Prologue

It was the first day of Mrs. Kelsner’s kindergarten class. Newcomers came running in laughing and smiling, some of them scurrying back to hide behind their parents when they saw how scary school was. Most quickly acquainted themselves with the toys neatly placed in the soon-to-be-disorganized primary-colored bins. Young parents and kind, graying teachers talked and laughed, and mothers kissed their hyperactive children goodbye.

One of the kids, a girl with long, raven-black hair and shocking green eyes, played with letter blocks by herself as she waited for the teacher to call the class to attention. She didn’t need to say goodbye to her parents; they had dropped her off in a hurry because of a divorce meeting. So she continued to sit alone and play by herself, ignoring the happy families surrounding her.

The girl’s reading level surpassed that of most of the people’s in the room, including most of the parents’. She’d been spelling things like ‘WELCOME TO SCHOOL’ and ‘I LOVE YOU’ when, suddenly, a little boy with dark brown hair came running up, his shimmering, hazel eyes glued to the blocks.

“You wanna play?” the girl asked, holding a block out to him.

The boy stared wide-eyed at her and carefully took the block.

“I’m Aylah,” the girl said, smiling politely. “What’s your name?”

The boy was a deer in headlights, contemplating whether he should answer or not. Aylah waited for a reply, but the boy only dropped the block and ran away to the other side of the classroom. For a moment, the little girl was upset, and the thought that maybe she'd done something wrong clouded her mind. But the boy was quickly forgotten as she went back to spelling out friendly greetings with the blocks.

She wasn’t bothered by him again until lunchtime. Aylah was unpacking a very yummy-looking P.B. & J. sandwich from her Breakfast Monkey lunchbox, when she looked up and noticed the boy staring at her from across the room. But when she waved at him, he looked away, too shy to even wave back.

Huh. What a weirdo, Aylah thought to herself as she took a bite out of her sandwich. She then carried on with forgetting about the boy and thinking of her favorite Breakfast Monkey episodes. She liked the one with Crazy Boy and Tinklefish.

Later that week, Aylah’s parents took her out of school and told her about the divorce. Her mother said she was going to stay with her for a while and that she’d be able to see daddy every summer. When Aylah asked, “Why can’t daddy live with us anymore?” her mother only went on ranting about him, saying he was too much like a child to be a daddy, he couldn’t support a family when he was more important to himself than they were, and don’t worry about him, honey, he’s just moved on with his life, but you’ll still see him every summer, okay? Don’t worry about him, dear…

Aylah stopped listening when her mother’s sobs made it too hard to understand her.

For the rest of the year, the little boy asked where Aylah was and why she didn’t come back. But his asking to know about where she was became less frequent, and eventually, he forgot about her.

They didn’t see each other again until the end of fifth grade. Aylah’s mother died in a violent car crash, which moved her back in with her father in New Jersey. He sent her to school two weeks before it ended so she could at least go into the sixth grade knowing a few people, or whatever logic he had in mind when he enrolled her. On her first day, Aylah did everything alone. She didn't talk to anyone, and when lunch came, she didn't sit with anyone. Instead, she preferred to eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich alone.

The cafeteria was grimy, she could tell. No matter how hard the inspirational and motivational posters tried to hide it, the place still looked dirty. The tables were peeling, and the round plastic seats were cracking and sagging, their bright colors dulling with age. A fading Breakfast Monkey lunchbox on the table beside her, Aylah sat at one of the tables in solitude, observing the students and trying to make herself recognize anyone she could from preschool, or that one week she had in kindergarten.

Suddenly, something smacked the back of her head. When she turned around, three boys were sitting at the table behind her, laughing. Two of them looked like they were her age. The other, the one with glasses far too big for him, looked like he must have been in second or third grade.

She glared at them and was about to turn around again when one of the older boys made her double take. As soon as he saw her looking at him, his smile disappeared and his eyes shot away, like he was scared or shy.

Hey…I know that kid…Aylah thought to herself. She tried to remember his face: his dark brown hair, his hazel eyes, perfectly upturned nose and pale skin. Finally, a memory of the boy floated back to her, one where she tried to share blocks with him that day in kindergarten but he ran away. She turned back to her sandwich and smiled. He hadn’t changed a bit.

For the next week, Aylah kept an especially close eye on him. She noticed that he was always with the same two people: a boy with blond hair (the one that threw wads of paper at her at lunch) and the third grader whose glasses were too ginormous for his face.

Then one recess, she noticed neither he nor the second-or-third grader was there, and the boy with blond hair sat alone by a wall playing a portable video game. She cautiously and silently walked up to him and stood there, waiting for him to notice her.

Finally, he looked up, startled to see her. “What do you want?” he asked, rather impolitely.

Aylah stood quietly for a moment, and then said, “What’s your name?”

The boy glared at the strange girl a while, but finally answered, “Dylan. What’s it to ya?”

“Where are the other two boys you usually hang out with?” Aylah asked.

“Mikey and-?” he cut himself off, not wanting to tell the strange girl too much. “What do you care? They went to another school. Friday was their last day,” Dylan replied.

Aylah turned and walked away.

She never saw the boy and his brother again for years. She kept to herself, lost in a world of her own that was far too dark for anyone else her age. The closest friend she had was Dylan, who usually tried to avoid or eventually forgot the strange girl. Aylah eventually forgot Dylan, too, as well as the boy. Until one day in high school…

Author's Note

Looking back on this, I'm wondering if this sounds as great as I thought...ah, well. Hopefully it's still entertaining. I will try to get the other chapters done ASAP:)

Reviews

[Lexstasy]

Really Harley? The breakfast monkey? I LOVE YOU

[John Stussy]

Okay, you captured the reader with the cute innocence of those younger days then gave a concise account of her growing up that gave just enough information to flesh Aylah out to the reader. That takes some skill, and you did it greatly. Now I have to go on to the next bit, so here I go.

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

I like it thus far. Has suspense .. nice dialogue and characters.
Good job ..
I will read some more now..

Chloe

[Victoria]

This was interesting. Very good.

[dearly beloved]

Hmm... Very interesting. I can't help but wonder what is that boy's problem. Nice and descriptive - Nice!