of school, and that always got him so anxious that he wouldn't even bother sleeping. Yes, it drained him. Yes, he had to deal with the first day of school with a sleepless night on his record. Yes, he'd quite like to sleep, but it just wasn't possible with his mind racing – or snailing now – considering all the ways his day could go horribly, or awkwardly, or embarrassingly.
Oliver wasn't quite sure why he cared so much. Honestly, the moment the sun began to rise, he'd forget all about being so nervous and be his normal self. Granted, his normal self was far from extroverted, but he wasn't cripplingly shy.
Nonetheless, he remained up. Not much point in trying to sleep now...

Oliver jolted up and looked around wildly. Checking his now blaring clock, he found that it was 7:31. He'd dozed off again.
“Dammit!” he exclaimed, leaping from bed and stumbling about the room. Grabbing a random shirt from the closet and a pair of jeans from the floor, he quickly got dressed. He snatched up a pair of socks – mismatched because he didn't have time to dig around for a matching pair – and his sneakers, then hurried out of his room, bounded down the stairs, and darted into the kitchen. There wasn't time for anything much of breakfast, but he was able to grab a banana before his watch began beeping, letting him know that he'd wasted five minutes struggling to pull his shoe on.
“Daaammit!” he breathed, fumbling with the watch and wasting even more time trying to find the 'SHUT UP' button. His search proved futile for the moment, as it was just sucking up more valuable time. Giving up on the watch, he ran out the front door, banana clenched in his teeth.
He shouted a muffled farewell to his grandfather and sister and tossed a prayer to the wind that neither of the dogs had gotten out along with him.
Oliver liked running, usually. Running was good. But when there's a banana in your mouth, a beeping watch on your wrist, and a backpack thumping against your spine, running isn't all that fun. Two blocks down, he realized that he'd forgotten his binder on his desk.
“Good god, seriously?” he exasperated. There wasn't time. He kept on his way, cursing time for playing all of its cards against him, today of all days.



He'd made it to school in one piece, so long as a dozen lungfuls of air doesn't count as a piece of you. Everything was pretty much a blur for a while, thanks to that. He faintly recalled seeing a kid with what looked like jelly on his face, then Emma and her friend somewhere, and just before that there was something that sounded like music.
Oliver shrugged and wandered about, trying to locate a class that he belonged to. After some time, Oliver found himself en route to Spanish. He hoped. Oliver didn't really like directions. He'd also never liked Spanish all that much. The grammar rules always confused him and he couldn't get the hang of them. Luckily things were much clearer now, at least.
As he looked around for Spanish class, he spotted Charlotte.
“Charlotte! How's it going?” he called with a grin. She said something about an essay, to which Oliver nodded, still smiling. He was wrong; things weren't much clearer. He must've lost a ton of brain cells or something from that run. Nonetheless, he kept smiling as he tried to decipher Charlotte's words.
“You?” she asked. Not sure of what she said, Oliver tried to think of a response. He couldn't find one that made sense and just settled with--
“Eww.” The rest of his words just spilled out, but he wasn't sure what he was saying. All he could do was hope he sounded coherent and wait for the conversation to pass. Eventually tangerines were brought up for some reason and his head finally decided to get in the game. He looked down at his schedule. Mrs. Tangeman? he thought.
“Ah, Tangeman. Mrs. Tangeman."
"Great," Charlotte groaned. "I have her too. Math is terrible enough without a terrible teacher." Oliver grinned again, finally a sincere grin. Giving Charlotte a friendly slap on the back, he replied.
"We'll be fine. Just get on her good side and avoid flying pencils."
“Yeah,” Charlotte laughed. “See you later!”
With that, she walked off, heading for... Spanish, Oliver realized.
Dammit, I was going the wrong way. He kicked himself mentally and spun around, following after Charlotte.



After Spanish and math and who knows what else, Oliver ended up in Mr. Neil's biology class. He was glad that asking how someone got somewhere wasn't a usual occurrence, as he wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten them himself. Finding an empty seat and slumping into it, he set his backpack on the ground beside it. The pack fell over with a soft rustling sound. Oliver set it back up again. It toppled. Oliver glared and readjusted it. The bag insisted on falling again.
“Fine, stay there,” he muttered, then looked around quickly, hoping no one had overheard.
Suddenly, Mr. Neil spoke up and began talking about a field trip. Oliver tried to pay attention, but that almost-all-nighter had really been a bad idea, and the teacher's words barely made sense to him.
He caught something about a research lab and permission slips. Then his head hit the desk and he started snoring.

