Thousands and thousands of years later, after a volcanic eruption, I wake up from a solemn sleep. I find myself with beautiful minerals and crystals shining on me. But one thing that worries me, I can’t spot my family. I get tumbled over by some other rocks, where I reach the beach. There, I see many igneous rocks, glassy, and as black as night. I realize all the rocks here are obsidian. Finally, I spot them. My family. My family is getting washed with the cool ocean water constantly, no wonder why all of the rocks are obsidian. I run toward them, and embrace them with a hug. My family is happy to see me and is glad I’m not hurt. 

But when I look back at them, my parents, my older sister, and my older brother are frowning at me. Abruptly, I realize, I am the only one in the family standing out, with beauty. I am ashamed, I am the only one who is beautiful, and they aren’t. They should look good too, I thought. They do, of course, looking glassy is fine, but looking black isn’t. Of course, we want to look colorful and have useful minerals.

But, it’s not my fault I’m this way, and my family isn’t. My family was brought over to the tides, and after the volcano erupted, I didn’t tumble over. The tides washed over them, which cooled them so quickly, they couldn’t get any minerals. They were cooled and solidified.

Just then a huge wind comes and knocks all the rocks into each other. We get crushed, broken, and smashed all into each other until we’re all little bits and pieces. It’s starting to rain. We float away into the ocean. Not knowing what’s happening or what will happen.

Months later I find myself with pebbles, and tiny rocks on me, other things too. I roll over to the tides and look at my reflection. I am a big, ugly, rock, with little bits and pieces, and many layers. I have been under cementation and compaction. I realize I am a sedimentary rock. So are the others. I turn around, it looks as if they are fewer rocks than before. Not all are ugly like I am though. I don’t see my family here either. 

Sighing, I walk randomly across the beach, looking at all the other rocks, enjoying, and some bored. I suddenly hear my name: “Rhyolina!” I stop, and listen again: “Rhyolina!” I recognize that voice, that’s my brother. I look around. I don’t see him. I decided to call his name back: 

“Cosmos Obsidian!” No answer. I called again, “Cosmos Obsidian!” 

He calls my name back, with a question: “Rhyolina! Where are you?”

“Cosmos Obsidian! In the middle of the crowd!” I replied back.

“Rhyolina! At the tides!”

If my brother is at the tides, that means, the rest of my family must be there too. I roll myself as fast as I can. I was right. My family is there. I’m still the one who stands out from them, except, I’m the ugly one, and they look much better than me. This time I frown at them. My older sister scrunches her face at me.

“Dacite Obsidian!” My father scolds her.

“We must change our names, now that we’re sedimentary,” my brother says.

“Cosmos Obsidian is right,” my father says.

“I’ll change my name to Sandy Sediment,” I say.

“Okay, I’ll change my name to Conglomerate Sediment,” my father says.

“I’ll change mine to Cosmos Sediment,” my brother says.

“I'll change my name to Breccia Sediment,” my mother says.

“Is it necessary?” my sister asks.

“Yes dear,” my mother says.

“Fine. Shale Sediment.”

My family and I try to live normal lives, the days and nights passing. Weeks, and months. Years and years. My family and I have gotten buried from all those years of rolling. We are buried in the ground, with a bunch of other rocks. Suddenly, it starts to get hot, and hotter, and hotter. I feel like I’m getting pushed down and smushed. I’m under heat and pressure. 

Millions, and millions of years later. I find myself looking at my reflection in the ocean. I remember that I went through heat and pressure. I must be a metamorphic rock now. I am a schist rock, with many minerals of mica on me. I am beautiful. So is my family. No one is frowning now. 

I’ve changed my name to Schist Metamorph. I am a foliated metamorphic rock. Because of my banding, my mica minerals are aligned with each other. 

My father has changed his name to Captain Metaconglomerate. He is non-foliated, because of the beautiful crystals he’d gotten when he was sedimentary. Those crystals weren’t able to band. The same thing has happened to the rest of my family.

My mother changed her name to Marble Metamorph. My brother changed his name to Cosmos Metamorph. My sister didn’t want to change her name, but my mother insisted she had to anyway. So she changed her name to Hornfels Metamorph.

We love to roll around. We’ve rolled so much that we’ve even passed states. I don’t know what state I’m in now. A lot of other rocks have also joined us on our roll. Some say they feel a volcano will erupt soon. I don’t feel anything, I’m not sure why.

Grrrrrr. Grump. Grrrrrr. Grump. Everyone stops. All of us feel it. The volcano is going to erupt soon. The thing is, we don’t know where the volcano is. We roll some more, to see if we can find the volcano.

The next thing we know, the volcano erupts. We all realize we’ve been standing on it. We’re all thrown back onto the ground. Lava washes over us, making us melt from the heat.

Millions, and millions of years later. My family and I are together again. We’re all beautiful igneous rocks that have been cooled and solidified. Since we’re igneous rocks, we have to change our names, but not back to our original ones, because we’re not extrusive anymore. We were extrusive when we came out of the volcano but now were intrusive, because we were outside of the volcano.

I’ve changed my name to Gabroanna Igneous, my brother, like always, has kept his original name. Cosmos. He just changes his last name every time of the rock cycle. Which is now Igneous. So his last name is Igneous. 

My father likes keeping the Captain part in his name, so he’s now Captain Magmigneous. My mother changed her name to Peridotite Igneous. My sister is more than glad to change her name. She’s changed it to Granite Igneous.

We spend most of our time playing, my siblings and I always knock into each other to see who’s the strongest. Of course, Cosmos always wins. A few days later, a family comes over. Not any family. Not a rock family. A giant family. Well, they look like giants. But I know they're actually humans. They’re a human family. There is a girl. She walks over to my family and me. She kneels down and smiles at us. We just stay still. I’ve heard rumors that they will kill you, and if not, then keep you injured. The girl has blue eyes and brown hair. Her skin is white. She picks my mother, my sister, my brother, and me up into her hands and stands up.

“They’re so pretty!” The girl yells.

I’m really frightened now. Especially since I can’t get out of her firm grip. My father, who’s still down below, rolls over her foot and bites her.

“Ow!” She yelps.

She looks down at my father. Then somewhere in the distance. “Mark! Why’d you throw that rock at me!” She yells at him.

Whoever Mark is, yells back: “I didn’t throw anything!”

The girl doesn’t seem to believe him. She picks up my father with her left hand. She seems like she’s about to throw him. Oh no! I’m panicking. But then she stops. She brings the rock to her face, and screams: “This is so beautiful!”

“Thanks, Mark!” She says, to whoever Mark is.

“I did something?” He replies.

She holds us in both of her hands and brings us close to her face. I’m afraid she’s about to eat us. Then, we all start to bite her hands. In her case, we feel pinchy to her.

“Ow, these rocks are a bit pinchy,” she says.

She put us in a purple bucket. She holds the bucket and brings it with her. She brings us into this place that she goes into. She sits down. The huge thing starts moving. My family and I try to get out of the bucket, but we're all on top of each other.

Some hours later, she gets out of the place and brings us somewhere. She takes us out carefully, we come out clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. She admires us with her soft hands and strong grip. After some time she puts us in a box, puts a soft thing on us, locks us up, and leaves us alone.

Oh no. It’s starting to feel hot. I’m squished too. I can’t become a metamorphic rock here!