Children of the Stars
Chapter 1
Janice Starlet awoke to the sound of loud banging. She opened her eyes and then immediately shut them after being nearly blinded by the desk lamp shining in her face. Janice groaned; something wasn't right. She sat up, peeling her face off of the open text book that had served as her pillow. Janice attempted to open her eyes again, slowly this time. Once her vision came into focus, she shut off the desk lamp as plenty of light now filled her bedroom through the window.
Gradually, Janice tried to make sense of the situation. She was sitting at her desk, various books and notes strewn about in front of her. I fell asleep while studying last night, she thought to herself. The importance of this knowledge took another moment to sink in. Oh no, I fell asleep in the middle of studying for my big Chemistry test. An even worse thought occurred to her. And if the sun is already up, that means... I forgot to set my alarm.
Still groggy, Janice was having trouble piecing all of these bits of information together into something of relevance. Then the banging noise that had awoken her sounded again from her closed door. The knocking was accompanied by a voice this time. "Jan! Wake up, you're going to be late to school!"
Janice practically fell out of her chair and stumbled over to her nightstand. She grasped the clock that rested atop the stand and nearly threw it across the room in frustration. 7:45? I have to be at school in 15 minutes! "I'm awake!" Janice shouted at her door. "I'll be down in a minute!" From the other side of the door, she heard her mother sigh. Janice quickly changed out of the clothes she had fallen asleep in and put on something clean: blue jeans and a green shirt that almost matched her eyes.
After frantically stuffing her books into her backpack, Janice opened the door and almost charged right into her mother. "Slow down, you're going to hurt yourself if you aren't careful," her mother said.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I just want to leave before dad notices I'm..."
Janice was interrupted by her mother. "At least do something about your hair before you go. You look like a total wreck!"
"Thanks mom," Janice replied sarcastically, even though she knew her mother hadn't meant the comment to be insulting. "But I really don't have time. Besides, I'm sure no one will notice." She tried to pull back her shoulder-length, brown hair so that it didn't look so unkempt. "Anyway, thanks for waking me up. I'll see you when I get home." With that, Janice headed downstairs, making a beeline for the door and hoping she wouldn't run into...
"Hold it right there!"
Janice froze upon hearing the voice, and turned to face her father. "Dad, I just..."
"Just what? Thought you'd go to school late without my noticing?" Janice's father had his hands on his hips and an expression of disappointment on his face. "How do you expect to stay on the honor roll when you can't even get to class on time?"
Her father's stern tone of voice caused Janice to recoil. "I'm sorry, I was up late last night studying and I..."
"I don't want any of your excuses, young lady!"
"Honey, please go easy on her," Janice's mother pleaded as she came down the stairs behind them. Turning towards Janice, she asked, "Won't you at least have some breakfast before you leave? You'll be very hungry if you don't eat anything until lunchtime."
Janice was about to accept the offer when her father made the decision for her. "No! She doesn't have time to eat! Her education is more important!"
As her parents began to argue, Janice stormed towards the door in frustration. Her father called after her, "I'm not done talking to you, don't walk away while..."
"Dad, we'll talk about this when I get home," Janice replied. "I can still make it to school on time if I leave right now," she added.
Her father looked as if he wanted to argue the point further, but reluctantly consented. Janice left, having to will herself not to slam the door behind her in anger. A wonderful start to the day, she thought to herself. Janice took her bicycle from behind the garage where it waited and began the ride to school. It was a beautiful day; a shame that she didn't have time to enjoy it. Instead, Janice spent the majority of her bike ride worrying about her upcoming Chemistry test and trying to recall facts that she may or may not have absorbed in her previous night's cram session before falling asleep. She was so preoccupied and in such a hurry that she almost passed in front of oncoming traffic twice. This only added to the day's growing amount of anxiety.
Finally, Janice reached the high school she attended. She had made it in record time, but that didn't mean she could slow down just yet. Very few students still remained outside, but the fact that there were some was a good sign that she might not be late yet. She hastily locked up her bike and hurried inside. Just as she entered, the first period bells sounded. Crap, crap, crap, Janice thought to herself. She quickened her pace to a run.
Rounding the corner of the hall where her first period class was located, Janice ran right into a tall man in a suit that had been walking the opposite direction.
"Oof! Watch where you're going!" the man said.
To Janice's horror, she realized that it was the school's principal. As this was her freshman year, it was the first time she had seen him in person. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Principal Phillips. Are you okay?"
Mr. Phillips straightened his tie and adjusted his glasses to get a clear look at the girl that had almost turned him into high school road kill. "I'm fine, just be more careful. We have a strict policy against students running in the halls. Getting to class on time is not so important that it's worth putting yourself and others at risk of an accident."
Gee, I'll bet my father would disagree with you, Janice thought to herself. Out loud, she said, "I know, I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again."
