"Hurry up, Mom!" Alison Cooper complained, running down the stairs of her new house. "I don't want
to be late for my first day of school!"
During the car ride, Alison gazed out the window, watching the kids holding their parents hands and crossing the street. Her school was only a few minutes away, but her mom had to drive to work after so everyday her mom would drop her off in the morning.
/Her new school was called Lescar Public School. As the car came to a slow stop, Alison gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek and hopped out the door.
Along the side of the school, teachers were lined up side by side with children in rows in front of them.
"Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3," Alison muttered quietly looking for her line.
"Grade-" Before Alison could even finish her sentence, she bumped into a girl with straight blonde hair.
"Sorry!" The girl said cheerfully.
"Are you new here?" She asked.
"Yeah, today is my first day!" Alison replied back, nervous.
"My name is Katie! What's your name?"
"Ali..Alison," Alison stuttered, surprised but happy that someone was talking to her.
For the rest of the day, all Alison and Katie did was talk. By the end of the day, Alison knew everything about Katie and Katie knew everything about each other. Alison knew that Katie's full name was Katlyn Arianna Wilson and Katie knew that Alison was
/terrified of heights.
Last period they had music class, but since it was the first day of school, they had free time. So Katie grabbed a drum and started playing it. Everyone turned around and started to look at her and Alison.
"Katie, Katie stop!" Alison whispered to Katie, feeling embarrassed around her new classmates.
Katie stopped and everyone continued to do what they were originally doing. Then she whispered back:
"Why do you care what other people think? Just let loose and have some fun!"
Alison knew that Katie was right. She was naturally a fun and upbeat person but her emotions were running wild with the move and the new school. She felt stressed and she was only seven.
Then Alison grabbed a drum and started playing. Everyone turned around and looked at her but she didn't care. After a few seconds, Katie joined in with Alison, their beats in perfect harmony.
Alison looked up for just a second and saw the reactions on her classmates faces. Majority of them had a look of astonishment and surprise on their faces but two of the boys were different.
One of them just looked at Katie, with a small smile on his face.
The other one was looking straight at Alison and smiling. Alison looked down and blushed. Her cheeks turned red and her face felt hot.
After a few minutes of awkwardness and fun, the bell rang.
"How are you getting home? Is a parent picking you up or are you walking with a brother or a sister?" Alison asked looking at Katie as they walked outside the school.
"I'm pretty sure my mom is picking me up but I don't know for sure," Alison said, looking out towards the side of the school pick up spot.
"Which side of the school do you live on? I live over there," Katie said pointing towards the left part of the school. "Me too!" Alison said.
"Oh look, there's my car!" Alison said, pointing to a silver Audi, parked at the side of the school.
Alison and Katie both rushed towards it and once Alison opened the back door, her mom took one look at Katie and smiled. "Hey Elizabeth, isn't that your daughter?" Courtney Louise Cooper said, to a woman in the front seat on the passenger side
of the car.
She then saw Katie and smiled. "Wow! What a surprise! I was guessing that I would have to search the whole school to find you!" Elizabeth Wilson said, as she gestured for Katie to sit in the car.
The drive ride home was silent, until they had almost reached Katie's house.
"How do you two know each other?" Alison asked.
Both the mothers giggled.
"The funny thing is, when I went to the courthouse, I spilled my coffee all over myself and Katie's mother helped me clean it up. Then at the end of the day, she needed a ride home so I dropped her off and realized that her house is right in front
/of ours!" Mrs. Cooper said as Mrs. Wilson started to step outside the car.
"I'll see you tomorrow!" Alison said as her mother drove out of Katie's driveway and into the one straight across.
It was the beginning of October and it was the annual autumn picnic. Alison's family was in a potluck with a couple of other families from her church. None of the kids were Alison's age and the closest person to her age was her sister Ashley Cooper and
her friend Zareen who were both five years older than her.
The potluck group consist of:
A kid named Michael and his parents. Micheal was the only kid in the potluck group who was an only child. He was also seven years older than Alison, best friend and the same age as Shawn, who was also in the potluck group.
Shawn had two older sisters: Sarah Grimore and Sienna Grimore. Sarah was 13 years older than Alison and Sienna was 11 years older than Alison. Both of them usually hung out with Melissa, Cecilia and Donna. They were three sisters each one year apart.
The last family was Zareen's. She (like Alison) was a family of four. She had a older sister named Zara who was the same age as Micheal and Shawn.
