“Hey big ugly! Can you please leave my school alone?!” I yelled while charging the troll and unleashing a flying kick, aimed for the side of its head. As you may have guessed, it didn’t turn out exactly as I would’ve hoped. It was just like attacking Jell-o. Hitting a troll in the stomach- I obviously need to work on my flying kick- feels like that. The monster didn’t even do anything! It just stood there like I wasn’t even a challenge. Meanwhile, the blow from my foot knocked me all the way back to the other end of the hallway. Fortunately, I landed on something soft before I hit the lockers in the next hall. I didn’t know what it was at first, but when I figured it out, I almost slapped him. I was in Warren’s arms.
“Warren! What are you doing?!” I exclaimed. He had a strange look on his face.
“Don’t worry my-lady. You’re safe in my arms.” Warren replied with a nervous smile. Ugh… Boys.
“Wait, what did you just say?”
“I said ‘You’re the most beautiful thing ev-’ Wait, that’s not what I said! I said ‘Why are you fighting that-that thing all by yourself?’”
“It’s a troll, genius. And to answer the last part, it’s because nobody else is tough enough to do it!”
At that moment, Melanie and Jeremy came running up beside us. “Oh great. Now it’s a party! What are you two doing here? Don’t you see the troll headed this way?”
Jeremy replied, “You appeared in the periphery of my eyesight, when you were rocketed away by the blubber on the troll’s abdomen. I communicated to Melanie about what I had just witnessed and she requested to follow me on my journey to aid you.” Warren and I looked at Melanie. She translated, “Jeremy and I came to help you.” That made more sense. Okay, let’s recap:
1 There is a giant monster headed our way,
2 My body is still aching from the kick,
3 And my troll-slaying army is a dumb boy who is madly in love with me (Why am I so amazing?), a ten-year-old boy (too young for us to let him get eaten), and a Canadian girly-girl (I bet she didn’t know America even had trolls.)
No problem, we are so going to handle this. The troll started growling and running- yes, I said running- towards us. The floor was shaking so much, I almost had a heart attack.
“Guys, look!” I shouted, pointing at the old creepy broom closet down the other hall away from the troll.
“No way I’m going in there!” said Warren.
“Is that the closet--” started Melanie.
“Yep!” Warren shouted at her.
“--where they say those people disappeared and the janitor puts the… you-know-what, eh?” Melanie said.
“Do you want to be covered in… you-know-what, or be eaten by a troll?” I asked. Nobody had an answer. That’s how bad we consider you-know-what.
“Jeremy, how about you?” Warren asked.
“This does not compute. Trolls are fictitious creatures. Nevertheless, I would go to you-know-what.” He said. We all looked at each other.
“The brainiac has spoken.” I said.
A sound like thunder broke my thoughts. It was the troll’s footsteps. My mind was racing and I would’ve stayed there, petrified by fear, if Melanie hadn’t yelled, “I think it’s best if we get moving, eh?!”
We bolted around the corner and approached the closet. I hope trolls are either stupid or easily distracted and he doesn’t look too hard for us. Melanie opens the door, with the rest of us pushing and shoving, and we all jumble into the closet. Warren slams the door and stumbles, causing all of us to fall backwards. But instead of slamming onto the concrete floor, I feel myself continue to fall, past the floor and into darkness. Yeah, this is a huge problem.
The Orange Lantern
Melanie
This happens every day in America, eh? I mean, please tell me this is a regular day in high school here. Running from trolls, haunted rooms, and falling through trap doors. Every… oh, what’s the date, October, 27. A Halloween joke, eh? This is something we Canadians do not do. Looking around, it seems like we fell through a hidden trap door in the closet and landed in some kind of underground basement.
Maybe Americans are being abducted by aliens, like in all the movies, and we are the first victims. Well, either I’m wrong or these are the best abducting hosts ever. This room is big. Like, really, seriously, very, big. At this point, I am not even sure if we are still in the school building. It was painted blue, with white stripes all over. There were neon lights hanging from the ceiling, and they were smoothly changing colors constantly. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a party meant for us, eh? I stared up at a giant banner at the front of the “abduction room” that literally read ‘Welcome, heroes of space: Warren, Leah, Jeremy, and Melanie!’ I just had one question for the supreme alien rulers… Why was I, the one from Canada, last, and Warren, of all people, was first. If I didn’t know better, I would think that I would be first, eh? After all, I’m the only one here that isn’t from looney America.
We were all in shock as random objects popped up everywhere: Video game systems, pizza stands, king sized beds, and vending machines. Lots and lots of vending machines. There were Gatorade machines, juice, chips, candy, and others. But the scariest thing, by far, was the holographic, glowing orange, huge man that appeared right in front of my face. He is big and muscular, but I could still sense intelligence and thought in his eyes. The man also has a long white beard, that made him looked like he was well over a hundred years old. Crazy, eh?
“Greetings, Riders.” he said. Warren fainted.
“Um... Warren?” The holograph asked. His voice was buzzing and powerful, even somewhat metallic.
“How do you know his name? Oh, and don’t worry about him. He’s fine. ” Leah said.
“I know all of your names, since each and every one of you have a parent that was a member of this society, called Riders.” he replied. I was thinking that this was total madness, but surprisingly, my jumbled brain was slowly regrouping.
“The main purpose of this group is to protect the galaxy, meaning not just Earth” said the man.
“But, why,” I began, “why us? Of all people?” I know my parents moved our family to America for the best, but I wasn’t seeing it. Besides this craziness, back at school I was still being bullied for being the only person from Canada. Plus, this holographic man said all of our parents worked here, possibly before I even came to America. So picking me for some group of heroes had to be a mistake.
“You were chosen, because your parents volunteered for this group” he said.
“But-But my parents are from Canada.” I responded. By this point, I was getting aggravated. Who does he think he is, coming up out of nowhere and trying to tell me that I never knew my parents? I was practically ready to say have you abducted us to tell us how wrong we were about our parents, and that they don’t even love us? But then he said something that left us all in shock.
“Your parents, they talked about their children every day to their peers.” I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead Jeremy said something even more surprising.
“Who are you, and may I inquire, on what planet is your existence found?”
For once he was speechless, and his face creased deeply with seriousness. As quickly as it happened, he regained his composure.
He cleared his throat, forced a smile,