First chapter of a new story!
Dear Diary,
Down the street walking to school today, I noticed a moving van. I rolled my eyes. My parents are probably going to invite them over or something. It's not like I wouldn't like that, but everytime they're in front of people, they act... I don't know, phony? "Alex, what's the family's name?" Max asked, eyes not leaving the van. "Uh, I don't know. Do you know Justin?" I asked, turning to Justin. "I think they're called the Greys or something," Justin answered. "What kind of family is named after such a dull color?" Harper asked, trailing behind Justin. Just keep getting your hopes up. "I don't know, I think it's pretty cool. I mean, Russo? What kind of name is that?" Max asked. "It's a name of our culture. Hispanic and..." I said, thinking harshy about Dad's side of the family. "Remember? Pizza night?" Justin reminded. "Oh uh... Italian," I shrugged. I turned toward the house.
"Hey, didn't that house belong to the Jenkins?" I asked. "Well it used to be. Erin Jenkins has been sent to some insane asylum, Anne Jenkins went to college sometime last fall, and their Dad Randolf Jenkins died when Erin was... I think 4. Their mom, Jane Jenkins had a rough time paying the bills, even with all the help the rest of the neighborhood gave her. She must think she's useless. She lost the house, and is living with her sister," Harper sympathetically answered. "Wow, I can't believe that. What went wrong with Erin?" Max asked. "I think he had so many delusions that he almost killed Anne when she was visiting. I heard she got a scar on her left wrist. Erin tried to slit her wrists, thinking that she was some kind of theif or something."
I shook my head sadly. " I can't believe that. Mrs. Jane was so nice. I can't believe how she was able to keep that a secret for such a while." I looked at the front lawn. Someone was simply standing in the middle of it, glaring into space. He scared me a bit. His eye contact moved to me. Luckily for me, I can read expressions. He was... sympathetic. Scared. Was he... scared for me? "Alex? Alex!" Harper said, waving her hand in front of my head. "Yeah?" I said, snapping my head toward her. "C'mon, we have to go. We're gonna be late!" Max said, running behind Justin. I sprinted after them.
During lunch, I saw the familiar face. He was sitting on a bench in the far right hand corner. He was still staring at me. I looked at the people he was sitting with. It was 2 other guys. They seemed to have been regular people, they were laughing and joking around. He, on the other hand, had an apple in his hand and watching me. I looked around at other people. Apparently, he wasn't the only one looking at me. Most of the people in the cafeteria were glancing at him, me, then him again. Mitchie walked up to me. "Hey, Alex! I see you have a new crush," she said quietly. I looked around again. It was so quiet. Like Mitchie, people were whispering to the people at their table. "I don't know who that guy is, Mitch. How can I like him?" I whispered back.
"Well, why are you staring at him?" Harper, who happened to have been sitting on the left side of me, asked. "He's staring at me. When we walked by their new house this morning, he was standing at the front lawn staring me down," I answered. Harper, who was taken back, said,"Alex, no one was at the front lawn at that house. There were only movers and that's it." "You didn't see him, he was standing right in the middle of the lawn! He was wearing a black hoodie. The same thing he's wearing now. Harper looked at his Elvis Costello shirt, black skinny jeans, black converse, and black hoodie. "Alex, I don't remember seeing him. You must have some kind of weirdo Deja Vu or something," Harper said.
I looked at Mitchie, who was looking at the 2 other boys. I then remembered how they were joking around. They were still laughing. They were the loudest in the room. "Why is everyone whispering?" I asked. Mitchie looked at me, she was sitting across from me. "Alex, you're going crazy. No one is whispering." I started listening again. Everything was the same now. "Huh? Oh... seeing now hearing things," I compromised. I didn't bother arguing. There is something wrong with me. "Uhh, well speaking of crushing, I see you take an intrest to those boys," I said, changing the subject. Mitchie blushed. "Not those 2, him," she said, slightly pointing to the boy with dark, straight hair sitting next to the guy staring at me.
"Hey, guys!" Miley said, running up to us. "'Sup, Miles?" I asked, moving my bookbag onto the floor so she can sit. "Do you wanna know their names? I heard all about them in homeroom!" she said. "Uh, sure," I answered. "Okay, well Shane is known as the funny brother. Yeah, they're all brothers. Sweet, right? Anyway, Shane is the one with the black, straight hair and is a Junior," Miley said. "Shane...." Mitchie said, then zoning out. "Yeah, and Jason's the random/romantic one. He's the guy with the lighter, straight hair and is a Senior," I looked at Hayley. She was a rocker girl who was a Senior, who seemed to take and intrest in Jason. "And that guy who's staring at... Alex is-," she trailed off, giving me a weird look. I shrugged. " I don't know what's wrong with him," I said. "Uhh... well anyway, his name is Nate. He's the sensitive one. I heard that for some reason he knows when something will go wrong. It's like an instinct to him," Miley finished. I looked at her.
