It was like a dark tunnel way. The only visible exit was the light at the end. I began to run towards it but I never seemed to get any closer to freedom. Actually, I seemed to get farther. Then a voice began to echo throughout the tunnel, "You can never escape." It was amused at my failed attempts to run to the light. "You can never escape." It said again. Then I felt a burning pain in my leg. I tripped and fell. I slid against the ground before hitting the side of the tunnel. I looked behind me. There was a red symbol that glowed and stood out from all the black surrounding it. It came closer and closer then...

"Aaaaah!" I screamed.

"Carter!" My dad came up to my room. He had opened the door and was staring at me, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I lied. I could feel sweat dripping off my face and my hands were extremely warm. "I thought I saw a roach but it was nothing."

"Oh...okay." Dad didn't quiet believe me but he decided not to push it. "Well, anyways, it's nearly time for you to get ready for school." I groaned, but so he didn't hear me. It had been barely a week since we moved from the comfort of our old home in Florida to France because of my dad's job transferring here. Ever since we had moved, I had these dreams. They occurred frequently and sometimes I'd have them when I was awake. I pushed myself out of bed and looked in my mirror. I saw a girl with mid-waist length dark brown hair that fell in asymmetrical curls around her heart-shaped face and green eyes. I looked nothing like my father who had pale blond hair and pale blue eyes.

That's because I was adopted when I was barely a one-year-old. My adopted dad's name is Walter Shadrach. I'm Carter Shadrach. Walter and his wife Cecelia adopted me a few months after his wife had been diagnosed with cancer. She had always wanted a daughter but they didn't think she was healthy enough to have one or live long enough to give birth to one so that's when little ol' me came into the picture. Cecilia died about five years ago years after she lost the fight with cancer when I was eight. Now I'm thirteen and Walter and I live in France where his parents were born. I brushed my teeth and washed my face, quickly. Then I wore a black tee shirt that read in white block letters "To write love on her arms" and jeans.

"Bye, Dad." I said as I walked out the door to my new school, Kadic Academy.

"Bye, Carter. Don't get expelled on the first day." Walter joked.

Kadic Academy looked old-fashioned but welcoming in a grandmotherly kind of way. I had already met with the principal so I just headed to my first class even though classes didn't start yet. Ms. Hertz was already there. "I want nothing but the best from my students and I always have high hopes for each and every one of them. I don't expect any less from you even if you are new." That was the first thing she said to me. How welcoming. Finally class started and I got to see what my class would look like for the rest of the school year. There were blondes, brunettes, red-heads, and a pink-haired girl.

"If the population of wolves increased in the forest, what would happen to the population of the rabbits? And what about if it was vise-versa?" Ms. Hertz eyes scanned the room. She settled them on me. "Carter?" Before I could reply, every kid's eyes were on me. "Uhh...if the population of wolves increased then the population of rabbits would decrease and if the population of rabbits increased then the population of wolves would stay the same." Ms. Hertz smiled her approval. "I was sure you would say the wolves' population would decrease. Maybe now I'll learn to stop underestimating my students. Maybe."

It was finally lunch time and I had gotten a warm bagel with lox and some mushy white stuff. I ate the bagel and left the white stuff on my plate. "Are you gonna eat that?" A boy dressed in pink and purple asked me. His hair was gelled up to a point with a purple streak in the middle. I recognized him from Ms. Hertz class. "Uhh...no, you can have it." I pushed my tray over to him and he ate the stuff greedily. "Thanks. I'm Odd." He said. "That's kind of obvious. I mean who would eat that stuff."

"No, that's my name. Odd Della-Robbia," I felt a little embarrassed and I could feel the blood rusing to my face. "Oh." I said. So this is how you make friends. Some random guy just comes up and asks for the throw-up the cafeteria gives you and then you start talking. Odd. "I'm Carter Shadrach." I sounded so formal. Should I sound more laid-back? "You want to sit with me and my friends, Carter?" Odd said. I shrugged. "Sure." Odd had finished eating the mushy vomit and had put my tray away. He actually got in line to get a second helping. Then he took me a table where there were two other boys, a blonde with glasses and a brunette who probably had his own fan club, and two girls, the pink-haired girl from Ms. Hertz class and a Japanese girl who I didn't recognize. They looked at me like I was an alien except for the blonde boy whose eyes were glued to his laptop.

