Strange Names

CHAPTER 1

Figuring it all out

I’d read about them, dreamed about them, but never really thought they existed.

As I waited in Mom’s car I stared out the window just thinking. Finally mother and Alex got in the car and we drove off to school. As usual everything was wild as I walked into class.

Silently I worked on my morning work, and very quickly I finished it and started to read. But I was unable to with all the shouting.

I was I was at a table with two boys, Alen and Henry. Henry has long dirty blond hair with sparkly hazel eyes that his behind a pair of glasses. Alen on the other hand is short with very short brown hair. He has dark blue eyes that also were behind a pair of glasses.

But it wasn’t Alen that I cared about, it was Henry. There was something about him that was different then most boys, unlike most boys he has pale skin and was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen, and there was just something about him that made me want to faint.

I tried to read but my mind was else ware. I was just staring out into space for such a while until we started to go over morning work.

You know what school is like don’t you? Well then I don’t have to explain my day to you.

Like always I scanned the bus for familiar faces as I got on. I sat next to my sister, Alex. Did I tell you I have I sister? Well now you know, I also have a little brother named Mortimer. But we call him Mo. Alex isn’t my real sister, she’s my foster sister. Her mother and father died in a car accident a couple of years ago and we were great friends so we adopted her. She wasn’t all that sad though, her mother and father weren’t very nice let’s just put it at that. We are also both 14 and in the 8th grade, and we both got held back by our moms (but we aren’t stupid). Weird huh?

I took out my iPod as soon as we started to move. As always the noise of the yelling drowned down as I turned it on. We both shared the earphones and listened to a song we both loved; I’d lie. Suddenly Alex started to motion with her hands to pause the song.

“What?” I asked as I paused the song.

“Listen.” Was all she said and I tried.

“No, but Elizabeth asked me out today. What should I do?” Henry was saying, did I mention he rides my bus?

“Um well, you should say no with all of your complications and stuff.” Said Allen, his best friend.

“Maybe, that would be the best thing wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. I hope he says no. I hate that Liz.” I whispered to Alex, “What did he mean by complications?”

“Don’t know, just thought you might want to hear that.” said Alex, sticking the earphone back into her ear. I did the same, pressing play again. We soon had to put the iPod away, cause’ we were getting off soon. We quickly gathered our stuff and headed off the bus.

I immediately looked out to the front door. Mo was right up to it jumping up and down waiting for us to walk in; did I mention he was two? My mother and father were sitting on their butts as soon as we walking in.

“Hi, Mo!” I said as I scooped him up in my arms.

“Max!” he giggled. That had been his first word a year ago.

“Mom, Dad.” I said coldly. As usual they said nothing, just continued to watch the television, they never paid any attention to us.

Mo skipped around me as I tried to do my homework, singing, “Maxi has homework; Maxi has homework.” He had learned that from Alex, she never has homework so she bugs me about it. But I really don’t mind.

“Mo, are you hungry?” I asked him.

“Um hm.” He hummed. I slowly stood up, “Well do you know what you want?”

“Mac and cheese!” he yelled enthusiastically.

“Okay, let’s go make some.” I slowly got the big pot out as to not make any sounds; I filled it with water and set it on the stove. After a while I poured in the macaroni and strained it. I mixed in the cheese and poured some into a tiny bowl.

“There you go, Mo. ” I said, handing the bowl to him. He ran into my room and started to eat and I continued to do my homework. Soon I finished the work and checked on Alex. Good she was finished also.

All three of us stayed in my room and watched television. But soon I made everyone go to bed, including me.

That night I had a strange dream; it was Alex , Mo , and I running away from the house with suitcases full of supplies. Soon we found a plot of land that was connected by two tiny strips of land. One side of the land was a river the other the ocean. We set up a tent and a fire. We dug a trench shaped like an oval that was deep enough to hold a lot of water and dug another that connected it to the ocean. After it had filled up with water we stuck a net that we had got from home into it, hoping to catch fish. Right when we were cooking them I woke up.

I sat up with a start and looked around my room. I gasped; someone was by the window looking straight at me. It kind of looked like… I blinked and he was gone, the curtains blowing rapidly from the open window. I swear I left the window closed last night. Weird, and with that I went back to sleep.

Suddenly my alarm clock wailed and I jumped out of bed. I looked at the clock while I was getting dressed for school, 5:30 am. Just enough time to get everyone ready. After I had gotten dressed I woke my siblings and parents. Quickly I dressed Mo and brushed his hair and mine. We brushed our teeth and I fixed everyone breakfast, just the normal morning. I set Mo on the couch in front of the T.V. with his breakfast in his hands, at 7:00 am Alex and I walked out the door to wait for the bus.

