First Attempt, I don't know the title yet.
I’m running through a forest; no the forest. The forest that has been haunting me. I will make it out safe, I promise myself, but the feeling of uncertainty makes my legs shake. I stop in a clearing; actually it is more like a field, except that the plants died long ago and now it’s only dirt. Two children run up behind me, heads down. They’re both a little younger than me, maybe fifteen. As they look up, I catch a glimpse of their eyes, or what should be their eyes. Instead, their whole eye socket is white, without a pupil. I want to scream, but when I open my mouth, nothing comes out. As they start to lunge at me, I feel the familiar heating in my hands, and they both fall to ground, the girl silently screaming and the boy grasps the dirt in pain, theirs soulless eyes closed again. Confused and scared, I scream for help, and hear a noise in response. Someone is calling my name. “Kathryn, Kat!” I look around, and I spot Scar standing by the tree line, watching me with an amused look on her face. “Kat! Are you awake?”
My eyes snap open. I look at my clock, 7:30. Gross. Scar is sitting on my bed, already dressed and ready to go to school. Her real name is Scarlett, but both my parents thought that it would be cute to have us both have names that can be made into nick-names.
How does she do that? I ask myself as I rub my sweaty palms over my eyes, trying to forget the nightmare.
“Are you okay? Mom told me to get you up, so don’t get mad at me!” Scars question startles me out of my thoughts.
“Umm, ya I’m fine. I just hate getting up early, that’s all.” For some reason, I feel like telling someone about my dreams wouldn’t be a good idea; plus Scar would just bug me about how ‘creepy’ it is that I dream about her.
“Okay, I am going to go grab breakfast. Oh and Kat? Don’t be worried about the activation today, okay?” she says sweetly as she gracefully jumps off of my bed, her strait blond hair swishing as she walks. Although Scar insists that she is not pretty for an eighteen year old, I think she is. From her long blond hair to her bright green eyes and skinny waist line, all she can see is her flat chest. Mom says it’s because she dances so much, I just think she is just a late bloomer, which is the only thing that we have in common. From my dark, thick chestnut hair to my dark blue eyes that lead to my high cheek bones, I am not ugly, I’m interesting.
I had totally forgotten that the activation was today. A couple days before my Dad, Lucas Miller, died he told Scar and I to always be careful, and educated us on the history of why the activation was necessary. After there was a big revolution against the rulers in the USA seventy years ago in the year 2060 the government invented a thing called a GPS. It is not the same one that they had before, the ones that shows you were to go. Now, instead of trying to find a place, the government can find you. When you are born, the doctors insert a microchip tracker, and when you are sixteen the GPS’s are activated, storing your information in a big room called the GPS room. Not very original, but helpful to know for tests.
Scar calls to me that she is leaving with her boyfriend, Adam, and tells me to hurry up.
I jump down the stairs, only to see Rebecca sitting at the counter, eating my muffin.
Startled, I miss a step and go tumbling down the stairs, landing at the bottom with a thud, hearing Rebecca’s annoying laugh in my ears. Just because she is supposed to be my best friend doesn’t mean I have to like everything about her; in fact, I dislike more things about her.
“Rebecca”, I say, putting on my warmest voice, “What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting up at school.”
“Well, I thought that maybe I would do something nice for my best friend, and your sister let me in before she left. Why, did you really want to take the bus on the first day of school?” she asks jokingly. Just as I am about to object and say I was planning on walking, she adds, “Plus, I wouldn’t want to miss that spill for the life of me.”
“There won’t be much life left in you if you keep eating my muffin”, I mutter.
Another one of her squeaky laughs comes and then says sarcastically, “Oh Kat, you are so funny”, and throws the muffin at me. I catch it just before it can hit me in the face.
I wasn’t kidding, I feel like saying, but instead I say, “Nice throw”, and snort.
“Oops, come on we’re going to be late. Don’t forget that the GPS activation is today”, she says all happy again.
Since when do you care? I think, but I grab my bag and follow her outside anyways.
The school parking lot is always full of parents embarrassing their kids on their first day of high school, so we park a couple blocks away and start walking.
“I am so not looking forward to the first day of school. Why couldn’t summer be longer? Oh, did I tell you about the hot guy that was in the hotel room next to me?” As Rebecca starts to ramble about her parent’s money and how it gets her boys, I start to think of my strange nightmares. The dreams are always the same, but sometimes Scar does different things. My sister could be yelling at me, saying my name, or sometimes, she just stares.
“Are you listening to me? Ugh you’re not, are you? Oh look at him!” Rebecca rapidly screams words in my ear. I mutter a sorry and follow her hand to a new student; actually more like a new man. He glances up at us and waves at Rebecca, whose finger is still pointing at him. Embarrassed, she pulls her arm down and glues it to her side. He’s talking with the rest of our friends, Jade, Meagan and Vanessa, or as I call them: Rebecca’s minions.
“Smooth”, I say as I stride over to them. Rebecca turns even redder. “Hi! My name is Kathryn Miller, but people call me Kat.” I say, eyeing Rebecca as she scurries over to us.
“Hey, I’m Robert Mortis. Nice to meet you!” He says, staring me down with his eyes; I stare back and he turns away.
“Oh my god, as in the president’s son?” Rebecca shrieks.
“This is Rebecca”, I sigh. He nods and Rebecca turns red again. She really needs to learn to shut up. “Why are you here? I mean, I heard that you get homeschooled.” I stumble. Rebecca turns to me and gives me a wicked smile.
