Disclaimer: I don't own Eerie Indianaor any of its characters. I only own the character of Courtney. The characters Lizzie and Die are their owners' creations.
"A Day in the Town Called Eerie"
PrologueMy name is Marshall Teller. Not too long ago I was living in New Jersey, just across the river from New York City. It was crowded, polluted and full of crime. I loved it. But my parents wanted a better life for my sister and me, so we moved to a place so wholesome, so squeaky-clean, so ordinary that you could only find it on TV:
Eerie, Indiana.
It's the American Dream come true right? Wrong. Sure, my new hometown looks normal enough, but look again. Underneath it's crawling with strange stuff. Item: Elvis lives on my paper route. Item: Bigfoot eats out of my trash. Item: I see unexplained flashing lights in the sky every week. No one believes me, but Eerie is the center of weirdness for the entire planet.
Since moving here I've been attacked by a werewolf, faced off against a gang of dogs bent on world domination and woken up one morning to discover that my life had become a TV show, where I was called Omri and the script called for my death! It's hard to believe that anything could top that, but Eerie never disappoints. Everyday my life here gets weirder and weirder. But no matter how strange this place becomes, nobody else ever seems to notice.
Nobody but my friend, Simon Holmes, that is. Simon's my next-door neighbour, and he's lived in Eerie his entire life. He's the only other person who seems to know just how freaky this place is. Together, we've faced off against some of Eerie's most bizarre inhabitants, from the ATM who almost wrecked our economy to the crazy grey-haired kid who lives in the abandoned mill and can't remember who he is. And those two are pretty tame compared to what else Eerie has thrown at us. I told you this place is weird.
What's the matter? You still don't believe me. You will…
Chapter 1-MarshallSitting in Miss Earhart's history class with fifteen minutes left on the clock was excruciating. In a mere fifteen minutes the bell would ring and every student in B. F. Skinner Junior High School would be running for the door, their glorious weekend of freedom ahead of them. Which meant two solid days of video games and TV movie for them, and two solid days of Bigfoot tracking and UFO sightings for me.
The class was restlessly sitting in their seats, either eying the clock anxiously or gazing longingly out the window. I wondered if the clock was moving backwards, which wouldn't have surprised me at all. After all, much stranger things have happened before. If the clock moving backwards were the only odd thing that happened all weekend then I would have started to worry.
"Class," said Miss Earhart suddenly. "Before you all pack up I have to warn you that you have an assignment to work on over the weekend, but-"
She was interrupted by a chorus of pained groans. Did teachers go to a special killjoy school or something? I immediately saw the Bigfoot tracks ending and UFOs flying away in my head, since I'd be stuck working on the assignment all weekend. Tonight Simon and I were supposed to be hunting for the ghost of Old Man Grober at the Eerie Dump, but now I wouldn't have the time. I'd have to break it to Simon gently. Miss Earhart looked impatiently around the room.
"Now I can discuss this during class or we can all wait until after the bell rings," she threatened. Not surprisingly, the class stop moaning.
I glanced up at the clock. Five minutes.
"It will be called 'Why Eerie is My Home'," Miss Earhart continued. "You will each work in groups of four and you will each write your own paper on this. You may not ask for help."
Hands shot up, including mine. What kind of assignment was this?
"Why are we doing this in a history class?" a girl who sat beside me, named Courtney, asked. "Isn't this kind of an English thing?"
"Why do we need to work in groups?" demanded Lizzie, the girl who sat behind me.
"What if Eerie doesn't feel like home yet?" asked Die, the girl who sat beside Courtney. Her accent gave away her heritage. She had recently transferred here from Britain.
"How are we supposed to work in groups and not help each other?" I asked, wondering what I had done to deserve this.
Miss Earhart smiled patiently. "You will be able to answer all those questions as you do the project," she assured us. "And since you four are so worried about it, why don't you all work together? Now, as for the rest of you-"
But she was cut off by the ringing of the bell. The class quickly gathered their stuff and left the room without being divided into groups. Even Miss Earhart made a beeline for the door. Only the four of us remained, each looking confused.
"Um…what just happened here?" asked Courtney.
"I think we just tossed our entire weekend down the drain," I sighed.
"Okay this is the stupidest assigment ever, for one. And two, how are we even supposed to work on this?" Courtney inquired.
"Well we probably should get together someplace to talk," piped up Lizzie, who wasn't looking at us, but was drawing a rabbit onto her binder. "We can meet at…oh wait. No, we can't meet at my house…"
"Why not?" Courtney asked her.
Lizzie looked up and smiled enigmatically. "Because I left my closet door open," she replied seriously.
Courtney raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"My kitchen is being remodelled," said Die, frowning at the thought. "Otherwise we could meet at my house. Maybe tomorrow, when the renovators aren't there."
"We can meet at my house then," Courtney said at last. "But after 4:30."
"Why after 4:30?" I asked her.
She rolled her eyes. "My dad's got some meeting going on and he doesn't want to be bugged. I'm not even supposed to be going home 'til then anyway. That's what my dad said."
"Because of the meeting?" I asked.
She gave me an odd look. "No, because he's working 'til then and I have to let him in."
That didn't make any sense to me, but I shrugged. "Well we could meet at my place, but I think my sister is having some people over. So why not go to the World O' Stuff?"
The three of them stared at me.
"World O' Stuff, huh?" Courtney asked. "Sounds okay to me. Lizzie?"
"That sounds fine to me," she replied. "I need to get some stuff from there too. I'm running out of erasers."
"What about you, Die?" I asked her.
Die smiled slightly and shrugged. "Sure, why not?" she replied.
I smiled. The World O' Stuff it was then. The four of us rose and headed out the door, each of us dragging our feet just a bit.
It was going to be a long weekend.