“You know I saw something really weird last night.” I told Alex.

“Really? Are you sure it wasn’t just a dream?” she asked rolling her eyes.

“Yes, it had nothing to do with my dream.” I said rubbing my eyes.

“Oh, well then what was it?”

“Someone was by the window just staring straight at me.”

“Oh my gosh! Why did he stare at you all night?! Gosh.”

“This is serious! Someone broke in just to stare at me all night!” Just then the bus came. Again I took out my iPod and stuck the earphone in my ear. Just like last night I felt someone staring at me. A shiver ran down my spine as I turned on the music.

Alex followed me to my locker and then to my homeroom. She had a locker only one away from me and was in my homeroom. As we walked into homeroom everything was wild, again. The boys were throwing the science books around like a football, yelling and screaming at each other, “Throw it! Over here! I’m open!” finally, Mr. Greg walked in and yelled at them to stop, even though he was the football coach.

Again the day was normal, we went to Mr. Lane’s class, music; then Mr. Greg's, science; Mrs. Stevens, math; Mrs. Raney, technology; gym; Mrs. Nelson for two periods, social studies and reading.(Alex and I had the same schedule)

Chapter 2

The plan

Finally the day was done and we stepped onto the bus. But unlike yesterday I didn’t take out my iPod, it was dead, I have to recharge it. Alex looked at me and then my binder, “It's dead.” I told her. She nodded and turned her head toward the window.

For the first time today I sat back and relaxed against the seat. “Hey how’s it going?” someone asked me from right next to my ear. I gasped, “Oh, Henry, hi. Yeah I guess I’m doing well why?”

“Oh; no reason. Are you having trouble sleeping at night?”

“Uh… no not really.”

“Well, you just looked like you were sleeping so…”

Once again he took my breath away and I couldn’t speak. Just then I looked out the window, we were at the house. “Um. Well I have to go see you tomorrow. Bye.” I giggled for no reason and hopped off the bus.

“He talked to me!” I twirled with my hands at my heart, as I yelled it out; we lived in the middle of nowhere. Good thing the bus was already out of earshot, or was it?

“Yes, yes. He talked to you wow!” Alex said sarcastically.

“Well you don’t know how love feels.”

“For the last time, you’re not in love.”

“And you would know this how…?”

“Because I said so.”

“Okay then…” Again Mo was at the door jumping up and down just like always.

“Hey Mo!” I said as we walked in. I looked around the house, it was a mess.

“Clean up the house.” Said Dad.

“What? No please, no thank you for getting everyone ready every morning?”

“Nope.” Said Mom. Once again I groaned and stomped off into my room. The tears started to drip down my face and onto my bed. I began to think about my dream, the one where we all ran away. Maybe, just maybe we should. Just then Alex stepped into the room.

“Hey.” She said.

“Hey are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Tacos!” she replied

I sighed, “No, that maybe we should run away, you, Mo and I. What do you think?” her face looked shocked as she thought about it.

“Yeah, yeah that would be cool. I can see it now, us catching, cooking, and eating fish! That actually sounds good.” Now I was shocked I didn’t even think she would agree with that.

“Mo wouldn’t care ether. We should start packing now, skip school tomorrow, mom wouldn’t care.”

“Okay!” I hopped up, “I’ll get Mo’s stuff; you get ours, I mean everything that’ll help.”

“Okay!” and with that she started rummaging through my room for things. I raced into Mo’s room where he was sitting on his little chair, eating and watching T.V.

“Max!” he yelled.

“Hey bud.” I said as I started looking for clothes and other things.

“What cha doing?” he asked looking over my shoulder.

“Nothing hon.” I pulled out all of the clothes that fit him and put them in one of his suitcases. I even dug through mom and dad's stuff, I took a pocket knife, fishing rod, net, lighter, huge portable tent, antibiotics, thermometer, blankets, pillows, pencil and paper, string, an axe, pots and pans, silverware, a lot of food, cooking supplies, a shovel, buckets, clothes pins, our phones fully charged, brushes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, a sponge and soap, and Mo’s portable crib. I put these all in two suitcases, other than the clothes and the tent; did I mention it was huge?

Of course mom and dad didn’t care what we were doing. We went to sleep that night around 7:00 to get enough sleep. But around 6:00 I woke up and got everyone other than mom and dad. After we got everyone’s suitcases we sneaked out of the house.

We traveled for a while, eating as little food as possible. As we traveled through a dense forest my dream came true, literally. The same little island was there with an ocean on one side and a river on the other, its perfect!

