Sunday, October 22, 1961. It is 6 p.m. right now. In twenty
minutes I will see a lunar eclipse. I rushed downstairs to the door and waited and waited. I saw people setting up lawn chairs and other kids playing in the fields. I was getting ready to run out the door. “Daddy!!! Come on!! We are going to miss the lunar eclipse!” I stamped my foot impatiently. Daddy came down and he looked upset. “Ariana! You do not stomp your feet! I know you are excited about this, but that gives you no excuse to misbehave! I can take away all the fun things you’re going to do and make you finish your math!
You don’t want that do you?” I sighed. “No sir. I’m sorry. I’m just excited. Plus, this is the first time I get to experience a lunar eclipse with the cool kids!”
Daddy rolled his eyes. “Ariana, I understand you wanting to fit in, I was thirteen as well; but tell me honestly, what in the whole wide world makes these kids ‘cool.‘ I think that everyone is popular and cool in their own way.” I shook my head. “Oh, daddy. You poor, poor soul. You’re old! Things were different in your time. I am fourteen and this isn’t the dinosaur ages! Just, let me do my thing ok?” Daddy threw his hands up in the air and sighed. “Alright, have it your way. I’ll leave you alone.” Then, mom came down and said, “Alright guys, enough dilly-dallying! We gotta get out of the house! Come on! Let’s go!” Mom does not like to be behind schedule. We got out the door and we set out the lawn chairs. Then one of the cool girls called out to me,”Hey Ari! Are you coming?” I looked back at daddy and mom,who was struggling to get the chair open. I shrugged and thought to myself, they can do it themselves. They don’t need my help. And I set off to go sit on the picnic blankets they set up.
“Heyyy Ari,” Terry said. She had blonde hair,just like all the other popular girls. “So, we think that you can totally be one of us.” she said. I suddenly got excited. After being an outcast for so long, I could finally start fresh! I could finally be respected! Then Terry said one word that made it all come crashing down. “But….you need to do a few things before we can accept you.” She looked disdainfully at my short brown hair.”First of all, you need your hair to be blonde.” I was surprised. “Why blonde? It would make sense to dye my hair a really crazy color like pink, but why blonde?” Reya laughed. “Are you serious? It’s because all the prettiest girls are blonde, and to be one of us, you gotta be blonde.” When she saw my face, she said, “A single blonde streak will do. Also,” she looked me up and down. “You need some new clothes. Like, Gucci or Hernadez or Lucy’s or something like that.”
I scoffed. “Why?” All the girls looked at me like I had asked why does the sun revolve around the Earth. I may be dumb, but I’m not that stupid. Jenna spoke up. “Because you need to look rich! But we don’t need to look rich because we’re already rich. I don’t know why you wear clothing like that, I’ve seen the car your dad pulls up in. Why do you wear ugh…Levi’s?” I rolled my eyes. “Cos I like their jeans. They have nice clothes. Is there something wrong with that?” I looked them square in the eye until Terry said, “Fine, but you better at least have an 80-dollar handbag visible on Monday.” Then, they all huddled together and whispered. I started getting a little nervous. What if I came on too strong and they decided to kick me out? I would be out of the popular kids before I even could get in! Then, a girl named Yzma spoke. “Fine, but first, you have to do a challenge.” I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Ok…?” “You have to go to the power box and turn off all the power. After that..” Yzma wiggled her eyebrows and showed what was in a red backpack she had in her lap. “We’re gonna dress up like monsters. Remember Tristan from Maple Street? I heard that they had a power outage and they thought it was monsters! Absolute chaos! The look on the people’s faces was hilarious!” I gulped. Tristan. Would I hurt him like that? One time at lunch, when he told he needed someone to talk to, he told all about that July day. A man named Charlie had killed Pete Van Horn, his dad’s friend. He had nightmares for weeks after that incident. It truly scared him. He told me that in confidence.
