Attaway is so small, thought Marie, as she trudged through the mud in her grey sneakers to school. There wasn’t a single day in Attaway that wasn’t foggy. And it added a creepy affect to the small, rickety houses in the neighborhoods. Nothing exciting happened since Marie and her mom had left their dad and moved to Attaway.
Marie was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She was the adventurous kind of girl, the type who would rather play Robin Hood than Barbie dolls. She had moved from New York, so it was kind of…different, living in a town as small as Attaway. Marie would have begged to move back to their apartment in Manhattan, except for the fact that she made a really good friend in Attaway. Sadie Smith was the nicest girl in Attaway. She bought Marie lunch when Marie forgot it at home. She let Marie borrow her extra shirt when she spilled milk on it. They became the best of friends.
When Marie arrived to school, she spotted Sadie on the broken swing set, looking bored. Marie ran over to her.
“Hey, Sadie!” Marie exclaimed. Despite the boring circumstances in Attaway, Sadie usually always could make Marie smile.
“Hi.” Sadie looked bored. “ Do you know who that is?The one with the black jacket? I’ve never seen him before.”
Marie looked over to where Sadie was pointing. There, alone, on a curb,sat a dark haired boy. He was wearing a simple black jacket. He looked lonesome and sad. No one else seemed to notice him at all.
“No. He may be a new kid.” Marie said, not really giving him a second thought. Ever year, there seemed to be a new kid that moved from someplace interesting.
The bell suddenly rang. And the stampede begins, thought Marie as kids hurried down the hall, pushing into each other as they hoarded into school. When Marie and Sadie arrived at their classroom, they noticed the boy from outside was in the classroom, too.
“ Hey, there’s that kid,” muttered Sadie. “He’s kinda cute, too.”
Marie rolled her eyes. Sadie seemed to always think differently than Marie. But the boy did seem interesting. He dressed simply and kind of old fashioned, not sporty like all the other boys. As everyone took their seats, the boy sat in the one right next to Marie. Up close, he looked pale and tired. His eyes were blue, strong blue. Almost too strong to be human.
“ Settle down, class.” Even Ms. Marshall, the nicest teacher in all of Attaway Middle had to yell to get the loud boys to stop playing their game of table football. “Today, we’ve got a new student. Jack Miller, will you stand up?”
Jack, the new boy, who was sitting in the seat next to Marie that was usually empty, stood up. He looked nervous. It reminded Marie of the days when she was the new student at Attaway. Suddenly, Marie wanted to be good friends with Jack.
”Jack moved from the town next to us,Lavender Heights.” Ms. Marshall explained. “Ok, today we’ll be starting a unit on the Civil War.” She explained the project they were going to do. They would be doing reports in pairs, with their desk partners, on famous Civil War events and people. This was easy, Attaway had big history in the Civil War, and had tons of sites and exhibits on the Civil War. Marie’s partner was Jack. This was fortunate, Marie really wanted to get to know Jack better.
“Can I borrow a quill?”
Marie looked up. The voice startled her from her thoughts, and it took her a second to realize Jack had spoken to her. It took her another second to realize his words had meanings. Marie fumbled for a pen, and handed it to Jack. He nodded a thanks, but then looked puzzled.
“What is this?” Jack said. He didn’t say it in a rude way, just out of curiosity.
“ Umm, it’s a pen. You write with it.” Marie replied. She showed him how to click the end and write with the ink. Jack looked really surprised, as if he never saw a pen before today. Who is this kid?, thought Marie. Why doesn’t he know what a pen is?
When the bell rang for recess and lunch, Marie decided to invite Jack to sit with her and Sadie. But when Marie got outside, Sadie was nowhere to be found. Marie decided to sit with Jack, who was sitting alone, as most of the boys played basketball during recess.
“Hi,” Marie said. “Can I sit here?”
Jack nodded yes. It was awkward at first, but soon the two of them were chatting like old buddies, about hobbies, and that sort of thing. Jack’s father was in the army. Marie told Jack about her parents separating and her and her mom moving to Attaway. They had a lot of common interests, like swimming, and climbing trees. Marie was happy that she had found a new friend. A really good friend.
The bell rang, telling them that recess and lunch was over. All of the sixth grade headed back to their classrooms, and Marie caught up with Sadie on the way back.
“Guess what?” Marie exclaimed. She was so excited about telling Sadie about Jack. But Sadie just walked away.
“Sadie?” Marie cried. Sadie turned with a huff. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you sit with that new kid during lunch?” asked Sadie furiously. “ I called for you, and you ignored me.”
