Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth sigh or any of the characters from the Labyrinth. I do however, own Melissa and her friend.
Alright. This is my first fanfic, so if it's horrible, please don't bite my head off. Especially not today, cause yesterday was my birthday. Yea for me! But anyway, if you like it, please review, and if not, well, helpful criticism is greatly appreciated.
And without any further ado, I present to you: Graduating from the Aboveground
Sarah held the video camera above the heads of her fellow viewers. It's not everyday her only daughter graduates from high school, and she wanted to get every instant of it on film. She waved up at Melissa, who was the one with the gold vest over her long blue gown. That's right. Her daughter was a straight A student, and the class' valedictorian.
She had become the student that her mother never was. Melissa beamed in response to her mothers wave as the principal of the school gave his speech, which had turned out to be rather boring considering it was just another lecture about making good choices as the graduates grew older.
Melissa looked over to Rachel, her best friend since they had started kindergarten, and whispered so that only they could hear, "You know, I thought we were supposed to stay awake at graduation, but he seems more intent on putting everyone to sleep." Rachel giggled at this and Melissa turned to face the audience once more, a smile dancing upon her face the entire time. After beaming once again to her mother, Melissa let her eyes wander around the scene. They had chosen to have graduation outside on the football field this year, since the weather would be perfect for it.
She looked at all of the people in the audience and, just as she was about to make another comment about Mr. Rochire's boring-as-all-get-out speech to Rachel, she notice an owl make its way over the heads of many of the onlookers to a branch on a nearby tree. Her eyes followed the owl to where it now sat on a tree just behind the benches where everyone sat, watching the graduates waiting patiently for the man at the podium to end his tiresome speech. The owl was exquisite; he was mainly white with a very small amount of auburn coloring on his back. That's weird. I thought owls only came out at night. She thought inwardly. But that wasn't even the weirdest part. No, the weirdest part was that she could have sworn it was looking directly at her. No. No. Why would an owl be staring at me? Stop being paranoid Melissa. This is your graduation. You should be happy, not paranoid!
Rachel looked at her and whispered something. When she didn't respond however, she subtly elbowed her in the ribs. Melissa turned and looked quizzically at her. "What?" she whispered softly. Rachel just nodded towards the podium where her gaze met that of Mr. Rochire's.
"Melissa," he said smiling at her and shooting her a get-up-here-before-you-embarrass-me-anymore look. She turned to look out at her mother, then back to Mr. Rochire. She realized that it was time for her to give her valedictorian speech. She smiled, as much more color than she would have liked rushed to her cheeks, and walked up to the podium. She had memorized her speech the night before – not an easy feat since it was rather lengthy. But at least it was more interesting than Mr. Rochire's – not to mention about half as long as his had been. She was rather good at making speeches, though she didn't always like to, so it went rather smoothly. She gestured at all the right times to her fellow classmates and even once or twice to her principal and the rest of the faculty sitting near the graduates. Just as her speech was supposed to end, she spontaneously put in a quote of her own as the conclusion. "No matter what happens from this point on in our lives, we can never forget our dreams, because they will never forget us." Just as she said that she saw the owl that had been the object of her gaze a few moments prior to her speech nod it's head a few times, which was more than a little unexpected. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, our senior class!" There was an applause and a few whistles from the crowd as the class song began to play and they began to walk down the steps of the stage very orderly to be greeted by their families and friends.
"Oh honey, I'm so proud of you!" Sarah gushed as her daughter stepped off the stage and wrapped Melissa in a monstrous hug as she did so.
Melissa managed to wriggle her way out from the hug and reply to her mother, "Geeze mom, you almost sound like you didn't expect me to graduate." She put on a fake I'm-so-hurt look.
Sarah smiled at her. "I was talking about your speech. Now come on. Let's go home. I've got something to tell you."
Melissa looked at her mother suspiciously. "What?"
Her mother merely chuckled. "I'll tell you later. But for now, you might want to change into something a bit more comfortable. We're going to your grandparents' house today. Toby's gonna meet us there tomorrow morning."
