Other Fan Fiction ❯ Alex Lanes and the Chopped Tree ❯ Alex Lanes and the Chopped Tree ( Chapter 1 )

alex lanes and the chopped tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-ONE-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around November is bad. Because of Thanksgiving. I hate Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving's over. And it's getting to Christmas, which is more than a week away.

Now that I think about it, all the holidays that pasted-this year-was bad. Really bad.

Like Halloween, for instance, is bad. Well, the first Halloween, that is. This year, there's two Halloweens because the first one stunk so bad. Also 'cause there's a murdering happening in the middle of Halloween.

And Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving at school was a buff because I had to use napkins to wipe off the ketchup on the small turkey, not knowing that it'll leave some part of the napkins to the grease and it's really hard to wipe that off.

But Thanksgiving at home was a blast. Ranger, my found cat, hogged on all the turkey. It's not like I actually threw some for him to eat, but it's that he jumped on the table, and then slurping down every bite. I tried to calm him down, but I ended up chasing him everywhere around the house, calling his name. So, then, we had a little food fight on Thanksgiving. It's really fun and, believe me; cats can spit food out on you. Even cats can play food fight.

Christmas… I really doubt that Christmas is going to be fun. It's pretty predictive because this year, Mr. Mortis, our vice principal, announced on the P.A system yesterday that this year, on Christmas, we can't pass out Christmas presents to friends. He said that some other people might feel sad because they didn't have any Christmas presents. Well, actually, he didn't exactly say we're not allowed to pass out presents-he just said, “Either pass out presents to everyone or don't pass out any presents at all,” and of course, I'm never going to afford passing out presents to everyone. I'm broke (sorta) and even if I do have money, by the time I'm done buying presents, I won't have any money left for myself. Which is not what I want to happen to myself. I mean, I'd be happy if it happened to people I hate, like, Naira Jenzy, a girl who keeps bothering me.

Anyway, it's still around November. November 25th. Two days after Thanksgiving Day.

I was on the way to school, walking, when I walked right into Naira. She falls back, and so do I.

“Watch out, will you?” she says, and stands up, uses her hands to sweep off dirt. “Great,” she says sarcastically and sighs. “You ruined my new jeans, dirty freak.”

I rolled my eyes. “You always have new jeans,” I say. “And you're the one who's supposed to watch out. I was looking at my shoes while you are watching the way you're going. And you didn't notice me so you just ran right into me.”

She sticks a tongue out at me.

I lean in close to her face and say, “You can do better than that,” and before she can start insulting me again, I started running away from her. Even though I didn't actually run towards the school, I was safe from Naira. Especially because her friends are just about to arrive on the bus.

I ran behind a bricked building and peeked out from the edges. Naira's out of the sight. I sighed loudly and walked out into the open area. I looked around the building. I didn't see a sign that said what the building's called-I couldn't find it. So I walked around the building until I saw a sign that read: LARIAT PUBLIC LIBRARY. Lariat Public Library. Or Lariat Library. And under it, written in thick bold words: NEWLY BUILT. Oh, so this is the new library. I read on the news paper that the, first and only, library would be built. You see, we have libraries in school and in other schools like the Lariat Elementary or the Lariat High School, but we never actually had a public one.

I went inside.

It was totally cool! The wallpaper's normal, white with blue trends but the floor was amazing. It's covered by royal purple rug. Silky and smooth. It was, like, the rug in castles I read in books. And in the entrance way, there's this big, long, and thin dark red carpet.

And there's this sofa on the sides near the wall. I ran to the sofa and looked out the window that's right above the sofa. It was… a backyard! Full of trees! It's like a forest! Only, there's this play equipment for small children. Otherwise that, young children. And a huge pond, which isn't strange. Around all those trees.

Right near the sofa is counters and on one of the counters, there's a register.

“Cool!” I gasp.

I walked back to the entrance door and walked on the red carpet. The Golden Trail. Or, the Red Trail.

The further I walked, the more excited I got to see everything around this library.

When I got really far, I noticed that the carpet even goes down on the stairs! Now this is like a king's palace, where the rug leads to the king's throne.

When I got down on the very bottom, there are shelves full of books from floor to ceiling. Books are everywhere.

I looked at the top of the stairs and just noticed for the first time that around the carpet were full of books too! I just didn't notice them because I was too excited and was too busy looking down at the carpet.

“Yes…? May I help you?”

I jumped around and saw a woman in a gray skirt, with a black vest around her. Her hair is tied up in a bun and she had reading glasses. She had a string tied around her with an ID card.

I smile. “Oh, hi, uh, um… no thanks. I'm just on my way out because I'm supposed to be at school now.”

She nods at me. “Certainly go to school, child,” she says. And I hate it when adults call me “kid” or “child” or any of those “kid-ish” names.

She turns around and heads up to the register while I made a face at her. I stuck my thumbs on my ears, wiggled them, and stuck my tongue out at her.

“Huh? What are you doing?”

I jumped around again and found a small little boy staring at me.

“What are you looking at?” I say, pinching my nose up and narrowing my eyes.

He points at me. “You. So you're saying you're a `what'? Not a `who'?”

I stick a tongue out at him for a quick second and pulled them back in. “No… of course not. Now stop talking to me, child, and get back to work-little boy!”

 

I walked out of the “Explore-able” library and hurried off to school. I never noticed that I ran two miles away from Naira. So I had to run with all the muscles I have.

When I finally got to school, I ran to my homeroom and slammed the door hard. I leaned against the door, trying to recover myself.

Mrs. Larson, my homeroom teacher, stares at me.

“What? Staring is rude, you know that?” I say to Mrs. Larson. You know, I'm never that shy being mean to her. Mrs. Larson looks crossly at me and then smiles.

I sigh and say, “Fine. Stare. But let me warn you, staring-”

“Yes, I know. But didn't you know that… you're supposed to go to History Class?”

I looked around. “Oh, I knew that. I was just here to tell you that… I'm late,” I say and ran out of the room and ran all the way down the hall, turned, and barged right into the door.

“Owwww…” I say, my face still smashed in the door.

My left hand is right near my face and the other hand is right near the other side of my face.

“Help me,” I yelp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-TWO-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of a sudden, the door slowly flies open and I'm still stuck to the door, so when the door moves, I do too.

Mr. Sanders, my new mean history teacher, looks at me. “Uh, well, where have you been, Alexandra? And… I think you may need to recover.”

