I always thought I was normal. From the beginning my life was, that is till the second semester of eighth grade began and everything I knew changed.

My friends and family lied to me about who I was my whole life and apparently thought telling me later then sooner, that I wasn’t human was the best choice. They were wrong like always, and I was the one who paid for their mistake.

Chapter One: The beginning of the chaos
It was a Wednesday, also known as the dreaded gym day. I hated gym, everything about it. From the locker room, to the running, to the people. The teachers were the worst, they acted liked they cared but tortured us to no end. When we had to run they would yell at us to go faster and add more time to all of us when someone walked. All I could think is that you torture us by making us take gym, and then you go and make us run and play games like basketball. To top it off you then tell us we should all be playing school sports when some of us can’t stand them, obviously like me.

So this was what was basically going through my mind when I walked into my third period class, geography. After that would be gym, the evil of all evils. This week was the mile; we had to run it in less than 12 minutes or be forced to run it again next week, which is basically what would be undoubtedly happening to me.

This week we were covering Europe. There were about thirty countries on just half of it and some were so small you needed a magnifying glass for them.

Miss. Meryl, our teacher, has amazing curly black hair that reaches her shoulders when curled but goes down to the middle of her stomach when straight. She was slightly chubby with a good from, and had the best teaching methods.

To go over maps, she would put them on the projector and we would all have to guess which country she pointed to on our turn. If we were right we moved on, if we were wrong we were out, simple. It worked really well though and helped with memorizing the map more then I thought it would when we began first quarter. The key is you’re pressured to know them and so you try to think of them and you pay attention when other people get one you don’t know so if she asks you what that one is, you may get it right.

My train of thought was ruined when the phone rang and Miss. Meryl went over to answer it. We were going over questions that would help us with our upcoming test.

“Melissa, you’re needed up at the office. Take the bunny pass.”

To say I was confused was an understatement. Everyone ohhh’d under their breath. I would have done the same thing, cause there was one thing I could always count on in a school day, that I never had to go to the office and face our principle. Our principle wasn’t scary or anything, she was just odd. Her name was Mrs. Crinski, but everyone called her Mrs. Crackski, because we all thought she took happy pills on a normal basis.

I grabbed my books, then went over to Miss. Meryl’s desk and grabbed the bunny pass. The bunny pass was a total joke in one simple way. It was a pass shaped after some kid’s bunny. That some kid was Rocco, I know weird name, he was a crazy honor student obsessed with his pet bunny. If you had a class with him you would end up hearing a bunny update on everything that bunny did. It was sometimes quite disturbing, and I listened to it about three times a day. Including this class.

I walked out of the room into the hall, and began my walk of shame to the principle’s office. I never went there. I’m not one of those extremely smart geeky people (Rocco), nor am I a troublemaker (Jeffery, my one friend’s boyfriend). I stayed under the radar as they would say, to good for trouble, to shy to be seen.

I finally made it to the office of dread. I wonder how many kids are actually afraid of their principles, not many I would say. I told the secretary who I was and signed in. She told me to take a seat in one of the three chairs they had off the side of her desk. When I turned to see them I noticed two were empty, one was already full.

To my anguish it was Jeffrey. I would never understand what Charlie saw in him but then again Charlie wasn’t fully sane either. She was my absolute best friend, crazy and the poster child for dysfunctional families.

Jeffrey was arrogant, annoying and a total troublemaker. If something odd or stupid happened you blamed Jeff, and you were often right. I do have to admit he isn’t half bad in the looks category though. With his naturally straight blonde hair that reached his shoulders and his butterscotch eyes framed by long brown lashes, strong facial features and lean body, I even had a crush on him. That is until I learned he was a troublemaker, which for the record disappointed more than just me and intrigued Charlie even more.

I walked over and sat in the chair farthest from Jeff, but that didn’t keep him form noticing me.

“Hey, Liss, what crime did you commit this week?” he asked me.

“Surprisingly none that would get me noticed,” I answered back. I may be a good girl and rarely make it to the principal’s office but that didn’t mean I was against causing trouble. Especially when it came to making fun of people, namely Jeff.

“You sure about that?” he asked dubiously. One thing I was not was a liar so why he thought I would lie is beyond me. There is only one word for people like him, creeps, and I love pointing that out to the dumb minded (Charlie).

