GABRIELLA AND THE AMULET PROPHECY

There’s a saying that goes, beware the artifacts you purchase in Egypt.

I laughed when I first heard it.

Looking back…I really shouldn’t have.

If I had listened, maybe we wouldn’t have crossed paths with the Gooperoids.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start where every disaster begins…with one terrible decision.

My name is Gabriella McCall Rodriguez , everyone calls me Ella and this is how my normal life became incredibly abnormal in a strangely exciting way.

I'm a sixteen year old girl with an annoying thirteen year old brother, Eduardo, who's quite a jerk and stupid sometimes and thinks sarcasm is a personality.

An eleven year old gossip of a sister, Flora, who I fear is disrespectful and unbelievably smarter than her age and unfortunately aware of it.

How lucky am I?

Well, I'm not.

They both frustrate my life.

Now, let me tell you about how I, my siblings and my best friends got our powers.

It all began with my school's field trip to Cairo, and I have always wanted to go cause my two best friends and my crush were going too.

You see, I've always wanted to see the great sphinx of Giza and this field trip.

This was my chance, an opportunity I just couldn't let pass me by or throw away, but! My mom thought otherwise or differently, if you wanna say it that way...

"oh come on mom! I promise, I'll take good care of Eddie and Flora" I begged.

"No! Ella, no matter how much you beg me, the answer's still–"

"No" We both said in Unison.

"Thank you!" She said and left me alone in the kitchen.

"Ugh!" I groaned out loud in frustration.

Okay, meet my mom, Mary McCall, She's the best, strict, loving and an annoying wonderful mother. Plus, she's a fashion designer, meaning she travels a lot, for her fashion shows.

It so happens that she's traveling to London for a week.

My dad lived thousands of miles in Mexico, which meant mom always had the final say.

Unfortunately for me.

So since my mom travels a lot, it also means that I can still go on the field trip without her knowing, because it's also for a week too. So I made a plan:

Mom leaves for her flight to London in three days

All I need to do, is pay for the field trip online today and collects our flight tickets tomorrow.

Lie to mom that there's a school program for all the students in that three days.

So that way she'll drop us at school before going to the airport and then we'll be on our way to Cairo and we’ll be back home before she knows it.

It was really difficult pulling this off because I had to pay our grumpy neighbor, to sign my permission slip for the school, purchase the flight tickets.

That part was a bit easy because mom had already renewed our passports for a canceled family trip last year.

I had to also bribe my lab partner from biology class, to pretend to be mom, over the phone.

He’s really good at mimicking voices, I think he has a future in the animation industry.

Like the animation studios ever needed to recruit people, I think he’d be hired on the spot.

But anyways, the plan ended up becoming a success.

※ ※ ※

So the three days later, I got ready for school with Flow and Eddie and mom's credit card which she gave us to use for this week and I also packed some of our clothes and things that we'd need for the trip. Mom dropped us at school and left for the airport.

As I got to the school bus parking lot, I met my two best friends: Anne Blackwell and Gabriel Stone, and my crush...Derrick Haynes.

He had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen, beautiful wavy hair that stopped at his shoulders.

He leaned back on his jeep and laughed at something his friend said.

I've been having a crush on Derrick since 7th grade, but he's never noticed me at all, not even once; cause he's dating my rival: Susanna Coy.

Susanna walked past us, gave us the head-to- toe look and scoffed.

She whispered something to her friends–minions and they all laughed.

“Ugh! I hate her.” I heard Anne say.

Susanna walked over to Derrick and kissed him.

I looked away.

He was grinning at her when she pulled away.

Gabe adjusted his glasses onto the bridge of his pointed nose, his curls falling over his eyes.

He murmured something and Anne giggled.

"What are you doing here?" Anne asked, once she noticed my presence.

She tossed her fiery curls over her shoulder.

"Ain’t no way our mom let you come." Gabe stated.

"Yea, did she? " Anne asked again.

"Guys!" I interrupted Anne, "Can we do this later? The bus is about to leave.”

"Yeah, but how were you able to come to school today if…" Anne stopped talking and gasped softly, "oh no! Ella, did you...did you trick your mom into thinking we had school today?"

I beamed her my thousand watts smile.

"Bingo." I said, "so now can we get on the bus now before it leaves us here?"

"Yeah, I need my beauty sleep, so can we do that?" Eddie asked

We all ignored him.

"You're such a lazy bone" Flow teased.

He glared at her.

“If you all are done, I’ll be on that queue over there.” She pointed to the queue and walked away.

The sun shone over Gabriel’s dark skin, as he adjusted the sleeves of his baggy hoodie, I watched his biceps flex.

"You do know that this idea of yours is a reckless one right?" Gabe asked me.

Anne looked at me and nodded, her chestnut brown eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

Our school, Crescentville High, was located in a small countryside in Massachusetts. It was named after our town.

It wasn’t really a famous school.

Most people there were farmers or ranchers.

Which made flying halfway across the world crazier and more exciting.

"Yea I do, but this is my chance to see the great sphinx and also explore the artifacts of Egypt. Yea, that's something I don't wanna miss" I said, "come on guys, help me out here"

"I guess what she's saying makes sense, Gabe, come on let her come, yea?" Anne pleaded on my behalf.

He sighed in defeat.

"Thanks!" I squealed in excitement and hugged him.

As we began to enter the bus, Flow smiling like a fox, asked the most audacious question.

"Ella, is Gabe your boyfriend?"

I froze and turned to face her.

“I thought you were going to stand on the queue? how long have you been standing there?” I asked.

“Long enough, now answer the question.” She demanded.

"What?! No, he's my best friend" I said

"Then why did you hug him?" Eddie asked.

I arched a brow.

"Cause he's a friend? You know what? Get into the damn bus now. Both of you!" I growled

Eddie smirked and shrugged.

"if you say so" he said and got into the bus.

"You know how your siblings are, let it go and let's go already" Anne said, getting into the bus.

"Those children some times, I don't just know what to do what them" I said in anger.

"Come on, I'm sure they was just joking around" Gabe said, as he got into the bus.

Yet he looked like he was embarrassed.

Eddie is so annoying.

We drove to the airport and then we boarded the plane.

Once the plane took off, I felt my stomach do a somersault.

This was my first time on a plane, but it wasn’t really the plane that had my stomach in knots.

It was the lie I told mom, the impulsive decision I made to go on this trip.

I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful view of the sun and clouds.

I was already too far gone from the truth to go back now.

So I enjoyed the view.

Little did I know that this trip would change my life completely.