ANASTASIA
YEAR: 2199
I never cared much about appearance. It seemed a little pointless, to look pretty. I understood dressing up for weddings, but nothing else.
I ran home. Rain poured, but I didn't care. I needed to get away from the voice. I didn't want to "find" anybody. I had just seen school records. Innocent as that.
And although I didn't care for appearance, I found myself searching "Fashion in the 2010s" on my brand-new, 3-D tablet.
It looked exactly the same as these days. I was shocked, because usually it was different in other time periods. But there it was, miniskirts, ruffled blouses, everything.
I was looking up fashion because the picture of Massie Block made her look like she was probably very fashionable. And I wanted to know everything about her that I could. So, typically, the next thing I looked up was "Massie Block." I clicked on a blog. It had many lists, labeled "Current State of the Union." It's last update was over 100 years ago. That sent chills down my spine. After many results, such as school profiles for OCD (Creepy, I thought when I saw that. She went to my school?!), hater blogs, fan club blogs (I almost puked. Who was this girl?!), and old e-mails, I gave up. There was nothing current. Why am I even searching for her?! I bet she's possessing me or something. Yup. Definitely. Maybe this is what she meant by "I found her."
"Anastasia!" Mom called. "Time for dinner!" I walked to the kitchen, greeted by the warm scent of chili. I sat at my usual spot at the marble dining table.
"So, how was work?" I asked.
"Oh, same old. How was school?"
I clenched my teeth. "School was fine. Tammie got glasses. They're purple." It wasn't a lie.
"And how was studying after school? Find anything cool?"
"Yup. Did you know that fashion in the 2010s is the same as current day?" I left out the whole creepy-stalker-ghost part.
"Oh, that's interesting," Mom said, clearly uninterested.
"Yeah," I said. The rest of dinner was quiet and slightly awkward.
I walked up to my room again. I grabbed my tablet.
Meet me again tomorrow, AF. ~MB
I rolled my eyes. Tammie must have e-mailed me. But when I checked, I wasn't on e-mail. And how would Tammie even know about Massie Block ghost?
"It's a real message from the ghost?" I actually said it out loud.
The air got all thick around me, just like before.
"Yes."
I just rolled my eyes. "Go away."
"No, you must follow the tradition!" I heard the voice from the right side of me. I turned around, and...
There she was. A slightly hovering, slightly translucent version of Massie from the pictures.
"What tradition?"
"The alpha tradition. You must be the most popular girl in school!"
I laughed really hard. I couldn't help it, the laughter just came out. "Wait? You're saying that all of this is for... popularity?!"
I expected Massie to laugh along, or for her to go away and for Eliza Henderson, the most popular girl at OCD, to jump out with a camera and a hologram projector and yell "YOU GOT PRANKED!" But instead, Massie shushed me and said: "This is serious. I'm afraid if you don't follow the tradition, you'll get very bad luck for... something over you're typical 7 years, let's just say."
I stopped laughing now. Not because I believed this, but because I was a very cautious girl and never took chances. "So what, I have to buy cool clothes from Prada and Amely's and just say stuff with a bazillion abbreviations?"
"Okay, what is Amely's?"
"It's a 'new' designer shop, made back in the 2110's," I explained, and Massie nodded.
"Well, then yes, pretty much what you said, but more. Meet me at the Westchester Mall at 7:00 tomorrow."
And with that, she disappeared
A/N: Sorry, short chapter. I just have so many ideas for this story! And sorry, I'm a sucky updater. BTW, will any of you check out my Skye's 3rd Grade Diary story about Skye Hamilton, and then my crossover Massie B, Meet Junie B, where Massie meets Junie B. Jones (but they're both 13)? PLEASE REVIEW ON BOTH! THANKS!
