When I Awakened

Conference

I walk up to Elijah and give him a huge hug. This is one of those hugs where you don't let the other person go--those hugs that seem to last for years.

"I'm so glad we're done fighting," I say, pulling away.

"Yeah, and this conference with the governor is going to be great, too! I'm so excited," Elijah exclaims.

"Yeah, me too, but I'm also kind of nervous," I say, tucking my hair behind my ear. "What if the governor doesn't like me?"

"Are you kidding me? How could he not like you? The person who doesn't like you is stupid. He has no reason not to like you. You saved the future," Elijah compliments, smiling.

I smile and look down at his comment. It catches me off guard when he grabs my hand.

"Don't be nervous, he will love you," Elijah reassures me, swaying our hands back and forth.

I blush and look at the building beside us. Our teachers weren't kidding when they called it 'the White House.' It's so white, it looks as if it was snowed on.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Elijah asks, motioning his hand toward the building.

I walk up the stairs and disappear into the building.

"Oh, it's Skylar, what a pleasure to meet you," the governor greets me.

He walks down and makes eye contact with me. Every step he takes, his white, puffy hair bounces from side to side. He hasn't stopped smiling since I saw him.

"Pleasure to meet you, too," I greet, reaching out my hand.

"What an adventure you had! Come on, into my office," the governor replies, shaking my hand.

Mr. London follows after us, and we walk into a room bigger than my house. The furniture has a beautiful set of colors--brown, yellow, and orange. The sofa is sitting in the middle of the room and is facing a flat-screen TV that I can only wish to have.

"So, Skylar, tell me about yourself," the governor instructs, sitting back in his seat.

"Well, I am a girl. I have blonde hair. I have green eyes," I list.

The governor laughs, and Elijah smiles at me. Mr. London shakes his head as he looks down smiling.

"Well, what about your personality?"

"Well, I'm very sarcastic, I hate fighting, and I guess I'm nice," I reply, placing my leg over my other knee.

"And don't forget humorous," Mr. London chimes in.

"Anyway, we all are curious about how you managed to wake up so early," the governor queries, leaning on his legs.

"Well, that's actually my brother's fault. He put a mint in my drink, causing the solution to wear off quickly. Well, more quickly," I explain.

"Oh, and what's your brother's name again?" the governor asks.

"Austin," I respond.

I look around the room again to see the walls decorated with what looks like carpets. Maybe I'm not the only creative one in the room.

"Whose idea was it to put carpets on the wall?" I ask.

"Oh, you noticed that. Well, those were there when we all got elected," Mr. London explains.

Elijah looks at me, and then at the governor. Mr. London looks at Elijah, and then at me, and then at the governor. After a while, it just gets confusing.

"What are we doing?" I ask.

"We are waiting for the press to get here, so they can get their scoop, along with a journalist. They wouldn't stop pestering me," he sighs.

"What's so wrong with that?" I ask.

"Privacy, that's what," the governor answers, shaking his head.

Not another moment goes by when a stampede of people come in, blasting the door open. Elijah doesn't have a reaction, but the governor quickly stands from his seat and rushes toward the crowd. Mr. London hops up as well to help out the governor.

"Skylar, is it true you secretly got married to Elijah?" an unknown stranger screams from the doorway.

"I said one journalist, not a paparazzi!" the governor hollers.

"So, I brought back-up because people need to know everything about everything!" the woman yells.

"Let them all in! The more the merrier!" I beckon.

The governor turns to me with a confused expression. Turning back around, he salutes toward the crowd and opens the door wide. Almost everybody immediately rushes to Skylar and Elijah. The governor manages to push past the crowd and guide them to his desk for them to use as a stage. They scooted to the middle of it so they could catch the entire crowd.

"Alright," the governor proclaims. "Ask away!"

"Elijah, do you love Skylar?" one of the women asks.

"Um..." Elijah looks at me, "yeah, I'm so in love with her."

I lock eyes with him and wait for them to make their way toward me. One of the cameramen walks past me, hitting me in the head with his big camera.

"Ow!" I cry.

"Oh, sorry, princess," he calls, walking by without a single regret.

I ignore his snarky comment and wait another minute for someone to come to me with their questions.

"Skylar, why did you even try to defeat the government when you knew you would most likely fail?" the reporter asks, shoving her mic in my face.

I push the mic away before answering. What a rude question. The press is so rude.

"Because what the government was doing, might I add behind everybody's backs, was wrong. Elijah and I were the only ones in any position to stop them. Luckily, we were found by President London, who was also a big help."

"How difficult was it to defeat all of the militaries, wake up all the children, and overall just save the world?"

"Imagine the hardest thing in life you ever had to do and make it 100 times harder."

"Harder than making a perfect wing with eyeliner?"

"Doing this was 200 times harder."

The crowd gasps at my words.

"It was that hard?" the governor asks.

"Next question, please," I request, rolling my eyes.

"Hey," Elijah interferes, seeing my blatant annoyance, "wouldn't you guys like to know how it all went down?"

The mix of multiple reporters and journalists mumbling and agreeing fills the room.

"Yeah, let's hear the story!" one calls out.

"Okay, gosh, where do I begin...?" I ask.

I decide to tell them starting from when I woke up...and in the end, I can tell no one isn't interested. At this point, I'm waiting for somebody to call this a false story, but no one does. They all believe me. This the first time I know for sure, the government is defeated.