It all started rather suddenly, actually. You see, things weren't always the way they are now, as nice as it is we've had a lot of chaos along the way. It's not the most exciting of stories, but then it wouldn't do for me to stretch the truth just to give you a better bedtime story, now would it?

It started with a sleepless night. I lay in bed, wishing for sleep, knowing full well I had school in the morning and there was nothing I could do to get out of it- Not after last time. One more black mark and I was likely to be suspended. Yet, as I tossed and turned, something was stopping me from falling asleep. I really have no explanation for what happened next, no science behind the circumstances, no magical theory that would let it all make sense- the only thing I can come up with is that it was meant to be.

I lay on my back with my eyes tightly shut, waiting to dream, when I felt something fall onto my chest. I snapped my eyes open and squinted through the darkness, my arms reaching out and brushing against something, but only for a moment, as soon as I grasped it, it seemed to shimmer out of existence for a fleeting moment, before materialising on top of my blankets again.

I frantically scrambled for the light switch, blinded by the lamp for a few seconds, before finally being able to see what was going on. Whatever it was, it wasn't alright. I sat upright, cradling it in my arms, watching as it's image flickered like static on an ancient TV-set. It smiled weakly, it's beady eyes glistening, raising one of it's long ears and wrapping it around my shoulder, before whispering it's last words so softly; "I found you."

Then, as silently as it had arrived, it disappeared in my arms. For a moment there was nothing, I waited with baited breath to see what would happen next. I felt my heart skip a beat as something else fell into my arms- A large round egg, bigger than any I'd seen before. I grasped it tightly; It was real. Hard as a rock, completely solid, one hundred percent real.

There was little I could say or do when faced with such a situation, other than wrap the egg up, and go back to trying to sleep- after all, there was school in the morning. I decided it would sort itself out in the morning, and I would wake from this strange dream when my alarm went off.

Crazy, I thought, Absolutely crazy. What did I eat last night?

I slipped in and out of consciousness, hugging my pillow, waiting for the signal to get up. After god knows how long, I decided I should just get up and be early to school. I propped myself up with my elbows and glanced at my digital clock- to my horror, it was flashing "00:00". Since it was obviously not twelve in the morning, I came to the conclusion that last night there had been a power cut while I slept.

"Crap." I said out loud to myself, "What time is it?"

Scrambling out of bed, I sleepily rushed to the central-heating thermostat along the landing- also flashing twelve AM.

"Crap, crap, crap." I headed back into my bedroom and rummaged through a drawer, before pulling out a watch, "Not good."

As the second hand ticked away, I was already an hour late for school- That was, if this watch had been adjusted to daylight savings. If not, I was two hours late. I got dressed as fast as I could, pulling on my school blazer and a pair of whatever trousers I could find- I'm pretty sure they were jeans, actually, but at this stage I'll just be lucky if they let me in to the building ever again.

"Ah, my bed…" I moaned, Mum hated it when I never made it, and when she found out how late I was that day, she would already be in a bad mood. I quickly yanked the duvet up into the air and straightened it out, that would have to do for now.

I was about to leave in a rush when I heard something heavy fall onto the laminate floor. I turned around, half expecting it to be part of the pile of junk I have mounding up on my dresser, but I was surprised to see the same egg from my "dream". I slowed to a stop, peering at it curiously before reaching forwards and holding it in my arms. It was about the size of my head- not that my head is abnormally big, but it was the largest egg I'd ever laid eyes on.

It was also strangely coloured, a pale white, which is normal enough, topped off with large green spots and a green band around the middle. I prayed that some sort of reptile wasn't going to hatch from it, there was absolutely no way Mum would ever let me keep a lizard, or a crocodile- Heck, even a bird would annoy her too much.

Remembering that she was already going to be annoyed because of my tardiness, I shoved the egg into my backpack and raced down the stairs. Everyone else had left already, so I grabbed an apple and slammed the front door on my way out.

It was almost eleven when I reached the school gates, kids were crowded around the school yard and nobody noticed as I slipped into the crowd. Hopefully it would be this easy to get into class- I double checked my time table and cringed in horror as I realised I had double maths, spread over before and after morning break. That threw that plan out of the window.

I scanned the grounds looking for someone I knew, but it didn't look like any of my friends were outside this morning. Just when I decided to check the cafeteria, the bell rang, leaving me to my fate. I trudged in to the building, my backpack weighted down, ready to face certain doom.

Maybe I was making too much of a big deal out of it. If I just explained to my teacher what had happened, I'm sure she'd take it well. If I just explained to her that some other-worldly creature visited me in the middle of the night to leave me it's baby, whilst knocking my alarm clock out of sync, I'm sure she'd understand perfectly.

Right.

