Guys, Sorry that this chapter sucks. The rest should be better. Promise!
If I really think about it, I've had a pretty interesting life so far. I mean, how many kids can say they almost die on a daily basis, have about 8 siblings, and had to stop your mom's kidnapper from killing everyone you care about and destroying the world? Yeah, I'm just going to hope I'm the only one who can say that, other than my siblings, relatives, and friends of course.
If you're reading this and you're like me then I'm really sorry for everything you're about to go through. Reading about this kind of stuff and actually living it are two completely different things. But hey, on the bright side, we're probably related! That means I can add another person to my really, really, really long list of siblings and relatives!
On that lovely note, my name is Aliana Bailey, and I was twelve years old when my life got much, much weirder.
So basically, I live with my Aunt, Uncle, and my cousins. Let me explain.
It all started when my mom went missing. They never found the body, but she did leave a note that she might not come back, and if that was the case, then she was sorry. I don't know her name. Or how old she was.
We didn't know where my father was, so I just ended up with my Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Layton. They already had three daughters named Mallory, Lucia, and Freya. Then add met o the addition, and they had 4 young children at the same time. Their oldest, Mallory was only 6!
Whatever, I'm over it at this point. Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Layton are pretty cool too. And their daughters are like sisters to me, so that's good.
So yeah, I honestly had it pretty good. I still do, and I am well aware that my life easily could get much, much worse.
Before this whole mess, I went to school at New Pines Intermediate school in Ohio. I wasn't exactly the best student... but I wasn't the worst either. The worst thing I ever actually did was overflow all the school toilets at the same time, which flooded the bathrooms.
I got suspended for a week, but I'm just going to be grateful I didn't get expelled.
Sorry, back on topic. So, there was this New Pines 6th grade field trip we were all required to go on.
It was to Lake Seneca so we could look at and observe wildlife.
No offense, but I'm fairly sure if any swan, heron, or fish saw my class, they would run or fly away as fast as possible. We tend to be a little bit disruptive, annoying, and loud for lack of a better adjective. I'm pretty sure if I was a Herron, I wouldn't want to go near 12-year-old boys armpit farting and dipping their Cheetos in Nutella.
Pretty sure that's not a good combination when it comes to animal watching.
My Aunt Isabelle was one of the teachers coming on the trip, and if you think having a parent or guardian as your teacher is fun, it's not. They are so much stricter for you, and they force you to study more for every quiz. You can't get away with not doing homework, because they were the ones who assigned it. And they know EVERYTHING that happens in school.
There was one more teacher, who was named Mrs. Sandor. She's the science teacher, and probably one of the better teachers that I have had. She always lets us do these really cool labs that normally involve fire or chemical reactions.
To be honest, she probably shouldn't let my class in the same building as anything remotely flammable or sharp. But nothing had happened yet, so we were pretty good.
So yeah, the teachers dragged a bunch of hyperactive and obnoxious 6th graders onto a yellow school bus and told us to be quiet so the bus driver could focus. Translation, the front seat was just about silent, while the back seat was absolute chaos blasting parody music and screaming "your mom" jokes at each other.
I was sitting in seat 8 next to my friend named Ellie Hansen, who was at least a good friend (most of the time). She would always read and didn't really talk to me all that much on the bus, even though we are friends. But when we aren't riding the bus? She loves to call me an idiot and in general, roast me in her British accent (She's from the U.K).
Then there was this girl, Lila Lewis, who sat in the seat across from us. She was shooting us death glares and whispering to her friends. I honestly don't know why she hates us so much. Last time I asked her, it had something to do with my dad and Ellie's mom. And if you didn't catch that, I haven't seen my dad in at least 10 years.
But yeah, basically, she's made it her job to get Ellie and me in trouble at any point
One last introduction, because I know they suck. Vera Collins. She's tall, has really dark brown curls, freckles, glasses, and weirdly bright green eyes. We're sort of friends, but she's like the mom of the three of us. She basically tells us off when we're doing something dumb, which means we get yelled at a lot.
For the rest of the bus ride, I stared out the window. We passed by a lot of forests and stuff, so it was a really pretty view. I especially liked the lake.