Ryker was trying his best to make it through the first day back. School was the last place he wanted to be. The subjects weren't half bad, and he wasn't half bad at them either. It was the other students that got to him. Here he was trying to get to class without being recognized and half the school stopped to say hi. (He'd hoped they would've all forgotten him over break. No such luck.) So he returned their greeting excitedly. The second he turned from them, his lips returned to their tightly locked position.

Lunch was less than eventful. He sat with the same crew, but didn't pay much attention. His French book was much more interesting. Even after taking two years of the language in school and studying with his tutor for the same amount of time, there were things he didn't understand; grammar being among them.

When the bell rang finally, Ryker gathered his books and headed off to Biology. This year Mr. Neil would be discussing the internal workings of organisms and plants, exploring the complex being that the Earth was. But Ryker was most looking forward to the field trip the next day. Mr. Neil's field trips were the best. No competition.

"Hey, Ry," Mr. Neil called when Ryker walked into the room. "You know, we're going to be dissecting in a few weeks. Figured you might be interested."

For the first time that day, Ryker broke out in a genuine smile. "Sweet. Can't wait." He headed over to the desks to find his name. The moment he did, he slid into the seat and pulled out his textbook. The first thing he did was take to scanning through the chapters. There was a lot to look forward to.

Just when he was starting Chapter 10, Mr. Neil called for class to start. Grudgingly, Ryker slid the book under his chair. There would be plenty of time after school to look ahead. As long as Gwen stayed out of trouble. With mix gendered twins it was usually the boy egging on the girl. It was the opposite in Ryker's house. Gwen was the troublemaker.

"Right, field trip tomorrow." Mr. Neil clapped his hands together. "Everyone get a permission slip? If you need one see me. We're in for a real treat this year. We'll be heading to a laboratory that specializes in many aspects of biology including..."

A snore pierced through Mr. Neil's voice. Ryker snapped his head up and looked around. To his left, Oliver was collapsed in his chair, his head laying on the desk. Ryker rolled his eyes as his friends let out another snore.

He debated leaving him like that, just to get a good laugh, but he decided against it. It would be too much. So he reached out and poked Oliver's arm.

"Ow! Hey, I'm up, okay? Awake." Oliver's words were slurred together from the rude awakening.

"Dude. Sleeping on the first day back? Not cool."

"Yeah, whatever," Oliver responded, leaning his head back on the wooden table. "Didn't sleep much last night. Now are you gonna pay attention or what? I need someone to rely on to take good notes." Ryker rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Mr. Niel.

Class was over before he knew it. Everyone dashed out of the room and were in the hallway before Ryker even had the time to scoop up his books. Just as he was about to leave, he heard another snore and turned to see Oliver fast asleep. Again.

"Think we should wake him?" Mr. Neil asked. Ryker jumped as he realized the teacher had come to stand beside him. "Seems a shame really. He's so peaceful."

A mischievous grin found its way onto his lips. "Let him be. He'll wake up eventually." Mr. Neil gave a short chuckle before sending Ryker on his way.

* * *

Just as Ryker was heading out of the school, Riley caught up with him. "Good first day?"

Ryker shrugged. "You could say that. Wasn't much to be excited about." Absolutely nothing, actually. The only thing worth remembering about the day was Mr. Neil's class. He was by far Ryker's favorite teacher. And not just because of his out of the ordinary field trips.

Field trip. He reached behind him to dig around in his backpack. When he felt the loose piece of paper he let out a sigh of relief. For a moment he thought he had left it in his locker. If it wasn't signed by the morning he wouldn't be able to go.

He tried to imagine getting left behind. His other classmates would be excitedly clambering onto a bus while Mr. Neil shook his finger in Ryker's face. "I told you no more second chances. Report to the guidance counselor's office when it comes time for my class." Then his classmates would stare out the window at him, most likely thinking about all the ways he was a flake.

