SPLIT

 

by
Natalie Davis

 

Chapter One: Nightmares

 

I knew I was moving, but it was frustratingly slow; my feet hit the earth with an exaggerated BOOM as I trudged my way through the familiar trees. Whatever I was searching for was close, so close the scent was tickling my nose and burning my tongue, telling me to come closer. My exhausted legs kept running, but my mind was scattered and disconnected; I hardly saw the forest laid out in front of me like a professional painting. The green trees were restraining me from going anywhere but forward, and the wet, cold dirt sank into itself when my feet hit it, like a brown version of quicksand. The slow motion was bringing everything into perspective for me, and I could see every detail up close, as if someone was shoving it under my nose. This only made everything more terrifying, and my breath became ragged as I started to sob, longing to find whatever I was searching for so I could get out of the forest already. Suddenly, straight up ahead, I saw a pinch of light, brightening the dark scenario. I gasped and headed straight for that simple ray of hope; I knew reaching that light would put an end to the unknown misery I felt tearing up my heart inside. But every step I took, the light got farther away. I could have been running backwards. I screamed in frustration, the sound echoing of the trees. Suddenly, it seemed to awaken the whole forest, for the speed suddenly picked up, and I was flying backwards, my brown hair whipping into my tear-stained face. I was going faster and faster when in front of me there were no trees, but clips of my most painful moments of life, like a movie ready to play in my head: my mother explaining to me how everything in my easy 9-year-old life was changing, a packed and ready suitcase that I remembered for some reason, even though I had never seen it before, and a tear-filled world with which I was only too familiar. But suddenly the remembered pain stopped, and I was warm and wrapped in huge white blankets, so unlike the cold, hard forest. I sat up, drenched in a cold sweat, and saw that my only companion was my Shi Tzu puppy, Bear.

 

I shook myself, trying to convince myself it was only a dream, but my eyes darted back and forth across my white walls, expecting them to melt away, revealing the trees. My breath came in gasps as I remembered the terrifying sensation of being pulled from what you needed, like a drug being taken from an addict. My fingers knotted in my blankets.

 

Bear barked at me, and I jumped at the sudden sound. I slowly untangled myself from my bed, flinching away from the cold air that stung my cheek from the open window. I flew across the room and shut it, hating the outside world at the moment, and huddled in the corner until the nightmare wore off. When my brain was almost rid of it, I peeked around at Bear to see what he was doing. He was holding his leash in his mouth, jumping up and down by the door and wagging his tail. I realized he had to go outside, and smiled at his adorable face and eager expression. I looped his leash through his collar and led him outside.

 

Waiting outside on the cold concrete of my driveway, I shivered and tried to steer all my thoughts away from the nightmare. The odor of a nearby sewer stung my nose, and I wrapped my fluffy white bathrobe around my mouth to shut it out.

 

Bear barked at me again, and I looked at him. Obviously he was done, so we both trudged inside.

 

I had half a mind to go curl up in bed again, but I was afraid the dream would come back, and decided against it. Instead, I gave Bear his breakfast and went to clean my extremely messy room. I walked into my room and looked around it.

 

My room’s theme is extremely boring, but it is home to me. Everything is basically black and white. The blankets on my huge bed are white and fluffy, my pillows that I sleep on are white, but my decorative, small pillows are black with white flowers. My walls are white, and my carpet is white. My dresser has a huge mirror outlined in white, and the dresser itself is white, but my mom and I hand-painted the drawers black. My closet door is white, but I bought some black flower stickers and stuck them all over it. Almost my entire right wall is my HUGE bulletin board, covered in awards I had won and pictures of me and my friends and family. My left wall is covered in the leftover black flower stickers, and on my front wall is a huge zebra sticker. I mean HUGE. It is 5 feet wide and sticks on my whole wall. The theme is black and white, and luckily I found a life-size zebra sticker. My room sounds sort of random, but it is actually pretty cool.

 

At the moment, though, it didn’t look cool. It looked like a hurricane had hit. My bed was a mess; my whole floor was covered in clothes (as was my closet floor) and the stickers were peeling off. I shook my head and started to clean, pushing hard on the stickers to make them stay on, making my bed and carrying the dirty clothes to the laundry room. I looked at the clock and saw it reading 7:25 am. I had about 25 minutes to get to school.

I ran to my freshly-cleaned closet and threw on a pink blouse with white jeans, grabbed my white tote back that I had made myself, and ran to the kitchen to grab a homemade pancake, courtesy of my mom, before I ran to catch the bus.