We finally got off the bus at this nature trail thing. "Alright, Listen up, please. We are going to hike about two miles to the lake, so please use the restroom now if you have to. Get water, and do whatever you need to do." Mrs. Sandor announced, pointing out the restrooms to us.
"Also don't eat poison sumac!" Vera shouted, raising her hand.
"Way to state the obvious," Ellie muttered under her breath. Vera could apparently hear her because she sent Ellie a look.
Kids ran to the bathrooms, pushing each other out of the way so they wouldn't have to wait in line. Lila was throwing sticks at Ellie, who just ignored her and just continued sitting on a large rock while reading The Hunger Games. I'm normally not the violent sort of person, but if I could, it would give me great pleasure to battle it out with Lila in The Hunger Games. Ellie and Vera could be my back-up.
Anyways, we eventually all gathered around Mrs. Sandor, and she did that weird headcount thing that teachers do before she gave us each a piece of paper. "Alright, document the different animals you see and create a food chain. I want at least two different food chains from each of you." She explained, reading off of a notecard.
We started walking into the woods.
I was jogged next to Ellie and Vera, and I was trying to start an actual conversation. "So what book where are you reading on the bus?"
"Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Why do you care?" She grumbled back, handing me a red-orange paperback book.
"Ellie," Vera warned. She was glancing around the woods and constantly looking behind
us like she was scared of something happening.
I didn't bother reading the blurb, so I just handed it back to her. I've never been the kind of person to read any type of classical novel. When we are assigned one, I usually just google each chapter summary. (Any teachers who are reading this, sorry)
"Do you think it's any good?" I asked her. The cover looked boring, and the summary looked borning, and as far as I knew, the author was boring.
Then again, I'm not much of a reader myself. I've been in intervention most of my life, and struggle to maintain a C in my literature classes.
"Yeah. It's okay I guess. The only character I liked died." She grumbled, pulling a strand of blonde hair out of her mouth. Vera was walking next to us, but she wasn't really talking much.
"That's cool. I'm going to go see if I can find any poison ivy to put in Lila's sandwich." I excused myself.
Vera's eyes widened. "Actually, Aliana, why don't we try and figure out a revenge plan for Lila that doesn't involve murder."
Ellie smiled, even though it was obvious she was trying not to. "If you want to make her violently ill, look for azalea's." She whispered, full-on grinning and looking evilly at a purple flower bush.
Wow... I did not know Ellie had a wide variety of poisonous plants memorized. That's... slightly concerning. That gives her access to a long list of ways to commit murder almost undetected...
"Yeah, but how are we not going to get caught?" I asked, glancing up at my aunt who was scolding kids about playing whack-a-mole on each other with sticks. Ellie shrugged, before saying: "Dunno. I think I'd rather just enjoy the mental image of Lila vomiting than actually do it and get expelled."
Speak of the devil and she herself shall appear, becasue about five minutes after we had come up with a semi-decent murder plot, Lila Lewis approached us with two other girls behind her. "What are you two doing?" I asked, glaring her down. Her short blonde hair was covered in leaves, and she had mud smeared all over her face. The mud made her look like she had poop sprayed on her face, and her hands were behind her back, which could'nt have been a good sign.
"Nothing." She snickered, before throwing a ball of mud at Ellie, splattering it all over her book.
As boring as the book was, that was a step too far.
"Alright, that's it." I snapped, walking up to Lila ready to her punch in the face. Ellie grabbed my arm before I could do anything remotely good to Lila, unfortunately. "Leave it alone, Aliana. It's not worth it." Ellie scolded me, rubbing mud off her book using her green New Pines T-shirt.
"I swear, I'm going to get back at her," I grumbled angrily as she and her friends walked away, giggling like a bunch of idiots. Little did I know, in the next few minutes, my revenge would spark something much, much bigger.
"Alright, everyone! We're at the lake! Please don't go in it, as there are snakes and algae. Please fill out your worksheets, and hand them in to Mrs. Sandor when you're finished! I don't want to deal with paperwork if one of you gets bitten by a snake and dies!" Aunt Isabelle shouted excitedly waving a stack of clean, white papers.