"How about that field trip though?" The smile on Riley's face couldn't possibly get any bigger. Then it did. "Should be fun."

"Uh, yeah," Ryker replied. "Hey, it could be cool. What if we got superpowers from a lab accident or something? Like Spiderman."

Riley giggled and throwed in her plan to get superpowers. Before long they were in hysterics. It really wasn't that funny, but something about it struck him as such. He couldn't let it go.

It only took a few minutes for Riley's ride to appear. Ryker on the other hand, dropped his backpack to the ground and plopped onto the white bench to look out for his mom. She had to take care of all those kids and all the normal things moms did. His dad was home when he could, but he mostly had to work.

As Ryker waited, his mind wandered back to the field trip the next day. He couldn't wait to see what crazy things scientists dreamed up in their labs.

The alarm clock blares in my ear and my morning routine starts all over again. I slap my hand over the snooze button and I burry my face in my pillow with a groan. In an amount of time I swear is way shorter than the five minutes it's supposed to snooze for, it comes to life again and beeps relentlessly in my ear. I groan and am tempted once again to throw it against the wall, but I restrain myself, roll over, and turn the alarm off. My room goes silent.

I sigh agitatedly and flop the covers over, exposing myself to the chilly air of my room. Then when my level of consciousness rises above 10%, I remember the field trip... and my new house guest. I get dressed quickly, grab some coffee in a travel mug, throw my bag over my shoulder and grab my permission slip. I'm coasting out of the driveway on my bike before Cole even wakes up. Success.

When I ride into the school parking lot, I see the bus instantly. It's smaller than a normal school bus. There's more like sixteen seats and a back bench instead of 44 seats and a back bench. I chain up my bike and head towards Mr. Neil, who stands in front of the buses doors. "Layla! Nice to see you. Do you have your permission slip?"

I dig around my bag and pull it out, slightly dented. "Here it is."

He takes it from me and slips it into a binder. "Take a seat."

I nod and head for the bus. I stop and look over my shoulder. "There wasn't anything else I was supposed to bring, right?"

Mr. Neil ponders my words for a moment. "Just a very open mind."

I climb into the bus. Neon sits towards the back, drawing some kind of chart on the window with a dry erase marker that I'm pretty sure involves calculous, time codes and something in latin.

Closer to me, on the other side of the bus is Gwen. She sees me, narrows her eyes slightly, and goes back to the book she had been looking at before. I readjust the strap on my shoulder and walk past her. What's her problem?

I slide into the seat on the opposite side from Neon. "Of course! I forgot to factor in the gravitational pull!" he says to himself. I shake my head and slip my earbuds in.

Other kids slowly file in. Dan grabs a seat at the back after gives me a friendly nod. Michael sits in the very front. Emma and Riley comes out of the school together and grab a seat together right behind Gwen so the three of them can chat. I stop paying attention after that start drawing in my sketchbook. A few more people file in before I feel someone sit down in the seat next to me. I look up to see that it's Ryker. "Hey, Ryker, right?"

"Yeah... I'm sorry. I don't remember what your name is," he says.

Somehow that stings a little, but I push it aside. Why should he remember me? it's not like I've even spoken to him much. I just happen to be good at remembering names. "Layla."

We chat for a couple minutes before Ryker leans over and looks at my drawings. "Hey, those are pretty good! Where did you learn to draw like that?" he asks.

I'm about to answer when I notice Charlotte hurries onto the bus and right behind her, Cole comes on. He walks up to us and gives us a nod. He looks at me. "Layla." Looks at Ryker. "Scrawny Kid."

"What are you doing here? There's no way my mom signed your permission slip."

"And yet she did," he says.

"Is she crazy? Letting you into a top secret lab with your record?"

"Relax. I told her I'd behave."

Mr. Neil steps onto the bus and the doors close behind us. "Okay! That's everyone. Please take your seats." He slips into a seat at the front and Cole sits down across from us, next to Neon. The breaks squeal and we start rolling backward.

~ ~ ~ ~

After driving for an hour, we file out of the small bus and out onto the dusty ground outside. We're practically in the middle of nowhere. "Okay! I've assigned you all partners," Mr. Neil says. "So, when I call your names, find your partner. I'll be going alphabetically by last name." He clears his throat and looks down at his clipboard. "Anthony with Woods. Cole with West. Gray with Kingsley. Mauze with Penn. Sanders and Tanner with Torson."