“I thought so,” I yelp.

Mr. Sanders rolls his eyes and takes a bunch of my hair, and pulls on it.

“Ouch!” I scream.

“Hold still,” Mr. Sanders says and he, believe me, nearly pulled off all my hair!

“One,” Mr. Sanders says. He pulls on harder. “Two,” he says and pulls on my hair even harder.

“And-”

“Ouch!” I scream and came flying back. And great, now I'm stuck on the wall.

“Oh my lord!” Lila gasps.

I look like a starfish. That's the shape I'm formed in right now.

“Thanks a lot, Mr. I-Make-Kids-Into-Starfishes. Any volunteers?” I say to the whole class.

 

Once I'm off the wall, I looked back at where I looked like a starfish. The wall. And I can see that there are marks and cracks on the wall.

“Ooh, that's gotta hurt,” Lila says.

I nod and gasp. “Yup.”

 

 

At lunch, I told Lila and Rena everything I know about the library and how cool it was.

“Aw… I wanna go there!” Rena says. She snaps her fingers. Lila nods. “Yeah… I do too.”

“Then…” Rena says. “Let's go there after school!” she screams with excitement.

I shrug and nod. “I'm game.”

We both look at Lila.

She opens her mouth into an O, but doesn't say anything. Finally she sighs and says, “I can't because I made my mom and dad promise me that we'd go to Sea-Fun.”

Rena's eyes widened. So did mine.

“Cool!” Rena says. “I really want to go there. You're so lucky you get to go on cool water-rides.”

I nod. “Yeah.”

Sea-Fun obviously is an amusement park. Only, Sea-Fun has lots of water rides. Some of the rides don't include water. But most of them do.

Rena and I look at each other and then back at Lila.

“Does your parents allow friends to come to Sea-Fun with you?” I ask.

Lila frowns. “I asked them, but they said that Sea-Fun is just too much money. They said that the tickets cost fifty-five dollars per person.”

I bite into my bologna sandwich.

“No, that just can't be that much,” Rena says.

Lila laughs. “Well, it is and I can't change the price.”

I shrug. “So I guess we'll have to go without you…?”

Rena and Lila nods. “Yep.”

 

After school, Rena met with me around the back of the school building. “So,” Rena says. “Where's the library?”

I say, “Come on,” and I led her all the way to the library. We had to stop every once and a while to catch our breaths but then we started to run again.

We both stepped onto the library building.

“Whoa,” Rena says.

“I know,” I say.

We explored around the place for awhile, trying to avoid librarians (there are more than one) asking us, “May I help you?”

We got tired and finally rested on the sofa, reading. I tried reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but it was too hard. Like, each sentence there's this tricky word. Probably three in each sentence and Tom and Huck say inappropriate words that are really insult-able to some people.

So I just shrugged and looked beside me and you're not going to believe this… (make sure you're alone…)… there's about a million books more for me to choose!

That made me really freaked out; because I didn't notice I brought so many books with me.

So I read something else and Rena read something too. There's this noise coming from outside so I put the book down, and looked outside. It was pouring outside. Thunder booming, lightning flashing, just cool! I love it when this happens. But later, I figured that I won't like it anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-THREE-

 

 

 

 

 

“Boy, it's really cool out! Look!” I whisper to Rena. She looked out, too. She made a face. “Aw, I hate it when it's thundering.”

I look at her. “Why?”

She shrugs. “You know how I don't have a house…”

I nod. “I know that.”

“So, it's really bad out. I get nervous because I'm always thinking about whether a lightning's going to strike me out or not.”

“Oh… that must be…”

“I know. Scary.”

“No… I mean cool. But it's really surprising to hear you're actually afraid of something.”

Rena rolls her eyes. “Just don't tell anyone. Other than Lila, that is.”

“Don't worry,” I laugh. “I won't.”

We both sat down and started to read again until the lights flicked off.

A minute later…

It flicked back on.

A minute later…

It flicked off.

A minute later…

It flicked on… again. “Oh,” sighs the librarian sitting on the counter right near us. “I guess I have to go out and ask my husband if he can fix it.” She looks at us. “He knows how to fix stuff like that.” And she goes off.

A second later, another librarian comes up near us, and talking to herself, she says, “I guess I'll just have to go out and ask an electrician to fix that,” and runs off.

The third librarian does the same thing, only instead of going over to the electrician place or calling off for a husband, she thought of going to her house and find a new bulb to replace that one. Like that'd help.

And that's all the librarians there is to it.

It sounds really empty when the librarians are all gone. Really awkward. Like no one's in the library except us-Rena and me.

“Hello?” I call.

“Hello? Anybody ther-”

“Alex!” Rena grabs my arm. “Be quiet! It's a library. What do you think?”

“I think that we're the only ones in the library. That's what I think.”

Rena rolls her eyes. “That's not what I meant.”

“I know that.”

I call out again, “Hello? If you don't say something, I'm going to take over this place!”

Silence.

“I'll take that as a `yes',” I say.

All of a sudden, there's this sound. Like a ripping sound. But only, it's something big and thick. And strong.

Then, these bricks fall everywhere, including my head and I got totally knocked out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-FOUR-

 

 

 

 

 

When I woke up, it was all dark. I guess its night. Around seven or eight…?

I look around. It was pitch black.

I was wet. Really wet.

I'm not scared, even though most girls are afraid of the dark. Even seventh grade girls like me. And Rena. And Lila.

I use my hands to feel stuff around me. I felt something… it was Rena's hair.

“Rena! Rena!” I whisper and shake her body. “Rena! Wake up!”

She didn't even budge.

“Rena! You're scaring me.” What if she's dead? That might be possible, you know.

“Rena! Ren-”

Rena hits my nose. She makes sleepily noises. I can tell-she still is asleep. Weird. Really weird. I guess I learned a lesson today-that Rena hits people while she's asleep.

“Ouch…! Rena! Wake up!” I say really fast.

“Rena! Rena! Wake… up, you sleepy-”

“What?” Rena says and finally sits up. “What?”

I rolled my eyes. “That you fainted…?”

“Huh? I did?”

I nod. “Well, yeah. I did too. Because of those-” and I was just about to say, “Bricks,” but who screams? Rena did.

She points at the side of my left head and shouts, “You're bleeding!”

I screamed, too, because I just noticed that Rena's bleeding, too. Under her ear. And, of course, I screamed because Rena screamed because she said I was bleeding.

