I don’t know what happened. I was just a plain jane living my life one moment at a time, worrying about homework and impressions. Why me? I was so puzzled. I mean sure, I was a catalyst in the mess of this all, but still… It didn’t make any sense. But I was glad it happened in a way. I look back over all the events that occurred in those months of confusion and I feel…at home… which really makes no sense. I was in a different time, and different place but I felt as if I belonged. But I didn’t. I was just in dreamland, as was everything else around me. And that dreamland was the most vivid and real thing that had ever happened to me.
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. Who had said that? Well, I don’t remember, but they sure were an idiot. This mess never would have happened if they had changed a few simple words. If you don’t have anything nice to think, don’t think at all. Now there’s a helpful thought.
My name is Camille A. Scott, and my mind was the mind to push the world over in evil. Sounds bad, right? I’m not that bad of a kid, actually. I’m 16, and I have yet to drink, smoke, cheat, or go do something else stupid. And I’m nice. Or I appear to be, but my thoughts tend to get a little on the mean side. That’s what did it. A simple thought. That thought was triggered on May 8, 2009. I could never forget that date, even if I tried. And I have tried. Many, many times to no success. I was walking home from school silently, and internally fuming at a good friend of mine, Emma. She was being such an idiot! Em had decided she didn’t care about girls. Only boys. Oh yes. She loved her boys. I really didn’t mind her gushing over some guy once in a while, but this! Every single male human under the age of 25. Gah. So there I was, thinking some pretty mean thoughts about this girl, when the ground started to shake. I got a little scared, but since we were in California, I figured it was just a little earthquake. No big deal, happens all the time, right? I was right… for a while. The peace was disturbed for a bit, but then it ended, and I continued on my way.
Then I heard a, “Cami! Cami!” Oh crap. Here’s she comes now. Emma, the queen of kings. I tried to blow my steam off and greeted her with a quick, noncommittal ‘Hi’.
“So how’re you doing?” Small talk. Useless.
“Fine”, I mumbled. “Just fine.” Emma stared at me thoughtfully. Or at least it appeared thoughtful. You could never tell with Emma. She wasn’t the brightest light bulb in the bunch. At the moment, I doubted Emma even could think. Maybe that’s why she relied on her hormones so much. Lack of actual thought and idea.
“You sure okay?” Wait, could she notice know my internal hate coming out in huge waves towards her? I had tried so hard to be subtle. I sighed and glanced around. Don’t give eye contact. You might break. I grumbled out something inaudible. Emma paused, trying to translate. Then she gave up and began to speak.
“Cami, I’m so sorry about earlier today” She had ditched me for a boy. Of course. “Really, I am!” I was only half listening now. It wasn’t worth both my ears. Why did I even bother being her friend in the first place? “I really hope you’ll forgi-“
And then it didn’t matter if I forgave her.
Cold. That’s the first feeling I had when I came around. Much too cold for California. California isn’t cold in May. May is the time to start heading to the pool in California. So I couldn’t be there. I tried to recall the events that had led me to this cold mysterious place. I remembered there was an earthquake. Yes, yes, right before Emma came. But then, there was something else too. Another one, except this time Emma was there. So it couldn’t have been the same experience before. This one was very different. The ground, I remembered, was shaking, shaking. But not a normal earthquake. It seemed to come from something deeper than the ground, like the center of the earth was trying to explode out to the surface. And then I remembered falling. Yes, that memory was very clear now. Falling, looking up to the sky and falling, sheer terror in my eyes as I watched the blue sky turn a dark, forbidding red. So then, where was I?
One eye opened, then the next. No snow, I observed, but a chilling cold, that was… slowly getting warmer. Yes, much warmer. Was it normal for the temperature to change this fast? I looked up to the sky and noticed a small slit of red slowly closing at the same pace the temperature was rising. Could they be connected? I turned my attention to my surroundings. I was outside in a beautiful meadow. In the distance I saw a large building, and even farther back, I could see a glimpse of what was probably a large town, thought I couldn’t really tell, for it was so far away.
Then, I saw her. Emma, lying in the soft grass, eyes closed. I panicked. “Emma!” All negative thoughts of my friend vanished. I felt terrible. I picked up her head and laid it on my lap, and then started to think. What was going on? Where was I? What was with this strange climate and this faraway feel?
“Oh dear. Ummm, wow. This is a dilemma.” A voice. Definitely not mine. Or Emma’s. It was a man’s. I frantically turned around, searching for the man. Instead of a man, however, I saw an extremely large crow. Jet black feathers, bright blue eyes. I was scared. This crow probably over three feet high, and it’s eyes… had a human feel to them. I shook my head violently, hoping that’d make him disappear. The crow simply laughed- or cawed, I wasn’t sure which- and said, “Where did you get such scandalous clothing?” I looked down at myself. I was fully dressed, with sleeves that went down to my elbow and full length jeans. What was he talking about? These were perfectly normal, if not extra modest. All of the sudden, he flew closer to me, causing me the flinch. He laugh/cawed again. I see you’re not from around here. You must be an extra from another world.”Okay, what? That threw me off, and I stared at the bird. This was getting outrageous. Maybe this was all a dream. Maybe I hadn’t even woken up from the night before… But I knew. This was too real to be a dream. Too real. Too vivid. Too alive.
I came back to earth- or whatever this place was- when I heard the creature say, “Come on. I’ll take you to get some proper clothes.” Oh yeah, I was so going to jump on a talking crow’s back and go shopping. But then, a massive black wing scooped me up and placed me on its back- and took off.
Flying was shocking. I had been on an airplane, but this was nothing compared to actually being right on a bird. The wind slapped me so hard I swore I would have bruises for a week, and we were so high up, all I could see were blankets of clouds. I tried to ask the bird some questions, but even a scream could not be heard through the rush of wind. I was holding on to dear life to that crow, the poor thing. I was probably tearing its feathers out. The crow never showed any pain though. It seemed very nonchalant, in fact. We started to descend, luckily. We had been flying for only about twenty minutes, but that was enough time for me to be complete traumatized. Finally, we landed. What that crow showed me next shocked me.