I kept my head down low and tried to blend into the crowd as I stepped along the moving hallways. It was like a river of people, now and again you had a few little currents that decide they want to go the opposite way from the river's flow, but are almost always pushed back in the main direction. It's best just to pick a line that's going where you want to go.

Another trick I've learned is to keep your jaw shut. There's almost always someone not looking where they're going, and biting my tongue was such a common situation that I had to take precautionary measures. It worked fine when someone rammed past me, breaking through the river to get into his classroom. Suddenly my mind thought to the egg in my bag, I didn't know how fragile it was- it had proved it could take a beating, but if it was really harbouring some sort of baby, I would need to be careful. I slung the bag over one shoulder, clutching it tightly with the other arm. When someone else decided they were late enough as it was and barged past me, I snapped at them and held the bag closer. Maybe that's the maternal instinct setting in- That obviously meant I was going to be a mother.

Great. I've not even left high school yet and I'm already expecting.

I branched off from the rest of the moving hallway into my classroom, taking cover behind a group of people who I never had the inclination to talk to, then seeking refuge at the very back of the already busy class. It turned out that the teacher wasn't there yet, so I was safe- for now. I sat my bag on the desk and unzipped it, carefully examining the egg for damage. A chill ran down my spine as I noticed a small crack along the side- it was barely a hairline crack, but it was there, I'd have to be more careful. I was about to zip it back up again, when a large chunk of the egg gave an awful snapping sound and pinged away, landing on the floor. Another followed, then another, and another- I was beginning to wish I'd left it at home now. The entire class hushed up as my teacher appeared in the doorway, marching to the whiteboard and scribbling some algebra equations on it with a red marker.

"Alright class," she announced, almost loud enough to cover up the cracking noise, "I want you to copy these down in your notebooks and finish them by quarter past. And I want you to show your working- I won't have you copying like last period."

I kept my head down low, my arms over the bag to try and muffle the noise of whatever was hatching, but apparently I can't do both very inconspicuously at the same time, and the teacher lowered her thin rimmed glasses as she stared right at me.

"Alex, when did you arrive?" She said, making the whole class turn to look at me.

I gritted my teeth, glancing at my wriggling backpack. "Just now, Miss."

"Well, hand me your late slip and get on with your work."

"My late slip…" I'd completely forgotten to register at the reception on my way in.

"Don't tell me you didn't sign in?" She scowled, "Well, hurry up and do it now."

I didn't need it said again, I stood up hurriedly and headed to the door.

"Alex, leave your bag here," She said, "You are coming back, aren't you?"

Crap.

"Of course I am, I'll just need my pen to write up the slip." I lied, getting more and more anxious.

"They'll have pens in the office, there's no need to bring your bag."

"Please, Miss, I'd just… Feel a lot more comfortable with my bag there."

What the hell does that mean? I screamed at myself.

"Give me the bag, you'll get it back when you give me your late slip."

"Uh…No." I panicked, and decided to run for it.

I darted out of the classroom, closing the door behind me, not looking back. Judging by the uproar of the class, I was okay for now. I jogged down the now empty hall and looked for the nearest exit. There was one near my art class, away from the front desk and from anyone who would bother me. Taking a quick look into the bag, I could see a quivering creature sitting in it's egg, half hatched. I jumped down the stairs two steps at a time, missing the bottom five entirely and burst out through the unlocked door to the open fields behind the school. There was a gym class out on the track, so I hugged the wall, staying out of sight until I was near the fence, up and over it, and home free.

I held what was left of the egg in my arms as I sat in a quiet back-alley. The tiny creature inside the cracked casing quivered silently as I reached into the egg and pulled it out. It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, actually I was quite surprised at this, judging by the size of the egg I'd expected it to be bigger, but I was also relieved that it wasn't a croc of some sort.

The big question was, what was it?

It was a light green colour, it's skin was soft, almost translucent, and a tiny horn was protruding from it's head. It's little black eyes stared up at me quietly, while it's oddly shaped tail twitched every time I brushed against it. It had no arms or legs either, it was just a little ball.

"What are you?" I wondered out loud, "You're kinda cute, whatever you are."

I rubbed it's cheek with my finger, and it decided that my finger looked rather tasty, because it bit down on it and wouldn't let go. Exclaiming, I gritted my teeth and prised it's jaws apart. At least it didn't draw blood.

"Ze!" It suddenly shouted, catching me by surprise again so that I nearly dropped it.

I blinked as it frowned angrily at me, growling under it's breath.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, I just saved you from a public birth. Mind you…" I said, peering around at the surroundings, "Perhaps the classroom would have been better."

It didn't change it's expression, obviously it wouldn't have a clue what I was saying.

"Oh, hey, are you hungry?" I pulled out the apple I had shoved in my bag that morning and held it up to the little creature.

