April 3rd, 2018
Rotation speed: 1,600km/hr
Hours per day: 24

Dawn looked lazily at her beeping alarm clock. It was going to be the first day she went to school since her family took a vacation to Orlando, Florida.

She took a deep sigh and stretched. She drug herself out of bed, and went to her bathroom. There, she brushed her teeth and brushed her hair.

She put her long brown hair into a bun, and then she picked out a pair of black leggings, a navy blue hoodie, and her favorite baseball cap. The cap had the NASA logo on it. She looked at it for a moment and put it back down and sighed.

She put on her clothes, did her makeup very quickly, and then she grabbed her phone, her glasses, her bag, and a blueberry muffin, that she could eat while she was waiting for the bus.

"I'm heading out mom," she called to her mother. "Ok, have a good day," her mother called back.

She put on her glasses as she shut the door. The Boston morning was bright and warm. Summer was just around the corner.

She then got to the bus stop, where there were some other people waiting. Like always, she tried to keep herself hidden.

"Look at Dawn," said one kid. "She always does that," said another. "I wonder what she does when she sits there," said one more. "Probably nothing," "She's the girl with absolutely nothing to say," another added, with a follow-up of giggling, and bickering.

She began to eat her muffin, and the rude remarks continued. She zoned them out, and she dug through her bag until she found her earbuds.

She plugged them into her phone and popped them in her ears. She then turned on her Fall Out Boy playlist, and listened to it as she ate the last of the muffin.

Then, in the distance, she saw the big yellow bus approaching. She threw away the muffin wrapper as the bus came to a stop in front of the crowd.

Everybody pushed in front of her, and took their seats. She was the very last one on. Dawn took her seat at the back end, where nobody ever sat, and then she logged on to FaceBook just as the bus began to move forward.

The first thing she saw was a brand new picture of Jupiter, from the satellite, Juno. Her heart fluttered when she saw the beautiful planet.

She then scrolled down, to see a picture of a party, at a guy named Justin's house. He was probably the most popular person in the school.

Justin was in the middle of two girls, one of them was his girlfriend named Becca, who was every definition of perfect.

She had icy blue eyes, perfect dirty blonde hair, and her parents had money to burn.

On his left was Becca's best friend, Katherine, and she was just as perfect.

She had bark brown eyes, beautiful black hair, and her parents had even more money to burn.

Dawn rolled her eyes and continued down. More pictures of the party flooded the page.

Before she knew it, the bus had arrived at the school. She looked at the sign, East Boston Hugh School.

The bus doors opened, and the students flooded out. Dawn trailed behind.

Students were all in their own groups. The popular, the geeks, the jocks. Dawn didn't have her own group, but she was used to being by herself.

She entered the school, and people were rushing to get to class. Dawn walked to her locker, and opened it. She put her bag in it, and grabbed her folders, and her book.

After she grabbed the things, she closed the locker door, and went to first period, social studies.

She entered the classroom to see the teacher, Mr. Baker, doing some work on his desk. Other people were talking across the room.

She took her seat, and then she turned up the volume on her music.

Then, Nick Anderson walked into the room. Dawn had a little crush on him. Mainly because he liked space just as much as she did. But her fear of messing up created a barrier from opening up to him.

The bell rang just as he sat down. Then, the morning announcements came on. They talked about all of the other people's achievements. But Dawn's name was never said.

Then the teacher motioned for Dawn to take her headphones out, and she obeyed.

"Ok," he began, "today we are going to continue our study on the revolutionary war, so please turn your textbooks to page 78 and we will begin."

Dawn grabbed the book, and turned to the page requested, and waited. Mr. Baker began to pass out papers.

"Please answer the questions on these worksheets, and turn them in when they are complete," he said.

Dawn began to work. What country provided help and aid to America during the Revolutionary War? Dawn read the page a bit, and answered. France.

Just as she began to read the next page, her phone vibrated in her pocket, along with everybody else's.

She looked to her right as a kid pulled out his phone. His eyes widened. "Jesus," she heard another say.

She pulled out her phone, and the alert notification was on her lock screen. She scrolled the notification over, and it took her to a page.

It was NASA's website.

There was a picture of Earth, and the sun was pictured beautifully behind it.

But the title was not quite as beautiful. It read: Earth's Rotation is Slowing. Simply.

Dawn got a chill down her back, and she read: Due to the new amount of solar flares on the sun, we predict that in the next few months, the Earth could stop rotating completely.

People in the class started to panic. "What will happen," said one, "I can't believe it," said another. "I'm scared," added one.

Finally, Nick read the article, and his jaw dropped, but he stayed silent.

Then, the loudspeaker came over, and the principle said, "I believe that most of you have gotten the notification on your phones, and because of the amount of surprise, we are going to excuse classes for the rest of today. All of you are expected to be here tomorrow however. Thank you and have a good day."

Then, the speaker went silent. People cheered, and they rushed out of the room. Even Mr. Baker left. Everyone except for Nick and Dawn were gone.

He was very worried, and by the look on his face, he looked a bit angry.

Something deep down inside told Dawn that she needed to talk to him.

She shyly walked up to him, and he looked up at her. She felt like she was going to throw up. She hadn't tried to start a conversation in months.

"Uh, hi," she said awkwardly. "Hey," Nick said. "That's, uh, kind of crazy what's going on huh," Dawn said. "Yeah," Nick began, "and I can't believe that they want us to show up tomorrow," he said clearly annoyed.

"I agree," Dawn said looking at her feet. "Hey," Nick began, "do you like," he paused, "space? Dawn's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't believe that somebody was actually asking about the thing she loved. "Yes, very much," she said with relief flushing over her. "Me too," he said.

They stayed silent for awhile, and then Dawn said, "I should probably get going, my mom will be worried." "I understand," he began, "I hope we can talk again." Dawn nodded, picked up her things, and waved goodbye to him.

She felt very relieved that she had left her shell a bit, but that was very hard for her.

She grabbed her bag, and ran down the hallway to try and make it to her bus.

Just before it left, she jumped on, and went to the back.

She sat down, and caught her breath. She felt happy that she had finally sparked up a conversation.

But another thought entered her head, the Earth was slowing down. She knew what could happen if it stopped completely.

And something terrified her. Would Boston be gone in the next few months? The place she had called home her entire life, could become a
lost city.

Her head hurt with the emotion. Just the thought of losing her home caused her pain.

She tried to calm herself down by listening to music, but the thought lingered with her.

The bus started its engine, and it stared to move forward.

A/N: Please excuse me if these first few chapters are awkward. I've never written about anything that wasn't about horses, so this is brand new for me. I wanted to challenge myself. I promise that this will get much better with time. Thank you for reading! Bye!