“Tristan cried like a big baby! It was hilarious! Let’s do it again! We’ll make these people scared out of their wits! I mean, it is October! People won’t mind getting a little spooked!” I sat there, not knowing what to do. On the one hand, I could do this trick, and be accepted finally. The con: that meant scaring a bunch of people, plunging the town into complete darkness, and risking getting reprimanded by mom and daddy. But it’s not bad if you don’t get caught. And Yzma was right– it is October. They would understand that we did it for laughs. However, something in my gut told me that we would get caught, that these girls would hang me out to dry, and maybe even have Tristan finding out and possibly hurting him. So without thinking twice, I made my decision.
“No. Absolutely not. What if we truly scare these people? What if we get caught? What will happen if we get in trouble? I’m sorry, but I am not taking part in this.” I said what I had to say, got up, and walked back to mom and dad. Mom looked at me with slight annoyance. “Thanks for helping me with the lawn chairs Ariana.” I blushed. “I’m sorry mom. I’ll bring out the cooler for you.” And I did just that. Then the popular girls came over, grabbed a soda from the cooler and spilled it all over me. “Sorry, Ari.” Terry said, looking smug. So I grabbed Dr. Pepper, the soda that Terry said only broken people drink and poured all over her. “Sorry, not sorry, Terry.”
Next thing I knew, we were both on the ground, wrestling and daddy had to come break us up! Then he dragged me over to the side and started yelling at me. “Ariana Jess Williams! Why on the great green earth would you do such a thing? If someone tries to hit you, tell someone!” I swallowed my anger,and slight guilt I had. Trust me, I only feel guilty because daddy was upset. “Now, I am going to let this go, but you don’t get your phone for a week, understand?” “Yes, daddy. I understand.” So mom took me inside and bandaged me up, and I got some fresh dry clothes. We all stood outside waiting for the eclipse. Then,it happened. The way the moon covered the sun..it was beautiful. They say a lunar eclipse lasts for an hour tops. I know this because mom experienced one when she was five. One hour became two, two became four, four became eight.
Even after I went to bed, it was extremely dark. What was going on?
*****************************************************
Monday, October 23, 7:45 a.m. It was still darker than night. Usually, here in Florida, it’s light by 6 a.m. in October. So it was quite a confusing thing to have it so dark. Daddy and Mr. McCornmick and Mrs. McCornmick stood by the cars and talked. “I don’t know what is wrong, I really don’t. This wouldn’t be too bad of a thing, but it is unusually dark for this hour. It’s much too dark to drive. School has been canceled, what is happening?” Mrs.
McCornmick was in a tizzy. Then Mr. Money-Sal, the chief police officer, came around and made announcements. There were also guards around the water tank near our city. That water tank runs on solar power. The sun is what makes the water clean. That entire tank is based on solar and battery power. That tank holds at least 20 gallons of water, and if it were to explode or break…I’d rather not think about that.
Tristan came and stood next to me. “Hey.” I waved. “Hi.” “It’s so dark. I wonder why.” I nodded. “Me too I-” Then I stopped. Something flashed across the sky. “What was that?” I asked. Now it was Tristan’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know.” Everyone was whispering and murmuring. The popular girls were sitting on the grass, acting like that this happens all the time and is completely normal. Oh well. Whatever. They saw me with Tristan and Yzma was the lucky girl who got to come over and give grief to Tristan and I. “Oh. Hello little crybaby. I heard that Lionel kicked you off the football team because he called you a crybaby. Said that he couldn’t talk to a stutterer.” “I-I-I-I…” Tristan said. “You-you-you-you, ha! See what I mean? And you Wacky Ari. I’m watching you.” Then she turned to walk away, but froze when this sound came.
It was like a door creaking amplified by eight. It was a loud groan,like it was disturbed from a peaceful slumber and stubbed its toe on its nightstand (which has happened to me before). We all looked in horror as we found out where it was coming from. The water tank. “It must be the pressure! It’s building up!” Daddy yelled. One second, it was barely holding itself together, the next– BOOM!
