Disclaimer: "The Princess Diaries" belongs to The Walt Disney Company and Meg Cabot.
Mia woke up. But it was not a pleasurable awakening.
She was late for school. Very late.
She got out of bed, tossed her pajamas off, and searched for her uniform.
But her uniform was in terrible shape. Her patterned skirt was in tatters and streaked with dirt and grass stains. So was her dark blue sport coat. All of the buttons on her dark blue sport coat were missing, her school's seal was completely covered over with brown dirt, one of the lapels was dangling like a flap, one of the sleeves was completely torn away, and the other sleeve was tattered and soiled and only a few threads held it to the coat. Her light blue blouse looked the nicest, but the collar was dirty and torn as well, and several buttons. And her boots were completely encrusted in mud.
She couldn't go to school like this. But she must. What would be worse, not going to school at all today, or going to school looking like...like...a savage? Both prospects made her cringe.
So she threw her clothes on, and looked at herself in the mirror.
What she saw made her gasp. Loudly.
Her mouth was missing all of its teeth. Her entire skin was sunburned red. Also, her face was swollen, and covered with pimples and blisters. What had she done to herself?
She looked around to find her mother. Her mother was gone.
The only thing she could do now is run to school. Run like the wind. Maybe she could get there on time.
Dashing to the door, she found that the doorknob would not turn. She kicked it, rammed it, and it simply would not budge.
Break the glass on the door. That was the solution. She did that, grabbed her Razor scooter, and headed outside.
It was foggy. Extremely foggy. So foggy she couldn't see very far.
She would have to go by memory. Her fear made her reckless. She looked straight ahead the whole time.
Her strategy was to stay close to the buildings and look for visual cues. She saw one familiar sight. Then two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
This meant there was hope! She was going in the right direction. She was making progress.
And then she wasn't.
Her scooter hit a crack, and down she went. She got up and saw that she skinned her right knee. Badly. As if she didn't look terrible enough already.
Picking herself up, she kept moving forward. Now she was alternating the direction of her head rapidly. Forward-down-forward-down-forward-down.
She wished she knew how much time had passed. How long had she been traveling? Half an hour? Several hours? There was no way for her to know.
A second time she crashed. This time it was into a parked car. Getting her up, she saw that now she had a big bruise on her left thigh.
Finally, she saw the school. She would be in trouble when she arrived. Big trouble. But at least not as much trouble as she would be for missing an entire day. It was time to stop, get off her scooter, and walk in.
But she couldn't stop. Her scooter kept moving. She put out her left foot to try to slow down. It didn't work. She saw the steps looming up ahead, and miraculously, made a sharp turn to avoid them.
Mia decided she needed to jump off the scooter. But her right foot would not come off of the scooter. She tried opening her hands. Her hands would not open either.
And it only got worse. Mia could feel herself accelerating. Rapidly. She was going down a hill. And she could not see where she was going.
Then she found herself unable to steer. If only she could steer, maybe she could steer herself into something soft, and the fire department or somebody could disentangle her from the Razor Scooter Of Death. But she couldn't. She never felt more terrified. This was the worst day of her life...and probably her last.
At this point all Mia was able to do was scream, "HELLLPPPP MEEEEEEEEE!"
But no one did. She kept moving faster and faster. And the fog was ever-present. She could have been going 600 miles per hour for all she knew. At this point, her doom seemed inevitable. She could only hope that whatever she crashed into would kill her instantly and painlessly.
Mia looked down and saw the asphalt beneath her feet keep moving faster and faster-then it disappeared.
Mia was falling. What would she fall into.
SPLASH!
It was water. Deep, deep, water.
And Mia was still glued or welded or whatever the correct word was to her scooter. Her foot would not budge, and her fingers would not open. She was destined for a watery grave. She sank deeper, and her world became darker...and darker...and darker...
"NOOO!"
And then she woke up. For real this time. She sincerely hoped.
She could her heart beating rapidly. Had her mother heard her? She heard footsteps. It sounded like she had.
"What happened?" her mother asked, clearly startled.
"I had the scariest dream I ever had in my whole life," Mia answered. She told her mother about it, not out of desire, but out of obligation. Describing the dream only made her feel worse, not better. She felt terrible for being a huge burden on her mother and everyone else in her life. Mia felt like a sinking ship who was pulling her mother and all of her friends down with her. Would she always feel so worthless? Only time would tell.
The End. I welcome any and all reviews, positive or negative.