Ride The Cyclone

Chapter 1

Brynleigh Pasternack

Brynleigh looked happily around the small building in which she saw a grand total of…nine other people. Her five other teammates, her science club director, and the three judges. Okay, not a great turnout, but that’s fine. The Saint Jude Science Competition never had much, well, competition.

The judges were the same as they had been every single year before. J.P Whittier was there, some old guy that smelled exceedingly weird and had way too little ability to cough in his elbow. Dr. Monica Anders, one of her teammates' moms. She looked over at Brynleigh and smiled, yeah, she was only here for her son. Finally, Angelica Graves, she was a classy old lady with big curly hair, a pearl necklace, and all black sleek attire. Brynleigh thought she was snooty, though.

There was her science club director, Mr. Jonasson. He was a nice man with pearly gray eyes, large glasses, and a balding head. He had a wide smile on his face, but his skin shone blue veins under his pale skin. Brynleigh supposed that he was a fine enough person to work with, not the worst, not the best.

Then, she finally turned to her team members. First, Casey Dupree, oh how she loathed that girl. She had dark-tan skin with hair straight down her back. It was put in a claw clip at that moment, though. She always had headphones on and made fun of Brynleigh. The other girl may have thought of it as friendly banter, but she took it as a request for social war. So that was what she had given her. She had a girlfriend in some far-off country that she had met online, Mika, or something like that. Everyone just went along with it when Casey talked about marrying her someday, but they all secretly thought that she was getting seriously catfished or something. That wasn’t her problem, though.

Second, Cyrus Anders, he had been the one to actually make the club. He had curly dark hair and pretty brown eyes that sat above his pink lips, which were usually red from him biting at them due to stress. He was the most passionate person about science that she had ever met, whereas she was mostly in it for the joy of winning. He was fairly nice, though not many people at school were very nice to him. He always had a blush and a slight stutter when she talked to him, so she just assumed that he was socially awkward.

Third, Penn Solstice, her somewhat best friend. They were close, sure, and he was a really nice kid. She just didn’t feel like she knew him well enough. He had dark skin and a fluff of hair on top of his head and an oblivious nature about him. He liked to write down every single thought he had, so he always had a notebook on him. He had a slight problem with sleepwalking, though. One time, he walked halfway across town and into the woods to her house while he was asleep. That had been one freaky, weird, and all-around incredibly incomprehensibly long night with no sleep for her.

Fourth, Addy Williams, a shy girl with a surprising amount of ideas. She had light orange wavy hair with bangs that came down the front and sides of her face since they hadn’t been cut in a while. She was tall and walked with crutches on both of her legs. Her green eyes shone brightly as she waved from across the room where she was helping set up their stand. She had on tons of blush, along with some other makeup. The science club shirt was on her torso, like everyone else's, but she wore it with a button-up undershirt. There were at least twenty different clips in her hair. She was a sweet girl with a timid personality, but anyone could tell she was bursting with color and life.

Fifth, some other girl. She knew that the girl wasn’t really that interested in what they were doing that she had only joined because she knew Cyrus. Which, although she would never admit it, made her just slightly jealous. The girl had deep brown skin and long braids, but other than that, Brynleigh knew nothing about her.

Finally, Brynleigh was snapped out of her thoughts and pondering when she felt a slight tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Cyrus looking expectantly at her as he whispered in her ear, “We’re ready when you are.” She nodded and gave a thumbs up before walking in front of the stand.

Their entire thing that year had been all about Earth Science and how rocks were formed or something. She really didn’t care that much, but she still helped out because she loved the satisfaction of winning any sort of competition. Though this one, which she didn’t even know why they still went to, wasn’t exactly the best at satisfying, that need to crush others' hopes and dreams.

Brynleigh straightened her back and prepared to speak. “Dear judges, it is lovely to see you at the Saint Jude Science Competition once again this time. Last year we got second place! We were the only team here, but that just shows the high expectations here at SJSC. Even in competition against yourself, you can still walk away a loser.” Bryneligh could feel the awkward tension in the air rise as she spoke her speech that she probably should’ve revised a bit more. So she exhausted her last option, “Penn?”

Her friend's eyes widened a bit as she pushed him up and in front of the judges table. “Yes, of course. Well, our display is all connected to…Mother Nature. Rocks have three main categories: Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. All of them are a part of a continuous cycle…”

The presentation slowly went around the group with everyone but the girl with the braids speaking for two or so minutes. Brynleigh felt bad for the judges because it was boring enough to hear and talk about as someone who was presenting it. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for them.

When it was all said and done with, she looked up at the clock to see how much time it had been and sighed when she realized that they had just spent eleven straight minutes just talking about rocks. ‘Jeez,’ she thought, ‘We really are nerds’. She sighed. It didn’t really matter that much after all.

Then all the medals were handed out, second place…again. Yay. Brynleigh hated this whole competition, if it could even be called that. She wished that it never even existed in the first place or that they never had to go to it in the first place. But Mr. Jonasson always said that it was good for them. So, time and time again, for the past five years, they had been coming to the Saint Jude Science Competition just to get a whopping second place with no one in first. Ever.

She knew that someday she would get away from her hometown of Junuea, Alaska, and that she would do something big. But for now, she was just stuck with the same old people in the same old building.

Was she ever going to leave this town?

(This is only going to be 10-15 chapters, and each chapter is only going to be 1000-1500 words, so this won't be a long project. And yes, every character will get their own full song.

Also, this is based on one of the best musicals ever, Ride The Cyclone! by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell.

Hope you enjoyed! Bye!)