CHAPTER ONE: A NORMAL DAY
Thunder boomed outside as the storm rages on through the night.
“AHH!!” Jade said. He looked at his alarm clock. The clock’s glowing neon numbers told him it was 2: AM in the morning. Jade has been wondering why this has been happening to him for the last few days. But he had no time to think about it, because he fell right back to sleep.
_______
In his dream, he was standing on a balcony, looking over a city below. The river was flowing below like spilt milk on a tablecloth. He looked right beside him and saw oddly enough, a girl that looked well into her teens. She had a on black jacket with a white shirt and denim jeans. Jade was stunned by her appearance.
“You know what Jade?” she asked him with a hint of softness in her voice.
“This is the first time we had some alone time together.” She told him.
“Yeah. The other guys keep interrupting us all the time, its not even funny.” Jade answered. He doesn’t know how he was able to talk in a dream because that barely happens in his dreams.
The girl smiled and laughed a little. She looked at him for a moment and during that time, there hands got closer together, more, and there hand were linked.
“So…. This is.”
“Awkward.” Jade said to finish her sentence.
She pulled back her hair out of her face and back to its normal spot.
“Um. There is something a want to tell you.” Jade started to say.
“Yeah?” she answered.
“I…uh…I…um…” Jade stammered. His palms were sweatier than standing outside all day.
Jade looked at him and the girl. There faces were close to each other.
“I think I know what you are going to say.” She had told Jade. And what happened next made the real Jade surprised. She kissed Jade. He didn’t want that dream to end, but apparently, he was surprised to wake up with his sixteen year old brother on his bed, standing spraying Silly String straight at his face.
______
“I got you again!” His brother yelled with excitement.
“NEWT!” Jade yelled so hard he would explode. He chased after Newt to the doorway of his room. His room is not big, but not small. Jade has a bed with purple covers, a black desktop computer with a gray, and metallic tower, and a blue paint job around the walls with a medium sized television on a brown wooden dresser.
Jade and Newt run down the hall like lions fighting for their food.
“I’m going to get you Newt, and you will pay!” Jade said to Newt with aggression.
“Then you should have woken up earlier so you can do it to me!” Newt added.
“Well then. Tell me, how did that Silly String bottle get in the house?”
“I drove and got it.” Newt said, but he covered his mouth right away. How stupid of him, he probably shouldn’t have said that because now, Jade would be after him.
“I’m going to…” Jade started to say until his dad came up to them.
“Good Morn- Jade, what happened to you?”
“Newt sprayed me with Silly String.” Jade told Dad.
“We’ll he,” Newt told his dad while he pointed to Jade. “He spilt water on my bed so when I fall asleep, it would look like I wet myself.”
“Which he does.”Jade whispered to himself so no one around him can hear it.
Of course when he made jokes or stuff like that, Jade would always snicker, and always, his father would hear it.
“That is enough you two!” Jade’s father said with discipline. “You guys have been fighting since?”
No one answered. Jade and Newt have been fighting for eleven, almost twelve years. When he thought of that, a memory hit him right up the nose.
_____
Thirteen day after Jade came home to the hospital; it was his Aunt Karen’s birthday. Every year, Aunt Karen would come from New York Houston
Jade and Newt have only had a short time seeing each other, because one when to school, everyday, while the other stayed home and watched Teletubbies, or The Wiggles. Their parents watched them from a pine wood table in the brown painted inside of the cafe.
Jade was playing in the sandbox with a toy shovel and pail. For a fifteen day old, everyone wondered why his parents let him out there in the first place. But Jade didn’t mind, he liked the outdoors. Newt was on the playground, sliding down slides, and climbing the plastic rock wall over and over again.
Jade was looking at his brother wondering, how did he do that, and why can’t I. Normal baby thoughts. Newt started to climb the rock wall, again, when his brother yelled,
“Guypppaa!”
The scream felt so loud to everyone around him. Papers blew in the wind, people’s hat flown of their heads, and the window to the cafe had cracks. Newt wondered what that noise was, but when he turned his head, he lost his footing, and he fell on to the mulch, saying “OWW! DADDDDD!” while crying in pain. He looked above him.
