Trapped, Laura and Tianna [mind reading books TXT] 📗

Chapter One:
Skyla and Kiri

There is a girl named Skyla. She and her best friend, Kiri, are having a sleepover at Kiri’s house. Her house is very big, and her mom is sleeping. The girls, of course, are wide awake at 1:00AM.
Kiri asks Skyla, “Sky, do you want any popcorn?”
“Are we watching a movie?” Skyla asks, “And of course I want popcorn!”
“Okay.”
While Kiri walks to the kitchen to get popcorn ready, Skyla puts her favorite movie, “Peter Pan”, in the player.
Meanwhile, at Skyla’s house, her little brother Tim is partying with his kindergarten friends. “My sister is gone, Boo-yah!” he says, dancing around. He runs into his sister’s room and throws her favorite picture onto the ground, shattering the glass frame. Tim’s friend knocks over a vase with daisies in it. They trash her room and jump on her once neatly-made bed.
Let’s get back to the girls. Kiri carries the bowl of popcorn over to the couch and sits next to Skyla. “What movie do you want to watch?” she asks.
“Oh. I already put one in,”
“Let me guess,” Kiri starts, annoyed.
“Peter Pan,” they say simultaneously.

Two hours later, the movie is over. Skyla and Kiri change into their pajamas. When Skyla walks out of the bathroom, Kiri can hardly keep from laughing. “Are those . . . Snoopy pajamas?!? You’ve got

to be kidding me.”
Skyla, suddenly self-conscious, nods her head slowly as she sits on the bed.
“What are you—two?”
Blushing, Skyla throws a pillow at her friend and says, “Shut up.”
Kiri, still laughing, says, “Um, okay. Let’s just go to bed.”

Chapter Two:
A New World

“What the heck is that?” Skyla exclaims, waking Kiri.
Half asleep, Kiri mumbles, “What time is it . . .?”
Ignoring her question, Skyla says, “Look! Outside!” while pointing out the window.
Kiri is about to yell at her friend for being loud when she turns her head and jumps when she sees what Skyla was talking about. There’s something shaped like a hexagon with green, purple, and black swirls inside. “Holy cow, a vortex!”
“That’s what it’s called?” Skyla asks, “I thought it was a portal.”
Irritated, Kiri says, “Whatever, same difference.” She starts to climb out the window. “Come on!” she tells her friend. After some hesitation, Skyla follows. “Be careful,” Kiri warns. Skyla loses her grip and falls into a bush.
“OW!” she yells.
Ugh. Amateur,

Kiri thinks. “I said

to be careful.”
“Hey!” Skyla snaps. Then, she mumbles, “Like it’s my fault . . .”
“Yes—it is!” Well, it’s true. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. She’s uncoordinated.

Skyla starts to cry. What a baby

.
“Just kidding,” Kiri lies, trying to make Skyla stop before she wakes the whole neighborhood. She adds, “Why did it have to be two stories high?” jumping down from the window and landing next to Skyla.
They walk toward the vortex between two trees. “Wow!” the two girls say in unison.
“Um, how is this even here?” Kiri asks.
Surprised, Skyla realizes Kiri was asking her. She says, “How am I supposed to know?!”
“You read all those fantasy books. You’re sort of an expert, I thought.”
“Well, you thought wrong.”
Kiri, trying to shake that moment off for the sake of her pride, says, “Let’s walk through the vortex-portal-thingy and see what happens.”
Unsure, Skyla follows her into the portal. There is bright white light flashing and both girls think they’ve gone blind. “ARE YOU STILL THERE?!” Kiri yells.
Before anyone says anything else, they’ve landed in a great forest. “Whoa!” Skyla says.
“Where are we?” Kiri asks.
Skyla tells her, “I don’t know.”
They walk and all of a sudden see these beings standing in front of them.
“What are those . . .?” Kiri asks.
Not knowing what to say, Skyla says, “Um, creatures, I think.”
Kiri smacks her forehead. “Well, DUH! Everything’s a creature.”
A huge monster approaches them and says, “WHAT ARE YOU?!”
“We are humans from Earth, and this vortex was in my backyard,” Kiri informs him. They aren’t that scary.