 

I was panting by the time I reached the bus stop. I was sitting down on the bench in the background, trying to catch my breath, when the ugly dirt-splattered yellow bus came screeching around the corner. I ran onto it, catching a seat in the back by myself. As usual. But that’s what happens when the bus routes change and all your friends no longer ride the same bus to school as you do.

 

Suddenly a huge shadow loomed over me, and the meanest girl in school, who’s power and money ALWAYS got her what she wanted, Hannah, loomed over me, sneering, “Oh hi, Miranda.”

 

I sighed and replied sarcastically, “Hello, my very good friend whom I talk to all the time, Hannah.” I mean Hannah NEVER talks to me.

 

She shot me a nasty look. “Oh, how cute, Miranda trying to be cool,” she said in a mocking tone. Her puffy, curly red hair and green eyes made her instantly popular amongst everyone; and once you noticed her and got teased by her, you had to earn her respect. She even pays her “friends” to carry her books and things like that.

 

I ignored her and began munching on my pancake. But Hannah isn’t one to let people ignore her. She reached out and knocked my pancake to the ground before it reached my lips.

“Hey, I’m STARVING!” I complained. “Why did you do that?”

“I was TALKING to you,” she said threateningly, pointing a finger at me. “And when I talk to you, you better answer me.”

“You weren’t talking to me, you were making fun of me,” I snapped. “Go away and be stupid somewhere else.”

I heard her teeth audibly snap together. It was obvious I had made her angry. I prayed she wouldn’t spread an untrue rumor about me for my harsh words or tell a lie to a teacher that would get me in a ton of trouble. Finally she stood up and said, “Good bye, loser.” With that, she walked away to sit with her boyfriend, the hottest and most popular guy in school, Brennan.

I smiled, knowing I had won the battle for now.

 

 

Chapter Two: Crash

The bus pulled up in front of our huge, redbrick school. I hated this place. It was the place where Hannah ruled the school only with fear. The large archway with “RULDOPH MIDDLE SCHOOL” written on it in black print cradled the school like a baby. It was the entrance to another terrible day. Especially when the day had started off with a nightmare as disturbing as mine.

When I got off the bus, I saw Hannah’s best friend and 2nd most popular girl in school, Natalia, texting on her Sidekick cell phone. With her shoulder length black hair with a white bow in it, her caramel skin looking perfect with no blemishes, and her white t-shirt with blue letters spelling “HOLLISTER” paired with her blue shorts, she looked stunning. When our principal, Mrs. Johansson, walked by, Natalia quickly pressed send and hid her cell. We’re not supposed to have phones in school.

I watched as Hannah and Brennan hopped off the bus. Hannah practically ran to go gossip to Natalia. I sighed- I would never be popular and confident, but at least I wasn’t socially deprived whenever a day passed and I DIDN’T get invited to a party.

“MIRANDA!” my best friend Gen, short for Genevieve, called. Her cameral skin, long black hair, and awesome style made her look like a real popular-girl-in-the-making. But Gen would never do that, because she loves being a regular middle schooler too much.

I hurried over to her and smiled. “Hey, Gen,” I greeted her.

“So did you HEAR? Kayla got asked out by RYAN!” she squealed. I let her drone on about how perfect a couple Kayla and Ryan make while I zoned out and went into my own little world. We made our way to homeroom, Gen talking the whole way.

As I walked into homeroom, the intercom came on and our old assistant principal, Mr. Antler, said, “Welcome to class, Rudolph Middle School students! Now, before the wonderful day begins, may I please have Miranda Vanster to the office? Thank you!”

I looked at my teacher, Mrs. Brian, and saw her nod at me. She slid a pass across the desk. I went to grab it and walked to the office.

When I reached the huge, grey small building that labeled “STUDENT AFFIARS OFFICE” in huge bold letter, I pushed the door open and went to the front desk. The large office lady, Mrs. Bryce, got up and looked at my pass. She then led me to a door that read, “Mr. Antler” and led me inside. Sure enough, this was Mr. Antler’s room, and there was Mr. Antler, sitting at his desk. When he saw me, his face lit up, and he handed me a stack of papers.

“Oh, Miss Vanster, can you please help me? Can you please file these papers into my computer in alphabetical order?” he asked me in a desperate tone.

“Oh, um, sure,” I said, taken aback. I sat down at his computer and watched him walk out of the room. I turned to the blank and empty screen, clicked the mouse so it would turn on, and began to file the papers. They were parent papers, I realized. Parent notices for people who were failing.

My face scrunched up as I realized my father would never get one of these papers. A tear ran down my cheek. The divorce had really put everything into perspective for me. My father would never love me again. He would never be able to yell at me for this. It was terrible how much pain this caused me, and I knew Mom was suffering even more.