As I go to find Mike, I decide I'm fine with my pairing. Of course, I would have preferred Charlotte or Dan or maybe Ryker, but I definitely prefer Mike as a partner over the majority of the class.

I shove my hands in the pockets of my jacket as I walk up to him. "Hey. Looks like we're partners."

"Seems so."

We file through the front doors of a building made mostly of silver metal and big windows. Very modern and professional looking. I was expecting some boring brick building... but this place must get quite a bit of funding.

"Welcome to M.E.L.," a man in a lab coat says. "I'm the head scientist here and you can call me Liam. Before we get you started on the tour, I'd like to lay down a few ground rules. One, stay with your group. Don't wander off. We have a lot of things going on here and some are more dangerous than others. Your safety is very important to us. Two, don't touch anything without asking. Again, some things might not be safe to touch without gloves on, or at all. For your safety, ask us before you touch. Three, we are putting a lot of trust in you by letting you be here today. We'd like you to return the trust and know that anything we ask you to do is for your own safety or is completely safe. And the first thing I'm going to ask you to do is place your phones and ipods and any other electronics into this box." He holds out a small cardboard box. "The electronics could mess with some of our equipment. You will get them back at the end of the tour. Any questions?"

I look around and exchange glances with the others. No one says anything as we all reach into our pockets and reluctantly drop our phones in the box.

"Okay, one last thing I'd like to add to that," Mr. Neil says, "is that you should pull out your notebooks and take lots of notes. There will be a test on this at school tomorrow."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We're brought through multiple different rooms and laboratories. They give us lab coats and goggles as well as 'visitor' name tags. Dozens of scientists are at work. Some are in lab coats while others are in hazmat suits. The hazmat guys we only get to see through the windows, because it's not 'safe' for us to be in there. In one room, they're working on a natural way to make plants grow faster. There's a whole greenhouse full of every kind of plant you could imagine... as well as some they've made up. The cancer research is fascinating. They're working on stem cell research and alternative methods to cure it that isn't as harsh on the body as current methods. They're even working on trying to find a cure for a handful of different illnesses. In the electronics lab, they tell us that hover boards and robots may not be too far off as they show us the early prototypes they're working on. And the thing that blows me away the most is their animal DNA research. Rabbit ferrets = Fabbits. Long bodies. Long ears. Lizard turtles = Lurtles. Lizards with small shells on their backs. And there are even some crazier mixes that I can't even wrap my head around. They tell us they have over two thousand different animal DNA samples in their lab that they can use for a multitude of different experiments. DNA ranging from mice to birds to lions.

They let us break for lunch, then they take us into the last section. The head scientist, Liam, leads us to a door he uses a keycard to get into. "This is the state of the art, most top secret part of our lab. Everything in here is under wraps from the public and almost everything will be for at least another couple years. Everything you see in here is highly confidential."

His seriousness is a little startling to me, but I suppose they want to make sure we understand the seriousness of their work... so I guess it makes sense.

In here they show us interactive hologram prototypes, the blueprints for nanobots that can run through your bloodstream and work to constantly keep you healthy and fight of viruses quicker. And finally, he brings us into a room with a chair that resembles a dentists chair, only it has something that comes down over the head and wires with nodes on the end hang down from various spots on the chair.

"This is one of the things we are closest to releasing. This is a working prototype of the M.I.C. - Medical Information Chair. Basically, the patient will sit in the chair and the chair will do a full physical scan of your body. There are three different levels the chair can be set on. Level one will do a basic checkup of your body. Blood pressure. Heart beat. Temperature... the works. In five years, basic medical checkups won't exist. The patient can simply go to a facility that has a M.I.C. and give themselves a checkup. Ten minutes in the chair and they'll know exactly what they need to know." He adjusts his glasses. "Levels two and three go deeper, taking blood samples, doing brain scans, X-rays and 25 other tests. Essentially, after a patient goes through level three, the doctors shouldn't have any doubt of what is going on with their patient and can more affectively treat them, thus allowing people to be healthier, happier, and less stressed about their health. Any questions?"

