Forbidden
Chapter 1: The First Sighting
Josh POV
"Lina? Hello? Earth to Lina!" I said, frantically waving my arm in front of her face. Still no response. I gave up. I chuckled to myself, 'This is so Lina', I thought as I looked at her glazed over eyes staring mindlessly into the sky. She was daydreaming again. For the fourth time today. I shook my head in laughter.
I took advantage of her dreaminess by having the chance to have a good look at her and realise how much we'd changed in the past few years. Lina has always been a tall, strong girl. We'd met in grade 2 during lunch. Being the new kid, I had no friends at that school so I sat down by myself on the oval to eat. I saw her walking and chatting with her friends as they were mucking around and laughing. I remembered feeling jealous because they had friends and I didn't. I went back to my lunch feeling lonelier than ever when I heard Lina shout to her friends "You guys go on, okay? I'll catch up with you later". They just nodded and walked off, still smiling.
She came over and sat next to me. I was so shy and confused. I kept asking myself 'why is she here? Why is she here?'. Lina turned to me and introduced herself kindly "Hey, I'm Selina Beaumont, but I go by Lina. I take it you're new here. What's your name?" "Hi, I'm Joshua, Joshua Prescott. But I prefer Josh." I smiled shyly back up at her, glad that I finally knew someone around here. "You wanna hang with me? I'll show you round the school." She asked nicely as she stood up and held out her hand toward me. "Thanks" I replied as I grabbed her hand. Ever since, we have been as inseparable as conjoined twins.
Lina's personality has stayed the same the entire time, you may think that she'd be boring by now but she is never boring to be around. She's always joking around, and having new adventures. Lina is constantly daydreaming and has the best imagination around. She has also got the loudest voice I know, seriously, she never shuts up. She is always loyal and crazy.
She is always kind to people unless you say something about her family or friends. It's like she turns into another person when you do that. I was lucky enough to see what happened when some poor idiot decided that they would insult her parents. Let's just say he went to hospital to recover from a broken nose, two black eyes, a shattered cheekbone and cuts and bruises. Lina has never been and will never be a girly girl. That I know for sure. I love her. She's my best friend in the world.
As I said her personality has never changed but Lina has grown up. She's still tall and strong. Lina has wonderfully long and soft chocolate brown hair and same coloured eyes. Her skin is still the same beautiful olive tan colour and her laugh is still light and playful. But when she hit puberty her chest filled out and man, now she is taller than ever. To sum her up in two words would be unique and fun.
"You should take a picture, I hear they last longer" Lina said, laughing at her own joke, bringing me back to reality. I joined in. Miss. Layne looked at us with a frown of disapproval as she moved around the class. "Gee, what's up her bum?" Lina said as she rolled her eyes, giggling. "A stick, judging by the way she walks" I joked. We both cracked up again. "man, year nine history is such a drainer, especially with her as the teacher" Lina sighed.
As we walked home together, talking about random things, we spotted these cute butterflies hanging around the stream, and Lina being Lina had to go follow them through the trees and out into a field. I heard Lina gasp loudly and came to see what was going on. When I walked through the last of the tree's, I saw the strangest looking thing.
It looked like a starship that I'd seen in movies. It was sleek, silver and very official looking. "Okay, Josh, tell me I haven't completely lost it and that you can see that spaceship... thing, too" She said, sounding worried. "You completely lost it years ago, but yeah, I see it." I replied, "c'mon, lets leave it and go, Lina" "No, just wait a minute. Let's go check it out" She answered excitedly. "I'm not sure that's really a good idea" I went to say but she had already ran off toward the ship.
I ran after her to catch up. She waited for me as she reached the ship. "wow, look at this thing" Lina exclaimed in amazement. I was pretty awestruck too. "Lina, I think we should go now. I'm not sure this is safe, let's just pretend it never happened" I told her. "please?" She asked, giving me puppy dog eyes and a pouty face, the exact one I couldn't say no too. "Fine" I gave up.
"Thank you" She replied. We turned around to face the ship. All of a sudden a ramp opened from the ship. I was starting to get really scared. Lina stepped forward without realising. I grabbed her wrist. "wait" I whispered. "Don't worry, I have a feeling" She whispered back. Lina and I waited for something to happen.
At first we thought no one was coming out but then we heard slow, paced footsteps. I strained my eyes to see who or what was coming. At first I saw nothing but two long, pointed, green ears and then a green, wrinkled head and then the rest of the body, wrapped in a neutral coloured robe.
"ah, visitors we have, I see." the green thing said. "Who are you?" Lina asked bravely "Yoda, my name is, young one" He answered, bowing his head slightly. "You are Selina Beaumont, are you not?" He asked. "Yes. How do you know my name?" Lina asked, taken aback. "Come young one, lot's to learn, you have" Yoda said, gesturing toward the ship.
Lina went to walk beside him, but I still had a firm hold on her wrist, "Lina, no, what are you doing?" I asked her in a hushed tone. "Come on, Josh, it'll be an adventure" She answered smiling at me. 'I'd better go with her, I don't want her to get hurt' I thought. "okay then, we'll talk about it later" I said with a sigh and followed her up the ramp.
"So let me get this straight. Master Yoda, you're one of few Jedi Knights and you want to take me to the Silver Palace, which is a palace in the clouds because you believe I am Princess Lina, daughter of your missing Queen, Queen Rosa-Maree and you think that I am the key to solving all of your problems." Lina said, summarising pretty much everything Master Yoda had explained. "Yes, I do believe that, a lot to take in, it is" He answered sympathetically.
I just couldn't process what he'd said. Lina, my Lina, a princess? It was just too much.