I can probably say this will be the best story you'll read yet. I in fact like this better than my Galaxy series, check it out.
Evanesce
Chapter 1- Earthquake Drill
I knew it from the beginning, ever since we moved into this old, 15 year old, rambler, and that was three years ago. I kept on over hearing my parents talking about it before we moved, and the words came back just today. Those exact words that I still hadn't understood what it was, but it sounded serious. They called it Liquefaction or something like that. So after I heard that, I thought I probably should look it up to find what it means.
So I typed in Liquefaction in the box. I understood now that that was why my parents were so serious about it, because I think living on a liquefaction spot is why they had a hard time moving here in the first place. For Liquefaction meant "The conversion of a solid or a gas into a liquid.", I did some more research to find Liquefaction can also relate to earthquakes. How it related to that is if there is ever an earthquake, the solid ground will start to turn sort of like a liquid and whatever is over that sinks with it. I trembled to the thought of running into an earthquake while at home on a liquefaction spot.
My name is Amelia Pepper by the way, but I really prefer Amy. I know my last name is a spice, in fact a seed from a plant, and also get teased sometimes about it, but I'm keepin' it until I'm married. I just turned fourteen yesterday, fun day, and I can now do other stuff I couldn't do as a thirteen year old, YAY!!
It's just me, my little sister, Camilla, my mom, and my dad at home. Camilla is twelve, and we get along pretty well. Though I call her Cammy, because that is what she prefers, like me preferring Amy. Cammy is known as the cat lover, we always had a cat in our front yard that would come to visit her, she even called the cat. As for me, I'm just known as... well, I actually don't know.
After I had a good research about it, I hadn't realized that I was supposed to get walking to school fifteen minutes ago. Cammy had gone to school without telling me she is going, wow, what a sister. I ran up to my mother and told her I needed a ride to school real quick. She nodded and told me to rush to the car. I got in the car and she took me to school.
I sat down at my desk, quickly writing my essay that is supposed to be due in five minutes. My English teacher, Mrs. Zuncolf, sat in her desk waiting for the bell to ring for class to start. I had one more paragraph left, I scribbled it on and darted to the turn in basket, putting it in right when the bell rang. I sighed of relief and sat back down at my desk. Mrs. Zuncolf had stood up and was standing in front of the classroom.
"Vas ze assignment compleetet from all zof you?" She asked, in her strong accent.
"Yes-" The class said in unison until between all that another voice said,
"No," All eyes turned to the boy who said no. Of course, it was Ryan Nailburn, the boy who always forgot his homework. Though whenever Ryan did do his homework he would get a passing A+. Ryan slid down his seat until only his eyes could be seen, for he was clearly embarrassed.
"Zu bettzer turn zat in Ryan Nailzburn before ze end of ze day, zis essay iz vorth vone-hundzret pointz you know." Mrs. Zuncolf warned.
Ryan nodded,
"Plannin' on it," and waited to scoot back up once everybody's eyes fell away from him and on Mrs. Zuncolf.
"Goot, now today ve are zearning off nounz and pronounz."
It didn't seem like learning, this was like a review from the third grade. I waited for her to continue, but right before she was to speak the intercom switched on.
"Sory for the interfuption students and teachers, but in just a few minutes we are going to have an earthquake drill. Just make sure to get under your desks when it goes off, and we will tell you when to get back out. Thank you," and the intercom switched off.
It was the principal on the intercom. Mrs. Zuncolf didn't let the earthquake drill stop her from teaching, she clapped her hands together and said,
"Pull out ze paperz pleaze, ve vill atleast start on zay couple before ve haf to do ze drill."
The room filled with the noise of zippers opening and pages being ripped out of notebooks. Soon everybody had a pencil and paper and ready to write what Mrs. Zuncolf was going to write on the board. She then looked around the room, pulled off the marker cap and wrote on the board:
Noun: Person, Place, or thing
Pronoun:Replacing a noun, Him, her, she, me, Etc.
I quickly jotted it down on the paper and when I looked back up she had already erased it and wrote more words:
Example of noun: Kary sees the park.
Example of pronoun: She see's the park.
Mrs. Zuncolf then turned back around to the class,
"Now vy iz zere two nounz in zat sentence."
Ryan's hand flew up in the air. He always answered her questions and normally the only one.
"Any botzy elze?"She asked, ignoring his waving hand.
Ryan was now standing on his tippy-toes, his hand waving back and forth trying to get her attention.
"Come on claz, I know shu all know zis." She told the class, but still Ryan's hand was the only one up.
"Claz come on. Ryan zit down, you are distracting the class." She snapped at him without giving eye contact.
Ryan sat down obediently and just rose his hand in a normal way. Mrs. Zuncolf sighed and finally turned to Ryan.
"Okay Ryan, go ahead and anzer my question." She said.
Ryan put his hand down and was about to speak until the alarm went off, muting his talking. Everybody hopped off there chairs and got under the desks. I had a hard time fitting underneath the small desk, even with how thin I was. I was average height so most of the class had about the same problem I had about fitting underneath. I tried keeping my head underneath the desk, and while attempting to do that I kinked my neck.
I now wanted the intercom to switch back on so I can get out of here. I was tired of being under this cramped desk, and I was starting to get a Charley Horse in my left foot. We were under there for what felt like thirty minutes, though it was only ten. When the intercom turned on for us to get out I sighed of relief and was actually happy to be working on schoolwork instead of being miserable underneath a desk.
The class filled with conversations and groaning as everybody experienced what I felt or if not worse. Mrs. Zuncolf was beginning to get impatient and clapped her hands loudly, trying to catch out attention.
"Claz, zere no time to talk, ve are now behindz schedule! Now can zi get two volunteers pleeze?" She snapped.
A few students rose there hands and she chose a boy and girl from opposite sides of the classroom. They came up and Mrs. Zuncolf handed each of them a stack of papers. The students passed them around to the others and then came back to give Mrs. Zuncolf the remaining pages. I looked at my paper and sighed as I realized what was on the paper... another essay.