Marie immediately felt bad. But deep down, she was angry, too. She had looked for Sadie! Sadie was the one who left her. But instead of explaining to Sadie, Marie spun around on her heel and left Sadie standing in the hallway. Sadie had no right to be mad! Marie would wait until Sadie apologized for blaming her. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened, and Sadie usually ended up apologizing, and they would be best friends again.
When she walked back into the classroom, she immediately saw Jack writing something with the pen Marie gave her. There was something eerie about Jack. Marie had read stories about time travelers and people with powers before...Marie had loved those fantasy stories. She wanted to figure out who Jack was and where he was from.
Weeks past. Marie and Jack went to exhibits and museums, but Marie never went to Jack’s house. Marie wanted to, she still had many questions about Jack. He almost fainted at the sight of the TV. Sadie got no better. This was the longest fight the two of them had ever had, but strangely enough, at the end of the month, Marie concluded that Jack lived a rather an old fashioned life. Marie once had a friend who’s family didn’t believe in electricity. Jack is probably the same, thought Marie at one point. I’d like to go to his house, it must be real interesting. Jack slowly eased into Attaway Middle. He made some friends, but Marie and Jack were inseparable. Everyone knew this.
Until that one day. That one day everything changed.

It started off normal. Everything was normal, except when Marie arrived at school, she discovered that Jack was absent that day. At first, there was nothing strange about this. It was the first time Jack was absent, but Marie figured he had the flu, or maybe a cold. He wasn’t there the second day either, and Marie was starting to get concerned.
Almost a week had passed by, and Jack still didn’t show up. Marie felt lonely, somehow almost every person in her class was friends with Sadie. And Sadie was still mad at Marie over the stupid fight over the lunch incident. At the end of the week, Marie decided to ask some of her classmates if they knew why Jack had been absent for so long. Maybe he was on a vacation, or visiting relatives.
But when Marie asked her classmate, Annabeth, Annabeth’s reply didn’t answer Marie’s question.
“Wait, who’s Jack?” was Annabeth’s reply. “Is he your boyfriend?”
“No!” exclaimed Marie. “You know. The new kid. The one that’s from Lavender Heights.”
“Lavender Heights?” Annabeth wrinkled her nose.” Umm, I don’t remember anyone from Lavender Heights moving here.” She looked at Marie as if Marie had grown a third eye.
Marie thought Annabeth had gone crazy. She asked Ms.Michelle the next day where Jack had gone to.
“Sweetheart, are you feeling ok?” asked Ms.Michelle tentatively. “Do you think you want to go to the nurse to lie down a bit?”
“I’m fine.” protested Marie. “I just want to know where Jack went.” Marie suddenly realizing she sounded rude, and added “He’s my best friend. I’m just worried.”
“Marie, honey, no one named Jack has ever gone to this school in at least 20 years. And this is the only school in Attaway. Are you sure Jack is his name?”
“Yes” answered Marie. She could feel the heat rising in her face, her entire class was staring at her now.
“Never mind, Ms. Michelle.” Marie sat down slowly. She felt weird, and the way her teacher had classmates were acting, Marie barely believed Jack had been real anymore. Had Jack really been a figment of Marie’s imagination? No. Marie told herself, Jack is real. If he wasn’t, why would Sadie be mad at her? Marie was determined to figure this out.
But winter was nearly over, and for the students of Attaway, this meant their final projects for social studies was almost due. Marie’s class would be presenting the Civil War reports soon. And because Jack was absent, or gone, Marie had to write the rest of the report alone.
After school one day, Marie went to an exhibit about the Civil War. She had done enough research to finish the project, but Marie decided to visit the cemetery outside the exhibit. There were graves and tombstones of soldiers and plaques that belonged to generals and colonels. Marie thought it was a pretty cool place.
As she walked along the aisle of graves, she couldn't help but think of how much Jack would want to look at these former Civil War soldiers. He seemed to love history and spooky stuff.
Suddenly, something in the white snow glinted in the sun. Marie bent down to pick it up. She examined it. It seemed like Marie’s pen, the one she had lent to Jack. Now she thought of it, she couldn’t remember Jack giving it back to her. And Marie was positive it was hers. The grip was purple, and the eraser was exactly dented like she remembered. Marie realized there was a grave next to where the pen was. She brushed off the snow and felt a chill of excitement. But what she saw engraved in the tomb made her jaw drop. The grave Marie’s pen was next to said:
Jack John Miller
1850-1861