Get Me Out of here By Jessica Lacey Chapter one OH NO!!! It was the second month of summer holidays and I was out playing tennis. I was hitting the ball off the side of the house. I leaned over to get the ball and I fell over, I got back up and continued to play my game of tennis. When I reached down to get my ball again I fell and went into a deep sleep. When I woke up and opened my eyes there was a large branch over my head. I didn’t remember 1 seeing that before in my garden and when I leaned up nothing seemed familiar. I peeped my head around the corner of the house and I saw a woman with a man and two children. I walked over and the woman said to me “come here darling and grab a sandwich”. I asked her where I was and how did I get here, the woman said with an American accent, “well, you are at your house and why do you ask”. Then I said, “What is my name?”, “Sarah Brown” she replied. “What? My name is Rebecca Halaway! What age am I?” 13 she answered. “Well at least my age is the same! I’m from Oslo, Norway so how can I be in America? I told the woman that I wanted to go home to my family. The woman said that’s enough fooling around and I was grounded for two days. As she walked me to my room she stopped and told a girl around my age to mind me in her room. Stay here and Sophie will mind you until I check on you in about half 2 an hour. “Hi!” I said, she answered “hello” in a soft voice. “Am I really in America?” I know you were an orphan and all that, but you think you’re in America. What’s that all about? Dah where do you think you are? said Sophie. “Hold on a minute I was an orphan in an orphanage, what do you mean? I’m from Norway,” a puzzled Sarah asked. “Yes you’re from the orphanage in Norway,” said Sophie. “No! No! NO! I have a mother, a father and a baby brother so this must be a dream!” “Well as far as I know you’re wide awake and hurry up and get ready for your training!” “What training? “Your tennis training, silly.” Ok this is too much to take in. “I want to go home”. “Well you have to go training to prepare for your big match.” “You and your family really do take care of me,” shrieked Sarah. “I better go down and apologise to your mum.” “Yes that’s a good idea.” 3 “Right then I’ll be back in a minute.” I walked through the house and went outside, my so-called mum was standing talking to the dog. I walked over to her and said that I was really sorry; I told her I didn’t know what got into me. I thought if I play along with it, my dream would soon be over. Then she told me that since I apologised I wasn’t going to get punished but I had to wash the dishes. So I was ok with that and when I was finished I went back to Sophie. 4 CHAPTER TWO I WILL DO IT I wish I was home I said to myself so many times. I couldn’t sleep one bit. I thought maybe I will never be home again, aaaah help me. Well thank god I missed tennis training yesterday I would have been rubbish. Then Sophie jumped out of bed and said get up sleepy head and get ready for training. I said, “What?.” “Get ready for training you missed it yesterday so you have to go today” answered Sophie. “Listen to me Sophie” I said. “I don’t know what happened. One minute I’m playing tennis in my garden and the 5 next minute I’m here, please believe me”. “Sarah I can’t, I just don’t know where this has all come from your just gonna have to get over this or mum will be so angry” said Sophie. “Fine then, but will they notice if I’m really bad at tennis,” asked Sarah. “YEAH” replied Sophie “you’re the best player the team now hurry up and get ready.” I got ready really slowly but I didn’t have to be slow on purpose because I didn’t know where anything was, so I waited about 15 minutes until I got Sophie to help me. When I got there some girls walked up to me and started talking to me. Of course I didn’t have a clue who they were and told them if I was playing really badly today it was because I 6 on wasn’t feeling too well. A tall man walked over to me and said, “Get your tennis racket ready and get on the court”. Now it may sound as if he said it mean and angrily but he was quite nice. I was really nervous about the game we were going to have but when it came I was actually pretty good. I had a real good time and even the coach said that I had improved. 