The Undercave [Incomplete]

Chapter 1 - Long Time, No See

The bell rang out followed by the chirping and the scattering feet of the students. It was only first break on the first day back at school after the summer holidays, and for Clifford it felt like it should have been the end of the week. The cafeteria was packed, and he was starving. His stomach cried and moaned, longing for a snack. His eyes scanned the cabinets full of what was soon to be in his belly. There was such a large selection that he ended up just grabbing an egg mayo sandwich.
"Hi Cliff!" a voice from behind him called out. He turned around to see his twin sister.
"Oh, hi Lana," he said casually, before turning back round to face the queue of which looked like it would take forever to reach the end of. A concerned expression spread across his sister's face.
"Something the matter? You seem glum. I thought you liked English."
"I do," he replied, inspecting the label on his lunch, "It just feels like today is taking forever."
"Oh, OK then" she said as she started to leave, "I'll be with Theo and Sheri if you want to hang out with us." He returned a look of exhaustion, then turned his head back towards the line.

Lana wandered through the crowds to the door that led to the playground, passing people she knew and the new lower years that she had never seen before. The air outside was nippy with an occasional breeze. It was too cold for it to be summer. She glided across the ground like a penguin on the ice, over towards her friends. They were sitting on a bench, eating lunch that they had packed before school.
"But if you do that, you'll just electrocute yourself!" She heard Theo say.
"Yeah, right," Sheri replied sarcastically, "You can't electrocute yourself like that, that's not how it works!"
"What are you two talking about?" Lana interrupted. They both turned around to face her.
"Oh, it doesn't matter," Sheri remarked, "Theo's just being stupid." She gave a hard stare to her friend, and wasn't surprised to see the same expression mirrored right back at her. "So," she said in a more excited tone of voice, "Did you have a good summer?"
"Well, it wasn't bad," Lana answered, lowering herself onto the end of the seat, "Marcus has been a bit hectic lately, but I managed to keep myself entertained. How about you, didn't you go to Spain or something like that?"
"Ah, yes! I learnt quite a lot of Spanish too, more than I already knew." She started to mimic a flirtatious Spanish accent. "Hola guapo. ¿Le gustaría bailar conmigo? ¡Porque yo quiero su cuerpo en el mío!" She followed this with a howl of laughter, before realising that no one else was amused. "So, yeah I had a good summer," she rushed, trying to change the subject.
Out of nowhere, a silent Cliff lowered himself onto the space left on the bench. His friends stared at him, waiting for him to announce what his day had been like as he usually does, but he didn't. To their surprise, he just sat there, picking at the sandwich that he'd just bought. "Hey Cliff!" Sheri exclaimed, trying to sound enthusiastic, "How're you doing?"
He replied with a stubborn stare, and went back to nibbling his bread.
"Well if you're gonna be that way..." The sound of the bell interrupted her, calling students inside like a beacon dragging zombies closer. The group hopped up from the bench and glided over to the building as a bored Cliff lagged behind.
"Come on, Cliff!" Lana commanded, "We're gonna be late!"

"Alright, settle down!" The teacher's voice erupted throughout the classroom. As he sat at his desk, Cliff noticed a new face in the room. It was a boy. He had styled chocolate brown hair which reflected the glow from the lights, a button nose and a slim but short build. After the class had relaxed, the teacher introduced the new classmate. "Now, there is a new student with us today."
Here we go again, Cliff thought, blabbering on about obvious stuff that we already know, as usual.
"Clifford!" All heads in the room whipped round to face him. "As you are the most sensible person in this class, I have chosen you to show him round the school." Before he had time to argue, she had already started taking the register.
"Good luck, I know you're not good with new people," his sister whispered. He sent her a glare.
"I'll have you know, I have better social skills than you!" He argued.
"Um, no you don't."
"Um, yes I do."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do!"
"No you don't!"
"Shut up right now or I swear I'll..." The eyes of the teacher pierced his line of speech, cutting it short. They sighed simultaneously out of frustration, and started writing in their books.
I can't believe she chose ME to show him around! Why didn't she choose Lana? Well, I guess maybe 'cause she's a girl, so she wouldn't be able to show him round the toilets. He imagined Lana walking into the boys' toilets and seeing someone at the urinals. He followed this image with an aloud giggle before realising that everybody else was silent.

After class had ended, the new student approached him. "Hi! You're Clifford, right?"
"I prefer the name Cliff, if you don't mind." He tried to say this in the least rude way possible.
"Cliff, OK." He seemed to make a mental note of this. "My name's Jacob, Jacob Pulcher!" He said, shaking Cliff's hand. When making eye contact with him, Cliff noticed that he had deep hazel eyes with specks of green in them, and felt like he was starting to get lost in them. "My surname's Latin, I think. I don't know what it means though." Even though Cliff wouldn't have been bothered about this earlier on, he seemed interested about what he was saying, probably because of his soft tone of voice. "Oh, and you can call me Jake, if you'd like."
He managed to snap out of his trance. "Well, hi Jake! Welcome to Carbeile Academy!" He seemed a lot more excitable now, after meeting this breath of fresh air.

Soon, they'd finished the tour of the school and the bell for the end of the day had rung out. Lana caught up with her brother, who was striding with the best posture that she'd ever seen him have. "Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" she chuckled.
"Oh, you know..." he replied, with a glow on his face giving a hue to his grin.
"So, what was the new boy like?" she questioned, trying to keep him in this mood.
"He was..." Suddenly, Cliff was lost for words. Half because he didn't know how to describe Jake, but mostly because he had just spotted their Aunt Rachael in the car park. "Look!" He pointed to his relative, and Lana was just as shocked to see her as he was. They hadn't seen her since they were in primary school. She stopped seeing them ever since their mother got together with their step-dad. "Rachael!" they chorused, running towards her and joining into a group hug.
"Hello, you two!" She greeted, breaking the circle and holding their shoulders. "Look at how much you have grown!" She proceeded to look into both of their eyes, almost welling up with tears from the memories of their father.
"What are you doing here?" Lana asked, "Why have you just randomly shown up here?" Their aunt paused for a second, trying to find the words for her explanation.
"Hop in the car, I'll tell you." She sighed. She then guided them into her Ford and sat in the drivers seat. "There's..." She paused another time, hesitant to tell them about her secret, but it had to be done. "There's something you don't know. Something that happened over 100 years ago. There was... a man. He created something evil. He didn't mean to. But now, it's planning to destroy the Earth." The twins looked at her with confused but frightened expressions. "Look, I know this might sound crazy, but... You're the only ones who can stop them. I can't tell you why, because I know you're not ready for... the truth. Can you come to my house, please? I'll try and give you more details but I can't give away everything. You're only 13." She looked at them both, waiting for their approval. Once they had both looked at each other and nodded, she sped off.