"How long until you think this will be open to the public?" Riley asks.

He ponders her question. "We hope to get the first one out in no more than six months. Now, like I said. This is a working prototype. We're just waiting for it to be accepted by the American Medical Foundation as an official medical testing system and we're good to go. It's perfectly safe to use. Which is why, all of you will get to try it out today! Just level 1. No need to do anything more than that... just so you can see how the chair works. Ten minutes each. All you have to do is sit there and we'll give you your results at the end of the field trip. Come with me."

He leads us back out of the small room and opens his arm up to the hallway lined with doors. "We have fourteen of these chairs, all in their own rooms. Luckily, there's only twelve of you, so you don't have to sit around and wait for everyone to get their turn. So, go ahead and set your stuff down out here, then grab a room and someone will be in to get you started!"

I set my bag down on the sofa in the middle of the hall and wander into one of the rooms, finding myself feeling uneasy. I know it's nothing but a check up basically, but somehow it feels weird getting in a chair in a top secret laboratory. At the same time, it feels kind of cool to be one of the first people to use a machine that could essentially change the medical field forever.

A moment later, a woman in a lab coat comes into my room and closes the door behind her. She looks at her clipboard. "Layla?"

"That's me."

She smiles, walks over to me and sticks out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you! You can call me Alissa. You're lucky to be here today. Neil practically had to beg our head scientist to let you guys in. Anyway, lets get you started. Lay back and try to relax."

I lean back and Alissa lowers something down over my head, coming half way down to my nose. It's like a grey cage, so I can still see through the square holes. I tilt my head at her. "I thought we were only doing level one?"

She smiles. "We are. It won't actually do the brain scan. It just has to come down for the chair to work properly. You're perfectly safe," she assures me as she presses a couple nodes to my arms and puts a finger clamp on my finger. Then she goes over to a computer and starts typing into it. The chair beeps a couple times and a light on a track starts going back and forth over my body like a printer.

"Okay, you're good to go. It's pretty common for people to fall asleep while in the chair, so don't worry about if you doze off. I'll wake you up when it's complete."

And just as she says that, a wave or tiredness washes over me. Not just sleepiness... I feel like I was drugged. I'm about to ask her if she did something, but I'm out before the words can make it past my lips.

When I wake back up, I feel like I'm coming out of a coma. My vision is blurry at first, but when it starts to clear, the woman comes back into view. "Layla..." she says, but it sounds like it's echoing from another room. "Layla..." she says again. Her voice is closer this time. Then everything snaps back into focus. "Layla, it's over. You can get up now."

I rub my face and sit up. The room sways and I grab onto the side of the chair to stabilize myself. "I... don't normally sleep that deeply."

"It's perfectly normal. It's a side effect of the waves the chair gives off. The dizziness you're experiencing is also perfectly normal. It should subside in just a minute." She walks over to the computer and prints out a paper. "Well, it looks like your vitals are outstanding. Good blood pressure. Strong heartbeat. 98.6 temperature. Nothing you need to worry about."

The room levels back out. "Thank you." I stand up and she hands me the paper. Other than feeling like I took nighttime cold medicine, I feel completely fine. I open the door and walk back out into the hall to grab my stuff. Everyone else is grabbing their stuff too.

"Okay, that's the end of the field trip! Pretty cool, huh?" Liam says. "It was a pleasure to have you kids here. I hope you enjoyed your tour."

"Time to head back to the bus. Grab all of your belongings and follow me!" Mr. Neil says. We all file after him, who leads us through a side door and down a hall where the outer wall is made entirely of glass. We go through another door at the end with leads us back into the main lobby. Mr. Neil lets us take all of our phones and electronics back, then we make our way back into the bus which will take us back to school. I can't help but feel confused. What just happened? I'm not sure if I just can't wrap my head around all the new technologies I saw today... or if something else went down today. Something just doesn't feel right.

