• Chel woke up for the seventh time that night, she got up slowly, and looked at her own
    pale reflection in the mirror. She saw a thin girl who had just entered the young age of fifteen.
    She rubbed her eyes one more time. The first day of the fall semester of school at Windblown High was
    circled on the calendar next to the mirror. Taped around the wall where, normally
    adolescent girls would have pictures of cute boy bands or of the latest pop princess, she
    had pictures of other children, some of the pictures were marked out, others had
    checkmarks in the corner. All of these children smiled from their pictures, as if happy to
    see Chel Joserone. Chel rubbed her hand through her long, dark curls, gave one
    more yawn, and slowly rolled out of bed, taking the covers with her. When she hit the
    floor next to her bed, she awoke with a complete start. She opened her eyes wide,
    looking at the room as if seeing it for the first time, then realized that she was not asleep
    any longer. She got up, and walked to one of the children’s pictures that she had just
    realized was there. She studied the face that she had just seen in her dream. The girl was
    smiling sadly back from her picture. She had hair that was black and straight and fell into
    her face, giving her the look of a drowned person. Her eyes were as big and blue as the
    bottom of a water bottle, in contrast to her dark hair and eyebrows. Chel's own black
    eyes studied the picture, then darted to the upper left-hand corner of the picture, which
    said in bold type name: Jaunice Bowman Age:11 Height:4'9 Weight:70 pounds. Chel
    blinked, then walked, groggily, to the downstairs kitchen. Her mother was not
    up yet, so she poured herself a bowel of cookie crisps, then sat down in the living room,
    wrapped in a blanket on the couch, eating it. Her eyes stared into her bowl, subconsciously
    counting the
    number of chocolate chips in every cookie. She went back to
    sleep on the couch, and was awoken three hours later by
    her mother. Her mother's gentle eyes stared down at her,
    asking a silent question.
    Chel answered "Yes, I did,
    It happened again last night" Her mom sighed, Chel
    could not tell whether it was a sigh that meant her mother
    was worried, or that she was proud. Her mother whispered.
    "Where was it this time?" Chel answered. "For the first
    time, I am not sure, it looked as if this time, it was..."
    Her mind flashed back to her dream, and remembered the
    trees next to the house of which she had dreamed, and the
    small animals in it. "It was...Australia." She said,
    remembering the koala's cute faces. Her mom gasped
    "So far away? This is a new school, it will take awhile
    to explain to your teachers.." She busied herself making
    sure that the bags behind her were packed. She said
    "Ok, remember, when you go to school today, at lunch,
    when it is time to explain to your teachers, don't forget
    to give them this note" She handed Chel a note, sealed
    in a pink envelope, then she allowed her to walk out into
    the dark night so that she might catch the bus.
    Chel walked to the stop, then waited five minutes, the
    bus roared around the corner. She walked up the steps
    noticed with small shock that her bus driver must have
    been a woman no older then 21, and she walked to the back
    and sat in one of the back seats of the bus. A small guy
    sat beside her.
    He did not say a word. Chel smelled men's cologne, and
    realized the boy was wearing it. She gave him a funny look,
    and asked "Hey, so are you in tenth grade like me?” He gave
    her a glare. “For your information, I am in eleventh grade, even though I may be
    very small” Chel blushed. “Sorry” He just looked forward, and did not say anything
    more. When they got to school, Chel walked slowly off of the bus, and felt as if she had just entered a whole new world.









    Chapter 2. Classes.
    Students were everywhere, exchanging stories, meeting
    new friends, showing off their new haircuts, and some of the seniors were making
    out. Chel looked at the signs on the wall, telling each person where to go. Chel
    found the doors, she smelled a whiff of men’s cologne. She turned, and saw the
    boy from the bus was standing behind her. He had dark black hair swept up in a
    ponytail, and an innocent face, even though his eyes told her otherwise, and his mouth was
    neither smiling nor frowning. He shrugged. “We are in the same homeroom, we might
    as well walk there together” He stood beside her, glared, then growled “Well, get a move
    on.” “Sheesh” she muttered under her breath, but she started to walk towards the doors.
    she tried to make small talk. “So, when’s your birthday?” He paused, as if trying to
    decide whether to answer or not, then said, grudgingly “October 5th, I will be turning
    sixteen” She stopped. “But I thought you were in eleventh grade?” He said “AM, I AM in
    eleventh grade, I just skipped a few”. He smirked proudly, then got serious. “Dweeb,
    you just passed our homeroom” She walked backwards a few steps, and walked in.
