I'm leaving Opuss because it takes up too much space in iPod BUT to read PROJECT 12/21 or other stories go to www.amateur-writing.com Or for project 12/21 just go to www.amateur-writing.com/stories/#3299

PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER FOUR PART TWO Emmie- I already hated the plan. It was bad enough that Hope was going to go meet this random person. Taking me along just made it worse. My parents would kill her if they found out. That is if I made it back. The thought made me shudder. The next time Hope asked me to go on some crazy dangerous mission, I would definitely say no. The only reason why I came today was because I didn’t want Hope to get hurt and I knew that once Hope made a decision, you couldn’t change her mind. I was just hoping that this didn’t take too long. When Hope walked into the gym, I ran into the girls’ locker room and crouched by the door where the gym connected with the lockers. I could hear every word, yet still remain hidden. I heard Hope walk into the middle of the gym and it was silent for about a minute. Then suddenly a man walked out from somewhere because she heard someone else talking. The new voice almost made me start freaking out. I listened intently to hear what they were saying, but after a while, I got bored because the guy was very confusing. I glanced left and right along the dark hallway. She just wished she had brought a flashlight. Then, I remembered I had my phone. For a second, I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure if I should take it out or not, but in the end decided against it because I knew the school had cameras. What if we were too loud walking down the hallway and the cameras caught video of us? That would be terrible. We would probably get arrested and expelled. Then we’d be placed in juvy. My dad would probably be ashamed of her and get really mad. After all, how ironic would it be if the police chief’s daughter got sent to jail? My parents would hate me forever. I would make the Linnaean family name become known to others as a bad family. I definitely didn’t want to give my family a bad reputation. What if my dad lost his job because of this? There were too many “what ifs”. I knew all the consequences of being caught would be harsh. I was the type of kid that didn’t ever want to get anything less than A+’s. That’s really all I ever got anyway. Other kids thought I was weird because she would cry over plain A’s, but I knew that was only because they’d gotten plenty of worse grades. It was good to have a friend like me who knew really what it was like to get an A with all the other A+’s. It was like an imperfection. Getting bored, I tuned in again to what Hope and the man were saying. Scolding myself for not listening, I hoped I didn’t miss anything important. But it seemed that I was right on time because what the man said next stunned me. “You must help us end this world,” he said. Then I heard Hope scream. Remembering Hope’s words, I didn’t care what anyone would say. All I knew was that that was my call to duty. I got my pepper spray can ready and took out my phone. Once again, I heard Hope shout something. I flipped open my phone and the light filled the hallway. But I never reached Hope to help because a second later, I felt a huge hairy hand the size of a baseball glove wrap around my mouth, muffling a scream. Then they grabbed my hands and pulled them behind my back, making me fall to my knees. My knees hit the ground hard, probably bruised. I tried getting away, but the guys grip was still too strong. Then I bit his hand as hard as I could, trying to get it off my mouth to warn Hope. “Aww, the little girly learned to bite,” he whispered in a baby-like voice that people use for dogs. “Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl,” he said each time slapping me in the face. “Get off of me!” I tried screaming but instead nothing came out. I knew that these people were up to no good. I knew I’d never get away so I just gave up. Why would Hope listen to those messages? It was a stupid idea. Now I would probably never see my friends or family again. I’d be stuck in a dog cage given only bread and water. Hopefully, I’d at least be able to read the newspaper to see my parents’ efforts to come find me. Maybe I’d at least get to see what my parents looked like. These people would probably not even give me something as simple as that. Finally, the guy stopped pushing me through the halls of the school. But when I looked up what I saw made me want to beat up this man and his cronies to go help Hope. But I knew it was hopeless. I would have to live a terrible #life. Nothing would be better ever again. I was in the gym with Hope and another guy who was pointing a gun straight at Hope. ​______________________________________ Hope-- The second after the scream was chaos. The man ripped something out of his inner pocket just like what I thought. It was a gun and it was pointed straight at me. Suddenly, men appeared everywhere in the same black as the first man and I knew that this was his company. He knew I was going to bring a friend and that wasn’t allowed. I was in huge trouble now. Slowly, I raised my hands above my head in the universal sign that meant that you surrendered. Soon Emmie was pushed into the room by a guy with big bulging muscles and was as hairy as a monkey. She looked me in the eye then seemed to notice my hands above my head and the guy pointing a gun at me. Her eyes widened in surprise and then she started silently crying, tears rolling down her face. "You will come with us and do what we want you to do," the man ordered. "Yes," I said reluctantly on the verge of tears. "But I thought I should let you get what you asked for before. Here's your friend Adrianna." The girl that I saw in a Facebook profile was standing next to another strong burly man with tear tracks down her face. Her clothes were dirty as if she had tried fighting them somehow. She looked at me and seemed to understand what was happening. "Okay let's take all three of them to headquarters and then we can prepare for the end of the world." "No," I announced almost surprised by my own courage. I would rather die than know that I killed trillions of people. At least my distraction might buy Adrianna and Emmie some time to run away. But then I remembered just how stupid this was. What am I doing? I can fly so why not just fly away now? I knew that I'd have to leave everyone else behind, but I would come back for them very soon. I just needed make a new plan. Then I'll come back to save Emmie and Adrianna. I looked at Emmie and she seemed to agree with my idea as though she could read my mind. But then I got an even better idea. What if I distracted them letting Emmie and Adrianna get away then I'll follow? Quickly, so the man wouldn't know what I was planning, I