Chris Flame 1

Chapter 1 - The Unknown Secret

It was a sunny Monday morning on the first day of school. The thought of school made me want to bang my head on the table in my bedroom."Come downstairs and eat, Chris!""Coming!" I yawned as I reluctantly pulled my head from the soft pillow.I brushed my teeth, put on my clothes, and stumbled downstairs.My mom was wearing an orange T-shirt. She always wears it on the first day of school. She started doing that when she was a little girl, probably six years old. She told me she got the idea from her grandmother. Her grandmother must have told her it was a family tradition because I saw a picture of my great-grandmother wearing that same shirt.My dad looked tired, wearing a professional suit for his meeting today. He always does that on Mondays. Dad works at a friendly engineering company. He took me there once, and the employees gave me chocolate. Chocolate isn't my favorite; I always thought it was made from coffee, and by the smell of coffee... yeah, not so good for a kid. But hey, it’s better than nothing, right?I ate a quick breakfast and started walking to school. A teacher greeted the students with a funny hello. If I were a teacher, I would grump through the day. I walked to math class, the first class of the day for me. "Great, another day of 1+1 math," I mumbled. As I started math class, someone sat beside me. I turned and looked in the direction where I heard someone sitting.There was a boy with black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a long-sleeve shirt with jeans and was about the same height as me. He eagerly whispered to me, "Hi! My name is Sam.""Um. Nice, my name is Chris, Chris Flame," I whispered back, wondering why he said that to me when..."Good morning, class! You can call me Mr. Hazel. I'm extremely excited to be here! Let's introduce ourselves, shall we? Let's start from the first row, please," the old man smiled. Teachers on the first day of school are too upbeat.I waited until it was my turn. "Hi, my name is Chris Flame. I'm currently ten years old. I'm so lucky to be here." When I said that, my mind told me, "Not. A. Chance. Last year, a lot of kids bullied me.""Very well, let's get started!" We learned more academic problems than fun stuff.In the middle of math class, when Mr. Hazel was teaching Sarah how to solve a problem, Sam leaned over and asked, "Do you want to be friends?""Sure, okay," I accepted. He seemed like a fine boy. After math class, we went to English class. Now that was more fun. The teacher gave us game boards and fun activities. Lunch went fine. Sam talked about his family, and I did too. Time passed with social studies and science.At the end of the first day of school, my parents picked me up to go home.My dad, grinning, asked me, "You got a new friend?""Yeah, his name is Sam."

The next day, I was the first in class when the annoying Melisa and her friends approached me and snapped, "Are you going to sit? Or are you just going to stand there until you die? Crissy Flame, you don't even have flames!" Her friends laughed out loud while Melisa smirked. She constantly picks on people no matter how strong they are. Even though she has the lamest roasts, she still bullies the strongest kid in the school and makes him cry.At that moment, a girl came into the room, furiously staring at Melisa and her friends."Don't you ever talk like that to anyone!" the girl demanded. Melisa muttered something to her friends and stomped out of the room. There was a long silence. Well, until I broke it."Thanks?" I hesitantly said."Anytime." Then she left slowly, taking her time. Who was that girl? She didn't even say her name! Whatever, I thought, then Sam came bursting in."Hey man, that was Veronica right there," he nonchalantly said."Who?" I questioned."The girl that just left, duh.""Oh," I replied.

At lunchtime, Sam talked about coming to his house tomorrow to swim at the beach and build sandcastles. He told me a lot about his family and his sister in 4th grade. That's nice, but I was worried about my parents. What would they say?"They will say yes!" Sam said as if reading my mind."I sure hope so."

Later that day, I asked my mother, "Can I go to Sam's house tomorrow?""Already? It's only been a day, and you're going to his house already?" my mom asked, concerned."Please?" I pleaded."Alright," she said with a sigh.

The following day was usual, except when Veronica walked up to me and said,"I heard you're going to Sam's house today.""Yeah," I responded."By the way, my name is Veronica.""I knew that already," I declared, though she seemed surprised."Anyway, I'm going to Sam's house today, too," she said. Wow, Sam is such a great friend. He didn't even tell me that."I-oh-a-cool!" I stammered."Well, see you later!" Then she left. I sighed.

"You're so slow!" Veronica screamed, making fun of Sam's and my swimming abilities. We were racing to see who was the fastest."What do you mean?" I screamed back."Help! The water is pushing me back!" screamed Sam."Alright then, let's return to the shore and make sandcastles!" Veronica said."Help me first!" Sam screamed.We were still making sandcastles until some commotion caused the whole beach to panic. I looked to my right to see a hooded guy with a gun threatening people for their money. My heart stopped, and Sam's mom rushed us to her car and drove us away."T-that was scary," I shivered.

"Did you have a good time?" Mom asked when we got back."Nearly died," I responded."How did you survive? Did you use something?" Mom asked anxiously."No, why?" I asked suspiciously."So the po— never mind.""The what?" I said questionably."Nothing," she replied."Actually." I'm getting mad now. What is Mom trying not to tell me? I've never seen her like this before."Sorry, but I can't tell you right now. You are too young," Mom said."TELL ME!" Now, I was extremely mad. Why can't she tell me?"There's no need to be so cantankerous," Mom said. "It's not essential to know." Right at that moment, Dad came home."What's the problem?" he asked."Oh, the thing," Mom responded."What thing!?" I said."Should we say it?" Dad asked Mom."I— um… sure," Mom said unsurely."Alright, to make it simple, w-we're just glad we have you…" Dad stumbled a bit in that sentence, that was for sure."N— Okay, sure, fine." I ran upstairs and headed towards my room. "Why are my parents so weird? Why are they acting like that? If they are acting, they are doing a terrible job of hiding it," I mumbled.

The next day, I was the first in class—well, second, if a beetle counts as a student. The beetle was on my chair when I walked in. I gently picked it up and put it out the window to freedom. I heard some murmuring outside the door. I listened carefully and heard one voice: "I'm going to vilify the whole school!"Another voice said, "Good. If Plan A fails, quickly switch to Plan B, okay?""Okay," the first voice was back again."And remember, 37.7749° N, 122.4194° W." I tried to ignore it when Sam came in.

Winter break drew nearer. Snow finally arrived."Have a nice winter break, Class," Mr. Hazel smiled."Bye!""See you!""Well, would you look at that? School time has passed so fast. People get happier and—" Sam began."No need to make a speech out of it," Veronica interrupted."I'm not done with my sentence yet," Sam said."Eh, it doesn't matter," Veronica said.We walked to my house. Outside, kids were firing snowballs at each other. My mom was waiting outside, and she yelled, "Kids! Come inside to warm up!""Coming," I replied.

It took some time to convince my parents to let us snowball fight, but it was worth it. I kept hitting Sam from behind while he focused on targeting Veronica."Come on, man," Sam kept saying when I got him behind the back about a million times."Ha!" Veronica said while hitting Sam straight in the chest."Oof! Chill, Veronica!" Sam said to Veronica. We kept a score of how many times people hit each other. The results were Chris: hit 24 times, 20 Sam, and 4 Veronica. Sam: hitting 16 times, 14 Veronica, and 2 Chris. Veronica: hitting 22 times, 12 Chris, and 10 Sam. We kept on playing. It turned out Veronica won against me because I showed her mercy. The electricity shut off when we were only 20 minutes in the house after the snowball fight. My dad gave us flashlights to see, and we made a shadow show with our hands. Then I heard a scuffling sound upstairs… By Chris Shao - 5th Grade Buy this book from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFQ6RJ9Q