Chapter 1: Disaster

  "Did you hear?"

"What?" I muttered.

Apphia's mouth gaped and she looked around the crowd of people around us to see if they noticed. She tossed her amber hair back and then put her hands on her hips.

"You of all people should know!"  

I was irritated and pushed her shoulder. "What!?" I yelled.

"The new girl! Her name's Disaster or something, that's what everyone else says. She came from some place in Poland or something. Her English is super off." Apphia laughed.

I never heard of "Disaster", quite a weird name if you asked me. 

"Never heard of her, what grade's she in?" I asked.

Apphia shrugged, "Probably the same as us, that's what the crowd is saying." she glanced at her watch and told me the bell was going to ring soon.

We both departed in separate ways.

Middle school wasn't as top-notch as you think it would be after watching all those reality shows and sitcoms. 

You have to move from class to class within five minutes including trips to the bathroom, locker, and your friends are always bugging you. 

Locker time isn't as fun also, it's not like we have 10 minutes to socialize and decorate our lockers with flowers and pictures. You're lucky if you get a top locker, but people are always shoving behind you and messing with your backpack. 

Bottom lockers are the worst, top locker people always stepping on you, and people walking past might trip on you or drop stuff on you.

I arrived to my second period teacher, Mrs. Molphianet, pronounced mol-pha-net. 

The bell rang as soon as I entered and I quickly took my seat.

Mrs. Molphianet called role and assigned us a long packet of math questions.

I was in 8th grade, where we were the kings and queens of middle school. 7th graders were okay and were pretty chill with us. 6th graders were beginners, they asked frequently where building E and building A were. 

~~~~~~~

  After the bell rang, it was lunch time. I took a seat in my regular spot where only a couple of kids sat, which was fine with me.

I pulled out a PB&J sandwich I had prepared yesterday and a bottle of water and began eating. 

A girl sat in front of me. She just sat there, didn't eat. Just stared around and studied her schedule. 

I offered her a piece of bread, she declined with a shake of the head.

I asked her name, and she didn't answer. I suspected she was Disaster, mostly from the whispers from the kids around us.

I was a bit surprised, she didn't look like the kind of Disaster I was thinking about in my head. She had crimson colored hair and brown eyes. She wore a large jacket with blue and black checkered pattern and plain jeans.

"I'm Cassia, where are you from?" I said politely. 

"Germany, and that's none of your business, Cazzia." she replied sternly.

"Cassia. With an 'S'.".

"Whatever." She groaned and shifted her eyes to the left, avoiding mine. Disaster looked back at me and examined my face, my hair. She even leaned down under the table and examined my shoes. 

Then she left. I heard a small paff when she rose and I went around the table and looked at her seat. A small tattered leather notebook. I stuffed it in my bag and finished my lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When school ended and I got home, I rushed to the couch and pulled out the notebook. I opened it up and searched around it, just words and words and small diagrams that I didn't know. The language was definitively not English. I translated it using hours of translating websites and finally got the result. 

  

Ziehen Sie die Saiten wieder vier Zoll und dann binden sie an den anderenRand der Flügel

Which was written neatly on one page, meant something like "Pull the string four inches and tie it to the end".

    Farbe Flügel Silber und dann mit Dummy-Test. Wenn Safe, versuchen Sie mir.

     That meant something close to "Paint wings silver and test with dummy. When it is safe, try it with myself.".

That was written on the most recent page. '

I ruffled through the next couple of pages and they were dated from last year, to today. The pages were filled with more and more charts and measurements.

I had assumed it was a big secret diary with crushes and her past life in it because of it's rips and tears around the cover, but it wasn't. I crammed the notebook back into my small backpack and began working on my homework.