It was the
first day of school in eighth grade at a private middle school in Florida.
There were 17 eighth-graders, and four of them were new that year, two boys and
two girls.
Lea
started walking down the hall to her first hour classroom when she saw another
girl also going towards the door. She had met all of the other eighth-grade
girls that were there the year before, but this girl did not look familiar. She
looked different from the others, as though she would become your friend the
minute you talked to her. Lea ran to her and greeted her. The girl’s name was
Sierra. They walked in together.
The
teacher of their first class told everyone to stand in the back so he could
choose their seats one at a time. Lea compared Sierra to the other girls. It
was strange: they all had different faces, but at the same time they were all
very similar, while Sierra was different from all of them. Lea couldn’t figure
out what it was, but there was something strange about the old class and
familiar about Sierra.
Just
then, the teacher, Mr. Jackson, interrupted Lea’s thoughts by welcoming the
eighth-grade students again. Then he introduced himself and said that he would
tell them where to sit. He called off their names, one by one. “Meggie Roberts.”
A girl with long dark brown hair walked past Sierra and Lea, and her friend Amy
laughed at her as she passed the boys. “Jasmine Carter,” he called, and a tall girl
with dark hair, a girl who obviously cared about her appearance very much,
walked past them, trying to finish an argument with one of the boys as she
passed. “Donovan James.” A short boy with curly hair laughed with the other boys,
who hardly knew he was there, as he walked to his seat. “Ruby Simons.” A girl
with really long hair passed Lea and Sierra, singing under her breath. “Trent
Michaels,” Mr. Jackson called, and a skinny boy, obviously a popular one,
walked past, laughing at something one of his friends had said. His seat was
next to Jasmine’s, and when he took a seat, he sat on the edge of his chair,
trying to be as far away from her as possible. “Sierra Green.” Lea watched
Sierra move shyly to her seat, imagining what she would be acting like if she
wasn’t shy. “Alex Shook,” he called, and a blonde boy, another popular one,
walked to his seat by Ruby. “Erin Lancaster.” A short, skinny girl with blonde
hair and sharp facial features shuffled to her seat next to Donovan. “Jackie
Banks.” A girl with tan skin walked forward awkwardly and sat next to Meggie.
“Lacy Titus?” A nice-looking, cute girl walked quickly away from the rest of
the girls, biting her nails, and sat behind Sierra. “Ethan Dawning.” A tall boy
with light brown hair walked to his seat in front of Sierra, and Sierra looked
slyly at Lea.
“Will
Carter.” Another short boy, also popular, even though he was new, sauntered to
his seat next to Ethan. “Lea Vite.” Lea heard her name, looked up from mouthing
to Sierra, and walked to her new seat which was next to Sierra. “Amy Sandhill.”
A hyper girl, who was very self-conscious but also outgoing at the same time,
took her seat in front of Meggie. “Katie Tan?” A short girl, very athletic and
even more hyper than Amy, bounced forward to her seat next to Amy. “Dylan
Christopher,” A really skinny boy with messy hair and sagging jeans walked past
the girls and tried to get a word into the other guys’ conversation. “Victoria
Kate…,” Mr. Jackson called, and a quiet girl with long hair walked forward to
her seat in front of Trent.
Why do they all look different…Lea
wondered. Except for me and Sierra… and those
boys, Ethan, I think, and Will…All the others look the same compared to each
other…Why do they look different from us? It’s so weird…This is scary…
Later
that day, as Lea and Sierra were walking to their next class from lunch, Amy,
Jasmine and Ruby came walking from the direction Lea and Sierra were walking
towards, and Amy said, “Hi! We’re so glad you’re here!” Amy smiled. Ruby, who
obviously had a lot of energy, started singing, “Heyyyyy, we’re glad you’re
hereeee! Thanks for comiiing!” Jasmine gave herself a face palm and shook her
head. Amy started giggling, and they walked away, Ruby bouncing on her heels
and singing like no one could hear her. Amy covered her mouth and tried not to
burst out with laughter. Jasmine just stared at Ruby and tried not to scream in
horror and pity.
When
they were gone, Sierra and Lea looked at each other with their mouths hanging
open.
“What’s wrong with them?” Lea asked.
“I have
NO idea…Where are we? Are we still on Earth?”
A couple
days later, at recess the boys were all playing basketball in the gym. Will and
Ethan had become good friends because they were different from the other guys.
