My Weird Secret Life

Chapter 1 : The Cave

I was in a place that wasn't my own. I was swimming, in the ocean and I could never feel more free, more belonging. A face that I recognized as my own appeared in front of me. But I was different, for one I was older and I looked . . . wise. Second, I had achieved my full potential, I could feel it. I was so proud of myself and, I was proud of others too, though I couldn't see their faces or place my finger on who they really were. A hand stretched out toward mine, asking me to place it into their grasp. My gaze dropped towards it and I smiled so carefree and unworriful (is that a word?). My hand reached out to touch theirs, I needed to tell them something. I lifted my head, the face was almost in view. A blissful smile, marvelous brown hair. . . but suddenly, I heard a sharp ringing invading my thoughts in this wonderful dream.
    Ring! My stupid alarm clock screamed into my ear. It seemed to hate the relationship I had with my bed. My head groggily lifted from the silk white pillow, my eyelids still closed. "What time is it . . . Oh crap! I'm going to be late for school. And it's the last day!" I screamed. "Honey, hurry up or you're going to be late!" Yelled my aunt. "I know, I know! I'm getting ready!" I hollered back.
    I froze and there was a moment of silence between me and my aunt, whom I call Auntie A. The only sound was of the breeze flooding through the slit in our barely open window in the living room causing a silent whistle to float through the house. I could see Auntie A now, hands propped on her hips, her eyes blazing with all the stories of how disrespectful shouting at elders was in her time and her mouth ready to object. "I-I . . ." I stuttered. "Would you like to try that again?" She called from downstairs. The sound of warning in her voice made me quickly straighten my back, square my shoulders, and hold my chin up. Though she couldn't see me it was the way I was taught. The way Auntie A had drilled into my mind to do when an elder spoke to me the way she just had. "I meant to say, um, I'm getting up now," I corrected. "That's what I thought." Auntie A responded. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I couldn't get in trouble now, if I did Auntie A had a reason to keep me home from the outing I was doing later in the afternoon. I brushed my teeth real quick, slapped some lotion on my body, swiped some deodorant and then almost ran out the door in my pajamas. I slipped on my shorts, tank top, jacket, and my tie dyed shoes. Brushed my long brown hair and tied it into a messy braid. And again I almost ran out the door without the one thing I cared about most.
    My priceless, one of a kind aquamarine necklace. The glittery shiny blue crystal and gold casing surrounding it sparkled in the sun. The crystal especially caught my eye today, the bottom area tinted a little purple. Unlike its typical water blue. I didn't mind the discoloration as long as I hadn't broken it. It was probably the sun anyway. We don't even need to talk about how many times I'd dropped it and how I was worrying a bit now that maybe all those times were catching up with the crystal. No need to talk about that.
    But there was a different reason I was so urgently trying to rush out the door. An exciting reason.
    I held the necklace close and whispered the same thing I did every time I thought about it. "Come back soon." I'd never seen my parents IRL before. Every time I asked Auntie A she responded the same thing every. Single. Time. "They're on an important job and won't be back for a while." But a while turnt out to be longer than 12 years. I just wanted to see them, I just wanted to see that they care. That Auntie A wasn't lying and truthfully they did want me, that they didn't just hand me to my aunt like some hand-me-down sweater.
    When I was younger I used to believe that one day Auntie A would hand me down to my grandma or something like my parents had. But who knows maybe they were on that busy job that's more important then their daughter that they never got to watch grow up, turn one, take her first step, run her first race or anything, that kind of important job. It must have been pretty urgent for them to have to leave like that so quick.
      After rushing to school in my aunt's Honda, I said hi to my friends Una and Luna. We'd been best friends since preschool, the two of them are twins. But there is a bit of a difference between them, not just in looks, but personality. Una is more quick minded and observant while Rylie is, how do I say this, slow. It's not like she has a disease or sickness or a disability, it's just who she is. I'm the bad egg, I guess you could say. The curious and everything adventurous one. Kind of the glue for us, despite them being twins. It's what makes us the perfect trio.
On a normal day of school it would have been like any other school day. Boring. Boring math, going over stuff I already knew. Boring history, going into deeper detail over stuff I already knew. Boring geography, studying places I'd seen and heard about before. Boring P.E. the same exercises everyday. Boring English, talking about stuff I covered in third grade. Boring, well actually lunch is never boring. But my point is it would have been a boring day but today it was a little bit different. Remember the exciting reason? Yeah, we're getting to that.
Today was more exciting because yes, today was the last day of school but also, last night news broke out about a literal rock with a hole carved into it. It was uncovered out of nowhere. Like literally, the Reranda Hill only had flowers, grass and one big tree on the top. Then the next day the tree was gone and somewhat of a cave appears. The police and detectives did investigating and stuff but said they found nothing so they left it with caution tape around the whole entire area. But I take stuff like that as suggestions. Caution tape doesn't necessarily mean don't go into the cave, more like be careful in the cave. Take caution, like the tape says. So all I had to do was be careful. Easy. And besides I'd had such a strong weird urge to go to the cave. Auntie A had refused I even think of going close to anywhere within a mile of that cave. She said it was bad news. She knew how adventurous and curious I was about everything, but I couldn't help myself. The cave was calling for me! How could I send it to voicemail?
So after school when I got together with my friends I asked them,"Hey, did you guys hear about Reranda Hill?" They both nodded their heads vigorously, their luscious brown highlighted hair springing up and down. "I've seen it on the news and on people from our areas TikTok. The situation hasn't spread much further than Cedar Key." (Cedar Key is our town) Said Una. Luna spoke next and I'm warning you, brace yourself. "Yeah, people are coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas, like aliens made a base there, someone blew up the tree and the cave sprouted from the ground. The ideas are getting crazier and crazier. The scientists of course have more boring ideas for how the cave is there. Personally, I think someone pulled the cave out of the ground, but the mermaids are going to be really mad when they find out their cove is gone." Luna shook her head sadly. Una and me stared. "Riiiight," I said dragging out the word. "Well, I've been thinking about-" "You mean you made up your mind, and no one is going to tell you differently," Una interrupted, accurately but rudely, a smirk plastered on her face. I glared at her but stuck my finger out at her,"Exactly, I've made up my - our minds," I corrected,"that we're all going to the cave to investigate. "No!" They both shouted.
I beamed, my idea was genius. The police said they found nothing but who knows if they were telling the truth. Exactly, that's why I just want to check and if we find something special, that'd be cool.