"ahem, On that happy note, have fun researching!" Mrs. Sanor announced, trying to cover up my Aunt's joke. I seriously hope that was a joke at least.
I absolutly hate snakes, spiders, and needles, and a lot of other stuff. Now that I think of it, I have a lot of phobias.
"You think she was joking?" I asked Ellie, who just gave me a weird look like I was crazy for asking that. "This is your Aunt we're talking about. What do you think?"
"That she's joking?"
"And I'm beginning to think you're a bit of an idiot." Ellie quipped.
She was smiling, so I think she meant it in a joking way. Then again, you never really know with Ellie. We've been sort of friends since Kindergarten, and she's always confused me. One minute she's being a shy bookworm, the next she plotting murder. Talk about multi-personality.
I glanced over at the beach, were Lila was sitting alone and talking to Mrs. Sandor. She seemed... Upset maybe? I just ignored it and continued joking around with Ellie. Lila hated me, so why was I going to get involved?
The thing is, Ellie doesn't look all that intimidating. She's only 4'10, and she always wears flannel and had her dirty blonde hair tied back in a black velvet headband. One random, but cool fact about her is that she has two different eye colors! Her right eye is bright green, and her left eye is dark brown. She also had killer shin kicking skills and she could kill you easily, or make you really sick.
Seriously, respect those kids who are 4'10. Or you will regret it. Badly
We walked around the fields by the lake looking for lizards, but a weird part of me just wanted to jump in the glassy, smooth blue lake and stay there forever. I don't know why, but it felt safe to me.
"You look weird. What's up?" Ellie asked, scribbling doodles of someone barfing on her paper food chain assignment.
I groaned dramatically, throwing my head into my hands. "I want to give up on this stupid worksheet, but I can't becasue my Aunt over there." I pointed to my aunt, who was staring me down from the doc. "Isn't going to let me get away with it."
"Sounds to me like it's your problem then."
"Ellie, you literally asked me what was up."
"Exactly, I only set you up to be roasted. And you were genuinely acting weird, so I just wanted to make sure that you weren't about to go do something stupid." She said, walking through the wheatgrass off the trail.
"Ellie Hansen, get off the trail or else you're going to get bitten by snakes!" Mrs. Sandor came running over once she noticed Ellie.
Ellie just rolled her eyes and picked up a big black yellow-bellied snake the size of a garden hose.
"Relax, it won't hurt me. And it's not poisonous." She reassured us, watching as the snake wrapped around her arms while stroking its scaly, yellow belly.
"Ellie put the snake down." Mrs. Sandor demanded in a shaky voice.
Ellie rolled her eyes, setting the snake on the ground. "Fine, there you go."
The snake slithered over to us and went right in between my legs. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm absolutly terrified of snakes. Venomous or not, I don't care. I screamed, and stomped around at the snake, running backward clumsily. Then I guess I should have seen this coming, but I tipped on a tree root and banged the back of my head.
The yellow-bellied snake slithered around me and came over to Lila and her friends, who screamed when they saw it slithering over to them. I almost actually felt bad for them, considering how terrifying it is to have a garden hose sized snake slither around you and snapping playfully.
"Will you all just chill out?!" Vera shouted, stomping over to the snake. She picked it up and carried it back all the way to the grassy field, before she stood ever Ellie, scowling. The thing was, I hadn't seen her for the past five minutes. Where has she been?
"And Ellie? Come on, you know better than that!"
"Come on Vera, It wasn't that bad." Ellie insisted, smiling weakly. Vera just rolled her eyes, holding her hand out to help me up. "You good?"
"Better than I could have been," I grumbled, wiping the mud and pollen off my arms. "But still, that was a completely savage prank on Lila."
Ellie grinned, mock bowing. "Thank you, thank you very much."
Aunt Isabelle was over by the beach with Lila, helping her and her friends settle down after the snake incident. Lila was shaking, telling some sort of sob story about how we had set snakes after her even though she had done nothing to us.
