Chasing the Proverbial Dream
A/N: Welcome to the first chapter for Chasing the Proverbial dream. Although this is the sequel to King's Curse I also made it equally stand alone, so if you just want to read this you can go right ahead and ignore King's Curse. I'd love to say something along the lines of how excited I am and how much fun it will be to write more Labyrinth fan fiction for everybody to read. However despite my desire to say that it does not reflect how I feel. Honestly I'm mildly freaked out. I have yet to figure why exactly this freaks me out but it does. On top of that I cannot guarantee a good update schedule. This is the only chapter I've actually finished. And although I have lots of ideas and high hopes, the second chapter has presently been evading my synapses. On top of that I am now a University student, and I'm sure the workload of it will be hitting me in the face shortly.
In the meantime, I promised this story would begin posting sometime this month, and so it has officially begun. I hope to find the time and inspiration for chapter two before this time next month. So if all goes well I shall post at that time.
Enjoy.
Chapter One - Two Sizes too Big
The large white banner spread across the platform read: Congratulations Graduates. A fair skinned hand adjusted the awkward robes. Two hours. Some of the students had left as soon as they walked the stage and received their diplomas. Some stuck around, waiting for their friends to go across the stage.
Sarah was more frustrated with the amount of time she'd spent in the robes. They were itchy, and wearing them made her feel hopelessly fat. Really she had an excellent figure, but her robe was two sizes too big, and so feeling fat was practically guaranteed.
Before she could think to mentally complain further the stage was empty, and she was ushered on stage. She took long strides to help her legs compensate for having to stand for such a long time. Hands were shaken, and Sarah left the stage with diploma in hand and slipped out to the washroom.
The weight of the robe removed from her chest, Sarah came to the realization of how much it had impeded her breathing. Awkward, itchy, and suffocating, just like life. That's how it goes when you're last in line and they run out of your size.
Sarah sighed with relief before sneaking back into the auditorium. Toby and Irene were sitting near the back, waiting for her. Toby was a typical four year old. He was not in his chair, but underneath it, with some fantastic story playing out in his mind as he made motoring sounds to pushing a toy car along the underside of the seat. Sarah's hair tossed itself sideways as she screwed her head around to look at him. "What are you doing under the seats Toe-jam?" she asked in hush tones that had just a hint of playful big sister affection.
"Super-car has to save the moon from the space-men!"
"And why are you under the seat?"
"We're on the moon where super-car drives upside-down."
"There's not as much gravity on the moon is there?"
"Grabbity?" Toby looked up at Sarah dubiously.
Sarah got an evil glint in her eyes. Grabbity? Oh Sarah could give Toby 'grabbity'.
"Are you going to sit-down?" Irene asked, pulling Sarah out of her near-game with Toby.
Sarah fought back a sigh and took a seat. Irene had a certain lack-lustre voice that had the mysterious power to drain Sarah's spirit. That woman was just so... drab.
Oddly, Sarah could tell when someone lacked imagination, and her step-mother could serve as the definition. The young graduate fiddled with a fresh haircut she'd been treated to. It was rather disappointing; she'd just been able to sit on her thick brown hair when her dearest step-mother had insisted she get it cut to a more manageable length.
Although Sarah had been sceptical she liked her new look, her hair had become like that robe, two sizes too big. She hadn't noticed until it was gone that it was more refreshing to have her hair just beyond shoulder-length with just a bit shorter around the part of her hair in order to frame her face. Plus there was the added bonus of being able to pull her hair away from her ears without breaking her elastic. Shorter hair was fun, bouncy, and fresh. However she wasn't going to admit as much to Irene.
Irene would only hear about how it made Sarah look like she was back in junior high. To which Irene would merely retort on how much she would appreciate her youthful face when she was pushing her forties.
Sarah pulled out her journal; in it was everything from sketches to poetry to a recipe for white chip macadamia nut cookies. Right now, it would serve the purpose of sketch-book. It was a messy sketch at best, but it would be the pattern for a potential project.
Already accepted into a fashion-design course for College, she been on a designers kick. It had driven her father and step-mother up the wall. With Sarah's high grades she could have gotten into almost any University, law, medicine, business, Sarah could have had her pick. Instead she picked a fashion school.
Linda Williams, Sarah's mother, had taught her daughter how to sew a little while she was patching costumes for various theatre productions before getting picked up by an agent.
Sarah had mostly made doll's clothing from old scraps until a set of bed sheets became the material for her first full size dress. It was a clunky piece at best, but after three years of fashion studies in high school sewing had become a favourite pastime. However Sarah doubted she could make the extravagant Victorian inspired dress that was now sketched out in her journal. That was what fashion school was for.
The ceremony was over as Sarah finished her sketch; having the last name Williams did have some advantages.
The grad dinner however was in two hours.
There was an almost ominous silence in the vehicle. Toby had fallen asleep as soon as his head had hit something softer than the floor. Now there was only Sarah and Irene, and silence.
