It pretty much started like a normal day. It had been three years since anything remotely interesting has happened, so I wasn't entirely prepared for what happened. I dropped off my school bags at the door, I found my book, overused and utterly in the worst condition ever, however, it was this book that started my bad luck streak. I look at the title in disgust. Labyrinth. Oh, how it brings back memories of my dear friends, Ludo, Sir Didymus, and Hoggle. But what of the villain? How does he fit into this? I'm not really sure he does. As I began pondering these questions, I smelled smoke, remembering then I left the oven on to reheat my pizza. I quickly rushed to the kitchen to find an unbelievable amount of smoke and turned off the oven and opened the door. MY dinner was completely ruined, of course, but I wasn't really assuming that this would just be the first straw. After an hour of cleaning up the mess, I rested back to my thoughts of earlier. Jareth. I say his name as disgusted as possible. His name of course was of no consequence to me, but the man behind it surely was. Kidnapping my brother, forcing me to run his stupid labyrinth, and almost persuading me to get lost in his ball. These are just some of the happy moments I had. But still, I had to admit, that man would melt my heart if he sang to me again. Damn him.
The phone rang, knocking me out of my thoughts. I pick up to find that it was my favorite brother calling.
"Hi, Sarah, how are you? Mommy wanted to talk to you, are you available?" Toby asked.
"My, Toby, you have quite appropriate manners, more mature than some of the boys my age. Yes, I would love to talk to your mommy. Please give her the phone." I responded innocently.
"Okey Dokey, love you Sarah! Here's Mommy." Toby said.
"Hello, dear, how are you?" Karen asked.
"Hi Karen, I'm fine, I was about to finish up my painting for dad's birthday." Karen said.
"Oh that's wonderful. You know, that is actually why I'm calling. Your father insists that we celebrate his birthday by going out to eat, but I was wondering if there were any decent restaurants closer to you that we all can meet at?"
Karen had been so patient with me through my hideous angst years. However, after the Labyrinth adventure, I started to appreciate my family more, including Karen. We had grown very close over the past three years, and I felt that she was more of a mother to me than my own.
"Umm...you know there is this good Japanese restaurant called Ryo's, do you think he would like that?"
"That sounds great! I'll make the reservation for Saturday at 7:00, okay honey?"
"Perfect! I will see and bring the painting too! Bye, Karen."
I looked at the painting. It was a portrait of Karen, Toby, and me in Paris near the Eiffel Tower. We had gone there last summer as a birthday present for me, but my dad ended up loving the trip more. He fell in love with the romantic city and especially its gorgeous architecture. He wanted nothing but us and the Eiffel Tower, so of course, this would be the perfect present. I was frustrated at one thing though. My eyes looked dead. I couldn't understand why, but no matter what I did to change it, they continued to look lifeless. She couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her, a snow white owl perched on the tree outside her window.