    She sat down, and the boy sat next to her. The teacher walked in. Chel whispered “But
    that’s our bus driver” For the woman wrote ‘Mrs. Vanilla’ In large letters on the board.
    She turned to face the class, and said in a loud voice. “Homeroom, as you may have
    noticed, has all grades together, however, most other classes will not be the same.
    I will hand you schedules, so that you may know what to do today, the lunch you have
    depends on your fourth period class” she paused “Homeroom is considered as your zero hour class, if you are interested in extra credit you may swap it for a actual class that gives credit” Fourth period….Chel hoped to get it over with,
    but was nervous at the same time… Some teachers did not accept the fact that she
    was different… She read the bottom of her schedule, where it informed students which lunch they were to attend. 1st lunch: arts classes, 2nd lunch: Core classes, 3rd lunch: gym classes. Chel skimmed down her schedule, the part of her schedule that told her her classes for the day. 1st period: Sports medicine, 2nd period: Journalism, 3rd period: Algebra, 4th period: gym 5th period: English 6th period: History, 7th period: Cheerleading. Chel felt a nudge from the English desk next to her, she turned “I have 3rd lunch” The precocious boy from the bus said. Chel moaned “I do too” It was all she could do to stop herself from adding ‘Unfortunately’. 3rd lunch… That should give her time to think about what she had to say when she got to the office…. She braced herself for the day. The day that led to the office was very interesting. 1st period, the class sat next to the football field, to treat and learn about injuries. Not surprisingly, considering Chel’s wonderful luck, the boy from the bus was on the football team that was playing on the field. He happened to be among the first of those that got hurt. Chel was chosen to treat his injury. As she was trying to put ointment on his hurt arm, she asked “What is your name?” He winced. “I don’t see that it is any of your business…. Wait! It is Vance!” He spat it out as she whispered “Hmmmm….your temper means that you must be in extreme pain, you poor thing… maybe it is bad enough that I have to stitch it up, if the ointment alone isn’t doing it” with that, she had brought out a needle and some thread, but put it away as quickly as he yelled out his name. She smiled sweetly as she finished the his ointment. “My name is Chel, this has been a very lovely chat, Vance”. She stalked off, and continued to watch the rest of the football team with her class, looking for injured football players to tend to.
    Next period, in Journalism, was actually very boring, which was wonderful for Chel, as she got to sleep the entire class. The teacher for journalism was a balding man, who looked to be in his 60’s, his voice lulled her to sleep like the drone of lazy bees on a hot summers day. He was very plain, and his eyes dropped to where it looked like he was putting himself to sleep by the sound of his own voice. His name was Mr. Blathington Her next period after that, algebra, was terribly dull, even though she was a whiz at it, she detested the subject. The teacher in her math class was a woman with auburn hair, it cupped her ears in a flapper girl fashion. She was seven months pregnant, and told any of the class that would listen, all though it was very apparent. By the time she got to gym, she was worn out and very irritable. A volley ball hit her from behind, further provoking her bad temper. “WHAT?!” She bellowed, then stopped abruptly, as the ball thrower was a very handsome boy. She lowered her voice “Sorry….” He helped her up, as the ball had knocked her down. “Sorry, my aim is atrocious, my name is Lance,” She smiled. “Chel” His smile turned more knowing. “Ohhhhh…..” she demanded “what?” He said “I am guessing you have met my brother, Vance, from all the bickering he has done about you today.” Chel smiled “Yes, the pain….I mean…. pleasure… of meeting him, has been all mine” The gym teacher started to call out teams, and sorted them out, Chel happened to be put onto Lance’s team. The results were terrible. 50-0, Chel thought that must have been because the other team consisted mainly of jocks. Chel heard the bell, and without saying goodbye to Lance, even though he opened his mouth to say something, she hurried off to the locker room so that she could change her clothes. One of the girls that had been playing on the jocks team looked at her curiously, and asked “So, where do you know Lance from?” Chel shrugged. “Just met him…Why?” The girl whispered “Well, he is a little…odd, well, don’t even think about it, I didn’t say anything just…watch your back” with that, she flung her towel over her shoulder and left. Chel sat there, watching after the girl, until she left. She sat up, pulled on her jeans, and walked to the principals office, thinking about what the girl had said on the way there.