Hazy Darkness (chapters 1 and 2)

                           Hazy Darkness
Like a Hazy Darkness,
I couldn’t see….
I couldn’t hear….
I couldn’t feel….
I couldn’t think….



                               Resurface


         I was sitting on my porch enjoying the lovely sixty-six degree weather that had avoided us until just recently. The sky was light blue with an occasional puffy white cloud floating past nonchalantly. I could hear children screaming and laughing in the distance and I was enjoying a very gentle breeze. The wind barely moved my hair and made it brush my check extremely gently. I just got finished doing my usual chores and the extra ones my parents tended to give me. I was enjoying being lazy, for once, even if I knew it wouldn’t last.
         A humming bird caught my eye and I slowly turned my head so I wouldn’t scare it. It was seven feet away, but I could still hear the humming of its wings as clearly as if it were right by my ear. It flew away suddenly and I knew what was coming. I wrinkled my nose at the thought and relaxed completely and shut my eyes. Yeah, I’d run away too.
         My mother, Faith Sue Alpine, walked out the door and shut it behind her. She sat in the chair next to me and I could feel her eyes looking over me. She left out a huge sigh, like she was extremely angry. Then she shuffled in her chair and made plenty of noise. She must have thought I fell asleep and was trying to wake me up. She must have given up on the subtleness.
         “You’re being very lazy. Have you finished your chores,” she sounded miffed.
         “I’m just relaxing,” I said staying calm. “I have finished all my chores. Would you like me to do anything else?” I was still calm because it didn’t help if I got mad, besides I was a very patient person and didn’t get angry easily.
         “Yeah, why don’t you go mow the grass?” My mother made it sound like it was obvious and that I should have already had it done. I opened my eyes, stood up, and walked away without a word.
         I went through the house so I could grab my MP3 player. It was given to me as a gift from my parents. They never said so, but I knew it was so I’d leave them alone and entertain myself. It was one of the only possessions I held near and dear because I didn’t have friends, only acquaintances.
         I went outside and got the old riding mower out of the shed we kept it in. I put on my headphones and started mowing and singing. It was kind of relaxing to be listening to music with the gentle hum of the mower in the background. It made me feel at ease for once; like the world was where it should be.
         Suddenly I felt myself come to a halt. I was done mowing and was going to put the mower away when this occurred. I turned the mower off and tried to restart it. It wouldn’t revive itself. “Perfect,” I said sarcastically under my breath. I hopped off the mower and went to inspect it.
         I was fairly good with most mobile equipment. So i put the hood up and looked to see if I could find the problem. It was out of gas which was no big deal. I got more gasoline and put it in the mower. I hopped back on and tried to restart it. It took a couple of tries, but in the end it started up again. So I put it away and went inside for dinner.
         I took my usual spot at the table and waited for dinner to be done. We were having BBQ chicken and mac n’ cheese. My father sat at one end of the rectangular table and my mom at the other. My brother and I sat opposite each other and closest to my father and my sister and an empty chair sat opposite each other and closest to my mother.
         “Aurora Chanel!” My mother’s yell snapped me out of my daze. “Get some food and eat or leave the table.”
         “Sorry,” I mumbled. I grabbed a chicken leg and a scoop of mac n’ cheese and began eating. I felt weird like something wasn’t right. There was something different or off about my family or the room or something. What was it, though? I looked at my father and the picture on the wall behind him caught my eye.
         It was crooked. Not extremely, but at least a couple centimeters off. Maybe I was just imagining it. Maybe I just developed an obsessive compulsive disorder and just now realized it was crooked. I doubted the last option.
         “Did someone touch the picture behind dad?” I asked while studying each of their faces.
         “No,” they all answered in unison. My brother and sister looked truly confused, but my parents looked guilty.
         “What are you talking about?” My father, Wyatt Dean Alpine, asked almost rudely.
         “It’s crooked,” I said staring down my mother. If anyone she would crack and give something away.
         “Don’t look at me I didn’t do anything,” my mother said, but her voice sounded nervous and uneasy. Why would she lie about something as simple as that, or maybe it wasn’t that simple at all.
         After dinner everyone, but myself, went outside and I was left to clean up. I cleaned up as quickly as I could manage. I then decided to fix the picture and see why my mother lied about moving it. I went over and started to move it but it wouldn’t move easily like it should. So I took the picture off the nail it was hanging on and a manila envelope dropped out from behind it.
