“Make sure your lockers are cleaned out by 3:30,” my teacher drones on and on.
One more minute till school is over for the summer. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
“5…4…3…” I hear whispering in the back of the room. I turn around in my seat. “2…1…” Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The bell goes off.
“Yeah!” the people in the back cheer. I allow myself a sigh of relief when I add my share to the ever-growing pile of textbooks as I walk out the door. I slip my headphones in and turn up my ipod’s volume.
My P.E. teacher walks by and says, “Good job in gym this year!” I grin and give her a high five. Gym has always been my best subject.
Someone pushes me and then sneers, “Bet you couldn’t outrun me” I laugh at him and he follows me outside. I start running really slow. He laughs at me and starts chasing me. I get faster and faster until I reach my maximum speed. He’s not nearly as fast as me. No one is. The run home, happens to be very uneventful except for the fact that I start laughing really hard when the bully trips. But at home? That’s happens to be quite the opposite of uneventful.
I walk across the street toward a dark blue house. The door squeaks as it opens, and my mom walks into the kitchen. Her normally reddish complexion is now deathly pale. “Alexandra,” she says, “There are some visitors here for you.”
“Mom? Are you alright?” I say worriedly. Mom never uses my full name unless something is wrong or she’s angry. But she doesn’t look very angry.
“Honey, I’m always alright,” she says in a wavering voice. There must be something wrong. She leads me in to the living room. The first thing I notice is my birthday cake on the coffee table, with three slices cut out of it. “Happy birthday darling,” she says unhappily.
“Hello,” says a boy’s voice. I look up from the coffee table and find myself staring into the dark brown eyes of a teenager. He’s wearing a suit and a tie. His face is a light creamy coffee color and his hair is a dark brown. “We are here to take you home,” he says rather unkindly.
Ok, now I’m really confused. Home? “I am home,” I say stubbornly.
“Mmmm,” he says disappointedly. “Don’t you ever feel different from everyone? Different from your mom? Separated from everyone? Oh, how about this one, half…empty?” Those last words send a chill down my spine. Half empty. I feel that way all the time. Like half my heart is missing. And not for the first time, I think about how much I don’t look like my mother. I have the blackest hair and the weirdest eyes. She has brown hair and green eyes. I don’t reply. “Oh well. You have to come with us anyway”
“Mom…” I say desperately. What’s happening? I look the other two men in the eyes, I see no sympathy from them. I look at the teenager. For a second a worried expression passes over his face then it’s gone. I’m not even sure if it was real.
“Do what these men say,” says my mother. “They are not to be messed with” a tear escapes her eye. The other two men in the room grab my arms and march me through the house. I struggle but then one of them slaps me. I start crying and so does my mother. The big men shove me through the door. They blindfold me and tie my hands behind my back. They pick me up and toss me. I scream as I hit something hard. A door slams. An engine rumbles. I must be in some sort of a car. The car goes over a big bump and I’m sent flying into the wall. My head goes blank. I can’t think straight. I think I just fainted.

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I wake up to someone gently shaking my shoulders. I open my eyes. I’m staring into those eyes again. And I still don’t know his name. He smiles. I feel like I’m going to pass out again. “Hi,” he says softly. When I don’t reply he says, “Alexandra? Are you ok?”
“It’s ALEX and why do you care how I’m feeling?” I snap at him. He looks hurt. I instantly feel guilty so I say, “Sorry you just scared me,” and took me away from my mother, I add silently.
“Its ok, I never introduced myself. I’m Elliott and I know I sounded mean last night but…”
“Mean! You were worse than mean. You took me away from my mother!” I yell at him.
“I know I sounded mean last night,” he continues, “but my boss said that I had to. He still wants me to be mean to you. But he said If I brought you here he wouldn’t harm you.”
“HARM ME?! What the heck are you talking about?” I yell. My head is spinning. On my side, harm me, what is he talking about?
