Flame

Chapter 1-Kendra

Chapter 1

Kendra

"Kendra....wake up." My mom whispered to me, her voice as soft as a summer breeze, she shook me gently a few times.

"Uuuughhh! Give me five more minutes." I mumbled through my pillow. I could feel my spit from last night smearing across my cheek as I spoke. Gross.

"Kendra.....school starts in 10 minutes." My mom replied, more urgently this time.

It took a few seconds for her sentence to register in my brain before I realized the urgency of the situation. As soon as it hit me I scrambled out of bed, casting my covers onto my sloppy bedroom floor in the process. Once I stumbled over to my dresser I picked out the first clothes that I saw. I grabbed my bookbag on my way out of my room and sprinted down the hallway and into the kitchen where my father sat reading the paper. My two older brothers sat at the kitchen table, one was munching on toast while the other chose eggs to start their day with. The one eating toast, Edward, looked up and practically spit out his food laughing.

"Oh my god Kendra, what on earth are you wearing?"

At this Richard, my younger brother, looked up and almost fell out of his chair laughing. "Looks like your six year-old growth spurt came sooner than expected!" He said pointing to my torso.

I looked down to see what they were laughing at and I found that I was wearing a sesame street T-shirt from when I was six, I groaned, how could I have not noticed? "Shut up" I say to them as I grab my favorite hoodie and pull over my head. "Gimme that." I said as I snatched the piece of toast that Edward was about to eat.

"Hey!" He said grabbing for it.

I stuck my tongue out at him, "You snooze you lose, big brother."Before he could reply I opened the front door and stepped outside into the foggy London streets.

As soon as my foot touched the ground outside the fog enveloped me, suffocating me in a thick blanket. As I walked down the street I checked my watch and gasped, I only had five minutes to get to school. I set a fast pace, not quite running but not quite walking either. I checked my watch again, only four minutes left. I started to jog lightly, my school building just coming into view.

I started panicking, my watch read only three minutes left to get to school. I started jogging at a more moderate pace, my school just forty feet away. I was now starting to get frantic, I stole a glance at my watch, only two minutes, a fresh wave of panic washed over me, I started to run, the school building taunting me when I was twenty feet away. In between strides I checked my watch, only one measly minute, the wave of panic started to drown me in its icy depths. I put on a last burst of speed to sprint to the front doors of the school building, I burst through them just as the school bell rang.

I stopped to catch my breath before joining the morning hallway mob. I let the current of students carry me to my locker. I twisted the the lock, 43-24-08, I have to tug at it at first but it soon gave way to my disgustingly organized storage space. I wasted no time grabbing my books and shoving my bookbag into my locker and slamming the locker door behind me. The crowd of students rushing to get to class thinned and only a few stragglers remained until I was alone in the hallway. I entered Mrs. Johnson's classroom, I saw my friend Stacy waving at me from the back of the room. Her hand was resting on the on the empty desk next to her, I wove my way through the desks and waved back at her. I plopped down at the vacant seat next to her, a wide grin spreading across my face.

"You took your bloody time." She said to me, her arms assuming their regular crossed position. "You don't even want to know who I had to deal with to save this seat for you." Her tone is serious and scolding but the sparkle in her eyes and the slight upward tug at the corners of her mouth send a different message.

"You're right." I say smiling, "I don't want to know."

She grins and punches my arm, "You're terrible, you know that?"

My grin widens, "Yup."

The rest of the day was like any other boring day of school, blah blah blah books, blah blah blah homework. Basically the same old school day, a sharp poke to my arm pulled me away from my thoughts, I turned my head to see Stacy and my other friend Christina giggling.

"What's so funny?" I asked them.

"Didn't you hear? Mrs. Johnson got caught taking students lunches for no reason." Christina said in between giggles.

I snickered, "Serves her right." I said. I glanced at my watch, 2:45. "Guys I've gotta go, my mom freaks if I'm not home by 3:00."

Still snickering Stacy waves at me, "Okay, bye!"

And with that they walked away giggling and talking in hushed voices, their heads close together. Once the fog swallowed them and concealed them from my view I started out into the foggy London streets.

After a few minutes of walking I noticed an oddly shaped dog scamper out of the cover of an alley way. I was not phased by this at first, there are hundreds of stray dogs in London, so nothing unusual. But as I advanced I noticed that the dog had a tail like a cat's and it had really long toes connected to its paws. Curiously, I crept towards the 'dog', its features got stranger as I got closer. I took another few tentative steps towards it until I realized that it wasn't a dog, it was a monkey.

The only things that my legs wanted to do at that point was chase after the monkey dog, as I drew nearer to it the monkey darted around until I was chasing it around places that I didn't even recognise. I started gaining on it, I was just about to grab hold of its vine like tail when it turned suddenly into a narrow alley, the entrance concealed by the shadows. I rounded the corner, cursing under my breath, and that's when things started to get weird.

(Author's Note)

Hi people, what do you think so far? Just a heads up, the next chapter will be in third person, not first, just to avoid confusion:P. Votes, comments, and shares are allways appreciated!

~ Avery