7 CHAPTER THREE THE TRUTH… As I was getting into the car I noticed that I was wearing a necklace that had a key on it. I recognised it, oh yes it was the chain that my mum and dad gave me for my sixth birthday. So how come I still had it here. It puzzled me the whole way home about how I still had my necklace. When I told Sophie about it she said I was crazy and I shouldn’t tell Carol, Sophie’s mum. I asked Sophie when hadshe first seen the necklace. She told me I had it since the first time she saw me. When it was dinner time I had lots of things on my mind like how did I get here, was I really adopted, why was I at an orphanage and how on earth do I still have 8 my necklace. Carol knew something was wrong but I kept insisting that everything was fine. As I was getting into bed I asked Sophie when I moved here. She answered, “well, one summer we were on holiday, and our hotel was near an orphanage so we went in to give them some toys I didn’t really use anymore.” I went over to you to give you some toys and you just sat there, I asked you what was wrong and you kept saying you wanted to go home. “When did this happen?” I interrupted, “last summer, which was 11 months ago” Sophie whispered sadly. “The reason I didn’t tell you sooner was because I begged if we could adopt you, and I really have got to love you like a sister.” “I can’t let mum find out I’m telling you this because she might put you back in the orphanage when we go to Norway this summer.” “Why?” “Is there something you’re not telling me?” I asked anxiously. “Listen we have to go asleep but 9 one day you’ll find out” she answered. “Please! Please! Please! Tell me I need to know?” I begged. “Fine then but be quite,” Sophie whispered nervously. “Well you were going to have to go to this really rich horrible family in…. I don’t know where but I couldn’t let you go to them.” “Yeah, yeah but do you know why I was in the orphanage?” I questioned Sophie. “Well that’s the part I don’t really know how to tell you,” she answered. Sophie asked me what was the last thing I remembered or if I could remember anything at all. I told her that I was playing tennis and I went to pick up the ball and I was here, I also remember strong lights coming closer and closer to me but I told her maybe that was me being a bit crazy. “Well the thing is Sarah you’re not hallucinating when you think you saw lights, because you did see lights,” “you see the thing is that day a truck crashed into your house and hit you. You were rushed into hospital 10 straight away but unfortunately you hurt your head so that is why you remember very few things about your real family.” I was in tears because I knew that it was all true. Sophie came over and gave me hug. She asked me if I wanted to hear the rest of the story. “Yes” I answered sadly. “Then you couldn’t get treatment in Oslo so you had to be flown over here by plane.” “When you came home to the hospital they didn’t have a record of your home or who your parents were so you had to be put in the nearest orphanage.” I was too sad to say anything and I knew I had heard the entire story, so I said goodnight to Sophie and pretended to go to sleep knowing there would be no sleep for my tormented mind tonight. 11 Chapter four HOME SWEET HOME I remembered how Sophie said we were going to Norway on holiday, so maybe I could find my family when we got there. The next morning I was eating my breakfast and Carol asked me to get my bags ready for tomorrow, when we would be going to Norway. I asked her what part of Norway where we going to. “Well we were thinking of going to the usual place Oslo” Carol answered. “Great I just can’t wait, oh and Carol do you think we could stop 12 by the orphanage while we’re there?” I asked hopefully. “Sure ” she said, “we could go anywhere.” We went to Oslo by aeroplane so it took us ages but I didn’t really mind. When we finally got there I was so excited because I was dying to see my family. I asked Carol if we could walk around all the houses just to look at the difference between American houses and Norwegian houses. Of course I just wanted to look for my old house. She said we might have time after we unpack. I unpacked my bag really fast and then helped everyone else with there’s. We walked around for about 15 minutes when there was a house with a big red door the number on the door said 1740. The door seemed very familiar and I thought maybe it was my old home. I rang the doorbell and a little boy answered I asked him was his mother or father there. He shook his head and ran to a woman. She looked at me as if I looked familiar to her, 13 then she ran into a room and brought a man out. The two of them looked at me and then asked me what my name was. I answered “Rebecca Halaway.” Then I asked what their names were. “Laura and Tom Halaway,” they replied. I walked up another step and asked was I their daughter, as I said it a picture flashed in my head of the man, woman and the little boy. There was someone else in the picture it looked just like me. They are my family. I ran up the rest of the steps and gave them a hug. As I was hugging them Carol walked up behind me and said “get down here now Sarah.” I shouted I’ve found my family Carol. She walked up and looked at them she saw the resemblance between my parents and me, and she froze. Laura and Tom invited us in and we all sat 14 down and decided what we would do. The end result was that I would stay with my parents and visit Sophie and her mum and dad over the summer holidays. Well that’s how my life is so extreme. But things are just perfect now that Sophie and her family have moved in next door so it is a happy ending! THE END 15