He decides to change the subject, “You have pretty eyes” Akk! I don’t like people talking about my different colored eyes. One is purple and one is gold. I think and I quickly cover up my golden eye with my long black bangs.
“Why am I here?” I demand. He fidgets nervously.
“I’m not sure I’m the right person to tell you,” replies Elliott.
“TELL ME” I yell at him. He flinches.
“Ok,” He says quickly. “Lets start with the fact that your “mom” is not your mom. She kind of adopted you.” Ok, I think, this is just a dream, just a dream, just a dream.
“So who is my real mom?” I say trying to keep my voice from wavering.
“Umm… I don’t know how to say this. But you don’t have a mom…”
“WHAT!?!” I yell.
“Well you kind of were a umm… experiment, like you grew up in a lab and then they gave you up for adoption when you were two and a half”
“You mean I’m a test tube baby?!” I’m shocked. I don’t know what else to say. No mother? Too confusing. “Anything else you wanna tell me?” I ask weakly.
“Umm you also have a twin that accidently grew in your experiment area. He’s coming tomorrow.” He waits a moment for it to sink in and then says, “Why don’t you go sleep?”
“I think I will” I fall back and hit the pillow. Sleep sounds comforting. I’m asleep in seconds. When I wake up again nobody is there. The room is completely white and so are the clothes I’m wearing. The only thing that sticks out is what’s behind the window. People in lab coats sit behind the window, stare at me, and write down notes. I look at them in disgust and stick out my tongue. The scientist look at each other and start muttering (although I can’t hear them). One of them starts writing energetically on his notepad. The other one stares at me with a mild look of interest on his face. I glare at him and his curiosity increases. Whatever, I think.
On the white side table I see a blue tray with a few pieces of chicken and a small salad. I pick up a piece of chicken and sink my pointy teeth into its flesh. One thing that’s weird about me is my canine teeth are really really pointy and sharp. You know, sort of like a wolf.
I hear footsteps. I turn around and I see a boy being lead into my room by one of the scientists. The man closes the door behind him and the boy simply stares at me wide eyed. His hair is black as any black could be and his eyes glow in the light. One strange thing is that his eyes are different colors. The right eye is purple and the left eye is golden. He looks like a boy version of me. Wow. He smiles shyly. The smile showed his teeth. Pointy canine teeth, just like mine. I sneak a glance at the scientists behind the window. They are looking at us with exited expressions. Scientists are so stupid.
For the next few minutes, we just stare at each other and then the door opens again. A new person in a lab coat walks in the room and pulls the boy out. Elliot walks into my room. I am still standing there wide-eyed. His expression is one of worry. He walks over to me and gives me a hug. “I’ve got some bad news,” he says sadly. He turns me away from the window and the cameras. Then he whispers into my ears. “I over heard something you might want to know. A few of the scientists were talking about eliminating failed experiments”
I look up at him still wide eyed and start crying. “Don’t worry!” he says quickly. “I have a plan,” I keep crying and he changes the subject. “Well your brother’s name is Jace, he doesn’t speak much and he’s very sensitive”
“Elliot you don’t even know us that well, why are you risking your life to save us?” I say sobbing.
“I know you well enough,” he says and then he walks out the door. Now he comes more often. And slowly I find out why he was going to save us.
“I promised to help track you two down,” he says reluctantly one day. “And they promised not to harm you”
“Why do they want to kill us?” I ask not really wanting to know the answer. To bad he’s answering it.
“Well, you’re kind of part wolf, part human. You were supposed to be more wolf with a human brain and lots of smarts. You were supposed to be a talking wolf. They were going to use you as a weapon. But the experiment went wrong. Your twin accidentally evolved with you. When they realized that two things were growing instead of just one they were scared that you wouldn’t turn out right. You were supposed to be 60% wolf and 40% human. But instead you got half that,” Elliot takes a long breath. “They want to kill you because you could be a threat to them.”
