TRIFOX

So, some of you out in the Internet may have heard of this thing called NaNoWriMo. It's where you write a story to meet your word count goal. If you meet your word count goal, you win and are able to publish a book. This is an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo, TRIFOX:




prologue






My problems were only added to when I saw the lady. The screaming flaming lady. My first thought was, “She’s older than my math teacher.” But I still looked twice, which was rare for me, because as I work at a circus, The Foster’s and Co. I’m really not sure what it was about her. Hmm… Maybe it was because she was falling from the sky. Not the most peculiar thing I’ve seen over the years, but just to make my life more complicated, she had to be screaming,”BEWARE ALEX THEY’RE ALL OUT TO GET YOU DON’T GO WITH THEM LUNATICS ALL OF THEM SAVE YOURSELF DON'T BOARD THE ILIAD!” And it wasn’t my name that grabbed my attention, it was the words board and Iliad in the same sentence, ensuing that the Iliad was a ship. Oh, and the fact that she landed on my tent. The first thing confused me so much, I felt as if I were dreaming in a different language. And, the second thing, oh that only fueled my rage. And when I get mad, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop me, not even my best friends, Sofi and Gabs dare get in my way. Of course, the lady obviously didn’t know that sometimes even the tiniest things infuriate me. And on a day like today, I would go ballistic if anyone even talked to me. The reason being, I not only failed my “mind reading” practice for TFC, but I also took a stupid math test, which of course, I completely and utterly failed.







my stupid substitute teacher




Usually, since I actually can mind read, math is really simple. All I have to do is dive into my teacher’s head and look at the papers they’ve graded, the times that they looked at and created the test and yada, yada, yada. But, today of course, I have to have a sub. I can still read her mind, of course, I’m just not used to trekking into her head. I have to be careful that I don’t tread too far into her nervous system, the high level emotion memories. An example of that is what I just did. Right now would be a good time to begin The Alex Peterson Guide to Get Out of Trouble. She most likely just realized that something out of the ordinary is happening. And, her subconscious just started probing her head for intruders. I’ll have to hide in a memory that she’s afraid of, maybe when her daughter moved out or something. But at least she’s young, there won’t be anything too bad. Ah! Here it is. A nice, frightening memory.


“It was a dark, stormy night when an earsplitting scream broke the hypnotizing pitter-patter of rain. She ran, as fast as she could to get home, faster than the man in the hockey mask.’


‘No, Kathren, I’m sorry, but this work is quite frankly not acceptable. You have failed my class. May this memory haunt you until the day you die. That you failed something that you were absolutely passionate about. Being an author/english teacher. You simply do not have what it takes.’ And haunt her it did. For Kathren’s teacher was the most intimidating lady you would ever meet. Her motto was kill them with kindness, just be particularly evil to the weaker ones.”


“Wow”, I thought. She probably hated subbing for a math class full of brainy kids with ADHD. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that. I go to a school filled to the brim with a combination of kids with ADHD, people from TFC, and the kids from all the local orphanages. We call it the Asylum. I was blessed to be cursed with all three. I have serious Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, which is just a name to make not being able to sit still sound fancy. I’m one of the big attractions at TFC. And, finally, my parents died when I was two. I firmly believe that I inherited my extraordinary ability from one of them. Speaking of… I need to bring my thoughts down a little bit or she will hear me. Stumbling around, I finally find her eyes. Wow… I look exactly the same when I’m sleeping. Long naturally dark red hair. Pale face splattered with freckles. Black shirt + black jeans + white converse = your average antisocial teenager. And now to go back to my own head. I need to brace myself. Urgh, every time I transfer back to my own body, I get dizzy. Very, very dizzy. Ri-i-ing. There’s the bell. Now all I have to do is sneak out of the classroom, make sure she doesn’t notice me, and get to the cafeteria and my locker before the stampede. “Alexandra, can you stay after class?”


Let’s add innocently scaring her to my to-do list. “Yes Kathren, I can stay after class, but seeing as class is over, and according to the Geneva Convention’s laws on Collective Punishment. And, as I’m sure you may know, KAthy, after your failed attempt at teaching English, the proper term is ‘Will you stay after class?’ Goodbye.” I turn around in the doorway and add, “And, Kathy, my name is Alex.”


“Ok, then. Alex”,she says, sounding out my name as if it is an alien tongue, “It’s about the Trifox Confederation and what you may or may not see later today.” I whip my head around and ask accusingly, “What do you know about the Trifox Confederation?” She gives a sickly sweet smile and answers, “Oh dearie, I know everything about the Trifox Confederation, or at least I know more than you. I even know your mother! Not your father though. No one knows who he is. Except Urstali, I guess.” Head spinning, I grip the doorframe and stumble out of the room and walk numbly to the cafeteria.