I finished putting the papers into the computer and looked around the small, green office. There were comfortable-looking chairs in the corner and a large wooden fan spinning widely on the ceiling. There were 2 filing cabinets over on the wall across me. One was labeled “Student Profiles” and the other “Concerns”.

I looked around for a sign of someone spying on me. I wanted to peek inside Student Profiles and see what they had about me. Maybe they had information on Dad.

After making sure the coast was clear, I slowly inched my way over to the filing cabinets and opened the first. I searched through until I found my name, almost all the way in the back. I opened the yellow folder and saw my terrible school picture. “UGH,” I groaned, trying not to remember that day. I had spilled coffee all over the photographer and blinked when he told me not to. That wasn’t my proudest moment, and now here it was, easily accessible to any teacher who looked through these files.

I looked at all the information. It had my name, my birth date, how much I weighed and the color of my hair, and of course: my parents’ names. My mom was Abby Olivia Vanster, and my dad’s was Van Jack Vanster. My heart skipped a beat as I looked at his picture.

He had my hair color, but his was in curls; his eyes were the exact same as mine, as if they were copies made on a machine. He had one arm around my mother, who was pregnant, and I felt a jolt as I realized this may be the closest he got to me. I started to cry, and I pushed the paper away so it wouldn’t get wet.

You may be wondering what happened to my father. Well, if you are having a bad day as you’re reading this, you should probably skip over this part. It’s pretty depressing.

See, my dad and mom got married 1 year before they had me. And they were blissfully happy. I was their first child, and they loved each other enough to overcome any problems that stumbled across their feet. But then they were fighting all the time in Mom’s 9th month of pregnancy. And so Mom divorced him. Dad had such a hard time adjusting to it. It was the worst for him. And it was so bad that when he was driving, he couldn’t concentrate, and got in a crash.

Right there was the end of his life.

 

Chapter Three: Time Warp

I don’t know where it came from, but there it was: a huge black hole, sucking me in.

It had sprung from the filing cabinet, right when I picked up the folder again. The folder turned blue and I dropped it- it had gotten so hot that it could have been burning. I looked at my raw skin, checking over the burn, and when I looked back up there it was: a black hole.

The wind picked up around me, whipping my hair on my face. I tried desperately to cover my face, but the merciless breeze pounded in my ears. I couldn’t hear anything but the roar, but suddenly I was flying inside the hole.

I must be dying, I thought suddenly. Why else would this evil wind be taking my breath away and forcing me to choke? I expected death to be much more peaceful, but I would take what I got happily. I would be able to meet my dad.

With one last breath, I yelled, “GOOD-BYE FOREVER, WORLD!”

Chapter Four: 1996

I opened my eyes to an empty, deserted street. No one but me. The pavement was wet; it had obviously just rained. I sniffed; I could smell a burning smell, like a forest fire burning trees. The smell of smoke.

I wondered where it all had gone. The school? The hole? The suddenly blue folder? And most importantly, where the heck was I now?

The smell was getting stronger; it burned my nose just to breathe in. I looked behind me and saw orange flames licking the large wooden fence surrounding the grassy hills where I stood.

I yelped and ran into the street. Of course, THAT moment was the one where a huge truck appeared, zipping down the street.

I screamed and tried to run, but on one side was the fire and where I stood was the truck. How was I supposed to know that a red mini van, at that exact moment, was going to wiz past me, but not before the driver grabbed my arm and pulled my inside the car?

I stared at my savior and gasped. It was my father.

I suddenly knew what had happened. I had gone back in time. I was here. And I knew what happened next.

I was the distraction that caused my dad to crash.

I didn’t know it until now, and I could see another car about to collide with us.

“DAD!” I screamed, “SWERVE!”

“What? Dad? Swerve? What are you talking about?” he asked.

“See the other car coming? We are both about to die. I don’t want that, and neither do you! SWERVE!”

He finally saw what I meant, and he quickly turned the wheel. We drove into a patch of grass, and with a final HONK on its horn the other car sped past us.

 

Chapter Five: Saved

I looked at this man, my father, who I would never see again after this moment. I was sure I would have to leave. Baby me was still in my mother’s stomach, soon to arrive.

“Who ARE you?” he asked softly.

I was sure he felt the same connection between us I did. “Nobody special.” I grinned.

Soon police cars showed up, and the next thing I knew we were both in the hospital, alive. It was a miracle. And the best part was I got to see my own birth. It was incredibly weird and incredibly awesome at the same time.

I found the folder to take me home, don’t worry. And when I got home from school that day, my dad was waiting for me. It was like I had changed everything. I loved the whole world, especially my parents. And it was weird how much my life had been altered by the SPLIT, and how easy it was changing it back.