I woke to the sound of my older sister making slurping sounds in my ear. I pulled the pillow over my face.
"Janey, go. Away. I'm tired."
"Maybe you wouldn't be if you didn't stay up all night writing. Seriously. Mom should confiscate your flashlight."
I grumbled incoherently and tried to disentangle myself from my blanket, which had somehow become wrapped around my leg. The struggle with my bedding ended with me falling out of the bed and the blanket emerging victorious.
The fall seemed to jog my memory, though, because that was when I remembered the field trip.
"Ahh! What time is it?!" I hissed in a loud whisper. I flailed around until I had gotten the tretcherous blanket off of me, and jumped up, flinging clothing from my drawer in search of a suitible T-shirt.
"Seven."
Oh, good. I still had an hour to get ready. I found the shirt I was looking for, pulled out a worn pair of boot cut jeans.
I paused and looked at Janey.
"Um.. D'you mind?"
Janey smirked. "Mind what?"
"Get outta my room."
Janey shrugged and exited stage right.
In no time I had dressed, breakfasted, and brushed with a half an hour to spare.
I flopped down on the couch, and drew my journal from my backpack. It was a simple composition book that had used to be yellow, once apon a time, but it was by far one of my most prized possessions. A fantasy adventure I had been working on for nearly two years. It was the second journal I had used to weave the tale, and it was just as beat up as it's predecessor. The cover was faded and falling apart, and like the spine, had been fixed to the pages with several layers of duct tape. The pages were yellowed and well worn form all the times I had thumbed through the book. I opened the journal to my current page, pausing to read through my favorite parts, and put pencil to paper.
I had no idea how long I had been emersed in my creation, but I was jerked out of the creative trance by a scratching, rustling sound from the direction of the rabbit hutch, Indicating that my other prized possession had just woken up.
I closed the journal gently, and made my way over to the hutch.
"Hey baby girl!" I crooned. At the sound of my voice, Elanor, my rabbit whom I was convinced was more fluff than she was rodent, looked around, ears pricked and nose twitching. I opened the top of the hutch and picked her up, holding her close as I returned to the couch. I crooned to her as I bushed her, then went into the fridge and brought her an apple slice.
It was at that moment Janey entered for her second act.
"Riley, quit snuggling your girlfriend and come on. You're gonna make me late."
"Don't tell me you're driving."
"Yup. Mom's feeling under the weather again, so you're stuck with me." I bit my lip. My mom had been dealing with bouts of nausea and fatigue since I was twelve. the doctors didn't know what was wrong, but it was getting worse. These days Mom spent more time in bed than she did anywhere else.
"Oh and I bet I have to deal with your dopey boyfriend too."
Janey made a face at me.
I inserted rabbit into hutch, and we were off.

..........

The bus wasn't hard to miss, seeing as it was right next to the large group of high schoolers. I climbed out of the car, and made my way over to the rest of the class. The whole drive I had to deal with the idiot Cameron drooling over my stupid sister.

needless to say I was in a bad mood.

Emma spotted my coming down the sidewalk, and waved me over timidly.
I couldn't help it. I grinned. No matter how much Cameron annoyed me, or how grumpy and worried I was, Em always brought me out of my doldrums. She didn't even need to do anything besides just...be there.
I was so happy to have a friend like that.

I picked up my pace and jogged over to join Em.
"Hey Emmy!"
Emma didn't waste time on chatting this time around.
"Riley, are you alright? You looked kid of mad..."
Emma didn't ususally inquire about feelings, but she must've been feeling braver today. I shrugged.
"I'm fine, just had to deal with the Duchebag on the ride here."
"Cameron again?"
"yeah."
I thought she might ask me about why my sister was driving me, but she didn't. Secretly I was relived. I didn't feeling like telling anyone about my Mom's declining health or how much it worried me.
I passed Mr. Neil, handing him my permission slip and sitting down with Emma. In no time I was laughing again, my troubles pushed to the back of my mind.

for the time being.

...........
Mr Neil stood in front of the class, and started assigning partners.

Gwen got Oliver. Lucky stiff.

Emma was with Dan. I looked to the back of the bus, and after meeting his eye wiggled my eyebrows at him. I had a sneaking suspicion that he had a crush on her.

Ry was paired with Charlotte, and I was left with...Cole.

Not exactly sure how to feel about that.


He was a good deal taller than me, (It wasn't a huge deal, most people were.) And he didn't look much like the friendly type, but I tried making conversation anyway.
"Hey there! You're the new kid. Cole, right?"

