Chapter 2: First Day of Summer

Amy should have known that something wasn't quite right when she woke up on the last day of school with a smile on her face. she got out of bed with the large grin fixed in place, while she eagerly packed up a few more things into her suitcase, along with her secret journal, and brought it downstairs. Her father was hunched over his notes and pinching his brow. "This is bad, this is very bad... these aren't the results I was hoping for at all..."

"What's the matter, Dad?" Amy asked as she packed her lunch and stuck it in her backpack, having placed her suitcase by the doorway.

"Oh, it's nothing... I've been studying a new species for quite some time now, and the behavioral patterns I've been observing don't match up to what I had hoped at all. It really is an unwanted setback..."

"How long have you been watching it?" Amy asked, sitting down across from her father. Conversations between the two were rare, seeing as how he was so busy, and Amy wanted to savor what she could get… even if it was about his work.

"It's been... well, it's been over 15 years since I discovered the specimen," her father responded. "I stumbled upon the creature inside an abandoned aircraft, while I was out on an expedition in the desert. It was little more than a fetus in a large test tube, surrounded by vials and digital schematics. I did some tampering... and that's all I can tell you, actually," he said, putting away the papers. "Nobody knew where the ship had come from, but I was allowed to continue studying the specimen in order to determine if it was a threat or not. Unfortunately, the specimen is very... antisocial, so I haven't reached anything conclusive." He glanced up at his daughter. "Why are you smiling, Amy?"

"Did you forget already?" Amy asked, swallowing a bite of cereal as she did, and her father frowned. "Tomorrow's the first day of summer vacation, and this is the first year I won't spend with my cousins, 'cuz we're going as a family! You, me, and Mom! Aren't you excited?"

"Oh, that's right... are you sure you don't want to stay with your cousins? They keep emailing and telling me they were looking forward to seeing you..."

Memories of being egged and finding insects in her bed flashed across Amy's mind, and she shook her head. "I never get to spend any time with you or Mom anymore... I've been looking forward to this vacation for months. Aren't you excited?"

"Of course, Amy, but I was simply consideri- ah!" He glanced down at his watch, and stood up, straightening his tie. "I need to get going! I'll see you after school, Amy." With that, he picked up his papers and briefcase and left the building.

The last day of school was both very quick and painfully slow for Amy. She couldn't think about anything besides what she was going to do on vacation - surfing, swimming, tanning, maybe even making a friend or two. The fact that there were no more tests that day was certainly a good thing, because she wouldn't have been able to focus on them. Even the jeers from the other students couldn't dampen her excitement - this was going to be her summer, the one where things went right for once.

Amy was sitting on the edge of her seat as she watched the last few minutes of the school day ticked by on the clock, each movement of the minute hand causing her to scoot further and further forward, to the point that she almost fell out of the chair. She took off the exact instant that she caught the first sound of the dismissal bell, and was outside of the school building before the teacher could blink.

Amy was halfway home when she got the text message. It was from her father: Get your suitcase and come to my office.

"That's odd..." she murmured as she kept walking, but ran the rest of the way home and lifted her suitcase from its spot next to the doorway. She quickly took inventory - a few changes of clothes, her journal, writing supplies, iPod Nano (the original model) and a disposable camera, along with her multivitamins, writing supplies, a spare journal, her toothbrush, and a few books she planned on reading. Perfect. Amy closed the suitcase and ran to the building where her father worked.

Amy was good at figuring out where a building was, even when she took a new route or was in an unfamiliar area - this explained how she reached her father's workplace in less than half an hour, despite the fact that she'd only been there twice in the past. The laboratory building was very calm, and the only sound she heard as she entered the front lobby was the clicking of her shoes against the polished tile floor. Amy approached the front desk with a polite smile on her face.

"Excuse me," she quietly said to the receptionist, who paused his vido game in order to look at her and raise an eyebrow, obviously skeptical about whether or not her hair and eye color were natural, "I'm here to see Professor Johnson?"

"He's having a meeting in his office," the receptionist answered, "Lemme check if they've left." He dialed a number on the nearby phone. "Professor Johnson, there's somebody..." he looked at Amy.

"Amy."

"Right. There's an Amy here to see you."

"Send her up," Came her father's voice from the other end. He sounded... odd, though. Like he was in a bad mood. Or no mood at all. Amy furrowed her brow, but still walked past the desk to the elevator, pressing the UP button when she reached it. It took three tense minutes for the elevator doors to open, but she remained calm as she stepped in. The elevator was empty besides herself, and she was tempted to hold it open longer to see if anybody else needed to get on. However, she quickly discarded the notion and pressed the button that was labeled 5.

Amy walked down the hall, took a left, walked down three doors, and took a right, and found her father's office two doors away. She quietly approached it, and leaned against the doorway, in the hopes of hearing nothing - she hated the thought of interrupting his meeting. Her grip on the handle of her suitcase tightened in slight frustration when she heard a voice that was not her father's on the other side. She waited until the voice stopped before knocking on the door.

"Dad?"