PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER TWO PART TWO

I woke up the next morning and quickly got ready so it wouldn’t be such a close call to if I missed my bus or not. I waited in my driveway for a minute or two before the bus came and I got on again like every other day with Mr. C saying, “Good mornin’ Hope.” Then I remembered the day before and how word of my flying probably flew around fast because of the craziness of it. Why can’t I just live a simple, normal life like everyone else in this world, I wondered. Probably even Emmie is going to be afraid of me now. But when I went to sit next to her she was acting completely normal. “Hey,” she said
“Hi,” I replied.
“So, did you do that extra credit piece for math?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“I thought it was confusing at first, but then I understood it…” Emmie kept on talking about the math extra credit, which I actually forgot to do, like nothing at all happened.
“Um…did you here anything about gym yesterday?” I asked curious to see if she knew about my flying.
“Gym? No. Why did something happen?”
“No, just wondering,” I guess I was completely wrong about our school because it doesn’t seem like the rumor passed much. If there were rumors, Emmie would be first to know. Because the school is annoying, we have to sit by homeroom during lunch and it just happens to be that all the super popular kids are in Emmie’s homeroom. All the seats are always filled except for one at the table full of the popular kids which is usually completely abandoned except for when the girls want one of their annoying gossiping friends to come sit there from other tables. Most of the time, that seat was where Emmie sits. The Gossip Queens of our school always babble about everything that happened that day during lunch and also on the bus back home. Of course, the leader of them all is Kerry Shane. She would definitely know about it because it was her boyfriend who got hit by the ball that I managed to throw with my mind. Probably Emmie was sitting somewhere else for lunch yesterday.

Soon I was back at school, waiting for the second bell to ring during math. "Beep!" went the bell which was Mr. Bellagora's cue to start talking. "Okay class, I have the winner for the exit slip from yesterday. And it is," he paused dramatically, "Emmie!!!! And Hope can you stay after class?" I heard a couple of ohhhhh's but ignored them. I was wondering why Emmie won when I triple-checked all my answers. He probably still didn’t believe me.

Deciding to tell him the truth after class, I kept my mouth shut. Then Mr. B started his daily lesson. This time it was about how to cross-multiply to solve proportions. Not that long after, the bell rang, dismissing us to second. I walked up to Mr. Bellagora's desk, ready to start explaining. "I" is all I managed before he cut me off. "I know you didn't cheat or just randomly guess. I don't understand how you did it because you got them all right. I didn't even write the answers anywhere so you couldn't have gotten them and this is the first class of the day so no one else got this test. So how did you do it?" he asked. "I don't know," I replied, still confused about how I did it. "Okay. You can go to your next class." He wrote me a pass that said, "Hope Crandall to second," and I went out into the hall and to my locker. Luckily, everyone else was already in class, so I didn't have to look down the whole time to avoid people from calling me a freak.
I rushed into my second class which was French, gave my teacher, Mrs. Dominique, the late pass, and quickly walked to my seat. "Today we will learn about days of the week. Let's start with Monday so écoutez et répétez après moi, s'il vous plaît." Which I knew meant, "Listen and repeat after me, please."
"Lundi." She said it like lun-dee.
"Lundi," the class repeated with a lot of people pronouncing it wrong. A couple of students that weren't paying attention said it a few seconds later. Mrs. D went through the rest, with the class sloppily repeating her.
"Mardi"
"Mercredi"
"Jeudi"
"Vendredi," I paused for a second because I knew that I heard it somewhere else. I didn't have time to think about it because a second later the whole class was saying the next one causing me to say it last. My teacher gave me the evil eyes.
"Samedi"
"Dimanche"
"Great job, now I want you to practice those at home along with the months and days of the year for your upcoming test next Tuesday."
A couple kids groaned at that. So where did I hear that...where, where, where. Just as everyone was moving on, I remembered making me gasp.
“Is something wrong, Miss Crandall?”
“No, nothing is wrong,” I quickly replied. I couldn’t believe what I remembered. It was a dream. I know it was a dream. Then how could there have been this coincidence. I’ve never heard “vendredi” anywhere else before last night so it had to be real, not a dream. I wished that I could just go back in time so I never would have opened that message. Suddenly, I got a new idea. It was crazy, but new.
Maybe when Lucas threw that basketball, it did actually hit me causing me to go into a coma. I mean, I really don’t know what happens when you’re in a coma, but maybe this is what it’s like. Maybe I’ll wake up and find my parents and Emmie standing around me waiting for me to wake up, and this whole thing would just be a silly little dream I had. I’d have candy and cards at my bedside table and wouldn’t have to worry about weird and unusual things like flying and getting letters from mysterious people who want me to meet them some place. Maybe I’ll even get an iPhone! Maybe Lucas Anderson will get expelled and make Kerry Shane lonely causing her to become less popular so I’ll never get picked on again. Maybe somehow my parents won the lottery or something making us rich and famous. Well, actually that last one is probably never going to happen. But still, the first two would make my life twenty times better. I started feeling less anxious and more excited and happy about what would happen when I woke up. That’s when I remembered that I was still in French class even if it was my dream.
