EXTRA Credit Blog

Three words: School Has Started. Tomorrow school officially starts, and today I’m officially nervous. I went today and did my locker while my mom was at work, and I’m pretty rusty with the combinations. I used to be like super good at those things, but this time it took me several tries to open my locker! I didn't really decorate my locker this year either. Just a few strips of duct tape on the inside door to cover the names that people signed, - *cough* vandalism *cough* -a dry-erase board, and my locker shelves. I also put all my binders, folders, etc. in there too. Anyway… since I've decided to use this as my extra credit blog, which we are allowed to write anything unless it’s inappropriate, I think I’m going to write a summary of this book I finished a few days ago.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

By Beth Revis

Amy was a normal girl. She was average; red hair, green eyes. She ran for the track team at her school and was pretty good. She was one of those girls everyone envied because she seemed to be in a perfect relationship. Amy was in high school, and her whole family lived together, I mean that by just her and her parents of course. Except, well, there was that ONE thing that made her different from most people. No she’s not going to Hogwarts, and she definitely does not own a wardrobe that takes her to Narnia. Nope, that ONE thing, was her parents.

While most people’s parents are doctors, lawyers, teachers, even waitresses; there are some people whose parents are the president and first lady, or celebrities that paparazzi can’t seem to get enough swimsuit shots of. Amy’s parents were one of those people. Big shots all right, but in the world of science and technology. So, why does that matter? Why is having important parents such a bad thing?

Okay, but here’s the deal. It’s future earth right, like that post-apocalyptic stuff; except we’re not talking alien invasion or the walking dead, we’re talking war and debt and the environment going downhill. Sure, there aren't green dudes with big heads blowing things up, and there aren’t zombies infecting entire populations, but Amy still has a problem, a BIG problem. No she’s not participating in the Hunger games, but the odds are in favor of her being cryogenically frozen for three-hundred years to travel to a class M planet, (for all the Star Trek Next Generation fans), or if you are not fortunate enough of have parents who educate you of the explorations of the USS Enterprise, an earth-like planet, where her parents are important enough to get chosen to go to be some of the leaders and help cultivate the new “earth”.

Yeah, so now she has to leave her boyfriend, friends and family all behind and she won’t ever see them again! Not to mention that being cryogenically frozen really hurts, (They stick a tube down your neck, glue your eyes shut, and then freeze you with this liquid ice stuff that really hurts) and is kind of embarrassing since you have to strip down till your naked in front of the two men, yes men, who have to freeze you. Then you also find out that your tank is labeled “nonessential cargo” . Ouch… Oh! And I almost forgot about watching your parent get frozen before you, and then your father giving you the option at the last moment to go and stay with your Aunt and Uncle who were actually informed of this choice beforehand and were waiting just outside to take you home with them. How’s that for a life-changing decision?

Across the Universe
By Beth Revis

Anyway, Amy chooses to go with her parents, you know, sticking to the plan, because unlike Oz the Great and Powerful, no one sneezed away the plan, there just happened to be an alternative. But Amy soon decides that sticking to the plan was a very, very, BAD idea because no one told her that being cryogenically frozen meant that your brain was still active. Sure, it still has to be a little active, as in keeping you alive but, Amy thought that one moment she would be frozen, the next she would be unfreezing with no recollection of time. Well that was an epic fail on her part because apparently you still have thoughts, just like a normal person would, except for like 300 years more. And let me tell you: 300 years is a long time to think.

And then she wakes up; 50 years ahead of schedule.

Amy was unplugged. Her cryogenic chamber was literally cut off from its power supply, the supply that was keeping her frozen, keeping her alive. Someone tried to murder her, and she has no clue as to why.