Melissa's face brightened at this. She loved visiting her grandparents, and uncle Toby always had a tendency to try to spoil her rotten. She didn't press the matter any further as they walked to the car. Along the way her mother told her about how beautiful she looked up there with her hair all curly and just the right amount of makeup on and how wonderfully smooth the speech went. Melissa wasn't really paying any attention. All she could think about was that owl. The main thing she remembered about it was that it had eye's that were just as mismatched as her own. One of them was emerald green and the other an icy blue. I could have sworn it was looking right at me!
She didn't have time to ponder this any further though, because right at that moment her mother stopped dead in her tracks to look at a man leaning casually against their car. He was tall and quite attractive with his wild blond hair and well toned body. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt with the first few buttons open to reveal a bit of his chest under his black jacket. Her mother was starring at him with her mouth slightly hanging open. "Mom?" she asked her mother cautiously. "All you all right? Do you know him?"
Sarah snapped back to reality at this. She turned her attention to her daughter and said, "Yes. Wait here a moment, will you?" Without giving Melissa a chance to respond, she walked over to the man and grabbed him by the arm to pull him out of Melissa's ear shot. But she didn't need to hear what they were saying to know that they knew each other very well, and for a very long time. Her mother seemed upset with him as he looked to be defending himself. Every once in a while she would see the man point to Melissa or look in her direction. Every time he did this however, Sarah would either look in the same direction as him or try to pull his arm back down so he wouldn't draw too much attention to them. They look like a fighting couple the way their acting.
After a few moments of bickering, Sarah returned to her daughters side as Melissa watched the man reluctantly walk away, looking back only once to smile at the pair of them. "C'mon Mel. Let's get going," she said after watching the man walk away as well. They both got into the car and the rest of the way home was passed in silence. Melissa changed out of her graduation gown and quickly packed an overnight bag with a few changes of clothes – just in case they decided to stay a few extra days – and everything she could think of that could occupy some free time she might have, including a few cd's, a bottle of nail polish, a small makeup bag, and a little red book with gold letters reading "Labyrinth" on the cover. Within the next half hour they were on the road again, starting out on the two hour drive to her grandparents, Karen and Jonathan's house.
They drove the first forty-five minutes with not a word spoken between them. Neither of the women seemed too eager to speak. But not long after that, Melissa decided to break the silence by asking a question that had been going through her mind since the end of graduation. "Mom, who was that guy back there?"
Her mother looked at her, startled, for a moment, then she turned to face the road once more and sighed. "That was your father," she said softly. But not softly enough for Melissa to miss what was said.
Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "That...he...but why," she stuttered. Finally she managed to regain her voice and say, "Why didn't you introduce me?"
Sarah shrugged. "He already knew who you were. He was at your graduation almost the entire time, which reminds me; he wanted me to compliment you on your speech." She turned to face her daughter for a moment just before thunder began to rumble and rain began to pour from the heavens and she had to turn back to turn on the windshield wipers and focus her gaze on the road. But she hadn't missed the confused look that was now spread across her daughters face. "He was supposed to meet us at my parents' house this weekend. I wasn't prepared to introduce you two on the spot like that." She explained to her daughter.
Melissa nodded. "I see," she said under her breath and turning to look out at the thunderstorm that was raging outside her window. "What's his name?" She asked just barely loud enough for her mother to hear her.
Sarah took a deep breath and slowly released it. After having read that book so many times her daughter would never believe her. "Jareth," she said simply.
A/N: Well, there's the first chapter. Hope you liked it. I know it's starting off slow, but stick with me here. I know where I'm gonna go with this. The next chapter will be better, and it will probably be up within the next few hours seeing as how it's late – well, technically it's early – and I can't sleep, so I'm just gonna stay up writing. I had to end it though. I thought it was getting a bit too long to hold some people's attention, but if you made it this far, then stick with me.
Please Review!