Stranger Than Fiction

Chapter 1

Normal. I loved that word. Most of my friends hated it. I wanted to be normal. They did not. None of them knew my secret. I could not afford to tell them. School was today. We meet 15 minutes before school starts by the old maple tree. Allie, Derek, Richard, Sara, and me. By the way, my name is Hayden. Just thought you might want to know. Anyway, this morning, everyone but Rich was there. He normally doesn't come and if he does he's late. Allie and Sara were arguing.

"Harry Potter can control water and do other stuff cause he's a wizard. Percy can only control water," Sara said.

"No he can't. Where in the books does it say that wizards can control the elements?" Allie argued. Sarah didn't answer.

"And, Harry only saved the world once. Percy saved it thrice."

"I'm pretty sure 'thrice' isn't a word, Allie."

"Percy Jackson is still better than Harry Potter, though."

"What do you think, Hayden. Percy Jackson or Harry Potter," Sara said, turning towards me. I had been able to stay out of the conversation until now. I should have known my luck wouldn't last.

"I like both of them," I said.

"No. Pick one," Allie replied.

"Yeah Hayden, pick one," Derek said.

"Derek!" I exclaimed.

"Yes?" he asked as he batted his eyelashes while tilting his head and smiling innocently. I laughed. I could not stay mad at him long. He laughed with me and soon we were all laughing. The bell rang and we headed inside, still laughing.

First period was science with Mr. Duncan. Allie sat next to me. Rich and Sara were in Algebra with Mr. Clark. Derek was in art.

"...and if my wife had two genes for brown eyes, what color would my children's eyes be? Allie?" Mr. Duncan asked. He always picked on the students who seemed like they weren't paying attention. That means he calls on Allie. A lot. Allie was painting her nails a dark blue. A few of our classmates snickered.

"Yes, Mr. Duncan?" she asked sweetly.

"The answer to my question, please, Ms. Marigold."

"You're children would have brown eyes," she said without hesitation.

"Why?" he asked, as his face began to turn red.

"You have blue eyes. Therefore you have two recessive genes. Your wife has two dominant genes. One of your resistive genes and one of her dominate genes would be passed down. Because her genes are dominant, they would overpower yours so your children would have brown eyes. Satisfied, Mr. Duncan?" The class stared at her, dumbfounded. She went back to painting her nails. Mr. Duncan looked like he was about to explode. The class waited for his reaction. Allie turned to me.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked.

"You-you just-and you were-how?"

"I just answered his question. By the way, thanks for the note."

"What note?"

"The one you just gave to me," she said as she held up a note. She handed it to me. It said, well, the answer to the question. My signature was at the bottom.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked angrily.

"So when he takes me to the principal's office, you'll come too."

"He never said that he's going to--"

"Allie, please come with me to the principal's office," Mr. Duncan said, interrupting me. Allie gave me a look that dared me to challenge her again.

"But Mr. Duncan, Hayden gave me this," she said as she took the note from my hands and showed it to him.

"No I didn't," I protested.

"Both of you come with me."

"But I didn't..." I trailed off as Mr. Duncan gave me one of his looks. We followed him out into the hall.

"I should've known you both were cheating," he muttered to himself. I looked at Allie angrily. We finally reached the principal's office and Mr. Duncan knocked.

"Come in," said a gruff voice. It was Mr. Carter. We entered his office quietly. "Yes?"

"Mr. Carter, these two girls have been disrupting my class for a while now, without punishment. I don't think it would be wise to ignore them any longer," Mr. Duncan said. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this is not the first time Allie has done this to me. In fact, it's been happening quite often lately (not the dentition part though, but we'll get to that later).

"What exactly have they been doing?" Mr. Carter did not like Mr. Duncan at all. For good reasons too. Mr. Duncan usually sent a student to the principal's office twice a week. Maybe more. The reasons were really stupid. For example, last week he sent a kid who had coughed too loudly during a lecture.

"Well, they ummm, they-they cheated! On a test!" he said. We both looked at him with disbelief clearly expressed across our faces.

"What!" Allie was the first to recover. "We did not cheat! You're just upset that I, the girl who never pays attention, answered your stupid question! We didn't even take a test!"

"Now Allie, calm do--" Mr. Carter began.

"No! I'm tired of always being accused of stuff I didn't do! I just answered a some stupid question and y'all make some huge deal about it!" Mr. Carter's face looked like a tomato.

"Allie! That is no way to talk to your teachers. After school dentition for a week. Hayden, do you have anything you would like to say?" Mr. Carted looked at me like I was supposed to say something bad because one if my friends did. Allie elbowed me, hard, in the stomach. I cursed.

"Hayden Peterson! That type of language is unacceptable at this school. I'm going to have to give you detention as well," Mr. Carter said as I glared at Allie. Of course the teachers notice when I cuss, but not when one of my friends is elbowing me in the stomach. Fun. Mr. Duncan seemed happy. Good for him. You see, he obtains joy when others suffer. Sort of like Hitler!

"Thank you, Mr. Carter," Mr. Duncan said as we walked out of the door.