"Yep."

"I'm Riley. Born to write, live to rock."
Cole smiled a little at that but didn't say anything.
It was wired. Whenever I was forced to hang out with someone, I had a harder time connecting with them. I'd try again once I found out a little more about him.
Maybe I could ask Layla.

A man in a labcoat starts talking, going over rules and such, but I dont pay attention. my thoughts wander, and finally settle on my mom. She was always home, taking care of the babies who weren't old enough to go to school, and she had homeschooled me in middle school when I wasn't accepted into the Arts Magnet School I had auditioned for. I loved both my parents a lot, but my dad had his job, and mom was just around more. I loved her so much.
I didn't try imagining what ti would be like without her. I wouldn't have been able to do it, and besides, It wasn't going to happen. Never.

"Riley?" Mr Neil's voice broke through my reverie. "Do you have any elctronics on you?"

I shook my head, tightening my grip on my journal.

...........

I had no trouble paying attention to the tour. It was interesting. Especially the medical research. I payed the most attention to that after I heard the word Syncope
I recognized the name of the defect form my cardiologist.

The animal hybrid's kinda creeped me out, but when I saw a Lizard/Turtle combo, I couldn't resist.
I sidled up to Emma, and pointed to the creature. "Look, Em, shell!" I whispered.
"You two should start a club!"
Emma gave me a look, but I could see the humor glinting in her eyes.
"Stop that!"

..........

It was during lunch break that I decided to approach Layla about her cousin. I set my backpack down and laid my journal inside it.

"Hey, Layla?"
Layla looked around at me.
"I was wondering if you could tell me anything about Cole."
Layla gave me a wired look. "He hasn't been living with me long, I don't really know much about him. I'll warn you though he hasn't got the cleanest record. He's..." Layla trailed of, starin at something over my shoulder.
"He's digging through your backpack."
I whirled around just in time to see him pull out a journal.

My journal.

The mother tigress in me awoke at the scene and I marched over and snatched it form his hands, whacking him over the head with it for good measure.

"Ow! Hey!" He objected.
I leaned down until we were nearly nose to nose.
"Never. Ever. Touch. My. Journal."

.......

"This is one of the things we are closest to releasing. This is a working prototype of the M.I.C. - Medical Information Chair."
The head scientist explained how it worked. The chair would give you a checkup, as well as other more in-depth tests that would help diagnose a patient, and the best way to treat them.

"Any questions?"
My hand shot up.
"How long until you think this will be open to the public?"

I felt eyes on me and glanced over my shoulder. Emma and Ryker were both looking at me sympathetically. they probably thought I was asking the question because of my condition, and in part I was, but...
More important than my own issues was my Mom.
This chair...it could save her life.
Not that there was anything seriously wrong with her.

"We hope to get the first one out in no more than six months." The head scientist said after some thought.
............

I never expected we would actually get to try out the equipment. When the scientist said we'd get to take the chair for a spin, I had been pretty stoked.
But now that I was strapped into it, I was having second thoughts.
I felt like some kind of lab rat.

The chair began beeping, and a few moments later, I felt like I had drank a whole bottle of Nyquil.
I was out in ten seconds flat.

When my doctor woke me up again, I still felt drunk.
When my vision was clear enough that everything didn't look like a huge blob of color, I noticed how concerned the doctor looked.
"Lemme guess. Everything fine except..."
The scientist hesitated before finishing my statement. "...Your heart. It seems you have--"

"Heart defect that causes the subject to lose consciousness after long periods of exertion. I know."
I pushed myself off the char, pausing to trip unceremoniously over the sofa, and re-joined the rest of the group.

I filed onto the bus along with the rest of the class.
I hadn't noticed Cole had been missing until I saw him again on the bus. What had he been doing?

I still felt slightly dizzy, and I rested my forehead on the cool glass of the window. I didn't feel like sleeping, I just sat there thinking.
In a story, this sort of thing is what always starts the trouble. Sure the trouble is pretty awesome, but it's still kind of inconvenient for the hero.

'Shut up, brain, you're being ridiculous.'
I chastised myself. There was no way that chair was going to cause a problem.
I wouldn't
It couldn't