Chapter 2- Mrs. Peppers woes
When school had ended I walked over to the oak tree in front of the school and sat down by it. The tree was very large, probably at least 40 years old and obviously older than the school. Next to the tree was a rabbit hole, snake hole, or whatever it was, that has probably been there as long as the tree.
A few minutes later and my three walking buddies, Ryan, Racheal, and my little seventh grade sister, Cammy came over trailing behind an entire crowd of other students going home. Ryan came up to me, folding his arms.
"How did you get out so fast?" He asked.
"I got let out a minute early."
Ryan rolled his eyes.
"That's a first." He teased.
Racheal nudged him hard in the shoulder for me and he backed away, rubbing it. I was expecting him to ask what that was for, but instead he said,
"We ah, better get going then all of us are here."
I nodded in agreement and I stood up. We walked all the way just past the school until we heard hollering from behind us. We all turned around to find a small seventh grader running towards us. It was Naomi Zuncolf, Mrs. Zuncolf's daughter and Cammy's best friend.
"I... thought we were... going... to... hang out... today." She told to Cammy, still catching her breath.
"Oh yah," Cammy turned to me, " Tell mom I am going to go hang out with Naomi."
Before I could say a response of anything, Naomi grabbed her hand and they ran off back towards the school. We continued walking until we got to the main street light where Rachael splits off the other direction. I said good bye to her and we crossed out street towards me and Ryan's house. Once we reached there, Ryan went home and I went inside to a fresh scent of snicker doodles.
I inhaled the sweet smell for just a moment, and then tossed my backpack on the front room couch.
"You need to put your backpack away sweetheart, we have visitors coming soon." She snapped at me through the kitchen.
How? It's like she can see through walls or just simply read my mind. I picked up my backpack again and entered the kitchen. My mother was placing the cookies in a perfectly made pattern on a large, display platter. She backed away and had a look at it and I knew it by the face she gave that a cookie was just slightly off her pattern. She quickly fixed it and turned to me.
"How was your day sweetie?" She asked.
"Interesting." I responded, eyeing the cookies, tempted to just snatch one myself.
"Interesting, as of..." She said, wanting me to continue.
"Well," I said, tossing my backpack on the ground by the table (My mom sneering at me, but not saying anything), "First, there was an earthquake drill today, then my Spanish teacher tripped over the main staircase heading towards lunch, then I ran into a boy rollerblading in the halls and nearly fell in the garbage can, and then I got a love letter from Rodrick, whom I have already told you he is totally not my type. So there you go, that it why it is so interesting." I explained.
My mom rolled her eyes and was about to speak until she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She walked around me and fixed a picture frame that was just ever so slightly crooked, and can only be noticed by my OCD mother.
"That wonderful sweetheart, now can you go do your homework in your room? I have visitors in precisely two minutes and thirty-four seconds, we need the upstairs spotless." She ordered, fixing one of the dining chairs so it would fit right in the middle, the legs of the chairs lined up with the corners of the tiles.
I nodded and snatched my backpack to take to my room. I tried to hide it, but it didn't work very well. For my room was, at least to my mother, the messiest room in history. No matter how many times she has asked me to clean it, I would try making an excuse not to or somehow get away with not doing it. Soon she just learned to drop it and never enter my room again until it's cleaned.
My room had an unmade, purple polka-dotted bed, a small, oak dresser with clothes hanging out of the drawers, lime green curtains that had a very noticeable snag on a corner of it, a small closet that was always left open showing the many child times toys, games, and small clothes stuffed inside, and about half my laundry scattered across the blue carpet. Yes, my room is a mess, but I live with it just fine.
I tossed my backpack on my bed and pulled out my math binder. I had three pages of math homework to do, lovely. I sat on my squeaky, old, bed and began my homework. Soon I heard the doorbell ring and hearing a chatter of voices as her visitors came inside.
I couldn't help it, I just had to see who the visitors were. I placed my homework down and walked out of my bedroom to peak through the doorway towards the front room. There were three men that definitely looked like brothers, and a woman that looked nothing like the others. The woman had dark, long hair and dark eyes. She had shining white teeth, and a gorgeous face. She kind of reminded me of Rachael, but she wasn't her.
I didn't want to be in there too long, I left the room again and continued my homework. As I finished the twelfth problem, I could hear a cat meowing outside my window. I moved away the curtains to find a yellow cat, sitting on the ground in front of my window, and licking her paw.
It was Princess Buttercup, that was her name. Cammy had named her, Princess Buttercup has been coming here to see Cammy and Camilla has been hooked on her. Cammy loved cats, esspecially this cat without a home. I don't care much about cats, and Princess Buttercup was one of my least favorite cats.
I tapped on the window and the cat stopped licking her paw and stared at me with her yellow eyes. She just stared creepily into mine, as if trying to decide if she wants to kill me or not. Princess Buttercup stared for quite a long, awkward time and then hissed at me. She hit the window with her paw, her claws leaving thin scratches. This angered me, I pounded on the window for her to back off, and the cat scurried away.
I shut the blinds in a forceful way, closed the curtains, and sat back on my bed. I was getting a little frustrated today, it was more than interesting, it was irritating. I got back to my homework and sighed as I just got to a difficult problem.
I was so angry, I couldn't think right to figure the problem out. Soon, I heard the door shut in the hallway and I ran out of my bedroom. My mother was on the couch alone, trying to hide a tear that fell down her cheek.
"Who were your visitors?" I asked her (Though maybe it could be the wrong time, but hopefully not).
"The Myers, they are the owners of the house."
"What about the lady?"
"Well... I actually don't know who she was, they just mentioned that she came for the ride. She never mentioned her name though, so I guess she was just a friend."My mother said, in a surprisingly cheerful tone of voice.
"How come your-" But before I could ask the question my mother stood up.
