Melissa Jerome Block 3 Finding Luck Sept 10th /09
Summer in Strangetown was a far-away memory as the snow slowly piled up outside our shelter, making my sister Hannah shiver in her thin pink windbreaker. I could sympathize with her. I was wearing a purple hoodie with three howling wolves on it, and a pair of ratty old jeans. No coat, no money, my only possessions half a Polaroid and a crumpled Werther's wrapper.
We were lying outside under a pile of cardboard boxes with no way to keep us warm. Ironically, the boxes were from tents that were on display in Galaxy Travel Supplies, the only shop that would let us take up shelter on the back step. If only they would give us a tent so we could go out and set up camp somewhere else.
Anywhere but here, on an alien's doorstep.
"J-Ja-a-ane. . . ." Hannah stammered, chilled to the bone. Her olive green eyes pleaded straight from her soul. "Is it t-time for school yet?"
I surveyed the horizon at the end of the alley. "Almost, kiddo. Just one more hour and then you can get warm and have some food and talk to Adelilo."
Adelilo was Hannah's only friend. She was an alien, a former resident of the Saekrihn Galaxy, two billion light-years from Earth. She was in hibernation then, which explains a lot. They had longer lifespans than humans, but only if counted in our years.
"R-R-Really?" Hannah verified, holding out her pink Hello Kitty watch for me to check. She was only eight, so reading a manual clock was still hard for her.
I sighed. The display read 8:40. Luck never came my way, and since Hannah was late, they would call our parents. And when the number was confirmed invalid, they would go looking for us at our fake address.
And, as luck was for us, just as we were walking down Dead End Lane, I heard the familiar whoosh of a car's hoverboards approaching us from behind. Turning, I saw that it was, indeed, Vice Principal Jainfah's silver Yomoshoto Liftoff sedan.
Great.
Principal Jainfah's door rolled up and was tucked away in the storage rack. I tried to come up with some excuse, but found none. As she got out and stretched her delicate translucent wings, I turned, grabbed Hannah's hand, and ran.
But as soon as she figured us out, Principal Jainfah flitted in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. I bit my lip and sighed, letting go of Hannah.
"Stop right there, Miss Croft. I know what's going on here."
I shook my head. "Look, this is all just a big -"
Jainfah held up her many-jointed hand to silence me, placing it on Hannah's shoulder. She twitched but didn't pull away. "Hannah is coming with me to discuss her grades. Now you run along and get to class. No use giving into her childish desires to play instead of do her work!"
With a look that told me to shut up and get lost, Jainfah took Hannah into her car and drove away. Hannah was trying to look casual, but to me it was as close a call as we could chance.
As I trudged to Strangetown High, the snow started to fall again. My stomach growled, but I tried to ignore it. Only a few hours until lunch.
Just as I was crossing the parking lot, I slipped on some ice and pain shot through my ankle, making me swear loudly. Nobody noticed, however, or so I thought.
"Hey, Jane, get out of our lot!" Quanakittjal, or Kitt, as we humans called him, yelled from his beaten-up Smoogo Flightpath. I cringed. No Hajkij would understand the concept of a sprained ankle, at least, not nicely.
Hajkijians didn't have muscles, or bones. They were odd creatures, really, shapeshifters. They somewhat took the shape of a human at school, but they could swim through the air, so they didn't have feet unless they were driving.
"I - I'm hurt!" I yelled back, and Kitt sighed, rolling his three eyes towards the sky.
"Then go get a nurse! Look, if you make me late, it's on your head, Jane," he sighed, exasperated.
I shivered head to toe now. "I can't walk!"
"I'll help you," a good Samaritan said, glaring at Kitt.
She helped me to my feet and onto the sidewalk, where she pulled out her videophone and called the nurse. Then she just simply walked away like most anonymous humans do. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, keeping my injured ankle submerged in the snow. I felt the edge of the Polaroid and pulled it out of my pocket to look at it again.
It was all too familiar, a picture of Hannah and I from when she was a toddler and I was only six or seven. I have no memories prior to the street, so this photo is the sole reminder of my home life way back when.
I never found that other half, so I always had nightmares about what was on it.
Was it just an armchair or a TV?
Or our parents, plain as day?
Pocketing the half, I noticed that the lady had dropped something. Bending over as carefully as possible, I picked it up. It was a half of a Polaroid.
And on it, a smiling lady and a man with his arm around her sat on one half of an expensive sofa. I hurriedly pulled my half out of my pocket, and put them together.
They were a perfect match.
For the first time in my life I saw our entire family as one in the yellowy-white frame. Looking up, I called out the lady, who was only a hundred yards away.
"Hey! Mom!"
She turned, her hood falling back with a gust of wind and revealing a mop of black hair and a pair of olive green eyes. She looked like a grown version of Hannah and I, except with darker hair.
Suddenly my twisted ankle was the least of my concerns. I bounded over to her, and she held her arms open to embrace me.
"I knew I'd find you someday," we said at the exact same time. Suddenly I felt like I was the luckiest kid in the universe.
Or at least, on this planet.