Labyrinth

Chapter 1

At Sycamore Rains' High School, the bell chimes announcing the days lunch. Problem was, you couldn't hear it, wanna know why? That's right, your asleep. You didn't normally fall asleep in class, but today, you just couldn't manage to stay awake.

"Ms. Johnson…Ms. Johnson?……Ms. Johnson!?" your head shot up from your desk, turning your attention to the culprit. You found it to be your teacher, you also noticed that everyone else had already left and gone to lunch.

"Hm?" you asked as you looked at her.

"It's time for lunch. And please Ms. Johnson, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't fall asleep in my classroom" she said as she sat at her desk grading papers.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Roslin, I…didn't mean to…" you said as you stood from your desk. "I haven't been getting much sleep lately" you told as you left the room. You just went outside and sat down underneath a tree. You sat there and watched as some of the other kids ate their lunch at a few tables outside. You opened up your satchel and pulled out one of those little green apples (sorry, I don't what they're called but they're the size of those tiny seedless oranges) along with a bottle of water. You looked down at your lunch sadly, that is if you can even call it a lunch. Sigh. "what's the point of lunch if I can't even eat anything?" you asked yourself with one knee up and your other leg stretched out in front of you. You finished your apple quickly, seeing as how small it was, then drank some of your water. You laid your head back against the tree and looked up at the sky.

Fastforward~

School is now over and since your dad can't come and pick you up and your step-mother doesn't want to, you're stuck walking home. And trust me, it happens a lot. You decided that you'd take your time getting home this time, and decided to go through the park. You can smell the fresh flowers and green grass as you entered the park, trees and benches all around. You sat down quietly on the bridge and gazed out at the water. Sigh. You wished that you could just stay here forever. You spotted a white owl with light brown golden feathers mixed in, it was beautiful. Strangely, it seemed to be watching you. You sat there enjoying the quiet sound around you. Then…drop. You felt something wet land on your head. Drip drop drip drop. More water, it was raining now. You sat there for a few minutes, enjoying the soothing rain as it soaked your clothes and hair, and yet, the owl still stayed and watched. BOOM!!! A bolt of lightning struck one of the trees near by, causing you to scream in fright, falling backwards out of the bench and onto the cold wet ground. Man were you glad that it was now the weekend… You got home to find your step-mother standing there at the front door, a glare on her face.

"You're late, and you are filthy!" you just muttered under your breath, trying your best to ignore her. "Now, your father and I are going out. Cassandra is having a few friends coming over and spending the night and I expect for you to behave. I also expect you to make them dinner, the food is in the cabinet so you shouldn't have too many problems. Richard, let's go" she said, pulling your dad out the door and closing it behind her. Sigh.

"I hate this" you went to your room and got yourself cleaned up a bit.

DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG you heard the door bell being pressed non-stop. "Get the door" Cassandra said, walking into your room.

"You get it, I'm doing something" she just glared at you.

"Fine…" then you heard her take in a big breath "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"FINE JUST SHUT UP!!!" you yelled, not being able to take all of her screaming. You took your time going down the steps DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DI- "WOULD YOU STOP THAT!?!?" you yelled, opening the door for a group of EIGHT girls. **a few friends my rear end** they all just came in grinning at you, knowing full well that they had set you off.

"MAKE OUR DINNER!" she yelled, shouving you out of the way, and dragging her friends upstairs. You just ignored her and went upstairs into your room and closing the door. You sat on your bed and pulled out a notebook, trying to finish up your book report. Sigh.

"This is so annoying…I just wish that someone would see things my way for once…" you said quietly to yourself as you wrote a few more things down in your notebook. You flipped threw a few pages in your book, reading over it and writing a few more things down. You were in mid sentence when your door burst open, revealing Cassandra with her hands on her hips. "What do you want…" you said, still paying attention to the assignment in front of you.

She marched over to you, then, "MAKE OUR DINNER!!!" she screamed, right in your ear, making you cover your ears, falling off of your bed making her laugh.

