It seems cliche to begin our story like this, but it really was just an ordinary day.
My best friend (that would be Kaitlynn) and I were just chilling out, watching The Lord of the Rings.
We don't get to see each other often, since my family moved away several years back, but when we do, we make the most of it. By sitting around binge-watching our favorite TV shows and movies, and making sarcastic comments all the way through.
"Oooh, this is my favorite part!" I stage-whisper across the room.
"You say that about every scene." Kaitlynn muses, rolling her eyes. She rolls her eyes at me a lot, but it's just because she doesn't want me to know how much I amuse her.
When that part ended, we paused for a snack-break. I leapt up from the couch to go grab some chocolate chips. I immediately regretted it. Falling back to the couch with an "oomph", I paused to let my blackened vision return to normal.
"Stood up too fast.." I murmured to myself, chuckling. The problem was, after almost a full minute of sitting down, my vision was still black. I was starting to see stars.
On the couch opposite me, my friend was having similar problems.
"I feel dizzy," She complained. "And lightheaded! I told you, you shouldn't have made me stay up all night watching those movies. I don't even like The Lord of the Rings."
"Yeahh, but you like The Hobbit, and when you marathon The Hobbit, you have to watch LOTR as well! I don't make the rules." She just glared a bit for a minute before frowning.
"I feel woozy…" She muttered under her breath.
"Yeah, I'm not feeling too hot either." I tried to stand up again, but to no avail. Standing only resulted in falling back once more, and I was thankful that I had hit the couch instead of the floor. My legs were too weak to hold me up, and my arms had stopped responding.
I was starting to freak out, and I heard Kaitlynn saying something about not being able to move. Me too, man. Me too.
My last thought before blacking out was that I was going to die having only marathoned 5 of the 6 Tolkien movies. I hoped that dear old John Ronald Reuel (I giggle every time I say that name. What were his parents thinking? Eh, at least it makes a cool acronym) wouldn't be too disappointed in me, though I suppose I should've had other concerns at the moment.
It was like waking up from a really deep sleep. My mind was foggy, and for a moment I couldn't place where I was, or why I had been sleeping. WAIT! Everything came back to me in a flash. How… I can't believe this… Did…
..did I pause the movie before I fell asleep? I'd never been good at staying up all night, so I just hoped that I hadn't dozed off during a good part. Rewinding is such a pain.
Ooh, wait. I did pause the movie. And then Kaitlynn and I had some sort of psychotic episode and blacked out. Right. You know that flash I mentioned a moment ago? Yeah, maybe it hadn't brought everything back.
Beating my mind into submission, I managed to focus on our current predicament instead of letting my thoughts run off on little tangents. I needed to figure out what was going on. In a sudden panic, I realized that there were people everywhere, pressing in around me. They were teenagers, they looked angry, and they were wearing leather and dark jeans and lots of black clothing.. well, the kind of stuff I wear, actually. I realized that they weren't angry at me, so that was a relief. I tried to turn around to find an exit from the mob I had accidentally become a part of, when I tripped and stumbled over something on the floor. I found Kaitlynn! She was still happily snoozing away while I was about to have a panic attack. Where were we, anyway?
"Kaitlynn!" I tried yelling a few times, but there was a loud din and the sound of heavy metal music reverberating around me. It shook me to my very core. At times, I enjoy this sort of music. This was not one of those times.
"KaitLYNN!" I screamed. This attempt was successful, as she started awake. Looking around blearily, she glanced at me.
"I told you I didn't want to go to a Sonata Arctica concert. But did you listen? No. Instead, you.. you DRUG ME, and drag me to one. Literally. This-"
"I didn't drug you!" I shouted over the noise. "I just woke up! I don't know how we got here!"
Frowning in confusion, she looked around the room.
"Let's get out!" She said finally.
"What?!" I yelled back.
"I said let's GET OUT!" She shouted.
I heard her, but I loved doing this, and I had the perfect opportunity.
"WHAT?!" I yelled next to her ear.
"I SAID, LET-" She stopped mid-sentence, catching on to my antics, and sighed. "You heard me! Come on!" She motioned for me to follow her and we started to search for a way out of the tightly-packed crowd.
We thought we had found one, so she began to lead me forward, both of us recoiling whenever we touched someone. People were not our forte. We had almost made it out when Kaitlynn suddenly tripped, and I watched as, in slow-motion, she began to fall. Suddenly, a strangely-dressed man (Strangely-dressed for this group, anyway) who had previously been head-banging to the music reached out to steady her. She looked up to thank him for saving her from face-planting the floor and came face-to-face with the person she least expected to see here. The Doctor.
She let out a shocked, breathy gasp, and stood up straight.
"Wha-" She began, but he cut her off.
"Whoa! That was close! Good thing I was there, eh?" He spoke in that glorious British accent that we all know and love. Of course, it couldn't be the Doctor. It was probably just a look-alike, or, if we were really lucky, Matt Smith in full costume.