"Can you get the mail for me sweetheart, and then go get Cammy from Naomi's?" She asked, not keeping eye contact with me.
I nodded and left the house. I didn't know what was going on with my mother, but she was going into depression. And how I knew that was because there was a tissue on the couch... and when something is misplaced in my house, it is not good.
Chapter 3- Mr. Peppers lucky day
Adrian Pepper sat in his office, spinning his pencil on the metal desk. He knew he will be getting a pink slip soon anyway, so he didn't think it wouldn't be much help to work. He was tempted to just quit, but he believed getting fired from his boss would probably come before he calls out that he was quitting. He decided that maybe the best to be doing right now it to be looking for a new job.
It was a long story of how he got fired, but to make it short and sweet he made a huge mistake and his boss was furious. This caused everybody to glare at him, and one of his buddies approached him whispering in his ear that he was probably going to get fired tomorrow. He was prepared for it, so he wasn't stressing too much about it, though it really wasn't his fault, he couldn't really do anything about it.
About an hour later and he was playing a game of racing on his computer. When his shift was over, he placed everything that belonged to him off his desk, stuffed it in his brief case and left his office. Adrian's boss stood outside his door, sighing heavily. Mr. Pepper didn't say a word, for he new exactly what was coming.
His boss grabbed his hand and placed the pink slip inside it. Adrian's boss didn't say anything else, he just walked away without saying another word. Mr. Pepper gave a small head nod and headed out the door, knowing he will never try to make that mistake again.
As he walked down the parking lot to his car, a woman in dark shades stood by the doorway watching him. Right before he was going to unlock his car, she began walking towards him, her tall, black heels clicking against the ground. The woman stood behind him and Adrian turned to her to see whats up.
"Who are you?" He asked in a snappish tone.
"My name is Scarlet Black," She then pulled out an ID with her picture and name on it, "I work with the secret service, I need to ask you a few questions."
Mr. Pepper returned home with his face so bright in excitement it was making his daughters sitting in the front room, wonder what he was up to. He nodded happily to both of them and they smiled back, brightening up there days. Adrian then entered the dining room, and scattered across the entire table were papers, bills, letters, and other documents printed on paper.
His wife was on one end of it, her head rested over her folded arms atop the table. He approached her, rubbing her back. Mrs. Peppers bloodshot, blue eyes poked out from behind her arms, dark backs drooping underneath them. Her head almost look like a birds nest with it being ratted up from not brushing and not putting it up.
"Oh hunny." Adrian sobbed, hugging his dear wife.
"My brothers are having me pay for the funeral, and the owners decided they want us out in four weeks instead of two months." She said in a depressed tone.
"The house can wait sweetheart, he's your dad, family goes first."
"But we have less than a month before being forced out. We still have to pack."
"We've moved in a week before sweetheart. Your dad's funeral is the only thing we can do right now."
"What about the bills?"
"I will pay for them, now I want you to go rest a while, it looks like you haven't rested for days." Adrian ordered.
Mrs. Pepper sighed and got off her chair. But before she left around the corner she stopped and turned back to her husband.
"What about your job, I heard you were fired." She cried.
"I got it handled honey, I found another job. Someone hired me as soon as I walked out the doors. She even paid me before my first day to have me work there. We can now pay for all our debts, our bills, the funeral, and if this job turns into a success... we can stay in the house!"
A small smile grew on his wife's forlorn face. She ran over to him, giving him a grateful hug and pecking him on the cheek.
"I love you hunny, I knew you could figure out a new way," She cheered, giving him yet another peck on the cheek. She then pushed him away.
"We got to tell the girls Adrian, "
"Oh no, we heard every part of it mother." A voice said from the front room.
Leaning against the wall splitting the front room from the kitchen was Amelia and Camilla, smiling as big as their dad was.
"Well honey, it wasn't just yours and my lucky day. It was all of ours!" Said Mr. Pepper, as the room seemed to brighten up.
Chapter 4- Princess Buttercup
I was so excited when I had heard about that. Two weeks my mother miserable like that, two weeks! Ever since that odd day at school everything went wrong after that, my grandpa Tusac died, we were losing our home, and it was also the first day my dad did a big mistake at work. After that my dad made a mistake, each one worse than the other and soon it built up towards him being fired.
Cammy tends to vanish everyday without telling anyone, I don't know why exactly, and neither does my parents know. Though, whenever she would return she would have a huge grin on her face and covered in yellow cat hair. Then, just two days ago, my mother came up to Cammy and asked:
"Now ms. Camilla Pepper, what have you been up to for these last two weeks?"
Cammy brushed the cat hair off her shirt and gave a guilty look to her mother.
"Oh, she's been so lonely mother, I can't help but visit her everyday!" She cried.
"Who has been sweetheart?" She wondered.
"Princess Buttercup of course, haven't I introduced her to you before."
She shook her head.
"Who's Princess Buttercup?"
"She's a cat, in fact a stray cat who lives on our street. She has been wandering around wanting comfort, she's just skin and bones though, I've been trying to feed her and she just hisses. So I just play with her, pet her a lot, sometimes even go for a walk with her, we have lots of fun together."
"So all this time you had just been wandering off to play with a stray cat?"
"Yep, she didn't even have a name. So I called her Princess Buttercup, you know off of The Princess Bride?"
I decided, more like me and my parents decided to call her 'the cat lover', because it was to true. It was just today when I spotted Cammy run off again, and this time I decided to follow her, for for some reason I felt like she was hiding something. I hastily followed behind and hit behind a bush as she crouched over, and the yellow cat came darting towards her.
"Come on Amy, I'm not hiding anything. Come and see the cat, maybe she will lick your hand!"Cammy called over to me.
I sighed, I really didn't like cats. I got out from my hiding spot and ended up standing in front of the skinny, ugly, sharp green eyed cat. Cammy was already stroking her long fur, the cat purring softly. I finally squatted down and began petting her as well. Her fur would stick to my hands like glue and soon I discovered it wasn't just my hands, my pants her body was rubbing against were covered in cat hair.