So now we're like idiots, screaming and pointing off where we bled. Yuck!

After the Scream-A-thon. Or Screaming-Freaks. Well, after those screams, we calmed down.

“How'd the bricks fall down, anyway?” Rena asks.

I turned around and screamed.

“Ahhhh….!” I scream.

“Ahhhh......! What?” Rena says.

I looked at her and squinted. “Didn't you know? Then why'd you scream?

“I screamed because you screamed,” Rena answers.

I rolled my eyes and pointed above me with one finger and the other finger pointing at the wall.

She looked at the ceiling. I did too. And what were up there were branches of leaves. The top of a tree!

And I bet a lightning would strike us.

And then we both looked at the window and screamed again. Because, again, there was just a hole that was made from the bricks that fell off from the roof.

I ran over to the counter and used my hands to feel stuff again. And when I touched something that felt like a phone, it sorta zapped me. I pulled my hand away from the phone and say to Rena, “The wire's cut.”

She runs over to me and asks, “Are you okay?” I answer, “Yep, I'm fine,” when really, I'm not. It feels like a sting from a jellyfish, and, believe me, it hurts. I got zapped by one before, and I'm not looking forward from getting zapped again.

Then we heard sirens. “Yea!” I shout and waved my hands in the air. “They're coming to rescue us!”

“Rescue?” Rena asks.

We heard a crash. It felt like glass getting smashed.

And then we saw a thick narrow light. And another one. And another one. Tons and tons of flashlights!

“Over here!” we scream at the top of our lungs. “Over here!”

We heard men and women talking.

“I'm so happy!” Rena says to me. I nod. “Same here,” and we kept shouting, “Over here!” until they finally found us.

We got carried over to the hospital because we were bleeding everywhere! The bricks were like stone-only pointier. And rougher so you can get skinned by them easily.

 

Once I'm home, I ran up to the couch and dropped down, thinking about the next day. Who'd want to go to school? Please! And I just got injured and I still have to go to school. Same with Rena. Only if something happened! Something bad happens.

I didn't call for my parents to come and see me, even though that's what most kids do when they get injured. Badly. The only reason I didn't call for my parents is because they aren't here. They're never here.

It's because my dad's off in New Jersey and my mom? She's Carrie. A big woof! Only, Carrie doesn't know I'm her long-lost child and it's a good thing 'cause Carrie hates me. Really!

Wait a second! I can just stay home if I want to, right? I don't have any parents or relatives calling my name off so I can wake up. If the school calls me, I'll just ignore the calls or when I'm really annoyed by it, I'll just run up to it, pick it up and say in a sickly voice, “I'm really sick! I have such a bad fever,” or even better, I'll say, “I have the flu!” or a heart-attack-fine, maybe that isn't such a bright idea-heart-attacks-I think only Grammies and Grampies have heart-attacks.

 

I woke up at eleven thirty. I flew down to the kitchen, crying, “I'm late for school! I'm late!” and then I just remembered that I'm not going to school. Not for another five months or so. Fine, maybe two months. Well, who knows? I just know I don't.

I go back to bed. But whenever I woke up in the middle of sleep, I can't go back to sleep anymore. Even if I'm really, really tired.

So I just lie down on my bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to predict what's going on in school.

Just then, the phone rang. I shrug and thought, maybe it's just the school calling. Ha-ha-ha! But then again, what if it wasn't?

So I got up from my bed, and walked slowly over to the phone and picked it up. In a sickish voice, I say, “Hello?”

“Oh, hello, is… um, let's see… oh, is Alexandra Lanes there?” a woman asks.

I was just about to say, “I'm here,” until I forgot-the school doesn't know my phone number. They only know Lila's. You see, Lila and her sister are trying to pretend to be my mom so whenever the school tries to call me-they call Lila or her sister.

I squinted.

In a non-sickish voice, I say, “I-I'm here. Who on earth are you? Some kind of wacko alien who knows who everyone is?”

There was a long pause.

“Well, I'm-what? You sound like a kid…!”

My eyes widened. “Well… I just sound like a kid, but I'm not! And I'm sure kids don't like people calling them `kids', kid.” Fine, maybe that woman isn't a kid, but if I call her “kid”, maybe she'll think I'm old-or at least older than her.

Long pause.

“Well,” she starts again. “You sure act like a kid. So you believe in… wacko aliens…? I heard that on the news, they announced that they found a-”

“I don't want to know, Miss Kid,” I interrupt her. “I just want to know why you are calling.”

“Well,” she starts again.

“Do you start with `well' on every sentence you say?” I ask.

I can tell she's sweating and biting her lips really hard,

“Just go on,” I tell her.

“So,” she finally says without a `well'. “Lila Standers-do you know her?”

I think for a second. Should I tell her I do know her or what? I mean, what if Lila gets really mad? Or what if what I'm doing is going to make her get into trouble? Or get me into trouble?

I just decided to risk my chance. “Yes,” I say.

“I tried calling your house-and of course I did-but, uh, your mom said you were on a vacation, visiting your aunt's…?”

I squinted. What on earth…? “Well, yeah but, I'm sick, too, you know.” I coughed. “Oh, and if you're wondering, that was a real cough,” I say normally.

Jason, Lila's sister, must've been totally blanked out when she heard that I wasn't in school today. But, wait. Why wasn't she in school? That's what I really want to know.

“Hello…?” the woman asks.

“Right here,” I say. “And, yeah, I'm a kid. Sorry for all that insults. I just didn't trust strangers…” and I was really about to add in, “Like you,” but I didn't.

“Oh, I see how you must've felt. Really confused, huh? Well, it was a good thing that you had to lie because when that situation happens, you-”

“I know, I'm not a little kid. I go to school, you know,” I tell her.

She asked me some questions, like, “So you're sick?” or, “Do you need to go to the doctor? You really have to get better to go back to school,” or some sorts like that.

But all I answer was, “Yes, I'm sick,” and, “I don't want to go to the doctor,” and stuff like that.

 

I went over to the kitchen and got out two apples. That would be my breakfast.

That's what I usually have. It's juicy and it's good. I don't have to go up and get a drink like I have to do when I eat cookies or something like that.

“Ranger!” I call.

Ranger came trotting over to me.

“How are ya, boy?” I ask him.

He kept on staring at me.

I laugh. “Well, wanna eat something?”

I get out the same food I give Ranger every morning: crackers and water.