“Miss Crandall! Please pay attention in class.” By the sound of her voice I was guessing that she had been calling on me for a while. I noticed everyone else had their textbooks out so I quickly took mine out and saw out of the corner of my eye that the person next to me was on page 51. I opened my textbook to that page. Because I was in a coma, I knew it didn't really matter if I didn't listen because I really wouldn't have a real test next Tuesday. Okay, so I knew that Vendredi meant Friday so the guy wanted to meet me on Friday. But that also meant I still had to figure out the rest. I didn't remember what the whole message was, but even if I did, it wouldn't matter because the bell rang just then. I walked to my locker. That was when I noticed I forgot to keep my head down so no one knew who I was. But then again, it didn't really matter because all of it wasn't real.

On the way to my next class, I felt someone push me up against my locker again. “Whoops!” cried a mocking voice. “That was so totally an accident!” I saw Kerry smirking at me, with her two friends Marian and Lisa. But I saw a flash of fear in her eyes as she looked at me, and she hurried away. Kerry had no reason to be afraid of me, being the most popular girl in school. And why hasn’t she said anything on Facebook yet about the gym class incident?
I went through the rest of my day, listening to boring Mrs. Neilson talk about the importance of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and even the fateful subject: gym. But today, we wrote an essay on the New York Marathon. No one said anything, but Lucas was unusually quiet. Afterwards, Mr. Waldo told us about nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns. Before I knew it, it was lunch, and I met Emmie in the lunch line. I was expecting a huge torrent of questions about the flying incident the other day, but she looked as normal as could be.
“Hey. Do you know if we’re supposed to do both sides of the Revolutionary War sheet tonight for homework?” she asked, and I shrugged. I’d spent most of Social Studies trying to wake myself from my coma, but by then I was pretty sure that this was real. Maybe I should focus more on actually figuring out where I was supposed to go to instead of pinching myself every three seconds. My arm was already sore.
“Uh, no. But I’d do it, just to be safe,” I replied. Emmie nodded, and we walked up to the lunch line and bought a slice of pizza. We sat down at our usual table, which was empty besides us. Finally, at the beginning of the week they let us sit wherever we wanted, which is probably why Emmie didn’t hear the stories about my flying immediately. But it was still weird how no one seemed to be afraid of me because of gym, besides Kerry of course. Emmie surprisingly asked no odd questions, and we carried on our usual conversations about our evil teachers, how weird Kerry looked with all that makeup on, and which One Direction guy was the ugliest. Emmie always voted Harry, but personally, I thought it was Zayn. We both hated all those boy bands that people seemed to be obsessed with, although we knew we’d get death threats from other girls if we admitted it.
After lunch, I had science with Ms. Esmio and reading with Miss Aro who was about twenty years old and still acted like a teenager which made her awesome and everybody’s favorite. Pretty soon, the day was over (thank goodness), and I got to go home and research to try finding out more about that freaky mysterious text that I got last night. Thanksgiving break started tomorrow after the end of the half day and lasted for four days, so I’d have time to figure it out.
When I got home, I went straight to my room. I quickly hit the power button on my computer and waited impatiently for it to turn on. Finally, after what felt like years the computer was ready. I double-clicked on the internet explorer icon and slowly the Google search engine appeared on my screen. I decided to start simple and typed in “23 for time” because I was guessing that that was the time so that was probably the easiest place to start.
9,040,000,000 results appeared so I looked at the first one. It was from Wikipedia which is the website that teachers always tell us doesn’t have accurate information. Right now that didn’t really matter to me because I just wanted some type of answer. I clicked on the blue underlined website. A whole essay appeared and in the top left corner was the word Wikipedia and the little round ball that was made of puzzle pieces. Each piece had a little symbol on it. I started reading the beginning. It said that 23 was actually part of a way that people sometimes counted time. Instead of starting over at 12, they just kept going calling 1:00 PM 13:00 and so on. I guess it was called military time or astronomical time, but I didn’t read after that because I got my answer.
Now that I knew what to do, I ripped out my iPod and reread the message. “MEET ME AT 23 ON Vendredi,” it said. Using the knowledge I gained that day I translated it so I would understand it easier then quickly scribbled down the translated version so I wouldn’t forget. My translated version read, “Meet me at 11:00 PM on Friday.” Okay, know it was so much easier to understand. I looked up at the clock and noticed that it was 7:00 PM. I went carefully through my homework and by the time it all was done, it was 7:30 PM.
“Honey, we are having guests tonight so can you come down to help me set the table,” Mom shouted from down the hall making it sound more like and order than a request.
“Coming,” I replied, a bit agitated that I couldn’t try deciphering anymore of the text. I knew that tonight one of my dad’s friends from work was coming over, but I just wished that if it had to be at night then it would be any other night then this one. Why is it that when I start to get on a roll, I always am interrupted? Whatever, I guess I have to go and don’t really have a choice. I rushed down the hall to replace the time lost from wishing that I didn’t have to go to dinner.
