OLIVER

Oliver laughed with his new friends, Victor Angelose and Angelina Barrings in a meadow near a village. He was happy to make such good friends in an unknown world. Oliver, Angelina, and Victor had been talking and laughing for maybe a bit over an hour. Oli was really enjoying having friends.

Soon after two hours, Oliver felt the world slipping away from him, forcing him to return to the place he had to call home.

He was back in his small room in his father's trailer house. Oliver squeezed his eyes closed then opened them again. Oli jumped out of his bed and looked out the small window, noticing it was still nighttime. Oliver crossed over to his bed and tapped his alarm clock. The clock read 4:23 a.m.

"Only 2 more hours till I need to get ready for school." Oliver sighed out loud.

Yessiree! Cornelia agreed, startling him.

Cornelia was Oliver's guardian from the kingdom of Elysia. Although she wasn't that helpful.

Oliver walked over to one of the corners where he found his backpack filled with all of his homework. He picked up his backpack and threw it onto his bed, then he walked back to his bed and sat on it, crossing his legs. The boy grabbed the bottom of his bag and dumped all of its contents onto his bed. He looked at the newly made mess on his bed. He grabbed the book from his library he had checked out and tossed it from hand to hand. He ran his hands over the cover. The title, Feelings Fade, stood out from the rest of the cover, its lapiz lettering bulged above the rest of the laminated cover. Oliver stared at the beautiful picture that the title lay upon. It was a picture of an attractive beach sunset. The sunset made the ocean look orange with a hint of blue and the sky was a beautiful mixture of yellow, orange, pastel pinks and blues, and a bit of lavender. Oliver sighed. He was only about halfway through the book and it was already sad.

Oliver set the book down and rummaged through the rest of the mess. He picked up his science notebook, flipped through the pages, and studied. He had to pass the science test today. Grades was the only good in his life.

When it was finally time for Oliver to get up he walked over to his small dresser and picked out an outfit. He slipped off his pajama pants and replaced them with boot cut jeans. Then, he threw off his shirt and put a black t-shirt, that had the words "My Last Clean Shirt" on it, on. He went back to his bed and put all of his school supplies into the backpack he had had since third grade. Oliver heard the bus honk and ran out of his tiny room, through the very small living room and out the door. The bus driver started to drive away, but saw Oli running out of his trailer, then stopped for Oliver and waited a few seconds. Oliver ran over to the open doors and hopped on.

"I can't wait for you every day like this, Oliver. You have to be at the bus stop by 7:00. You know that! This is the last time I'm waiting for you." The bus driver, Earnie lectured.

Kids on the bus giggled and scoffed, then Oliver replied, "Sorry Mr. Earnie. It won't happen again."

"I want to believe you, but it's just gonna happen again." Earnie scolded under his breath.

"Sorry." Oliver apologized again.

"Go sit down." Earnie sighed.

Oliver did as he was told and sat in the third seat from the front seat, on the left. He heard eighth graders mocking him in the back of the bus. Oli knew he shouldn't ever sit in the back because all of the eighth grade bullies were back there. The bullies weren't too fond of Oliver.

The whole bus ride to the middle school he looked out the window at all the familiar trees and houses. When they finally got to the school Oliver was the first one off, giving him the advantage of getting into the school, because the quicker the better, he really didn't feel like getting messed with by the dumb bullies. Oli swung the door open and ran inside. Suddenly, he ran into someone. Oliver and the person he hit fell to the ground. Oliver groaned, he had jammed his wrists. Oli looked over to the person he ran into. It was a girl in his grade he had never paid any attention to. She was sitting up, hand on her temple.

"I'm so sorry!" Oliver apologized quickly.

"You're fine." The girl responded, her voice soft.

"Here let me help you up." Oliver insisted, getting on his feet.

"I got it, thank you." She barked.

"I'm truly sorry, seriously!" Oliver apologized again.

"I told you, you are fine." She sighed, getting up but then her legs wobbled and she melted into the ground. "How 'bout some help here."

Oliver gave her his hand and helped her up, slowly but steadily. Once she was up on her feet again Oliver examined her. She had long black hair and had a red headband. She was about Oliver's height, and had pale skin.

"I'm Oliver." He greeted.

"Willow. Nice to meet you, I guess." Willow shrugged.

"Ya, nice to meet you, I need to go to my locker, sorry again." Oli told her.

"Ya me too, and once again you are fine." She replied, rolling her eyes.

Oliver walk-ran to the school's basement, which was where his locker was located. He scanned the numbers of the lockers, looking for his locker, locker 531. When he finally found it he put in his combination then when he got it right the padlock unlocked the locker and Oliver took off the padlock. His locker wasn't decorated except for a whiteboard and a dark blue locker shelf, honestly that was more than any other boy had. Oliver took out his folder, notebooks, books, and pencil pouch, out of his backpack, then stuffed his empty backpack under his locker shelf. He grabbed his science, language, and social studies notebooks, plus his pencil pouch and his book. He grabbed the unconnected padlock then slammed his locker. Oliver struggled putting the padlock back on but did it at last.

Oliver dashed up the stairs and went into his homeroom classroom on the home floor. Most of the students were already in the classroom doing their homework. Oli walked in, set his stuff on a vacant desk, and sat down. The teacher walked in, looked around, then walked back out.

I wonder what that was about? Oliver thought.

You will find out soon enough. Cornelia informed Oli.

Why can't you just tell me? Why do you just give clues or statements like that? Oliver asked.

It's better than nothing, am I right? She concluded.

"Ugh." Oliver accidentally said out loud.

Luckily no one looked over at Oliver, most of them didn't even notice him. Oliver looked around the class, waiting for the bell music to play. Around a minute later the bell music started playing and two students filed into the classroom, sitting down in the last two seats left out of the five desks in total. The bell rang with a ding and Oliver noticed that the teacher still wasn't in the room.

After about ten minutes the teacher came into the room and sat down, then called role call.

The intercom made a sound, informing there was about to be an announcement. Oliver looked up at it and sighed. It was probably going to be the morning announcements.

"Lock down! Lock down! Lock down! This is not a drill!" The intercom blared.

Oliver looked over at the teacher, the teacher told all the students to go sit in the corner left of the door. Oliver panicked and did exactly what the teacher said. A lump in his throat formed, making his eyes water.

He couldn't believe it, he was in a lock down. Then, suddenly the class heard banging on the door and a man demanding, "I know there is a class in there! Come out or I'll shoot!"

Oliver's heart skipped a beat.