"So, you've graduated," Irene broke the silence, in possibly the least stimulating three words since the dawn of language.
"Yeah, I have a pretty piece of paper," Sarah said with just a hint of sarcasm, "makes the whole thing kind of official."
"Are you looking forward to the dinner?"
"Not particularly," Sarah muttered and stared drearily out the window.
"And why not?" Why was this woman so determined to continue a failing conversation?
"None of my friends are going."
"That's too bad, your father and I would love to meet some of your friends."
"Yeah, well, that's how it goes."
"You should really invite some of them over sometime."
"Because I'm not allowed to have any sort of life without your knowledge," Sarah said with a snap of frustration. She didn't like how Irene felt privy to the details of her life and friends.
"You don't have to get mad Sarah; wouldn't you like to have friends over?"
"My own mother doesn't care what I'm doing, why should you?" she was in a mood. Usually Sarah could counter her step-mother in polite whispers and grudging obedience, but the mention of her friends seemed to have hit a nerve.
Irene was silent; she always went silent whenever Sarah compared her to Linda. It was the fastest and usually the most effective way for Sarah to end an uncomfortable conversation.
The remainder of the trip home was ominous silence.
Sarah didn't waste time and retreated to her bedroom almost as soon as she got home. Her bedroom had changed drastically over a short period of time. Most of her toys and games now occupied Toby's room, including the ornate house looking shelf that used to hold them all. She had a larger bed, one much like her father's except the sheets were a soft green with large pink blossoms and the sheets were a pink to match. She had gotten a new vanity, and a few special objects had come out of hiding.
The Hoggle bookend still held her books, which were now on the shelf above her door as the bookcase he once occupied had gone to Toby. Her statue of the Goblin King sat on top of her dresser next to a stereo she had gotten for her birthday. The glass gazebo music box with the dancer in white sat on her side table, though she hadn't wound it up in years. Three plush toys occupied a corner of the bed. The fox-knight that resembled Sir Dydimus, the 'Beast' plush that looked like Ludo, and a practically moth eaten grey cat with droopy black whiskers that made a sort of beard and a beige patch instead of a left arm. The cat was dubbed 'Emperor' and Irene would have thrown the poor fellow out before letting Toby adopt him.
Also on the bed was Sarah's grad dress, she reached out and ran her hand along the seams. It was gold, straight from the waist down with a small bow on the left hip and iron folded from the waist up and sleeveless.
Sarah changed, and ran her hands down the slick skirt. She then sat at her vanity and began fixing her makeup; the whole ensemble was finished with a necklace, a gold and green circle of flowers on a combination chain and beaded string. It was a replica of one her mother had worn in her latest movie.
Sarah looked amazing, she felt amazing,
There was one thing that bothered her as she traced her waist-line, stepping back from the mirror. She had fallen in love with a different dress while shopping with her friends. When she came back to the store with Irene, the dress she had wanted, a pale green... Sarah had been two sizes too big.
This dress was a second choice that Irene had talked her into. Sarah had almost cried. It seemed her heart was still attached to the other dress.
She sat down at her vanity once more and pulled out her hair brush, next was her hair. If it had still been long she would have just let it hang down, but now that it was short it begged to be styled. Sarah fiddled with it for a long and unsuccessful hour.
"Sarah, are you ready?" her father's voice called.
"Coming," Sarah called back, and brushed her hair straight with a sigh. She carefully pulled on her heavily strapped gold heels.
Her hand rested gently on the railing as she tried to hold the appearance of floating down the stairs. She had been rehearsing her walk as soon as she got the shoes, she could achieve it without opening her eyes or looking down.
"You look amazing," her father said, Sarah smiled softly, keeping her eyes nearly closed for effect. She opened her eyes to her father, and her step-mother in a simple mauve dress, already holding his arm.
Sarah fought back the deep internal sigh. This was her night, the one night she wanted someone to be fawning over her. However the clenching in her stomach prevented her from asking for as much as that.
A black limo pulled up in front of the house, it had been her father's idea to 'arrive in style'. Sarah could have been just as comfortable coming on the bus. Actually as she sat down she realized she probably would have been more comfortable on the bus. Even the seats made her feel small, insignificant, particularly because Irene and Robert took the seat across from her.
No one to delight in her Sarah leaned on the window frame and stared out towards the road. Even Toby had been left home with a sitter.
Sarah was alone. She was being treated far better than she probably deserved, but not as well as she wanted to be. And she was riding in a limo that was two sizes too big.
That wasn't the kicker however.
The real kicker, the one thing she would regret until she grew far less fickle, was that ten minutes into the dinner she came to the sudden, disgusting realization of why exactly she had been moody all day. The realization came as she felt the cooling tingle. The realization that she had gotten caught up in her graduation to the point where she had forgotten to keep track of the actual date. The realization that she would either have to leave the dinner early or leave with a large red stain on her dress. The realization that her body had once again begun what will forever be considered the bane of womanhood, her period.