WE HAVE A SLEEPOVER
Alyssa's POV
So I was walking through the woods one night. It was a cold autumn night and I could hear the leaves crunching under my sneakers. Nothing strange there, just a fifteen year old crunching through the woods in the middle of the night.
All I wanted to do was get away from home and my mother. My mother. I clenched my fists at the thought of her. She was so greedy. She didn't care about me; no. all she cared about was what I could do. I stared at the bright little screen of my phone, one of the many luxuries my mom had tried to buy my love with.
I didn't know who to call. I wish I could call my dad but that is an immediate no. he left my mom before I was even born with a child that she abused and neglected for many years. It's his fault I was even in this predicament. He was no better than my mom.
The battery was seriously low so I could only make one call. I sat on a stump, dialing my best friend's number. I could count on Angie to answer her phone. It didn't ring for more than half a second when she picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey Angie, what's up?"
"Um I was reading?"
She asked it as though it were a question.
"Reading? We both know that's not true. You could have gone with something more believable."
"Okay fine, I was texting."
"Well, now that we've cleared that up, I need a place to crash tonight."
"Why?"
"I ran away, please?"
"Lemme check."
There were a few muffled noises, a sigh, then more muffled noises and I distinctly heard a "love ya'".
"Yeah, dad said you can. It's kind of funny because its eleven thirty at night. Sometimes I can get him to do whatever I want."
"Okay ill-"
But I didn't get to finish my sentence because my phone died.
I shoved my phone into my pocket and stood up but before I could leave, a girl's voice said "where are you going Alyssa?"
I nearly jumped out of my sneakers. Instead, I spun on my heel and saw a girl. She was no more than twelve, with straight blonde hair that fell past her shoulders. She wore a t-shirt that said moon-hunt 2007. Yep, perfectly normal, except for her eyes. They were glowing silver.
"y-you know my name?" I asked.
"I know that and more. I know why you're running too. I have problems with my stepmother. She banned my mother from giving birth on dry land so my twin brother and I could not be born on land."
"Wow, she could probably give Cinderella's stepmother a run for her money."
The girl giggled.
"Well, I should probably take leave of you but meet me back here at midnight. That's when it all starts." Then the girl dissolved into nothing.
I stood there, staring at where she had disappeared until I heard a rustling in the bushes. I started moving toward Angie's house. When I showed up at the front door, her dad opened the door with an exasperated look on his face. When Angie saw me she screamed.
"What happened to your hair?"
Leave it to Angie to point out a fashion faux pas before she says hello. But of course, my hair was probably a mess. It was already a choppy, jet-black, mess. Now, it must be blown by the crazy wind storm and full of twigs from the woods. She grabbed the front of my windbreaker, and dragged me over to her.
"Let's fix this, shall we?"
I consented to let her fix my hair. She grabbed a brush off of her dresser and started combing through my hair. While she brushed my hair, I flipped through the channels on TV. Angie kept messing with my hair. She tried to braid it but my hair was so choppy that it wouldn't stay in a braid. Eventually, she just pulled it back in a ponytail. Angie was so pretty, she had ice blue eyes, dirty blonde perfectly cut hair, and perfect skin. Somehow she could make anything look good. She was just wearing a plain light-pink t-shirt and green shorts. She looked flawless. No wonder almost all the boys at school had a crush on her.
"Hey Angie?
"Yeah?"
"Can I charge my phone?"
I held up my black iPhone. She pointed to an outlet next to her bed where there was a charger plugged in. after I heard the sound indicating that it was charging, I went back to Angie's bed. It was eleven thirty now. Fifteen minutes before the girl told me to meet her in the woods. It would take about five minutes to get there so we were going to leave at eleven fifty-five.
"Follow me."
Again, Angie dragged me out of the room and down the stairs. We snuck into the kitchen and grabbed some snacks. Then we took them up to the bedroom and started munching on them. We were watching some old cartoons when my phone went off. I looked at the text. It was from my mom.
"Lyssa! Wer r u? U need to get bak her now! Or ull b grownded 4 a month!"
The way my mom texted, I could hardly tell what she was saying.
"Mom, Im not going back. Leave me alone!"
"Alyssa Juliette Waters, u get your butt back to this house or u r no child of mine!"
My mom cared nothing for me. She just didn't want to lose her walking gold mine. I turned off my phone and went back to our cartoons. My phone went off again with the same tone as my mother's. I didn't check it, knowing she would keep being her normal jerky self. Then my phone went off again with the same sound. Now there was something wrong. If my mom didn't get an answer after two texts, she'd just give up. She was never that persistent. Even if it meant losing me. I checked my phone and there was a text from an unknown number saying:
"It's time. You know where I am."
I nearly fell out of my seat. I stood up and put on my sneakers.
"What's up Lyssa?"
Angie asked innocently
"We have to leave. Now. Pack a backpack with enough stuff for a few days."
"Okay ill go with you but why do I need to pack a bag?"
"Because," I replied "I have a hunch that we won't be back for a long time."
