The Phantom Arising(Watty's 2018)

Chapter One

I wake up twelve minutes late, like always, and hear my mom scream, "Eden," at 7:07 exactly. I grab my phone and scroll through my hundreds of notifications, mostly about the Mars thing that's happening today. I post a picture of my new curtains on Instagram and add a lot of selfies to my Snapchat story.

"EDEN!" my mom yells yet again. I look at the clock, which read 7:15. Not going to make the bus. Oh well. I get out of bed and sit down at the vanity. It takes me ten minutes to do my makeup and then I put on a miniskirt and a cute sweater.

I walk downstairs at 7:35. My mom glares at me as she is clacking away on her computer. She is constantly working; she works for a real estate agency from home.

"Do I have to take you every single day, Eden? I can't do this," my mom says, sighing. I roll my eyes and grab my breakfast shake out of the fridge.

"Mom, we have to leave. We are watching the Mars landing in homeroom," I say, picking up my backpack. My mom groans and grabs her keys. I head out the door, pulling on my ankle boots.

As soon as we get to school, I get out of the car and run to catch up with Alivia and Ella.

"Eden! Hey, girl," Alivia said, brushing back her bushy afro. Ella smiled, her long red hair pulled into a ponytail. We all have Mr. Dailley for homeroom so we don't even both stopping at our lockers.

"Girls, you are late," Mr. Dailley snapped as we took our seats. We all roll our eyes simultaneously as we pull out our binders.

"So, as I was explaining when we were so very rudely interrupted, we will be watching the Mars video. This is a very important moment in United States history. Just think, this will later be in history books, and you can say, I actually saw this," Mr. Dailley said, his eyes gleaming. He turns it on and I lay my head on my desk, knowing I will fall asleep in the next five minutes.

A reporter is being recorded as we watched the rocket approach Mars.

"Neil F. Rickman will be landing on the planet of Mars in approximately 30 minutes after 320 days of being in a rocket ship. He did this trip alone, which is difficult in many ways. One, if he has trouble or the rocket ship backfires he is all alone in taking care of the problem, of course with the help of the space station and the NASA station on Earth, who are always on the radio with Rickman." I looked over at Alivia, who was applying the fifth coat of her ruby red lipstick.

"This is soooo boring," I whispered. She nodded.

"I'd rather be doing drills with Coach Kenzie," Alivia said, laughing. Mr. Dailley looks up, his eyes glaring at us. I focused back on the video.

"We are just ten minutes away from the landing of the Armstrong. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong at this point....but there is always a chance." I hope I don't see a rocket ship get blown up. That would be terrible. Mr. Dailley is literally about to pass out right now, he is so excited. He is jumping around in his chair and clapping his hands like a five-year-old. Very mature.

"We are just under two minutes from the landing. Rickman is getting excited over the radio, he is reportedly saying he can't believe he is almost to Mars and keeps on laughing. It is very cool to see how he was inspired by Neil Armstrong all his life because his parents, who work at NASA, named Rickman after Armstrong. Ok, folks, Rickman is on Mars. He just landed!" the reporter said as Mr. Dailley started screaming. We all laughed, and Mr. Dailley abruptly stopped, his cheeks reddening.

Neil F. Rickman opened to the door to the rocket ship wearing his full astronaut suit. Mr. Dailley looked like he was crying. What a freak, I thought. As he stepped onto Mars, I somehow felt twenty degrees colder and started to shiver. Why is this happening to me? I suddenly got really dizzy as he took his first steps on Mars. I looked at Alivia, who looked as if there were three of her.

"Ed-" I collapse on the floor, my world going black.

~

I wake up in the hospital, IVs in both of my arms. My mom is standing next to my bed, and gasps when I wake up.

"Honey..." she says, as she gathers me in her arms.

"What...what happened?" I ask, still drowsy from whatever happened to me. As I ask her, a doctor walks in.

"Ma'am, we are going to have to keep her a little longer to test her blood sugar and make sure she is stable," the doctor said, looking at his clipboard.

"We have no clue why she passed out, and with no side effects before we have to further investigate." I laid my head back down, extremely thirsty.

"I need water," I croak out. The doctor looks at me, his brow furrowing.

"Your daughter is most likely dehydrated. I will send for some water," the doctor said and backs out of the room.

That's when I black out again.

A/N This was written by me. Next chapter will be written by Kristen(@Alyss_Treaty_17). Kristen is going to write the boy characters, and I will write the girls. Thanks for reading! :) P.S. The picture above is of Eden.