A Really Different Place

The inside of the building was destroyed. The walls had burn marks on them and the computers were destroyed. Jim walked into the building, taking his pistol out and aiming it into the darkness. “Hello, is anyone in here?” he said. He heard a loud bang coming from the main control room to the right. He looked at the other soldier and motioned for him to follow. They walked carefully down the hallway and went to Master Controll Room AD-24. They were greeted by an awful scene. The commanding officer of the controll tower lay lifeless on the floor. He was holding a crumpled piece of paper covered in blood. Jim walked up to him and took the note. The note read “586971138-c”. What could it mean? Jim decided the best thing to do. Jim ran out of the room, leaving the soldier behind. He got in his car and drove off. He arived at his destination, the hostpital’s forensic science department at closing time. He knew his friend, Malcom would be able to help. He walked up to the front desk and told the secratary to give it to Malcom and tell him it was important. She told him he would get it back as soon as possible.

I can’t really think of a birthday without mom. March is here, but I doubt my family will even remember that the freak in the attic even has a birthday. I’m not really hoping for anything, since I don’t need anything. I could obviously use some more clothes, but the last thing I would want to do is go shopping with Fiona. I count on my fingers, March ninth, that’s two days away. They’ll probably give me a bar of soap or something for my birthday. Like I care.

***

I go to sleep on March eighth earlier than usual. Maybe if I get up early enough I’ll be able to find a really good place to hide from my idiotic family. But when I wake up on the ninth, I don’t have much luck. “Happy birthday, Grey…” I mumble to myself. I look at a clock and realize it’s about 9 AM or so. “What the…?” I think out loud. Since when do I sleep until 9:00, or even 8:00? Oh well, I guess there’s no way to hide, and even if I did, I doubt my family even remembers that it’s my birthday anyways. I remember when I was I was about five and my mom and I came here to celebrate my cousin’s birthdays. Spoiled rotten, they are. At least 15 presents or so just from her mom, and her parents were divorced. I suppose that’s why, but I don’t really know why a five year old girl needs a sparkling pink dining set along with tens of other gifts I don’t remember. I rub my eyes and sit in bed for a while, waiting for anyone to say ‘happy birthday!’ even though I know they won’t. About 20 minutes pass of me twiddling my thumbs and humming the “Happy Birthday to You” song, I decide it’s time I be a little productive. I find some sheets of paper and an old box of crayons somewhere in the attic. My drawing skills aren’t that great, but I decide to make myself a little present, since I suppose my family doesn’t even know it’s my special day. I draw a little cake saying, “Happy Birthday, Grey!” and tape it next to my bed. Yeah, it looks terrible, but in a way, it soothes me. Is that weird? I curl up in a ball and I guess I fall asleep. about 45 minutes later, “Grey, sweetie! Get up!” Fiona squeals. “It’s your birthday!” I think I’m dreaming, or will this turn into a nightmare?

When I woke up, I was disappointed to find that this wasn’t a bad dream, and that this was all real. I looked at the alarm clock. 8:26 a.m. My magic lessons started at 11:oo. I went over to the dresser and found my favorite T-shirt, jeans, sandals, and hoodie. Then I went to the fridge. “A buttered croissant with strawberries and orange juice, please.” There it was on a pink plate inside the door.

I left the room and went exploring around. If this place changes to what I wanted it to be……

I imagined my house with my mom in her chair and dad at the kitchen table reading his newspaper. My baby brother was playing with Wrigley on the floor. I walked over to my mom and tried to hug her. I went right through her. She was looking right at me, but for some odd reason, she couldn’t see me. I went to my dad and tried to kiss him on his scraggy bearded cheek. I went right through him too. Desperate, I went to my brother, Bentley, and did my best funny face ever. Nothing. But more than anything, I wanted a reaction from Wrigley. I sat down and patted my lap. Nothing. I lied down and wiggled my toes. Nothing. I crawled over to him to rub his ears. Nothing.

Tears started to cloud my vision. “Why can’t you see me!?” I screamed. “I’m standing right in front of you!” I finally gave up trying to be noticed. When I turned towards the front door, Atom was standing there with a pained look on his face. “I’m sorry,” he said. He wasn’t faking it. He meant it. I could tell.