I didn’t get to answer him back cause at the moment the secretary called me and lead me into the principal’s office shutting the door quietly behind her.

Mrs. Crinski’s office itself was quite bare; all it consisted of was her ancient wooden desk, a super old computer sitting on top of that, a brown leather chair scuffed form use, and a few pictures from school activities hung on both sides of the walls. Sadly, there were no windows so it was basically like being in a psyche ward without the strait jacket.

Mrs. Crinski sat behind her desk in the leather chair looking like a hundred year old statue. Her grey hair that looked almost white was in a bun in the back of her head, her face had a bird like quality to it and her piercing brown eyes that bordered on black where so focused they could probably look into someone’s soul. Little did I know they were looking a little bit deeper than that.

Chapter Two: The beginning of the confusion

“Hello Melissa.”

“Um, hi Mrs. Crinski I don’t remember doing anything wrong so will you please tell me why I’m here,” I said back, patience is just not a virtue I hold dear.

“You will be great,” was what she said then she got up from her chair and started walking closer to me at a quite surprising speed. She stopped when she was close enough to touch me but not to close to make me step back.

“Mrs…..”

“Child be quiet and clear your mind,” she stared at me with an intensity that made me want to do exactly as she said to. Then I did, I emptied my mind of everything without even registering that was what I was doing.

She lifted her hand in front of my face and placed it on my forehead. I was frozen by the gaze in her eyes and too afraid to move and disappoint her. She mumbled some words in a foreign tongue I never heard before and then my stomach jerked forward. It felt like there was some hidden force lying within me that was getting trying to get lose. I didn’t want it to, it stayed hidden for so long why couldn’t it just stay that way. I wanted to scream at her to stop but Mrs. Crinski didn’t care what I wanted.

She whispered another word with force and my mouth glued shut. It was like she super glued my mouth together. It hurt and my whole body was starting to shake, the force was gaining power and pushing harder. She uttered one last word with the notion that she was exhausted from what ever she just did. Then the force exploded backward within me making me grab my stomach from running away on me. I stared at my principle in horror but she just watched in fascination. Then the force erupted but it didn’t erupt like a volcano spreading disaster, instead it spread an unusual calmness.

My eyes were throbbing and my contacts felt like they were scratching at my eyes and making it harder to see, my body shook with excitement and right then it felt like I could run a whole marathon in a few minutes. I was more aware of the bright lights burning my eyes and the coldness that came from the small fan sitting on her desk that I hadn’t noticed before.

I felt odd but complete, yet I also had the sense that I was missing an essential part of me. My eyes mimicked Mrs. Crinski’s look of fascination but was quelled with the fact of the contacts itching to come out. My mouth released and I took in a few well needed, deep breaths.

“You can take out your contacts and throw them away, you wouldn’t need them anymore,” she said then pointed to a white trash bin sitting behind her desk.
“But I need them to see,” I said.
“Not anymore Melissa, now take them off so I can explain to you what everyone else will soon know, I will be right back I have to make an announcement,” she said then left the room.
I obeyed and threw away my lenses. I closed my eyes to afraid to open them in case my eyesight still sucked. I hoped my principle wasn’t lying cause right then I didn’t want to explain to my mom all that had just happened. It was just too weird, to plain weird.
I opened my eyes then gasped. I could see, I could see better then I ever was able to with my glasses on. I could see the parts in the walls where the cream paint was threatening to peel off. I saw the little dust particles floating around the room doing their own special dance. Then Mrs. Crinski’s voice came on the intercom and broke my calm façade that was holding up so well.
“Morning students, today is a special day. All I have to say is Congratulations and welcome to Magic 101. Your teachers will explain this all to you in detail, but some of you may already know what I’m talking about. If you have already been trained please head up to the cafeteria to be tested and placed into the correct class. Thank you for your patience and cooperation. Have a great day.”

‘Magic 101, ‘trained’, what is this military boot camp. Is it April Fools because this so not funny. All I wanted then was to go home and crash under my warm, familiar covers. Instead I did the next best thing. My head felt like it was swimming and everything became blurry, then before I knew it my head whacked against the deep red carpeted floor. My last thought was that the carpet looked like blood. Then everything went black.