         “What’s this?” I asked myself this question not curiously, but more of an “I-Knew-It” tone. I bent over and picked it up.
It was very confidential looking. It had no return address, though, but it was addressed to me. “Aurora Chanel Alpine,” my name, sprawled across the receivers spot on the envelope. It had never been opened and it wasn’t even bent in the slightest; not even one corner was out of shape. Someone must have been very careful as to deliver it in perfect shape. I was itching to open it by now, so I stole away to my room.
         In the confines of my bedroom, I began to open the envelope. I started by tearing from left to right very slowly. I was in no rush and I didn’t want to rip whatever was inside. I only hoped that it wouldn’t be something worthless; something that I shouldn’t have wasted my time on. Finally, it was open.
I pulled out the papers slowly so I wouldn’t bend them. The papers looked like regular lined tablet paper, but I couldn’t read the words. They were written in some kind of code or language that I didn’t know. I sighed in disappointment. What a waste of time. I thought my life was going to get at least a little interesting.
         I put the papers into a new manila envelope, filling out the envelope exactly as the original looked. I was okay at copying handwriting, enough so that my parents wouldn’t notice the handwriting difference, but not enough to forge big, important things. I put the manila envelope back behind the picture and put it back to the crooked stance it was in at dinner. There was no need to let anyone know I had found the envelope.
         By this time a thousand questions were racing through my head. Why did my mother lie? What did the papers say? Why would my mother hide my mail from me? Should I confront them about it?
It was getting late and I needed to get a shower. I got my shower supplies and headed over. I turned the water on so it was very warm and got in. The warm water pounding on my shoulders and neck felt very calming. It cleared my head and made me relax. “No need to get paranoid, the letter was probably very insignificant,” I thought to myself. When I was done showering, I got dressed and got ready for bed.
         Tomorrow was my-well our, including my sister, Jasmine Alanna Alpine, and my brother, Blake Aidan Alpine-first day at our new school. We used to live in Williamsport, PA, but we moved to Howard, PA to be closer to our family. My, my brother’s, and my sister’s grandparents lived in Bellefonte, PA in a gorgeous Victorian house. My mother wanted to be closer to them; so we moved, not that it was a bad thing.
         I laid down on my bed and shut my eyes. I always had a hard time falling asleep. Ever since I could remember, I could never fall asleep fast and I was always a light sleeper. It was because I liked the night too much to sleep. I had never been afraid of the dark, while most children go through a phase of being afraid of it. I finally drifted into a light slumber around two A.M.
         I awoke to the sun breaking through the foggy September morning and coming over the lovely Appalachian Mountains. It was six A.M., which meant I only got four hours of sleep, but I was perfectly wide awake and functioning normally. I always ran better on less sleep than I did on more and I never got tired.
         I got changed into my school clothes-I chose to wear a black sweater and dark blue jeans. I then went to the kitchen and ate a cowl of cereal, with no conversation with anyone seeing how my parents were at work and my siblings were getting ready for school. When I was finished, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my hair and then I went out the door.
         I stepped out into the morning sun’s grasp and felt the brisk air of fall around me, but I was perfectly comfortable. If there are two things that go the best with me they’re darkness and coldness. Winter nights were my most favorite thing. They made me feel the world was at peace with the stars making the snow twinkle slightly.
         Jasmine, my sister, was the youngest and most social of the kids at an age of thirteen, wanted to ride the bus to school to make new friends. Just like her, she always wanted everyone to like her best. She looked like our parents. She had light brown hair and hazel eyes, like my parents, and she was outgoing and willing to tell everyone everything.
         Blake, my brother, and I, both not willing to make the effort of finding friends, decided to drive to school. Well, he drove and I just rode with him. My brother was the oldest of us at an age of seventeen and I was the middle child at an age of fifteen. My brother and I were the closest of the kids.
We both had similar personalities-sarcastic, kept to ourselves, mysterious, didn’t trust anyone until we got to know them better than they knew themselves. There was one difference between our personalities, I observed everything, every little unimportant detail and everything obvious, while my brother didn’t care and tried to stay oblivious.
         We both had dark brown, almost black, hair. My eyes were turquoise while his were green. We drove to school talking little, but our conversation didn’t have awkward pauses, only calm silences. We didn’t need to talk. Empty spaces consumed our lives and we accepted that. There was no need to fill them when we were content the way we were.