“Why can’t they see me?” I asked. He started to walk towards my dog, and a small smile came upon his face. Then when he looked at me, the smile disappeared. “The stars on Stella have never been able to figure out why this happens. Sometimes the things they want more than anything, they never happen, or come to them. In your case, you want your family to see you. But they can’t. I don’t know why. I wish I could do something about it, but I just can’t. I’m still an amateur at magic. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m sorry you had to see me break down like that.” I said.

“No problem. Now, are you ready to start learning magic?” he asked.

“Um, yeah! Let’s go!” I sort of got embarrassed, because I sort of sounded a little too much like a little girl wanting to ride a pony at the state fair. We left the Marriott and started to weave through yet again, more buildings.  “How does magic happen?” I asked Atom. It took him a while to think. ”Well, you sort of need to think of what you want to happen in your mind. But there’s a catch. You need to control it not only physically, but mentally as well.” I considered what he said. “So, sort of like Eragon in the books?” It was a pretty dumb question, I guess. He let out a laugh. “Well, sort of. Except that the magic doesn’t drain you of your strength.”

“So, what would happen if you weren’t careful with both strengths?”

“Well, it’s hard to say. It really depends on what you want to happen. Like this one time, I wasn’t concentrating enough. I was trying to move a box in the storage room, when all of the sudden it opened all of its contents on my head!” I was the one laughing now.

“What was in it?” I asked.

“I can’t remember. But let’s just say it was big and heavy.”

? ? ? ?

I had never expected to see the training hall as I did. I expected it to look like a gym, with wands for barbells.  But it looked more like a castle than a gym. Inside were stars and humans of all shapes, colors, and sizes. They weren’t doing bench presses with giant wands or push ups with spell books on their backs. Not that I expected them to be doing that.

They all seemed to be in really deep concentration. Some of the stars looked as if they were as young as five. I thought that the oldest might have been over 200. The beginners were learning how to move books from one side of a shelf to the other. Some were making a gourmet dinner with just twiddling their fingers.

“Alright Riley, I think we should start with the pebbles and rocks area.” said Atom. Hmmm. Rocks. Not exactly how I wanted to start out my training. “Okay. You need to concentrate on this pebble.” he handed me a pebble. “Just think of the pebble going up, and think of nothing else.”

I looked at it and thought the word ‘up’.

Up. Hey, if I could make a lousy pebble fly, could I makes myself? Bad move. The pebble didn’t go up. No, it went sideways, hitting a man in the head. The man looked more like a building than a human because of his stocky build. He seemed pretty steamed that I hit him in the head. How would I know that? Because he let out a gigantic roar and came charging straight towards us.

Atom and I looked at each other. He was thinking the same thing as I was. “Run!” we said simultaneously. We burst through the doors and practically ran over a few citizens. The Giant kept chasing, and didn’t seem like he was going to stop until he caught us and mashed our heads together. I spotted an alley a few blocks down.

I grabbed Atom’s hand and pulled him towards it. We ducked behind a smelly garbage can. The Giant didn’t even stop to check if we were there. That proved he was as stupid as he was humongous. After he left, I looked at Atom. He looked at me. We burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“Not bad for your first time!” said Atom.

I am going to drop the “Poem of the Week” idea because no one is reading them. So I am going to start a “Question of the Week.”

Here is the first one – When people draw happy faces, why do they draw the eyes with lines and the nose with a dot? Comment your opinion, please?!?! = ?

Do you have a Face Book account? Do your friends or family? The answer to that would most likely be a straight forward yes or no. It really depends on your age. However, if your the responsible type and your parents trust you enough to have one, than no one should worry about you. Some kids are not that responsible and do things that aren’t all that smart, like post their full names, or address. Now Face Book can be pretty fun if you know how to use it right. You can post videos, or your favorite music.

The number one problem of Face Book, is that people can lie about what they look like, and what their age is. Some people even lie about their name. For example, if you’ve been talking to some guy or girl that look like a total hunk or hottie, that doesn’t mean that’s what they look like. They could be some really creepy shady person. Maybe you meet someone who says they’re 15, but in reality they’re in their 40′s? They can find out where you live, who lives with you, and even where your friends live! Don’t put your friends through something like that!

