Chapter One
They were reading Shakespeare in class, and Tanny was close to punching someone. Either the idiot across from her who couldn't pronounce any character's name right; or the bimbos beside her who wouldn't shut the hell up.
Because whatever was on their phones was obviously more important than Shakespeare. Obviously.
"Who wants to read next?" asked the teacher, an eccentric English major. Tanny caught herself glaring at the nitwits next to her as hands were raised half-heartedly around the room, Tanny raising her's above the other's.
Yet the teacher's eyes passed right over her (only adding to her surmounting frustration) and landed on a dark-haired boy half-asleep in the back of the room.
"Anthony, why don't you read?" Her voice was coated in sugar.
Tanny stifled a moan and gripped her textbook until her arms shook. Don't scream don't scream don't scream.
"Where are we?" Anthony mumbled. Tanny bit her bottom lip against a groan as a classmate pointed to the right spot.
" 'Through the forest I have gone,
But Athenian found I none
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear.
This is he my master said
Despised the Athenian maid.
And here the maiden, sleeping sound
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul, she derst not lie.
Near this lack-love, this kill courtsy.
Kerl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wahkst, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.
So awake when I am gone,
For I must now to Oberon.' "
Tanny's head was in her hands. She winced at every slur and every wrongly uttered word, every mumble that was like a knife in her patience. Shakespeare shouldn't be spoken in such a soulless, uncaring way, her thoughts growled.
Just as Tanny felt the last of her sanity snap and decided to go flip a table, someone nudged her arm.
Between her fingers Tanny peaked and saw the concerned face of Gen Raigan, the only person Tanny wouldn't kill in a zombie apocalypse. And that is saying something.
Gen's eyes narrowed slightly in a silent question, What's up?
Tanny sighed through her nose and nodded at the current uncultured swine who the teacher picked to verbally deface Shakespeare, and rolled her eyes, and tugged up at her collar like a noose around her neck.
Kill. Me. Now.
Gen bit back a laugh and it came out a snort.
"I swear the next person who pronounces a word of Shakespeare wrong is walking out with a broken nose." Tanny glared mindlessly at the backs of her classmates and hugged her books to her chest.
Behind her, Gen giggled.
"What?" Tanny snapped over her shoulder.
Gen's eyes (Tanny was always jealous of those eyes) sparkled as she whispered, "Are you bovvered?"
Tanny blinked and snickered, "Amest I bovver-ed?"
Now they were both grinning and the tension in Tanny's stomach that had been pulled taut with anger was gone.
"Amest I bovver-ed for sooth?" Gen.
"Looketh at my face," Tanny recited, "Looketh at my face. Is this the bovver-ed face thou seest before thee?"
"Do you feel better now?" Gen asked, still giggling. Gen giggled, Tanny chortled.
"Are you disrespecting the house of Vevila?!"
"Tanny!" Gen laughed, her eyes shrinking.
"Sorry." Tanny smirked and poked her arm. "You started it."
Gen blew a strand of flaxen hair out of her eyes and walked closer to Tanny in the packed hallway.
"Will there by something edible for lunch today?" Tanny asked no one in particular. She had a tendency for thinking out loud. But only random thoughts that had no place anywhere, it seemed.
"I doubt it," Gen sighed. As the crowd pushed in on them from every side, Gen felt that rubber band inside her chest grow taut. She groped for Tanny's hand and squeezed it as air became a problem in these close quarters with too many people around, and the tidal wave of anxiety reared its ugly head inside of her.
Tanny looked over at her friend- they were practically the same height, perhaps Gen was an inch taller- and whispered, "Library?"
Gen nodded desperately. "Library."
They never used the school library. Despite bearing the title of 'library' it was almost never quiet and always crowded. It may as well be, "Big-room-of-books-that-students-use-as-a-meet-'n'-greet." Instead, Gen and Tanny always used the city library.
Since neither of them were 'technically' seniors (even though Gen was on the honor roll and Tanny has proven time and again she was just as smart as most of the seniors) they weren't 'technically' allowed off campus during lunch.
Luckily nobody 'technically' checked the doors that led to the rear parking lot behind the school.
After slipping out of the crowd and down a tiny side hall lined with science classrooms, Tanny led the way to the back of the school, attempting to look as innocent as possible. Gen held the edge of her shirt to keep pace.
Without breaking their tread, Tanny exited through a door that led right onto the lot. A heavy drizzle had begun since that morning and they pulled the hoods of their jackets up over their heads, the lenses of Tanny's glasses became misty. She frowned and stuffed them in her pocket, blinking rapidly as her poor eyesight adjusted so everything became mushy grey soup.
They crossed the soggy lot in silence, aimed towards at beat-up red VW parked in the farthest corner: a cow sitting among all the shiny Toyotas and Chevys.
Whatever, Tanny paid an arm and a leg for it.
Inside the van it was warm and stuffy and smelled like pine car freshener.
"We could drive through somewhere," Tanny suggested, shrugging off her rain jacket and sliding her glasses back on. They slid down the bridge of her nose and Tanny had to push them back into place.
Gen shook out her damp hair and buckled herself in. "Okay, but I'm paying."
"Okay." Tanny wouldn't argue against free food.
Half an hour later they were smuggling Starbucks into the public library under their coats. Given it was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, and now pouring down rain, the library was practically deserted.
Even then, Tanny and Gen found the farthest table in the farthest corner of the library, in the back of the YA section.
"Read it, read it, read it," muttered Tanny, scanning the bookshelves they passed. She shook her head, her soggy ponytail flopping back and forth. "I knew I shouldn't have left my book at home."
