*Untitled Story* part 1 of Chapter 1

Chapter 1
“Yo, Moon! What’s the word?”
Selena smiled. This was the way her friend Jake always greeted her. It was the ‘Jake-Speak’ equivalent of “Hi Selena. What’s going on?” Jake was in her eighth grade class at Mapleton Middle School, in the cozy little out-of-the-way town of Mapleton, Pennsylvania.
“Dull is the word, Jake. We have Algebra 206, remember?” Selena replied.
“Oh, come on, Moon. You know you can find excitement in anything if you look hard enough,” Jake said, a mischievous glint in his eye. Selena knew that look oh to well. Jake was know for being a total class clown, and when his eyes got that look, you could be sure that he was thinking up some new prank or joke. If something was to boring or dull for Jake, he simply took matters into his own hands to spice it up. He wasn’t a bad kid though. No, Jake would never do anything deliberately to hurt someone, physically or otherwise. He just had a way of making things fun.
“How do you do it, Jake?” Selena asked, fixing her black, silver-streaked hair in her locker mirror and smiling to herself. She, and most of the people she knew, loved her hair. The story behind it was likable as well. Back in the sixth grade, Selena’s class had been studying Greek mythology, and they had learned about a goddess named Selena, goddess of the moon. One day, one of Selena’s friends, named Elena, called Selena ‘Moon-Girl’ as a joke. Everybody picked up on it right away. After that, only adults knew the girl as ‘Selena’. To everyone else, she was ‘Moon-Girl’. Over time, it was shortened down to Moon, and that had been her nickname since. Selena loved the nickname too, and thought, Well, if I’m named for the goddess of the moon, then I might as well add some shooting stars to the sky. So, as soon as her parents would let her, she dyed silver streaks into her hair.
It was a funny coincidence though, the nickname. For Selena also had the same features as the moon goddess; pale skin, sharp eyes, long, upturned nose, full lips, thin, athletic figure, and hair as black as the midnight sky. Only a few differences remained: while Moon-Goddess-Selena had eyes the light blue color of twilight, and dark red lips, Selena-the-Schoolgirl had striking silver eyes, and lips a pale rose color.
Selena wasn’t the prettiest girl in the school and she knew it, yet, unlike all of the other girls, she didn’t care. She wasn’t one to plaster her face with make-up every morning, just to look pretty. She was happy with her looks as they were. Sure, she wore a bit of lip-gloss sometimes, and occasionally some eye shadow, but she wasn’t trying to be ‘Miss America’ or anything. Besides, most ‘Miss Americas’ didn’t have raven colored hair with silver streaks shooting through it.
“How do you do it?” Selena repeated, shaking her head, but still smiling. She closed her locker and turned to give Jake a long, hard look. “It’s Monday morning for crying out loud!”
“Hey, a true comedian, like myself, is always on his toes, always looking for the right moment to spring a new joke,” he answered, smiling and running a hand through his longish, wavy, sand colored hair. Jake and Selena had been friends since the 1st grade. Selena marveled at how much Jake had changed since then. He used to be a shy and quiet introvert with glasses, acne, and few friends. Now he was a tall, athletic extrovert with contacts, clear skin, and buddies all around. Selena’s mother often praised her only daughter, telling her that it was Selena herself who had brought about this dramatic change. Selena always waved this away saying that, while it as true that she had been Jake’s first real friend, other people helped, and people do change as they grow up anyway. One thing that would never change though was their friendship. Selena and Jake were like sister and brother, without the sibling rivalry.
Selena was knocked out of her reverie by the ringing of the bell overhead. Students began moving down the hallway and filtering into various classrooms like a one large river feeding several small streams. “Come on, we’re gonna be late,” Selena said, heading toward the math room, Jake following after.

“If you take blah, and divide it by blah-de-blah, then your answer should come out to be blah.”
Geez, this class goes on forever! Selena thought to herself as she doodled in the margins of her notebook. For her lack of attention, she scored a surprisingly high average in Mr. Baker’s math class.