The only surefire way to keep creeps away is to 1. not use a real profile picture (A picture of a cartoon character etc;), 2. keep all personal info off of your profile 3. only invite close friends that you know off of the Internet

As long as you follow these steps, you can be safe (and still have fun) on the Internet!

Please comment!

Okay, so this is the last chapter of the second book. Enjoy!

Master York and I had our hands bound along with our feet. Reginald led us to a courtyard with hanging gallows in the center. It was wooden, and huge. There were two nooses dangling from the wooden bar across the top, and two stools beneath them.

Suddenly, there was a sack put over my head, and I could see no more. I could only imagine the same thing happening to Master York.

I was led to the gallows, and hoisted up to the stool. I felt a rope being put around my neck. The noose.

“Please hurry up, Cleo!” I begged silently.

I heard Crystal giving a speech explaining what terrible, but fake, crimes Master York and I have committed. I hoped no one would believe the lies she told them.

“Go ahead and hang them,” Crystal said, sounding bored, but I knew she could hardly wait.

I braced myself, and the rope tightened around my neck.

Yes, that was the end. I know, total cliffhanger.

Please comment!

Atom led me through buildings and shops. Planet Stella wouldn’t have been too different if there weren’t star mutants floating around. “So,” I began, “You really live here?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty neat.” said Atom.

“Do you know how to use magic? I mean, I know you can shape shift into a human or use crazy mind control powers.” He again stifled a laugh. “No, that’s pretty much it. I’m still in training. I’ve been trying to learn some spells and stuff like that. Do you know magic Riley?”

Well that question was pretty weird in my mind. “Um, no, I don’t know any magic. I’m a human. I can’t even get a good grade in my science class, much less use magic.” That really surprised him.

“Really? Well, I could teach you what I know. If you want.” Now it was my turn to be surprised. “You can do that?” I asked. “Well, sure. We could start day after tomorrow.”

I realized that this opportunity comes never once in a life time. “Yeah! That sounds so cool!”

When Atom stopped walking, I ran my face into a brick wall. For what had seemed like only minutes to me, we had been walking for almost an hour. “This is where you’ll be staying.” said Atom. It was a really nice looking building. It looked like one of the Marriott hotels in Minnesota. We walked in, and it looked exactly like a Marriott hotel! There was a front desk, a bellhop luggage carrier, and a waiting area. “This is exactly like a hotel!” I said. “The cool thing about this place is that it changes to what you want it to look like. You expected it to look like a hotel, so that’s what it turned into.” said Atom.

We went into an elevator which went all they way to the top floor. It was a really nice room. “If you get hungry, just go over to the fridge and say what you want to eat or drink. Also, make sure to set your alarm for our magic lessons.” After he left, I felt my stomach growl. I walked over the fridge and said,”Macaroni and cheese with a hot dog and root beer, please.” I then opened the fridge, and there on a white plate, was what I had ordered. I ate it like a pack of starved wolves. I felt a yawn coming on. I didn’t know how late it was, so I checked the clock. It read 11:24 p.m. I went to the bedroom and opened the drawer to see if there were any pajamas. I had hoped my favorite pj’s would be in there, and sure enough, there they were.

I put them on and crawled into the soft comfy bed. I remembered my family and Wrigley, and how far away they were from me. Probably over a million miles away.

I silently cried myself to sleep, hoping in the morning I would be back at home.

After the star took flight, I was in such a daze that I was barely able to hold on to the handle of the net. I should have just let go when we were five feet off the ground, but we were going too fast.

I got really cold as we got closer to the atmosphere. The thought that I was going into space without a space suit and an oxygen tank hit me, and I thought I was dead.

Finally we went into the creepy, cold, void of space. I tried to hold my breath for as long as possible. I looked up at the star. If I was going to die, I’d want that beautiful star to be the last thing I saw.

I guess the star saw me about to give out, because I started to turn blue. I guess stars can read your thoughts because I was able to breath again.

I held onto the net for what seemed like hours. Then a bright blue planet came into view. It looked like it had a purple force field around it. I thought we were going to collide into it. Then the star did something that I again thought was impossible.

It shape shifted into a human.

