Gifted

Chapter Two Emily

I'm running like a crazy person down the street when suddenly my mother jumps out from the corner of the street,
and starts chasing me, begging for me to stay the same. I don't even know why, until a painful stroke runs through my whole body. My head starts spinning and my vision becomes blurry. A bolt of pain shoots up my arm, and comes into my chest, and I can feel my heart beating loudly. I spot a paw next to me, not even realizing it's actually mine. I jump to the side to avoid it, but the only use of that action is falling down on the floor and I feel a huge pain in my hip. I get up but loose my balance, when I realize that I'm standing on four legs, four grey paws.

I wake up with a jolt, shaking, and I feel a warm drop of sweat running down my forehead. It was probably a just bad dream again. My arms are freezing, because the bed sheet was off of me during the whole night. Suddenly, I hear a loud voice, my mom,"Get up! Time to get to school now! Come on, or you'll be late!", I slowly stretch in my bed and finally get up, with the sun shining in my eyes as if it came into my room, it temporarily blinds me. I try to pick my cat up off my bed, she's putting hair everywhere, but I end up falling to the floor; with a great bang! Then, I hear fast footstep rushing up towards my bedroom, probably my mom. Next thing you know, she's in my room asking me what had happened, and I tell her it's fine, even though I'd really hurt my back. I turn to look at my alarm clock, it's 6:34. My mother is overprotective for a good reason. Tomorrow is my birthday. I know, it might sound weird that she's freaking out because it's be my birthday tomorrow, but since she told me the legend, I understand her...
About 0.3% of the kids on earth disappear, on the night of their twelfth birthday, in the middle of the night, to be exact. No one knows where they go or why they are going. Many people say that a dragon devours them, some say that kidnapers take them away to a faraway land. But, no one agrees on where they go. So that's the why my mom has been so worried about me these past few days. Honestly, I really don't believe any of this, it's simple childish rubbish that will certainly go away after awhile. And what if the children taken actually went to a faraway heavenly place? What if it was better to leave than to stay? That's my opinion....
I end up getting up, and accidentally knock over a flower pot next to my bed. Two seconds later, my mom comes in again, but once she sees it was just a flower pot on the floor, she walks out and tells me she'll prepare breakfast, as if nothing had happened. I figure out that she was secretly standing next to my bedroom door. I really want to tell her that I really don't need all that protection, but I have a feeling that it'll really hurt her feelings, and in a really bad way for once. I probably won't be chosen, ever, even a million years from now.
I head to my closet and pick out some clothes for the day, a simple red shirt with jeans. I never really wear fancy clothes, and I don't care about how I look and how others look at me. Usually, I walk to school, alone, and sometimes take the bus. But today, I don't, of course, my mother takes me.
One night, I overheard a striking loud conversation in between my mother and father, I could only hear a few words, but I somehow knew what they were taking about; how overprotective my mother was. My father, a somewhat liberalist, has the same opinion about the legend as I do, and that really annoys Mother.
I walk down the stairs to my room, and see my sister, she's 7, almost eight, actually, we have the same birthday. So, September 8th has become a cursed day for the family; the night where we might both get kidnapped, as my mom says.
I eat quickly, and then pack my bag, I'm already late for school. I run as fast as I can to catch the bus."I can make it!", I yell, the slight refreshing breeze of the morning encourages me, but then I feel,a tight grip around my arm, Mother!
"Mom! Why-",
I start saying, but she cuts me off,
"I really don't want you getting hurt over there! It could be extremely dangerous, you know!", she yells at at me.
I feel embarrassed, in front of my friends, who are looking out of the bus from the back window, they are probably yelling at the driver right now.
Ten minutes later, I'm in the car, with mother, it's already 7:45, and school starts at 8:00. But, it takes us thirty minutes when mom is driving, but only ten minutes by bus! When I'm alone!
We get to school fifteen minutes late. I walk awkwardly across the classroom, to get to my seat, near the middle of the class, and everyone stares. I hate these moments, of extremely awkward silence, where you get all the attention. All the kids in my class are eleven, except a few, who are twelve. Their parents don't care about them as they did before they turned twelve.
The day goes by smoothly, not a single drama, or fights in between friends, nor enemies. My best friend and I, Jade, talk during lunch time about the legend, she says she has the same kind of traumatize as my mom, but she actually has a reason; she knew a girl, who's name was Elisabeth, she was one year older than us. Last year, she was a part of the 0.3 percent of twelve year olds who got taken away.
When I come back from school, my father is still working in the living room.  When I head strait to the stairs and then I go to my bedroom, my father gives me a confused look; he's probably thinking that I usually don't rush to my bedroom to do my homework. But what he doesn't know is that it's not homework, it's something else. When I get in my room, I start immediately writing in my personal journal. I've tried so many times before to keep up with that journal, but it's has never really worked... Today, I'm really convinced that I'll keep track of exactly what's happening, from now on. When I'm done, it's about 10:30 at night, and my eyes are kind of getting sleepy. I'm trying to stay up, but I can't stay awake.