Near Misses

Getting through breakfast was the least of my worries today, because as I stood there slumped against the door wondering what on earth I was to do next, Dad bellows from downstairs, “Matty, get your gear ready mate, we need to leave for rugby in about 15 minutes!”. Ahhhh, my rugby game, are you serious, could this possibly be the worst timing ever! Meanwhile Missa and Vicky are engrossed in a discussion on the interplanetary relationships between Neptune and Pluto.  She’s 5!

I’m also sure that Vicky’s growing in front of my eyes, not only is she eloquently using language only ever heard at NASA or the Pentagon, but her facial features are starting to change also. Mum and Dad love the childlike chubbiness Vicky still has, whereas I’m just a gangly, awkward mess of arms and legs. Vicky still speaks with a slight lisp, which always delights Nanna and Pop, but drives me insane, especially when she’s standing over my face, like last night, demanding me to rescue her from monsters under the bed, and I feel like I’m underneath a sun shower. Maybe it’s just the light and my hearing, maybe this crazy alien in my sister’s room has tampered with my brain somehow. I don’t know. But now I have 10 minutes to get myself changed and downstairs with my stuff ready for another punishing reminder that I’m the stinkest rugby player to ever put on a pair of budget Warehouse rugby boots. I’m convinced, the only reason I’m being forced to play rugby is so Mum and Dad can pretend that I’m not totally useless.

I whispered imploringly into Vicky’s ear, “keep this thing quiet and out of sight of anyone until I get home….are you listening to me Sis?!” Vicky nodded with an air of maturity that was becoming scaringly obvious.  I told her to keep the curtains closed and Missa covered with something because the strange lights illuminating from his body could be seen from outside and just to tell Mum she was playing huts in her room and it was a secret game (which yet again, Mum thought was so cute, that she wouldn’t disturb her. Sick!). I thought about faking a sore stomach or migraine headache to get out of rugby, but Mum and Dad had heard all this before and unless I needed a quick flight in the Westpac Helicopter to Starship for emergency surgery, I didn’t stand a chance.

Rugby was yet again, uneventful for me. Jamie Tito got player of the day for some outstanding tackle which saved the game. I nearly got knocked out by this enormous hooker who just seemed to come out of nowhere as I ran down the sideline with my only touch of the ball, only to meet his solid mass and spill the ball into the air and out over the sideline. There was Dad shaking his head with disappointment or remorse, I’m not sure and quite frankly I didn’t care. I just wanted to be home and sorting out a plan of attack for this blue, blobby mess.

When I got home, I tried to speed upstairs to Vicky’s room before the onset of game questions began, and just as I was at the top of the stairs, Mum trumpets “Hey Matty, how did your game go?”. “Yeah, nah, good Mum” I call back. “How about Jake, did he have a good game?”. Jake’s my best mate, we’ve been friends since kindergarten, and to be perfectly honest, I hadn’t even noticed if he was there or not, I was so preoccupied! “Um….yep, going for a wash now” and I took off before she could name every player in my team, which was typical of our after match ritual, and a further reminder that I suck at rugby, oh no, I mean everything.

I chucked my gear into my room and pried Vicky’s door open gently, only to discover, what should have been a dim, shadowy room with a familiar small human and a creature of unusual origins, was instead an empty space challenging even the intellectual prowess of Sherlock Holmes.  A slimy blue trail containing tiny flecks of a strange glittery substance, lead from under the bed across the room and out the OPEN WINDOW! On Vicky’s bed, fluttering under a makeshift paperweight was a note written with surprising penmanship. The note read…

Sarah's chapter 2

A  few  seconds  after  Vicky  had  put  her  arms  around  the  blob  like  alien,  something  strange  started   to  happen.  The  blob  started  to  rap  itself  around  her  like  a  second  skin,  then  very  slowly  started  to   seep  deep  into  her  skin,  until  you  could  no  longer  see  the  blob.  "Vicky",  I  say  quietly,  "are  you   OK?"  Something  about  her  just  didn't  seem  right  anymore.  Well  of  course  not!  She  just  injested   a  blob  thing.  All  of  a  sudden  something  unexpected  happened.  "Your  sister  is  gone  now"  said   Vicky,  but  I  am  not  quite  sure  if  it  is  Vicky  or  the  blob  anymore.  Then  Vicky  vanished  into  thin  air.   "Where  did  she  go"  I  thought.  "Note  to  self,  never  trust  an  alien".  
The  door  opened  and  mum  walked  in  to  the  room.  "Oh,  no!"  "What  am  I  going  to  do,  mum  is   going  to  freak!"  "Matt?"  said  mum,  "what  are  you  doing  in  here?"  "Ummmmm"  is  all  I  can   manage  to  say.  Then  mum  looks  worried,  "where's  Vicky?"  I  had  to  tell  her  the  truth,  so  I  did,   even  though  I  knew  she  wouldn't  believe  me.  "She  got  taken  over  by  a  weird  blue  alien  blob  thing"   ,I  say  as  calmly  as  possible.  "Ya  sure  she  did,  and  now  next  your  going  to  tell  me  that  you  saw  a   flying  pig."  Well  of  course  she  doesn't  believe  me.  
BOOM!  "Matt  what  was  that?"  asks  mum.   BOOM!
 "I  don't  know,  but  it's  coming  from  outside."We  both  look  out  the  window  and  on  the  grass  was   Vicky  blowing  up  the  lawn.  "WHERE  IS  IT!"  yelled  Vicky  "  IT  SHOULD  BE  HERE!"    "What  does   she  mean  by  where  is  it"  I  think.  Then  the  ground  started  to  shake  as  something  slowly  rose   from  the  ground. 