Michael, Shawn, Zara, Zareen and Ashley all hung out together at potlucks. Zara sometimes hung out with the other girls but usually hung out with her sister and Ashley.
Alison just stuck around with her sister and played whatever card or board games they would play. She didn't really talk or win that much.
When everyone was just started to leave, Alison's father, Carter John Cooper, insisted on the kids taking a photo yet the only kids around were: Micheal, Shawn, Zareen, Ashley and Alison.
The minute Alison's father took the picture on his cellphone, something went through them. The park started to shake for just a moment, then gradually stopped. The kids looked around at each other and then around the park. Then the other kids returned,
/looking at the other kids with wide eyes.
Micheal, Shawn, Zareen, Ashley and Alison were confused but didn't really care afterwards. They all left the park, their parents walking behind them and whispering, talking about something in worried whispers.
Alison and everybody else her age, were sitting in chairs, eating pasta while watching the older youth of their church lug chairs around to help the elderly and new parents with babies.
"Doesn't that guy over there look like Justin Bieber?" Alison's friend Lauren said leaning towards Alison and pointing to Micheal as he brought a folding chair to an elderly woman.
Since Alison had known Micheal since as long as she could remember so she couldn't picture it. So she shook her head and whispered "Not at all" back to Lauren.
Although Alison didn't want to admit it, ever since Lauren had told her that she thought Micheal reminded her of Justin Bieber, Alison was beginning to see the resemblance. Every time she looked at a picture of Micheal, she thought of Justin Bieber.
After
looking at the picture of Micheal, Shawn, Zareen, Ashley and Alison, she saw a boy standing next to Alison at the end. It was faint but he was there. he looked like a ghost or hologram. The closer Alison looked, the more it looked like Justin Bieber.
/She didn't tell anybody because she knew if she did they would think she is crazy. Instead of telling anybody, Alison decided it to keep a secret for now and eventually ask her parents if they know what it was.
It was an October evening. Alison was working at her desk and Katie was doodling in the margins of her notebook. The whole class was silent. Then O Canada started to play. The whole class got up and tucked in their chairs. It was weirder than usual because
you could hear the static during the song. As usual, nobody in the class was singing, other than the teacher. Everybody looked around the classroom or quietly whispered to their friends but nobody noticed. Alison looked up to the speaker in the wall
/where the music was coming from. She crinkled her forehead in disgust and frowned. After staring very hard at the speaker for a few seconds it stopped. Then it continued to play, but clearer. Much clearer.
Alison gasped very loudly and the whole class turned to look at her. Then Katie nudged Alison in the ribs and whispered very loudly,"Shut up!"
The whole class laughed but Katie didn't seem to notice. Alison turned red and looked around the classroom to see if anybody wasn't laughing.
Chad wasn't and neither was Liam. Chad seemed like he was holding back a laugh and Liam was blushing. Alison was about to nudge Katie in the ribs but then realized that Chad was looking at her and he knew that she was just looking at Liam. If she did
/it now, he would know for certain that she was talking about Liam, his best friend.
The rest of the day was normal, but Alison couldn't help but wonder what happened during O Canada. The weirdest thing was, ever since that picnic with Zareen, Micheal and Shawn she felt weird.
Not weird like the "changes" you go through when you're a kid but weird like something was different. Even her parents started to act different, like whispers stopping the minute she or her sister walked into the room or always checking in on
her and her sister when they stayed home alone.
That night, during dinnertime, Alison decided she would bring up what happened during school to see what her parents reaction would be.
"So how was school?" Carter John Cooper, Alison's father asked, stuffing steamed broccoli into his mouth.
After a few second of waiting for Ashley to reply, Alison said,"Good. Announcements were weird though. When they played O Canada it was very fuzzy and filled with static but when I looked at the speaker it played normally. It was really weird and
/creepy." Alison said all in one breath.
Ashley immediately started laughing and almost spit out her dinner while her parents exchanged worried looks.
"They were probably having technical issues or something like that," her mother said placing her hand on her husband's in reassurance.
Alison didn't know how to react. Her parents had lied straight to her face. She could tell, as her parents weren't good liars. She finished her food and ran upstairs to her room. She heard her parents say that they would be visiting Zareen's house very
/quickly and they would be right back. She heard her sister's beg to allow her to come with them but they insisted her stay here because Alison was too young to stay home alone.
Ashley stomped upstairs and slammed the door to her room. Alison spent the rest of the night in her room, wondering what could possibly be going on.
