Teenage Monster

Chapter 1

I hopped along the cracked pavement, desperately trying not to land on a crack. My little sister, Alex, was imitating me. I stumbled on a particularly raised piece of concrete and fell, landing on-

"A crack!" Alex gasped. "Mo, you stepped on a crack!"

"Mom isn't going to break her back, Al. That stuff isn't real." I huffed, pulling myself up.  

"The kids at kindergarten say we aren't real." Alex frowned at me, obviously confused.

"And it's better if they don't know." I tapped her on the nose and smiled, despite the fact that it felt like an iron fist was squeezing my heart.

"Why?"

"Because they're scared of us."

"Why?"

"Look, Alex." I squatted down so I could look her in the eye. "Don't tell mommy I told you this, okay?" She nodded furiously. "Okay, well, there are some of us who like to hurt people. And that makes them scared of us, even though some of us are nice people. And if they find out, they might hurt all of us because they don't know who are the bad ones and who are the good ones."

"Oh." Alex looked down. "Do we hurt their feelings and then they feel sad and run away but then they come back and try to hurt our feelings because we hurt theirs?"

I looked down into her sweet, innocent face and felt my heart break. "Yeah." I lied. "That's why."

"That's not very nice!"

"But you can't tell anyone, not even your friends, okay? We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, remember?" Alex nodded.

My high school loomed over the skyline, casting a large shadow on the courtyard. I located Alex's small, yellow kindergarten building a few blocks away. I walked her over to it.

"I love you, Mo." She squeezed my leg because she wasn't tall enough to reach my waist. I laughed and swung her into my arms. I watched her teacher escort her into the play area and left.

I reached my high school and realized that all the kids had already gone inside.

"Crap." I muttered, bursting through the front doors. What had made me late today? I checked my watch, noting that it was only 7:55. Classes didn't start until 8:10. "What the . . ."

Promptly after the last words escaped my lips, I felt a very big person knock me down. "Oh god, are you okay? I barely heard the person speak over the ringing in my ears. I had hit my head hard.   

I looked up and was appalled to find that it wasn't even a fairly big person who had knocked me down, but a boy that looked to be my age. He was fairly tall with broad shoulders, but didn't look as big and strong as the person who had just run into me. He was still cute though, with sandy blond hair and friendly blue eyes.

"Sorry, sorry!" He helped me up and nervously started brushing my shoulders, trying to wipe of nonexistent dust. It was funny, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't creep me out.

"That's okay." I gently removed his hands from my shoulders. "Well, I better get going." I refilled my backpack and started down the hall, but turned around. "Hey, do happen to know where everyone is?"

"That's why I was running," he replied. "I'm new here, and I was totally flipping out."

I instantly felt a pang of pity for this boy. I sighed and started to walk over to him.

"We can both go to the principal's office together and sort this out." I said, smiling at him. I saw his shoulders relax.

"That would be great." He said. "Thanks."

We started to walk down the hall, side by side. An awkward silence stretched between us.

 "So," I broke the silence. "What's your name?"

"Sam." He gave me a forced, awkward smile. I cringed inwardly. I'd only spent a few minutes with him and he was already creeped out!

"Oh."

"What's yours?"

"Monica. But everyone calls me Mo, except for the teachers and my parents."

Another awkward silence promptly ensued, and I wanted to slap myself upside the head. He was cute, he seemed nice, and I couldn't even make conversation!

"Where did you move from?" I asked.

"New York." He replied.

I gasped. "No way! New York? That is so-" I saw his amused expression and I cringed. "Wow, I sound like the girls at my school."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, shopping, makeup, clothes..."

"And you don't talk about that?"

I immediately blushed and started to stammer. "No, well, yes, but- I mean, I don't talk about it all the time like the others-" I trailed off. This wasn't me! I was normally pretty, well, normal around guys. I don't recall ever stammering in my life. Time to turn the tables back around.

"So why'd you move?"

"I don't really know. My mom sorta just told me we were moving, packed up our stuff, and we just, well, left."

"Weird." I started to open my mouth to say something else, but I heard a ruckus down the hall. Then I knew where all the kids were.

"What's that?" Sam had heard it too.

"I think we're having an assembly."