It exploded and gallons of water seeped out like in an angry wave. I couldn’t escape it and it swept me and Tristan away. I tried to hold Tristan with all my might, and he held on to a pole. But with our slick hands, I couldn’t get a good grip and let go. I got thrashed and bashed by the waves, struggling to keep my head above water. Getting scraped and scratched, until finally I could find a tree stump and held on for dear life. Then, I dragged myself to a tangle of bushes and passed out.
***********************************************************
I woke up to brown eyes peering down at me. I jumped with a start.
“Who the heck are you!? What are you going to do to me? Have you poisoned me? Have you-” I looked down at my hands. They were still sore, but they were bandaged. My knees had aloe vera on them, and were wrapped as well. I moaned and slumped down, feeling lethargic. The unknown figure came over to me. Its voice was distorted. Before I passed out again, I could barely make out the words, “You should rest.”
The next time I woke up, I felt less weak and dizzy. I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up. I looked to my left and I saw the unknown figure sitting there- it was actually a girl! She had short red hair, redder than the Florida tomatoes. She had brown eyes and sun-kissed skin, and lots of freckles all over her body. She wore a red and black flannel shirt with a ripped white top, shorts, and black boots. “Are you ok? You bonked your head pretty hard.” So I wasn’t hallucinating when I heard a thick voice. Her accent was thick, but her words floated like butterflies. I couldn’t speak so I just nodded, but stopped because I felt like I was gonna puke.
“Good. I saw your bruises and noticed how banged up you got, so I fixed them for you.” So that’s who fixed my hands. I wanted to ask her who she was, what happened, and how she escaped the flood. But I couldn’t speak. The girl squatted down next to me and started to squeeze my hand. “This helps get blood pumping to your hands. Papí taught me this a long time ago.” She had a far away tone in her voice. Sad too. “I’m Ashe. Who are you?” I mustered an ounce of strength and whispered. “I’m Ariana. Thank you. For all of this.”
Ashe smiled. “You’re welcome. You must’ve gotten swept away in the flood. I did too,but I was able to break free. I don’t know about Mamma though. I hope she’s ok. Where are your parents?” Tears started to leak from my eyes as I said, “I don’t know.” Ashe nodded. “Did you see that meteor that came flying during the lunar eclipse? I’ve got something to show you.” She held onto my hand and helped me stand up. Then we walked to a clearing with sunflowers and lilacs, until I saw the thing that flashed by. No. No way! Was that a-?
“A spaceship.” Ashe said. “With space people in it.” She pointed to two figures who were tied to a tree. “Those two figures were babbling nonsense when I found them; they were talking about feeling sorry they caused the flood. I tied them up just in case they were gonna cause trouble.” I nodded. The figures were gagged. Ashe let my hand go for just a moment to ungag them. I looked down at my hand;a tingly feeling was there. I liked it. Ashe started firing questions at the figures.
“Who are you? Where have you come from? Why are you in that spaceship? Who are you with?!” One of the figures gulped and said, “We are Bert and Yukraine. We come from space to do an experiment on humans, and we aren’t with anyone other than ourselves.” Bert licked his lips. Ashe raised an eyebrow. “Andddd……? You guys are holding out on me, I know it!” The other one, Yukraine, blurted, “OK! We did it! We made the sun dark! We did want that water jug to burst! Our queen wanted us to overtake the world.
She thought it would be quite simple, for the world is full of Maple Streets—neighbors turning on neighbors, how paranoia can drive people crazy! Then while Burton Street was killing and going crazy, we would take over. I guess we took it too far.”
I’m usually a calm(ish) person ,but this made me seeth! I heard what happened on Maple street! How devastating it was! How scary! This was outrageous! “YOU GUESS!? YOU GUESS!? Yes, you guys took it too far! MUCH too far! Look what you’ve done! Now might never see our parents again, Tristan is God knows where, and our neighborhood is destroyed! Overrun with water! YOU guess you took it too far!? You guys have to fix this!” I pointed my finger at them and my bandage fell off. Yikes. “We know how to fix this… but it will involve going to space.” Ashe and I looked at each other. We readily agreed to go with them, but we had no idea about the mess we were getting ourselves into.
