{"id":590,"date":"2014-10-17T18:53:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T18:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/?p=590"},"modified":"2014-10-17T18:53:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T18:53:05","slug":"the-one-chapter-one-by-angela-chi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/the-one-chapter-one-by-angela-chi\/","title":{"rendered":"The One: Chapter One by Angela Chi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The One<\/p>\n

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Chapter One:<\/p>\n

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The girl crouched, waiting for a peacock to come and eat the feed from her palm. The security guard at the zoo had told them to not feed the peacocks because they had no training, and they would just bite them. But Rachel wasn\u2019t worried, animals usually loved her.<\/p>\n

So I wonder why Mom and Dad won\u2019t get me any pets? she thought. Anyway, I\u2019m almost 18, then I\u2019m technically an adult and can make my own decisions. Only 2 more years. Technically 1 more year, since it\u2019s the summer of sophomore year in high school. Squee! She started to daydream, If I had a pet, it would be a huge and fluffy male cat. Ginger and white. His name would be Biscuits. And he would be the sweetest thing in the world…..<\/p>\n

Rachel was jolted out of her thoughts by a brightly colored beautiful peacock strutting toward her. If there were peacock models on the runway, they would walk like that. Like the most important, most proud, most arrogant things in the world. The peacock was definitely male, judging by it\u2019s demeanor and feathers. In bright turquoise, deep navy, cyan, cornflower, rich cobalt, teal, cerulean, canary yellow, golden yellow, and even lavender. Rachel whistled, That\u2019s one decorated bird, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen that many shades of blue all in one place before. The bird came right up to her, not afraid at all. Closer and closer. It bent, sorry, he bent down and…… almost bit Rachel\u2019s finger off!<\/p>\n

Rachel jerked back, her finger slightly bleeding and stinging. While tripping in surprise, Rachel also managed to hit a stroller with a baby inside. The baby started wailing, and the mother shot her a dirty look. Nearby tourists whipped their heads around to look at her too. Rachel looked down, Typical, I\u2019m just that clumsy. Her face was cherry red. The peacock was close, eating the feed Rachel had dropped it on the ground.<\/p>\n

Pain in her finger forgotten, Rachel rubbed her eyes and stared. She was probably imagining it…… But it seemed like the peacock was making letters, with his claw, scratching them out in the dirt and feed. She shook her head. No way. She was probably hallucinating. But when Rachel looked back, it was still there. I wonder how no one else has noticed…… she thought. Now it had written words! 2 of them. She stood up and walked around so that it wasn\u2019t upside down to her anymore. The peacock moved out of the way, as if he knew what she was doing. Unbelievable. The words wrote out a name. Her eyes widened in shock. She turned to face the peacock so fast that she almost face planted on the concrete. The peacock made a little self-satisfied noise, and shuffled (waddled?) to the little seeds arranged into a name. He scratched his claws around so that it messed up the letters and so now the seeds looked like they were just scattered around randomly. He swaggered away, shaking his tail feathers as he went. Rachel watched him until he was out of sight.<\/p>\n

That was one extremely intelligent peacock…….. Suddenly, the realization of what just happened struck her full in the face, giving her an extreme headache. She swayed, I wonder why I didn\u2019t just faint from the weirdness of this all a while ago, she pondered. She looked down at the ground where the name was written moments before, as if it was still there. Nope. Just some seeds, looking so casual, so innocent, like they hadn\u2019t just blown her mind.<\/p>\n

Because the name on the ground was<\/p>\n

Her name.<\/p>\n

The rest of the visit to the zoo passed in a daze, Rachel was still trying to absorb the events from earlier today. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like she had imagined it or had a very realistic daydream. But Rachel knew, that without doubt, that her mind was only trying to cover up the fanatical incident because it didn\u2019t understand and\/or didn\u2019t want to believe it. No matter how she tried, however, she had to face the hard truth.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t logical, not at all<\/p>\n

She was very confused. By the time she got home, it was already 4:00 pm. She had stopped by Starbucks to grab a sandwich for lunch. But still, she was hungry. Her stomach rumbled, as if in agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cRachel!\u201d someone called.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Dad?\u201d Rachel replied. Her dad came barging into her room where Rachel was listening to her music while drooling over epically cute pictures of kittens. \u201cThere\u2019s a letter for you.\u201d Her dad waved an envelope in her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me?\u201d Rachel asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYup.\u201d her dad nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s the address?\u201d Rachel inquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you mother said.\u201d her dad replied. \u201cWell. That\u2019s not my problem.\u201d And with that, Rachel\u2019s dad left. Rachel inspected the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho even writes letters anymore?\u201d she wondered aloud. \u201cE-mail\u2019s are the same, but faster and way more modern.\u201d Rachel heard someone sniff with disdain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, excuse me, but some people appreciate the classics.\u201d that person chided. Rachel\u2019s eyes darted around wildly. There was no one. Great, well now I\u2019m hearing things, she thought sarcastically. With her friends, Rachel was known for her sarcastic attitude and comments.<\/p>\n