I stood up and tried brushing off the cat hair, but they just stuck there.
"I have some homework to do, sorry Cammy, got to go." I said, trying to make the best excuse.
"Okay, I'll be a while back home, so make sure to tell mom." She hollered as I began walking down the street.
Without looking back, I put a thumbs up and continued back to my house. I did have a little bit of homework, in fact it was math homework. I sat on my bed and pulled out my math homework, a pencil, and a calculator. I was just about to write my first problem down until I heard the door open and shut and my mother hollering for dinner time.
I tossed my homework off to the side and came to the dining room, smelling something like Fried Rice. I sat down at the table and saw the bowl of fried rice, the bacon, and the seasonings mixed inside the bowl of rice. It was quite a good dinner, though Cammy hadn't returned form her little hang out with Princess Buttercup.
By the time I finished with dinner, I did the dishes (My mom asked me to do it), folded clothes that just came out of the dryer, emptied the garbage's, then had desert (Which was in fact a peach cobbler), and then finally Cammy came back. It was now nearly thirty minutes past seven and she hadn't even had dinner yet.
"Go wash your hands Cammy, Your hands have cat hair all over them!" My mother snapped at her.
Cammy nodded and rushed to the sink to wash her hands. I walked back to my bedroom and realized I had forgotten about my homework. I sat back down and looked at the first two problems, then after a long while of working I looked at problems 56 and 57:
56) 14x-3=7x-9
57) 6+3x=x+8
It was all too easy, though for some reason I was having a hard time. It was until I got to problem 94 until I began to go cross-eyed and fell asleep.
I woke up late that Saturday morning, well later than I normally intend to wake up at. It was nearly eleven o'clock in the morning, and nearly lunchtime. But I just walked over to the table and had breakfast, while my mom fixed Cammy and herself an early lunch. I glanced over to the counter and a plate stacked on top of other dishes from breakfast still had pancake crumbs... I guess I missed a good breakfast.
Today they had a fair just a mile down the street, me, Ryan, and Cammy were hoping to just walk down there. After I finished with breakfast/lunch, I slipped on some shoes, grabbed Cammy and we went out the door. Ryan was outside, practicing a round of basketball in his driveway basketball hoop. When he saw us coming over, he tossed the ball in his yard and approached us.
"Been waiting an hour, what took you so long?" He asked.
"Slept in." I responded.
"Well, now that your an hour late we have no extra time to waist, lets get going!"
We began heading down the street towards the fair, and then a mile past when we spotted the large Ferris wheel. We ran towards the ticket booth and got a decent amount of tickets for the rides. Once we did that we ran off to the first ride we all wanted to go on, the zipper. As we came up to it, I turned around to find Ryan had suddenly vanished.
Instead of going on the zipper we looked for Ryan. We checked the lines to other rides, the booths, the food carts, and even outside the borders of the fair. Soon, it began to get frustrating that Ryan was nowhere in sight and I began walking back to the ride I've been wanting so ever badly to climb into.
Then, as I walked across the trampled grass within the fair, I felt a cold chill touch my neck. I screamed and turned around to find Ryan laughing. It was his hands, he had put his hands on my neck and... ohhhhh, boys!
"Have you been following me this entire time!" I snapped.
Ryan stopped laughing and straightened up.
"Maybe." He said guiltily.
I rolled my eyes, knowing the answer to that one. I hit him on the shoulder, though it wasn't hard enough for it to hurt too much.
"Your hands are freezing!" I cried.
"I know, that is exactly why I did that!"
He didn't run off after that. We were able to go on the zipper, which was oval shaped, with cages (Holding people of course) that would spin and lurch around as the base itself would rotate and whip the cages around. When I first saw that ride, I was scared out of my mind, it was until I went on it when I loved it for life.
As I climbed into one of the cages, I held tightly on the bar and the excitement began. I held tightly on the bars, screaming as loud as I could as the machine was in movement. I tried to ignore the uncomfortable bench I was sitting upon and focused more on what to expect when my cage flips over and I scream for dear life. It lasted for about five minutes and it sadly ended.
After that ride, I got off dizzy and feeling more excited than sick. I followed Ryan and Cammy to another ride of which was one of my least favorite. I could never remember the name, but I know it when I see it. Both my little sister and my next door neighbor wanted to go on it, I couldn't decide. One side of my shoulder an angel told me to follow my instincts on not go on, and that I have my agency. Then on the other side of my shoulder was the shoulder dare devil. It's telling me to take my chances, go on it, and give a good ole' try. I sighed and for once, listened to the shoulder dare devil.
It was a something drop, you get in the seat and all you get is your stomach dropping. I hopped on the ride and sighed, hating the feeling of your stomach lurching. The seats came up the pole, it making a suspensful clicking noise, then we reached the top. It stopped for a long moment and then came down fast, stopping midway. I closed my tightly, disliking the feeling. Both of them had there hands up, screaming, but I just held on tightly for dear life.
I was glad when the ride finished. We went on just a few more rides and then approached a booth. The booth was to shoot stuff and get prizes. We paid him tickets and he handed me a yellow, plastic gun. I focused on my target and the time started. I had three shots and all three I surely missed my target by a lot.
We were now already out of tickets. Ryan was the only one who really won something, and it was a cool looking reusable water bottle. We went over to the drinking fountains and he filled it up. We then went over to the food carts and bought a cinnamon pretzel and headed out of the fair.
As we began walking into our neighborhood the yellow cat came running towards us. Ryan backed away a few steps.
"I-I'm alergic to cats." He said.
Ryan then ran over to his house, not wanting to even get close to the cat. Me and Cammy came back over to our house and the cat followed behind wanting more attention. We sat at our lawn, petting the cat as it lied down purring.
It was just minutes later when I stopped, feeling like something is not right. Princess Buttercup tried to get our attention again, but both of us was focused on finding out what that feeling was. It was then when we both realized at once what it was... for the ground was beginning to tremble.
