A Universe Of Secrets

Chapter 1: Alexa Hatcher

Hi, I'm Alexa Hatcher, I'm 17 years old, and I live at the coast of San Francisco. Normally, you would think that I live in the city, with lots of people, and cars. It's the complete opposite. I live in a small town called Springfield. No one uses cars, only horses and bikes. I live right next door to my best friend Cole. I have a little sister, Aubrey, and an older brother named Asher. My mom and dad died at sea when I was five, so we live on our own now because my older brother is 22. He can afford most things because he has a job as a marine biologist. Aubrey sometimes helps out by selling cookies, and I have a job at the nearby aquarium.

I was just about to go to the grocery store, to get some more milk, when the bell rang. The bell is a gigantic tower that only rings when there is a big event. I went back inside and looked at the calendar, and smacked my head. It was Fishing Day. I know it sounds lame, but it's a really big thing. Our soil isn't really good, and we don't have a lot of freshwater, so fishing is kind of our only hope for food, so on Fishing Day, the fishermen come back with lots and lots of fish. I bolted out the door and over to the shore, where everyone would probably be waiting. I was wrong. There was no one there, except Asher and some other biologists, talking about something. I went over to see what was wrong. Mental note, never, go into a group of adults, who are talking about something serious, without mentally preparing yourself to be yelled at. That's kind of what happened. I was yelled at and told to go away. Rude. Asher somehow knew I would never go away if told so, so he let me stay and listen, as long as I didn't talk. "-I don't care if they didn't make it, I only care, if they brought back fish." A tall angry guy called Mr. Grady snapped at a lovely lady, Miss Melody, who persuaded Springfield Aquarium to take me in as a tour guide. "They can't bring back fish if they didn't even bring back themselves, or the boats. Nothing came back!" She said, angrily. "You know what? I think y'all are just lying to have all the fish for yourselves." Another angry old man, whose name I don't remember, piped up, with a face as red as a tomato. No one responded. That was officially the worst thing someone could accuse you of. I couldn't hear her response, because Asher dragged me away from the conversation. "Why can't I listen?" I asked, wrenching my arm out of his grasp. "You don't have to get that stuff in your head. Now can you please go to the grocery store and get some milk?" He asked exasperatedly. I huffed indignantly. "Fine. I'll go, but you have to tell me every single thing they talked about." I said reluctantly. "Okay, I will, but you better go now, if you want to make it before lunch." I nodded and went back to our house to get on my bike. I met Aubrey along the way, who was selling chocolate chip snickerdoodles. She didn't see me wave to her, so I kept on going along. When I got home, I saw Cole, who was about to knock on our door. "I'm over here, no one's home," I said, surprising him. I hopped on my bike (which was mint green if you have to know). "Where are you going?" He asked. "To the city." The grocery store in our town only has things like canned beans and peaches and stuff. "Can I come too?" He asked, heading over to his house. I nodded, and put my helmet on.

It took about an hour or so to get to the city, and we were exhausted. The city people looked at us like we were aliens or mermaids. I am used to it, I go to the city a lot. Cole does not. He suddenly looked very self-conscious. We got our things and were about to get on our bikes when I saw a poster that caught my eye, it had a picture of Asher and the other biologists' building on it, and in big bold letters, it said, GROUP OF OCEANOLOGISTS ACCUSED OF HOARDING FOOD. I took a picture. Wow, whoever wrote that is either extremely stupid or was paid to write this. First of all, they're marine biologists, not oceanologists. That might be the same thing but whatever. Second of all, last year Asher's building gave them exactly 250 gallons of saltwater and exactly 1,908 fishes and won a freaking award for being, "Selfless and Caring". Now they're thieves and liars. I was so mad I completely forgot I was in the city and kicked the streetlight as hard as I could. Bad mistake. Very very bad mistake. I may or may not have kicked the light down, making it crash onto a bench. Luckily no one was on that bench, or I might've had to go to juvie, but I didn't kill anyone, so that's good. The bad thing was, there was a cop right next to the bench, who got squished.