You know how when you're sitting there, on the couch, with some of your best friends, that you start to think about how you got to be so lucky? Yeah, well, this is one of those times.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Conner, and I happen to be both very lucky, and very unusual. I used to be that normal little girl, or at least in public, and no one ever thought I would be one for being strange or abnormal in any way. It goes the same for my best friend, Keila Macintosh. All of this abnormality started about six months ago, while we were having a sleepover at her house. One of the very best parts about sleeping over at her house was the room. I'm used to having almost no leg room, and for a 5 foot 7" 110 pound claustrophobic girl, that isn't a very good thing. We were going through her old toys, seeing which ones she wanted to keep and which she wanted to toss. She was just going to pick up an old doll, when her hand froze. "What was that?"
I was confused. "What was what?"
"That orange glowing light in the corner... Let's go over and check it out!" That's my friend for you, always spontaneous.
"I don't know, what if it's something like a ghost?" I shuddered. I had a thing about ghosts, since I had an odd experience way earlier in life involving a large dresser and my sister's room.
"Don't be such a baby, Liz. It's not a ghost." I didn't take her word for it, but I didn't want to argue, so we got up and walked over.
It turns out that it was a hole in the floor. Orange and glowing, as a matter of fact. I didn't think it was a good idea to be hanging out around orange glowing holes, but something inside me stopped me from running from the room, screaming my head off. Maybe morbid curiosity, or maybe something more, I don't know, instinctual.
"Let's see where it leads!" Keila said excitedly. I thought it over. What was the harm? It wasn't like it could hurt me. But I didn't know whether it was going to lead off to some land of milk and cookies, or if a hole leading straight to Hades had just opened up on the floor of my best friend's bedroom floor.
Keila must've seen the look of indecision on my face, because she immediately put on the puppy dog face, sticking out her lower lip and looking up at me. "Please please please please please?"
I gave in. "Alright, but if this hurts, I'll hurt you worse." She looked at me, and opened her mouth to say something, probably saying that I wouldn't hurt a fly, but seemed to think better of it, seeing how I could pick her up and throw her if I really wanted to. She changed her mind.
"Alright, but I get to go first." And with that, she stepped forward, took a deep breath, and leaped into the hole.
I went forward, and looked down into it. I could see Keila flying down in like an oversized slide, and took the leap of faith, screaming bloody murder the whole way down. There was an odd tingling sensation creeping into my fingertips and toes, and it soon turned into a burning. I was so going to kill Keila when we got to the end of this thrill ride. But what if it doesn't end? A little voice in the back of my head piped up. You hush, this is no time to be a 'fraidy cat. The burning was quickly spreading all over my body, almost like someone had put acid into my veins.
Then, I saw a speck of blue up ahead. It grew larger and larger, until finally it took up most of the tunnel. This is it, then. I'm dying. This is the end. Goodbye, life. I'll miss you. Then I fell flat on my back, and my world went black, but not before I felt the burning grow so hot that I knew I was dead.
I felt heat on my hand. That's impossible, though. It's the middle of winter. What the hell? I opened my eyes, and light flooded my vision. I looked around myself, and saw Keila lying not far away from me. The weird part was, though, was that she looked like a... cartoon?
"Keila!" I whispered loudly. All I got in response was a groan. "Keila, wake up. You're a cartoon!"
That got her attention. "What kind of acid trip are you on, Liz?" She sat up slowly, and clutched her head. But her impending headache was forgotten when she looked at me. "So are you! I wonder... I feel like I've seen this cartoon style a lot before." My eyes widened. "You don't think..." She and I looked at each other. "The Penguins of Madagascar!" We said at the same time. We laughed for a second, but then reality hit us.
"What do I look like?" Keila asked hesitantly. I looked her up and down quickly.
"Like you, but a little different." She looked at me pleadingly. "What kind of different?"
I sighed. Keila had always prized herself on her complete normality, and now... She wasn't too normal. She had a tail, for one. For another, she had different colored eyes. Bright, stunning, almost unnatural blue. Her hair was still the same wavy brown as it always was, though.