"Ah…mmm…"

"NOW" with that, she slammed your door behind her, leaving you to lay on the floor in pain. You slowly got up, using your bed for support and held your head.

"…mmm…" you made your way to the stairs, making sure that nobody was behind you and desended down the steps and into the kitchen. You looked in the cabinet and found two boxes of tuna helper. "So this is what she wants me to make them?" sigh. So you got it out and set it on the countertop. You then got out two sauce pans, along with the rest of the necessary ingredients and got started. In about 15 minutes, you were finished. "DINNER IS READY" you yelled, as you were putting the last little bit into your own bowl, that is until somebody decided to push you, causing you to burn your hand on the stove top. "AH" you cried out in pain as all of them laughed at you. You could feel the tears in your eyes as you ran upstairs, holding your hand in pain. You ran into your bathroom, turning the faucet on cold and ran it over your hand, trying to hold the tears in. After you were done, you turned the faucet off and went back into your room. You went over to the window and opened it, looking out at the rain that poured down, hitting the ground with a pitter patter sort of sound. You looked down at your hand, opening and closing it slightly with a pained face. You reached out, allowing the rain to hit it, gasping slightly at the pain, fighting the urge to quickly retrieve it and bring it back in. You laid your head on the windowsill, your arm still stretched out as light sobs escaped you. You flinched, as something else came in contact with your hand. "Ah…" you brought your head up, to find an owl nudging your hand slightly, but this wasn't any old owl, it was the same owl from the park. You looked at it for a moment, before lightly petting the feathers on its head with the side of your index finger. "Hello there…" you had a slight smile on your face as you looked at the creature before you "I'm sorry, but…I don't have any food…" you said sadly as you looked at your hand. You flinched when its beck touched your palm. "Ah…" it watched you quietly as a tear fell from your eye and onto the floor. "I'm sorry that you have to see me like this…I'm not normally this much of a wreck…"

"Whoooo…whoooo….." it called, seeming as though it were talking to you. You gave it a strange look as you turned your eyes to your hand again.

"This was a result of my…little sister…though…she's not really my sister…" you told it, as you started thinking a bit. It was true though…she wasn't really a real sister, yes, she was a result of your father and stepmother, but still, she wasn't your sister. You laughed slightly "Heh…look at me…I'm talking to a bird…" your voice was quiet as you said this, though your mind was quickly set on something else as you heard glass braking downstairs. "Oh no…"

"CRYSTAL!!!" you flinched as she yelled.

"Great…they brake something and I have to clean it up…" you stood up, looking at the owl with a sad face "I'm sorry, but…I have to go…"

"CRYSTAL!!!!!!" she yelled again as you made your way down stairs, letting out a yell of your own.

"UHHHH…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?!?!?!?" you screamed, finding your mother's vase broken. They just snickered as you cleaned the mess up, taking it upstairs with you into your room. You slammed the door behind you, and slid down the door and cried even more. "Why…why do they always have to do this to me? Why!?" after a little while, you got out some hot glue, trying franticly to piece it back together the best you could. It was hard, trying to piece it back together. You tried piecing together some of the outside pieces, gluing them together as best you could, while the owl just set there watching you the entire time, with perhaps…sympathetic eyes.

The door to your room opened, going unnoticed by you, the reason being, you were asleep. Yes, it was true, you had fallen asleep quite some time ago. Apparently all of that stress had finally done it and just completely wore you out. So there you were, laying on the floor as nine little monsters entered your room. The owl itself, still remained, it was as if it were watching over you in a way, though it could not protect you from what was about to happen……

In the morning

You slowly woke up, realizing that you had fallen asleep on the floor the previous night. Getting up and stretching, you made your way to your bathroom, still not realizing anything different as you closed the door behind you. 3…2…1… "AHHHH!!!" screaming, you ran out of the bathroom and down the hall, right into Cassandra's room. Slamming the door open, you entered, not caring if you might have woken the whole neighborhood. At the moment, you were too mad to care. "GRR…CASSANDRA!!!" you yelled as she sat there grinning at you "What is the meaning of this!?!?" you cried, as you pulled on your hair slightly, only receiving giggles from every girl in the room as a result.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Cassandra said, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

You just growled "oh yes you do, what's this then?" you asked, pulling at your hair once more, revealing strand after strand of misshapen hair. That's right, they decided to take scissors to your hair, utterly destroying it in the process. You just couldn't believe it, how could she do something like that? You didn't notice as your step mom entered the room, your back placed in front of her, leaving her full access to the disastrous calamity before her.