****************************************************************
We were strapped into the seats of the rocket ship, ready for takeoff. Erm, well as ready as someone can be when they’re about to be launched into space. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and then a big screen turned on and counted down from ten. Ashe grabbed my hand and tightened her grip when the screen said, “One. Ready for takeoff.” And we blast off into the galaxy. I screamed from pure terror and joy. When everything calmed down, I looked out the window and saw stars bright as day. The moons of Venus, the colorful rings of Saturn. We were in the Twilight Zone. “Wow…” I breathed. Ashe still gripped my hand as she said, “Papí told me numerous stories about his studies about the Twilight Zone. I wish I could tell him about all this.” I nodded, “Yeah, Tristan would love to see this. He loves all things space.” I turned and saw Ashe turn a little pink in the face. “You like Tristan, don’t you? I see you two sitting together at lunch everyday.” I nodded. “I like him a lot.” “oh..” She whispered. I blushed as I realized what she meant. “Oh! I mean, I like him as a friend,I don’t like like him.” Ashe seemed to relax a little. Then Bert bellowed, “We’re here!” We both looked forward and saw a purple and red planet.
“The planet of Refritris.” Yukraine said. Ashe started to step out the ship but was pulled back by Bert. “Wait! You need to be able to breathe in space!” And he gave space helmets so we could breathe and only after we put them on were we allowed to go out.
I stepped out and saw more than just a purple and red planet. It was a whole town! With buildings and people, food, restaurants and more! Ashe and I looked up in wonder. Bert and Yukraine weren’t the nicest, because they pushed us along and said, “Come, come!” We walked to a huge building that looked like a meteor.
We walked in and it seemed like there was nothing there. It seemed boring and I opened my mouth to question whether or not Bert and Yukraine even knew what they were talking about, when Bery pulled a shiny red lever. We dropped down around 3 feet underground and we came to a place. It looked radioactive, with lots of ooze and chemicals and slime. We walked down long corridors and then Bert stopped us.
“This is what we need to do. This is the source of our power. The mother of our planet uses this power. She wants us to use the power from this to overthrow the world. We have not wanted to do this– we only wanted to prove that humans don’t care about each other when trouble arises. Thatit is always every man for themself.”
I looked at Ashe. Ashe looked at me. We cared about each other. Ashe could’ve left me lying on the ground. But she didn’t. “Why..why would you think that humans don’t care about each other? If that were true, don’t you think that you would be ruling the earth by now?” Bert and Yukraine looked at each other, then turned bright pink. “Oh..” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah..ohhhhh!” Bert sighed and went over to the control button thingamajigs and was about to press a big red button when these giant octopus arms grabbed Bert and hoisted him by the seat of his pants.. “W-w-w-w-w-w-What is happening!?! Put me down!!” A voice deep, booming and raspy said, “Bert. Yukraine..You. Have. Defied. Me. Now…YOU MUST DIE!”
The octopus arms picked up Yukraine and bashed both figures all around. They were smashed into the wall,slammed into the floor, and spun all around in circles. Shaking and trembling, Bert said, “M-mm-m-my Queen,
we are so sorry that we defied you..it’s just that..” Before Bert could say anything more he face was smashed into the wall. “You have defied me, Yukraine! You have disobeyed me Bert! And what’s worssse…” A giant face that had black eyes, a big octopus head, and green slime oozing from its huge mouth arose from the ground and pointed slimy octopus arms at us
“You brought…HUMANS! Disgusting humans!” Ashe stepped in front o me. “Don’t you dare call my friend disgusting, you hag-a-muffin octopus!” I looked at her in confusion and she mouthed, “It’s a joke. I’ll tell you later.” The arms grabbed Ashe’s leg, and it took every ounce of strength I had to try and pull her down.