Jade was above his face with a worried look. Jade thought it would make him feel better, but it did not work.
“You baby of-of,” Newt started to say. He couldn’t think of anything that would be worse than curse.
______
After the memory, Jade looked like he was going to faint with his pale skin and his red looking hands, all he thought to do is to fall to the floor. So, he did, but fortunately, his dad caught him.
“Man!” Newt started to say, “Why couldn’t you let him fall?”
“Because I care about him as much as you.” His father replied.
Jade tried to open his eyes.
“Dad, am-am I okay?” Jade asked with barely a touch of tone to is voice.
“You are okay.” His father said with a smile on his face.
“Do you need to stay home?” his father asked with worry.
“No, I’m - I’m okay. I need to go to school anyway.” Jade added.
“All right. I’ll be back late tonight.” His father added as he rushed on his doctor’s coat and went to the maple door.
“Why are you late tonight?” asked Newt.
“My boss.” He replied with a touch of anger in his voice. His boss, Mr. Kennedy, is a man that is…; well he did bad stuff in Jade’s life that was very visual.
Two months ago, Kennedy told Dad that it was time for the house inspection. Why the heck does he do that? Jade told his dad once, that this is the twenty-first century, not seventeen hundreds. But beside the point, anyway, the house inspection involves a dinner, a time to chat in the living room, and health check-ups.
When the dinner course came around, that’s when it got nasty. Jade’s dad made his most famous dish around the house, homemade pizza with spaghetti noodles under the layer of cheese. Everyone looked excited to eat, except for Mr. Kennedy.
“What is this?” he asked like a three-year old.
“Pizza.” Jade added.
“Or as I call it, crap under a layer of carbs.” Mr. Kennedy told Jade.
“Hey!” Newt yelled. “Excuse me jerk face, you don’t make fun of my dad’s cooking. He put his heart and soul in this dish.
“Well,” he said as he looked under the layer of cheese. “It looked like he did, literally.”
Jade got mad. No one made fun of his dad like that. If someone did that, he would knock them out cold.
Jade smiled, then he laughed really softy.
“Look, if you don’t eat this dish yourself, let’s just say….” Jade started to say as he went to the kitchen.
“Son, what are you doing?” he asked with a tone of worry in his voice.
“Its okay Dad, we can give love to him by disrespecting you.” Jade told the table.
No one knew what he was going to do, not even his dad knew. Not even the lamp on the table knew. But all his dad would think is, this is going to get really ugly.
Jade said, “You don’t like noodles, is correct?”
“Yes it is, it looks like a piece of [Authors Note: This word has been replaced with a name of a two year-old T.V show] Teletubbies!” he said with a demanding shout.
“Okay I understand.” as Jade looked to the left of him. He did a quick mischievous smile.
“One thing!” Jade told Mr. Kennedy.
“Yes.”
“Catch!” Jade yelled as he threw the noodles in the orange IKEA bowl and tossed it at him. The only thing the family could think to do is laugh. So they did, even Jade’s dad.
When Mr. Kennedy got the noodles off of him, he looked like a fire hydrant. Everyone stared at each other, in a crisp, cool silence. No one moved a single inch. Until Mr. Kennedy got up from his seat, and headed to the front door. Jade watched him along the way. He looked like a potato with a face on the top and wearing a pinstripe suit.
“You know what?” he asked us with a clam voice.
“Because of you two,” Mr. Kennedy said while he pointed to Jade and Newt.
“If any of you [Authors Note: The word that he said has been replaced with a candy brand.] Resses do something that appalls me, your father will be fired, for the rest of his gosh [Authors Note: First, this guy says lots of bad words, so I’m going to replace them with everyday objects] dam life.” He said, and then he slammed the door and leaving us in silence.
So yeah, Jade though, he knew that potato really, really well. Jade looked at his dad.
“I understand.” He said.
His dad nodded.
“See ya in a bit son.” Dad said as he went out the door to the rainstorm, beating on the city like drums.
“Okay.” Jade said to himself.
“Time to get ready to go to school.”