"Uhh...everyone, this is Carter. I invited her to sit with us." They seemed to warm up to me. Odd pointed to them each in turn and introduced them. "This is Jeremie, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi." They said either "hi" or "hey" and then went back to eating but I realized that before I came they had been talking but now that I was here they weren't. It must've been something that was secret. Curse my curiosity because I needed to find out what it was. I tried to spark up conversation but failed miserably. The only one who talked was Odd and once he talked, he couldn't stop. I tuned him out until I heard a ringing noise. It was quick then it stopped so I thought I imagined it until I saw the alert looks on the others' faces. They exchanged glances.

"Uhh...Carter, we have to go." Odd said. Where to?" Darn you, curiosity. Somewhere." With that they all ran off. Curiosity killed the cat but I hoped it wouldn't kill me because I followed them. I waited a few seconds so that I kept behind but I didn't lose them. They went through a sewer which I seriously didn't want to do but I did anyway. The sewer smelled of urine so I held my breath until the end where I went through a manhole and found myself on a bridge in front of a factory. I saw them run into it so I did the same. I was lucky that after lunch I had a free period. (Do they say periods in France?) Walter wouldn't be happy if I cut class on the first day. That's when the trail grew cold. There was no way down but the rope and sometimes I get afraid of heights. I closed my eyes and felt the rope slide across my hands. They were bright red. I ignored the searing pain and went into the elevator. I had saw the code Jeremie put in so I pressed it hoping I was right. The elevator door opened and I quickly hid into a dark part of the large room. There was Jeremie sitting in front of a huge computer with a hologram thing and all this other high-tech stuff.

Jeremie had turned around at the sound of the elevator opening but he didn't see me. "Hey, guys could you hurry and deactivate the tower. I have a feeling Xana is coming after me." He said into a headphone thing. What is a Xana? What did he mean by deactivating a tower? He took the headphones off and started looking around. I went deeper into the shadows hoping he didn't find me but I tripped over a cord and landed with an "oomph!" Jeremie saw me and ran over. "What are you doing here?" He said. "What are you doing here?" I countered. "I asked you first." He said. "I asked you second."

"Carter!" Jeremie said, exasperated. I didn't reply because I saw it. It was the black smoke from my dream and it was creeping towards Jeremie. "Jeremie, watch out!" I pushed him out the way and narrowly missed the smoke myself. The elevator door opened again. Yumi and Odd came out. They saw me on top of Jeremie and I'm sure that didn't look like a pretty scene. They instantly came after me. "Hey! What the fudge! Let me go!" I cried. Odd had pinned me on the ground and Yumi had gone over to Jeremie. "What did you do to him?" Odd asked. "I saved his life from that black smoke from my dream and this is how I get repaid." I realized that Jeremie was unconscious. At least the smoke hadn't gotten him. "Black smoke from your dreams?" Odd asked. I was still pinned to the ground. "Yes! Now can you please let me go?" Finally Odd loosened his grip on me. I didn't waste time. Question blasted out of me like crazy.

"What's going on? What was that thing? Why was it trying to hurt Jeremie?" The elevator door opened again and this time Ulrich came out, gasping. "Aelita...Scyphozoa...William." I didn't make much since of what he was saying but apparently the others did. Yumi slapped Jeremie as hard as she could and he finally woke up. "Aelita's on Lyoko by herself with the Scyphozoa and William." Yumi said. Jeremie jumped up. He looked at himself then at me and to the computer. "There are three things to do. Either Jeremie goes on Lyoko or we share out secret with someone else or we let Aelita destroy the ice sector." Odd said. Jeremie looked from me to himself to the supercomputer. Finally he said, "Take Carter to the scanners."

Hope you liked this chapter. I'm sorry about my other story but when some people dislike you, they delete your story. If you know how it feels to have to rewrite the first 7 minutes of a show and know you have about 16 minutes left then you know why I don't want to write everything over again so I'm writing a new story which hopefully won't be erased while I go get a zebra cake.