"What is going on here?" she sounded as though she had no clue at all, I mean come on, how could she not notice your chopped up hair!? You thought that you were going to explode.

"What's going on…? What's going on?! I'll tell you what's going on! She!" you said while pointing a finger in front of you at Cassandra "She and her demented FRIENDS, destroyed my hair!!!" she seemed unfazed by your yelling, only turning to hold a sour face.

"Now Crystal, just because your hair didn't turn out the way that you wanted it to, doesn't mean that you can go blaming poor Cassandra" oh no…oh no…she did not just say that… A growl could be heard from you as you turned to face her fully.

"You think that I did this!?" you yelled, pulling at your hair in the process "Are you…NUTS!?" you yelled at her once more, not believing that she actually thought that you would do such a thing. She stepped forward slightly, pointing her finger in your face.

"Now see here young lady, I am your mother and I shall be treated as such, do you understand me?!" all you did was growl at her "I said…DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"……

"No" silence, her hand lowered for a moment.

"What did you just say?"

You stepped forward "I said…no. You are NOT my mother! You will NEVER be MY mother! You're nothing LIKE my mother! You shall never be by m-" you were cut off by a curt slap to the face, and then all fell silent…except for Cassandra's stifled laugh. Your head lay tilted to the side as you stood there, frozen.

"Now, I've had enough of you! I became your 'mother' the day I married your father…as for your so called mother, she's DEAD so get used to it!" All that you did was stand there, feeling as the tears started flowing down your cheeks, stinging your left one. She then straightened out her shirt, turning back toward you as she spoke "Now…have I made myself clear?" she watched your shakey form for a moment, watching as you opened your mouth to speak.

"…P-perfectly…you're right…" she looked at you with slight shook, though that turned to anger as you finished "…my 'mother' is dead…which means…that you can't be her!" with that, you ran out of the room and back down the hall into your own, slamming the door behind you. Moments later, you are laying in a crumpled heap on the floor crying, not knowing that you had someone watching you. It was about 15 minutes until you stopped crying, now sitting up against your bed. "I…I'm getting out of here…" you said quietly to yourself as you stood up and walked over to your closet. Opening it, you pulled out a couple tops and a few pairs of pants. You threw them into a bag that you had pulled out and then walked into the bathroom to change. About a minute later, you came back out, now fully clothed as you slipped your shoes on. "I'm not staying here" putting your jacket on, you picked you your bag and walked out the door, down the hall and step, then straight out the front door.

Fast forward to the park

You threw your bag down near the tree "I can't believe her! How dare she say such thing!? And this-" You looked down at your reflection, the water showing a clear mark upon your face "How could she!?" anger seemed to be radiating from your very being, turning the air angry and tense. Today just wasn't your day, but then again, when was it ever? Oh yeah…never. Nothing ever seemed to want to go your way, nothing at all and that was the problem. You stared down at your reflection, the anger clear as day. You let loss an angry sigh as you fell to the ground, burying your face in your hands as you tried to control yourself. One thing you will never understand, is why your mom left you here to fend for yourself against that evil woman. "Why did you leave me here?…Why…why didn't you just take me with you?" You looked to the sky, perhaps looking for an answer, thinking that it would respond. Nothing seemed to answer though, save for a low hoot somewhere on your right. You turned to find the source, only to find an owl, a barn owl to be precise. Your face held curiousity as the sadness still lingered, you still did not understand the owl's presence here. I mean, what is a barn owl doing around here? There shouldn't be any barn owl's around.