         We arrived at school before the fourth bus did. It wasn’t like I imagined, no one stared at me; it was like I was invisible. Good, make the transition perfect. I had a feeling I was going to like this school a lot. I went inside to wait in the lobby. Before the bell rang at eight A.M., to signal the start of the torture, students had to wait either here or outside. While I waited in here, my brother and sister waited outside. So I was left alone, the way I enjoyed it.
         I leaned against a wall, near the corner, and folded my arms across my chest. I looked around to see all the new faces I’d probably never socialize with. Most people were talking excitedly, probably about their summers, but some were quiet and looked disgusted, probably because they were back in school. I chuckled silently to myself at the look on the disgusted people’s faces.
         I could hear someone walking toward the corner. I stood up straight and let my arms fall to my sides. I was still close to the wall though, when the person turned the corner and stopped abruptly to glare at me. They must have known I was there somehow, though I thought no one noticed me.
         “You’re in my spot,” a deep, engaging, annoyed voice said. The owner of the annoyed voice was a teenager who was my age. He had black hair that wasn’t long, but came down just below his ear and framed his face nicely. He was muscular and tan with stunning eyes. They were ice blue, which contrasted with his hair and made his glare even more intense.
         “Are you going to move?” His frosty voice smacked me out of my examination.
         “I don’t see your name on it,” I let my voice get as cold as his. I was usually calm and patient, but this guy was acting like a jerk.
         “Look,” he said making his voice softer, “I’ve stood here everyday since the seventh grade and I would appreciate it if you would kindly move.” He sounded like he didn’t want me to be mad at him.
         “Yes, I will, Your Magnificence.” I was annoyed still, but not as much as I was before. I walked away to sit on a bench. I sat and leaned against the wall, crossed my legs, folded my arms across my chest, and closed my eyes. I couldn’t get what he said out of my head. He was so rude and yet I wasn’t annoyed with him anymore. “Must be first day kindness getting to me,” I said to myself.
         I permitted myself to steal a glance at him. He was standing exactly where I had been. As a matter of fact, he was standing exactly as I had except he had his head bent over and his eyes were closed. He looked as if he were concentrating. Who was this boy? The first person to talk to me at this new school and the conversation hadn’t been all that great. The bell rang and I was off to start the torture.
         The first half of the day was pretty boring and repetitive. I went to class, the teachers talked, I got the book for that class, the same thing for all my morning classes-English, Chemistry, Algebra, and Spanish. Now I was at lunch and I sat down with a few girls that I didn’t know, but they didn’t say anything about me not being allowed to sit there so I stayed. I ate lunch in silence while they chattered about the most materialistic and shallow things.
         “They always sit there, it’s their place. They will always be there and they will never let anyone else join them,” said one of the three girls I was sitting with.
         “Beth, you should at least try to sit with them. You know so you could sit near him,” said another.
         “Sadie! Duh, like if she doesn’t want to, we shouldn’t like make her,” said the third.
         “Rachel, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Like, look at what you wore today! EWWW! GROSS!” Sadie said while twirling her blond hair and rolling her blue eyes.
         “Okay, so like both of you need to stop. What do you think new girl?” Beth asked while smoothing her red hair and looking at someone with her blue eyes.
         “You’re going to ask her? She probably doesn’t even know who he is,” said Rachel while combing her curly brown hair and staring at me with her brown eyes.
         “First off, I have a name. It’s Aurora. Secondly, I don’t have a clue who or what you’re talking about. Thirdly, I really couldn’t careless,” I said a little miffed. Why were they such bimbos? I wasn’t eating here tomorrow. Rachel and Sadie sounded jealous, like they wanted the guy too.
         “Okay do you see that group of five over there? They are all wearing black and dark blue jeans,” Beth said pretending not to hear what I said. “The gorgeous one with black hair and blue eyes is the one I’m looking at. His name is Cloud and his virtually un-dateable. He doesn’t talk to anyone outside of that group. So what we were arguing about is whether or not I should try to join that table-which is practically impossible too-or whether I should just forget about it.” She finished and gasped.
         “What?” Rachel and Sadie both asked.
         “He looked over here,” Beth said and let out a squeal.
         Just then something sunk in. I now knew his name and all the people at his table were wearing the same thing as me. That is weird.