See, Kaitlynn and I are big fans. And when I say big fans, I don't just mean we watch the episodes when they air. I mean we've seen every episode, Christmas special, movie, TV spinoff, and web-comic that is known to man. We have bowtie-patterned scarves, t-shirts with the TARDIS and Doctor Who monsters on them, and entire outfits patterned after specific characters. Last year, I cosplayed Amy Pond for Halloween. I am painting my room TARDIS blue, to accentuate my Doctor Who posters. We write Doctor Who fanfiction. We spend hours discussing the laws of the Whoniverse, certain scenes and characters, metaphors, symbolism, you name it. We have read every fan theory out there. Almost every conversation is saturated in references and inside jokes related to the show and the characters. No, we weren't just fans. We were Whovians.
Now, when standing next to the Eleventh Doctor's twin, what's the first thing you do?
"Can we get a picture?" Kaitlynn asked excitedly.
The man started to answer but then stopped to take a closer look at us.
"Wait a minute!" He yelled, a grin stretching across his adorkable face. "It's you! Ha ha! You got me! I almost didn't recognize you two. Where've you been, eh?"
Kaitlynn tried to exchange a befuddled look with me, but unfortunately, I was too busy fixing the Doctor with my famous 'April Ludgate' deadpan stare. I wasn't doing this because I was trying to be sarcastic or sardonic, though those are two of my key character traits. No, it was merely because I couldn't put any energy into saying something or changing my facial expression. I do this often, when I'm thinking about a difficult concept or when I'm fangirling particularly hard about something. In this case, it happened to be the latter.
The Eleventh Doctor was my favorite Doctor (tied with Nine, actually, but he wasn't here, now was he?), and I was so excited to be near the actor who portrayed him that I simply froze. I couldn't move. I could barely think over the loud circus music that started playing in my head the moment I saw him.
"What?" Was all Kaitlynn could say. I hadn't really heard what he said (did I mention the circus music?), so she had to be confused for both of us.
The Doctor looked at her quizzically, and then decided that she was probably joking.
"Well," He stretched his back. "Nice to see you lot again, but I really must be going. Planets to save, people to see, you know, the usual."
He started to leave, which I would be having none of if I'd had the sense to do more than stare at him, but thankfully Kaitlynn took action. She grabbed onto my arm and the disappearing coat-tail of the Doctor, and plunged into the crowd.
He didn't notice that he was being followed (by someone who had a firm grasp on his overcoat, no less), so he merrily avoided the angsty teens in his way and pranced over to the TARDIS. Only then did he look back and see us, trailing along behind him.
Yep, this was real. This was happening. The TARDIS was here to take us away.
"What is it, then? Haven't you somewhere to be?" He gave us a meaningful look. Well, it would've been meaningful, if we had any idea what he was talking about. Oh, well.
"Nope!" My friend popped the 'p' on the end, like she does when she's excited. She was grinning maniacally now. "We're coming with you."
His eyes widened and he opened his mouth, forming an 'o'. She gave him no time to protest, however, and simply pushed past him through the open door of the TARDIS, pulling me through as well.
I was still mostly unreachable at this point, though the circus music had quieted to a distant roar. My April Ludgate-esque look had toned down a bit, as well, so I looked more relaxed (sort of like a mental patient who has just been given a large dose of morphine).
We strolled leisurely up to the console, looking it over with a critical eye.
The Doctor, who had just realized what was happening, sprinted inside and came to a screeching halt before us.
"You can't come!"
That was when I finally found my voice.
"Yes, we can. And we will." I spoke with such authority that even he didn't question it, but merely looked upward in annoyance and started muttering under his breath. Somewhere during the time that the circus music had started and stopped, my brain converted itself into full 'companion' mode, and I had started speaking with a British accent. If the Doctor noticed anything ood, he said nothing.
"This is dangerous, you know. You two could get hurt."
I shrugged and reached over to press a random button on the console.
All of the lights went out.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?" My friend said, grinning.
"Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights?" I joined.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Said an unknown voice.
We quieted.
The lights came back on and we saw the Doctor flicking a switch in irritation.
"Don't play with the console. It's not a toy. Well, there are toys on it. But that's not the point."
Nodding my acceptance, I replied to his earlier comment.
"We know it's dangerous. We don't care." I raised my eyebrows to emphasize my point as I nonchalantly stepped forward and pushed another button on the console.
This time, a door opened in the hallway above us and we were greeted with the sound of a lot of dogs running out of a room and deeper into the TARDIS.
"Oy! Do you know how long it's going to take me to round them up again? And they're going to do their business all over my beautiful TARDIS.." He sighed. "Do. Not. Press. The buttons."
He said clearly and menacingly (as menacing as a guy with a rectangle for a face and a goofy hat can sound). I nodded my acceptance and, with an air of melancholy, reached up and pulled a lever.
The floor beside us began to slide open, revealing a pool underneath.
"So that's where you put it!" Kaitlynn exclaimed. I leaned over the rail to look down at it, and I heard the Doctor sigh in resigned exasperation behind me.
"Alright." He said, throwing up his hands in defeat. "Where do you want to go first?"
A/N: My friend and I are co-writing this story, and we thank you for taking the time to read it. Please review to let us know what you think. :)