Spread Your Wings

Chapter I

Chapter I
My brain explodes
       
Hi, I'm Lexia Windthorp, and you're probably wondering why I'm free-falling off a cliff on the cover of this book. I'm going to tell you how I got there, tripped to my death a few times, and lots more.

Do you know what the worst thing that exists is? 7th-grade writing class. For starters, the whole class has to write a 300-word essay on our favorite fruit in a week. And it has to be at least two pages. Our teacher Mrs. Mullberry is already listing off examples which we can't use because 'You need to think of something original' even though she wasn't listing ideas for the essay itself.

Weirdly, she's even listing examples as it's the third day in the project, which isn't good for me as I've rewritten my essay five times. I hear a chair scraping along the floor, which pulls my attention away from my blank sheet of paper.
I see my best friend Mai stand up and walk up to Ms. Mullberry with three pages of paper and hand them to her.

Ms. Mullberry then announces, "Mai here has finished her essay about oranges, which means that nobody else may write about oranges." A round of groans came from the announcement.
In response, Ms. Mullberry said, "Don't dilly dally!"

I hear the crumbling of paper as other students who had been writing their essays about oranges stuffed the useless articles in their desks.

I wrapped my fingers on the desk, rolling my pencil back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. until my fingers missed, and it rolled onto the floor with a small clatter. I sighed.

As I started to get up to grab it, I heard Mrs. Mullberry stand up in unison, "Is there a reason for interrupting my class young lady?" she announced loudly to the whole class.

I knew better than to reply, and sat back down. No one said anything, Mrs. Mullberry treated everyone like this.

I bent down in my chair to try and grab my pencil from under my desk, to find that it was only a couple inches away from reach. I tried to reach it with my foot but then pushed it even farther. I switched back to my hands and tried to stretch farther in vain. Come on! Almost got it! Here little pencil! I thought. If it would just give a little roll, a little breeze...

My fingers tingle for half a second. I decide to ignore it, and try a little harder, when the pencil rolls a few inches, right until it quietly knocks my hand. I grab the pencil and sit up, looking around in confusion, had someone blown on it? I put the peculiar pencil in my hand and put my hands on my desk.

I started to think of all the other times weird things had happened around me, I had always brushed it off. Like one time, in 6th grade, when I decided it was too hot outside and started walking around in circles, all of a sudden, it was like fall, and some kids were rushing up to the teacher to ask for jackets, or when I was getting teased by a couple kids next door for always having my hair in twin braids, and the wind hushed by and blew a bunch of dirt in their eyes. I called it luck and once again, brushed it off.

After a brief moment of procrastination, I then start writing,

My mind is blank. Maybe pomegranates? No, they taste like vaseline, I know nothing at all about those. Hmmm.... maybe... What about grapes?

I scribble down some notes and start writing a messy essay.

I'm starting on the second page when a phone rings, which breaks my train of thought. Ms. Mullberry doesn't yell at anybody, so I suspect it was a call from the front office.

I fiddle with my pencil as I think of more points when my name is called out. I look up exactly when Ms. Mullberry tells me I'm leaving.

I stuffed my pencil in the drink pocket
on my bag along with my red gel pen, Quickly crumpled my papers into my desk, pulled the zipper up on my backpack, and started hastily walking towards the door when I fell to the floor.