I knew it from the beginning, ever since we moved into this old, 15 year old, rambler, and that was three years ago. I kept on over hearing my parents talking about it before we moved, and the words came back just today. Those exact words that I still hadn't understood what it was, but it sounded serious. They called it Liquefaction or something like that. So after I heard that, I thought I probably should look it up to find what it means.
So I typed in Liquefaction in the box. I understood now that that was why my parents were so serious about it, because I think living on a liquefaction spot is why they had a hard time moving here in the first place. For Liquefaction meant "The conversion of a solid or a gas into a liquid.", I did some more research to find Liquefaction can also relate to earthquakes. How it related to that is if there is ever an earthquake, the solid ground will start to turn sort of like a liquid and whatever is over that sinks with it. I trembled to the thought of running into an earthquake while at home on a liquefaction spot.
My name is Amelia Pepper by the way, but I really prefer Amy. I know my last name is a spice, in fact a seed from a plant, and also get teased sometimes about it, but I'm keepin' it until I'm married. I just turned fourteen yesterday, fun day, and I can now do other stuff I couldn't do as a thirteen year old, YAY!!
It's just me, my little sister, Camilla, my mom, and my dad at home. Camilla is twelve, and we get along pretty well. Though I call her Cammy, because that is what she prefers, like me preferring Amy. Cammy is known as the cat lover, we always had a cat in our front yard that would come to visit her, she even called the cat. As for me, I'm just known as... well, I actually don't know.
After I had a good research about it, I hadn't realized that I was supposed to get walking to school fifteen minutes ago. Cammy had gone to school without telling me she is going, wow, what a sister. I ran up to my mother and told her I needed a ride to school real quick. She nodded and told me to rush to the car. I got in the car and she took me to school.
I sat down at my desk, quickly writing my essay that is supposed to be due in five minutes. My English teacher, Mrs. Zuncolf, sat in her desk waiting for the bell to ring for class to start. I had one more paragraph left, I scribbled it on and darted to the turn in basket, putting it in right when the bell rang. I sighed of relief and sat back down at my desk. Mrs. Zuncolf had stood up and was standing in front of the classroom.
"Vas ze assignment compleetet from all zof you?" She asked, in her strong accent.
"Yes-" The class said in unison until between all that another voice said,
"No," All eyes turned to the boy who said no. Of course, it was Ryan Nailburn, the boy who always forgot his homework. Though whenever Ryan did do his homework he would get a passing A+. Ryan slid down his seat until only his eyes could be seen, for he was clearly embarrassed.
"Zu bettzer turn zat in Ryan Nailzburn before ze end of ze day, zis essay iz vorth vone-hundzret pointz you know." Mrs. Zuncolf warned.
Ryan nodded,
"Plannin' on it," and waited to scoot back up once everybody's eyes fell away from him and on Mrs. Zuncolf.
"Goot, now today ve are zearning off nounz and pronounz."
It didn't seem like learning, this was like a review from the third grade. I waited for her to continue, but right before she was to speak the intercom switched on.
"Sory for the interfuption students and teachers, but in just a few minutes we are going to have an earthquake drill. Just make sure to get under your desks when it goes off, and we will tell you when to get back out. Thank you," and the intercom switched off.
It was the principal on the intercom. Mrs. Zuncolf didn't let the earthquake drill stop her from teaching, she clapped her hands together and said,
"Pull out ze paperz pleaze, ve vill atleast start on zay couple before ve haf to do ze drill."
The room filled with the noise of zippers opening and pages being ripped out of notebooks. Soon everybody had a pencil and paper and ready to write what Mrs. Zuncolf was going to write on the board. She then looked around the room, pulled off the marker cap and wrote on the board:
Noun: Person, Place, or thing
Pronoun:Replacing a noun, Him, her, she, me, Etc.
I quickly jotted it down on the paper and when I looked back up she had already erased it and wrote more words:
Example of noun: Kary sees the park.
Example of pronoun: She see's the park.
Mrs. Zuncolf then turned back around to the class,
"Now vy iz zere two nounz in zat sentence."
Ryan's hand flew up in the air. He always answered her questions and normally the only one.
"Any botzy elze?"She asked, ignoring his waving hand.
Ryan was now standing on his tippy-toes, his hand waving back and forth trying to get her attention.
"Come on claz, I know shu all know zis." She told the class, but still Ryan's hand was the only one up.
"Claz come on. Ryan zit down, you are distracting the class." She snapped at him without giving eye contact.
Ryan sat down obediently and just rose his hand in a normal way. Mrs. Zuncolf sighed and finally turned to Ryan.
"Okay Ryan, go ahead and anzer my question." She said.
Ryan put his hand down and was about to speak until the alarm went off, muting his talking. Everybody hopped off there chairs and got under the desks. I had a hard time fitting underneath the small desk, even with how thin I was. I was average height so most of the class had about the same problem I had about fitting underneath. I tried keeping my head underneath the desk, and while attempting to do that I kinked my neck.
I now wanted the intercom to switch back on so I can get out of here. I was tired of being under this cramped desk, and I was starting to get a Charley Horse in my left foot. We were under there for what felt like thirty minutes, though it was only ten. When the intercom turned on for us to get out I sighed of relief and was actually happy to be working on schoolwork instead of being miserable underneath a desk.
The class filled with conversations and groaning as everybody experienced what I felt or if not worse. Mrs. Zuncolf was beginning to get impatient and clapped her hands loudly, trying to catch out attention.
"Claz, zere no time to talk, ve are now behindz schedule! Now can zi get two volunteers pleeze?" She snapped.
A few students rose there hands and she chose a boy and girl from opposite sides of the classroom. They came up and Mrs. Zuncolf handed each of them a stack of papers. The students passed them around to the others and then came back to give Mrs. Zuncolf the remaining pages. I looked at my paper and sighed as I realized what was on the paper... another essay.