But it was no use. Ashe was beaten and bruised. The octopus laughed and said, “Oooo, what fun little toys! Now it’s your turn!” She went for me, but I ducked out of the way. I could tell the octopus was getting angry. “I wonder what happens when I squeeze a human!?” She said, and squeezed Ashe until she screamed a blood curdling scream. “Ashe no!” She was tossed to the side and I rushed over to her. Her face was covered in blood, and she looked as though she was barely conscious. Wildly, I looked around and saw a nuclear gun, with acid in it.
I grabbed the gun and shot the octopus. She wailed,but it wasn’t enough. She kept bashing and beating Bert and Yukraine. I tried and tried again to shoot her,but I only wounded her. It was like this thing was invincible! I was thrown at least twenty feet back and my head hit the ground hard. Blood started gushing from the back of my head and knees as I was being scratched by sharp blades the octopus had grabbed.
I started to cry, thinking that this situation was hopeless. Hopeless until I saw something. A pink throbbing thing that looked like a heart was protruding from the middle of it. That must be its heart! If I can stab its heart, just one blow, then maybe I can defeat it!
I grabbed a long nuclear sword and tried getting close to it, but it must’ve known what I was doing,because it swatted me away. I was able to cut off one of its arms, but that was all. I chopped another one and it screamed. One arm got cut off before it went into a total fury. While it was distracted, I slashed its heart. It burst into a million little sparkles. I immediately ran over to Ashe. One of the sparkles fell onto her head and she slowly opened her eyes. “Ashe! You’re ok!” I said as I hugged her. “I’m glad you’re ok Ari.” Then Ashe looked at Bert and Yukraine,who looked incredulous and happy at the same time. Bert came up to us. “Our evil queen is gone!” We smiled. “Yeah! I guess… I guess you guys are the new monarchs!” Yukraine shook his head.
“No, no. We will have a democracy. The people will vote on rules and we will make rules benefiting our entire planet!”
“Good for you guys!” Ashe said beaming. “Now…can you take us home?”
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Thursday February 14th, 1962. Everything is back to normal now. Burton Road is no longer flooded. It had taken weeks to fix the damage Bert and Yukraine made. But we did it. Ashe was able to find her mom. I walked out of my car and I was immediately bombarded by the popular girls. “So Ari, we decided that you can’t be one of us. You cannot ruin our reputation by telling crazy stories.” Yzma said. I smiled as I rolled my eyes. “You know what Yzma? Five. Fingers. To. Your. Face.” All five went in her face and I walked off. Yzma’s face was priceless. “Ari!” Ashe ran up to me. “Hi!” I said. Ashe took my hand. She was getting pink in the face. “Ashe, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.” I started to worry. “What did you want to ask me?” I said breathlessly. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Oh my god. Oh my- “Do you wanna go out with me?” She blurted. It was my turn to blush.
“You..I mean you–”
“I mean, it’s just been so much fun getting to know you for the past few months and I…I..well…I’ve developed a crush on you. I really really really
really really like you. Like, a lot. I understand if you this is too weird for you,
or if you don’t want to-”
“Ashe..I’d love to!” I said. We were both red as cherry tomatoes now. Ashe cried tears of joy as she pulled me in and hugged me. I guess there were still water works on Burton Road.
The End
Welcome to the Cardinal Collection! We are the Literary Magazine, and this year we are working with the Newspaper to bring you our magazine! Our magazine is a collection of fictional writing pieces and art submitted by students. Our collection works a little differently than the Newspaper. We accept submissions not just from members of the club, but also from the student body in general! No commitment, no stress, no extra club. This is an easy way to get published! We accept poetry, short stories, excerpts, and art! Scan the QR code or visit the form here to submit your works. You must be logged on to your AACPS email to submit. And if you would like to join our club to help edit and put together the collection, stop by room A233 on Thursdays during Red Week!
