Chapter 1It was a normal start to a normal day at Copper Creek Elementary. Steven Hayes always arrived at seven fifteen and the first thing he did was put the date on the blackboard for his third grade class. Today he wrote March 23, 2015, with yellow chalk. He took off his raincoat and hung it up in the corner. He looked out the window. Since yesterday a light rain had been falling. There were black storm clouds gathering in the sky indicating more to come. For some reason, he shivered.
Mrs. Maddy Conway from the classroom next door popped her head in the door. “It looks like we’re going to get some thunderstorms.” Mrs. Conway was past retirement age but she was still a fantastic teacher and controlled her fifth graders with an iron hand in a velvet glove.
“Derrick and I watched the ten
