Thanks to hecilo for the idea of this story.
The Secret Life of Mary Sue
Mary Sue Rogers came down the stairs with a smile on her face and gave her father who was reading the newspaper a peck on the cheek and gave one to her mother who was frying some eggs for her breakfast.
"Good morning Mom and Dad," she said brightly as she sat down at the kitchen table.
"Good morning sweetie," answered her mother Mary Lou Rogers.
"Good morning darling," answered Larry Rogers.
"That looks great Mom," said Mary Sue.
"Thank you baby," said her mom as she put a plate in front of her perfect little daughter. "Now eat up. You got to go to school today."
"Yes, mom." Mary Sue ate every bit of her breakfast. As she passed the refrigerator she couldn't help but look at the report card she had gotten and looking at all the perfect A's printed in black and white. She got her school bag and her homework that she had done all on Friday. "Goodbye Mom and Dad. See you later right after school."
Her parents said goodbye to her as she walked out the door. They settled back into their normal morning ritual.
"How did we get so lucky that we got such a perfect little girl?" asked Mary Lou of Larry. Larry just shrugged and continued to read the paper.
Mary Sue got onto the bus with a bright smile at the bus driver and sat with her friends in the back. One of the guys pulled on one of her perfect brown ringlets teasingly.
"So how's life being little miss perfect Mary Sue?"
"Billy, you silly goose, no one's perfect. Although some people like to think they are."
"If you ask anyone who knows you they would call you perfect. All the teachers are delighted that you're in their classes. You do all the homework before it's even assigned. You even won the heart of grouchy Mrs. Sando the lunch lady who says she hates all kids."
"Mrs. Sando does love kids. Why else would she be serving lunch to kids?"
"It was the only job she could get," muttered Liv, Mary Sue's best friend.
"She could always have moved but she didn't and got a job as a lunch lady at the high school. So she must like kids when she could have moved far away from us."
Everyone dropped the conversation. It was no changing Mary Sue's perfect look on life.
When they got to school Mary Sue instead of going with her friends to hang out by the lockers until the first bell rang went to Mr. Heaney's class. He had said he wanted her to drop by before school because he wanted to show her something. She liked Mr. Heaney, he was her English teacher of 11th grade and they were talking about an author by the name of J.R.R. Tolkien who had lived in England and had written some of the major classics of his time. He had assigned them to read The Hobbit and she had already finished it along with the trilogy that came after it before most of her class had gotten the middle of The Hobbit.
She knocked on Mr. Heaney's classroom door and it swung open. "Mr. Heaney? Are you there?" she called. He didn't answer and she was about to close the door and leave when she heard some unknown words spoken behind her. She turned and saw on her desk a book. She walked over to her desk wondering what it was. She got closer and saw that it was an old copy of The Two Towers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It definitely looked old it possibly could be a first printing.
She reached out a hand as some unknown language pulled her closer. She almost snatched her hand back because she wasn't sure if she should look at it. Then the unknown words told her if she wasn't supposed to see it why else would it be on her desk when Mr. Heaney was supposed to show her something? She touched the cover and braced herself expected something to happen. She laughed at herself for her crazy imagination and looked at the cover illustration of a dark brooding tower. She flipped open the cover and saw scrawled on the cover page, 'To Tim Heaney, from your friend J.R.R. Tolkien.'
Her eyes widened. She didn't know that Mr. Heaney had been friends with J.R.R. Tolkien who had written the best books she had ever read. This was crazy. Why didn't Mr. Heaney tell anyone that he knew the author of the books he had assigned them?
She flipped to the beginning of the story hoping there was something else in it that would explain her teacher's relationship with J.R.R. Tolkien. As she turned the page there came a bright light from the seam of the pages that sort of ate away at the page. She shielded her face from the brightness and felt herself being beckoned. She tilted forward and impossibly fell through the pages into the land beyond.
The book gently landed back on the desk showing no sign of what had happened except a book bag on the floor with the initials of Mary Sue Roger.