Chapter one: Klara

It was a chilly morning. Not the kind of chilly where it’s freezing, and the sun has retreated into the deep depths of the sky, but more of the chilly where the wind is still one second, and then blows violently the next, and the cycle goes on and on. Klara’s overly- hairsprayed hair miraculously stayed still in the wind outside of her house. She stood there, waiting for the bus, her dark skin glowing in the sunlight. It was the first day of school, and the bus was already 6 minutes late. I’m in a treat this year, Klara thought as she waited and waited. She stared at her watch. 8:20 AM, it read, her face disappointed.

5 Minutes later, her bus came. Klara passed by the Kindergarteners, the first graders, the second, third, fourth graders, and fifth graders until she came to a stop at the second-to-last seat on the right. Her best friend, Cyrena Johnson, motioned Klara to come sit with her. She had the brightest smile on her sun-kissed face. Klara sat down.

“Hi.”, she said to Cyrena.

“Helloooooooo!”, Cyrena responded, her arms open, as if she was giving someone a huge hug.

Cyrena had been adopted from Greece 6 years ago. She took up her adoptive father’s last name. Cyrena doesn’t remember much from Greece, she said. Klara always thought Cyrena was pretty amazing. English is her second language, and she mastered it pretty well. She even writes poems. They’re pretty good too.

Klara looked into Cyrena’s piercing brown eyes.

Klara snapped out of her trance. “Soooo… did you do anything…..”, Klara paused. She needed the right word. “sensational this summer?”, Klara liked that word. She took out her notebook and wrote it down in her word collection for safe keeping while Cyrena answered her question.

“Oh yeah! I went to Greece this summer. We saw ancient ruins and things. Oh, and we ate loukoumades. They were sooooo good-”

“What are those?”

“A special Greek dessert. Some people call them Greek honey puffs.”, Cyrena responded.

“Wow. I wanna try those one day. Did you see any cute booooooys there?”

“Well, there was this one boy..”

“Tell me!” Klara exclaimed.

“His name is Stavrous and he is the cutest-ever-boy-you will-meet-in-your-whole-life."Cyrena  blabbered on.

“Ooh! The question is,”

“And will always be-”, Cyrena butted in.

“Does he have a fantasical-amazing personality?” they said in unison.

They laughed loudly.