Chapter One: Abiection

"Attack of the Boaratypus Corkscrew Unicorn"

It was the perfect day.

At least for Abiection. The sun was shining, music was playing, and everyone was getting along.

It was Graduation Day, and everything was going smoothly. Nothing could be better. Well except for a few things. For one, he couldn't be in the center of attention of the Graduation Ceremony. He had to give a graduation speech since he ran in a speech contest. Also, the head district administrator was coming to give him an award for leadership, and the highest grades ever recorded, a 20.5 GPA. Suddenly, the principal went up the stage to grab the microphone and said, "May everyone please take their seats please, the Graduation Ceremony is about to start."

We all scrambled to our seats and tried our best to look calm, but inside, we were bursting with excitement.

Thirty minutes later, all the graduates names have been called and student rewards handed out. The principal motioned for me to come up on stage to present my speech. Here goes nothing, I thought. I came up on stage, cleared my throat, and spoke into the microphone.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us is tiny compared to what lies within us." Meaning that the past and the future is nothing compared to what we are capable of. Welcome students, teachers, staff, relatives, and everyone who has came here today. Today is a bright day for the ones graduating here and elsewhere today. This day will inspire us and tell us that, 'If you want to succeed, you have to try.' This year may have had its ups and downs, but overall we had fun this year. But my fellow colleagues, our ride has only just begun. We will remember this day not only for the joy we feel to day, but for the strength it gave us to persevere in the future. Many of us might still groan of the tough of having approximately six more years of school excluding college, but it you stay on the right path in life and try, try, try, you have a 85% chance of succeeding in life. This year have taught us many things. Not just in education, but in experience. And thanks to everyone who pushed us along the year, and I say that lovingly, we will forever be in your debt. Now we may not have grown much in age and size, but we have grown enough in here and in here to know what to expect for the difficulty that lies ahead.

Along with all those who shared this year with me, we will all be reaching the goals we think will benefit for us and others to be a better person in life. Life is an ocean, literally. With big fish trying to eat the little fish. We are the little fish right now, but we can change that. We can rise to be successful people. And I don't just mean celebrities and idols, but inventors and other people that will find ways to make this world a better place. You may not know it, but the person near you, that person you always pick on, or even yourself may become famous and important people in the future. Like what Steve Jobs, the Apple creator said, "The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones that do," meaning, that if you push yourself and believe that anything you do is possible, you will make a change.

This year was hard for many of us, but we should not think about the bad stuff. We should think of all the fun we had along the way. The bad things this year is weighing us down, so we need to drop that dead weight and make our load lighter. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And the stronger you get, the more lighter your load gets and you have a closer chance of finishing the all the things you did to make it happen. People may say things that hurt your feelings and call you names that get worse every year. And if you decide to believe them, you'll just become nothing. "And if you can't see anthing beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer. Stare a little longer. Because there's something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit." Prove that they were wrong. Humanity was given a gift that no other species on Earth have. Hope. We have hope. And hope helps us move on. Move on from the teases and taunts and humiliations that people throw at you. If someone makes you feel lower than him or her, don't let him or her do that to you. You have the choice to walk away, or let them make you feel like the lowest of the low. Albert Einstein once said, "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." Meaning, that everyone is special in his or her own way and that they each have a part to help run the machine known as life. But if you let people think you're stupid and you believe them, then the machine will break down and you will be the part that let everyone down. Don't let others do that. You are you. And you are what makes you special. So you know all those things you've always wanted to do? You should go do them.

Let today be a reminder that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. So work hard and you'll see if life has a gift in store for you. Because if it doesn't, then you make it regret not having something for you. And I have only one thing to say to you. "Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life."

Thank You

I looked at everyone, watching their reactions to see if I made any impact. To what seemed like forty-five of the about 379 people, they were the ones who were on a more calmer state of emotion than the rest of the crowd. Everyone else was either crying or tearing up. At first, no one said anything for a full ten seconds. Then, applause erupted tenfold than earlier's cheers. It seemed like their cheers had been connected to a medium size amplifier. The principal came up to the microphone, frantically wiping and dabbing tears with a tissue, and said, "Thank you, Abiection, for that beautiful, heartfelt speech. May we give another round of applause for our special student here."

The crowd erupted again with chants and applause and compliments. Not wanting attention, Abiection gave the crowd a meek smile and fast-walked back to his chair. As he sat down, his classmates praised him, telling him how good the speech was and how he delivered it. Some of the boys gave light teases of what a teacher's pet he was, but Abiection didn't care. He was ignoring the boys' teases and the girls' flirtatious smiles because he was really only focusing on one person. Mia Li. She was painstakingly pretty, and his most best friend since they were introduced at Mia's fourth birthday party. A talented, smart, and patient girl, people were always saying how she was me in a girl version. But obviously they were wrong. But she...she was something different.

Soon the ceremony ended and all the students took pictures with their parents. It was a good day. Abiection was just about to ask Mia if she wanted to take a picture with him when two voices piped up at his side.

"Hey Ion, want to go say bye to Mrs. Nolan? She's bawling her eyes out over her three favorite students in our class," Tyler Leahy, Abiection's best homie, said. Abiection didn't like it when Tyler called him that, but he had to admit that it did sound cool.

"I heard from Aria that she's giving away gift bags to all her students," Mariela Breidspecher, or Bre, for short, said.

Mariela and Tyler had been with Abiection for as long as he could remember. Their parents used to always tell them that they were friends since the womb. The three always gagged when they heard that, but they've learned to just go with it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Abiection could see the rest of his friends come. The 'Squad', as they called it. He could see that mostly everyone was here. Logan, Emma, Chloe, Jacob, Sydney (thouygh she liked to be called Rider), Sarah, Wyatt, Avery, Kyle, Julia, Kristen, Isabella, Katie, Maci, Tyler, and Mariela. Funny, how all of them were in the same class. They were like the most closely knit group of friends in elementary. They usually worked together on projects or classwork whenever they couuld. But since Abiection was the smartest and the "best" out of all of them, they always came to him for answers for problems they couldn't figure out.

They were chatting along while walking along to Mrs. Nolan's classroom when the wall in front of them exploded. "Get down!" Wyatt yelled.

"That looked really dangerous," Logan said.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious!" Emma replied.

"Guys, did you not just notice the explosion from the wall that nearly killed all of us!? We got to go check it out to see if anyone's hurt. Whoever's in, take a step forward," Abiection said.

They all took a step forward. This is what he loved about his group. They were always ready to do anything together, no matter how much trouble they could be or get in.

They walked over to the destroyed wall. And saw the strangest things they've seen in their life.

It had the body and tusks of a boar, the tail of a platypus, and in the front, a corkscrew pointed upward like a horn. So basically it was a boartypus corkscrew unicorn, in a way. But that wasn't what made the others gasp. It was who the unicorn was focused on. It took a few seconds to realize who it was after. It was after him.