flew all the way up to the ceiling. "Go!" I shouted to Emmie and Adrianna. They ran out the door easily getting out of their guards' holds because of all of them momentarily stunned. I flew to the door, dropped down, and ran after them. I caught up to Emmie, but Adrianna was still a couple paces ahead of us. We ran down the hall, and soon we were on the opposite side of the school, far away from any entrances. Still we ran through the maze of halls passing through almost all of them. All I knew was that I had to get away from these guys. Suddenly, Emmie, Adrianna, and I were near the bathrooms. I quickly stopped holding out a hand for them to stop, too. I had heard footsteps in front of us. Then what I dreaded happened. Not only were footsteps coming from in front of us, they were also behind us. We were trapped. The only escape was the bathrooms which were locked. Knowing what I had to do, I walked toward the locked doors. "What are you...?" Adrianna started, but stopped once the lock clicked. We rushed into the bathrooms and I locked the door again. "Woah, and I thought what I did was awesome," Adrianna said, astonished. "Okay, what are we going to do?!" I whispered tears forming in my eyes. The doorknob started moving, but the door didn't open. "Open this door this second or else I'll shoot a hole through this lock. It would be easier to just listen because no matter what, you lost," a voice demanded from behind the door. I almost went to unlock it and give up, but something caught my eye. There was a vent in the top right corner of the bathroom. It looked like a 7th grade girl would easily fit through it. I ran to a stall and closed the door. "Hope, this really isn't a good time to be going to the bathroom," I heard Emmie say. "I'm not," I answered my voice strained from trying to pull myself on top of the stall door. After the third try, I remembered I could fly. Why is it that I keep forgetting I had powers? Well, it's not like everyone has them, I answered to myself. I flew the short distance to the vent and tried pulling out the bars. This was one thing that I really couldn't do. I just wasn't strong enough. I tried pulling it out with my mind, but that just gave me a headache. Then I decided to change tactics. Instead of trying to pull out the bars, I could try pulling out the screws. The second I started using telekinesis to pull out the screws, it came off. I threw it to the ground remembering at the last second how that would tell the guys the plan and stopped it in midair laying it slowly on the ground without a sound. "Come on," I whispered to Emmie and Adrianna. "I'll give you three seconds to open this door," the man outside threatened. I pulled my friends up to the vent. "One," he started. I pushed Emmie into the vent. Soon she was completely inside and I started to push Adrianna up behind Emmie. "Two." Adrianna was completely in the vent and I went in after her shimmying into place. "Three." I heard a loud gunshot unlike anything else. Right before the men walked into the room, I used mind to place the bars in place and all three of us slid forward in the cramped area like snakes. We kept moving in the same uncomfortable position until finally there was a crossroad. "Which way?" Emmie asked quietly from the front. "Go left," I replied not sure where that left at all. A few seconds later, I heard a gasp and a small thump. I hurried worried at what that meant. Then suddenly I wasn't moving through a tunnel, but instead air. "Wha...!" I managed before falling to the ground a couple feet below. I landed on something soft and noticed it was Emmie. "Oww!" Emmie exclaimed. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. "Yeah." "Yes, besides that bruise you just gave me." Quietly, I inspected our surroundings. Then I noticed I'd never been there before. "Where are we?" Emmie asked stating exactly what I was thinking. At first I didn't know, but then I realized that this was probably the school basement. I heard footsteps above us and put my finger to my lips so I could hear what was happening. "They aren't here," one man announced. "You checked all the lockers and the bathroom stalls?" someone else asked probably one of the more important people by the sound of authority in his voice. That told me that we were under the locker rooms. "How would they get out of the bathrooms anyway?" someone asked. "They probably flushed themselves down the toilets," another man replied sarcastically. "No, I know!" the man in charge exclaimed. I crossed my fingers hoping they wouldn't figure it out. But it was no use. "They went through the vents," he stated. "We have to go," I whispered. "We can't let them find us." "But how are we going to get out?" Adrianna asked. "If we go up the stairs they will find us. They're there right now," Emmie added. "We should go back into the other halls to find another staircase. We can't go up this one because of what Emmie said and we have to be quick before they figure out where we went," I suggested. Emmie and Adrianna agreed so we set off again. I tried remembering where we went to make sure we didn't keep going in circles. I started forming a map in my head. Soon we heard footsteps getting closer. We ran in the opposite direction from where they were coming from. Once again they became distant. After what felt like hours of running through the maze-like basement, we found another staircase. Without thinking we ran up it and opened the door. A man stood right in front of us. He started to call for others, but before he could, Emmie pepper-sprayed him in the face. We rushed by him, me in the lead, and ran toward the front doors. But I had to quickly stop to not be seen. What I saw worried me. Right in front of the doors were four guys all with guns and on guard. That meant that they were probably blocking all the doors. We were never going to get out. As if noticing my reaction, Adrianna said, “I think we can find a way around this. I have an idea. What if I went in the bathrooms and created a hurricane while you guys run to the door? I can run away fast and I’ll be able to make it, too. Let’s go.” With that, she stealthily ran to the girls’ bathrooms that were right behind us. “Wait, no!” I tried whispering, but she was too far away to hear. “She’ll make it,” Emmie reassured me. I still wasn’t so sure. A couple moments later, water started flooding out of the bathrooms. Without looking to see if Adrianna was getting out, Emmie and I ran toward the door, behind the guards that were looking the other way. I shoved the door open as hard as I could, but by then, it was too late to stop. The thing that happened next made the situation a lot worse. Now we definitely were in huge trouble. At that second, I remembered one thing that we forgot to plan even before we got into the school. The school had an alarm.

PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER FOUR PART ONE The first thing I saw…was nothing. There was no sign that a man had been there. The gym was completely silent that you could hear a pin drop. Everything was the same as it usually was. Confused, I walked farther into the gym. Soon I was standing right in the middle of the gym, on top of the circle that had a picture of a blue and yellow wolf symbolizing our school mascot and colors. Suddenly, I heard a rustling. I quickly turned around and saw a man standing there. He had green eyes and brown hair cut in a way that made him look like a business man. He was wearing all black including a long black coat. I couldn’t tell if it had inside pockets which made me feel uneasy. It wasn’t the same guy that came to dinner! What if he had some sort of weapon hidden behind his coat? As if reading my mind, he said, “Don’t worry I won’t hurt you,” in a business-like voice. “Who are you?” I demanded my voice squeaking from fear. At least he seemed friendly enough. Maybe I should be less paranoid. “Who are you?” I asked again, this time with no squeaks. “Well, to you I’m known as the mysterious person. But I know who you are. You’re Hope Crandall.” “How do you know my name?” I asked getting more worried by the second. I could almost feel my heart beating. “There’s always a way to find out.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, completely confused. “Does it really matter?” “Yes.” “Then figure it out.” I was starting to get annoyed. Why can’t he just give me straight forward answers? “Why did you ask me to come here?” I demanded once again. “I wanted to talk to you about…gym.” “What do you mean?” I was wondering how he’d know anything about the incident in my gym class. The only people that saw it were my classmates and teachers. They even acted like it never happened which was even weirder. Even if a student or teacher talked about it, probably no one would believe them. “You know what I mean.” “How did you…,” I said stunned. “I have contacts,” he answered once again not revealing exactly how. “So, what about gym?” “I have many answers on what you want to know.” That surprised me even more. He went on. “I know how you have these powers. I can give you more detailed answers if you agree to join me, but for now I’ll tell you the basics. I am the person who left you at your house.” That was definitely a shocker. My mouth fell open. He must be a friend if he knew my real actual parents. Noticing my surprise he went on. “I also knew your birth father. He and I work for an important organization which needs your help right now and it has something to do with those powers you have. It is called project 12/21.” He said it like you would say the date, twelve-twenty first. “Why would you need me?” I asked still completely surprised. “They need help for a very important task. Also, we knew you probably would want to meet your father. Finally, the fact of what you did in gym led us to be one hundred percent sure that we needed you.” “What would I have to do?” “We need you to lead us in something,” he said still not giving the full answer. “And what is that?” “First, I must tell you something.” “And that is,” I said getting a bit impatient. “Your father and I know you’re special. You are not a lot like other humans in this age.” Once again I said, “What?” “You will find out soon. But I made you special. Sure, you were born normal, but I changed you so that you were more than human.” “So what exactly am I?” I asked, freaking out. I didn’t want to be a freaky vampire or something. “You’ll find out sooner or later like I said.” “I have a question. Why didn’t you make the guy that came over our house just tell me all this?” “Wouldn’t your parents get suspicious?” “Not if it was my dad’s friend.” “Are you sure he is your dad’s friend?” “I guess.” “See you really don’t know. Do you know exactly what your parents do at work or who their friends are?” I wanted to defend myself, but I knew I was wrong. “MY dad’s a real estate agent and my mom’s a volunteer librarian,” I simply answered. “Are you sure? Have they ever brought you to bring-your-kids-to-work day or anything like that?” he asked. I hated how he made me question all this about my #life, and the answer to his last question, although I didn’t say it, was no. “Do you know about your parent’s childhoods?” “No,” I answered once again. “Do you know if your parents are against any specific laws or are in a group fighting against the government? Do you even know whether they are democrat or republican?” “No,” I said starting to get annoyed. “You really don’t know a lot about your parent’s true lives, but I do know and I can tell you. I know exactly who they work for and everything else.” “But I know where they work, too,” I said trying to show that I did know some things. “Are you sure that’s where they work. Have they ever really brought you to work? Have you followed them when they drove off every morning to see where they really do go?” That made me realize he was right. I have never really seen my mom and dad’s work. They always skipped the family days, and all we ever talked about at home was how my school was. Then I remembered how my mom had been on my computer the other night. I tried thinking back to the last time I went on it to see if I could remember anything being different. Then a thought occurred to me. All the information that included Adrianna was gone. My mom erased it. Maybe she just noticed me talking to a stranger and got worried. Somehow I knew this wasn’t the case. “My mom erased all information about Adrianna.” I noticed that the man would probably have no idea who Adrianna was. “She’s-,” I started off, but he quickly cut me off. “I know who she is.” “So you sent her a letter, too.” “Yes,” he admitted. “Is she like me?” “Yes, her parents work with us, too, and she is needed to lead us just like you.” “You said you’d meet her tonight then, too.” “Yes again, a colleague of mine is with her now.” “Can I see her?” “No, she is somewhere in Chicago, but you will meet up eventually.” “Wait, what is this task you need help with?” “The task? From before?” “Yeah,” I replied, not being formal because this occasion didn’t seem too formal in the first place anyway. “It might be a bit hard for you. You would probably have to leave a lot of things behind to help us with it.” “So, what is it?” I asked almost worried about the response. Especially since he said I’d have to leave a lot behind. “You must help us end this world,” he said really casually like he was just talking about the weather over a cup of coffee at Starbuck’s. “You were created especially for this purpose, you and the other six. The destruction of this new world will lead to the rebirth of something much better that you will rule!” “What?!” I screamed. My mouth opening and closing like some sort of weird fish. “It’s for the better of mankind.” “No it’s not!” I argued this time softer remembering that I really wasn’t supposed to be here. Before he could answer back though, I heard a muffled scream and a crash.

PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER THREE PART TWO I went back to my locker, then to social studies. Because of the confusion of the test, I forgot to pinch myself once and a while and my eyes started to droop. Without noticing, they finally closed. “Miss Crandall!” I heard someone yell. My eyes fluttered open and I realized I had been sleeping. It sounded like a guy, but then I remembered that my social studies teacher was a girl. I’d never heard her sound like that and at the thought of her sounding like a guy I smiled. “What, do you think this is funny?!” she shouted again in that same guy-like voice. That made my smile widen even more causing me to have to cover my mouth. I looked around and saw that a couple of other kids were smirking, too. “I’m sorry, sir,” I by accidentally said without thinking. A couple of kids who couldn’t hold in their laughs let them out. My mistake almost made me laugh, too, but I caught myself before it escaped my mouth. "Please stay after class, Miss Crandall," Mrs. Neilson said. Then she added, "So before we were so rudely interrupted...," and went on with another long lecture about the American Revolution. When class was over, I went to the teacher's desk and waited for everyone to leave like I did with Mr. Bellagora. But unlike in math, this time I really was in trouble. What she said next made me rethink that. “I know I sound like a guy,” she said agreeing with me even though I didn’t say anything. She smiled when I didn’t answer. “So I heard that you took that math test today. How was it?” “It was fine, but we don’t get the scores back until later,” I replied really confused. “That’s good. Are you going anywhere for Thanksgiving Break or doing anything?” “Not really.” “Wait aren’t you going somewhere Friday night?” That was a bit creepy because that was when I was supposed to meet the guy. I didn’t know if this was a coincidence or not. I was starting to get suspicious of Mrs. Neilson. Whose teacher yells at them in class, then starts asking about where they were going for vacation in a normal, casual tone after class when they should’ve been mad? Not only that, but now she thinks I’m going somewhere when no one, but me would know that. And of course the mysterious guy who was sending the messages would know. I didn’t think that Mrs. Neilson was sending the messages because then she probably would’ve told me already. Unless she wanted me not to know it was her. But if that was true, she wouldn’t be acting so careless. I was desperate to know who was sending me the messages so I decided to ask her if it was her, but in a way so if it wasn’t she wouldn’t know what I was planning to do. “I..,” I started, but a second later the bell rang. “Oh, I should probably write you a pass,” Mrs. Neilson said. She wrote one out, and then told me to go to my next class. “But…,” “You better leave soon so you don’t miss all of gym,” she interrupted again. Knowing that Mrs. Neilson would probably just interrupt me again if I spoke, I turned and walked out the door. I got my gym clothes and fast-walked to gym. Today we were continuing basketball. In gym class I threw the ball at the hoop in an attempt to make a basket. I usually never get even one in the hoop. It’s just too high and the teachers say I’m not throwing the ball right. I remembered a couple of days ago in gym how I was able to move a basketball without touching it. Maybe I could do it again. The ball I had just thrown had missed the basket completely by not going far enough. I picked another basketball and decided to try moving it into the basket. I held the ball in the way that I thought they wanted me to and threw as hard as I could, but I could see it would be too far to the left to make it. Experimentally, I stared at the ball, willing it to stop, and it froze in midair. I lifted my finger slightly and moved it to the right. The basketball followed, and when I moved my finger downwards, the ball dropped into the basket. My teammates cheered, and one of the gym teachers, Ms. Krisnil, smiled and said, “You’re definitely getting the hang of this, Hope! Although that was the slowest I’ve ever seen a basketball move in my #life…” One kid on the other team shouted, “That’s not fair! I bet Hope used the force! That ball had no chance of going in. Rematch!” A bunch of other people on the other team started chanting “Rematch! Rematch!” too, but the word “force” had caught my attention. The last sentence of the last text: May the force be with you. That was in Star Wars, when people moved objects with their minds. I had part of the answer to the riddle. Just then, the bell rang for fifth period, and I walked in with the other girls to change, but the truth had hit me too hard for me to listen in on any of the other girls’ conversations. I had the date, time, and location to meet this guy now, and I had a strange feeling that if I didn’t go to him, he’d come to me. And that wouldn’t be pleasant. “Beep!” went the electronic bell. Everyone scrambled to tie their shoes and grab stuff from their lockers. I just tucked my laces in the sides of my shoes and ran out not to miss my next class. That’s when I noticed I forgot my gym bag. Wow, I really am going crazy. I went back, grabbed it, and rushed to my next class knowing I’d be late. Like always, the scramble to the next class was mayhem. Everyone wanted to be first to their rooms because today our all of our teachers let us sit wherever we wanted. It was a good thing I was behind all the people who “fast-walked” as they say. Mostly people were running. I didn’t want to get trampled by the crowd of kids. As I got my new binder from my locker I saw Emmie walk by she stopped next to my locker. “I heard that you had to stay after class for Mrs. Neilson,” Emmie said. “Yeah, but she was acting weird. I didn’t get yelled at.” “That’s odd. Oh well, at least you’re not in trouble.” I thought about telling her everything that has happened, but decided against it in case anyone was listening. “Bye. See you later,” she quickly added as she scurried off to her next class. Next class for me was Language Arts which I already knew all about. Deciding that it didn’t matter if I listened because she always gave us a long lecture, I tried figuring out the riddle from last night. Even though I knew what to do, I had to be sure. In the first one: where animals fly when they’re not supposed to, could refer to people flying, since people