“You mean hell.” His brother said to Jade.
“Yeah, it’s a possibility.” He replied and went to his room to get ready, but what he thought would be a normal day, but he had a jumpy feeling that his life would change.
But I don’t think the jumpy feeling made a difference because he did everything he would normally do every day to get ready for trip to the hell of education, or as we call it, high school.
So he put on his everyday, lime green shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. After he put his clothes on, he walked into the bathroom so he can spend about twenty-five minutes on his hair.
Some people might think, why do you brush your hair for a long time, but Jade will always tell you. Go see the doctor who invented combs or perfected the hairspray.
Anyway, he got his Five Star binder and went to the kitchen to get breakfast. Since Dad already left, it was up to Mom to cook but Jade would not settle for a single honey oat cluster from his mom, because she a drug dealing momma.
His mom has been drinking and doing drugs for as long as he could remember, which is a long, long time.
So no breakfast, then off to walk to school which is about two miles from his house. So he walked slowly to school.
First off, before we see what Jade’s school is like, I should give you a quick summary, the school is like a prison. Almost all the students at Jefferson High are juvenile delinquents, except for some students, but Jade would kill himself not to walk down a hallway of wedgies or Wet Willys.
So like everyday, he runs to the back entrance so he wouldn’t made fun of anyway. In the morning, the back is the quietest because everyone pretty much rides the bus in the morning and the morning is the roughest time. He knows that because one morning, he broke his leg, and he had to ride the bus because his Dad said that he can really hurt himself walking to school. When he got on the bus, there were kids in the back with shadows and they are acting like five year olds, up on the front, kids with mental issues are fighting over a candy bar, and in the middle, there were the snot rockets and man, they can shoot snot to distinct places.
Jade hated that time. Someone’s coming. He ran to left of the doors to hide behind the short wall.
“Jade, we know you are out here! We will skewer you.” A voice told Jade quietly.
Dang, Jade thought, its Helix, the dumbest, toughest bully at Jefferson High. One kid said that he beat up a twenty-six year old man, and INJURED him. So Jade knew not to get on his dark side.
Jade closed his eyes, said a quick prayer so he wouldn’t get hurt. He jumped out from behind the wall.
“Helix!” Jade yelled. Helix and his gang of devils turned towards Jade.
“Lookin’ for me?” Jade asked with courage in his voice.
Helix’s face turned into a smirk.
“Jade, get ready to have a dented face.” He told Jade with an evil tone in his voice.
James, a person in Helix’s gang and Robert, jumped to Jade with their fists ready for pounding. And like always, they punch Jade in the face so hard, he falls back to the ground. Jade touched his nostrils. Blood, dang blood.
Jade got up really quickly and hit James in the back of the neck with his binder. James fell with a groaning sound. One down, six to go, Jade thought. Robert had an evil and smirk face. He gave Helix a hand gesture, and whenever Jade sees a hand moving as a sign, it isn’t going to be pretty. Helix threw a baseball bat a Robert and he catches it perfectly and swings it at Jade. WHACK! It hit Jade on the back of the head and Jade walked unconsciously and slips in a puddle and lands on the wall.
“AHHHH!!!” Jade screamed as the pain spread through the veins on his back. Robert hit Jade with the bat twice more, then turns Jade, and starts punching him in the face with his right hand, which hand many rings, and made his nose bleed like a waterfall.
Jade thought quickly what to do, he crotch-kicked Robert, which made him on his knees on the ground covering his privates. Helix looked at Robert, then Jade, and back at Robert. He grabbed the bat and swung it in the air, making a 360.
“Get ready to meet your maker.” Helix knocked Jade in the crotch, then the back of the head and the front. Jade fell to the ground, can’t feeling his body, and Helix jumps on Jade.
“See you later!” he said as his gang laughed and followed him into the school building as the bell rings, leaving Jade unconscious on the hard, wet cement. And Jade blacked out.
“Get ready to meet your maker.” Helix knocked Jade in the crotch, then the back of the head and the front. Jade fell to the ground, can’t feeling his body, and Helix jumps on Jade.