Chapter 2- Mrs. Peppers woes
When school had ended I walked over to the oak tree in front of the school and sat down by it. The tree was very large, probably at least 40 years old and obviously older than the school. Next to the tree was a rabbit hole, snake hole, or whatever it was, that has probably been there as long as the tree.
A few minutes later and my three walking buddies, Ryan, Racheal, and my little seventh grade sister, Cammy came over trailing behind an entire crowd of other students going home. Ryan came up to me, folding his arms.
"How did you get out so fast?" He asked.
"I got let out a minute early."
Ryan rolled his eyes.
"That's a first." He teased.
Racheal nudged him hard in the shoulder for me and he backed away, rubbing it. I was expecting him to ask what that was for, but instead he said,
"We ah, better get going then all of us are here."
I nodded in agreement and I stood up. We walked all the way just past the school until we heard hollering from behind us. We all turned around to find a small seventh grader running towards us. It was Naomi Zuncolf, Mrs. Zuncolf's daughter and Cammy's best friend.
"I... thought we were... going... to... hang out... today." She told to Cammy, still catching her breath.
"Oh yah," Cammy turned to me, " Tell mom I am going to go hang out with Naomi."
Before I could say a response of anything, Naomi grabbed her hand and they ran off back towards the school. We continued walking until we got to the main street light where Rachael splits off the other direction. I said good bye to her and we crossed out street towards me and Ryan's house. Once we reached there, Ryan went home and I went inside to a fresh scent of snicker doodles.
I inhaled the sweet smell for just a moment, and then tossed my backpack on the front room couch.
"You need to put your backpack away sweetheart, we have visitors coming soon." She snapped at me through the kitchen.
How? It's like she can see through walls or just simply read my mind. I picked up my backpack again and entered the kitchen. My mother was placing the cookies in a perfectly made pattern on a large, display platter. She backed away and had a look at it and I knew it by the face she gave that a cookie was just slightly off her pattern. She quickly fixed it and turned to me.
"How was your day sweetie?" She asked.
"Interesting." I responded, eyeing the cookies, tempted to just snatch one myself.
"Interesting, as of..." She said, wanting me to continue.
"Well," I said, tossing my backpack on the ground by the table (My mom sneering at me, but not saying anything), "First, there was an earthquake drill today, then my Spanish teacher tripped over the main staircase heading towards lunch, then I ran into a boy rollerblading in the halls and nearly fell in the garbage can, and then I got a love letter from Rodrick, whom I have already told you he is totally not my type. So there you go, that it why it is so interesting." I explained.
My mom rolled her eyes and was about to speak until she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She walked around me and fixed a picture frame that was just ever so slightly crooked, and can only be noticed by my OCD mother.
"That wonderful sweetheart, now can you go do your homework in your room? I have visitors in precisely two minutes and thirty-four seconds, we need the upstairs spotless." She ordered, fixing one of the dining chairs so it would fit right in the middle, the legs of the chairs lined up with the corners of the tiles.
I nodded and snatched my backpack to take to my room. I tried to hide it, but it didn't work very well. For my room was, at least to my mother, the messiest room in history. No matter how many times she has asked me to clean it, I would try making an excuse not to or somehow get away with not doing it. Soon she just learned to drop it and never enter my room again until it's cleaned.
My room had an unmade, purple polka-dotted bed, a small, oak dresser with clothes hanging out of the drawers, lime green curtains that had a very noticeable snag on a corner of it, a small closet that was always left open showing the many child times toys, games, and small clothes stuffed inside, and about half my laundry scattered across the blue carpet. Yes, my room is a mess, but I live with it just fine.
I tossed my backpack on my bed and pulled out my math binder. I had three pages of math homework to do, lovely. I sat on my squeaky, old, bed and began my homework. Soon I heard the doorbell ring and hearing a chatter of voices as her visitors came inside.
I couldn't help it, I just had to see who the visitors were. I placed my homework down and walked out of my bedroom to peak through the doorway towards the front room. There were three men that definitely looked like brothers, and a woman that looked nothing like the others. The woman had dark, long hair and dark eyes. She had shining white teeth, and a gorgeous face. She kind of reminded me of Rachael, but she wasn't her.
I didn't want to be in there too long, I left the room again and continued my homework. As I finished the twelfth problem, I could hear a cat meowing outside my window. I moved away the curtains to find a yellow cat, sitting on the ground in front of my window, and licking her paw.
It was Princess Buttercup, that was her name. Cammy had named her, Princess Buttercup has been coming here to see Cammy and Camilla has been hooked on her. Cammy loved cats, esspecially this cat without a home. I don't care much about cats, and Princess Buttercup was one of my least favorite cats.
I tapped on the window and the cat stopped licking her paw and stared at me with her yellow eyes. She just stared creepily into mine, as if trying to decide if she wants to kill me or not. Princess Buttercup stared for quite a long, awkward time and then hissed at me. She hit the window with her paw, her claws leaving thin scratches. This angered me, I pounded on the window for her to back off, and the cat scurried away.
I shut the blinds in a forceful way, closed the curtains, and sat back on my bed. I was getting a little frustrated today, it was more than interesting, it was irritating. I got back to my homework and sighed as I just got to a difficult problem.
I was so angry, I couldn't think right to figure the problem out. Soon, I heard the door shut in the hallway and I ran out of my bedroom. My mother was on the couch alone, trying to hide a tear that fell down her cheek.
"Who were your visitors?" I asked her (Though maybe it could be the wrong time, but hopefully not).
"The Myers, they are the owners of the house."
"What about the lady?"
"Well... I actually don't know who she was, they just mentioned that she came for the ride. She never mentioned her name though, so I guess she was just a friend."My mother said, in a surprisingly cheerful tone of voice.
"How come your-" But before I could ask the question my mother stood up.
"Can you get the mail for me sweetheart, and then go get Cammy from Naomi's?" She asked, not keeping eye contact with me.
