Totally Opposites

Chapter 1: Dreams & Mysteries

Wren's POV:

I just wanna get school over with and keep reading for the rest of my life. There are only 3 months left of school, and I am in my last class of the day. I hope this ends quickly so I can just go home and finish my homework, then binge-read my favorite book of all time – The AGGGTM Series by Holly Jackson.

I don't really know for sure what I'm gonna do after graduation, but I'm kind of leaning towards being a lawyer. I think lawyers are the real superheroes of this world. They fight for justice and can help people with getting safety. But like all good things, there are some bad things tied to the good things... There are good lawyers out there, but there are also bad ones as well.

I wanna be able to help the world with things that are happening. More specifically, the kids. I think I'll study to be a family lawyer. I wanna help foster kids be in a safe and family-friendly environment. I don't like the foster system at all. Ok maybe a little bit, but sometimes I don't. Some kids can get assigned to bad guardians and they don't do anything about it.

There's 15 minutes left and I trance out of my thoughts as my teacher starts talking.

"Good afternoon students, I know that there are only 3 months left until school ends, but we are starting a new project today. It's a huge one at that, hence the reason I'm telling you 3 months in advance." Ms. Vito says.

The class all groan at that.

"Alright alright, quiet down.

"Miss, what is the project?" A student asks

"You have to make a capstone project." Many hands raised. She sighs.

"For those of you who don't know, a capstone is an independent culminating project, presentation, or performance that provides the opportunity to showcase learning from their school and life experience into a meaningful product.' Meaning you have 3 months to come up with a huge topic and state why you think that should or shouldn't have happened, and you will be working on this with the person of my choosing. "

The hands go down. Murmurs and groans could be heard when she finishes talking.

"Jax, you will be paired with Maya. Wren, you will be paired with Alex." Mrs. Vito continues pairing up the students.

I finish writing what Ms. Vito says when a girl comes up beside me.
"Hello," I say, plastering a huge smile on my face.

"Hi." She says back. "I'm Alex."

"Hi Alex, I'm Wren." I voice. "What should our project be about?"

"I don't know," Alex answers. "I was thinking we could do our project on the disappearance of Eloise Martin?" There's visible confusion on my face when she looks at me again. She chokes before speaking "Eloise Martin is my sister. She disappeared a few years back and we couldn't do anything about it."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I mutter, looking at her with wide eyes. "Was she important to you?"

"Don't be, we got along really well, but I miss her and I realized that she is my best friend."

"Do you mind me asking why you couldn't do anything about it?" I ask.

"Should we work on this at your place?" She asks instead.

"Sure," I say.

She heard my question, I know she did, we're sitting right beside each other.

When we get to my house, I unlock the door and get in. "Hey Dad, I'm home. I'm working on a project with a friend from school."

"Hi." Alex introduces herself. "I'm Alex."

"Hi Alex, you can call me Mr. Carson." My Dad says.

She nods her head in response. "Of course, Mr Carson."

I close my eyes and shake my head slightly as if to say 'Typical.' "We gotta get started on our project. Let's go to my room."

I open the door to my modestly sized, rectangular bedroom suite, which contains a mismatched wooden bed. Wood makes up the floor, and dado-paneled walls have been painted blue. Ceiling lights illuminate the room. The space is decorated with a vintage motif in cool, bright colors, giving it an exquisite appearance overall. When entering, the first things that stand out are the voluminous amount of junk and the floor-length windows. A little library with a few couches and a table with a lamp is located on the other side of the dado. A small number of couches are placed on top of a rug.

"Come on, let's go sit in the small library." I speak.

We all sit on the chairs in the library. For a while, no one says anything, it's just so quiet that I can hear a cricket chirp.

"So..." Alex starts. "What should we start with?"

"Before we get started on that, we need to know some more about her, Alex. Would you mind telling me a bit more about Eloise?" I comment, hoping she'd say yes. But then a phone starts ringing.

"Sorry, that's my mom." Alex murmurs. "I gotta get going, she's probably worried about me.."

"Alright, we can start working on this tomorrow."

Alex was just about to leave when I suddenly had an idea.

"Why don't we exchange numbers, you know so it's easier for us to contact next time."

"Um.. sure."

We exchanged phones and I added my number to her phone, she did the same.