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.