Night Security

A Little Background

(Kamilah is young at this part)
I stand in the Neanderthal section of the Museum of Natural History with my classmates as one of them reads their report. "And that is why if I traveled back in time, I would go to the time of the dinosaurs," Caleb White finishes his presentation.

"Great job, Caleb! Now, our next stop is Ancient Egypt. Stay together now, class," my teacher, Miss. Harbor instructs. My class murmurs amongst themselves while I stay silent. We walk into the Ancient Egypt exhibit and gather around the sarcophagus.

"Will the student with the report on Egypt step to the front of the group. As I walk, my small black boots click on the dark floor.

"Look, it's Dead Girl," I hear many students whisper.

"You may begin," Miss. Harbor says.

With my tiny voice, I begin my presentation. "M-My name is Kamilah Tifft and I chose Ancient Egypt as my go-to spot if I got to time travel because it was a truly unique time. It lasted from 3150 BCE to 30 BCE, over 3,000 years. Ancient Egyptians were some of the first people to invent writing. They used hieroglyphics, the pictures you see on the walls. In Ancient Egypt, you were either very rich or very poor. The wealthy, which was mostly the ruling family, always wore thousands of beautiful gems and lots of gold. Even their coffins, called sarcophaguses, are made of gold. They prayed to many Gods. Amun and Amunet, the God and Goddess of Creation, Anubis, the God of death, Osiris, the God of the Underworld and Afterlife, Ra, God of the Sun, and Set, God of Chaos. Just to name a few. Egypt is mainly known for their mummies. If you were important, in the case of your death, they would remove all of your organs and shove them into jewel incrusted canopic jars. They would leave the heart as to preserve the emotions in the next life. They used a special hook-shaped instrument to remove the brains from the nose. If the Pharaoh was married and died young, they would kill the wife and mummify her as well to accompany the Pharaoh in the afterlife," I look at my class and they all have scared faces, as well as my teacher. "So I picked Ancient Egypt as my destination to time travel because of the rich culture and beautiful customs," I decide finishing was best.

I tap my feet on the floor below me. "Kamilah, Principal Addams will see you now," I push my self off the chair was walk into the large office. Mr. Addams sighs and he pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Kamilah Tifft. I have called your mother and taken all of the project material from your teacher. They will both be meeting with me today to discuss your behavior and what is appropriate presentation material. I believe a weeks suspension is an appropriate punishment. You need to start behaving, because a suspension in the fourth grade does not look good on your permanent record. You are dismissed," I scoot off that chair as well and begin walking my way back to class.

I hear footsteps coming from behind me. "Hey, Dead Girl!" a voice yells from behind me. I turn around to see Cassandra and Audrey. I turn back and keep walking. "I said hey!" she angrily stomps after me. "What's wrong with her?" Cassandra turns to her friend. "I mean, other than the fact she looks dead," she gets in my face.

"Maybe you should pray to that stupid God of yours, Ra. Maybe he can make you look less dead," Audrey laughs.

"Excuse me," I say and push past them. I decide not to go get my snack and go straight to afternoon recess. On the playground, I sit by myself under the tree and play with the flowers growing there. As the bell rings to follow our teacher inside, I grab one of the flowers and push it into my really light hair.

(I know the presentation sounds a little mature for a fourth grader, but she is that mature. She was a very smart child!)