“See you later!” he said as his gang laughed and followed him into the school building as the bell rings, leaving Jade unconscious on the hard, wet cement. And Jade blacked out.
_______
Jade opened his eyes slowly. He looked horrible with his bloody face and knuckles, blood stains on his jacket, and cuts and bruises anywhere he could think of.
“Where- where am I?” he said with his voice croaking.
A man was looking above him. His skin was the color of fine caramel chocolate with black hair on his head. He was wearing a blue coat and a red button shirt with a lion logo on the pocket.
“You are in the nurse’s office.” the man told Jade. He laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” he asked Jade.
“I thought nurses were woman, not a man.” Jade added while he laughed again.
“You got a problem with that?!” he asked with a loud tone.
“No sir.” Jade said with the smile off his face disappearing.
The nurse’s face turned back to normal.
“What happened to you?” the nurse asked Jade. Jade didn’t want to answer. He looked to his left, then his right.
“Well?” he asked again. Jade tried to keep his mouth shut to make the nurse change the subject. Jade didn’t want to tell the nurse about the fight for three reasons, 1) He thought he would feel weak for not fighting back, 2) It would end up in the principal’s office, again, 3) Helix is always encouraged when Jade tells on their fights because that’s what makes Helix more popular and stronger.
But somehow, the story must have spilled out of Jade’s mouth because during a couple minutes, the nurse was saying, yeah, and, hmm.
After Jade finished, the nurse shook his head and he told Jade, “Who are you talking about here?”
“Helix, a seventh grader who has been at this school for almost three months.” Jade replied to the nurse.
The nurse laughed.
“You must have bonked your head hard out there.” He said while he touched Jade’s head.
“What do you mean?” he asked with a pinch of anger.
“There is no kid named Helix here, only someone named Felix.” The nurse said.
Now that caught Jade like a fish, how come the nurse didn’t know that Helix existed. He pondered this one the way to his first period class. The hallway was quiet, too quiet. It was never this quiet. Then he remembered, first period already started, so everyone was in their classes. Still, he pondered.
He came up to the door to his first period teacher, Mr. Stupidhead [No really, that’s his name. Whenever he calls on a student, they have to say Sir, or Mr. S or he’ll get mad.] He is a short, middle aged man, with white hair, glasses, and a birthmark on his neck. He always wears brown overalls, a striped shirt, and brown loafers.
“And so class, that is why Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation during the civil war. Now turn your books to page,” he told the class with a gruff voice.
He stared at Jade while he came in the room. The class was looking at him also. He still looked like a wreck, with the tissue up both of his nostrils, the blood stains on his jacket, and the bruises on his arms and legs.
“Jade, your late.” He told him with a hint of anger.
Jade took a piece of paper out of his pocket.
“Excused tardy.” He told the teacher. Jade wasn’t happy at all. He felt like road kill. He just got beaten up by a kid some adults don’t think exist, he didn’t have breakfast, so he was in an appalling mood.
Jade plumped down in his desk, and sighed. Why was he so unfortunate? He had a dad that worked all the time, a mom that did very bad stuff, and had an enemy at high school.
“So anyway,” Mr. S continued. “With the south gaining ahead in the war, what gave the North the power to defeat the Confederacy?”
A person raised their hand.
“Yes, Tracy
Man, Jade thought. She looks fine, he continued brooding. She had black hair, a white shirt covered with a red jacket, brown shoes, and a silver necklace. Jade had her as a crush for three years, ever since he first saw her in geometry class.
“The African-Americans that escaped the south became soldiers for the North so, yeah.” She told Mr. S
“Correct. I can tell you have been studying.” He added.
He looked at the open page of his textbook. He felt like he couldn’t read, or even look forward. All he could think about is Tracy
______
It was a cool, windy winter day on a playground at Tri-State Park
But anyway, the wax museum had to shut their doors down that day for some unknown reason. No one knew why, even little Peter, the son of the owner didn’t know. But really no one cared.
So the day was spent at the park where the class ate lunch, played on the playground, all that. Jade just sat on the swing, with no one beside him. Kids always thought Jade was unusual. He wanted deeply to know what, but every time he asked he was rejected.