I learned from Lila's almost-boyfriend. You know, that Ranger eats crackers…?

Well, that's when the doorbell rang. I decided to check the window first, so I ran over to the window and peeked over the curtain.

Right outside was Jason.

I opened the door. “Hey, Jason. What's up?”

Jason shrugged. “Why aren't you in school today? Are you sick?”

I shake my head. “Nope,” I say. “I'm just having a day off from school! Anyways, how come you aren't in school?”

Jason leaned in close and says, “I went to the doctors to have a checkup. At five o'clock A.M.”

I nod. “Oh… okay. Did you eat breakfast yet? You can come in and eat all you want-well, not too much because I'm pretty broke.”

Jason laughs and says, “I ate already. But I'll go inside anyway. Just to check out your house.”

So she came in and I gave her a tour around the house. Ranger kept following her, sniffing and meowing. She thought Ranger's pretty cool.

I told her that he's not pretty cool.

“Yes he is,” she says.

I shake my head. “He's really cool, not just pretty cool.”

Jason laughs. “Whatever.”

She thinks the living room's the best room in the house because it's warm and the couch's soft.

She turned on the T.V. “Wow, this is nice.” She sleeks her hair back with her hands. “Really nice.” She glances up at the rug. A quilted rug. “What's up with the rug, anyway? You better lose it.”

I shrug. “I dunno. It was in the house for more than seven years, Jason. Besides, if I lose the rug, the floor will look deserted.”

She nods. “Good point.” She's glowering at the floor. “I didn't tell you the bad news yet, did I?”

I squinted at her. “What bad news?”

She looks up at me. And she looks serious. Really serious. “That we're going to move…?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

-FIVE-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I froze. “Y-you mean… you're going to-even Lila?”

Jason didn't say anything. She didn't have to-I knew the answer. “Exactly why are you going to move?”

“Last night, we got a call from Uncle Robert and he said that his wife's getting a baby boy. He also said that there are four extra rooms in the house and asked us if we want to stay there. Well, I said I didn't want to-and Lila said that, too. But my mom and dad said that we'll have more company there and that the house is bigger.”

I grin evilly. “I have an idea!”

Well, it isn't exactly like an idea. More like a prank. A lame, evil, good prank. Jason said my idea is stupid. I told her it's stupid, but good-whatever that means. She didn't tell me that I'm not making any sense, and I didn't tell her what I really mean.

“That plan won't work, Alex. Forget it!”

“Well… how do you know it won't work? Let's just give it a try, okay?”

“No, I'm not part of the plan. If my parents find out, they'll kill me!”

“Fine, whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, okay, do whatever you want. I'm going to ask Rena and Lila. At least they don't worry. Unlike someone I know…” I looked at her.

She laughs. “Oh, come on, Alex. I'm not worrying! I'm just, you know, curious.”

I put my hands on my hip and gave her the curious-about-what? look.

She smiles. “About if I'm going to die or not by my parents.”

I sit down on the table and pick up a marble and throw it at her. “Come on! You know your parents won't kill you.”

 

Once she came home, I thought a little bit more about what she said. “That plan won't work, Alex. Forget it!” she had said. And I'm wondering, what if she's right? What if my plan won't work? Will I get into big trouble? Will I ever get to talk to Lila ever again?

Well, if I can't talk to her, then that's going to be a big poop.

But what if I'll really never get to talk to her?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-SIX-

 

 

 

 

 

 

I go over to the phone and dial Lila's number. Then, in the most adult-ish voice, I say, “Hello. I am… Ruth… Calla-dark-est-a-rab-a-da. I am… Robert Stander's personal adviser,” when I heard Mrs. Standers says, “Hello.”

There's a long pause.

Then, Mrs. Standers says, “Adviser…? “

“Oh, yes. I'm trying to advise him to buy my… things on the computer! You know, like E-bay and stuff like that? Anyway, he's buying all of my stuff now and so, I'm his personal adviser. I just wanted you to know that he explained me something… that he has a sister who lives in Lariat…? I'll take that the `sister' is you. I sorta-”

“Yes, the sister.”

“Don't interrupt me like that, Mrs. Standers. As I was saying… I sorta forced him to make you come. He doesn't actually want you guys to come, though. You know that he's having a new baby, right? He doesn't want anyone to bother the baby. He told me that earlier this morning and I am so sorry I forced him to do that. He doesn't have the guts to tell you he doesn't want you to come anymore, so I told you.”

There was a long silence until Mrs. Standers broke it. “Well, that's some pretty wild news. I guess we'll just have to unpack.”

I grin. “That'd be great! I'll tell him right now!”

I put the phone down and celebrated a bowl of cheerios, and if you ask me, I almost never eat cheerios unless it's important.

When I was done eating, I felt bored. I didn't have anything to do. So I went outside, forgetting that it's a school day, and went over to the mall. Usually, I go somewhere else 'cause I hate the mall.

I explored the whole place.

I went over to Paul's store. It's pretty cool once you know him a lot. And he knows you. Because he actually talks to you and sometimes let you have free stuff.

I used to work at Paul's store. Only, he fired me. In a good way, that is. He said I don't have to work for his store anymore and that he'll just give me money for free. Sometimes.

But that's good enough because I don't get a lot of money when I work at his store.

“Hey Paul. What's up?” I say to Paul.

Paul smiles. “Oh hi, Alexandra! How are you? I'm fine, thank you.” I laugh. “So… how's your store? Did it get worked up after the time I left this store? And, yeah, I'm good.”

Paul smiles. “Things are the same, Alexandra. You know what they say! Things can't get any better and they can't get any worse!”

I laugh. “Yup,” I say. I take a look around. “Whoa, you really need to do some cleaning! Hey, I'll help you.”

“Nah, you'll die if you clean once more.”

“Don't worry. I'll die right now if someone won't clean your store!”

So I got a mop and a broom, and at the same time, I sweep and mop.

Soon, the store looked shiny as new. “Wa-la!” I say. “See what I told you?”

Paul scratches his head. “Gee, I guess you're right!”

“Donation for the poor! Donation for the poor!” we both heard a man shout.

I took one look at where I heard him and gasp. “How'd he get here? I thought he was in jail!” I say. Paul squints at that guy. “He sure looks familiar!” he says and laughs. I rolled my eyes. I pointed at him. “He's the guy that-” I stop and just figured that if I tell him, he'll scream and also, I don't want to explain it once more to him.

