How The Geeks Got Invaded

Anna

  I had thought that when the exchanges went and Edie came back, life would go back to normal.
That was a very very wrong assumption to make.
Lunchtime on Monday, we were practising our latest Drama assessment. To save my friends' embarrassment, I won't say exactly what it was, but it was in the style of a pantomime and involved me spiralling across the stage in a big skirt. We were rehearsing in the form room when it took place. I had the skirt on over my uniform and was twirling across the room as gracefully as I could manage. The rehearsal was going really well, until I pulled an Edie.
I was on my third spiral when it happened. Just as one leg hit the floor, the other lifted - straight into the table leg. I would have liked to have seen my life flash before my eyes, but squeezing 13 years into the time it took me to fall 1 metre 56 would have been tight, so instead heard a whoosh, yelped, and wham, I was on the floor.
I sat up, rubbing my temples. Bella, the oh-so-supportive-one, was laughing herself sick in the corner. The others held it in, apart from Anna, who was struggling not to smile.
"Well," I said, trying to regain some of my dignity, "at least there weren't any German shoes this time."
Edie folded her arms. "At least I can twirl," she said crossly.
And before anyone else could stop her, she leapt into the air, spun the full 360, and touched down like a ballerina. Then she did it again. And again. And again. Until she'd crossed the entire room without falling over once.
Bella blinked. "How is that possible?" she asked.
Blessing began to clap, very slowly, and the rest of us joined in, bewildered. Edie bowed gracefully.
It was as we finished rehearsals that something struck me. It made me wonder if I'd hit my head too hard on the floor.
But i could've sworn that when Edie leapt into the air, I'd seen little black wings on the sides of her shoes.  

Not only was I worried about Edie, but something else happened the next day.
I put my bookmark in my book and forced it into my overstuffed bag. It was a hot, sweaty Tuesday morning, so i was sitting at the back of the bus by the open window and the breeze from the emergency exit. My bus only goes up to KEGS, the boys' grammar across the road, so I have to walk up to school along the path where Train Girls, Bus Girls and Car Girls alike all use to get to CCHS. I walked (well, stumbled, it's hard to walk on a moving bus) down to the door. I glanced out the window, and my head suddenly snapped back to look. Sauntering along the path, orange hair floating in the light breeze, was no other than Miss Ruby Valentine. (Real name.) I blinked. Ruby Valentine was definitely a Train Girl. And Train Girls always get in really early because they live far away so the trains come at awkward times. And behind her was a whole crowd of Train Girls, which meant...
"Anna!" I called across the road, leaping out of the bus. I hurried over to the crossing as fast as my bag would let me, ignoring the weird looks from a group of Year 11s. Anna heard me and waited on the other side of the crossing. Her long, mid-brown hair was tied back with a black band in its usual sideways ponytail. She has rdally pale skin with a beauty spot on her left cheek. She grinned as I hurried across the road.
"What happened?" I asked. Anna is the only Train Girl in our group. Bella walked, Blessing was a Car and Edie, Maria & I were Bus Girls.
Anna sighed. "The trains were so late. I waited for half an hour at the station. Then I was stuck waiting..." She trailed off, but I got the message. I sighed in agreement.
We walked and chatted for a bit. We were almost at school when the Year 10s in front of us stopped suddenly and started gagging. We caught up with them and peered over their shoulders.
On the road in front of them was a dead squirrel. Actual, proper roadkill, with intestines and liver and all that gory stuff spilling out. The blood was still wet. I swallowed. How did it happen? Did someone hit it?
"It was blue." Anna said suddenly. I whipped my head round. What? She was staring at the squirrel corpse hard. Her face was even whiter than usual.
"I'm pretty sure it's a grey squirrel." I said. I wasn't looking that closely, but I was fairly sure it wasn't blue.
Anna shook her head. "The car. It was hit by a blue car. At 8 o'clock. It was crossing the road. The doll in the tree spooked it."
I looked up. The baby doll in the tree overhead was pretty scary. But how on earth did Anna know that?
"Anna? You ok?" I asked, shaking her a little. She jumped suddenly. Something jangled. I looked down at her wrist. She yanked her blazer sleeve down, realising where I was looking. But it was too late.
"Anna, what's that?" I asked. On hed wrist next to her watch was a smooth black band. It looked as if it was made of some sort of crystal, flecked with wispy grey that seemed to move, like smoke trapped in glass.
She blushed. "Look, I- I got it the other day. I keep trying to take it off, but I keep putting it back on again. I don't know why. Just please don't tell!"
I nodded. "I won't." I promised. But my senses were on high alert. Something was going on, and if my friends were in danger, I was going to find out what was going on.