The principal smiled. "See that it doesn't. Now hurry along, but no running this time!"
"Thank you." Janice resumed walking to her class, noticing that a few students that had stopped to watch the exchange were now giggling at her expense. She didn't really mind; she was used to it. Ever since Janice had first started school, her father had pressured her to be the best in her class so that one day she could be as successful as he was. In grade school it hadn't been too difficult, but as she entered junior high, and now high school, it had become more and more difficult to keep her grades up. Janice had come to realize that she wasn't nearly as smart as her father expected her to be. Unfortunately, he never seemed to listen whenever she tried to explain this to him. He continued to pressure her, forcing her to take advanced classes that she could barely keep up in. She had to dedicate almost all of her free time to studying in order to make high marks, and frequently lost sleep as she had the previous night. Being in the honor classes led to the inevitable teasing by her peers, accusations of her being a nerd. Ironically, she was also never truly accepted by the other 'nerds' in her classes because they knew she wasn't actually as smart as them. As a result, Janice felt like a complete outcast. Not that she had time for friends anyway.
At last, she had reached her classroom. Janice slowly opened the door and found her teacher already writing information on the board. "Janice Starlet... late again," she said. "Please take your seat so I may continue."
Janice sighed and headed to her desk, trying to ignore the other students chuckling at her. "Nice hair," one of them whispered, eliciting more laughter. This was going to be a long day.
The rest of Janice's classes were uneventful for the most part, aside from more classmates making fun of her. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find much time to study for her Chemistry exam; most of her teachers scolded her when she tried to study during her other classes. She ended up devoting the majority of her lunch period to studying, forgoing actually eating lunch. As a result of not having breakfast or lunch, she had to suffer the embarrassment of having her stomach growl loudly in the middle of her sixth period English class.
Finally, the moment of truth had arrived. Tired and hungry, Janice was now sitting in her last class of the day, Chemistry. Her teacher was currently walking between the rows of desks while handing out the tests and explaining the directions. Janice was only half listening to the instructions. The majority of her attention was focused on not forgetting what she had studied. She had to struggle to not let anything else distract her, such as how exhausted she felt, or how hungry she was, or how disappointed her father would be if she failed. Stop thinking that way, she told herself. If you think you'll fail, you will fail. Come on, you can do this.
At that moment, Janice's teacher walked by and handed her a copy of the test. A minute later, her teacher instructed the class to begin. Janice blocked out all unrelated thoughts and emotions, pouring her full focus onto the test in front of her with trained concentration. She managed to work through the first few questions with little trouble. However, she wasn't yet on the sixth question when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked out the nearby window expecting it to merely be someone walking by, or maybe a bird on the window sill. To her astonishment, what she discovered was perhaps the most unusual sight she had ever laid eyes upon. She saw what appeared to be a small ball rolling around the grass under its own power, changing directions suddenly, and occasionally coming to complete stops. The ball itself seemed to have various objects stuck to it: grass, flowers, pencils, and lots of unidentifiable garbage. Not only that, but it seemed to be picking up more objects as it rolled around, and gradually grew larger before her eyes. At first, Janice thought that it must be some sort of remote control toy. But she could see no one else in the field outside her classroom. As she examined it more closely, she thought she could almost make out a tiny green figure at the base of the ball moving in tandem with it. It was almost as if the figure was pushing it! And then quite suddenly, the ball began spinning in place very fast, and then shot off like a rocket out of her line of sight.
"Ms. Starlet!" Janice whipped around to find her teacher standing directly in front of her desk. "Is there something you find interesting outside the classroom?" he asked. Other students began looking out the window, but the strange ball was long gone. Apparently she was the only one that had seen it.
"No sir, I'm sorry," Janice said.
"You can day dream later. While you're in my classroom, keep your eyes on your own paper." The teacher turned back towards his desk while some of the other students snickered at Janice's scolding.
Janice sighed and checked the clock on the far wall. 2:15 already? she thought. How long was I watching that thing? I must have completely lost track of time! Janice rushed to finish the rest of her test in the time remaining. She had to guess on a few questions, but she managed to finish just as the end of class bell rang. She took her test to the teacher's desk and hurried out the door, barely listening as the teacher shouted after his students to remind them about their homework. At the moment, all Janice cared about was finding that thing, whatever it was, that had distracted her.
She headed out the nearest exit and made her way around the building to the field outside her Chemistry classroom. But as she had feared, there was no sign of the ball, or any hint as to where it may have gone. She searched around in the general direction she had seen it heading, but her efforts were fruitless. Eventually, Janice resigned herself to giving up. Besides, it was time for her to start heading home. There was no reason to have her father get mad at her for being late twice in the same day. Still, as Janice headed back around the school to the bike racks, she couldn't seem to keep her thoughts off that strange ball...
End Chapter 1