"How can you tell when he sees something wrong?" I asked. "He'll act weird. Wait for it, Alex. I really think that rumor is true. You're going to get hurt somehow," Miley warned. I nodded my head. "I think so, too." I've never been that much of a fan of superstitions, but this just gets weirder and weirder. I looked at the clock. We only had a few minutes to get to my Spanish class, which was all the way across the school. Yeah, I'm hispanic. So? I wanna learn, that's why I chose that class. "Okay, I have to go. See ya later," I said, picking up my bookbag. Everyone checked the time after me and scrambled into groups. "Alright, Alex. See you at P.E." Miley and Mitchie said, waving goodbye. "See ya at biology," Harper said, skipping off.
As I was walking, I turned my head to glance at Nate. He wasn't there. I shrugged and started walking to Spanish. I was halfway to Spanish when I felt like I was being watched. I turned around and saw Nate. I gasped. He was so quiet. "Uhh... hi," I said, turning around and walking again. This time, I heard footsteps. "Hello, you must be Alex, right?" he asked. "Uhh... yeah"
"I'm Nate"
"Nice to meet you"
"Why are you walking faster?"
I searched for an excuse. "I'm going to be late"
"It's a sin to lie, Alex"
"I'm not lying"
"Like I said, it's a sin to lie."
I sighed and turned around. "Nate, is something bad going to happen to me?" Nate stopped walking. I waited a few seconds. He started walking again. "Nate?" I asked. No response. "Oh, c'mon! You crack up a conversation, and when I start to really talk to you, you end it!" I said, almost screaming. "You can't know, Alex. You have to find out yourself. I can't take advantage of my... gift. I can only help after everything is set," he answered. "Well, is it something really bad?" I asked. The bell rang. "Yes," he replied, opening the door to Algebra 2. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. I ran a little bit more down the hall and into Spanish.
I hurried home, completely wrapped up into getting safe. I looked at the Grey residence and saw Nate outside his black volvo, staring at me apologetically. I shut the door behind me and ran into my room. I plugged my iPod into it's speakers and played my favorite songs. Ah, my happy place. I stayed in my room 2 or 3 hours until dinner. "Hey, your mother won't be home during dinner, she has a meeting," Dad said. That's what my mom usually did. Dad wanted Mom to go ahead and live her life. He let her get another job. She's a real estate agent now and she's usually gone during the day. We're usually so happy when she comes home. We usually team up as a family and cook the food together. I thought I was the only one who had missed making dinner.
I looked at the table, and saw stake. "Justin, Max, and I just got a new recipe. We thought we'd try it out first, anyway," Dad said, apologetically. We dug in. "So, how was school?" Dad asked, breaking the silence. "We have nes students," Justin said, cheering up. "Really? Are they the Greys?" Dad asked. "Yeah," I murmered. "How'd you know?" " I met their parents at the sandwhich shop during lunch. They're nice people," Dad said. I nodded my head a little bit. "And Alex and Nate like each other!" Max declared. I chocked on my beef. I looked at Justin and he shrugged. "I didn't think you'd mind if I told him!" "Uh, yeah I do mind. Don't spread rumors, Justin! That's not true," I coughed. Dad nodded, obviously happy that it was only a rumor.
"By the way, after wizard training, the Greys are coming to visit." "Oh," I said, fighting the need to roll my eyes. "Yes, and that means dressing up," Dad added. "No, " I simply said. Everyone turned their heads at me. "Okay, they're new and it's polite to, but can we please just look like a normal family?" I asked. Dad bit his lip, thinking. "What? Do you really think that we go overboard everytime?" "Yes!" Max, Justin, and I screamed. Dad shrugged. "Okay then. Just wear the clothes you're wearing now. Let's go, we have only an hour of wizard training."