And I'm on my way, running over to the clown. The dressed-up clown that has a mix of green and gray fog in his eyes.

The scary clown that was supposed to be in jail.

Marcus's dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-SEVEN-

 

 

 

 

 

The clown takes one look at me and screams. Automatically. Like a shrieking girl. I put my hands on my hip and say, “You're so stupid! Didn't you know that if you keep doing your old job of stealing, the police will catch you?” It was true. He's always calling, “Donation for the poor!” or something like that. But he's actually not donating to the poor. He's taking up all the money for himself.

So the cops caught him.

He escaped.

I found him surprisingly and found out that he's Marcus's dad.

Rena and Lila called the police.

He went into jail.

And after that, who knows what happened?

Well, how'd he get out of jail? Was it that fast? How come the cops let him out of jail that fast? Or maybe, he ran away again, but that's nearly impossible. A second step from impossible. Really-hard. That's the second step. That it's really hard to get out of jail by doing something.

 

The clown sure looks scared, I tell you.

“Well? Didn't you know that? Can you hear me or are you just deaf?” I say, pushing a finger at the tip of his nose.

He didn't answer me. Instead, he pushed me.

I fell, obviously. I mean, this clown is gigantic and me? Compared to the clown with a seventh grader is a huge difference so I'm like an ant to “Gigantic Clown”.

“Dude, you've got to watch your hands! Didn't you ever head of, `Keep your hands to yourself'?”

The Gigantic Clown runs away.

I couldn't catch him though, 'cause there's a group of kids right in front of me.

“Move!” I shout, pushing them aside.

They didn't listen.

“Move,” I shout as loud as I can.

Then this seventeen-looking girl turns around and stands right in front of me, tall as a giant. She slumps over me, hands on hip, glaring. “What did you say?” she asks, in a mean way.

I had to put my head straight up to look it her. I bend my knees so my head wouldn't be so close to her face-she might spit on me! But from my point of view, she doesn't look like the kind of girl who'd do that.

“I said, `Please move,' alright? Now, can you just get out of my-”

“No! Not until you give me five bucks,” she says and sticks her hand out, tapping her foot against the floor. “I'm waiting,” she says. “Don't worry-after you give me your five dollar bill, I'll stop bothering you,” she assures me.

I backed off. “No way! I'm not stupid.”

She gets closer. “Oh yes you are. So give me it and I'll let you free.”

This time, I went closer to her and poked her stomach with my finger. “You're so brainless you didn't even know I am free. There's no one blocking away, you see? I can just get away from you as fast as I can,” I say and with that, I ran away from her. I ran around, trying to find the old clown and when I did, who did I see?

Marcus.

And the clown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-EIGHT-

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey Marcus! Over here!” I call and wave my hands in the air. He looks at me and points at himself. “Me?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah! Over here!”

It looks like Marcus was trying to remember who I was. He's squinting his eyes away. “Oh, Alex!” He looks at his dad, “The Clown”. “Hey dad, I'm meeting a friend,” he says.

Oh sure… I'm a good friend to him all right. Not! I thought.

He runs over to me. “So, what's up, Alex?”

I put my hands on my hip. “How on earth did your dad get here? I thought he's supposed to be in prison.”

He bites his lips. “Oh, you see,” he starts. “The police let him free but also made him promise that he'll never do that ever again.”

I eyed his dad. “Oh… well, then whose he?” I pointed at him.

He laughs. “My dad, Alex.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know, Marcus.” I look closer at Marcus. I say, “You said he promised he'll never do that again, right?”

Marcus nods. “Yah…” he says.

“Then why's he doing it now?”

Marcus looks over at his dad. “Oh,” he says. “He's actually giving the money to the poor.” He taps his head. “Use your brain more, Alex.” He turns around and he's heading right to his dad until he stops, and turns to me. “You wanna have an ice cream cone at Falling Food?”

I bit my tongue. “Oh, I, uh, I…”

He grabs my arm. “Hey, I still haven't forgotten what Lila told me-that you're really shy around boys.”

I held up a fist and punched his arm. Hard. “Hey, I didn't want you to mention that.” It was true-Lila told Marcus that. And I got really mad at her. Now, I'm mad at Marcus. Partly because I forgot about that and now that he mentioned it, I feel embarrassed again.

He rubs his arm. “Ouch… hey, I'll remind you that every time you won't obey me. Come on, Alex.”

So I followed him.

“I'm not a dog, you wimp. I don't have to do everything you tell me to do,” I mutter under my breath. “I'm not obedient.”

He looks at me and laughs. “I heard that, Alex. You better learn more about whispering.”

When we got to Falling Food, we went up to the register counter and Marcus ordered ice cream for us. I got Peanut-butter-Reese's. Marcus got the same as me.

“So, when's the last time you ever spoke to Lila? She hasn't talked about you much anymore,” I say to Marcus. He shrugs and says, “I think the last time I ever talked to her was around Thanksgiving.”

I shot a look at him. “Liar, liar, head on fire. Now tell me the truth, Marcus. Before I tell everyone your dad's a crook.”

He puts his hands out. “Okay, okay. I'll tell you the truth-no wait, that was the truth.” He laughs. I laugh too. “Anyway,” I say and lick a huge piece off the cone. “How's school?”

“Bad.”

I scrunched my mouth. “Ooh… that's normal. School is always bad.”

He laughs again. “Yup. No lie about that.”

I finished up the last bite and got up. “Looks like I have to go. Bye!”

He puts a hand on my shoulder.

I turn around. “What?” I say.

He shrugs. “Just tell Lila I said hi, okay?”

I nod. “Sure, whatever.”

When I left the food store, I went over to the phone booth. Just when I was about to press the first number of Lila's house phone number, I remembered that Lila's still in school but why was-wait, how come Marcus isn't in school?

I turned around and headed over to Falling Food. There was Marcus, finishing up the ice cream. I ran over to him and ask, “How come you aren't in school?”

He smiles. “Because I'm sick! Only, I got better after school started.” He laughs. “I'm pretty lucky, huh?”

I shrug. “I guess.”

He gets up. “Why aren't you in school? I'm guessing the same thing happened to you as me.”

I cross my arms. “Uh, no,” I say. “I didn't go to school because I didn't want to. Remember? I don't have any parents who make me…?”

Marcus points a finger at me. “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

I looked at his finger and back at him. “Why are you pointing at me…?”