I nodded and left the house. I didn't know what was going on with my mother, but she was going into depression. And how I knew that was because there was a tissue on the couch... and when something is misplaced in my house, it is not good.
Chapter 3- Mr. Peppers lucky day
Adrian Pepper sat in his office, spinning his pencil on the metal desk. He knew he will be getting a pink slip soon anyway, so he didn't think it wouldn't be much help to work. He was tempted to just quit, but he believed getting fired from his boss would probably come before he calls out that he was quitting. He decided that maybe the best to be doing right now it to be looking for a new job.
It was a long story of how he got fired, but to make it short and sweet he made a huge mistake and his boss was furious. This caused everybody to glare at him, and one of his buddies approached him whispering in his ear that he was probably going to get fired tomorrow. He was prepared for it, so he wasn't stressing too much about it, though it really wasn't his fault, he couldn't really do anything about it.
About an hour later and he was playing a game of racing on his computer. When his shift was over, he placed everything that belonged to him off his desk, stuffed it in his brief case and left his office. Adrian's boss stood outside his door, sighing heavily. Mr. Pepper didn't say a word, for he new exactly what was coming.
His boss grabbed his hand and placed the pink slip inside it. Adrian's boss didn't say anything else, he just walked away without saying another word. Mr. Pepper gave a small head nod and headed out the door, knowing he will never try to make that mistake again.
As he walked down the parking lot to his car, a woman in dark shades stood by the doorway watching him. Right before he was going to unlock his car, she began walking towards him, her tall, black heels clicking against the ground. The woman stood behind him and Adrian turned to her to see whats up.
"Who are you?" He asked in a snappish tone.
"My name is Scarlet Black," She then pulled out an ID with her picture and name on it, "I work with the secret service, I need to ask you a few questions."
Mr. Pepper returned home with his face so bright in excitement it was making his daughters sitting in the front room, wonder what he was up to. He nodded happily to both of them and they smiled back, brightening up there days. Adrian then entered the dining room, and scattered across the entire table were papers, bills, letters, and other documents printed on paper.
His wife was on one end of it, her head rested over her folded arms atop the table. He approached her, rubbing her back. Mrs. Peppers bloodshot, blue eyes poked out from behind her arms, dark backs drooping underneath them. Her head almost look like a birds nest with it being ratted up from not brushing and not putting it up.
"Oh hunny." Adrian sobbed, hugging his dear wife.
"My brothers are having me pay for the funeral, and the owners decided they want us out in four weeks instead of two months." She said in a depressed tone.
"The house can wait sweetheart, he's your dad, family goes first."
"But we have less than a month before being forced out. We still have to pack."
"We've moved in a week before sweetheart. Your dad's funeral is the only thing we can do right now."
"What about the bills?"
"I will pay for them, now I want you to go rest a while, it looks like you haven't rested for days." Adrian ordered.
Mrs. Pepper sighed and got off her chair. But before she left around the corner she stopped and turned back to her husband.
"What about your job, I heard you were fired." She cried.
"I got it handled honey, I found another job. Someone hired me as soon as I walked out the doors. She even paid me before my first day to have me work there. We can now pay for all our debts, our bills, the funeral, and if this job turns into a success... we can stay in the house!"
A small smile grew on his wife's forlorn face. She ran over to him, giving him a grateful hug and pecking him on the cheek.
"I love you hunny, I knew you could figure out a new way," She cheered, giving him yet another peck on the cheek. She then pushed him away.
"We got to tell the girls Adrian, "
"Oh no, we heard every part of it mother." A voice said from the front room.
Leaning against the wall splitting the front room from the kitchen was Amelia and Camilla, smiling as big as their dad was.
"Well honey, it wasn't just yours and my lucky day. It was all of ours!" Said Mr. Pepper, as the room seemed to brighten up.
Chapter 4- Princess Buttercup
I was so excited when I had heard about that. Two weeks my mother miserable like that, two weeks! Ever since that odd day at school everything went wrong after that, my grandpa Tusac died, we were losing our home, and it was also the first day my dad did a big mistake at work. After that my dad made a mistake, each one worse than the other and soon it built up towards him being fired.
Cammy tends to vanish everyday without telling anyone, I don't know why exactly, and neither does my parents know. Though, whenever she would return she would have a huge grin on her face and covered in yellow cat hair. Then, just two days ago, my mother came up to Cammy and asked:
"Now ms. Camilla Pepper, what have you been up to for these last two weeks?"
Cammy brushed the cat hair off her shirt and gave a guilty look to her mother.
"Oh, she's been so lonely mother, I can't help but visit her everyday!" She cried.
"Who has been sweetheart?" She wondered.
"Princess Buttercup of course, haven't I introduced her to you before."
She shook her head.
"Who's Princess Buttercup?"
"She's a cat, in fact a stray cat who lives on our street. She has been wandering around wanting comfort, she's just skin and bones though, I've been trying to feed her and she just hisses. So I just play with her, pet her a lot, sometimes even go for a walk with her, we have lots of fun together."
"So all this time you had just been wandering off to play with a stray cat?"
"Yep, she didn't even have a name. So I called her Princess Buttercup, you know off of The Princess Bride?"
I decided, more like me and my parents decided to call her 'the cat lover', because it was to true. It was just today when I spotted Cammy run off again, and this time I decided to follow her, for for some reason I felt like she was hiding something. I hastily followed behind and hit behind a bush as she crouched over, and the yellow cat came darting towards her.
"Come on Amy, I'm not hiding anything. Come and see the cat, maybe she will lick your hand!"Cammy called over to me.
I sighed, I really didn't like cats. I got out from my hiding spot and ended up standing in front of the skinny, ugly, sharp green eyed cat. Cammy was already stroking her long fur, the cat purring softly. I finally squatted down and began petting her as well. Her fur would stick to my hands like glue and soon I discovered it wasn't just my hands, my pants her body was rubbing against were covered in cat hair.