Gen's eyebrows rose in an incredulous look. "Tanny, we're in a library."
Tanny crossed her arms and pouted. "It's not the same. Fine," she huffed, disappearing between the towering bookcases.
Gen dropped her bag on the wood table and sat down with her back towards the rest of the library, bringing her knees up to her chest. She sipped her steaming coffee carefully and nibbled on the flaky croissant she'd bought, staring at the wall of books opposite her.
To her left were rows of bookshelves, and the wall to her right was nothing more than a giant square window, giving view to the street outside. Somewhere between the shelves she heard Tanny muttering to herself. The rain pitter-pattered softly against the glass. A chilly greyness seeped into the room.
Slowly Gen felt her thoughts numb as her eyes absentmindedly scanned the spines of paperbacks and hardbacks. Novels thick and thin, dwarfs and giants, faded and brand new. Familiar books and stories unknown to her.
She sank lower into her seat and held the paper cup to her chest. As she read every title of every familiar book in her head, it was as if a door was opening in her mind, unleashing imagined memories taken from printed words.
She saw Hogwarts, and the glistening Great Lake under a slate grey sky. She heard the roar of waves and smelled the sea as her eyes passed over "Bloody Jack." A black-haired boy with sea green eyes, wearing a t-shirt that read Camp Half-Blood swam before her eyes. In his hand he held a bronze sword.
At some point Gen's eyes fluttered close but the faces and locations were still there. The sound of rain faded, almost without her notice.
She felt grass under her instead of a hard chair, smelled the moist soil and felt a breeze on her face. If she opened her eyes she expected to see trees with emerald leaves over her. Birds called to each other on the cusp of hearing. The wind whispered. It sounded like it was smiling.
Where was she? Gen couldn't say for sure, but it all felt familiar in an alien way. An unseen corner of a familiar world.
If Gen only opened her eyes, she would know where. If she opened her eyes….
"I can not believe they don't have Game of Thrones." Gen's eyes snapped open, reality rushed at her, she had to grip her Starbucks cup tightly with both hands to keep from dropping it. Her temples pounded and she felt dizzy. Head rush.
Tanny dropped into the seat beside her and glanced irritably at Gen. "Seriously!" she hissed. They were in a library. "No copy! Anywhere!"
"Read something else," Gen suggested half-heartedly. She shook her head, her thoughts still jumbled. How long had she been sitting there? She must have dozed off at least a bit.
That's why it all felt so real.
"I can't read something in the middle of Game of Thrones!" Tanny shook her head and reached for her own Starbucks cup. "Inconceivable!"
"Fine," sighed Gen. For some reason she felt… almost disappointed. Why? Because her daydream had been interrupted probably. Probably.
"What's up with you?" Tanny tore off a corner of her ham and cheese square and nibbled on it. She was starved.
"Nothing. Just distracted."
Tanny licked the crumbs from her lips and frowned. "Everything okay?"
Gen glanced up and nodded. Yeah, everything was okay. The last letter from her mom didn't read like it was written by a maniac, and her aunt and uncle weren't worrying over her.
"Yeah," Gen mumbled. Her head still wasn't entirely there. "Yeah," she repeated with more earnest, nodding. "Everything is fine. Just… I don't know. I think I'm going crazy."
Tanny smiled her signature smirk- the right side of her mouth turning up to reveal slightly pointed canines and incisors, her hazel eyes lighting up in a way Gen could only describe as impishly. "Tell me something I don't know."
"Tanny!" Gen shifted uncomfortably. "You know how I feel about… mental health." The last part was barely above a whisper.
Tanny's smirk faded and she scooted her chair closer to Gen's.
"Okay, okay, why do you think you're going crazy?"
Gen stared at the tabletop. How could she word this?
"Do you ever close your eyes and think you're someplace else?"
Tanny furrowed her brow and sipped her hot chocolate, licking whipped cream from her lips. "What'dya mean?"
Gen sighed and shifted again, sitting on one of her legs and placing the other on the ground. If she wasn't holding the cup she would be playing with her fingers.
"I mean… um….." What did she mean? "I mean, like you think about a place or read something and you can visualize it."
"Yeah. Everyone does that." Tanny sipped her drink.
Gen sighed and leaned forward. Her blue eyes widened with the need to make Tanny understand. "No, I mean, you can see it. Every detail. You can hear things and smell things and it's like you're there."
To anyone else this would sound crazy, and maybe it was, but this Tanny and Tanny would get it.
The dawning light in Tanny's eyes and the way her mouth fell open slightly said yes, she did get it.
"Oh my god so it's not just me?" Tanny whispered.
"So I'm not crazy?" Gen asked tentatively.
The smirk was back. "Oh, you're crazy, but in a good way."
Tanny sat back and barked a laugh. "I thought it was just me." Sip of hot chocolate. "How long has it happened to you?"
"Since the first time I could read on my own," Gen confessed, relieved Tanny didn't laugh at her. Tanny grinned, her eyebrows arching.
"Same here! What brought up the subject, by the way?" She stuffed half the ham and cheese square in her mouth, wiping her fingers on her sweater.
Gen set her cup down. "I imagined I was in the woods."
Tanny's brow furrowed. "Any forest in particular?"
Gen narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, shaking her head. "No. At least… I don't know." She shrugged. "Could be anything. I could feel the wind and sunlight, and hear birds."
Tanny looked out the window. At the rain pounding on the glass, the cold, industrial lighting, and the wet slosh of cars on the street. Far from any trees or sunlight.
She smirked at Gen.
"Maybe you are crazy."