'Once upon a time,'
Elizabeth stared at her computer screen. She was told to write a five page long paper by her least favorite teacher, Ms. 'Know-It-All' Penn. That woman hated Elizabeth with a passion, and Elizabeth had assured Ms. Penn that her feelings were mutual on multiple occasions. Each and every one of these frequently occurring events had ended with Elizabeth writing a paper quite like this one, and/or detention. Generally both.
She didn't mind, though. The detentions gave her time to think, and she could use the papers to practice her writing. Elizabeth loved to write. Doctor Who FanFiction, specifically.
Yes, she was a fangirl. A fairly good one, too. She spent all of her time either reading, scrolling through and posting on tumblr, eating, writing, watching Doctor Who, or thinking about how cute Matt Smith was with his brown eyes and his chin that poked out a little too much, but that's okay because she still loves him anyways.
This particular assignment was one of the hardest papers she had ever had to write. It wasn't that she didn't have any ideas, she was just too lazy to type them in. She was just about to give up and start on her algebra when she heard it.
Funny, how one single noise can give hope to anyone who hears it. That noise gave Elizabeth quite a lot of hope indeed. But only for a second. As soon as she opened her bedroom door, expecting to be face-to-face with The Doctor, or the TARDIS, or one of his companions at least, she heard another noise. One that brought shame and embarrassment. She heard her mother laughing, as well as her stepfather and stepsiblings. Elizabeth's stepfather, Jason, had always enjoyed playing pranks on her, but this was an all-time low. He knew that she loved Doctor Who. Nonetheless, Elizabeth fake laughed along with them. She could never let him know how much his sarcastic words or cruel pranks hurt her. Showing weakness would be admitting defeat. And she could never admit to defeat. Her pride simply wouldn't let her.
Elizabeth walked back to her room and finished her algebra. The rest wasn't due for another week, so she could bear to put it off for another night. Even if it was due the next day, she didn't think she could have brought herself to care. There were too many other things to worry about.
She brushed her teeth, slipped her pjs on, switched off the light, and climbed under her blanket. It was only eight o' clock, but she didn't care. Elizabeth closed her eyes, and began to cry softly. She welcomed the tears that cascaded down her cheeks. At least she was letting herself feel something. Anything. Elizabethhadn't let herself feel anything for a long, long time. She cried and cried until she could cry no more. Oh, how she wished that The Doctor would come for her. She longed for the prank to have not been a prank at all. She wished with all her heart that one day, she would hear that groaning, wheezing sound, and The Doctor would come and fly her away in the TARDIS, away from her stepfather, away from her teachers, just away. But she knew it could never be. Even if he was real, he wouldn't want to travel with her anyway. She was an insignifigant thirteen year-old little girl. Who would want her? No one. Not even herself.
But how very wrong she was.