When
Donovan missed his shot, Trent said, “It’s okay,” in a strange accent that Will
and Ethan had never heard before. They
were playing an actual game, but Will and Ethan were just watching. Trent and
Alex were jumping around the court, throwing the ball back and forth and lazily
at the hoop.
“What
are they doing? They’re crazy! They’re never gonna make it…” Ethan commented.
“I
know…They’re getting owned,” Will agreed. “Let’s show ‘em the right way to do
it,” he said. Ethan and Will walked to the court. “Hey can we join?” Will
asked.
“Yeah,”
Trent said, and they stopped playing and remade the teams. Right then, Sierra,
Lea, Meggie and Erin walked in. Victoria, Katie and Lacy followed, and Ruby,
Amy and Jasmine were farther behind near the entrance to the gym.
“Wow…” Sierra said. “Trent is failing so badly…”
“I know right…Ethan and Will are actually really
good, though, don’t you think?” Lea agreed.
“What are you talking about? Trent is NOT failing!
Trent is doing amazing! YOU are failing…He’s so good…WHAT is Will doing? He’s
so weird…” Meggie argued.
“I don’t know her,” Sierra said to Lea, and Lea
grinned.
“Hey, do you guys want to go ask if we can join?” Erin
asked her friends.
“No way! I fail more than WILL does, which
means….Well I’m probably the worst basketball player in the world, if I fail
more than Will...”
“What? NO! He’s good!” Lea said.
“Well, Alex and Dylan are failing more!” Sierra said.
“WHAT? NO!” A voice came from behind them. It was
Ruby. “Alex is like the best basketball player in our class!”
“What about Dylan?” Meggie teased.
“What? I don’t care about Dylan…Alex is so much
better than him…”
“I want to play,” Katie answered Erin and interrupted
the girls. “Anyone else?”
“No thanks,” Lea answered. “There is something different
about the way that Ethan and Will are playing…It’s so familiar…,” She added to
Sierra.
“I know…It’s weird…I don’t know what it is
though…Have you noticed how different they look than us? The other girls, I
mean, and…I don’t know. This is weird…Maybe they’re aliens! Heh,” Sierra
smiled.
Two months had passed, and in that time Sierra, Lea,
Will and Ethan had become very good friends, because the others were so
different from them. One day at lunch, they were talking.
“Don’t you think it’s weird how everyone else always
has so much energy, and they are always like running everywhere and never
tired?” Lea asked as she surveyed the other girls skipping down the cafeteria
walkway.
“Yeah, and how the other guys, even Dylan, always go
to play sports instead of talking after they eat…” Ethan said, and Sierra
nodded.
“And also that the girls and boys in our class NEVER
sit together, like we do…” Lea said.
“Yeah, they’re like enemies for LIFE. It’s so
weird…You two remind me and Ethan of something but we don’t know what it is…”
Will said to the girls.
“Same…We have talked about it, too…Why does it feel
like this is supposed to happen, like…Like we were meant to be here, at this
school…” Sierra said, and Lea continued, “I know…I feel like I belong here,
with you three…It’s like we have known each other forever…Like we have some
secret past we all forgot about…Hah…” She trailed off.
Just
then, everyone fell silent when they heard Lacy scream. They all turned to look
at her, and they saw her pointing at something outside of the window. Lea
followed her line of vision, and when she saw what Lacy had seen, she almost
screamed, too. All four of them, Lea, Sierra, Will and Ethan, could not believe
their eyes, and could not stop staring. It was a spaceship.
“Um, guys?!” Sierra said to her three friends. Anyone
listening could tell that she was trying very hard not to yell. “Does anyone
else think that that spaceship looks familiar?”
The other three didn’t answer, but they all felt
something pulling them to the spaceship. They lost sight of everything else
going on; their classmates, their lives on earth, the fact that school was not
yet over, and the fact that it was a spaceship that they felt like they were
being called to. All four of them ran through the doors of the school, with
teachers yelling at them as they passed. They ran, together, through the
streets and on the sidewalks, past buildings and parks and pushed their way
through a crowd that had formed until they found themselves standing in front
of the spaceship. They felt as though they were all in a trance. They stopped
running and walked forward to the spaceship. They felt like it was calling out
to them, telling them to come, telling them that they didn’t belong there, on
earth. They slowly walked onto the ship, and behind them the door closed, and
the crowd was silent as they watched the spaceship soar up into the blue sky.