I stood up and tried brushing off the cat hair, but they just stuck there.
"I have some homework to do, sorry Cammy, got to go." I said, trying to make the best excuse.
"Okay, I'll be a while back home, so make sure to tell mom." She hollered as I began walking down the street.
Without looking back, I put a thumbs up and continued back to my house. I did have a little bit of homework, in fact it was math homework. I sat on my bed and pulled out my math homework, a pencil, and a calculator. I was just about to write my first problem down until I heard the door open and shut and my mother hollering for dinner time.
I tossed my homework off to the side and came to the dining room, smelling something like Fried Rice. I sat down at the table and saw the bowl of fried rice, the bacon, and the seasonings mixed inside the bowl of rice. It was quite a good dinner, though Cammy hadn't returned form her little hang out with Princess Buttercup.
By the time I finished with dinner, I did the dishes (My mom asked me to do it), folded clothes that just came out of the dryer, emptied the garbage's, then had desert (Which was in fact a peach cobbler), and then finally Cammy came back. It was now nearly thirty minutes past seven and she hadn't even had dinner yet.
"Go wash your hands Cammy, Your hands have cat hair all over them!" My mother snapped at her.
Cammy nodded and rushed to the sink to wash her hands. I walked back to my bedroom and realized I had forgotten about my homework. I sat back down and looked at the first two problems, then after a long while of working I looked at problems 56 and 57:
56) 14x-3=7x-9
57) 6+3x=x+8
It was all too easy, though for some reason I was having a hard time. It was until I got to problem 94 until I began to go cross-eyed and fell asleep.
I woke up late that Saturday morning, well later than I normally intend to wake up at. It was nearly eleven o'clock in the morning, and nearly lunchtime. But I just walked over to the table and had breakfast, while my mom fixed Cammy and herself an early lunch. I glanced over to the counter and a plate stacked on top of other dishes from breakfast still had pancake crumbs... I guess I missed a good breakfast.
Today they had a fair just a mile down the street, me, Ryan, and Cammy were hoping to just walk down there. After I finished with breakfast/lunch, I slipped on some shoes, grabbed Cammy and we went out the door. Ryan was outside, practicing a round of basketball in his driveway basketball hoop. When he saw us coming over, he tossed the ball in his yard and approached us.
"Been waiting an hour, what took you so long?" He asked.
"Slept in." I responded.
"Well, now that your an hour late we have no extra time to waist, lets get going!"
We began heading down the street towards the fair, and then a mile past when we spotted the large Ferris wheel. We ran towards the ticket booth and got a decent amount of tickets for the rides. Once we did that we ran off to the first ride we all wanted to go on, the zipper. As we came up to it, I turned around to find Ryan had suddenly vanished.
Instead of going on the zipper we looked for Ryan. We checked the lines to other rides, the booths, the food carts, and even outside the borders of the fair. Soon, it began to get frustrating that Ryan was nowhere in sight and I began walking back to the ride I've been wanting so ever badly to climb into.
Then, as I walked across the trampled grass within the fair, I felt a cold chill touch my neck. I screamed and turned around to find Ryan laughing. It was his hands, he had put his hands on my neck and... ohhhhh, boys!
"Have you been following me this entire time!" I snapped.
Ryan stopped laughing and straightened up.
"Maybe." He said guiltily.
I rolled my eyes, knowing the answer to that one. I hit him on the shoulder, though it wasn't hard enough for it to hurt too much.
"Your hands are freezing!" I cried.
"I know, that is exactly why I did that!"
He didn't run off after that. We were able to go on the zipper, which was oval shaped, with cages (Holding people of course) that would spin and lurch around as the base itself would rotate and whip the cages around. When I first saw that ride, I was scared out of my mind, it was until I went on it when I loved it for life.
As I climbed into one of the cages, I held tightly on the bar and the excitement began. I held tightly on the bars, screaming as loud as I could as the machine was in movement. I tried to ignore the uncomfortable bench I was sitting upon and focused more on what to expect when my cage flips over and I scream for dear life. It lasted for about five minutes and it sadly ended.
After that ride, I got off dizzy and feeling more excited than sick. I followed Ryan and Cammy to another ride of which was one of my least favorite. I could never remember the name, but I know it when I see it. Both my little sister and my next door neighbor wanted to go on it, I couldn't decide. One side of my shoulder an angel told me to follow my instincts on not go on, and that I have my agency. Then on the other side of my shoulder was the shoulder dare devil. It's telling me to take my chances, go on it, and give a good ole' try. I sighed and for once, listened to the shoulder dare devil.
It was a something drop, you get in the seat and all you get is your stomach dropping. I hopped on the ride and sighed, hating the feeling of your stomach lurching. The seats came up the pole, it making a suspensful clicking noise, then we reached the top. It stopped for a long moment and then came down fast, stopping midway. I closed my tightly, disliking the feeling. Both of them had there hands up, screaming, but I just held on tightly for dear life.
I was glad when the ride finished. We went on just a few more rides and then approached a booth. The booth was to shoot stuff and get prizes. We paid him tickets and he handed me a yellow, plastic gun. I focused on my target and the time started. I had three shots and all three I surely missed my target by a lot.
We were now already out of tickets. Ryan was the only one who really won something, and it was a cool looking reusable water bottle. We went over to the drinking fountains and he filled it up. We then went over to the food carts and bought a cinnamon pretzel and headed out of the fair.
As we began walking into our neighborhood the yellow cat came running towards us. Ryan backed away a few steps.
"I-I'm alergic to cats." He said.
Ryan then ran over to his house, not wanting to even get close to the cat. Me and Cammy came back over to our house and the cat followed behind wanting more attention. We sat at our lawn, petting the cat as it lied down purring.
It was just minutes later when I stopped, feeling like something is not right. Princess Buttercup tried to get our attention again, but both of us was focused on finding out what that feeling was. It was then when we both realized at once what it was... for the ground was beginning to tremble.