were technically animals. And the second message: never fly without a guide, could mean to not fly unsupervised, or something. So the place could be an airport, which were very closely monitored, but the closest one was at least three hours away in a car. This was going to be really hard to solve, there were so many different answers. Giving up, I tuned back in to what Mr. Waldo was saying. “And that’s the difference between nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns. You may work on homework until the bell rings,” he announced. Luckily, so far none of my teachers had given me homework. I decided to read my book instead. It was science fiction and adventure. I hated all the weird girly books because they were just too boring and not my style of reading. Just as I opened to the page I left off at, the bell rang. I hurried to my second to last class of the day, science with Mrs. Esmio. I got the idea to write what I already knew about the riddle. I mean, that would really stink if I forgot. But why was I going anyway? Oh yeah, I just have this random urge to go even though I might get hurt. I guess this was pretty dangerous, especially since I had no idea really why I was going. Date: Friday, November 22nd. Time: 11 pm. Location: Middlebrook Junior High gymnasium. Plan: who knows? I really was in trouble. But the most rational, level-headed person I knew, the one that always got me out of any situation, could hopefully get me out of this one. And that person happened to be named Emmeline Linnaean, or my best friend, Emmie, for short. I listened through class and finally the bell rang for seventh. Then it rang once again for dismissal. The whole class bolted out of their seats and ran out the door to get to the bus first and not have to squish up against windows or literally sit in the aisle. Usually, I always waited until Miss Aro dismissed us, but today, I was the first one out. I needed to talk to Emmie about what I should do on Friday. I remembered what Mr. Bellagora said and went to his room, B-21. Mr. Bellagora was waiting with Mrs. Langley, the math teacher on the other team, and Ms. Cohen, the math specialist at our school. “Have a seat, Hope,” Mr. Bellagora instructed. I sat down at the nearest table, feeling a little uneasy. What if I failed and had to move down a grade? It was all stupid Lucas Anderson’s fault. If I really did have telekinesis, I would beat him up someday. Actually, probably the moment I found out. “No, you’re not in trouble, Hope,” Ms. Cohen said kindly, as if reading my mind. “Quite the contrary, in fact. These are the highest math scores anyone has ever seen from a pre-algebra student. We’ve decided to move you up a grade, and you will start math with the algebra students in 8th grade after Thanksgiving break.” Yes! I thought. This was the best news all day! I would take advanced math and have one less class with Lucas and Kerry in it. “Oh my gosh, thank you so much!” I nearly squealed, but stopped myself. Mr. Bellagora smiled just slightly, an event that was rarer than a solar eclipse. “You’ll get your new schedule in homeroom the first day back,” he told me. “Have a good break. You are dismissed.” I walked out the door and hopped on the bus just as it was leaving. On the bus, I sat next to Emmie as usual, and talked about how much homework we had, and what we’d be doing on vacation. I needed to wait until the last minute to tell Emmie my Friday issue, to avoid any unnecessary questions about why I was late and about what any of this was about. I didn’t want Emmie having her feelings hurt that I was in a higher math class now, or freaking out because I felt the strange urge to meet a total stranger who might just be an axe murderer. “I’m going to Virginia to visit my cousins. Do you think there’ll be anything to do there? I mean, I like the beach, but no one goes swimming in November,” Emmie was saying. I nodded vaguely, my mind a million miles away. “I’m leaving this Saturday, so I’ll still spend some time with you. What are you doing?” Um, I am going to visit a possibly crazy person because I’m curious and desperate because I have freakish powers and I need help and I’m willing to accept it from this guy, I thought, but I just said, “Oh, I guess I’m just staying home, as usual.” Which was my original plan anyway, so it’s not really lying. Emmie nodded sympathetically. “The money problem, right?” she asked kindly, and I shrugged. “Probably. My parents never say,” I replied as the bus pulled into my stop. “Bye!” I shouted as I got up. “And you’re coming over for a sleepover tomorrow and Friday, a two-night party. Come at six pm tomorrow!” She nodded, and before she could ask any more questions, I ran down the bus steps and into my house. When I got home, I checked my Facebook account. There was a red “1” next to the friends icon, which meant I had a friend request. I clicked on it, and it said: 1 new request from Adrianna Winthrop. The profile picture was a pretty blonde girl at a beach, who I’ve never seen in my whole #life. She had bright blue eyes, and looked like she was having the best time of her #life. But the name Adrianna sounded familiar. There was a message with the friend request too: sry about last night. That txt creeped me out. IMessage me ASAP. So confused! L I’m the person u were messaging last night, btw. That got me excited. I didn’t really know why that message worried her, but if it did, that probably means she also got a text from “unknown.” Maybe she has to go somewhere on Friday night, too, and can help me. I took out my iPod and quickly iMessaged her. That’s ok. Why did that txt creep you out? Did u get a message from him, too? A reply came quickly. Yeah! Wait mine was really weird. It said: Remember, 23 on Jeudi. That’s Thursday in French, right? And I got this creepy riddle 2. It was: hurricanes don’t occur in public swimming pools. Unless you’re special, that is…the weird part is I think I know what it means. This proved that she was like me! Yeah, mine said: remember, 23 on Vendredi. And the riddle was: never fly without a guide, and may the force be with you. I have a feeling this is important, I wrote back. Adrianna answered fast: IK! It feels just like that! And there is something else I have to say, but you’re going to think I’m crazy. Yeah I probably will believe u cause if all the crazy stuff that’s been happening to me. Ok, I’ll tell u. I think the riddle had something to do