Hello, my name is Clyde Marsh, I’m thirteen years old and I live in a neighborhood in Lafayette, Ca. Where I have  my four best friends, Channing C. Johnson, Daniela Sanchez, Maria Martinez, and Ana Ordaz. We all met in the fourth grade, we had different teachers. I first met Channing in recess, where we both crashed against each other, I met maria a couple of days later, we had to do a worksheet together, a month passed until I met Daniela and Ana. We didn’t talk much at first, but over time that changed. After a while I noticed we lived very closed to each other do we always used to hang out. There was this electric box where we used to sit and talk for hours.  It’s been three years since I met them, they are still my best friends.

It was april 20, 2014.  Almost the end of the school year, there was still a month or so left.  We all went to the same school since it was the closest to our parents to drive to. You can say that we were never the “cool” kids, we were more like the anti- social/nerdy kids, we would always be on time to class or at least most of the times, other people would usually call us the A kids or the geeks. People calling us names never really bothered us. Apart from being the “A kids” we all played sports, Channing played baseball, Daniela did volleyball and so did Maria, Ana did soccer, and I did soccer. Although we played sports they were the least important in the school, football was our most liked sport, which is where all the “cool” kids would be. I never tried football, I never liked the idea of getting hit, it always scared me to know that I could get injured or the worst break my bones.

The last day of school was just weeks away. We were all really excited for summer because we would all finally be able to go on all the roller coasters in Six Flags. We all had to be at least five feet tall, we were all short in sixth grade. Some of us have had our growth spurts by the middle of the school year, some had just been growing slowly but we are all over five feet tall. One week before school a new kid came into my class, his name was Jake Fontes. It was very strange since there was only a week left of school. I started to question myself as why he had gone? The only thing that came to mind was that his parents probably didn’t want him to be laying around the house bored with nothing to do. He sat next to me in math class. He looked really shy but he was strange. All the time we were in class he never looked to the sides not once, he would rarely move,it's  like if he were to be a statue or something. The teacher called on him to see if he had the answer to a question of the board, he made a quick look and without even a gasp he shouted out the answer. It amazed me how fast he got the answer, he didn’t even have to write it down. The bell rang and it was time to go to my last period, language arts. I had maria in that class, five minutes after the second bell rang I saw Jake come in to the class. After he walked in he later then apologized to the teacher and went to go sit down. Again no movement at all. He was really strange. After school channing, maria, daniela, and I were hanging out,  Ana was out her her parents at a restaurant. After a while of talking I mentioned Jake and nobody  it was weird that he didn’t talk nor move at all, they thought he was probably scared since it was all new to him, the school, classes, and people. We just forgot about it and brought in another subject.

It’s the last day of school, FINALLY!! After ten months of studying and waking up early we finally get a break. My friends and I were in  the cafeteria discussing about what we were going to do this summer and of course the first thing we think of is six flags. After talking for a bit I notice that the kid Jake is sitting alone so I tell my friends to go sit with him. After deciding if we should or not, we got up  went and tried to talk to him but as we go there he stood up and left to class. I looked at my friends and said “you see! He is weird!”. They looked back at me  and said “he's just shy”, I didn’t say nothing back.  There was only a couple of minutes left of school, I was anxious to leave already. The bell rang and of course like any other school there was people crying and saying ‘I’m going to miss you”. You know the people that always say they are going to keep in contact with you over the summer but actually don’t, yeah those people are in every school.

One day I was hanging out with channing and as we were talking we noticed a moving truck go into our neighborhood. We lived in houses and it was a pretty calm and quiet neighborhood, except when it was the weekends or summer. We were always the ones making noise in the weekends specially because we would always play hide and seek and then hang out at a little park that was in the middle of the neighborhood and stay there until late at night. Channing and I went to go see the people that had came in a moving truck. After walking around the neighborhood trying to find the truck we finally found it after eight minutes. Once we got to the truck I saw a face that seemed familiar to me like if I had seen him somewhere before, after minutes of trying to figure out who it was I finally knew who it was, I turned to Channing and said “dude that’s Jake from school”. He looked back at me surprised. We left right after we saw him.

It had been a week since jake came to the neighborhood, ever since he’s been here things have gotten really strange. All of my neighbors started to stay inside instead of going out and walk around or saying hi to everyone that came in their path. It seemed as if something made them angry, no one was acting the same. Ever since jake got here I haven’t seen him nor his parents leave their house. I decided to do something stupid,  something I had never done before. Go talk to a family that I knew nothing about. Their house was pitch black I couldn’t see nothing from outside. As I tried to look inside the house I kept seeing weird movements of people but without actually being there. I have no idea if it was just my imagination or something was actually going on. After actually knocking I saw Jake’s dad wearing all black and looking kind of “dead” as he was really tired. I asked for Jake but he said he wasn’t there, I said all right and left. While I was walking back to my house I saw jake from the corner of my eye but when I turned around he wasn’t there.

A month passed and nothing had changed since Jake got to the neighborhood. One day I was walking around by myself and I heard steps behind me but when I turned around nothing was there. I just kept walking for a little more and as I was walking I remembered how I watched the movie IT by Stephen King and how he made  people have illusions although he was a monster behind his clown costume. I wondered if Jake could be a monster? That was just nonsense after all then I remembered I read this one short story named The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, where aliens turned out the electricity in a neighborhood and watched them go crazy, But then again that was just nonsense of mine. I got home after I finished walking around and asked my mom if there was anything weird that she had noticed about the new family that had moved into the neighborhood. The strangest part was that she told me that there were no new people in the neighborhood. I was freaked out for a moment and went to Jake’s house, whose I found completely abandoned. I went to go talk to my friends about how Jake’s house was abandoned and no one seemed to notice that there was actually someone living in that house. I told them that I asked my mom if she had noticed anything weird about them and she said that there was never any new neighbors. After talking with them every one though I was crazy for over reacting and that they probably moved out, I finally gave up and forgot all about it. Everyone seemed to go back to how they were a month after I found out that jake had moved. It might of all had been an illusion of mine. I mean what if there never was someone named Jake? What if there was never actually a kid that came the week to school? What if it was all a dream? It was probably my mind playing games with me.

Years passed after the Jake thing and the strangest part was that I saw him after three years walking into my math class one week before school was almost out.

The moral of the story is don’t try to find the strange in people who are new to a place, They might be scared or shy, or maybe they might not exist you never know if you mind is playing games on you.