There was a bluebird on her windowsill. It was staring at her. Rachel stared back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you looking at?\u201d the bird seemed to say in a sassy voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey! You started it! Don\u2019t give me attitude!\u201d Rachel shot back. A startled giggle burst out of her. \u201cGreat. Now I\u2019ve started to lecture birds. I\u2019m definitely going crazy.\u201d The bluebird tilted its head.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that what you think?\u201d it pondered. It appeared to be thoughtfully thinking about that statement deeply or something.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what am I supposed to think?! Huh?!\u201d Rachel practically screamed at the annoying bluebird.<\/p>\n

Wait. Rachel. Calm Down. You think more clearly when you\u2019re calm.<\/p>\n

Rachel took a deep breath.<\/p>\n

In. Out. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Rachel took several deep, calming breaths. Trying to absorb what was going on here and at the same time thinking frantically for solutions.<\/p>\n

How is this even possible? Why is this happening to me? Wait. Calm down again, Rachel. You\u2019re getting panicky.<\/p>\n

Rachel closed her eyes and blocked out everything except her thoughts.<\/p>\n

Ok, all good. Where was I? Oh yeah. What do you know about the situation? Blue bird that apparently can talk or me going crazy? Let\u2019s go with magical bird.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Rachel had a flashback of this morning.<\/p>\n

The peacock! Maybe the magical bluebird right now has connections to the other magical peacock scenario this morning! I\u2019m a genius! Yes!<\/p>\n

Wait, magical bird? No! I\u2019m crazy! I\u2019m absolutely, positively losing my mind.<\/p>\n

Maybe the birds aren\u2019t magical but are still related somehow. I bet it has something to do with…… Hmmm……<\/p>\n

Ugh! I have no idea! They\u2019re probably just birds that are blue.<\/p>\n

Wait! Blue! That\u2019s it! They\u2019re the same color!<\/p>\n

Ugh! Seriously? That\u2019s all you could come up with, stupid brain? Useless.<\/p>\n

The birds acted surprising human too. Oh yes! I\u2019ll ask the bird! Wait, that sounded weird……<\/p>\n

\u201cHey!\u201d<\/p>\n

The sound shattered Rachel\u2019s thoughts as she turned to glare at the bluebird on her windowsill, only to see that it wasn\u2019t there anymore. Instead, there was a blue jay.<\/p>\n

What is up with all this?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes?\u201d it answered, \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel sighed.<\/p>\n

It was still the same bird, maybe it just looked different in the light. That even sounded doubtful in Rachel\u2019s own mind.<\/p>\n

Whatever, here goes.<\/p>\n

Rachel breathed in deeply. \u201cOk, so. Bluebird. Uh…… I mean, former bluebird? Yeah. What? Nevermind. Ok. Blue jay. Do you happen to have any connections to a peacock? Very bright and gaudy colors?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d it replied. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say gaudy, more like bright and cheerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever! Just get on with it! Also what are you doing here?!\u201d Rachel exclaimed impatiently.<\/p>\n

The blue jay seemed to smirk. \u201cFirst of all, I do happen to know a blue peacock with bright and cheerful tail feathers-\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait, what? I didn\u2019t say anything about tail feathers……<\/p>\n

\u201c- it\u2019s me!\u201d the blue jay continued. The blue jay tittered at Rachel\u2019s stunned expression. \u201cClearly you didn\u2019t that one coming,\u201d it mocked. Rachel shook her head, too confused for the insult to even register in her brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, I am here because of something very important.\u201d it said pompously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat could be so important for a bird?\u201d snarled Rachel. Her mood was quickly dropping lower and lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse you.\u201d the bird said, sounding offended. Then it smirked again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to recruit you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel was speechless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The One   Chapter One:   The girl crouched, waiting for a peacock to come and eat the feed from her palm. The security guard at the zoo had told them to not feed the peacocks because they had no training, and they would just bite them. But Rachel wasn\u2019t worried, animals usually loved her. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}