         “I think you should forget about him,” I said. “I talked to him this morning and he sounded like a jerk.”
         “You actually talked to him? On your first day here? What did he say? What did you say?” Beth was bombarding me with questions.
         “I don’t remember,” I lied. “I only remember he was a jerk.” After that the conversation went on to everybody else in the whole school. I got all the gossip and knew everyone’s name by the end of lunch.
         After lunch I went to French, Psychology, Gym, and then US History. All of these classes followed the same routine, only history really got my attention. The history class I was in was made up of all seniors, except six sophomores-including myself- were there. I, for one, had always been good at history. I never had to pay attention, I just knew. Not only US History, but world history too. I guess the other five sophomores were just as good as I was. They all picked seats by each other and I followed. Just then I realized something, we were all wearing black shirts and dark blue jeans. This was the group from lunch! I spotted Cloud the un-dateable and turned around immediately.
         I sat as far away from him as possible. I sat next to a girl named Autumn. She was a dirty blond with dark, emerald green eyes. She smiled at me and I smiled back hesitantly. She seemed really friendly.
         “Hi, I’m Autumn and you are?” She said enthusiastically.
         “I’m Aurora,” I said in an almost happy voice. “So are those your friends?” I asked while pointing to the other sophomores. “I saw you sitting with them at lunch.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
         “Oh, yeah! We’re like brothers and sisters. Well, except Nevada over here,” She said while putting her arm around a bleach blond haired boy. He had light brown eyes and he was chatting happily with, who I later learned was, Levon. He turned toward me and smiled. He seemed nice too.
         “Hi, I’m Nevada. I’m Autumn’s boyfriend.” He smiled again and said, “You would be?”
         “Aurora,” I said and smiled.
         “Well it’s nice to meet you,” he said and turned back to Levon.
         “He’s really sweet and perfect,” Autumn said and sighed happily. “The one he’s talking to is Levon.” She lowered her voice to a low whisper, “He’s really egotistical.”
         I looked at Levon and picked up on the egotistical vibe. He had big muscles and was tall. He flexed his muscles every five minutes as if trying to show them off. He had read hair and black eyes, but I didn’t look close enough to see if they were really black or just appeared that way.
         “Next to Levon is his girlfriend Nisha. She’s kind of really mean if you don’t know her,” Autumn said whispering the last sentence.
         She looked kind of really stuck up. She wasn’t talking to anyone she was just glaring at nothing. She was pretty though, just like all of them were. She had dark purple eyes and strawberry blond hair. She looked like an Olympic gymnast. Very athletic, I assumed. She looked as if she could jump up ten feet into the air with ease. She shot me a hateful look and then proceeded to glare at nothing.
         “Lastly is Cloud. He isn’t dating anyone. As he puts it he ‘refuses to throw his life away by wasting time on someone else,’” Autumn said making mocking head motions and quotes with his hands. At that we both started to laugh. This was the first time I ever connected with someone this well.
         “So what are we all wearing tomorrow?” I asked jokingly.
         “Ha-ha! I guess we are all wearing the same colors,” she said between laughs.
         I looked at Cloud for the second time. He wasn’t looking at anyone, but he wasn’t glaring. You should need a license to look that good. NO! Stop it! You can’t think things like that because you’ll never have him and it’ll crush you if you like him. Just then class began and I started doodling in my tablet.
I got into my brother’s car and we were home before I knew it. Well I did know when we were home because my brother slammed on his brakes and we skidded to a stop. We were home and he didn’t need to avoid hitting anything. So why’d he do that?
         “Brake check,” He laughed.
         “Did someone have a good day?” I asked surprised.
         “No,” He shrugged and continued, “I just wanted to see the look on your face. It was worth it!” He said and then laughed again.
         “Hardy-har-har,” I shot back as I jumped our and slammed the car door.” Since when do you laugh Mr. Depression?”
         “That’s my on for the year,” the smile was gone and he walked away.
I was still grumbling when I reached my bedroom, but stopped immediately in my tracks. I dropped my backpack in stunned horror. The manila envelope that was behind the picture was now on my bed! No one had been in the house after we left. Well that’s a lie someone was. This letter didn’t resurface by itself.



                               Shadow

         Slowly, I picked up the letter that was laying face down on my bed. I turned it over and saw a sticky note attached to the front. It said, “There’s a second part.” I pulled off the sticky note and examined the envelope. There was still no return address and the writing on the sticky note was the same as the receiver’s address, my address. Wait, this wasn’t my handwriting! That meant this was a different letter.