“Okay, so these plates go here and we are going to use the bigger forks and spoons,” my mom instructed as she pointed to different points around our small table. Another chair was added squishing the other three together which was where my dad’s friend would sit. I put the utensils and plates where they were supposed to go around the table. A few moments later, my dad came stomping down from his room wearing a plain white collared shirt with a black jacket over it and black dressy pants. Then I noticed that my mom was also dressed fancy wearing a turquoise, ocean-colored silk long-sleeved shirt and plain brown pants with black shoes. I looked at myself and saw I was still wearing my blue worn out jeans and my long-sleeved American Idol shirt from last year featuring Scotty McCreery, and the other top ten singers.
As if reading my mind, my mom said, “I think you might want to change into something nicer.” I went back to my room and put on a soft, comfy, sky-blue blouse with black fancy pants that I always kept for times when I needed to dress nicely.
As I walked back down the hall I heard the doorbell ring and my dad say, “Hi, thank you for coming. Come in and we can start dinner.” Once I reached the bottom of the hall which led in to the living room I saw my dad’s friend. He was wearing nice black shoes, black pants and a white shirt with a black tie. He took of his silk coat and my dad put it by the door. He had a buzz-cut and his hair was brown. His eyes were green and as he sat down his face looked nice and friendly.
“Thank you so much for inviting me. Now is that your daughter?” he asked looking at me.
“Yup, I’m Hope,” I said sounding not very polite. My mom glanced at me with a look that said, this isn’t one of your friends. Be more polite.
“I mean, yes, my name is Hope,” I said correcting myself.
I went to the table to sit down along with my mom and dad. Once we were all settled in. My mom started to pass out the rigatoni. Once she was done with that, she gave everyone broccoli and chicken, and we sat down to start eating. I made sure not to mess up again at being polite. I was sure that my mom took her time on making dinner because it tasted better than usual. The pasta was covered in thick tomato-filled sauce which I guessed was made from real tomatoes. The broccoli was soft, but at the same time crunchy with a hint of butter. And the chicken was covered in mouth-watering gravy and tasted like heaven. I didn't really know where my mom got those recipes from, but wherever it is, I'd love to have more dinners from that place.
Of course, then came the part of dinner where we had to talk again. "So, what is your favorite subject in school?” my dad’s friend asked. I wanted to say math, but then I remembered what happened and changed my answer.
"Science," I replied.
"I used to like science, too," he said back and I just nodded because I had no idea how to reply to that. I knew saying "cool" would be too impolite. Then my mom ruined anyway of the guy thinking I'm not crazy.
"Oh yes, Hope is very funny, too." Then she started to go on about my "joke" from the night before. My parents and my dad's friend started laughing. Because I didn't want to feel like a complete weirdo, I joined in nervously laughing. Really it sounded a lot more like, "Ha, ha." Finally, when the laughter died down, it was completely quiet.
To break the long and uncomfortable silence, I said, “Yeah,” even though it was probably number one on the list of most impolite things to do when there is company over. I didn’t even have to look at my mom to know she was giving me the evil eyes. The rest of dinner went on with my dad and his friend talking about their work. I just sat there patiently listening even though I was done eating just to be polite. Soon everyone was finished and my mom started to put the dishes away. I hurried to my room and changed into my turquoise pajamas. Once I was ready, I went back to my computer which was on my desk next to my window.
“Thank you so much for coming…,” I heard Dad say from downstairs.
“No, thank you,” my dad’s friend answered which actually reminded me of a time I was leaving Emmie’s house. We went to the movies and Emmie’s mom paid for it even though I said I could. Right before we left, I gave them the 20 dollar bill. As I was walking back toward the car, Emmie came out and put it in the hood of my sweater. Then I tried getting it back to her. It went on and on for a long time until finally they just took the money. I looked out the window for a second and saw Dad’s friend from work leaving.
I was about to look away, but something caught my eye. What happened next was so surprising that I almost jumped out the window to catch up with the man. I almost could believe that I was actually hallucinating. I thought all the really weird stuff would stop, but I guess I was completely wrong. The guy stopped half way to his car. He turned around and looked up at our house and I was certain he was staring straight at me. What was he doing? He took something out of his pocket, and at first I thought it was a gun or something which really freaked me out. I mean it wouldn’t be all that surprising with everything that has been going on lately. But when it lit up I noticed it was actually a Blackberry phone. Maybe I really was crazy thinking that just because some guy stopped in our driveway he was going to do something bad. I sighed in relief. But a second later, I knew I was wrong again.
I saw him text something short and seconds later heard a vibrating. That was a really weird coincidence. I walked over to my iPod and saw that once again it said, “New message from unknown.” I didn’t know if I should read it, but in the end the thought of never knowing what it said overruled anything else. I hesitated a bit before clicking the iMessage app. Finally, I let my finger fall down and read what it said. I almost wished that I never opened it. It wasn’t much better than the last one. Why does this keep happening? It made my situation even worse.
The text read, once again in all caps, “DON’T FORGET. MEET AT 23 ON 22ND. DON’T BE LATE. FIGURE IT OUT SOON. HINT: MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.”