How am I a threat? I think. But I’m really scared now. A girl in a lab coat opens the door and walks swiftly over to Elliot. She whispers in his ear. His expression becomes increasingly worried. The woman leaves. I look at Elliot questioningly. “That was Lucy, she’s on our side. She just told me that they are taking Jace to get a shot that will kill him,” he explains quickly. “We gotta move now, Lucy said she would create a distraction”
Elliot sits up quickly then holds his hand out to me. I don’t hesitate in grabbing it. We run out the door and through the empty hallways. He guides me quickly through the unfamiliar place until we reach another completely white room. We don’t go in. Elliot tells me to wait right here and he goes off down the hallway. He comes back with two white lab coats. One of them he hands to me and the other one he slips onto his shoulders. Before we go in Elliot pulls me into his arms and kisses me. “For luck,” he says after he lets me go. I think I’m falling for someone who I’ve barely known for three days.
We walk into the room and see lots of commotion. Scientists are shuffling about and yelling at each other. “Where’s the injection fluid!” shouts a scientist with a long needle. “Lucy! You’re in charge of the fluids go find it!” Lucy stumbles around for a few minutes. While Lucy looks for the fluid that’s in her pocket, Elliot and I are trying to find Jace. We find him secured to a lab table. His eyes were wide open and he looked extremely frightened. Elliot pulled out a key to unlock the latches. He fumbled with the key until all the locks were unlocked. Jace got up and ran to me. I reached for his hand to comfort him. We started edging our way through the crowd.
I see Lucy through the crowd. A giant man bumps her from behind. He must be the boss. The vial of liquid flies out of her pocket. The vial hits the floor and shatters. The big man shouts and everyone including us stops in their tracks and swivels their head towards the big man. The big man curses and yells at Lucy. She seams to shrink in size as the big man slaps her across the face. Oh gosh, this man is crazy. The man looks around the room and spots Jace. Jace stood out like a sore thumb in this room full of people in lab coats. He was wearing a bright red shirt and dark blue jeans.
“I’m gonna finish this once and for all!” the big man shouts. He pulls out a handgun and the whole crowd backed away from Elliot, Jace, and I. Lucy stands in one corner frozen. I’m frozen too. But who could blame me?
Jace is huddled behind me and Elliot is next to me. The man slowly moves to gun to point in our direction. The man walks closer until I can see for sure whom he’s aiming at. He’s aiming straight at my head. My heart starts beating faster and faster. I show my teeth in a poor attempt to scare him. The man stops walking and starts slowly squeezing the trigger. I expect lots of pain so I close my eyes. I hear the shot. “ALEX!” I hear Jace yell. The first word I’ve ever heard out of his mouth. ”ELLIOT” I hear someone else scream. I squeeze my eyes closed tighter. Some thing big hits me and knocks me over. I open my eyes and scramble up off the ground. Blood is soaking my shirt but it’s not mine. “ELLIOT!” I scream. One the floor in a crumpled mass is Elliot’s body. And he’s dead. Blood soaks the area around the gaping hole in his chest. I feel the tears come to my eyes. I can’t see what’s happening around me. I sink to my knees. The next moment brings more chaos. THUMP is what I hear next. I turn around and see Lucy holding chair above her head. The big man lies on the floor with a giant goose egg sized lump forming on his head.
Jace is next to me. He is sobbing. Everything that happens next is a blur. The scientists are still standing stock still in the corners of the room. Lucy walks over to me and helps me up. “Nooo…” I scream falling back onto the floor and clinging onto Elliot’s dead body. Why did he have to die? Why him? He just saved my life. I loved him. Lucy pulls me up again and drags me away from the sad sight. Jace follows slowly behind us. I keep thinking, Why Elliot? Why? It should have been me. I’m so exhausted and I’m crying so hard. I can’t think straight. My mind goes blank. Next thing I know I’m laying on the ground completely out cold.

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