The Phoenix Operation

Chapter one

Sighing, I gave up on trying to tame my tangled hair and simply placed it up in a messy bun, the occasional strand of brown hair sticking out. I pulled a grey sweater over my head and hopped into a plain pair of skinny jeans. As I ran out of my bedroom, I clumsily tripped over my rug and gave a kiss to the floor. Pinching the bridge of my sore nose, I grabbed my bag and rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Mom had her face in a newspaper, curtly ignoring me. Dad, who was sitting at the table, threw a protein bar my way.

"What did you knock over this time?" he asked laughingly.

"My shirt fell."

He eyed me suspiciously. "Did you happen to be in the shirt when it fell?" I shrugged in response, biting into the protein bar. Dad shook his head and took a sip of his coffee.

"Don't miss the bus kiddo, I ain't driving you today!" he called out.

"Yeah, yeah, love you too!" I replied as I rushed onto the sidewalk. Mom didn't even utter a 'good day Catina', but she'd been acting like that for three weeks now, so I didn't pay it much attention.

Rain fell gently from the sky, giving the air a refreshing chill.  I made it to the bus stop just in time, the doors being seconds away from closing. The driver thankfully kept them open but sent me a disapproving glare. Once I was in my seat, I pulled my earbuds out of my bag and rested my head on the window. 

At some point, Set Fire to the Rain (by Adele, if you didn't know that already) started playing and I wondered what that would look like. I gazed out the window and imagined the small water droplets outside suddenly catching on fire. It would be an interesting sight. Maybe that could be my project for the science fair next month? Burning rain... 

My thoughts were interrupted by the familiar beep my phone made whenever I got a text. I opened the message to see that it was from an unknown number.

Unknown: Wait for me at the bus stop. Don't go to school.

Me: Excuse me, who is this?

Unknown: Just wait for me. I'll explain later. It's important.

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. What kind of creep would be bold enough to say that? I wasn't in the mood to get kidnapped today, thank you very much. Besides, it was probably a prank. Some kids wanted to try and force me to give them money or something.

Finally, the bus came to a stop. I hurriedly made my way to the front doors of my school, holding my bag over my head to shield me from the increasingly strong downpour. As much as I liked rain, I didn't want to be cold and wet for the rest of the morning.

Some random boy, probably a freshman, held the door open for me as I rushed inside of the building. I thanked him and made my way to my locker, which wasn't that far from the main entrance. I was lucky, I got one of the good ones. It was close to a vending machine, far from the boy's bathroom but close enough to the girl's, and it wasn't in that bad of a shape.

As I grabbed my books and stuffed my bag inside the large metal box, a tall shadow appeared on my left.

"Hey Kitty," the shadow said. 

"Morning, Prescott. Gum?" I asked as I handed him the plastic packet I'd grabbed from my pocket.

He eagerly took it and stuffed a chunk into his mouth. "Did you hear? Alexandria and Kyle broke up again."

"I don't care," I said as we walked down the crowded hall.

"I know you don't, but nothing interesting ever happens here! I mean, other than your crazy rich grandma dying and giving you all her stuff, but that's not a really good conversation starter." He really didn't have a filter.