with the last swim meet on my birthday, when I almost drowned everyone in our pool by creating this mini-storm. I think I can control water, but how weird is that? I guess I’m supposed to meet him on Thursday @11pm, at the pool. R u like me? Um, I have to go. Talk to u later. I stared at the computer for what felt like a million years, but was probably only a few minutes. I was so surprised. Even though I knew that I was not in a coma, I still clung on to the small hope that this wasn’t happening. Now I knew it was real. At least I wouldn’t have to go through this alone and maybe this guy isn’t as bad as it seems. Maybe he’s someone who wants to give me a scholarship to some place far away where there were other kids like me, but I was pretty sure that I was wrong. ______________________________________ As usual I did my homework first. Then I practiced the flute for the upcoming concert and played Stratego with my mom. I won as usual. Soon it was dinnertime then finally time to go to bed. I got on my pajamas and hopped under my comfy blankets. Not long after, I was asleep. Suddenly, I woke up. It was dark, but I saw my computer was on and someone was standing next to it. Not daring to move and hoping that the person wouldn’t notice me, I froze. I probably was already frozen since the moment I saw them. Finally, their face went into the light and it was a face I recognized. It was my mom. “What are you doing?” I asked my suspicion rising. She seemed really surprised to see me awake. Quickly, she smiled, covering up her mistake. “You left your computer on again, Honey,” she said in a happy, but scolding voice. “You seriously have to remember to turn it off.” But she was acting weird. I knew that she had to have done more then just turn it off. I was frozen for at least a couple minutes, and she was probably on even before I woke up. Noticing I was still looking at her, she smiled and walked out of my room going back into her own. I fell back asleep and soon it was morning again. All through the day, I was waiting for Emmie to come. Her family also was going to come for Thanksgiving, along with plenty of my relatives. She would be the only one sleeping over from her family, though. Finally, at seven pm, Emmie showed up with her sleeping bag over one arm and her backpack on the other. All of her immediate family was with her including her little sister Mia. We guided them to the table and waited for our other relatives. Because our table was so small, we had to bring up the foldable table to eat on. Soon, everyone was at the table and we started eating. For dinner, Mom made all my favorites and the food that our relatives and Emmie’s family brought was always really good. I took a large helping of the salty stuffing made by Aunt Anne. Then I picked a couple chicken drumsticks that tasted like it was made by a professional chef. I took tons of other types of food including Emmie’s mom’s famous mash potatoes that had just the right amount of salt and butter. Finally, once everyone was completely full, my mom took out the desserts. I had a couple of cookies and some cake, but mainly I had the mouth-watering, silky, creamy, and delicious pumpkin pie made by yours truly. I helped my mom mix all the ingredients and poor the mix into the flaky and buttery pie crust. I took a huge slice and placed it on my plate. Despite what my parents say about proper manners during company, I shoved the whole thing in my mouth, wolfing it down. My mom looked at me telling me with her eyes just how impolite that was. I just shrugged. Once dessert was over, I went to Emmie and brought her to my room where I could talk to her without people overhearing. “You sounded pretty desperate the other day on the bus so I came,” Emmie said, tossing her backpack next to my bed. I pulled my iPod out of my desk drawer and showed her the three freaky texts I got. Emmie’s expression changed from normal to confused to freaked out in the next thirty seconds. “Do you have any idea what this means?” she asked, and I nodded. “Yeah, it’s some sort of riddle,” I replied. “I have to go to the school gym tomorrow at 11 pm to find the truth about myself.” Emmie’s eyes widened. “But you’re not going, are you? Because this could be some child kidnapper and you might not survive this night alive!” I shook my head. “I’m not going,” I said, and Emmie sighed with relief. “We’re going together. We plan everything today and tomorrow, and we sneak out tomorrow night together. It’s brilliant!” “Nonononono!” Emmie screamed, and I clamped my hand over her mouth. It would totally ruin everything if my mom new anything about this. “This is totally crazy. You are not going, and neither am I!” I rolled my eyes. I should’ve expected this from someone so goody-goody. It is good at times, but now was definitely not one of those times. “Emmie. I think I know this guy, because he came over our house a couple of nights ago. “He’s my dad’s friend, and he might just have all the secrets to who my parents are, and why I have these creepy powers! I can’t not go!” I wasn’t really sure about him being my dad’s friend. What if my dad was forced to invite him over or something? But that wasn’t something I’d like to think about. Emmie looked confused. “What powers?” she asked, and I remembered that I never showed her what I could do. “Don’t freak out,” I warned, and she nodded expectantly, probably expecting the room to burst into flames or something. But all I did was stare at a marker on my desk, raise it to the ceiling, twirl it around a million times, and made it fall straight into my outstretched palm. “That’s amazing!” Emmie exclaimed nevertheless. “You should try out for color guard next year!” I shrugged, but I had a strange feeling that next year, color guard was the last thing I’d be worried about. I showed her my flying too, and finally, she agreed to help me on my “mission”. “Emmie!” her mom called from downstairs. “We’re going to leave now, so have a good sleepover!” “Sure, Mom. Bye!” she called back, but neither of us were too sure on the meaning of “good”. ___________________________________________________ Over the next day, we came up with a plan to get to the school gym by 11 pm on Friday, and what to do there. Emmie’s dad was a state trooper, so she managed to go back to her house and grab a can of pepper spray to use just in case we were dealing with a lunatic. We’d sneak out at 10:40 sharp, and my parents should be