First Labyrinth fic, not new to Fanfiction. Three years after Labyrinth, Sarah is in her senior year of high school when her friend is sent to solve the Labyrinth. Still impressed and very much in love with Sarah, Jareth allows her to accompany her friend in hopes his previous plans will be fulfilled.

I packed my books into my bag swiftly as the bell rang, ready to get out of the school building as fast as possible. I liked to spend the least possible amount of time in there. Since the events of the labyrinth, I have made a double effort to make friends and live a full life, while promising with all my might to never drift away from my friends in the Underground. That turned out to be easy, considering the ordeal had such an impact that rarely was I not thinking about it.

Finding friends in the real world, however, was much more difficult. I was already known to be a loner, everyone thought I was weird. I had managed to get close to one girl; Laura. Laura Nickels was an only child until about a year ago. I understood how jealous she was of the baby girl, and it pained me to see her struggle with her affection toward her sister, my own experience bringing me very close with Toby.

Hoggle has been telling me about things in the Underground. Apparently, other people who wished away children were sent there to run the Labyrinth. I was special because the Goblin King, Jareth, had taken a specific interest in me, though I don't know why. Maybe that's why I was able to solve the Labyrinth. According to Hoggle, I was the only one ever in the history of the Labyrinth to make it past the junk yard, and few had even made it there.

On my way out to my car, Laura stopped me. "Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Um, home, why?" I asked, stuffing my things into the passenger's seat.

"Well, I have to watch Michelle today, so you should come over. We could watch a couple of movies . . ."

"Uh, gee, I'd really like to, but I've got something I've got to do today." Laura looked at me, clearly trying to hide her disappointment.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I'll see if I can stop by later, but I've got to get going. Sorry."

"Oh, yeah, ok, see you later, maybe." I shut my car door and drove off. Not that I much minded the teething infant, but I wasn't planning on showing up at all. Laura was extremely short tempered with her, even more so than when I was with Toby. I hurried home, only stopping to kiss Toby on the head as he watched his cartoons before heading up to my room and calling Hoggle through my vanity mirror.

"Hoggle—"

"I got a whole hundred fairies today, Sarah!"

"That's great, Hoggle, but—"

"You should have seen the last runner we got. Didn't even make it to the front door, just kept saying it was too far!"

"Listen, I need to talk to you about something."

"Oh, okay, go ahead," the dwarf said, settling in his seat and looking expectantly at me.

"Okay, so, what would you do if your friend really wanted you to do something that you really don't want to do?"

"Sarah," he started, sighing and rolling his eyes. "If you need me to do something for you, all you have to do is ask."

"No, it's not that . . . I know I can count on you guys for anything. It's just, I have this friend named Laura, and she has a baby sister that she has to babysit all the time, just like me and Toby. She wants me to babysit with her, but I hate it so much." I groaned and leaned back in my chair, staring up at the ceiling. "She's so short-tempered with her, it's like she's a whole different person! What should I do?"

"Hmm, well, I think you should slap some sense into that girl."

"Hoggle, she doesn't understand like I do. No one does. I guess you have to go through something like I had to in order to really appreciate someone like I do Toby. I remember feeling the same way she feels now, and I don't know how to make her understand."

"The best thing you can do is try your hardest. Maybe she'll change, maybe she won't. It's not your responsibility." I looked down at the statue of the Goblin King, remembering how frightening he was, and at the same time how mesmerizing.

"It feels like it sometimes. Anyhow, you're right. I'm going over to her house right now!"

"Good for you," Hoggle said before fading away. I stood up and grabbed my jacket and bag, hurrying out the door and down the stairs.

"Irene, I'm going to Laura's house, okay? I don't know when I'll be back."

"Alright, but remember, Toby's got a dentist appointment tomorrow at 2:30, and you promised to be there." A bond had developed between Toby and I , making me the only one who could comfort Toby at times. I think Irene was a little jealous.

"I will be, I promise. 'Bye, Toby!"

"Buh-bye, Sarah," he said from the living room floor where he was intently pushing little cars around the designs in the carpet.

Laura's house was only a couple of blocks away, very near the park I visited so often. I knocked on the door and looked at the thick quilt of gray clouds overhead. So much for the sunny forecast I watched this morning.

Laura beamed when she opened the door and pulled me inside. Michelle was seated in a bouncy chair in front of the T.V., crying. When Laura walked by, she held her arms up and wailed to be picked up, but Laura ignored her and headed into the kitchen.

"Ugh, I can't hold you right now, Michelle, I've got dinner cooking!" she shouted as if the infant could understand. I picked the up distressed child and bounced her in my arms.

"Hey, I wouldn't want to be left alone either," I told her, "if I was being forced to watch this." I gestured to the scene showing a multitude of clothed, talking animals, and carried her to the kitchen.

"Sarah, do you want some Mac-and-Cheese?"

"It's barely four, and you're already making dinner?"

"With any luck, we'll be able to get Shelly to bed by six. Then maybe we could order a pizza. I smiled at her a little. At least Michelle's shrieking had been reduced to an irritated babble. "Sit her in the high chair, will you?" Laura asked as she began stirring in the cheese powder. I looked at said chair, coated in sticky peanut butter, jelly, cereal, and other foods I couldn't identify. Shelly squirmed and screamed as I tried to set her down.

"Ugh, this is awful, you should clean this," I said, scowling in disgust.

"I told my mom when she was pregnant, 'I'm not cleaning up after that baby.' She was too old to have a child, she's going to have to suffer the consequences."

"If she's so old, you should help her out more. That's kind of selfish, don't you think?"

"Listen; I never wanted another sibling, I never wanted to take care of a baby, I never wanted to clean up, and I made this all well known to my parents. They finally said I didn't have any say in the matter, and I said 'fine, but I'm not gonna clean up after a spoiled little baby.'" I sighed and had to agree with her, remembering almost the exact same feelings just a few years ago.

"Well, when we put her to bed, I'm going to clean this. She's going to get sick sitting in all this filth, and your parents are obviously too busy for it."

"Aw, you don't want to spend all your time cleaning, do you?" I laughed at her distasteful expression.

"Trust me, cleaning someone else's house is much more entertaining. You can just sit and talk to me, and leave the work to an expert."

"Whatever, do what you want. Speaking of doing what you want," she added, shoving a small bowl of Mac-and-Cheese into my arms. "Why don't you just feed her?" I laughed again and sat down in a chair next to Shelly.

We talked about school while I tried to spoon feed the fussy infant. By the time the food was out of the bowl, she was covered head to toe in cheese sauce and other leftover foods.

"Looks like someone's ready for a bath." I loved bathing Shelly as I had Toby (after the Labyrinth incident, of course), and bathing was one of the few times Shelly wasn't whining. She enjoyed sitting in the warm water and pushing her toys around, loved the feeling of the shampoo being scrubbed into her soft hair, and liked when I poured water over her head to rinse her off. She got a little fussy when I pulled her out and wrapped her in a fluffy towel, but she really started tantruming when we put her in her jammies.

"This is ridiculous. She's crying because she's tired, but when we put her to bed, she'll cry because she wants to stay up!"

"We've got to just put her to bed and leave her alone," I said as Laura wrestled the child into the crib.

"Ouch, dammit! Let go of my hair!" Laura yelled, wrenching the tiny fist away from her head. I noticed a few strands lingering in Shelly's iron grip. Laura stormed out and hit the light switch, enveloping the screams in darkness. "I wish someone would just take you away!"