Beyond the earth's core

Chapter 1

I was in class. It was a beautiful monday morning. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and my math teacher gave everyone a free period!!! 

You didn't really believe that, did you? It sounded lame, even to me. Here's the truth: It was raining buckets outside, I couldn't see two feet through the window, I swore I could hear crickets chirping  inside, and we had just gotten a pop quiz. I hadn't done my homework last night, and completely neglected my studying for lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling and wishing I was dead. So basically, my life was really sucky at that moment. What's the pythagorean theorem? How do you find the perimeter of a triangle? If I weren't in public right now, I would have flipped my desk over in a fit of rage. Welp, guess I'm getting another fail. 

I sighed quietly, and shaded in some bubbles for the multiple choice questions.  My head hurt, and I felt a little dizzy. What was I going to tell my parents? Neither of them are exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, but that was exactly why they wanted my to do better than them. I hated disappointing them, but at this point, it was basically routine. I looked up at the clock above my teachers desk and blanched. Only 5 minutes left of class, and I wasn't even halfway done with my quiz! I quickly rushed through the rest of the packet, writing down vague answers, and put down the final number the moment the bell rang.

Mrs. Leonard stood up from her desk, where she was grading our papers, and announced "Everyone who has finished their quiz may leave. The rest of you must stay here and complete it. I will write you passes for your next class." 

I tugged my hair, which was tied into a neat ponytail, as I stood up, picked up my quiz, walked to the front of the class, and placed my quiz into the neat pile of tests on Mrs. Leonards desk. As I walked away, towards the door, she made eye contact with me, and I saw my life flash before my eyes as she smiled sharply and said "I'm looking forward to grading your quiz, Ms. Thorne." I smiled weakly. "See you tomorrow, Mrs. Leonard." Then I turned tail and power-walked the heck out of there. 

My best friend, Penny, was waiting outside for me, and when I came out the door, she turned and started walking to our next class. I caught up to her and groaned, "I hate Mrs. Leonard! I feel like she has it out for me! What did I ever do to her?" 

Penny giggled under her breath. "Do you mean other than never paying attention to her lectures, failing all her quizzes, and refusing to ask for extra help? Face it, Stormy, she has a good reason not to like you. Look on the bright side. Our next class is gym! Ready to pound everyone into the dirt? I hear we're doing dodgeball today."

I mentally pumped my fist. I loved dodgeball! The exhiliration as I duck and weave, the triumph of catching a ball, the sound of the poor souls on the other team screaming as I slam ball after ball into their stomachs. I grinned at Penny.

"You know it, sister! Dodgeball never fails to cheer me up! I hope the other team at least puts up a better fight than they did last time."

Penny smiled back at me. "Stormy, they didn't even try. They just took off to find a good hiding place so that you wouldn't hit them. We won anyway."

We finally reached the gymnasium, also known as the place where kids could let loose, and slam each other with balls until they fainted from exhaustion, or got sent to the infirmary, whichever came first. As you can probably tell, our teacher isn't exactly top notch. Mr. Callis usually tells us what we're going to be doing for the rest of class, then sits of to the side reading 'How to get a girlfriend' articles on his phone. He thinks we don't know about that little detail, but judging how he leaves his phone unlocked to go for bathroom breaks, we know pretty much everything about him. His phone number, his social security number, the fact that his moms phone number is saved under the name 'Mommy' with 4 hearts and a kissy emoji.

Penny and I entered the gym, a couple seconds before the bell rung, and got into a horizontal line with the rest of the kids. Mr. Callis broke everyone up into two teams. Thankfully, Penny and I were on the same team. He placed the balls in the middle of the room, and straightened up. He backed out of the war zone, and started counting down from ten. 

10...

"You ready?" Penny whispered.

9...

"You're asking me that?" I snorted

8...

7...

She rolled her eyes

6...

I elbowed her to pay attention

5...

All that mattered was winning.

4...

3...

Almost there...

2...

1...

Now!!!

Mr. Callis blew the whistle, and all heck broke loose.