Scratching his head, the purple monster says to himself, “Weird. We must have sent it to the wrong place and that means . . . Uh oh!”
“Let’s just walk back through the vortex and back to Earth,” Kiri suggests. It’s that simple

.
“It doesn’t work that way,” the monster tells her.
Skyla asks, “Why not?”
Sighing, the creature replies, “It’s too hard to explain . . .” 

Chapter Three:
Returning Home

The girls have to sleep at an old lady monster’s house. She was really nice, though. Kiri didn’t think so—or she just doesn’t like old people (monsters, excuse me). Skyla did.

Meanwhile . . . there are fifteen monsters sitting in a conference room.
“So, Administrator Frank, the two girls are here, now what?”
Frank replies, “Bob, you just wait and see.” Bob stands there, looking puzzled. “Deputy! I need you here!” a small guy rushes over. Frank whispers a plan to the deputy.

At 4:00 in the morning (well, in Earth time, anyway), there is a knock on the lady’s door. “Hi, Grandma,” the purple monster says (the girls learned his name is Ed). Grandma?

, Skyla thinks, yawning from upstairs, Oh.

“I need the two Earth girls.”
The strange world isn’t so strange, actually. It looks much like Earth—the only different thing would be the beings living here.
Skyla doesn’t want to wake Kiri, because she knows she’ll be yelled at. But, if she doesn’t, they won’t be able to go home as quickly, and then she’d be yelled at anyway. So it doesn’t matter. “Kiri,” Skyla whispers. Nothing happens. She says it louder: “Kiri! Wake up. We have to go home!”
Kiri wakes up, reaches up to slap Skyla, then thinks better of it. “Okay.”
The girls walk down the steps to see Ed standing in the doorway. “Let’s go,” he tells them, “We need to find the portal.”
They walk along a beautiful path with many trees. Skyla closes her eyes and breathes in the air, wanting to savor this moment—to make a memory. Unfortunately, no one else wants to do anything except hurry to get out of here. “What are you doing?! Hurry up already!” Kiri shouts. Skyla doesn’t explain—the last time she tried to explain something sentimental, she just got ridiculed.
Pointing to a beautiful, shimmering pond which the sunlight hit just the right way, Ed says, “The portal opens right here.”
Getting ready to jump Kiri says, , “Okay! 1, 2—”
“No! Not yet!” the monster says, “you have to recite the incantation first. I’ll say it.”
After a complicated-sounding spell, the girls get ready. Ed nods. “Go!” Kiri yells.
Skyla and Kiri dive into the pond. They swim deeper until they find a vortex similar to the one that brought them here. “Do we have enough air to make it?” Skyla worries.
“I don’t know, so don’t talk. It wastes air.”
Skyla starts to swim through the portal and is suddenly blocked by a powerful force. Skyla’s head hits the invisible force and she starts to fall deeper. Kiri is running out of air. I’ll catch you!

Kiri thinks, afraid to speak this deep underwater.
She swims after Skyla, catching her hand and pulling her up. Kiri holds Skyla’s body and frantically swims up to the shore. When she finally sees the sky, she bursts through the water. Gasping for air, she sets Skyla on the ground in front of her.
“I . . .” breathes, “Think . . .” takes another breath, “she has . . . a . . . concussion.” Kiri stands up, regains balance, and walks to Ed.
Worried, Ed says, “Hurry! Tell me what happened along the way.” He picks Skyla up. The way he holds her in such a loving, caring way . . . Kiri’s never seen anything like it. She forces the tears away. I will not act like a stupid baby.

They reach a hospital building. A monster examines Skyla. Kiri sits next to Ed. They sit in silence for four awkward hours. It’s not that bad. It’s just a concussion . . . yeah, a concussion caused by something unknown!

The nurse tells them to come in. She looks at Kiri with sad, kind, sympathetic eyes. Oh no,

Kiri thinks, heart pounding. It’s not what you think it is. It’s not what you think

.
“I think this is way worse than a concussion,” the nurse says, “Now she may never get home—ever.”
Kiri turns away so no one can see the river of tears flow down her face.

Publication Date: 08-04-2012

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