“Every year since then, the divine Moon chooses an apprentice to learn its secrets.”

“Grandma, how does the Moon choose who its apprentice will be? And who was it this year? Oh Grandma, I still have so many questions!” Marissa’s voice was filled with wonder.

“You’ll understand one day, Marissa. One day,” she said reassuringly, gently holding her soft hand.

Marissa grew up listening to the mystic tale of the Moon’s apprentice – the person who discovers the Moon’s ancient secrets. As a child, she always had a profound belief in magic. Her mind was filled with enchanted fables and realms, often drifting away into reverie. But as she grew older, that belief faded away. The mystical bedtime story her grandmother shared remained vivid in her mind, but only as fragments of fiction.

Marissa, now sixteen, walked through her school hallway where the chatter of students, the rattling of orange metal lockers, and the stomping of feet echoed. She hummed a song with her earplugs in place and her hands snugly tucked in her warm purple hoodie. Unbothered by the world around her, Marissa strutted forward when a faint silver gleam from the window caught her eye. For a split second, she swore she saw the Moon.

The Moon? At 8 a.m.? It might have just been her imagination. But it didn’t seem to be a coincidence when she heard a strange melody. The song playing had changed to Talking to the Moon, which, oddly, wasn’t even a part of her playlist. A chill ran down her spine, but she shrugged it off. Maybe a glitch.

Her day at school proved to be anything but ordinary.

A notebook she had never seen before was sitting in her bag, with an illustration of the Moon adorning the cover and a small ‘A’ at the top corner. Her news app, which she checked regularly, was flooded with news related to eclipses and equinoxes—some even scheduled five years from now. The strangest moment of all had to be when every person she glanced at seemed to have the outline of the Moon on their face.

By the time the bell rang, Marissa had convinced herself that her mind was playing tricks on her. She grabbed her bag and headed home, unable to get the memories of that day out of her mind.

She flung her bag onto her chair, grabbed a pen, and began writing. She listed every strange occurrence: the Moon, Talking to the Moon, a mysterious notebook, a news app flooding with celestial news, and the people. Staring at the words, tapping her pen against the paper, she tried to put it all together.

And then, it clicked! Marissa finally had her light bulb moment! The Moon had been reaching out to her through a series of hidden and cryptic messages that only she could decipher. Talking to the Moon wasn’t just a song—it was the Moon communicating with her. The notebook was a sign. The news articles were secrets. But what about the letter ‘A’?

Apprentice.

She let out a strained scream. Her grandmother’s stories were all true—and she had been chosen. But why?

Marissa heard hushed tones saying, “I, the cosmic Moon, have chosen you to be my apprentice. I have been observing you for years, Marissa. I sense something special in you. As you might know by now, I converse in obscured memos. My apprentice had to be someone possessing intelligence and wit, someone who could easily crack my codes. And most of all, you think beyond the world of logic and see possibilities others see as impossible. This is the message I want you to spread in the world – to think beyond reality and embrace the impossible.”

Her heart thudded. She couldn’t believe it. She was the Moon’s apprentice — someone she had dreamed of being when she was a little girl. And here she was. The mere power of her imagination and curious instincts had transformed her into her dream.

Author: Kaavya Chauhan, 13 years old