It, or I guess I should say he, passed through the force field, and so did I. I saw a lot of stars that were a bunch of different colors. There were also a bunch of human/star mutants as well. The boy was using some sort of mind power on me because I was still defying gravity. We landed on a platform, where an old guy dressed in robes came up to us. He reminded me of Dumbledore. Except this guy looked more ancient.

Then he spoke to us in a very rough voice. It made the entire planet seem as if it were shaking. “So Atom, I see you have brought along a human?”

So Atom was the kid’s name. Then Atom spoke. He sounded like a regular teenager. “Yes sir, but it was a complete accident. She sort of saved my life. From them, sir. So I couldn’t just leave her there, because who knows what they would have done to her if I had gotten away and she returned empty handed!”

The ancient man got a really concerned look on his face. “Yes, well, I see. Now what is your name, young lady?” I guess I could trust these people if one of them saved my life. “Riley, sir.” He must thought my response was funny because he gave out a chuckle. “Well, Riley, to prove if what Atom says is true, you wouldn’t mind giving me the whole story?”

So I told him the whole story. In the end, he examined me carefully, like a police officer would do to a suspect to see if they were lying. Mr. Oldy finally said “I see. Riley, I suppose you are very bewildered with what you have seen so far, yes?” I nodded my head. “Well we live on a planet called Stella, meaning ‘star’ in what you humans call Latin. We have lived in comfort and prosperity for millenia, until now. There is a great threat to us on Earth. A team called Star Catchers have been constructing experiments to extract all of our power to use on their dangerous machinery. What they want to use that machinery on, or what it’s for, is still a mystery to us.”

After what had happened so far today, I didn’t even blink and eye after he finished. ”Well, how come you haven’t used your magic to stop them?” I asked. “It’s not that simple Riley,” said Atom. “Team Star Catchers have already extracted enough magic from us that if we even go near them, our power will be drained.” That made a lot of sense to me. “Well, I guess that makes sense. But who are you?” I pointed to the old man. “I am Cometes. I rule over Stella with the planet’s Council.” I realized that all of these names were in Latin.

“So Atom, how did you end up in Minnesota?” I asked. He got this embarrassed look on his face. “Well you see, I sort of took a wrong turn trying to get to a planet called Mars. We have friends there, and I was going to see if they would help us.” I had just found out that there really are living things on Mars. “”Wait a minute, do you mean like, aliens?” Atom let out a small laugh. “I guess you could say that.” Cometes turned to Atom. “Atom, it seems that Riley be here for a little while. Would you please take her to the guest room?” “Yes sir!” he said.

Pronunciation Guide: Riley-  (Rye-ley)   Atom- sounds like ‘Adam’   Cometes- (Com-a-tess)

I was the first one to hear the knocks.

 I ran to the door and said:”Main door activate.” The doors opened. There stood my dad with panic in his eyes. Before I could ask what happened my dad dropped to the floor unconscious. “DAD!” I screamed.

I looked behind him and saw two vaxidies. (Vaxidies are a type of people on my planet.) They look like bears and pigs mixed together from your planet, although wearing suits. One was holding a gletia, a gun from my planet, with smoke coming from it like it had just been fired, and the other just had his arms crossed with a smug look on his face. I stared at them in horror. Was my dad dead? The Vaxidie with his arms crossed seemed to read my mind.

 ”He might be dead,” he said. “Gletias are very painful and can kill your kind.” I looked behind me. Mom was standing there with a look of horror on her face. She must have heard me scream and came to the door. “Daniel,” she whispered. Daniel was my dad’s name.

Without warning mom burst through the doorway and Put her hand on my dad’s chest. I could tell she didn’t hear anything because she started sobbing while clutching my dad in her arms. I started sniffiling. ”What’s wrong with daddy?”said a voice. I looked be hind me again and saw Kaylee standing there sucking her thumb. Behind her were all my other siblings.

“He’s got a family eh, Grudge?” said the Vaxidie with the gletia. ”I wonder what would happen if they looked just like Daniel here.” He pointed the gletia in our direction and I screamed.

Sorry about the little delay on the My Favorite song ever post. The link didn’t work. So, here is a new one. (The link is on youtube again.)Hope you enjoy!!