Martinique John, “The Not-So-Happy Place”

THE NOT-SO-HAPPY PLACE

Martinique John

As the school bell rang for students to get out of school, I waited for my best friend Asia so that we could leave and walk around the neighborhood. As me and Asia were walking through the neighborhood park, where trees were swinging, the cool fall air was pushing against my face. I saw the new Apple Store that just got built overnight. Strange, I thought. The lines were as long as a Burmese Python. I heard one of the workers shouting “New iPhone! New iPhone!” I asked one of the people in the line, “Hey, what’s new this time with the iPhone?” “Siri is different, the phone has five new cameras, and it comes in eight different colors,” they replied. “Thank you,” I said as I walked home. When I got home, this new iPhone was still in my head for some strange

reason . . .

* * * * * The next morning as I walked downstairs for breakfast, I heard the news on the living room TV playing loud. “The new iPhone has gone haywire, turning everyone that has it into a brainless zombie.” As I’m listening to it, my mother said to me, “You better not be going out there to get that crazy new iPhone.”

“I’m not,” I said while eating the pancakes and bacon that my mother had made for me. After that good breakfast, I got dressed to go to Asia’s house to just bother her. When I got on the bus, I noticed that the people on the bus were really weird. I paid it no mind though. When I arrived at Asia’s house, she was acting abnormal. She has these dark blue eyes with a weird pattern in them; it wasn’t like her regular light brown eyes that sparkled in the light. I went to open my mouth slightly to ask her if she had gotten new contacts for her cosplaying, until she got a text. I looked down at her phone and realized that she had got the new iPhone. Once I looked down at her phone, my head started to hurt and Asia had pulled the phone away. Then, the strange headache went away, and as she turned off her phone, I asked her, “When did you get the new iPhone?” “Last night, my mother went to the Apple Store to get it. Isn’t it pretty?” she said with a smile that almost reached her ears. “Yeah sure,” I said awkwardly. As the time was going by, Asia was still talking about her new iPhone and her eyes were still the dark blue color with the weird pattern. I was tired and was getting ready to leave, yet Asia continued to speak to me—begging me to buy the new iPhone. I said no, got my things, and left. While I was on the bus looking out the window, I was thinking about Asia’s eyes. It was so weird that her eyes changed like that. The next day, I went to FaceTime Asia to see if anything from yesterday changed. When I looked at her eyes, it was back to the normal light brown sparkly color. As I was walking down the stairs, I heard the news again: “The insane person who made the new iPhones has been arrested and the iPhone Siri that was taking over people’s heads, has been shut down.” “Wow,” I said with wide eyes, finally this whole crazy iPhone thing is over… Until the news reporter put up a picture of the insane person who made the iPhone. IT WAS MY 9TH GRADE SCIENCE

TEACHER! He has always been kind of weird to me, but I never thought he would go this far into trying to take over the neighborhood. I was still on the phone with my best friend when I told her the guy who made the crazy iPhone was our 9th grade teacher. Her eyes went so wide. “At least everything is over and back to normal . . .” she said. Two days later, as I was walking down the street, I saw my 9th grade teacher. “WHAT THE HECK,” I said out loud. I walked towards him and gave him a big slap on his face. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” he yelled. “WHO EVEN ARE YOU?” “LEXI, YOUR 9TH GRADE STUDENT.” “I’m sorry, but I don’t know no Lexi,” he mumbled in pain. “You must have mistaken me for my twin brother.” Twin brother?! I thought. “Mr. Green is your twin brother?” I asked. “Yes, I know what he did was wrong but he needs mental help. He didn’t mean to hurt people.” I apologized and walked away.

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