TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: Harrison
II: Jake
IV: Carly
V: Darryl
VI: Harrison
VII: Jake
VIII: Carly
IX: Darryl
X: Harrison
XI: Jake
XII: Carly
XIII: Darryl
XIV: Harrison
XV: Jake
XVI: Carly
XVII: Darryl
XVII: Harrison
XIX: Jake
XX: Carly
XXI: Darryl
XXII: Harrison
XXIII: Jake
XXIV: Carly
XXV: Darryl
XXVI: Harrison
XXVII: Jake
XXVIII: Carly
XXIX: Darryl
XXX: Harrison
XXXI: Jake
XXXII: Carly
XXXII: Darryl
For my dearest sister, Maia, thanks for all your love and support!
Harrison
I
The day my life changed fell on a Monday. Which is pretty ironic considering that I, along with most of the world, hate Mondays.
However, despite my amazing hatred for Mondays, the day was looking to be pretty good. I had just received an A in biology and Physics and the day looked to be very promising.
It was as if God was smiling down at me. The sun was shining, the sky was as blue as the ocean, the birds were singing. The manicured fields of school’s campus spread out in endless directions. The peace seemed infinite. Absolute peace and happiness.
And that’s when I saw Darryl Klein walking down the hall with a gigantic French book in his hands.
Now let’s get things straight: Darryl Klein was the smartest boy in the school. He was a transfer from a tiny town in Kansas. I heard that he and his Mum were really poor, like dirt poor, so I try to do my best to not talk about the latest gadgets Dad got for me when I was around him. Also Darryl Klein is one of the least popular guys you’ll ever meet, with a social status of near zero. As far as I can tell I’m his only friend.
Anyway when I saw that book, my day turned upside down. I suddenly remembered my French teacher Madame Belle’s nagging voice reminding us that the end of unit test was coming up. But looking back who could blame me? I mean it was a Friday! With the weekend so near, it was probably expected that we’d forget about it! Another thing to add to my ‘Mean Teachers Must Die’ list: Make us forget upcoming tests and then give us an F.
Today was a Monday, the most horrendous, most terrifying day of the week. A day when teachers suddenly think having surprise-and non-surprise-tests is a good idea.
It was horrible!
However I pushed all the injustice out of my head and rushed to my locker.
French was last period. That gave me less than ten minutes to study my French verbs. I’m not exactly the smartest guy and languages proved to be a constant reminder of that. My school was a fancy prep school so we had to study four different languages: French, Spanish, German and Latin. I had a C average in three of those subjects but French I was the worst in class with an F-minus average. Up to the time I started learning French no one in Grade Eight thought it was possible to get worse than a D-minus, but I proved them wrong. For some reason my brain could simply not understand the point of make tough choking sounds to please an impatient old hag.
So there I was sitting on my own at a bench studying those horrible French verbs, when Jake Patterson shows up with his crew. Jake Patterson, along with being my best friend was also the coolest guy in school.
This news might make you think that I’m cool to, but I’m actually kind of a loner. It’s not that I’m antisocial or anything, but Dad is a really powerful person and I hated thinking people were only nice to me to please him.
That reminds me, Dad is the President of America.
“Hey, Harrison,” Jake said, “Why are you reading that?” Regarding my book as if it were a week old piece of moldy cheese that had been soaked in milk and left to dry in a hot car for two months.
“In case you’ve forgotten we have a French test in five...four...three…two...one.” I said as the bell went off. I looked over at Jake his tanned skin had turned deathly pale as a herd of students rushed past him in a hurry to get to their next class.
“Well?” I said impatiently as I waited for Jake to move.
“Please tell me this is a dream.” He said.
“This is a dream, now get a move on. You know Madame Belle hates it when we come in late. She’ll throw a huge fit.” I urged.
Finally Jake took a few steps forward. He combed his long blond hair back and stared ahead, his dark green eyes daring anyone to think the mighty Jake was scared of getting a bad mark on a French quiz. Sometimes I think Jake should be an actor like his Mum. He tends to over-exaggerate at every little thing. To make it worse when he does that whole confident thing he makes me feel so small. There he is the most athletic guy in our grade with his long blond hair, green eyes and muscular physique he tends to take all the attention.
Especially compared to me. I have brown hair and brown eyes with a caramel colored complexion. Nowhere near the awesomeness of Jake.
“You’re late!” The horrid voice of Madame Belle snapped me out of my trance. “Take a seat and here is your prize for being late” She handed Jake and me a little pink slip. I had gotten enough of those to know whatever was written inside meant an hour in after-school detention.
Sighing, I sat down at my place. On the table was a thick stack of paper, no doubt the horrid French quiz.
“You may begin!” Madame Belle announced.
The sound of pages being turned filled the air. I stared at the paper. I began writing random French verbs on the pages, uttering a prayer that by some miracle of God the words would someone make sense to me, like they did for a character in one of my favorite books. No such luck. Sighing, I continued with my technique of writing whatever French word came to me. I hate Mondays.