asleep by then. We’d walk to the school and I’d use my telekinesis to force off the lock to the pool entrance. I’d meet the guy in the gym, and Emmie would stand outside the door with the pepper spray, ready to pounce if I screamed or anything like that. After we heard all he had to say, we’d leave and figure out our next move. It was 10:40 sharp on Friday now, and I was scared out of my mind as I slowly pushed open the back door to our house. Emmie was right behind me, clutching my arm so hard that it was cutting off my circulation. “Chill, Em,” I whispered, and pried her fingers off my arm. Still, she kept her hand touching my arm, but at least not as hard. The night air was crisp and chilly, like on most November nights, but this was the first time I’d ever been out this late. The stars were twinkling brightly against the backdrop of black, and we were the only ones out. I wore a purple sweatshirt, but even then I was still cold. I was in my pajamas like Emmie because we thought it would be too noisy if we got changed. Slowly, I closed the back door while turning the knob so it wouldn’t make a lot of noise. I locked the door so no robbers would come in even though there are never robberies in our neighborhood and we were only going to be gone for an hour or less, hopefully. Emmie and I carefully tiptoed across our backyard. "Crack!" I heard and noticed I had stepped on a stick. I stayed still for a moment seeing if anything happened. Then I started moving again. This was so paranoid, and there was no reason for it. After all, this was my father’s coworker. There was nothing to be freaking out about. We reached the school building in a matter of minutes, since it was actually close to my house. I’d never been here at night, besides the occasional band concert, but even that was at 7pm. The eeriness and quiet at the loudest place I knew was disturbing. I checked my watch. “10:55 pm, Eastern Standard Time. Synchronize watches,” I whispered, and Emmie just laughed. “I brought my phone. It’s a bit more accurate than your old watch,” she whispered back, and I rolled my eyes. We walked in through the back drop-off entrance, where I got dropped off whenever I overslept and missed the bus. Focusing, I closed my eyes and placed my hands on the knob. If I was right, then I could use my telekinesis to make the lock open without me smashing the whole thing, which would look bad to the authorities. I imagined me inside of the school, on the other side of that door. I pictured turning the knob on the inside, which would unlock the outside automatically. Holding my breath, I waited a few seconds until I heard a soft click! Yes! I turned the knob, now unlocked, and Emmie and I stepped inside. The hallways were unusually quiet, and we snuck through the A and B halls until we got to the D hallway, where the gym was. Emmie and I split off then, Emmie going into the locker room to wait for me and use the pepper spray if necessary, and I went into the gym through the double doors to meet him. Just before we split, I told Emmie, “Remember, if I scream or even if you think something might be wrong, run and use the pepper spray on anyone that’s not me.” She nodded, and I took a deep breath and walked into the gym.

PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER THREE PART ONE New part to Project 12/21! If u just started following me u might want to read the other parts first This was just getting crazier and crazier. I had no idea what the first message meant so maybe I’d be able to figure it out tonight. “Honey it’s time to go to bed,” I heard my mom say from the kitchen. Now I didn’t think I could try figuring it out. But that was before I got an idea. It wasn’t a really good one, but it was an idea. I could just stay up looking for answers. I mean my mom never checks if I’m asleep and she wouldn’t be passing by my door so I could. Besides, this seemed a lot more important. So that was the first day that I disobeyed my mother, which maybe wasn’t such a good idea in the end because it led me to maybe stuff that I didn’t want to be led to. I worked and worked searching through every search engine I’ve ever heard of and even asking Emmie some questions by texting her. Nobody passed by my door at all. Soon I was almost done figuring a part of the message out. But of course right then is the moment as always when I get interrupted. My iPod started vibrating. What now? I looked at it and noticed it was from some person with the username Adrirox123. I didn’t have any friends with that username so I had no idea why I got the message. “Hi,” it read. “Um who r u?” I texted back. I guess she was up late too because she immediately replied. “Oh, sorry. I think I had the wrong number. Wait why r u up?” “Just cause I wanted to look up something on my laptop. What about u?” “Same,” she replied which seemed a bit weird because I thought it was unlikely to be up at 11:30 PM researching. But then again, I was doing it, too. “That’s cool, so who were u trying to get to?” I asked. “My friend Lily,” she answered. “My name’s Hope. Why would it come to me?” “Really. I typed in Lilyg148. Is that urs?” “No. That’s nothing like mine. Mine is Hopec9999.” Now I was starting to wonder. How is Lilyg148 anything like Hopec9999? Then I get another message, but it was from unknown. By now, I felt like throwing my iPod out the window. It said, “YOU MUST FIND EACHOTHER.” I was so surprised that I almost dropped my iPod which would make a loud noise and my parents would find me not listening to them. Each other had to be this girl Adrirox123. But this could just be a coincidence. I somehow knew that that wasn’t true. I went back to my conversation with Adrirox123. I guess I hadn’t been answering for a while because it said, “R u still there?” Quickly, I replied before she left, “Yeah, I’m here.” “Oh, good.” “So do u know anyone with the username unknown?” I asked trying to see if she knew anything about it. There was a very long pause and then, finally, on the screen it said, “G2g.” I wanted to know why she didn’t answer my question, but at that moment all the sleepiness from staying up hit me. I was very tired so I went in bed and fell asleep right away. I woke up to my mom shaking me. Then I noticed that she had an angry look on her face and that I left my computer on the night before. At least I didn’t fall asleep at the computer. “You can’t forget to turn off your computer each night, Hope. You’re