We went down to the lair and Dad wrote something on the board. My head tilted to the side once he showed what he wrote. Angels. Justin opened his notebook and scribbled it down. "What?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Angels," Dad replied. I sighed. This is a wizard family, I should be able to get used to this already. I wrote down the title of the lesson and waited. Dad smiled and continued. "Angels most common in the human world besides humans. We are the second. Angels are known to show up once something is wrong. They sort of live regular human lives until they have to go into action. What I mean is, if something is wrong, they come and help with the people in the situation, but they can't help the situation itself," Dad said. "It helps keep peoples' faith up. Of course, they are sent from God and that is their assignment. They can't help reduce the problem, and that's the rule. Y'know the saying 'Everything happens for a reson?'" I scribbled down everything, obviously taking an intrest. I raised my hand. "Alex," Dad called. "Is there anyway to tell a human from an angel?" I asked. "Well, yes. First off, they look very.... I don't know, attractive? If you met one, you'd think they're an angel anyway. They'll be perfect at what they do. If there's a group of angels, there's going to be a serious one. A leader. The leader would be very serious and mysterious during the assignment. If they see something bad happen, they'll act quite mournful for the time until it happens," Dad said. "After their assignment, they can either leave to their original house, start a new life in a new city so it's not suspicious, or go straight to the next assignment." Dad looked at the clock. "Okay, kids let's finish this lesson up. Any more questions or shall I continue?" "Please, continue," I said. Dad nodded,"Well, us meeting an angel would be very rare. Magic is thought as some sin to an angel. They'd stay away from a wizard. They wouldn't act mean, but they'd barely talk to you. They'd stay out of your way the whole assignment. It sorta makes it easier to tell if someone's an angel to a wizard." Justin, Max, and I wrote down as much as we could, then the doorbell rang. "Ah, the Greys are here," Dad said, signaling us to go get the door so he can clean up a bit.
"I'll get it!" I said, skipping toward the door. "So you can see Nate a bit more," Justin smirked. "If you talk rumours like that about me again, you're gonna see some scars a bit more," I hissed. Justin scooted away from me. "Yeah, you better run," I said, opening the door. I looked at the family in front of us. "Hello, we're the Grey family. You must be Alex. Your father mentions you quite a lot," Mr. Grey said. "Oh, what about?" I asked. "You're the trouble maker, aren't you?" Mrs. Grey asked. "Uhh, a lil bit," I said, shrugging. The family laughed. "Come in," I said, holding open the door. They practically strided into the living room. You can call it graceful if you want. I sat down. They were still at the doorway. "Oh, please sit down," I said. Everyone nodded and sat down. I looked at everyone's faces and stopped at Nate. I looked down, smiling. "Welcome to the neighborhood," I said. "Thank you," said every single family member. "Ya welcome," I said. They're nice... but awkward.
Dad walked in,"Hello again!" I smiled, got up, and went up to my room. I usually go to my room once dad gets to the scene. I plugged in my headphones and shuffled the songs. What song came up? Angel by Natasha Bedingfeild. I skipped the song. Halo by Beyonce. I put down my iPod, obviously this song shuffle is going to be hilariously about angels. I looked out the window and saw that it was raining. Huh. With the company of the Greys, you'd think it was a very peaceful night. After I changed, I sorted out everything in my room. I went to the vanity. I looked into the reflection. Nate was outside the window. I screamed bloody murder! I turned around, he was gone. Remind me to ask Dad a few more questions tomorrow.
I raced downstairs to see if Nate was there. The weird thing is that, he wasn't. I scanned the room more. Nate walked in from the bathroom and turned to me, frightingly innocent. I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at me the same way. "Oh, uh... there was a... bug in my room," I explained. Well it sounded more like a question, really. I looked at Nate again. He was looking sorrier than usual. I swallowed. The phone rang. I ran toward the phone and answered it. "Hello?" I asked. "Hello, is this the Russo residence?" a voice asked. "Uh, yes," I said, getting nervous. Obviously something was wrong. "Ah, then can I speak to the father of the family, please?" the voice asked. "Uh, sure. Who is speaking?" I asked.
"This is Dr. Ember. There happens to be something that happened to Theresa Russo," Dr. Ember said. I gasped. "What's wrong?" I said, turning to Nate. Nate shook his head sympathetically. The rest of the Greys avoided eye contact with Justin, Max, Dad, and me. "Please, may I speak to... Jerry Russo please?" Dr. Ember asked again. My breathing became uneven. What happened? I looked at everyone again. They were looking at me again. I closed my eyes and nodded. "Okay," I said, handing the phone to dad. "It's Dr. Ember. Something... about mom," I said, as Dad looked at me. He was alarmed. He held the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he asked. Dad listened for a few seconds, and stood up. "What happened?" Dad asked. He looked down, angrily. I was able to catch a glimpse of his eyes. They were sad, depressed. "Oh. Okay," Dad said and hung up the phone. "Kids, we're going to the hospital tomorrow morning," Dad said. I blinked twice. What?
I looked at Nate. His hands were clenched together. I gasped. Something has gone terribly wrong. Now I know why God made the assignments. The situations weren't simple, they change lives. I ran to him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into my room. "Nate, what happened?" I asked, shutting the door.