• The very first time i saw Maggie Sharpe, I cried. She had just beaten up this fifth grader; well, punched him anyway, for taking her wristband. His mouth was bleeding and her knuckles were covered in his blood. she was so angry; her teeth were clenched and her fists were balled up, after her band was safely replaced on her wrist. She looked like a tall, skinny monster. I even heard her growl whenever she exhaled.
    Oh, why'd I cry? Well, while this whole little fight was taking place, the teacher of my new class had been leading me to the playground, telling me that my playgroup consisted of three other kids, one of those kids being Maggie. I guess i just got so scared when I saw that lanky monster-like child with blood all over her hand, that I couldn't hold in my crying. What if she got mad at me and hit me? I would probably die. I mean, we were only in kindergarten. And if she could lay out a ten year old boy, think what she could do to me!
    surprisingly enough; Maggie didn't get suspended when she was sent home. I thought for sure she'd be going straight to prison, but the next day she came back. she sat beside me at our little, round table. She started coloring right away, even though half the class wasn't even with us yet. She and I were the only two at our table.
    I peeked at her picture in progress. It was a snake, I think. Then all of a sudden it was alive, slithering like a real snake. My eyes went wide and i lost my breath. I took a harder look and saw that only the paper was moving, not the picture. The girl must have been wiggling it. But her hand were in her lap holding a small green crayon. But maybe the window was open and the breeze caught onto the paper. But I felt no wind, and I saw no open windows anywhere. And that girl kept staring at the snake, and the snake kept on slithering. I looked at the girl for minutes as she giggled to herself. My fear got the best of me, and i shrieked. As the girls eyes quickly went to me, so did the paper and a few crayons. They flew at me like magic. Bad magic.
    I screamed and ran to the teacher and held her leg. I cried loudly into her knee.
    "What is it Bird?" Mrs. Peggleton asked me i her practiced concerned voice.
    "The- th- th- the pa- pa- paper and th- the ss- ss- snake!" I stuttered and sobbed.
    Mrs. Peggleton got an administrator from across the hall to supervise the class while she took me to the restroom. She wiped my face and fixed my clothes and hair. She asked me over and over if Maggie had hurt me. After I calmed down some, I told her no, we returned to class and i sat down beside Maggie reluctantly. She never looked at me.
    I didn't talk to anyone, or do much of anything, all day. At snack time, i didn't eat any bananas or drink any applejuice.
    When recess came around, I was still silent and scared. People offered to play with me, but i declined them all. I just drew people in my mini composition book and ignored everything, I drew a girl who had been playing in the sandbox in front of me. It didn't look all that much like her, but the concept was the same. Her knees were bent up to her chin the same and her arm was extended, holding a stick. My drawing looked like a cartoon, but I had wanted it to look real.
    Then, like magic, my picture moved. The arm and stick on my girl swiveled from side to side, and the tiny dots i had made for sand shifted around. And right before my eyes my picture was alive. I smiled at my living portrait, not even wondering how or why. Then someone snuck up behind me and whispered, "Hey," in my ear. I almost shrieked , but my mouth was quickly covered by a dirty hand, and I was dragged away behind a bush.
    "Shush! Don't be scared! It's only me! Maggie!" She stated her name as if it would be a comfort to me. I stopped kicking.
    "You! You made my picture move!" I realized this without actually realizing I realized it. Grasped my composition book and the situation all at once.
    "Yep, I did it. You said you wanted your drawing to look more real, didn't you?" She asked
    "Well, I guess I did. But wait! I only just thought that! I never said a word!"
    "Oh. Shoot. Sometimes I get mixed up." She said.
    "What do you mean?" I wondered aloud.
    "Sometimes I hear people, but if I don't see their mouths I don't know if they're talking or just thinking." She chuckles as if this were normal conversation.
    "Wha.... really?"
    "Yeah. Just think of something, Think of your name, I don't know it yet"
    I thought of it, and then some.
    "Hey!" She yelped.
    "What?"
    "You just said 'This is stupid.' I heard it,"
    "Well, I might've thought that by accident. But this is dumb. I can just tell you my name if you want to know it."
    She climbed up a low branch on a big tree.
    "I know it now, Birdie Freeman."
    She hung upside down on the branch and swung back and forth. 'Grab my hands.' She says without opening her mouth.
    I shook my head. No way would I-- Then, what felt like wind, lifted me from the ground. My book flew under the bush. The wind surrounded my arms and fingers until my hands were carefully locked into hers. I tried to let go, rip away, pull her down, but the winds would just push my hands harder onto hers. I figured it was futile to fight.
    'Now be still. It's funner if you do.'
    We began to swing. My legs went straight as if I were sitting on the flat ground. She kept her yellow eyes on my brown ones. I looked up at her. I guess technically she was looking up at me too, seeing as to how she was upside down.
    "This is so weird!" I shouted.
    'Shh! Just think it'
    'Oh, right. Well, this is so weird!'
    'Well, you already said that!'
    'Oh, woops. I can't think with all the wind in my ears. Go faster!'     I laughed despite my fear. It was fun. She did as I said. We went faster and faster until i could only hear a faint buzz of the other playing children on the playing grounds.
    'Our fingers. They fit. You fit just right.' I heard her voice echo between my ears.
    'You must be it.'
    'I'm what?'     I asked.
    'The other half.'
    'What?'
    'What do you feel about these words: Surgat Umbra.'
    'Surgat um... bra?'
    I fell. She fell. My hand. Her hand. They sunk into each other. We each shared one long arm with two corresponding elbows. I couldn't use my voice. If I could've I would have screamed the life right out of myself. Our eyes met and for a second everything felt normal.
    'My umbra. Mea umbra. Meus. Summus mirabilis'
    There was a long sharp ringing in my ears. I could tell by her nervous twitching that she heard it too.
    'What is going on? My hand. I'm scared.'
    'We're okay.'
    Then the ringing stopped. She pulled her hand out of mine. My hand was warm and wet with sweat. She could tell what I was ready to do next.
    'No.' She said in my head, 'Don't you scream,'
    I crawled a way from her.
    'Don't you scream! Please!'
    I screamed like a harpie. Ran around in a circle until I found someone taller than four foot five. I found someone. Rubbed my face into the thigh of a tall man with a face like a young boy. He had long reddish brown hair that dripped in wavy tangles over his brown eyes, just like mine. It was my brother. Here to pick me up early, like he said he would this morning
    "I want to go home." I whimpered.
    "Don't you want to say bye to Mrs. Peggleton?"
    "I want to go home."
    Although i cried for home in a chant; my brother and I found my teacher, said bye, then we went back inside the class and grabbed all of my things.
    "Do you have your hat and crayons? Your bag? Your book?"
    I said yes to everything, not actually listening to him. I pushed him through the doors of my new elementary school, praying to the stars that I'd never have to come back, knowing I would have to.