Because of my amazing, yet unreliable technique I finished my test before anyone else and escaped from the horrid classroom that always smelled like egg salad. I waited by my locker for the bell to ringing signaling the end of the day. While I waited I wondered how amazing my life would be if I were someone else. Someone infamous and ever safe from the endless hordes of paparazzi. At that moment the loud bell and the flood of children entering the hall and rejoicing that the day was over interrupted my thoughts. Jake was not among the cheering crowd he nodded solemnly at me. Before erupting into a string of insults mostly announcing how he’d like to throw Madame Belle into an active volcano. On Mars.
Completely forgetting about the pink slip in my pocket, I walked with Jake silently listening as he continued to give a very detailed description of where she should stick her quiz.
“So I take it the quiz went badly?” I asked, hardly able to keep a straight face. Jake looked at me as if I had just announced I was an alien from the planet Neptune.
“Uh… yeah it went pretty badly” he said calming down. By that time we were sitting on the bus waiting to go home. A pretty blond with blue eyes sat in the seat next to us.
“Hey, Carly.” I said.
“Hey, Harrison, hey, Jake!” She responded. Carly Martinsen was one of our best friends and was the head cheerleader on the squad. She was also Jake’s crush though he would never admit it to anyone else but me; Jake has had a crush on Carly ever since fourth grade. Jake opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off short by the arrival of Darryl.
“Hey, guys.” he said, “The quiz was really easy wasn’t it?” At this point Jake looked like he wanted to strangle him. But before he
could get the chance to murder Darryl, I tacitly decided it was a good time to change the subject.
“So you guys want to walk through the woods today?”
It was common for us to walk through the small patch of woods on Mondays to try to forget the horrid events on Mondays. That is Carly, Jake and I. Mondays were Darryl’s happiest day. However he decided to go with us, as we were his only friends.
“Sure, let’s do it.” Carly said, flipping her blond hair. An adventurous gleam sparked in her ice blue eyes. One thing I’ve learnt while hanging out with Carly is to never be fooled by her good looks; she is one of the most adventurous people you’ll ever meet in your life. But you might get that from the gleam in her sea blue eyes.
The others all echoed her words.
When the bus pulled out at the mountainside the four us got off along with two chubby blond boys. The taller of the two turned and started of to the left. We heard his heavy panting within ten seconds. We and the other boy started towards the left behind a massive boulder. The boy stayed a few meters behind us, out of earshot. After a while the boy took a left and we were alone on the dusty trail. By this point Jake had started a very animated talk about last week’s football game. Carly and Darryl nodded intensely, but I just rolled my eyes and tuned out of the conversation. I thought I heard a rustle in the leaves but when I turned around nothing was there.
For a moment, I panicked thinking it was a bear, but I shrugged that thought of, reminding myself of the long lecture Darryl had given of why there would be no wild beast in the woods.
After a while we came to a forked path and took a left. I frowned that’s strange I was pretty sure we always took a right.
But Darryl was here and he had a photographic memory. Oh well. I guess might’ve confused my left from my right.
However, after thirty minutes of walking there was still no sign of civilization. By this point Jake had finally finished his story and the others realized how lost they were.
“I’m so thirsty!” Jake complained. I hadn’t noticed but so was I. I looked around and spotted a small building covered with trees.
“Hey,” I said. Everyone turned to me. “Let’s go see if that place has some drinks.”
Looking at where I was pointing, we stumbled towards the building. I opened the door. It creaked open. We stepped inside. In it was the most amazing sight we could hope for; endless rows of vending machines. Each of us rushed to the one that caught our attention. Mine had flames all over it and the soda was labeled ‘Magma’. Carly’s was blue and yellow and was labeled ‘Electric Eel’. Jake’s was made out of blue glass and had ‘Bullet’ displayed on the can.
Personally I found Darryl’s the most boring it had no color at all, just stainless steel with ‘Dr. Tritor’ imprinted on its side.
Each of us took about three cans and had gulped them down in about two minutes, and then we decided to retrace our steps. I had a sudden strength within me that made me feel like I was capable of anything. By the look of confidence on the others faces I bet they felt it to. When we got back to the fork we took the appropriate turn right and headed home.
Luckily for me I got home minutes before Mum and Dad, and since the maid wasn’t here, no one but my sister, Tessa, and my butler, was home and we had a special bond so I knew she wouldn’t snitch. Especially when I told her why I was late: Jake!
When dinner was over I went to my sister’s room to thank her and she accepted graciously.
Then I told her she was pretty cool for a ten-year-old. I left the room before she could hurt me, but she still sent a pillow my way. I was about to defend myself from its soft features when a ball of fire came out of my hand and met the pillow.
It exploded with the pillow causing a hurricane of feathers to swirl around me. I looked to see if my sister saw that but she was in her room.
I collected the remains of the pillow and threw them in the bin.
That night I dreamt I was in a pillow fight with my friends but I kept on burning the pillows and my friends kicked me out onto the cold street, throwing pillows at me.
Not exactly a horrible nightmare but I wouldn’t want that happening to me in real life either.