"Different as in you have a fricken tail! AND your eyes are a way different color. They're like this really bright blue."
She looked down at herself, and screamed slightly when she saw the tail. "What about me?"
She looked me up and down, and her eyes widened. "Well, first off, you have a tail too, and... Wait a second, turn around..."
I did as she said, and I heard a faint squeak from behind. When I turned back around, she looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "You have... wings! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" I looked at my tail. It was blue, which didn't surprise me, since blue was my favorite color, and it had a tassel of black hair on the end.
Then it hit me: "What color are my wings?"
She snickered. "Blue, duh." I laughed too.
I looked around us for the first time. It looked like a street in... New York City! That's it! I looked to Keila. "I just figured out where we are. Look around real quick!"
She squealed. I knew she was thinking what I was: We could visit out penguin idols! Our favorite show was always Penguins of Madagascar, and it was always our dream to go and meet them. "Oh my gosh! We have to go find them!" I sighed, thinking this was a bad idea, but what's the worst thing you can do when you're in a different dimension, have blue wings and tails, and were making a fuss about finding a fictional group of penguins? Yeah, right, like I should really think that before plunging off into the unknown. Little did I know, wings and tails weren't the stopping point of our powers...
As we walked north, down the long, winding street, a problem became known. How exactly were we going to find four penguins, in a city we had only been to once? And even then, it had been in a different dimension! I looked to Keila. She seemed confident enough on the outside, but that's just an act she puts on when we're in public. To quote Private, she's "Like toast, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and good in a jam".
That's just about the time that I heard a ruckus up ahead, and stopped in my tracks. I beckoned to Keila, and we sneaked ahead quietly, hiding behind a dumpster when we knew we were close. I realized two things immediately. One, my hearing was so much better that my old ears were laughable, and two, it seemed to be a man talking to a woman.
"Listen up, unless you wanna have a slit throat, you'll give me all your money, and drop your pants, now." It sounded like a Guido man, the kind you hear about on Jersey Shore.
"No, please, I don't have any money on me! My kids are waiting for me at home, please!" The man laughed, and there was a muffled smacking sound, followed by a whimper. The man had slapped the woman, hard.
My blood pressure skyrocketed. There was one thing I couldn't stand, and it was someone hurting someone else without provocation. I felt my eyes go dark, and Keila took a minute step back.
"Oh my gosh, your eyes just turned reddish purple." She whispered. I took a deep breath, and tried to stop myself from losing control. I leaned over to Keila, and started whispering in her ear. "I'm going out there. I can stop him from hurting her, and I can't just stand here and do nothing. Wish me luck."
Keila looked at me funny, almost like she'd never seen me before. I knew what she was thinking. I'd never been one to be spontaneous, and this was the first time I'd actually put my life on the line willingly. "Don't you look at me in that tone of voice! I can do what I want. Even if it is unlike me!" With that, I turned, took another deep breath, and walked out of our hiding place.
I took each step like it was vitally important, walking slowly, and felt my wings hiding themselves in a backpack we'd found on the side of the street, almost free of dirt and other unmentionables. I had tucked my tail into my pants, so I looked like just another girl on the side of the road.
I walked up to the people, and saw that the man had a knife, though it looked dull and puny. He was definitely Guido, with black greasy hair and obnoxiously big fake gold chains.
The woman was obviously scared for her life. She had her back to the brick wall of a building, and her eyes were wide, trained directly on me. The man didn't realize I was even there, until I cleared my throat, my arms crossed.
"What exactly is going on here?" I used my regular voice, lulling him into believing that he was safe. He turned slowly to face me, and when he did, he laughed out loud. "Nothing that concerns you, sweetheart. Run along now, go home and play with your dollies." He turned back to the woman. Big mistake.
I felt my heart rate increase, my eyes darken once more, and a ripping noise told me that the back pack was getting shredded by my wings. The noise got his attention, and he turned back with a smirk on his face, only to turn into a look of total, undulated fear.
"That's not exactly the answer I was looking for, there, sir."