“Well, I had to get activated, and for some reason they only do it in schools. I guess so people won’t leave high school too early or whatever. It was a lot easier to just sign up for this year instead of trying to arrange a different time for me to get it.” I stare into his eyes again while he talks; they’re unnaturally blue.
“Wow, that sucks. I would hate to go from being able to sleep till twelve every day to waking up at 7:30.” Once again, Rebecca’s voice ruins everything. Rebecca’s minions nod and make little noises of agreement. Just as Robert is about to say something, Mrs. Draberry, the school principle, walks up and looks at us suspiciously.
“I see you are making friends, Robert. Kathryn, can you show Robert where his classes are? He has most of them with you.” I nod and we follow her to the office to get his schedule. Behind us we hear Rebecca snicker and say in her best southern accent, “Mrs. Draberry will never get a date ‘cause she’s a dry-berry!”
After we grab his schedule, figure out that we have all of the morning classes together, and walk to science, Rebecca is already sitting in our usual spots, along with Meagan. I lead Robert over and pull up an extra chair for him. He thanks me and sits down, and Rebecca gives me the he’s mine look. Whatever I mouth, and turn to him and start talking. Rebecca’s face shots from a scowl to a devilish smile, twice today now, and scoots over to us.
“So, Robert”, She says, trying to be sexy, “I need to talk to you about something.”
“What?” Asks Robert, his face turning to a confused look.
“He’s only been here for one day now, Rebecca. We all have, try not to smother him!” I say, trying to figure out what she’s doing. Rebecca is normally easy to read, so when she gives out no signal, I know that what she is about to say is probably not good; and it’s going to be about me. Just as she opens her mouth, Mr. Pola, our science teacher, starts to tell us our lab partners. I’m with this new girl, Lilly, and unfortunately, Rebecca and Robert are partners. We split up; I introduce myself to Lilly, and position myself so I can see them.
“So, what are we doing here? I was late for class.” Lilly says.
“Umm… I think we need to mix these together. I wasn’t really paying attention, sorry.” I say, staring at Rebecca as she laughs at whatever she is saying, but Robert looks a little uncomfortable. All of the sudden, they both look up at me, faces serious, and Rebecca whispers something into Roberts ear. I am startled by Lilly murmuring about leaving, but when I look back up, she is almost out the door.
“Hey wait! Where are you going? I’ll fail if I don’t have a partner” I yell at her, but she runs out of the room anyway.
I trip after her, sprinting at top speed to catch up to her; God she’s fast! I almost take another fall, but catch myself just in time. She takes a sharp corner into the bathroom. I run in after her.
“Lilly! Are you okay? Where are you?” I yell to the empty looking room. Then I see a movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn fast, and at first don’t see anything. Then, as my eyes focus, I see clothes, floating in mid-air. The exact clothes that she was wearing a second ago.
“Lilly? Is that you? I swear if this is a prank I’m going to kill you!” My voice turns to a scream.
“Shhhhh! Don’t talk! Just walk out of here like you didn’t see anything. Please, I’m begging you!” She whispers, or rather her clothes whisper.
“Why? What’s happening?” I whisper back, getting a little scared.
“Just leave, I will explain later!” She says more urgently.
I slowly walk out, thinking that Rebecca and her minions are going to pop out saying surprise! We got you!
As I enter the hall, there are no surprises or jumping. I run back to the bathroom, only to find the window at the top smashed and Lilly’s clothes lying on the floor.
Walking down the halls to get activated, I think about what I have just seen. It must have been a prank. Rebecca and I always used to prank each other, why not get others involved?
Ms. Draberry tells us to line up in alphabetic order, so Robert and I are beside each other, while Rebecca and Meagan are together.
“Hey! How did you like science?” I ask, curious about what Rebecca said about me.
“Umm, it was fun. Rebecca is… nice.” He stumbles, yet again looking uncomfortable.
“Look, I know that she said something about me so just tell me okay? Then we can get this thing over with, and everything will be less awkward.” I say.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” He says quietly.
“Just tell me!” I say, leaning onto the wall, although every cell in me wanted to run at Rebecca right now and ask her what dirty thing she told Robert about me. First she pranks me and then lies to a new guy? Suddenly, the perfect revenge idea comes to my mind.
“Fine, don’t tell me now. Hey, I just got a great idea! After this is all this is done, what do you say that we grab a bite to eat? Unless you’re secretly going out with Rebecca”, I joke, saying it loud enough so Rebecca will hear. Her head perks up at her name, and she looks around and then stares right at me.
“I am not going out with Rebecca!” He says, shocked, “I have to do all of these meeting things where I meet my dad’s staff to ‘prepare me for the future’” He says, making dog ears around the future part. “I will be done next week sometime, how’s Monday sound?”
“Great! Ya that’s awesome!” I say, already excited. I turn back to Rebecca and give her a smug smile. That should show her to mess with me. She marches into the room to get activated.
I am snapped back into reality when I realize how close I am to the doors. There are two people left in front of me now, and I am getting a little nervous. Will it hurt? Will something not work? Will I be the same afterwards?
One person left now, and Rebecca has just come out, looking a little pale, but otherwise unharmed. I want to ask her if it hurts, but I don’t think she wants to talk to me right now. My name is called, and for a second I think its Scar calling me, like in my dreams. But it’s just this plump nurse telling me that it’s my turn. I turn to Robert and he gives me a quick, reassuring smile. I smile back and walk into the room.
