By: Jasmine Tang

Chapter 1

Moving. That’s how much weirder it can get. I hated that people were wowing over me again. The people in Augusta, Maine are used to the weirdness of my brain, moving into a new town would make the stares come back.

My older sister, Norla, is a normal child. She’s more than normal. She’s extra normal. She’s friends with half of her school’s population. I don’t get how someone like her could be related to someone like me. She loves me though, even more than our parents.

“Our parents worry too much,” she says, “But as long as we have each other everything is gonna be fine.”

I believe her, but I wonder if she just loves me because I’m smart. Declining college is weird enough, but helping your 17-year-old sister on her 12th grade calculus homework is even weirder. I’m 12, and I haven’t gone to school in 9 years. One time, my sister asked me to help her with her science project, and I finished it in less than 30 seconds, without breaking a sweat. She’s my favorite.

My parents say that one day, I’m going to wake up and help make rockets land back on their landing pads or make planes fueled on dirt. I think it would be better for something to run on carbon dioxide, and be able to turn it into oxygen, like trees. Of course, trees will never be replaced when it comes to making oxygen.

Then, there’s my older brother, Narson. I don’t know about that kid. He spends most of his time in his room, which is literally just a bed, a desk, and a whole bunch of wrappers. I’m pretty sure he’s a D+ student, with absolutely no idea what he’s doing. I have absolutely no idea how he’s in the 9th grade, but he sure is moving up in grades. Somehow, he has his driver’s license, so if he isn’t in his room or school, he drives to some random party his friends are hosting. He’s crazy.

I also have a younger sister, Willow, who started talking 2 weeks after she was born, and started multiplication at the age of 6 months. My parents don’t want her to go to school, and get attention like me, so most of the time, they make me babysit her so they can go to work. Good thing she’s only 3 or I’d be bored out of my life. It might be weird, but I like chasing around a toddler rather than sitting there and watching a baby sleep.

We also had a house with three floors. I loved my room. I had an amazing corner desk, with a window seat for reading. I also had a loft bed, and underneath was my closet.

That’s pretty much my life. That was before I moved though. One week ago, we packed all our stuff to go to a random town in Rhode Island called Birdsfeed Falls. What type of name is that?

Our house isn’t even as good as our old one. We still have 3 floors, but at our old house, we had stuff built in for Willow and me– which we obviously couldn’t bring with us– and the new house has this huge creepy old attic taking up a whole floor. There wasn’t enough room for all of us to get a room on the second floor. Of course I had to take the attic.

“What if there are bugs,” I complained, trudging up the bags of stuff I bought.

“The workers said that the attic was the best room!” he said, trying to cheer me up, “I’ll even build you back your corner desk so you can write your stories.”

Yeah, I want to be an author, deal with it.

“Besides, you don’t have to stay in your room all day while we set up,” Dad said. “When we were driving here, I saw a wonderful waterfall right next to a cafe, and I heard the neighbor has a daughter your age!”

“Fine, I guess,” I said, shrugging. “But if she’s no good, I’m coming back.”

“Deal.”

I made my way over to the neighbor’s house, admiring the exterior of our house. I cautiously step on the neighbor’s lawn. I approach the door and pushed the small doorbell on the side of the house.

“Who’s there?” a girl from inside called. Weirdly, she sounded just like me.

“Your new neighbor!” I called.

She opens the door, and I gasp.

She looks just like me. Brown hair, brown eyes, and small freckles covering her face. The only thing different was that her hair was up in a ponytail.

“Hi, I’m Allie!” she said, stepping out from the door. “What a coincidence! We look the same!”

I’m speechless.

“Um, are you ok?” she asked.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m Aura,” I mumbled.

“Nice to meet you, Aura!” she said, sticking out her hand for me to shake it.

I take it and grin. I liked her personality already.

“Wanna go to the cafe?” she asked. “It’s only a 5-minute walk from my house!”

“Sure, why not,” I agreed, “but I have to ask my parents first.”

“I’ll wait in front of your house for you!”

I walk over to my lawn, and she follows behind me.

“I’ll be back in a sec,” I said, opening the door.

I walked into the house and called for my dad.

“Dad!” I called.

“Dad!!” I called a little louder.

“Dad! Can I go to the cafe with Allie?” I literally hollered.

“Sure– wait, that’s the new neighbor, right?” Dad asked from the stairs.

“Yeah.”

“Sounds like you two are best buds already,” he chuckled, then walked away to keep working.

“My dad said yes!” I squealed when I got outside.

“Hey,” Allie said, looking at my bike. “Wanna bike there?”

“Sure, why not,” I said.

I walked over to my bike, and she walked over to her shed, as we both grabbed our bikes.

“Come on!” I yelled in excitement, when I hopped on my bike.

“Just wait! I have to get it out of my shed!”

After, like, 16 hours of waiting, Allie finally emerged from her shed.

“Ready?” she asked me.

“I was ready for like 1 million hours, what took you so long?!” I asked, pretending to be angry.

“I thought I saw a squirrel,”

“You’re scared of those? Squirrels are actually very helpful. They can replant trees.”

“I know that, but they’re still scary,” she said. “We should go before they start chasing us.”

“Geez, you’re really scared of squirrels, aren’t you?”

“Please?” Allie asked sweetly.

“Fine,” I said teasingly.

“Thank you!” she sighed, then biked off without me. “Wait, sorry I forgot you were here.”

I whacked my forehead, but I biked after her.