“Guys this way!” I whispered motioning with my hands to follow me. I set up the tent in the middle of the little island, and a fire. Just like in the dream I dug, with the shovel, a trench shaped like an oval and connected it to the ocean. I stood up and took the net from the suitcase. When I went back to the trench it ad filled up with water. I stuck the net in straight up so that the sick rose into the air.

“There.” I said proudly.

“Wow how did you know how to do that?” Alex asked.

“Um… it was in a dream.”

She nodded. I set up our beds with the blankets and pillows. After I set up the crib I checked what time it was, 6:00 pm. Wow the day had gone by fast.

“Okay, Mo time for bed.” I said crawling out of the tent.

“But Max…” he whined. I picked him up without another word and set him in the crib.

“Good night, Mo, and not another word.”

“Okay.” He said.

“Ah, ah, ah not another word.” I smiled and left.

“Have you checked the net yet?” I asked Alex.

“Um… no not yet.” She replied.

“Fine, fill up a pot with river water.”

“Okay.” She said as she rummaged through the suitcases. I went over to the trench and pulled out the net. There was about 10 tiny little fish in there, but there was also a big huge fish too.

“Dang that’s a big fish!” I yelled, “Hey Alex! Get the pan too!”

“Okay!” she yelled back. I took the net and carried it toward the fire. Good, Alex was holding a pan, hopefully with cooking spray. By this time the fish were dead. I placed the big one in the pan while I left the others in the net, their bodies lying motionless. I set the pan over the fire and watched it sizzle and pop. Slowly the fish grew darker and darker, “Dinner!” I cried as I took the pan over to one of the blankets and set it down.

“Dinner!” I called again as Alex came tumbling out of the tent, holding Mo. “Okay, okay we heard you the first time.” No one talked as we ate. The only sound was the crashing of the ocean waves and my constant coughing and sneezing.

“Hey, Max, are you okay? You sound kind of sick.”

“No, I’m okay.” I said between coughs that burned the back of my throat. The other two went to sleep while I cleaned up the mess, coughing and sneezing the whole time. Finally after all of the cleaning was done, and the fire was put out, I set the net back into the little trench and collapsed on the ground in the tent.

Chapter 3

*Cough Cough*

When I woke up I was covered in extra blankets all alone in the tent. Quickly I pushed the blankets off of me and headed out of the tent. Alex was already cooking breakfast.

“Alex, why didn’t you wake me up?” she jumped, “Gosh! Don't scare me like that please. Because you had a fever, now go back to bed, I’ll bring you your breakfast.”

“But, it’s just the first day.” I said as I felt my head. Wow I did have a fever. I looked out onto the ocean; the waves were calm and peaceful. But suddenly a huge wave came about 50 ft. tall, and it had a face. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. Again the waves were calm and peaceful.

Great now I’m seeing things. I thought as I headed back to bed. I slept the whole day only waking up for meals. All day we had fish, well, at least we had food.

I woke up sweating and gasping for air. I heard someone else gasp also. I looked around the room; there again was someone just staring at me. I rubbed my eyes and blinked; when I looked up he was gone, just seeing things again, good. That was really weird though.

I tossed and turned as I tried to go back to sleep. Finally sleep took over. When I woke I still had a fever, still sick. “Alex.” I could barely talk without my voice cracking.

“Yes.” She said, sitting up.

“I saw him again, the guy staring at us. I saw him again.” I said, my voice cracking.

“Max you're just seeing things, why would someone come in here to do nothing but look at you all night?”

“I don’t know.” I turned over as she crawled out of the tent.

The day was just like the last, including the night. Once again I woke up sweating and gasping for air. Again someone was there, but this time when I blinked and rubbed my eyes he didn’t go away.

“Hello.” He said. So it wasn’t a dream, it was real.

“H-how did you get here?” I asked.

“Simple, I ran.”

“Then how did you get here so fast?”

“I guess you could say I’m a fast runner.”

“How fast?”

“Pretty fast, I would say.”

“Oh.”

“So I hear you ran away, and I can see it to. Why?”

“Long story.”

“I’m listening. We have the whole night.”

So I told him the whole story, just as you read it. “Interesting.” Was all he could say.

“Are people looking for us?”

“Kind of, your mother and father didn’t call in a missing person report. But the school did. So yeah people are looking for you.”

“Can you please not tell them where we are?”

“I’ve been here before, I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“Thank you, how come you’ve been here before?”

“I like watching you sleep, I have nothing better to do, absolutely nothing. Although the last two nights you’ve been screaming names of people you know. And you have woken up to see me both times.”

“And is that a bad thing? I like seeing you.”

“You should get some sleep.”

“But you won't go will you? I don’t want you to go!”