Selena sat there, in the middle of the second-to-last row, letting her mind wander as she rested her head on one hand. Suddenly, a crumpled bit of paper landed on her desk, snapping Selena out of her stupor. Lowering her pencil and shooting a glance forward to make sure that Mr. Baker’s back was turned, Selena carefully opened the note. It read:
Hey, Moon! Wanna hit the skate park after school? –Tina
Selena smiled as she read the note. All Tina ever wanted to do was “hit the skate park”. Not that Selena minded in the least, as rollerblading and skateboarding were some of her favorite hobbies, but while Selena liked it, Tina lived and breathed athletics. In the spring, skating; during fall, rock-climbing; in the winter, snowboarding; and in the summer, off to the beach for surfing and wakeboarding. Tina was always moving, always doing something. In fact, Selena wondered if her adrenaline-loving friend ever slept. Selena’s immediate response to the note was, Oh yeah, I am so there! Then another thought hit her like a needle hitting an inflated balloon. She had promised to help her dad in his athletics store, From Hiking to Biking, that afternoon. He was shorthanded because two of his employees had taken off on a ski vacation for the week, and another employee was out sick. “This couldn’t have happened at a worse time!” Selena’s dad had exclaimed. She knew he was right. It was the beginning of spring and the weather was beautiful. Everyone wanted to be out doing things: skateboarding, biking, rock-climbing, and everything else too. The problem was, having grown during the winter months, they all needed new, bigger gear such as hiking shoes, pads, gloves, and athletic clothes. It was the busiest time of year for all of the sport shops in town, and Selena had volunteered to help her dad in the absence of the other two employees. She quickly scribbled a reply: Sorry, Tina. I have to work  . She waited until Mr. Flint, the old, bespectacled algebra teacher turned his back to the class, and then quietly threw the folded-up note to her brunette pony-tailed friend in the back row. Selena watched her friend’s eyes fly across the crumpled piece of paper. Tina looked up at Selena and gave her an exaggerated frown. Selena frowned back and mouthed, “I’m sorry”. Tina shook her head, smiled and mouthed “No problem”. Then her eyes grew wide and she glanced at a point over Selena’s shoulder, then back at Selena. Whipping around in her chair, Selena met the stony glare of Mr. Flint. “Sorry,” she muttered, casting her gaze down toward her notebook, her cheeks turning slightly pink. She stayed that way for a few minutes, but soon enough, resumed her original position, and continued doodling. The rest of the morning passed much in the same manner, without the whole ‘being caught for passing notes’ thing reoccurring of course. After Algebra 101, Selena had English Literature, Chemistry, and then French. Finally, she was allowed to escape for the amazing hour of freedom that is lunchtime.
The cafeteria, or the ‘café’ as many kids called it, was a large, low-ceilinged and white-walled room, complete with tables, a kitchen, and hairnet wearing lunch ladies. One wall was covered in windows that allowed a view of the commonly used walkway outside.
In the cafeteria, Selena sat with Tina, at their favorite table, and they waited for Jake, Elena and Paul.
Paul was a short boy with blond hair, green eyes, and a muscular build. Despite his size, he was very athletic and enjoyed every type of sport, from basketball to dirt biking. He and Tina were best friends, as they had so much in common.
The table that the five always kids sat at was circular, gray, big enough to seat six, and situated right next to a couple of windows, which they loved it because it gave them a chance to people-watch, or search for cute boys or girls.
Everyday was almost exactly the same at their table. You could look at the group everyday and see the same thing: Jake telling jokes, Elena studying for some up-coming test (and in today’s case, Latin), Tina and Paul chatting about skateboard tricks or the X-Games, and Selena just having a fun time talking to everyone. They had a great time, despite the day-to-day monotony.
As great as lunch was, all good things must come to an end. The bell rang, an obnoxious, grating, and dreaded sound to the students. Everyone stood up and went their separate ways. Selena was off to American History with Elena, Paul and Jake had biology, and Tina had PE.
Currently in American History, Selena’s class was learning about the Civil War, and frankly, everyone was quite bored. Mr. Donovan, yet another old, glasses-wearing, extremely dull teacher, was giving one of his famous monotonous and never-ending lectures. Selena had pulled out a piece of scratch paper to draw on, seeing as Mr. Donovan had a habit of looking over people’s notebooks, and if he saw doodles, he’d make a student re-copy all of the notes on that page. After a few minutes though, Selena became aware of someone’s eyes on her scratch paper. Glancing up sharply, she saw to her relief that the eyes didn’t belong to Mr. Donovan, who had his back turned to the class and was writing on the blackboard. Looking to her left, she saw a girl with glasses, braces, a plaid skirt, white blouse, long brown hair in braided pigtails, listening intently to the teacher, and taking notes. This was Janet, the stereotypical nerd of the class, the one who would most likely go on to be a rocket scientist. No, this girl was paying too much attention to have been watching Selena. The raven-haired girl turned to her right, and a pair of inquisitive, dark brown eyes immediately met her own.