He laughs and says, “I just felt like it!” I laughed, too.

I went back to the phone booth and dialed Lila's house. And then again, I remembered she's in school so I hung up the phone right when I heard Mrs. Standers ask, “Hello?”

I laugh silently. I turned right around and whose there? A freaky looking woman wearing a white skirt, a white blouse, and a white sailors-hat.

“What do you want?” I say, leaning in close to her.

She smiles. “Ma'am, I'm-”

“Who's Ma'am?” I ask and point at myself. “Me?”

She nods. “Well, I'm a nurse at the doctors and I'd like to have volunteers to help sick or injured people there. Would you like to-”

“Agreed,” I say. “So where's the paper so I can sign my name?” I put a hand out.

She laughs and grins. “I don't have a paper, child-“”

“My name is Alex, dummy. My name is not Chill. I don't need to chill.”

“Hon, I didn't say Chill. I said, `Child.'”

I point a finger at her. “I knew that. And also, my name's not Child.”

She opened her mouth, and paused. “Come on, get in the car.”

 

When we both got to the hospital, I ran down the hall and went into a room. It's really dark so I felt around the walls for a light switch. When I got the light to go on, I gasp.

Because what do I see? Animals. Tons of animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-NINE-

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's right, animals. There were dogs, cats, birds, lizards, snakes, mice, bunnies or rabbits (I cannot tell the difference), hamsters, fish (in bowls), and, like, a million more.

“Cool!” I scream.

The nurse opened the door and splat! The door pushes me into a wall.

“Miss-Squish-a-Nurse, I'd really like to be Splat-Free,” I mumble. I couldn't speak loud because my lips were pushed right into the wall.

Miss-Squish-a-Nurse gasps, “Oops!” and closes the door a bit. “Sorry about that, but you're not supposed to go in here!”

I squeezed myself out of the wall (and it's hard). I walked right up to the nurse with my hands on my hip. “Then why didn't you say so?” The nurse rolls her eyes (surprisingly) and says, “You didn't listen, now come on, girl, get out.”

I walked right out of the room with the nurse following me. “So,” I say. “Where's the exact room I should go in, Miss-Squish-a-Nurse?” Miss-Squish-a-Nurse laughs and held up the ID card around her neck. “My name's Cathy and the room's that way,” she says and points to a door close to us.

I run in. There were lots of people. This looks like the Lounge room because there are a lot of fat couches and chairs. There's a rack full of magazines and books. The floor was surrounded by thick, white rug. It was an amazing place-also sick because there were tons of sick people around here. Sick and injured people.

Cathy snaps a finger in my face. “Now,” she says. “Start entertaining and helping people around here. Do as they tell you to do.” She smiles. I cross my arms. “What am I, a slave or something? First of all, I don't do what people tell me to do and second, I don't entertain. I'm not a clown.” Cathy laughs, “Don't worry. Whatever they tell you to do; it's not something against the law or anything. Now start over at the people in this couch and work around,” and she points at a white flowered couch. She walked up to the couch, and looks behind her shoulder. At me. “Why did you volunteer to do this anyway?” she asks.

I rolled my eyes. “Because you said, `help' the people around here. Not entertain or be a slave!”

Now, Cathy completely turns around at me. “What'd you imagine `help' meant?”

I shrug. “I dunno… I thought I would actually help them get better. Like real doctors do.”

Cathy smiles. “I'm not a doctor-I'm a nurse. But nurses and doctors are alike in some ways. Now come along, child.”

“It's Alex! A-L-E-X, if you know what that reads.”

Once Cathy left, I was alone, surrounded by people.

“So,” I start out. “What's your name? I'm Alex.”

An old woman raises her crinkly bony hand and says, “I'm Martha.” She has this old-accent in her voice. When she said “Martha”, it sounded like she said “Matha”. Ma-tha.

A man with white bandages tied around his right leg answers, “I'm O'Neil Avery.” He has this English accent. He was probably born in England.

I nod at him. “Hey O'Neil.” I looked at two other people.

A man with a long beard raises a cone shaped like a Christmas candy-cone and says, “Sassy,” in a sputtering way. I point at myself. “I'm sassy?” I gave him a disgusted look. “So much for being nice,” I mutter under my breath. The man laughs and says, “I'm Sassy. My name's Sassy Browns.” I gave him more of a disgusted look. “Oh… hi… Sassy. But I think the best name I should call you is `Mr. Browns', Mr. Browns.” Mr. Browns smiles at me. His black teeth shined for some reason. Can you imagine it? Black teeth shining? Hey, I can only picture white teeth shining.

I smile at him back. “He-he…” I say, trying not to lose my balance.

I turn to the last woman who didn't introduce herself to me yet. I gave her the who-are-you? look.

The woman smiles shyly and said something I couldn't understand. “What did you say? Can you speak louder?” I ask her, cupping my hands around my ear.

The woman says, “My name is Rachel.” I nod. “Okay.” I turn back to the rest of the people. “What'd you like me to do? I can entertain really well,” and I was really about to add in, “To sick people,” but I knew I shouldn't-so I didn't.

Martha raises her hand and without a word, she sneezes. Loudly. And that made me jump up, crying, “A cannon ball!” Everyone stares at me, looking hurt. But I can tell Martha was hurt most. So I say to Martha, “Oh, sorry. I just said that because… because I heard something from outside that sounded like a cannonball.”

Martha nods slowly, tapping her slippers.

So I stared at her, trying to figure out what she wants me to do and then I found out because Martha pointed at her nose. And right there, in a great point of view, I see a see-through green, yucky stuff, swimming down her nose, nearly touching her puffy lips.

I point a finger up at the ceiling and say, “Oh! Do not fear, because Alexandra is here!” and race around the room screaming, “Tissue wanted! Tissue wanted! If you find tissues, I'll give you ten million,” and whisper, “Imaginary,” and go back to screaming, “Dollars!”

A woman raced up, shouting, “Hup-two-three-four, Hup-two-three-four!” She has her finger straight at the ceiling too. She runs to me saying in a manly voice, “Tissue! Tissue!” I can already imagine her wearing football clothes, and oh! My favorite, the puffs on the shoulders! She'd look hilarious! With black lines going from across her cheeks… ooh, that'd be so cool!

