Submergent

By Yael Brynjegard-Bialik

Tim wasn't expecting anything special to happen to him that morning, but when he encountered a strange car in his neighbor's driveway with an even stranger bumper sticker, he found himself starting an incredible adventure. This novel was the first written by this California middle-school student, and is now followed by a sequel, "Gilled."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312558694

Book preview

Submergent

Submergent

Yael Brynjegard-Bialik

Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Yael Brynjegard-Bialik

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Second Printing: 2014

ISBN 978-1-312-55869-4

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my fourth, sixth, and seventh grade English teachers who taught me

all the writing styles I used. Mrs. Hatton inspired me to start writing in the first place, Mrs. Olafsson taught me how to write well, and Mrs. Ficket taught me strong words I can use and different ways to use them.

Chapter One

Tim, you’re going to be late! Timothy Greenwald was a seventh grade student attending William Shakespeare Middle School. Unfortunately for him, it started at 8:00 sharp in the morning and it was currently 7:39. He was going to miss the bus. Again. And he was going to be late. Again. Ms. Terry was going to be so mad. This was his eleventh time being absent this quarter, which meant that he was getting weekend detention.

Ugggggghhhhhhh! Tim groaned.

Timothy Greenwald, you get down here this instant or I am not going to drive you to school. You can walk for all I care! Tim’s mom was in a bad mood. Not good.

She had bad days sometimes and when she did, beware. Tim hustled downstairs because his school was seven blocks away and he did not feel up to walking that distance at the moment. He slid to a stop on the hard wood floor with his hair half sticking up, most of his shirt buttons unbuttoned, and one shoe on one foot and one sock on the other.

Darn it! Tim was too late. His mom had already left for work without him. He grabbed a piece of toast lying on the counter for him and kissed his dog, Butterfingers, goodbye.

Tim left the house and began walking to school when he noticed something strange in his neighbor’s driveway. There was a strange car he had never noticed before. It was black with a streak of turquoise on either side. The strangest thing about it was what looked like two pairs of gills on each side of the windshield. Tim could also see a bumper sticker on the back of the car that said, Troll Time!

Tim looked up at the house and realized it was Ms. Shrap’s house. Now, Ms. Shrap was not the nicest lady you meet while walking down the street. In fact, she probably doesn’t even come in the top ten. Anyway, she hated children and usually stayed in her house, in her rocking chair, knitting. She was one of the least interesting people Tim knew but for some reason, she magically just got the most awesome car he had ever seen.

While he was pondering this strange predicament, he looked back down