1. Being a Misfit.
I snapped another stick of gum, popped it into my mouth and began to chew meditatively. My day had started alright, and then one of the school losers had put a tarantula (God knows where he got that from...) in our teacher's desk and blamed it on me. Now I am stuck in detention, wishing to punch that idiot's lights out. There was one other in detention with me, a boy with golden brown hair and deep blue eyes sat in the corner of the room, reading a poetry book. Which I thought was a bit odd, but it was probably just late homework. He glanced up and saw me looking at him, he smiled and I flushed and looked down. Now he probably thought I was staring at him. I sighed, fiddling with my locket, it was old silver colour and it looked a bit like something out of Atlantis with different patterns to do with the sea and a trident on the front. I loved it and was never without it, since it was a gift from my dad. And my dad had died when I was a baby.
When I finally got home, I flopped down on the sofa, exhausted, and turned the TV on. I didn't really enjoy any of the shows that they have on TV but I was tired and didn't want to do homework. After about two minutes of watching something about a guy the liked a girl who didn't like him back or something (too bored to pay attention), I felt a soft, small hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, Lily, how're you?" I asked, smiled softly at my half sister Lily, even though Lily was only eight, she had terminal cancer on her lung, and didn't have long to live. The blow had hit us all very hard and I would do anything to prevent us losing her.
"I'm okay, thanks. How was school?"
I shrugged. "Detention for something I didn't do. Liam Benzer blamed me for putting a tarantula in Ms. Stewart's desk..."
Lily's eyes widened. "A tarantula? Where the smurfs did he get that?"
I laughed. "Well, I heard the Biology teacher was very angry afterwards."
She giggled. "At least you didn't have to dissect it. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise..." She said in an ominous whisper. We both burst out laughing again; it was an ongoing joke between us. Then Mom came in, smiling widely. "You're home!" She exclaimed, hugging me.
I hugged Mom back, then, pulling back I sniffed the air. "Is that... pancakes I smell?" She nodded. My smiled widened and I pumped my fist. "Awesome!" Pancakes were my all-time favourite food. It made up for the rubbish day at school.
Later that afternoon, just before sunset, I decided to go for a walk, to get away from the chemical smells of Lilly's pain medication. Then a crashed into a wall, actually the wall was a person.
Oooh great... This can't be good... I thought sourly. I looked up and saw it was my Biology teacher. He looked very angry. "Good afternoon, Hailey... I hope you're here to apologize about the tarantula." He said, disgusting pink lips twisted into some sort of pouting frown and he sniffed loudly bulbous nose scrunching up. Wow, he really was touchy about his tarantula, wasn't he?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Pawday, but it should be Liam Benzer who should apologize to both of us, since it was he who took you spider."
His authoritarian porridge-y textured face went purple with rage. "You lie! We both know it was you and it's not just a spider! It's a tarantula, you uneducated child!" He said, foam flying from his mouth. I didn't bother to mention that I knew that, since it'd only make things worse. I sighed glancing at the ground then back at Mr. Pawday, I screamed. His eight eyes gleamed back at me. My Biology teacher was now I giant spider. He advanced towards me, eight hairy legs scuttling across the ground at a surprising pace. I raised my arms in defence and felt a tugging in my gut then the water rose out of the lake and crashed down right on top of Mr. Pawday, and left him a giant crumpled, twitching mess, then it exploded into green dust. I felt also felt a little green and then I did the most heroic thing of my entire life, I fainted.
When I woke up, the sun had already disappeared and an old hippy lady with a tie-died tee shirt, dreads and rose-tinted Elton John style shades, she grinned a gap-toothed smile and I groaned, sitting up and holding my head.
"Are you hungover?" She asked, still smiling. "I remember those days..." Who was this lady?
"N-no," I replied croakily.
"It's dangerous to be out at this time of night... Do you want me to call your parents?" She offered.
"Nah, I can walk," I said, I did not want my mom to know about what really happened, so I got up groggily, my head getting worse, and almost made me lie down again, but I leaned against a tree for a second.
"You sure you don't need help...?" she asked.
"Thanks, for your help, but I got to go now." I said hastily, already starting down the street. I didn't actually think the lady, helped that much, but it felt right to thank her anyway.
"What happened?" were predictably Mom's first words when I walked in.
"I hit my head real hard and passed out..." I said, kind of knowing my mom wouldn't fall for it, but before my mom could reopen her mouth, Lily rushed into the room tears streaming down her cheeks.
"You're safe, and home, and late for bed, but your home!" She babbled. "What happened?" She asked. I repeated the story I had told my mom.
Lily frowned, "But there's no bruise..."
I gave in. "Ok, you're going to think I'm crazy, but you asked..." I said and told them the whole truth. Lily's eyes grew wider and wider, until they just popped out of her head, not really, but I expected them to {insert sarcastic tone here}.
Mom went pale. "We have to leave, well, at least you do. Hailey pack your things, everything you need for around 20 days."
"WHAT?! Where are we going to go? To a psychiatrist?" I guessed.
"She's leaving?" Lily asked, her big brown eyes filling with tears.
"Yes, Lily, Hailey has to go she's in a lot of danger. And Hailey we aren't going to a psychiatrist. We are going somewhere safe. You have to trust me on this." Mom pleaded.
"Surrrrre. Something really freaky happened earlier, and I don't have the foggiest idea where we are gonna go, but I'll trust you," I said, sounding a bit more sarcastic than I meant to. Mom motioned for me to go upstairs and start packing.
Saying goodbye to Lily was hard.
"I'll miss you and won't forget you." were Lilly's last words to me before I got in the car. I looked out of the window, and saw Lilly waving, tears running down her face. I was going to remember that face for the rest of my life, I might not see her again... Ever.