She stops right in front of me, staying still, and points to the counter without moving her head. “The tissue's right there!” She says. And really, I just wanted to tell her, “This isn't so serious,” but then again, why am I being serious? Just for a simple booger-accident, I went flying over places, screaming at the top of my lungs.

I thanked the Football Woman and walked over to the counter to retrieve the tissue box.

When I came back to Martha, I gave her the tissue box. She made a huge noise from blowing the tissue through her nose. Ammmrhhh! Ammrhh!

I put my hands over my ears and shout, “Volcano attack! Volcano attack!” Martha stares at me, finally stop blowing. I say, “No offense, Martha, but, really, your sneezes and your blowing-through-nose thing is loud. I'm sure someone can get a heart-attack if you sneeze again.”

Martha seemed to have some hard hearing-problems because she says, “Do you fancy someone?”

“Fancy? What does fancy have to do with anything I'm talking about? And-wait a minute, are you asking me…?

Martha nods.

“Doesn't fancy mean love or like?”

Martha nods.

“So you're asking me if I like someone?” I ask.

Martha nods.

“Okay, your `nodding' isn't getting me anywhere. Give me a better explanation!”

Martha nods. “Oh, what? Oh. Of course. It just seems like any boy wouldn't like you because of your nonsense.”

I shrug. “Good, because I don't like anyone.”

The door suddenly swung open. A woman stood out in the door way. She was dressed in blue-blue shorts, a blue uniform shirt with a collar, a blue cap, and a blue neck bag.

“Newspaper! Newspaper! Come and get it!” she calls out.

I wave at her and she waved back. Then almost everyone stampede to her. It looked like she was about to turn into a flat waffle.

I turned back to Martha. “So, why are you here, anyway? Are you sick or hurt or something?”

Martha sighs. “Oh, it's my heart. You know an old woman usually have heart problems. There's something wrong with my heart, dear.”

“Alex,” I correct her.

I turned to Rachel. “What about you? Are you hurt?”

Rachel smiles at me. “I'm okay. My arm's just twisted.” I looked at her arm. No cast. I looked at her other arm. No cast.

“How come you didn't wear a cast?” I ask. Rachel looks at her hands and then looks up. “I just arrived here, Alex. It takes time for them to give me a cast,” she says.

“Oh,” I say. “That's sad.” Rachel laughs and says, “Any minute now, they're going to give me a cast.” I laugh, too.

I look at Mr. Browns.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. A few seconds later, he fainted. And I mean fainted.

But, at first, I thought he was dead. I jumped up, and cry, “Oh my Gosh! He died!” Everyone gathered around us. O'Neil laughs and says, “He's not dead, Alex. He just fainted. He faints all the time-especially when he gets too sad.”

My eyes rolled at him. “What was sad?”

O'Neil laughed again and I'm pretty sure he went here-not because of his twisted leg-because he has laugh-'n-phobia.

“I think it's because he's about to answer your silly question! It's sad!” O'Neil says and laughs again.

I shot him a worried look. “You mean, you mean I made him faint?”

O'Neil stops laughing and says, “I'm serious, everyone makes him faint once and a while so it's not that ser-”

I stand up, biting my fingers. “Oh, what if Cathy finds out? She'll fire me for sure!” And then I pause. “Wait, what's his problem. How would he faint in the first place?”

O'Neil smiles. “It's kind of like Martha's problem. He's really old so his leg doesn't really seem to work.

“Oh. Are you sure?”

“Yep. Here, let me prove it,” he says and hands me a paper about Mr. Browns. I read it over two times. The paper does say he's old and his leg doesn't really work.

I heard two old ladies say in a worried voice, “Oh, dear! That is so dreadful! My gosh, it's just new!”

I turned to them and ask, “What's dreadful? What?”

The old lady showed me the newspaper, and right there, what do I see?

A black and white photo of the tree, knocked right on the Lariat Library.

I looked closer at the photo. “What I minute…” I mutter to myself. I looked up at everyone. “Can someone hand me a magnifying glass? Please?”

The Newspaper Woman comes up to me and hands me a magnifying glass. “Here,” she says.

“Thanks,” I answer her. She smiles and winks at me-for some reason. “I think you'll be able to figure something out of that picture.”

I squint at her. “What?”

She leans in close to me and says, “You think I never saw a photo of you in the newspaper?”

So now I get it.

In other times, I've been in the newspaper because-because I don't know! I just am! But people are starting to think I'm really a detective, which I'm not. I don't even want to be part of a detective-woo-pa! Or help police! But it seems like everyday-or at least every month-I meet cops and end up being in the newspaper.

Anyway, I gently held the magnifying glass closer to the photo, close one eye, and started to look.

“I was right!” I gasp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-TEN-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put the magnifying glass down on the table and ran to the door. “Tell Cathy I'm dismissed!” I call. “Okay!” I heard O'Neil shout.

 

I ran to the library. I didn't exactly go inside. Because I couldn't-and I wasn't planning to.

The reason I couldn't go in the library was because there were tons of police cars parked around the library and there was a DO NOT ENTER fence around the building. There were also trucks parked around and this bulldozer.

I ran up to one of the cops and shout, “Your not going to bulldoze the library, are you?” I had to shout because of the big racket the bulldozer was making. Grrrmmm! Grrmmmm!

The policewoman wasn't even looking at me. Someone called to her, “We're doing good, Hannah!” She smiles and gives that person a thumbs-up. “Great, Matt!” she calls.

She finally looks at me. “What was that? Did you say something?” she asks.

I rolled my eyes and repeated.

She bites her lips and then says, “Well, honey-”

“Alex,” I correct her.

She laughs. “Alex, we have to bulldoze this place. It's a mess! Bricks are everywhere and the building's half down, anyway. Besides, we're going to build a new library,” she says. “And Alex, kids like you shouldn't stay around buildings that are going to be bulldozed. Why don't you go off and play?”

I sigh. “Lady-”

“Hannah,” she corrects me and pulled an eyebrow up.

“Hannah-”and I can't believe I'm gonna say this but-“don't you realize who I am? The world's-or Lariat's-greatest detective, Alex Lanes! Alexandra Lanes.”

Hannah sighs loudly. “Look, I don't care who you are but-”

“I'm, like, part of the FBI! Please…?”

Hannah sighs again. “Fine, but be quick,” she says.

 

This really reminds me about Garvey's Restaurant. When there was a murderer there and I couldn't go in because police cars are parked all around the restaurant so Lila and I had to pretend we're the murdered-guy's granddaughter. But that's a different story.

