Seventeen Forever

A Twelve Forever Fan-story

By Daring D.D. Danger

1

new home forever

"Sweetie, you'll like your new school, I promise." Grandma gave me her usual smile. I admit, it was hard not to believe her even though we'd never met before I had to move in with her. She stopped her car in front of the school, Eleanor Roosevelt Middle.

"Alright, class. We have a new student joining us today. Kaileigh, come on in!"

The teacher was a middle-aged man, but he seemed to be happy to be teaching. I wrote my name on the board: K-A-I-L-E-I... at that point a few people began giggling. I finished writing it and the teacher looked at me.

"Tell us a little about yourself. Like how you came to Dubuque from California," he smiled.

"I'm living with my grandma here for a while. I like surfing and cartoons." I smiled as sincerely as I could fake.

"Well, surfing might be hard here in Iowa. But, I think you'll find some things in common with a few kids here." He gestured me to an open seat near the back.

"Hey. Why would you trade Cali for Iowa? I hear it's great there." A smallish boy with fair skin sat next to me.

"It wasn't exactly my choice. I don't really want to talk." It was harsh but true, I really just wanted to hide the whole day.

"I'm James!" Clearly he did not get the memo.

The end of the school day came incredibly slowly. I was also to ride the bus home. To my ire, James sat beside me as the bus left the school.

"You know, I like sports too! I play football, and baseball, and basketball-" I stopped him.

"Please, don't. I just want to go home." After a few minutes the bus made an unexpected stop: Stephen Hempstead High.

"What's this?" I asked James.

"Oh, right, you're new. The district had to cut costs, so the highschoolers share buses with us." Great, I thought to myself. I really didn't watch the highschoolers board the bus, but it turned out that one of them was ready to talk to me.

"Hey, James! I like the new girlfriend!" A girl with blonde hair and pink highlights was leaning over our seat.

"Oh, she's not my girlfriend. She's a new kid!" James was far too excited about everything.

"What's your name, new kid?" She seemed to be staring into my soul

"Kaileigh," I answered quietly.

"Emily!" Suddenly another high school girl was hovering. "What are you talking to these babies for!" The new girl crossed her arms. Emily's face suddenly flushed red.

"Just checking on James and his new girlfriend!" She said it with such vigor that the whole bus heard, and began making mocking sounds at us. Emily laughed a sinister laugh as she sank behind us. I buried myself in the seat, trying to hide until I got home.

My things were mostly still in boxes, but at some point, Grandma had set my seashell collection out on the kitchen table. My mom had strung a few of the shells into a necklace when I was younger. I grabbed it and put it on. Then I noticed another shell, one that I had painted for some reason. It was blue and yellow, my favorite colors. I decided to sit down for a bit, and add some other shells onto the necklace chain. Last but not least, I had carefully added a hole to the painted one and added it to the necklace. Suddenly, the shells began glowing and I was enveloped by a yellow light. I screamed in terror as reality itself seemed to bend. When I opened my eyes, I was staring up at the sky, but it had changed, it was now pink, with pink clouds. The sun was smiling back at me, and I grew immediately uneasy. I didn't want to look at where I was lying, but I couldn't stand the sun's gaze anymore. I looked up and screamed.

"Hello!" An odd assortment of monsters were standing in front of me. The world around me was full of terrifying and bizarre things.

"Hi, I'm Colin!" A gray creature approached me. He had a terrifying face like a bad clay project, and a hunched back. He held out a tiny arm, which I didn't take out of fear.

"I'M DOCTOR CHAMPION! WHO ARE YOU?" A green man with red eyes came running from the group.

"K-Kaileigh? From Iowa?" I stuttered.

"I'M FROM KENTUCKY!" He screamed back. He then produced a carton of milk from seemingly nowhere and handed it to me.

"Sorry about him, I'm Galaxander. Nice to meet you." Galaxander seemed to be made of night sky, the stars on his body shifting as he walked. He had bright white eyes and nearly as bright blonde hair. I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet, and I realized that I was wearing different clothes. I looked down at my outfit- surfer's gear, dark blue with a few yellow accents… very "me" actually.

"That's your Endless outfit!" Galaxander must have caught me staring.

"Endless outfit?" I asked.

"Yes, the outfit you wear in Endless, silly."

"So this place is called… Endless?" I looked around at the island. Even just close to me, I could see what appeared to be a doughnut tree, a stack of tires, and off in the distance, a forest of trees that almost looked like skin. Where am I?

"Let me introduce my friends to you!" He walked me over to a small light green gremlin creature.

"This is Borbo!"

"Yup, I'm Borbo, I like sneakin' and creepin'!" Even his voice was creepy.

"Here's Pretty Please, Tater Tot, and Beth." He pointed at three small creatures, one yellow and rabbit like, another green with some fish like qualities, and the last was a blue slime creature with four eyes. They all waved back.

"That's Mack and Beefhouse!" The two orange men started flexing at me. They almost looked like toys.

"And finally, Big Deal." I hadn't noticed the bat like creature in the back of the group, alongside a tall green-skinned woman, sitting in a wheelchair.

"Wait, who's in the wheelchair?" I ask Galaxander.

"Oh, that's the Buttwitch." He said in an angry voice. "She tried to destroy the island, like, five times."

"Why is she here then?"

"Because I love her!" The bat creature, Big Deal, wheeled her over to me. "She hasn't moved in a very long time, though. I think she's hibernating."

"How do you know she's not just dead?" I asked.

"Oh, things blow up when they die here." Big Deal said.

"That makes no sense." I said.

"It doesn't have to make sense on Endless!" He replied back. Another creature walked up to me, an end table with a strange yellow balloon face.

"I'm Tasty Troy. Wanna play some foursquare?"

"Uh, Sure" I said.

I was not quite prepared for what followed. The foursquare arena was the size of a basketball court, and three of the islanders I met, Doctor Champion, Tasty Troy, and Beefhouse were warming up intensely.

"I think the rules of foursquare might be different here." I said.

"You'll do great," Beefhouse said In a surprisingly soft voice. They even had bleachers, lined with residents, some I hadn't even met, one in particular, an all white being made of geometric shapes, was sitting in a throne. Across from the bleachers was a sign that read "Champions" and had four banners flowing from it. I recognized two of the champions as Doctor Champion and Beefhouse, but not the other two. First was a girl with a white jumpsuit and pink hair, and second, another girl wearing some kind of space helmet, with the number eleven on her chest.

"Who are those people?" I inquired.

"That's Candi and Seventeen!" Beefhouse yelled back. "We never changed Seventeen's banner. She used to be called Eleven!" Suddenly, a small duck-like creature took to the referee's chair and blew a whistle. I took my corner. Doctor Champion was starting with the ball.

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN, TASTY TROY!" He jumped alarmingly high in the air and spiked the ball, which Tasty Troy somehow caught in his drawer. Tasty Troy turned to me, revealing his drawer was now a canon, and the ball shot out of it. The ball hit me in the gut and I went flying. I landed in something soft, which I realized was a large ice cream sandwich (which I was now covered in). What was this place?

"Kaileigh is out!" I heard from the arena. I decided now was the time to go home. I pulled out my necklace, and held it up, hoping I would go home, and sure enough, I was once again enveloped in yellow, and had returned to my kitchen, unscathed from the events in Endless.

"Oh, I didn't hear you come in, Kaileigh. How was your first day of school?" Grandma asked.

"Eventful," I replied. I ran to my room and hid the necklace in my drawer. All I wanted was to forget this day.

To Be Continued In: Outcast Forever