He sat there, his body not moving an inch. His face was silent, but his mind was running harder than before.
He sat there, his body not moving an inch. His face was silent, but his mind was running harder than before.
Suddenly, he heard a crunch of mulch. He looked to his right, and standing there was seven year-old Tracy
“Hi.” Tracy
“Do you need someone to hang out with?” she asked. Still no reply.
“Hello. Anyone there?” she finally asked. And that got Jade back to life.
“Oh,” he said softly. “Hi.”
“Are you okay? Cause, all us kids are over there by the pavilion, and you are over here. Alone. Needing something, right?” she told him.
“It’s just,” he started to say, until someone interrupted.
“Hello Jade.” The voice said with a sharp tone. He didn’t look like Helix, but he sounded a lot like him.
“What do you want?” Jade asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said as he waked up to Jade.
“Except for her.” He told Jade with a raspy voice. He tried to grab her hand, but she refused.
“Get away from me Maks.” She intended.
“Or what?” he asked. “Your boyfriend here to help you run.” He continued to mock.
He turned to Jade.
“If you will excuse us, we will leave you with your dust.” Maks asked with this time, a girl’s voice.
“No!” Jade yelled.
“You leave her alone.”
Maks looked at Jade. His eyes changed color. Now blue, pink, yellow, then back at blue.
He let go of Tracy
“Trying to be a hero, eh?” he asked in a robot voice. “Then feel this!” he yelled like a old lady. His face turned into a snake’s head. He jumped at Jade.
______
Jade fell to the ground, pale and cherry red, with the students heading over to his desk.
“ Move! Move over!” Mr. S yelled on the way to Jade. Jade looked like he did earlier this morning. Bad, very bad.
“Boy!” Mr. S started to say, “Speak to me, speak.”
Jade opened his eyes, wondering what the heck is going on.
“I-I, what ha-happened?” Jade asked barely speaking. “Is the snake guy after-after me?”
Mr. S looked shocked.
“No, nothing happened. Are you okay?”
Jade coughed hard.
“I’m okay. I’ll be fine.” He insisted as he got up from the floor. Everyone backed up.
Mr. S walked forward. He looked to Jade’s wrist. A blue bracelet was glowing.
“Jade, what’s happening to your wrist?” a student asked.
He turned his head to look at it. Surely enough, it was glowing baby blue. He had that bracelet as long as he can remember, but it never glowed once.
“I-I don’t know. This has never happened before.” He told everyone. He coughed again.
“Better finish up the lesson Mr. S, before the bell,” Jade said until he was interrupted by the bell. He grabbed his things and headed to the door until Mr. S stopped him.
“Are you okay, because if you need to ask me anything, just stop by, ok?” Mr. S asked.
“Hmm. Oh, I’ll try.” Jade replied, and left the room, not uttering another word, closing the door behind him.
Mr. S smiled and laughed, and oddly enough, morphed into Helix.
He looked at his watch.
“That little [Author’s Note: I will now be bleeping the words out. Thank you]!#@%*”he told himself, and then he morphed back into Mr. S and went out to the hall.
Jade didn’t know about that last part, he just went to his next class, not knowing about Mr. S. Now the halls were crazy, with jocks giving wedgies to the nerds, the snot rockets are having competitions on ‘Who Snot Can Fly?’ and the mental dude’s are screaming down the hall about Miley Cyrus. Yeah, this is normal, Jade thought.
The next class he went to, it was normal. But the next class, the same. Then lunch swept by, no problems there. The fourth period class however, is interesting.
Mr. Rockford is his Physical Education teacher. He is a tall man with cut hair like the navy, white shirt, with a ketchup stain, and blue short shorts. Cool dude.
What Jade didn’t know is this. Remember Mr. S, that teacher that morphed into Helix, that’s not Mr. S, he is Helix. So during first period, a while back, we last saw him, he was walking out the door to the big hallway. He walked slowly to a door, marked, CUSTIODIANS ONLY, but he walked in.