 

Anyway, I thanked Hannah and ran all around the Lariat Library-to the backyard-forest.

I walked over to where the trunk of the knocked down tree was.

“Hey, kid! Get outta this place!” a man yells at me. He runs over to me.

I shot him a your-dead look.

He backs off with his hands flying everywhere. “Get outta here,” he repeats. “Just get outta here!”

I tell him, “Hannah allows me to be here. Besides, I'm Alexandra Lanes. The girl in the Lariat Times…?”

So he says, “Fine,” in a huffy kind of way and I'm free. I feel the trunk, and sure enough, it was smooth… smooth and clean.

“Heh,” I say, with a smile.

“Whatcha got there?” Hannah asks.

I look at her. “The tree didn't fall down by the rain, Hannah. Someone chopped it off.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-ELEVEN-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah gives me this look that meant I didn't know for sure if someone chopped it off. But I was one-hundred percent sure.

“Hannah, look at it.” I say and point at the top of the tree trunk.

“What?” Hannah asks.

“Hey, only idiots can't figure this out,” I say, “Look. The trunk is flat, nice, smooth, and clean, right? If it fell off by the rain, it would look all uneven. Like that,” and point at a thin, tall tree. The top tree was half gone and it was really all uneven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“My Goodness, you do have a point,” Hannah says. I rolled my eyes. “Who wouldn't notice?”

Hannah looks at me and asks, “So you're thinking that whoever chopped or cut this tree off used a saw?”

“Or axe,” I say. “But I think-”

“But I precisely think the person used a saw because a axes makes marks. Saws sometimes don't.”

I put my hands on my hip. “That was what I was about to say. Don't interrupt people like that.”

Hannah calls everyone over, and before everyone had time to come over, I tell her, “Tell them I didn't figure this out!” and ran out of that backyard, and pretty soon, the library was out of my sight.

I didn't want to be in the newspaper again. That'd be so annoying!

I went over to my house and checked the clock. Lila and Rena should be home-or at least Lila.

Knock! Knock!

I walked to the door and opened it.

Lila and Rena were there. And they were grinning. And jumping excitedly.

“Hey Lila, hey Rena. Come on in,” I say and open the door wider so they can come in.

I was wondering why Lila and Rena didn't ask me, “How come you weren't in school?” like almost everyone asked. “So, what's up? How's school?” I ask them.

Rena and Lila shout at the same time, “Awesome!”

I held up and eyebrow. “Cool.”

Lila grabs my arm and says, “The Junior High dance! Is today! It's starting in-” she checks her watch and says, “Five minutes!” Rena laughs and says, “Come on! Let's change!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say. “I'm not going. Who'd want to go to some stupid dance?”

Rena and Lila shouts, “I do!” I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I'll just help you get ready, okay? But I'm not going. Ever!”

Rena moves my arm. “Please…?”

“No!”

So I helped Lila and Rena do their hairs. I curled Lila's and Rena's hair. They looked cool. Or, what other boys and girls would say, pretty. I can't believe I'm actually using the word `pretty'!

Lila was wearing a short pink skirt-her favorite color and skirt. She was wearing a silky pink top. Rena was wearing a purple prom dress.

“Wanna walk with us to the school?” Lila asks me. I shake my head. “Nah, I'm about to have dinner.”

Rena shakes my wrist. “Come on, Alex. You can eat at the dance party.”

I stop. “Wait a second; you're making me go in?”

Rena shrugs. “Well,” Lila takes over. “At least walk with us. I wanna tell you what happened in school-well, its bad news. Really bad.”

Rena nods. “Yup. I bet you'd quit school forever if we told you.”

I look at her. “Then why are you gonna tell me?” I ask her. Rena paused. “You've got a point.”

“You can tell me. I don't care. Besides, what bad can it be?”

Rena and Lila looks at each other. “Real bad,” they both say at the same exact time.

So we're walking our way to the school-seventh grade dance.

“Well…” Rena says. “When we both got in school, everyone was laughing at us.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because,” Lila starts. “We're your friends. And everyone knows we're your friends. So they were pointing out, `Alex likes boys, Alex likes boys,' and they started to tease us because we're your friends.”

“What? That's not true! Who started that rumor? Who?” I say and made a fist at the ground.

Rena shrugs, but Lila says, “People say Ms. Porter started it.”

I sighed of relief. “Oh, good, they know it's just a fake rumor.”

Lila shot a look at me that meant they-believe-her.

I mouth, “No,” and Rena says, “Yes!”

“I can't believe a teacher would start an utterly fake rumor-is Ms. Porter a teacher?” I ask Rena and Lila.

“Yup. Well, she's a substitute. She's at the school dance, you know,” Rena says.

“And you can get revenge,” Lila sings, eyeing me. I knew she's trying to make me go to the school dance. “Fine, whatever,” I say, “But I'm only going to take revenge.”

Rena looks at my clothes. “And you're wearing that…?”

I look at her. “Yup. Why?”

Rena shrugs. “Whatever. Oh yeah, the White Screen time!”

“Huh?”

“We're going to have a White Screen time! Mr. Mortis will pull down a huge white screen and there's photos and videos about the school that's going to appear from the screen.”

 

We were defiantly near the school and that's when someone calls, “Hey Alex! You're going to the school dance? What a freak!”

And I knew who that was-Naira Jenzy.

“What? Are you blind? I look perfect!” I shout back to her. Naira rolls her eyes. “That's what you think,” she mutters loudly and I run to her. “What'd you say?” I ask and poked her stomach. I just have this habit of poking her stomach when she annoys me. And I poke her hard.

“Yuck, get your boyish-finger off of me!” she says.

“Hey, that's just a rumor, knuckle-head,” I say to her.

She looks at my clothes. “You so have no sense of style. This is a Junior High dance and in case you didn't notice, you're supposed to wear cool clothes.”

“This is cool. Your ugly-”I look at her clothes-“orange dress is disgustingly disgusting.”

She leans in close and says, “Look at you-you're wearing everyday long jeans and a T-shirt. You gotta be smarter than that.”

She walks away, but takes one last look at me and snickers.

I stick a tongue out at her.

“Alex, you look cool, so don't listen to her,” Rena says. “She's just trying to annoy you.”

“I thought so,” I say.

Lila joins in. “You're right. She is so disgusting! She's the one that likes almost every single boy in the school.”

I nod. “No doubt about