"Aliana, Ellie, that was a very unkind thing to you did to Ms. Lewis. We are going to have to give you both detention." Mrs. Sandor lectured sounding falsely sympathetic.
"I didn't even touch the snake!" I protested, standing up and clenching my fist. I don't really know why I was mad. I mean, detention at New Pines wasn't that bad. It was really just sitting there in silence for an hour and doing homework. But I think I was just mad that my favorite teacher was just going to get me in trouble for something she didn't actually have proof of.
"Aliana..." Vera warned.
Mrs. Sandor frowned. "We haven't discussed this yet, but Ms. Lewis has been claiming you two have been bullying her for a long time. It's either a month of detention, or we can suspend you for a week."
There was a bubbling feeling in my gut. I was just about ready to explode, and after all, that happened, why was I getting in trouble? Lila had ruined Ellie's book AND bullied us since 5th grade and she didn't even get the slightest scolding?
The weirdest thing happened. The water from the lake rose up in a giant tidal wave, towering above the woods. It made the big waves we see on vacation look like little babies. My older cousin, Lucia is absolutly terrified of big waves. She would have not handled this very well.
"Aliana, you too? But they didn't mention there would be two!" Vera shouted. I had no clue what the heck she was talking about, but I had bigger problems to worry about considering we were all about to be annihilated by a giant wave of doom.
"Guys, I think we've finally been attacked by aliens!" Ellie shouted, putting her hands above her face. "Everyone just settles down and get away from any debris! Then be ready to start swimming!" My Aunt yelled, covering her head with her hands. "Aliana, try and keep everyone from drowning!"
I didn't know what she was talking about. I mean, I was a decently good swimmer, but everyone? I may have won my fair share of swim meets, but I wasn't that good. How was I supposed to keep everyone from drowning?
The wave came crashing down on us, and I felt the same bubbling feeling in my gut. I panicked, expecting to die, but I didn't even get wet.
Something was blocking the water, keeping my entire class dry, even Lila.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been absolutely amazing. The water was above our heads, and you could see the sunlight from the surface. The best part? We weren't drowning!
Vera came up to me and gave me a high-five. She was panting really hard like she had held her breath the entire time, but she was still smiling and patting me on the back. "Ali, you might have just almost killed us, but even I will admit, that was some pretty good control. Nice job, kid!"
I looked around at my classmates. Some of them were hugging their friends, others were huddled on the ground in the tornado position, and a few people who were shouting "Lets Gooooo!" and cheering about not having to take any unexpected swims. They didn't really seem to care about the air bubble, they were just happy they didn't end up dying or getting their vineyard vines shirts too muddy and wet. Aunt Isabelle and Mrs. Sandor were hugging each other like there was no tomorrow. You have no idea how weird it is to see your legal guardian hugging your science teacher.
"Alright, now Ali, do you think you could possibly get the waves to retreat?" Vera asked, looking up at the water above us nervously. It was kind of scary that there was only a thin bubble of air keeping us all from drowning.
"No! I don't think I could make the water go away!" I shouted. "I don't even know what the heck I'm doing!"
The bubble disappeared as soon as I was done yelling. I could hear my aunt shout something at us, but I couldn't make out the words. The water had come down on us to fast for me to react. There was nothing I could really do.
The strange thing was, even though my head was underwater, I was still dry and breathing air like I normally would. Did that mean I was dead, or maybe unconscious?
I don't think I've ever swum as fast as I did in my life. I reached the surface at an unreal speed, almost like I was some sort of dolphin.
"Go back to the lake, Go back to the lake," I muttered under my breath. I should have known it wouldn't have been that simple. Nothing ever is.
"Aliana, just try and focus!" Vera yelled from the woods. There was a rope of Ivy wrapped around her arm, and other than being wet, she looked perfectly fine. Maybe she grabbed the rope while she was in the water?
I stared at the water until my head hurt. It didn't go away.
"It's not working!" I yelled.
Vera waved her arms, and I seriously thought I was going to pass out. Ropes of Ivy went into the water, fishing out gasping students and teachers.
Everything around me became a blurred green. It didn't go black like it always does in the books and movies. I don't remember what happened after that.