The janitor’s closet was a wreck, and I thought janitors clean the school, not trash it, but beside the point. The room was dark, and not well lit with some metal shelves and lots, lots, and LOTS of toiletry.
Mr. S morphed back into Helix, and walked to a shadow on the other side of the room.
“So, how was your time?” he asked in a creepy voice. He pulled out a body, tied up and muffled, the real Mr. S.
He coughed a couple of times when Helix cut the rope with his finger.
“Why did you do this?” he asked quietly with wheezing time to time.
“You don’t need to know!” Helix screeched. “It is none of your business.” Helix added then he threw Mr. S to the wall.
“Now it is time get ready for another class” he said as he threw Mr. Rockford in with rope all around him. Helix laughed and he morphed into Mr. Rockford
“Adios, my prey.” He whispered and left the closet, laughing.
_________
“Hey! Give me back my gym shorts!” Jade yelled at the three older boys.
“Ha, ha! Try to catch them.” One of the boys yelled.
“Hey Eugene
“Flecther, Molina! What did you do to this skinny, weak kid? No offense Dunns.” Mr. Rockford told them.
Jade looked up at him with an unpleasant look on his peach face.
“Some taken!” he said to coach. But I guess he didn’t hear him because, he just continued to do what he would normally do, mess with the scar on his right arm.
His Gym class was the worst class of the whole day. Rockford
Everyone gathered in the bleachers, waiting for Mr. Rockford to come outside. So while everyone waited, they just did pranks like some kids slip whoopee cushions on the bleachers, then there would be a band of farting noises.
Mr. Rockford walked back and forth in front of the kids.
“Okay class! Today we will do something that will make you cry to your mommies!” he yelled in his bullhorn.
“Dodge ball!” he told the kids.
Everyone screamed. This gym class did military stuff, and now they are playing a game where the can knock the snot out of each other, and trust me, there were lots of grudges.
Jade started walking in the gym from the outside doors, with Mr. Rockford closely in front of him. He noticed something on the back of his neck, something black and green in a small square space, in fact, he thought, it looked like a computer chip. What is he thinking? Maybe he is just so excited to play a game, he is just losing his marbles.
_________
Mr. Rockford split everyone up into teams, the blue and the periwinkle. The blue team stands for being the toughest of the tough, the teens that can press hundred pounds, while the periwinkle, small and weak, they were. With the kids who cry over paper cuts, and the one who are only allowed to watch G-rated movies.
Of course, Jade went on the periwinkle team with two other kids who he didn’t know.
One of the two kids snorted.
“We always lose. We are the weaklings.” He told Jade.
He looked at the kid. He was small, freckled-faced with a dimple on his check.
“Yeah.” Jade replied. “I knew that.”
“Thought I should give you a heads-up.” The kid replied.
Jade looked at the kid. He was short, stubby, wearing white gym shirt, and maroon pants.
“What is your name?” Jade asked.
The kid turned toward Jade.
“Why do you want to know who I am? Do you think I’m… I’m… a traitor?” the kid replied.
Jade looked at him in shock.
“No, what are you talking about? Who is a traitor? WHAT ARE YOU ASKING ME?!” Jade asked in horror.
Then something weird happened. Purple smoke started to swirl around the kid and Jade. The kid looked at Jade. His eyes turned into a dark purple, and his hair turned to a lavish white. The kid started to rise in the air, with the ground shaking below him. The ground started to crumble as the air grew thicker, and thicker.
Jade’s bracelet started to grow to a bright, baby blue. The light blazed through the smoke.
“JADE KATER HAROLDSON,” the kid commanded. His voice turned into a rumble.
“My last name isn’t Haroldson! What’s happening?!” Jade asked with fear.
The kid’s head did a three hundred- sixty degree around the neck. He started at Jade.
“They are coming to attack you. You are the one of legend. You will die by the minions of Price.”
Jade’s eyes started to water. He had so many questions about what the kid said.
“What is happening?! Just tell me! YOU NEED TO!” Jade started to bellow.
But his questions could not be answered as the smoke raised to what seemed like the top of the world, as the kid did to. BOOM! The room exploded with Jade falling down a tunnel into darkness. Falling and falling until...
