Meeting the Same Kind
Holyoke, U.S.A.
It was the first day of middle school, and as I woke up, I had this weird tingle in my stomach. Even as I was eating my favorite cereal, Chocolate Pellets (which usually calms me down) the tingle seemed to turn to a jolt. As I was getting dressed (in my usual t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes), the jolt seemed to turn to a shock. While I was riding the bus (to Liberty Middle School), two girls turned and stared at me and the shock turned to a rumble. Suddenly, though it disappeared.
I was scanning the faces of my new classmates through the thin veil of hair covering my gray-blue eyes. Then I saw the girls from the bus. The rumble I'd felt when they had looked at me on the bus returned as I stared at them.
The first girl had had strait, short black hair with a green streak in it. She had a mischievous smile like she was going to surprise me at any minute. But the strangest part of her whole appearance, were her eyes. They were green, normal enough, but they were glowing. The other odd thing about this girl, she was sitting like a dog. This girl had ripped jeans and a t-shirt that said "If you're reading this shirt, it's too late". She looked like the kind of girl who was the don't-mess-with-me-or-you'll-be-sorry-type.
The other girl looked…like Barbie, you could say. You know, white-blond hair, pretty sea-blue eyes, designer clothes, ballet flats, you get the idea. But, she had a hot pink streak in her hair.
"What's wrong with her?" the green-eyed girl said as she walked over to me
"Grace, be nice! Where are your manners?" Barbie girl said with a smile plastered on her face, "Hi, my name's Darlene Dive, but you can call me Darla. What's your name?"
"Annabeth Tyto, Anna." I answered. My voice sounded small and faint.
"OMG! I LOVE the name Annabeth!" Darla squealed as if I were her best friend
"Tyto, as in Tyto Alba, the Barn Owl?" Grace asked, suddenly interested, the gears turning in her mind.
"Yeah." I answered Grace. I could just tell by the way she carried herself that she was intelligent.
As soon as I sat down with my cheeseburger and carrots at lunch, Barbie and Miss Darkness slid in on either side of me. Miss Darkness on my left side and Barbie on my right.
"So, what are you? Have you figured it out yet?" Darla bubbled
"Excuse me?" I said between mouthfuls of cheeseburger
"I told you she didn't know about it yet." Grace said to Darla
"Know about what?"
"Tell you what," Darla said, "My birthday party is this weekend, come, and Grace and I will explain everything."
"Okaaaaay" I had no idea what she meant by "explaining everything"
I arrived at Darla's house not knowing what to expect, since I had not been to a birthday party since I was in kindergarten. I just wasn't friends with a lot of people.
As I was about to get out of the car, my parents went through the checklist that we always used before someone left the house, "Clothes for tomorrow, underwear, etc.?"
"Check, check, and check."
"Toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash, cotton balls, hairbrush, cell phone, medicines, your teddy bear?"
"Check, check, check, check, check, check, check, and check!" I said, blushing, even though I was the only one with my parents.
"Love you owlet! Try to get some sleep!" My parents said as I got out of the car
"Love you too! See you tomorrow!" I called as I walked toward Darla's somewhat large house with her gift under one arm and my sleepover bag under the other.
"Hello! Hello! Helloooo!" Darla squealed in her all too familiar voice as she opened her huge mansion house's doors
"Um, hi. Here's your present and card, hope you like it." I said, becoming as shy as ever. I do that when I'm around people other than my family.
"Thanks! I LOVE that top you're wearing! It is SO cute! Oh! I forgot my manners! Come on in!" Darla talks a lot when she's excited if you hadn't noticed yet. As I stepped into her house-no, mansion, I instantly knew her parents were rich. How did I know? Well, let's see, Darla was wearing an extremely rare diamond necklace in the shape of a dolphin, her parents both had pure gold watches, and there were maids cleaning their house. YES! ACTUAL MAIDS! Oh, and I almost forgot! There were MAPS of her house-on a display with a doll that looked exactly like Darla.
"Wow, Darla, your house is, uh, really big." I said looking at one of the maps, seeing a bowling alley, a movie theater (showing 5 new releases), and an indoor swimming pool.
"Oh, Annabeth silly, you're looking at the wrong map." Darla said replacing the gray map with a hot pink one, "Here's the map of my half of the house, that was my parent's level."
"Your parents have their own level of the house?" I screeched, "What planet is this?"
Before Darla could answer, a voice yelled from somewhere upstairs, "Hey Darla? Where are you? I'm lost in your closet!"
"Coming!" Darla called
"Who was that?" I asked, amused by the fact that someone could get lost in a closet
"Grace." She replied casually, as if people got lost in her room every day
"Hurry up!" Grace called from the closet, "I think something's biting my leg!" We heard a loud bark, growling, then something sniffing, as if a dog trying to find something. When we finally got up the stairs, we found Grace holding a small white puppy.
"It's amazing that something that tiny could make such a loud bark!" I remarked
"Yeah, like Toto could make that loud of a bark! Ha!' Grace and Darla laughed
The night went on as I assumed it would. Darla opened her presents (her parents got her a private island and a matching yacht, Grace got her a gift card to Sea World, and I got her a movie about dolphins). We watched a differnt movie about dolphins. Then, we pretended to go to sleep when her parents told us too and snuck out of bed and got golfish crackers for a midnight snack.
"Ok, now for the quiz." Darla and Grace told me, after an eventful game of Twister.
"What quiz?" I asked
"The quiz of death!" Grace said. My expression must have been really funny because they took a picture. "Just kidding!" Grace and Darla laughed, "Anyway, we are going to give you a quiz." They started asking me questions like: "Have you ever done something slightly unhuman" or, "Can you climb trees like a squirrel" and, "Are you adopted?". The questions went on like this and I answered most of them yes, except for the squirrel one. I still don't understand that one. Anyway, after "The Quiz" Grace and Darla explained to me that there are certain people that can transform into animals. For example, Darla can transform into a dolphin, and Grace can turn into a wolf. When I asked what I was, they simply answered: A barn owl.
" I'm not a barn owl just because of my last name!" I protested. Grace and Darla told me that it was just a coincedence. "Ok, so, why am I a barn owl?" I asked
"Well, your quiet, and barn owls fly silently, and you have the same color hair and feathers, and you kind of float when you jump." Darla answered
"Well, I guess that's pretty intresting." I said, "But, are there a lot of other people like this who can turn into animals? Do your parents know? Are their evil guys trying to capture us and put us on display in zoos?" a million questions spilled out of my mouth at once.
Grace tried to answer them, "Actually, there aren't a lot of people like us, we're becoming extinct. I'm not sure why but we're just slowly disapearing. Second of all, Darla's parents know, but I don't have parents, I live in the forest. For the last question, yes, there are evil guys trying to capture us and put us in zoos."
"Well that's just awesome! I've always wanted to be put on display!" I joked
"Um, there's one other thing you should know." Darla said
"What?" I asked bracing myself for the worst
"Your supposed to be the one to save our kind. We're kind of leaving tomarrow and we told your parents that your coming with us, so your family thinks we're taking a eight month field trip around the world. We also told the rest of our kind that you are our leader and that your going to save us."
"So I guess my History test is going to have to wait, right?" I joked
"Hahahahahahahaha! Very funny. But we're serious, we're taking Darla private jet to France tomarrow, then we will go to Italy, the Bahamas, Indonesia, China, Antarctica, the Amazons, Greece, Ireland, India, and Mexico." Grace told me.
The next day, we boarded Darla's private jet and headed off to save an endagered species of humans-and ourselves.
See also: .com/ for maps, quizzes, and more!