Chapter 1: Uncharted cave

I stared eagerly out the west window of Mrs. Laney's classroom, awaiting the familiar sound of the end-of-school bell. The sun shone brightly on the dark green lawn and birds could be heard through the open window. I was engulfed in the lovely afternoon, and looking forward to riding horseback with my best friend, Alicia. It was, afterall, the perfect Friday afternoon, especially since it was our last friday of the year. I smiled lazily and sighed, just a little too loudly.

"Maddy Lunderburg, are you even paying attention?" Mrs. Laney asked, and my head snapped up in her direction. I noted the frustrated look on her face and nodded my head quickly.

"Yes, Mrs. Laney," I said automatically, and then added, "I just got a little distracted."

"Yes, I'm sure," Mrs. Laney said, "Then you'll be able to identify the separate clauses in this sentence, and then diagram it on the board."

"Umm...one independent clause and two dependent clauses," I stated with difficulty.

"Correct," Mrs. Laney answered, smiling, "Now tell me what kind of sentence it is."

"It's a...umm...umm...oh, yeah, it's a complex sentence." I replied, smiling, fakely back.

"Stated with difficulty, but yes, it is. Now I'll expect all of you to hand in your finished story on Monday. And you should know that it was assigned two weeks ago, so you should have at least started it by now. Well, the bell's about to go and since it's the last Friday of this school year, I'll let you all out five minutes early. Oh, and Maddy please see me after class." Mrs. Laney finished and smiled as the entire class let out an "oooooo" at the sound of my name. Great, I thought sourly, first the stupid story that I forgot about, and now she wants to see me after class.

Everyone got up out of their seats, gathered their stuff and hurried out the door. I looked over to Alicia, but she was already out the door. I walked slowly over to the big front desk and stood, awaiting Mrs. Laney's speech.

"Maddy," she began, looking at me, "I've noticed that your grades are slipping, not badly but I think that you need to focus more. You've always been such a great student, but now that there's only one week of school left, you've been daydreaming and dozing off during class. You have a B, but if you get a good grade on this essay, you'll be up to at least an A-. Did you even start the essay?"

"Yes," I lied and added, "It's about halfway through."

"Good, I was wrong to underestimate you, now go and have a good weekend."

I turned and swiftly exited the classroom. Alicia was waiting for me by the lockers and linked my arm and asked excitedly, "What did she say? Was she mad? Are you failing? C'mon, spill all!" She smiled eagerly as I opened my locker and began exchanging books and putting things into my locker.

"Well, let's just say I have a B+ and I can raise it with the story that I havn't started yet. I don't even know what I'm going to write about!" I complained and zipped up my backpack. "Besides," I added, smirking, "We're riding this after noon." I slammed my locker and hugged my latest reading material to my chest; The Lord of the Rings. I hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder and Alicia and I walked out to the parking lot where my mom would pick us up. Just as we exited the Commons building we came upon the three most popular girls in the eighth grade. Samantha, their leader walked toward us.

"Hey, look who decided to walk out of social rehabilitation. Last I checked, they were hiding out in the library, crooning over their blessed books." Samantha laughed wickedly and her companions, Leslie and Elle giggled along with her.

"At least we can read, " I retorted angrily, " Oh, yes and we're not interested in the mindless , vain, stupidity that you call popularity."

"I have a boyfriend," She said, mockingly.

"So, what does that matter. What you need is a brain transplant." I said hotly.

" When pigs fly." She retorted and her friends laughed coldly.

"Oh," I gasped, acting surprised, "You fly?"

She clicked her tongue and smiled, "Cute, you almost had me for a minute. Let's bounce girls, this unhealthy sight is ruining my eyesight." She turned and walked away and her companions followed.

We started toward the parking lot in silence. Alicia stopped and tapped my arm, "How can you be so brave?" she asked, "I may have spunk but I'd never stand up to Samantha Handsommer, never."

"Being brave isn't standing up to the most popular girl in our grade" I answered, " It's slaying a dragon, or leading a legion of troops galiantly into battle, or saving your best friend from certain death." I stopped and looked at her, she was smiling.

"You're right," She said, laughing, " But we should get going or your mom might leave without us." And we headed out into the parking lot.

Two hours later we were seated comfortably on our horses riding along a trail near Tunnel Springs. Alicia had chosen Barnst, an old, wethered, greyish brown trail horse for our afternoon ride. Whereas I was riding my horse, Chicago Bell, a younger brown and white paint horse I had recieved for my eleventh birthday. We rode in silence, trying to find the cave we had chosen to ride to. We had traveled for at least an hour and should've been close to it by now.

"We've probably passed it," observed Alicia and I nodded in agreement.

"Wait, there it is!" I announced excitedly and urged Chicago forward. Alicia followed my lead and soon we reached the mouth of an old, abandoned cave.

"Ya-wait! It doesn't match the picture." Said Alicia from behind me, sounding puzzled, "Do you see an information board anywhere?"

"No, there's nothing but rocks and plants and dirt- you get the picture." I answered and stepped toward the cave. "Let's explore it anyway." We tied up our horses and walked into the cave, carefully.

"Don't talk, it might cave in." I warned as we made out way down. It was surprisingly light and airy in the cave. The walls were a dark greyish color and the ceiling wasn't visible through the low-hanging misty-like element that clung to the air no more than three inches above our heads.

"This is really weir-" But I was cut off as the ground below me seemed to vanish and I began to fall. I screamed loudly and Alicia attemted to grab my hand, but I was out of reach and disapearing before she realized what had happened.

I was falling fast, through and endless swirl of colors and shapes. All around I caught different parts of voices and what they were saying, but all was a blurr of sound, so I could not make anything clearly out. Then suddenly I heard A high-pitched whistle and had to cover my ears. The next thing I knew, there was an excrushiating pain in the back of my head and all went black.