"Si! Get up! The Fowlers are taking you to school today! Now hurry!"

"But mom..."

"Hurry!"

I looked at the calendar in my Carolina blue room that was posted on the desk my mom had just gotten at Target while my brother and I went to Camp Raven Knob, a Boy Scout camp in the mountains of North Carolina. The date was September 10. I almost forgot the date while looking at the tiger right above it on the calendar. It was a Monday. Great. I loved Mondays. Dull and boring. Why did t have to be Monday? The worst day of them all, mainly because I had always forgotten to do one subject's homework. I checked my binders while getting dressed and eating a PopTart at the same time.

History: Done.

French: Done.

Language Arts: Done.

Science: Done.

Math: Uh oh.

I had forgotten my math homework. Luckily I had math right after break. Thank you lord! Maybe this Monday thing wasn't so bad. After all, it was only math. When will I use that stuff in life, never. But what the hey, they force us to learn it anyway. Ugh.

"Sam don?t forget your lunch. Si, do well on your Math test today." For some odd reason, moms always know when you don?t do your homework, sure they love you but deep down they...wait, did she say TEST?

A test? How? Why? Now I still had to do my homework and study for a test I had completely forgotten about. We drove off with the Fowlers, our neighbors who live 3 houses down and go to the same school as Sam, my brother, and I go to, Durham Academy Middle School. We rode with their dad, who for some reason is one of those people who have to listen to NPR every morning or they will explode.

"You?re listening to NPR, Nation Public Radio. I'm Bob Edwards and you're listening to Morning Edition."

"And I'm Susan Stamberg."

"Early this morning, NASA reported some strange beam of light. Jean Cochran has more." Bob Edward said rather calmly as he usually does in his deep voice.

"Hello. I'm Jean Cochran. Early today NASA officials reported that a strange beam of light had appeared suddenly appeared on their computer screens. The computer they used check out anything that might seem "suspicious." NASA has just reported this problem, but says that the beam of light is strange, even to them, yet say that the beam of light is harmless and will hit the Atlantic Ocean around 9:00 am this morning."

"Thank you Jean. Now on to our regular program." Susan Stamberg said without any hint of worry. Susan should have been. What happened next, no one would believe. Not even me. Even though I was part of it, I would not believe it. Something would that would soon happen at 9:04 AM.

My day went along as usual. First I met up with a couple of my friends. Sean is smart and athletic one. The A+ student and the boy that every girl in 7h grade wants. Maybe it's his brown hair?

Laurie, is...well, Laurie. The person who could babble about anything for days and days and was also the cutesy one who loves everything cute and nice. She also has a crush a Sean, but he doesn't know that. I don't think he's real interested in a little blonde-haired girl who talks about everything on-and-on again.

Kelsey, who used to be my neighbor, on the other hand is a tomboy. She could care less about boys or hair. When we were 3, we kissed behind a tree, although she won't admit it. Hey, we were 3, who care anyway. Right?

The bell rang and I was off to history. There I sat next to Zack and Nick. They were my friends since kindergarten, when Nick started sleeping on Zack and my LEGO set the first day of kindergarten. Ever since then Zack and I have been almost twins, we almost look alike with the blonde hair and blue eyes and heights of 5 five feet and five feet one inch. Nick is still the same Nick, the tallest and biggest of our grade.

The bell rang for our next class, but it wasn't the right bell. It wasn't the bell for our next class as we soon found out, it was the emergency bell. I suddenly looked at my watch. It was 9:04.

I looked around me. It was odd, it felt like I was moving 10 times I normally do. I was next to the 6th grade science room. I quickly ran into the darkroom across the hall. People were throwing the chemicals out so they wouldn?t spill all over us if something did happen.

After I helped dump the chemicals, I sat down and looked around. I looked at the people with me. They were all 7th and 8th graders. I then heard something. Crying.

I looked across the room. It was Laurie, but not Laurie at all. The Laurie I knew was the brave one, the one to stand up to anyone or anything. But she was afraid.

We all were. Crunched up in a tiny dark room. The sound of the emergency bells still racing in everyone?s mind.

What we didn't know was that the entire world was waiting and watching. The whole world watched on in horror as the beam or light came closer and closer with every breath we took in. NASA had reported the light "very dangerous after it hit the International Spacestation on it's way to Earth. To us. The station had blown up and was gone. Not one piece of it was left. It had completely disappeared. Gone. Without a trace. Was that about to happen to us?

10

9

8

It was everywhere

7

6

5

Everyone was watching

4

3

From the TV or the Internet

2

1