Six (Countdown book 1)

Chapter 1

It all started when I turned twelve. Up until then, I was near enough a normal kid. Despite my unusual name, Eli, I fit in pretty well in normal life in London...

Everyone says I look just like my mum, but she thought I got all my looks from my dad. Actually, they both look pretty similar. They both have similar jet black hair and light blue eyes, and this look that they know something you don't. A lot of people mistake them for siblings rather than husband and wife. The biggest difference between them is that my dad has a round face whereas my mum's a lot thinner. 

Anyway, it was June the Sixth. My twelfth birthday. I was really looking forward to it. My mum had promised me a new bike. Unfortunately, she had to get up for work early, because she was a nurse. And she made my dad promise not to give me my presents until after school that day, which really sucked. 

I went to school as usual. I walked with my friend, Tom, who seemed more excited than I was that it was my birthday. I suffered through two hours of maths and an hour of English, before I got to my favourite lesson, Science. I loved science, especially physics, which happened to be the topic we were on. 

Unfortunately, we had a substitute teacher today, because our regular science teacher was out on a school trip with some of the year ten kids. The new guy was short and bald, with an eleven letter name that I couldn't pronounce. Something like Ksloingjest. I was willing to give him a chance, until he got my name wrong on the register. 

"Um, Ellie?" he asked. And, of course, the class laughed at me, and I felt my face go bright red. 

"It's pronounced Eli, Sir." I said. "Ee-lie."

"Oh, sorry, Eli." Mr Something seemed to realise that he'd just bought me a breaktime's worth of bullying and tormenting, and gave me a kind of whoops, sorry look. The kid sat across from me on my table, Aaron, smiled at me. "You want to buddy up with me, Ellie?" he asked, when Mr Something told us we had to be in pairs. 

"Shove off, Aaron." I replied. 

"You going to pair with your boyfriend, then?" Aaron called as Tom went to get our equipment. 

"Just ignore him." Tom said when he got back with the stuff and saw me glaring at Aaron. Tom's one of those really weird, upbeat guys so when he's serious, it kind of puts everyone in a bad mood. "It's your birthday, you don't have to put up with that slimeball." I tried to enjoy the rest of the lesson, despite the fact that Aaron was constantly pestering me about being a girl. 

"Did your mum name you Ellie?" he asked me. "Because usually mums are good at picking out good names for beautiful young girls. I think it quite suits you." 

"Leave me alone, Aaron." I snapped, starting to get angrier. I hardly noticed the small steel ball we were supposed to be using to demonstrate the effects of gravity start to lift off the table. 

"You know, I think you should never, ever cut your hair. It really suits you. You should plait it." Aaron sniggered. I tried to ignore him, and pushed my hair back out of my face as I looked down at Tom's recorded data. My hair wasn't that long. Maybe I should have got it cut, but I liked it long.

"Maybe you should try pigtails. Ooh, or pigtail plaits. That would look adorable." Suddenly, the whole room went completely dark. There was the sound of smashing glass, and I stood completely still. 

"It's just a power failure, kids." Mr Something said desperately. "Nothing to worry about, the back up lights will kick in soon."

I realised that the lights hadn't been on. It was the middle of summer, in the middle of the day, and the sun provided more than enough light to work by. I decided not to tell the teacher that. Suddenly, light flooded the room again, and nervous chattering began to spread.