wasting electricity.” I looked at the clock and saw that it was 70 AM. “I’m going to drop you off at school today,” my mom said, answering my unasked question about how I was going to get to school. “But you still have to get ready fast,” she added. Once my mom left the room, I went to my drawer to pick my clothes for the day. I decided to wear all Aéropostale. I put on black Aéropostale sweatpants, a light green shirt that said, “Aéropostale 1987,”, and wore my furry, warm, tan Aéropostale boots that were technically fake Uggs or Fuggs as people liked to call them. I tucked the sweatpants into the boots and put my hair in a braid for one of the first times ever. I couldn’t really do it so I went to my mom and asked her to do it. I always kept my hair down, but I thought I needed to change sometime so why not today. I grabbed my backpack and shoved my iPod into the front pocket. I put a waffle into the toaster oven, waited a minute, then grabbed it and ran out to the small silver minivan where my mom was waiting. I opened the door and jumped into the comfy, tan leather seats in the back. My mom quickly drove me to school. I made it just as the last bus was finishing dropping off the kids. Then I remembered that today was a half day and the last day of Thanksgiving Break. Little did I know that this was probably the last day of school for not only a week, but possibly a lot longer. I walked through the student entrance and put my stuff in my locker. Not that long after, I was sitting in math and listening to Mr. Bellagora talk about proportions for the millionth time. The only reason why he kept teaching the same thing was because a couple kids still didn’t understand it. After about five minutes, I was already bored and sleepy. I thought it would be very embarrassing and rude to fall asleep during Mr. Bellagora’s lectures about proportions even if they were super boring, so I decided on every five minutes or so pinching my arm. His class felt like it was going on forever, but finally it was over and I was walking out the door. But before I could leave I heard, “Wait one second, Hope, I need to talk to you.” What now? I mean you can’t really make my #life anymore more confusing and crazier than it already is. I waited for all the other kids to leave, then went up to Mr. Bellagora’s desk. “Ye…s” I said just remembering to add the -s so I wouldn’t say, “Yeah,” which would probably be rude in Mom’s book. “I told the other teachers about that test you took the other day and they wanted to know how good you were at math and maybe you just found another way to figure out these problems. So, they told me to give you another test and see if we should move you to a higher math class. I want you to do this test which has 100 questions on all different things in math. You can stay for as long as you need. The other teachers already know.” My mouth was wide open as if my dentist was asking to check my teeth at a dentist appointment. Quickly, noticing how weird I probably looked, I closed it. He handed me the thick test packet and said that I could write on it. Then he gave me scrap paper to do any extra work that I couldn’t fit in my packet on. “Please use pencil and you may go to that seat in the back of the room with it. When you’re finished, just bring it up to me and I’ll write you a pass in case your teacher forgot the e-mail.” More like a pass to the nurse to check if I really did go crazy. I went to the chair in the back that he mentioned and got settled to start. After I finished reading the instructions, I turned to the first test page and read question 1. “Solve for x: x+2x-2+5=9,” it read. I quickly scribbled out the problem and solved it as we were told to. First, add together like terms…becomes 3x+3=9….subtract 3 and divide that by three. I got the answer 2 in what felt like 5 seconds. When I looked back up I saw that kids were coming in for the second class. Some were even staring at me, probably wondering what I was doing. I looked back at my test and did a couple problems until I was interrupted by a voice I knew very well. “What, did you fail a test so bad that you had to redo it so you missed class?” I heard someone sneer from behind me. I thought ignoring it would probably be the best idea. But I guess I really didn’t have an option. “I bet you cheated on those 200 questions and actually got in huge trouble so now you have to do a test to see if you’re even good enough for seventh grade,” Lucas Anderson said. I couldn’t concentrate on the question in front of me so I turned around and said, “Could you be quiet?!” That was probably on the top of the most stupid things to do. I probably just broke a record in the Guinness World Record book. “Wait, can you say that a little louder?” he teased. I had done exactly what he wanted. Now he was never going to stop. I almost lost all hope in actually doing well on the test. Right then though I saw his pencil move a bit. It wasn’t like some stray wind. It didn’t even roll. It just shifted a bit, but it still caught both mine and Lucas’ attention. That made Lucas shut up abruptly, and quickly turn away, scooching his chair as far away as possible from me. That was really weird. I didn’t know if that was a coincidence or not, but was just really hoping it wasn’t. Can’t I just get a day off from crazy things happening? I went back to my test, again, and after another fifteen minutes, I was finished. I checked all my answers and handed it in to Mr. Bellagora. As he made me a pass, I looked at the clock and noticed it was 8:50 so French would still have ten minutes left. The half day schedule caused it to end at 8:59 instead of 9:26. But before I left, Mr. Bellagora said, “Today before you leave please come to my room so I can give you your score.” “I will,” I replied. I went to my locker and got my French binder. I went to Mrs. Dominique’s classroom and she nodded to me as I walked in. I guess she at least got the e-mail. Before I sat down, though, the bell rang telling everyone to go to third. Ugh, that just stunk. I wish I just got my social studies binder and waited for the bell to ring next to my locker. Then I remembered that there was a video camera that showed the whole hall and played it in the office so anyone there could see it. I would probably have caused a couple people to wonder what I was doing. I really didn’t want people to get suspicious about me, especially after what happened the other day.