Chapter 1

“Joanna! How in the world are you expecting to at least get a C? You’re not even focusing! I look away for a second and it’s almost like you’re gone, like you’re not even here or something!” Miranda was right. Or at least I think she was. I did leave… Well actually I’m not sure if I left, but I definitely wasn’t here. Ever since my twelfth birthday, I’ve been able to just leave, but nobody can usually tell. It actually comes in handy when I’m in class, but that’s not the point. I see real people, and hear real conversations, even though I’m technically not even there, because nobody can see or hear me. And believe me, I’ve tried to be noticed when I do my daydreaming. Yeah, that’s what people call it, but they don’t understand. Daydreaming is when you are imagining something that doesn’t actually exist. But the stuff I hear and see actually happen. Like earlier today, I saw my mom driving to her dentist appointment. The car smelled like soccer gear (probably because I accidentally left mine in the back after practice last night), and she had OneRepublic’s ‘Secrets’ blaring. Gods she loved that song. The vision had stopped when she came to a stop sign and a confused look crossed her face… but I see her again. But she’s in an ambulance… Oh no, what hap-

“Joanna! Are you even listening to us?” Amber asked. She looked a bit worried, which surprised me. Usually she would look at me like I was just being retarded again. She never looked at me like she was actually worried about my daydreaming.

“It’s useless,” Miranda said. “She’s just going to have to learn how study properly on her own. She got up and left, with her long black hair swaying side to side as she walked. Miranda was actually really pretty, when she wasn’t getting annoyed with you- then she just gets scary. She had huge brown eyes, olive skin, and (like I mentioned) long black hair. The only reason she’s ever scary is because when she’s mad, her eyes seem to change colour, from brown to green to blue to hazel to green and back to brown. It will repeat itself until she’s not mad anymore. I looked at Amber. She was a little less… scary than Miranda. Her eyes didn’t change colour when she was mad. They always stayed blue. She also had brown hair with golden highlights here and there. People often got us mixed up- we looked a lot alike. Although, she was always calm and peaceful- me not so much. She and Miranda had been friends long before they met me, and I often wondered how they ever actually got along. See I moved here just before my twelfth birthday. I spent a year here. I’d made good friends. And now? All of those ‘friends’ avoid me like I’m some freak science experiment gone wrong.

 

 

 Amber started to say something, but she closed her mouth. I wanted to complain about how Miranda was just being really immature, but like I said. They’d been friends much longer than they’ve known me. I decided I wanted to leave. We’d been sitting in Amber’s huge backyard, and I could see huge storm clouds behind the trees, although they looked like snow clouds. This was weird because it was only early October. We usually didn’t get snow until November or late October. But I decided to go with it anyways.  

“Jeez Amber, I think it’s looking kind of… uh… snowy out that way,” I said as I pointed to the snow clouds. “I think I should probably head home.” I forced a smile. Amber seemed to be daydreaming, or focusing really hard on something, I couldn’t tell. She looked at me.

“Alright,” she said “I guess I’ll see you at school on Monday or something?” She got up and walked to her house. I got up and walked towards the sidewalk. On the way home I couldn’t stop thinking about my mom. Had I really seen her going to the hospital? Or was it just me being weird? If she was going to the hospital, what happened? Car accident? Does dad know? I began to run. Maybe my mom was still at home. Maybe her appointment had been cancelled. Maybe I just saw someone else that looked like my mom, people always mistaken me for Amber and vice versa, maybe I was just doing the same thing. But I had left my soccer gear in the back of the car, and the car had smelt like my horrible smelling soccer socks. No, I told myself. It just can’t be her. My dad wasn’t home when I came up to the house. I went inside and looked at the clock. It read 6:40. No wonder I was hungry. Maybe that’s all it was. I’m just so hungry that I am seeing false scenarios. That must be it. I made supper and ate. ***

As the night went on, I got even more worried. My dad hadn’t come home yet, and neither had my mom. I was trying hard to do my homework, but I just couldn’t. A million different thoughts were racing through my mind. Thoughts about my mom, thoughts about my dad, thoughts about Miranda’s mad eyes and Ambers worried looks. It just didn’t add up, and things were getting even more weird. I nearly jumped out of my seat when the phone rang. It was Amber. She sounded panicked. I could barely make out what she was trying to tell me, but I did understand that she wanted me to come over.

“Okay Amber,” I told her cautiously “I’ll be over in a few minutes. See you soon.” I hung up. That was weird I thought to myself. I walked out the door. To my surprise, it was actually snowing. I loved snow. I would’ve skipped around in it if I hadn’t been so worried about Amber. Still, the sight of snow was making me smile a little. Unfortunately, the joy wasn’t going to last very long.

Author's Note

the only thing I worry about in this chapter- is it long enough?? I've got much more written, but I don't know if I should just keep it like this or make it longer- tell me plzz!!