“I won't go, in fact I’ll be here tomorrow. Out in the open, I’ll explain everything tomorrow. Good night.” And with that he left. I was still in shock, how could he have gotten here? He said he would explain everything tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll ask him if he’s a…

I jumped out of bed when I woke. Immediately I started falling as soon as I stood. I landed in his arms, but he wasn’t there a second ago.

“Where did you come from?” I asked looking up. My voice was worse than ever, I could hardly speak.

“Like I said, I’m fast. You don’t sound too good, maybe you shouldn’t talk for a while. You sound really sick.” I started to say something but he stopped me, “I told you not to say a word. And I meant it! I don’t want you getting any sicker.” All I could do in response was a smile.

“WHAT IN THE…” Alex’s eyes were wide as she crawled out of the tent. I was guessing she meant the way he was holding me, it looked like we were dancing and he had dipped me. But what was really weird was that it looked like he was about to kiss me, his lips were only inches from mine.

“Uh… I can explain.” I said slipping out of his grasp.

“But. How. When. Why is Henry here!” she said standing up.

“Well…um.” I started.

“No. I said I would explain everything last night,…” Henry started.

“Last night? Okay catch me up please.” So we told her everything.

“Okay now explain.” Alex demanded.

“Well… I don’t know how to say it.” He started.

“Explain or I’ll kick you’re…” Alex began,

“ALEX! Don’t talk like that!” I interrupted her.

“I highly doubt you could do that.” Henry argued.

“Oh you wanna go! You wanna go!” Alex fought back.

“No, I’m too strong for you. And another reason I don’t like you that way. Why would I want to take you out?”

“Am not! You want to bet!”

He stayed quiet. Alex was heated up, enraged, while Henry was calm, like he didn’t care, like he had done this all before. At one moment we were looking at him, wondering what he would do next, and the next moment he was gone in a flash.

“Hey! Where’d the punk go?!” Alex yelled.

“Stop it! He’s not a punk, he is stronger than you!” she glared at me then stomped off into the tent. I fell down by a rock and let my head fall into my hands.

“Sorry about that.” Someone said right next to my ear. I jumped, “It's okay, I guess, Alex gets mad very easily.” I said.

“Yeah, I’ve hear… I mean nothing.” Henry looked like he said something he shouldn’t have. We were just looking at each other when a breeze came and blew Henry's hair out of his eyes. There right where his hair was supposed to be a bullet scar was. I gasped, “Henry! What happened to your forehead?” I asked, worried.

“Oh, this old thing?” he said sliding his hand over it, “Well um… I guess now I have to tell you huh? Where to start? Okay well I was fifteen when they sent for people to join the upcoming war, the war of 1812. Don’t ask questions please, not right now. They said you had to be at least eighteen to join, well I looked older then I was, and my family needed the older kids to move out, momma was having another.

“We already had about eight kids, not including me. I had to lie about my age to join. I left immediately. It took about 2 months to get there by horse, you guys are lucky you have those buses to get to school, we had to walk. Well the war had begun and I was in the battlefield firing off bullets this way and that when something hit my helmet and then everything went blank.

“When I woke, I was still in the same place, but everyone was gone. They had moved on, I never found out where. My hand had went up to my forehead. When I looked at it had fresh and dried blood on it, that’s when I realized my throat was dry, and I went for it. I won't tell you the rest…” he finished. I was speechless, he still hadn’t told me anything, in my opinion. How could he have survived a bullet in the head. I thought about all of the books I’ve read, even the fiction ones. I gasped as I realized what he was, he wasn’t human I could tell you that.

He looked at me then hung his head, “Yes, I don’t know who changed me but whoever it was left me to fend for myself, a newborn by myself pretty stupid huh? I know you’re probably going to ask so I’ll just tell you, I’m um…” he stopped to count his fingers, “212. Yeah, not that old yet but…”

Now I was really shocked. “Wait, I’m guessing you don’t want anyone to know right?”

“No, I what you to tell everyone you know!” he said sarcastically. I giggled, now I had an idea, “Well… if you don’t want anyone knowing…”

“ Man. I thought I could trust you! I thought you wouldn’t care you wouldn’t blackmail me. ” Again I giggled, “If you don’t want anyone knowing… I have a condition. Me and you, walk tomorrow, in the woods? Please.” I begged. He smiled, “Um well… sure that would be great.”

I looked up at the sky. Wow was it late! “I got to go. Don’t leave.” I jumped up and ran toward the tent. Alex and Mo were sitting by the fire, cooking some freshly caught fish. Alex hardly glanced at me then went back to the grilling fish. Mo jumped up and ran over to me.

“Max!” he yelled as he jumped into my arms. I just smiled as I put him down. He looked at me then went back to the fire also. Suddenly my appetite was gone. I slowly walked off to the tent and fell asleep.