It sniffed the apple curiously, but as I wondered whether or not this thing was old enough to eat solids, it wrenched it out of my hand and tried to swallow it whole. It probably would have if it could, but ended up gnawing on it instead. It was like hitting the fast forward button on the VCR, in a matter of second all that was left was the core, which then disappeared too.

"Woah. You were hungry, weren't you?"

It sat staring at me again, growling quietly. It didn't seem to like me very much, but I thought it was just adorable. When I felt the rain starting to come on, I decided that it would be best if we headed back home- I placed it in the bag with the egg-shell, and zipped it up. It wasn't happy about being trapped in a dark bag, but what else could I do? There was no way I could walk down the street with it sitting on my shoulder, or have it bouncing along next to me.

As I jogged through the streets, anxious to get home, it dawned on my that I was probably going to be suspended from school now. This wasn't the first time I'd truanted, and I had a funny feeling it wouldn't be my last. I could hear the little whatever-it-was making quite a bit of noise in the bag, growling and snarling viciously, so I broke into a run. I ended up fence hopping half the way home mainly in case someone I knew saw me and called my Mum.

There was no one home, naturally. Mum was at work, and my younger sister was at preschool. All I had to do was fetch the key from under the flower pot, and I was in. The house had an eerie silence to it when no one else was in it. The phrase "the walls have ears" came to mind, and being the paranoid person I am, I ran up to my bedroom, bolted the door and drew the curtains before opening the bag. The thing leapt out at me, before darting under my dresser to hide, not moving from it's spot.

"C'mon little guy, I'm not going to hurt you…" I flung the bag to one side and extending one hand, "I'm your friend, see?"

It glared at me angrily, obviously not appreciating the act of holding it captive in the bag and rushing it away from the nice smelly alley it was born in. I sighed and sat down on the floor, tired and fed up. It had been a long day- and it wasn't even lunch time yet.

My eye caught the clock that had caused me all the trouble that morning. I got to my feet and tried to set it to the right time- but the strangest thing happened, every time I tried to change a digit, it went nuts, scrolling through all of the numbers without me so much as touching a button.

"The damn power cut must have short circuited it…" I scowled, tossing it back to it's place on my side-table.

I slumped to the floor again, as my eyes caught the dresser. The whatever-it-was was shivering like crazy, it's eyes wide and it's mouth agape, revealing a tiny fang. I crept closer, lying down on my front and watching in awe as the tiny creature grew before my eyes. It flickered like the other creature last night had done, it's outline filled with nothing but static as it changed shape- Just as I wondered just how big it would get, it stopped.

I stared in awe as the static faded, and another monster sat in it's place. It stared back at me, obviously not as phased by this as I was. The first thing I noticed, other than it's new size, was it had grown ears. Two little flaps that stuck out from the side of it's head. The second thing was it's sudden lack of tail, it had completely disappeared. It still had no arms or legs, but now it resembled some sort of sickeningly adorable horned slug.

It cocked it's head to one side as it inspected me for the first time, creeping forwards gingerly and slowly emerging from the now slightly too small space under the dresser. I blinked and sat up as it bounced forwards happily into my arms.

"What.. Just happened?" I said, flabbergasted, "You grew…?"

It grinned happily, wriggling around in my arms until it decided to bounce around the room for a bit, inspecting my furniture, trying to chew on my stuffed animals, and generally being overly enthusiastic about every day items.

"Hey hey hey, let go of my iPod!" I yelled, pulling the device away from the little monster.

It simply blinked for a moment before continuing on it's circular journey through my room. I moaned as I wiped the slobber from the mp3 player and placed it out of reach- This thing was already trying to cost me money. I sat down on my bed, keeping a close eye on it as it searched through every nook and cranny, playing with my old toys and clambering around, knocking things off of the surfaces. Thankfully it soon grew tired, and returned to my arms to rest, panting slightly.

As it caught it's breath, I could hear it growling- no, mumbling to itself. The funny thing was, it almost sounded like broken English. I leant in to try and hear better, but it was pretty quiet. My jaw dropped as I finally picked up what it was saying.

"Hey hey, let go," it muttered, "Friend, friend."

I leaned out again, watching the little thing go over the words again and again, an excited look on it's face.

"Are you… Copying me?" I said in awe.

"You copying, you copying." It mimicked.

"That's incredible…"

"Inedible, inedible."

I could feel my heart racing, this was unbelievable, whatever this thing was it was learning words at an astounding rate, it was like no creature on earth, not even humans could learn this fast. And to think, this was whatever-it-was's first day alive.

"Hey, hey, copying, copying." It repeated again.

I cleared my throat. "What are you?"

"What are you?"

"What's your name?"

"Your name, your name."

"My name's Alex," I said, motioning to myself, "Alex. Are you going to say hello?"

"Hello," It said, grinning a toothless grin, "Hello, Alex."

I laughed. I doubt to this day that it had any idea what it was saying, but progress is progress.