         I put the envelope back on my bed and went out to the dining room to move the picture and find out if the other letter was still back there. It was! So that meant this new letter was the second part to this letter. Maybe it would help me decipher the code or the language. Maybe I could actually read the first letter with this second letter’s help. I went back to my room and carefully removed both of the envelopes’ contents. I made sure to keep them separate and started looking over the new envelope’s contents.
         There was an intricate cut out on the tablet paper. It didn’t make sense; how was this supposed to help me? Then I remembered something. In history a couple of years back, we learned people wrote in code during wars so if the enemy got it they couldn’t decipher it. At least not without the key, which you place over the original and you can read it.
         I placed the key over the mixed up code. It was very complicated. The key was so complex that it covered up half of lines and let only part of some show. Finally, I got it on to a point where it looked like it sort of made words.
         “Hmmm,” I said concentrating. “I think it says, ‘Email me at: [e-mail].’ Is that even a real email address? Who is this person?” I asked myself curiously. I decided I better do it right away and I hoped I got the decoding right so the email was right.
         I went to my computer and got on my email. I composed a message and hit send. The message went along the lines of:
Dear nhq,
         I have received your letter and am curious as to how you know me.
                             Aurora Chanel Alpine
         Now that that was done, I decided to move the key around in all different ways to see if there was anything else. I discovered there was. The letters “S-N-A” appeared. SNA was in the email address. It must have some kind of importance then, right?
         I heard a car door slam and I realized it must be four o’ clock already. I hurriedly put the key in its right envelope and the letter in its. I slid them both under my bed and went out to the kitchen to start dinner. We were going to have home made lasagna tonight. When dinner was finished, we ate and then I cleaned up and went outside for a walk. I needed to be alone to think so I went up into the woods and started trying to sort things out.
         It was quiet in the woods today. The bright sun of the morning was now covered by clouds. I had to quit cloud gazing and concentrate on the letter; that was my main concern now. How had it gotten into my room? Letters don’t just mysteriously appear and nothing in my room was out of place.
         I sat down on a stump that was the perfect height and width. I was in an opening that had ferns growing around of the bases of the trees, making a circular opening. It was pretty here. I decided to lie down beside the stump and scan the sky for answers. As if I was going to find any.
         I started at the sky for at least two minutes before my eyes started to play tricks on me. Etched into the clouds I thought I saw the words ‘Check email.’ I sat up right away rubbed my eyes and lay back down. There was nothing there now. I decided to head back home before I started seeing dancing trees.
         When I was inside my bedroom I pulled out my laptop and got on the internet. “Let’s humor the clouds,” I said sarcastically. I signed onto my email and had one new message. “It’s probably just a coincidence,” I thought. I was getting a little freaked out though when it was from nhq. It stated:
“Dear Aurora,
         I know you have talked to Autumn and know the names of the rest of the group. During ninth period I need you to make sure you talk to Nisha and Levon. This is what you must do. Do not email me back. I will email you again tomorrow for further instructions.
                                                 nhq”

         Why do I have to talk to those two? Out of the whole group he picked those two? Wait, how does he know about the group? Oh well I better do it, he seems like a person in supremacy.
         The night was rapidly closing in; making the sun fall back down behind the earth. The moon was full tonight and there were numerous stars strewn across the sky. I was sitting on the porch swing, having just gotten a shower, and was enjoying the chill of the night air. It was getting very late, probably around eleven thirty, and my parents had no idea I was out here. I had snuck out to see this flawless night. I let out a sigh and decided it was time to try to sleep.
         I went to my bedroom and shut the door. I crawled into my bed and put just my thin sheet over me. I looked out the window at the foot of my bed and memorized the shadows of anonymous objects until I fell asleep.
         I awoke to the sound of my mother and father whispering to each other. “I had to be a light sleeper,” I said sarcastically. It was five in the morning and I had only gotten about two hours of sleep. I sat up and stretched my arms. I stood up and went to the dining room for breakfast. When I reached the dining room my parents stared at me like I was an alien. They looked at the clock, then at me, and then back at the clock.
         “Do you realize what time it is?” My father asked.
         “Yeah it’s five o’ clock,” I said shrugging my shoulders.
