The Girl Who Built the Rocket

Cecily Robinson~

She walks up the moss-covered stairs to the school. She was different, in an odd sort of way. Everyone was thinking it, everyone was whispering it, but no one would ever say it out loud. 

Everyday she wears a peculiar jacket that consists of metallic material. It reflects all the light around her. She is practically a walking disco ball. She has a random yellowish tint to her skin. Her hair is nothing like anyone else's, and there are rumors that her hair is dyed. It’s the exact color and sheen of the jacket, only it is just slightly purple. Her name is Vanessa Wilson. 

I’ve only ever seen her once without sunglasses on, or whatever you want to call them. Her glasses were so geometric, and pitch black. They have no frames, the only thing they are is lens… or at least I think. 

She arrived new two and a half years ago. She came to the school during the flat middle of the semester. It’s almost as though she appeared out of thin air. One day she wasn’t and the next she was. The whole rest of the year she was the buzz. 

I’ve also only talked to her once. I wish I couldn’t say it was peculiar, but it was. We were assigned to be science partners with her twin sister, Cameron Wilson, during the last month of the school year. 

Yup, I know, she has a twin sister named Cameron. That’s what the rumor is. Cameron always claims that she has no twin sister, but I’m pretty sure that she just doesn’t want to be known as the creep with a creep sister. 

Many people think that Vanessa was home schooled for the first eight years of her life. It was the only explanation for her never going to school until the seventh grade. I can see why though, she’s incredibly shy. 

Cameron is perfect, though. I don’t know but that might be the reason that Vanessa is so different. She has been living with the most perfect, popular, funny, and kind sister. Cameron knows everyone, and somehow manages to be best friends with everyone in the entire Washington High School. Living with an accomplished, popular, twin probably made Vanessa what she is today… a little shy. Though, I have to admit… Vanessa is disturbingly smart.

Anyways, the whole project we were supposed to work together to make a rocket. Now I’m no science geek, but can I tell you… Vanessa sure is. I hated working with her. Her sister did about the same amount as I did… nothing. Vanessa never had anything good to say about what we said, and must I say talking to her was kind of creepy. 

It’s almost like being in the Twilight Zone. Her voice is so wispy and dreamy. She almost mesmerizes me. I can’t think straight when she talks. I am normally a very “take over” kind of person, but not this time. She convinced us that she had it under control, with barley even saying anything. 

By the end of project she had built a full-on rocket. With working buttons and everything. The funny thing is, Griffin, the smartest boy in the whole school, made the same exact rocket. The teacher merely didn’t think anything of it, but everyone in the class just assumed that Griffin had copied what Vanessa had made, seeing how she is probably way smarter. 

It’s not only the rocket thing, though. She also seems to know a lot about others. Maybe her sister tells her a lot, but by the sounds of it they don’t talk all that often. Not only that, but she also seems to know a lot about events. She always knows when something is going to happen. It’s probably just a little quirk to her weirdness, though. 

In the first week she started school she saved a boy’s life. During a science lab again we were learning chemistry. We were using the Bunsen burners. I wasn’t in her group this time, but Griffin was. He was heating up chlorine mixed with water. It wasn’t supposed to turn this way, but the burner wouldn’t go down. 

I mean it, the temperature wouldn’t stop rising on the gauge. Vanessa screeched loudly, for him to get down. He didn’t listen to her, so she pulled him down. 

It was close. The beaker exploded, and the liquid shot everywhere. It got right into Griffin’s eyes, and he was rushed to the hospital. He got glasses, and still can’t see well. 

All the teachers said that he would’ve died if Vanessa wouldn’t have pulled him down. I don’t know how she knew that it was going to happen, but all she said was that it had happened to someone else she had known before. 

That’s all I know about Vanessa Wilson. My name is Cecily Robinson and I’m on a mission to figure out what’s really up with Vanessa Wilson. 

✴✴✴

Vanessa Wilson~

People think that I’m weird. Sure I wear different clothes than them, and freakishly know pretty much everything. I am like them all, though… or I was. I have this weird talent. I wish I never did. I want to just be a normal kid again with all the friends I used to have. 

People say that I have a weird voice, but that’s just how I talk. They all think that I am freakishly smart. I guess I kind of am, but I wish I wasn’t. Being smart may get you into colleges, but it’s not any fun if everyone thinks you’re crazy while your doing it. 

I don’t have a sister. I have no twin. Everyone is wrong. I live alone, and barley even have a home. If I ever went back to my old, brick house on Mulberry Lane, I would scare them all away. 

You see I have a way of knowing everything about everyone, knowing when something is going to happen, and what all the answers on all the tests will be. It kind of creeps people out. I don’t even know how I figured out how to get here, but here I am. It’s a curse I got to live with. 

I’ve never been home schooled. I went to school at Washington High School, but no one ever knew. Yes, I saved a boy from dying from chemical liquids, and yes I was technically the one who copied Griffin’s rocket. 

Hi, my name is Cameron Wilson. I'm stuck in the past.