First response to our stories - great, thanks Blake!

I like all the stories but my favourite one was Alex's because it was imaginative and interesting and had advanced language.
From Blake Wood

Have you read the different stories? Which one do you like best?

Have you got a favourite chapter 2? Please, send me an email (d.goodall@ghs.school.nz) and tell me which one it is and why you like it best.

Amber Hodgson's Chapter 2

The wooden floor creaked tightly as I tip toed into Vicky’s room. I slowly open the door and see her curled up in bed with Missa.

“Pssht,” I whisper, I still wasn’t quite so sure about letting a monster living with us but Vicky sure seemed comfortable!

My whisper awoke little, tired, grumpy Vicky. She wiped her eyes,

“Matt? Is that you? What are you doing in my room at..”

She checks her clock.

“3am!!”

“Sorry, I was just making sure you’re okay, you know, sleeping in the same bed as a monster,” I answer quietly knowing by her red baggy eyes and facial expression that she is very grumpy.

I start to walk out of her room.

“Wait. Matt, I’m scared. Missa might have to leave,”

I look at her with a surprised look.

“Well of course Missa will have to leave Vicky, that’s the plan,”

I see tears form in her big blue sparkly eyes. They glimmer with shiny water filling them.

“But, I don’t want Missa to leave,”

“Missa don’t want to leave either. Missa miss you!” says Missa.

“Missa, I didn’t know you were awake,” I say.

We chat. Of course I was on track about wanting Missa to leave, and I thought Vicky was too, but now that I know it would upset her, I’m not so sure, maybe Missa needs to stay. The window was covered with steamy condensation dribbling down the window pane. It was irritating me, so I wiped it with my cold hand. As I wipe it, I see something extraordinary, a spaceship! The spaceship was purple covered with gooey, shiny green slime and silver, sparkly stars around the edge, it was magnificent!

But Vicky and I both know what happens next isn’t so glamorous. The spaceship opens with a loud clank and steam. Two monsters, similar looking to Missa, approached us.

“Wissa is my name. This is Lissa. We have come for Missa,” Wissa says.

Tears fill up in Vicky’s eyes again, but this time, in mine too.

“Missa gonna miss you Vicky, and Missa miss you too Matt,” Yells Missa from the spaceship door that is slowly closing.

We are going to miss you too Missa, we’ll miss you too.

Wow, the possibilities! Check out Grace's and Cary's versions of chapter 2!

The floorboards groaned as my quivering feet collapsed on the cold wooden floor. My eyes rolled back and forth to the sound of Missa’s howling sobs.  The white lace curtains swayed in the draught coming from the approaching storm.

I lifted my head to see Vicky comforting Missa.

“Missa scared, Missa needs help”, she said in her shrill voice. “Missa long way from home.”

Vicky clasped Missa to her chest and held her tight.

I wonder what we could do? She seemed so lost and scared.

Missa snuggled into Vicky’s shoulder, and made soothing gasps as she lay there. Vicky leaned forward to wipe a salty purple tear that was trickling down the side of Missa’s face, with her finger. Suddenly Vicky gave a sharp yelp, “OUCH, I think Missa bit me” I reached across and tried to pull Missa away from Vicky, but she was firmly attached. From the middle of her blob like body a tube had entered Vicky’s flesh and the outer parts where starting to stick to her freckly skin.

“GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OF, ITS STINGING”.

I tried to pull it away, but the purple jelly just slipped through my fingers and reattached itself more firmly. We had no clue what to do!

After a while the purple jelly part dissolved and withered away leaving, a small pin prick mark. A short time after Vicky laid her head back and her eyes rolled up into her head. Her skin began to turn purple and I could see a strange thing happening beneath her skin. She let out a small sigh and her body contorted and there before my eyes stood a large intimidating purple creature.  “Who are you? I said and where is Vicky?”  “I AM MISSA FROM THE PLANET PLUTO AND OUR MISSION IS TO TAKE OVER THE PLANET EARTH.  Millions of us are ready to invade, now I have established a gate way through Vicky”. 

“You can’t”, I said.

 “Watch me”, he said. Just then I felt a small tickling sensation on my cheek. My hand reached up and I felt a jelly like substance on my face. I started to scream. Just at that moment I felt a sharp prick into the side of my face.

