Contemporary Fiction
3 min
My favorites
Constellations
Avani Bhate
I stared at the purple clock on my room's wall, fidgeting with my black hair. Within minutes I would go to my new school called Rosewood. Footsteps echoed down the hallway.
"Cali," My younger brother Rowan said, startling me, "come on."
"Ro, please don't call me that, call me Camellia." I shouted.
"Don't call me Ro either. I don't care what's right. " Rowan buzzed, dashing out of my room.
I ran after him running into my mom.
"Sorry," I said.
"Hurry up," my mom Rosalie stated.
Me, Mom, and Rowan barreled into our car. My mom started the engine and headed to the school. In a few minutes, a purple school with an orange roof was visible. A sign read ‘Welcome to Rosewood'.
Mom said, "Bye, have fun!"
I slid out of the car, slipping my dark blue backpack on. The school buzzed with millions of kids going to their classes.
"Schedules!" A man in red said.
"Come on!" I said, dragging Rowan with me.
"Hello missy," the man said, "I'm Mr. Smith, and who are you?"
"Camellia Wood and this is my brother Rowan," I said.
"I can introduce myself, " Rowan mumbled.
"Here are your schedules, " The man said.
I stared at my schedule. My first class was in the library. A sound filled my ears and I realized it was the bell. I rushed to my first class, eager to start.
"I am Mrs. Wister. Class, today we will simply go about the library picking a book we are interested in, and come back." A woman with red hair announced.
Instantly most of the class went into groups and took a peek around the library.
I wandered around the massive library. Finally I found the section I was looking for, Space. It took up most of the library. I searched for a good book then I found one named Constellations. I paged through the book, it looked weird and the pages talked about traveling into other galaxies.
"Camelia!" exclaimed my teacher. I looked up and realized it was time to leave.
Suddenly a couple of pages fell out that had information for escaping galaxies. I had to shove them in my pocket because I could hear my teacher's high heels clacking against the floor.
"Done?" my teacher asked.
I nodded and took the book to the checkout person.
"Hi" the checkout person said, she gripped my hand, "I'm Marian, be careful with that book because it's stellar."
I quickly nodded and went to my next class. My hands shook after the chat with Marian.
"Get your papers out, you are painting constellations," my art teacher said, she wore a red dress and had golden hair, "I'm Natalia Constel."
I perked up, why was space so special in the school? Then again the school was weird. I painted a picture of a question mark shaped constellation. The bell rang in a few minutes and I left the class and sat down on a black bench that was located in the grassy part in the back of the school.
"Hello I'm Mariah Flitwood. May I sit here?" A girl with brown hair questioned. I nodded and paged through Constellations, it talked about portals to galaxies in paintings.
"Hey, I am Camelia Wood. Do you know where the art gallery is?" I asked.
"Next to the art room, why are you asking?" Mariah responded.
"Just because." I looked at the book. Mariah came with me while I found my brother.
"Want to find out the school's secrets? " I mentioned to my brother, he nodded excitedly.
The art gallery was enormous with lots of different paintings. I looked around until I stopped at a painting of a galaxy similar to the cover of Constellations. I touched it and my hand disappeared into the painting.
"Umm..." I said. The others gasped.
I jumped into the painting and the others followed me in.
"How do we get OUT!!!" Rowan shouted when we saw no way out. I gasped, I had not thought of this.
I looked down, ashamed, then a realization swept through me. I rummaged through my pockets and found the fallen book pages. The book said that you must keep going up for 2 minutes then you would find a portal. We kept going up, then out of nowhere a white dog floated towards us.
"Laika? The dog that was sent to space that disappeared or died!" Rowan assumed.
"I'm a maltese, surely not Laika. My name is Claire Rosewood, I have been trapped here for a long time."
"It talks," Mariah squealed.
"More importantly the school is named after her. " I added.
"Come with us." Mariah spoke kindly. The dog nodded.
We went up and found the portal. I looked at the galaxy one last time and went in the portal.
"That was a good adventure!" Rowan exclaimed, standing up.
"Yes," I said, looking at the painting depicting the galaxy, "It was quite stellar."
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