         “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” My mother asked. This just proved how little my parents knew about me or my life.
         “Umm, I don’t know. I’m not tired so I felt no need to go back to sleep,” I answered while pouring myself a bowl of cereal.
         “Oh well, I guess. We got to get to work,” my father said and then they both walked out the door. They both worked at the Witness Protection Program and dedicated their lives to making people safe.
         After I ate my breakfast, I got ready to go for school and met my brother outside.
         “Are we driving again?” I asked him.
         “No, I’m just going to ride the bus and make all new friends,” he answered sarcastically.
         “Well, sorry. I don’t know what you’re thinking,” I said calmly.
         “Yeah, like I want to socialize with people.”
         “Well you never know. You could have had a change of heart.” At that he just kind of glared at me. So I stepped in the car and we had a quite ride to school.
         When I got to school I noticed that Cloud was in his spot. He must not have wanted to talk to me again so he got there early. He was wearing a light blue tee that complimented his eyes. I looked at what I was wearing, a dark green shirt. I let out a sigh of relief because yesterday was kind of freaky the way we all matched. The bell rang and I dreaded the thought of the end of the day coming.
         All the morning classes passed in a blur and went way too rapidly. When I got to lunch I decided to sit with the same group of girls I sat with yesterday to see if I could find out more information about the group I would have to socialize with. I was really curious as to whether or not anyone had talked to Nisha and Levon. They both seemed incredibly rude. I sat down at the table where Beth, Sadie, and Rachel were talking.
         “Okay, so like I have a confession,” Rachel said looking at Beth and Sadie. “I like Cloud, too!”
         “Me too!” Sadie practically screamed.
         “Why didn’t you guys tell me before?” Beth asked.
         “Well we were afraid you’d get mad,” Rachel said.
         “Duh! I am, but I’m not going to let some guy come between us,” Beth responded.
         “I have a question,” I said. This seemed like the perfect time to ask. “So, what about the rest of the group? Are they nice? Nisha and Levon seem mean.”
         “Okay, so like the group has been together ever since seventh grade. Autumn and Nevada started dating last year and they are both really nice. They are the only ones who will talk, for more than a couple words, to anyone outside the group. Nisha and Levon started dating two years ago. No one has ever heard them talk, except the people in the group. I heard that one kid tried to talk to them and he had to move because they were so dreadful. Cloud, the one we’re all talking about, doesn’t seem interested in anyone or anything outside the group. Only a few privileged people, like you, have had him talk to them,” Sadie said, answering my questions.
         They all went back to talking amongst themselves. This was going to be more difficult than I anticipated. I mean if they haven’t talked to anyone outside the group it was going to be hard to talk to them. What if they were mean and didn’t talk to me? What if I can’t get them to talk to me? What if nhq finds out?
         All my afternoon classes passed faster than the morning ones did. Finally, it was the time I had been fearing all day. I walked into ninth period and took my seat waiting for the group to show up. I pondered what I might say when Nisha and Levon got here. The group walked into the room and my heart started pounding. I stood up and walked over to where they were sitting.
         “Hello, my name is Aurora,” I said. My hands were shaking so I stuffed them into my pockets.
         “Aurora you say?” Levon responded and Nisha snorted. “Your new here right?”
         “Yes I am,” I said relieved they were talking to me.
         “Are you sure you’re Aurora?” Nisha ask rudely.
         “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know who I am,” I responded hesitantly.
         “Great,” Nisha said to Levon. “This is what we get for being so mean all the time. Freakin karma; oh and not to mention Kishi.”
         “She probably doesn’t know anything. So shove it in a silent bag and tie it closed,” Levon replied to her.
         “Umm…..okay….So I think I’m going to go sit down now,” I said not understanding any of the conversation.
         “Aurora,” Nisha said glaring at my face.
         “Y-yeah,” I said.
         “NALC, remember that,” Nisha said still glaring.
         “O-o-okay,” I stammered and walked away. Why was she mad? I didn’t do anything.
         I went and sat in my seat by Autumn. “Is my face still on?” I asked.
         “Ha-ha, yeah it is. What was that about?” She asked curious.
         “Long story,” I replied and then class started.
         When I got home I checked my emails right away. There was one unread message. Wow, nhq has perfect timing. The email said:
“Dear Aurora,
         What is the last thing Nisha said? After you reply I will send you an email at eleven P.M. It will give you instructions for tonight and tomorrow. Follow the directions exactly.