 By Grace Heagren

I stared at the blob, unsure what to do, as my sister held it in her arms. Finally I knew we had to get to the spaceship and help fix it. "Where is your spaceship?" I asked, but the blob just stared at me like I was crazy. My sister quietly giggled and this made the blob laugh loudly too. It wasn't like a normal laugh though, it sounded like a mixture between a cow and a pig. It was also VERY loud! My sister quickly whispered "shhhh shhhh!" into the blob's face and the blob started to wail even louder than it did before and made too much noise. The blob wiggled out of Vicky's arms and started throwing everything it could. It looked right at the lamp beside Vicky's bed, but I grabbed it before the blue blob could.

This time my Mum and Dad woke up and I could hear them moaning and groaning as they got up out of their old, creaky bed. Their footsteps were getting closer and closer. We had to hide the blob! I tightly grabbed the blob into my hands and it started throwing a tantrum. "Missa I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to put you in a box for a minute so you don't get seen by my parents. Okay?"
"Missa don't want to get caught by p-­‐p-­‐parents!" I found a box under Vicky's bed next to where the strange blue blob was and put it in. I saw a tear in Vicky's eyes, but just as I was going to ask why, the door opened widely and my exhausted and very annoyed parents walked in.
"What are you doing!" cried my Mum.
"Vicky had a nightmare and I came to see if she was okay", I replied. Everyone looked over at Vicky and she slowly nodded.
"What was all that noise then?" asked Dad not to convinced.
"I...... tripped over Vicky's dolls. They are always all over her floor and they never get tidied up!"
"Okay, just go back to bed now. And no more noise!" said Dad just

wanting to go back to bed to get some sleep. I stood up and followed my Mum and Dad, but when I got to the door, I turned back and winked at Vicky. She knew what that meant.
I jumped back into bed and my mum came in to kiss me goodnight again. I waited for 5 minutes to make sure my Mum and Dad had gone to sleep. I opened my door and I could hear my Dad snoring like he always did. Even though the hallway was very long, I could hear the snoring as loud as a lion's roar! I tiptoed past the bathroom. I could hear the branches from the big oak tree tapping the bathroom window, like it wanted to come inside into the warmth.
I tried to open Vicky's door quietly but her door wasn't like mine so it creaked loudly. I turned the light on and looked around Vicky's room, but there was no sign of her. The box that I had put the blue blob in from Pluto was in the middle of the floor on top of the rainbow mat and the lid was next to it. Where were the blob and my sister?

By Carys Budding 

Fantastic!! Alex Wood - you rock!!! Please, everybody read our first student chapter!!!

The Blob under the Bed

I stood there my mouth opening and shutting like a gold fish's. I was gobsmacked. Eventually the sound of "Missa's" wracking sobs brought my glazed eyes back to focus, and I was vaguely able to distinguish words in its broken childish sentences.
" Missa get punished, sob, but Missa not trained for this, sob sob, Missa being touched by enemy, sniff" and with that strange sentence the strange little blue blob started to wail even louder, bounded out of Vicky's arms, flung itself to the ground, and started banging its transparent fists on our creaky wooden floorboards, smooth from decades of socks and feet shuffling across its dirt ingrained surface.
He ( I was sure that Missa was a boy now, judging from his actions) was making such a racket now, that I was almost certain that he was going to wake up my lazy parents.
"Missa!" I whispered "Please Missa, it's ok, we'll help you, please don't cry!" With my frantic words he paused, I sighed with relief! and then he started throwing his little tantrum again, if anything even louder. It took several minutes for Vicky to quieten Missa down, maybe it was her calmness and quiet manner, or maybe it was because her mind worked slightly more like his, but eventually his fists stopped beating on Vicky's dusty bedroom floor.
"What," I questioned tentatively, afraid he was going to burst into tears again, "did you mean by getting touched by the enemy, we are your friends, not enemy ? ".
M-Missa has to do what p-Pluto commander says, otherwise M-Missas family get... He trailed off, his huge flashing purple eyes sparkling with tears, and made a brisk grabbing gesture with his long fingered blue hands, and promptly burst into tears again, the what- looked -like computer circuits flashing brilliant colors that would not be found on this planet. Although this time Vicky did not rush forward to comfort him again.
Vicky was sitting cross legged in her rainbow striped onezie and fluffy pink slippers staring into space, a pained, horrified expression etched across her pale, usually rosy cheeked face. Her wide tear filled eyes were fixed on her purple fairy poster plastered wall, yet that was not what she was seeing. She did not even notice when Missa stopped blubbing and was now staring at Vicky like me.
"Vicky", I started unsurely, "are you, are you feeling ok?" I waved my hand in front of my little sister's face, she did not even blink as I clicked my fingers. As I looked more closely as her, I saw the strange reflections in her pale brown eyes. Flashes of bright light against a black sky, blue figures darting around it, falling as they got hit by the flash's beams.
Suddenly Vicky gave a shuddering gasp, and her eyes found mine. It was only then that I saw she was touching the lumpy, circle shaped birthmark on her collarbone. Was it just the strange blue light that the alien was emitting, or was it glowing? No! I shook myself. Honestly, how could a birthmark be glowing?. Vicky always made silly stories up about her birthmark. One time she said it was where an angel kissed her. Another time she said that was where a unicorn healed a cut. What with the events that have happened in the past hour, anything could be possible.
"Vicky," I said sternly, "what did you see?".