                                                           nhq”

         I wrote back telling nhq that the last thing Nisha said was “NALC”. Wait did the email say instructions for tonight. I groaned and shut off my computer. What could I possibly do at eleven P.M.?
         I was anticipating eleven o’ clock, but instead of time flying by, it went really slowly. By the time eleven rolled around, everyone was asleep, but me-like usual. I was out on the porch with my laptop. I set an alarm for eleven and it went off with an annoying beeping sound. I quickly shut it off and checked my emails. I had one new email. It said:

“Dear Aurora,
         “NALC” means Nisha and Levon Complete. It means you completed your mission to talk to them. Yes, they know about our email conversations. You’ll find out how they know tonight. Once you’ve read this email, go into the woods and find the stump you were sitting on yesterday. Sit there and wait.
                                                 nhq”

         I’m supposed to go into the woods? I wonder what’s there. Well better not waste time. Wait, why am I obeying this stranger? My gut told me to go so I could maybe unravel part of this mystery. I went into my room to drop off my laptop and get my shoes on. It was a good thing I was naturally a quiet person and my parents were heavy sleepers.
         I went into the woods and it didn’t take me long to find the stump. I wait for a good five minutes, but started to get bored. I pulled my iPod out of my jean pocket and started to listen to the songs. Another five minutes went by and then I had a strange feeling. Someone was here watching me. As a matter of fact they were right behind me with their arms stretched out. They were going to try to grab me.
         I stayed calm and let them get dangerously close. Then I stood up and spun around quickly. I then grab their arm and tried to throw them over my head, but they were just as quick. They got their arms out of my hold and then my eyes adjust enough so I could tell who it was.
         “Cloud?!” I whispered loudly.
         He chuckled a little and said, “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
         “Are you the one who’s been emailing me?” I asked anxiously. Maybe he had a crush on me, but I quickly squashed that thought.
         “No,” he paused for a moment, “But I do work for him.”
         “Are you some kind of hit-man?” I was getting frightened.
         “No, most definitely not.” He chuckled darkly.
         “Why am I here? Why are you here? How do you know about the emails? Who’s sending them to me?” I shot out questions as fast as I could.
         “Slow down! I’ll answer all your questions….with time.” A smile crept across his lips. I realized then we were both in a defensive position, crouch with our arms slightly out. I relaxed and stood up into a more formal position. He followed more cautiously. “Now then, which question shall I answer first? You are here because Kishi told you to be. He is the one sending the emails. I know about them because, as I said before, I work for him. The rest of the group works for him also. I’m here because he asked me to come and talk to you. He figured Nisha or Levon would be too nasty, but Autumn or Nevada would be too nice. I’m the only one who’s a good mix of both couples. So anything else you’d like to ask?”
         “Yeah, umm….so what’s your group have to do with me? Why are we out this late? Why are you wearing all black? Who is this Kishi? What’s he the leader of?” By this time I was rubbing my temples with my fingertips trying to process all the information and get my thoughts in order.
         “You have so many questions,” Cloud groaned a little. “I’ll answer two of my choice for now.”
         “But that’s not fair! You’re going to pick the least relevant ones and I want to know the answers to the-,” Cloud held up a finger and stopped me mid-sentence.
         “I will pick two of my choice for now and I’ll answer your other questions later. We are out this late because it’s the only time I can safely get away from my parents without them getting suspicious. Secondly, I’m wearing all black so I can blend in with the night.”
         “Why would you need to-,” this time he wasn’t so subtle to shut me up. Before I knew it he was behind me with his hand over my mouth and his lips at my ears.
         “Don’t make a noise,” he whispered so quietly and sweetly that I couldn’t help, but listen. He waited a few minutes and then said, “I must go for now, but you’ll hear from me soon.” He let his hand off my mouth, but didn’t move his lips. “By the way, this conversation never happened.” Then he was gone. He blended into the night like a shadow in darkness.
         I stood there for a couple minutes processing what had just happened. How could that have been the same jerk that was at school?Then I realized it was probably past midnight and I should get home. I started to walk out of the woods. When I got home I decided to check my email one more time. There was a new message. My heart was racing as I clicked it open. What kind of forbidding task does Kishi have lined up for me next? It was just junk mail and I sighed a sigh of relief.