Disclaimer: I do not own labyrinth, or any characters from it. I do own my OCs though. Huh, I actually have OCs to own. That's a first. Anyway, I also do not own the definition of plagiarism (came from ), nor do I own the paraphrasing about school policies and such. That bit mostly came from a syllabus of mine from one of my courses last spring.

Authors note: Hi everyone who may or may not me reading this, I haven't written fanfic in several years, let alone posted it. I have been lurking though, through many fandoms, though currently mostly Labyrinth and Stargate. Also, I have no beta, so I apologize in advance for any and all mistakes.

Now

Sarah stumbled through the door to her apartment, utterly exhausted. Most days, she loved her job. She loved sharing her love of books with students, and encouraging the few budding authors in her class to pursue their dreams. She loved the after school drama club, attempting to inspire would be actors and actresses to spread their wings and take flight. She generally didn't even mind grading the papers she assigned. She always tried to pick topics that both she and the majority of her class would enjoy. This last one in particular, she had thought they would find at least somewhat fun. Most of the students had. After all, how hard is it to just make up your very own short story? But of course, there was one student who had to go and screw it all up.

The day Before

It was Thursday, the day the papers were due in Sarah's Junior honors English class. It had gone surprisingly well so far. Everyone had turned in a story, even her one trouble maker in the class, a girl who seemed to be of the opinion that she would somehow pass the class without doing any work at all. Sarah should have known right then that it was all going to go horribly wrong. But she had optimistically continued with her day, and when she got home, she ate dinner, sat down on the couch, and pulled out the papers just to glance through. She wasn't planning on actually grading them until the weekend. As she flipped through them, one in particular jumped out at her.

"Once upon a time," 'Seriously? Who the heck still started a story with that in eleventh grade? In an Honors English class no less?' Sarah thought, beginning to feel a migraine coming on. She looked up at the right corner of the paper and was unsurprised to see Emily Watson, the name of the girl she had secretly began to think of as her nemesis. With a sigh, she continued reading it, bracing herself for another call from Emily's father, who could never seem to understand why his brilliant little girl was always getting such horrible grades in class. She suspected that the only reason Emily was a junior in high school, let alone in honors classes, was because other teachers had given in to his nagging and just let the girl go on. "There was a gorgeous young lady," the story continued, "whose step-mother always left her to babysit her spoiled, bratty step-sister. The girl hated it. But no one knew that this hot king dude had, like, totally fallen for this gorgeous chick and gave her awesome magic powers!"

Oh dear heavens, Sarah thought, I've died and gone to hell. She tossed the paper on the table and wearily rubbed her temples before going into the kitchen to get a glass of wine and set the coffee maker up. She could clearly see that this was going to be a night where she needed them both. With the blatant plagiarism not-so-hidden in Emily's, she couldn't wait to give it back to the girl with a big red F on it. She couldn't grade only hers though, so, thoroughly annoyed, she sat back down to grade the papers.

The next morning, she bashed her alarm clock off with a grunt, blearily checking the time before stumbling out of bed. Six in the morning. She had had only four hours of sleep, and she needed to be at work in less than an hour. Particularly since she would have to talk to the administration today before dealing with her little plagiarist. It was school policy to expel persons guilty of plagiarism. She supposed she should look her best for that, so she gathered her wits about her and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower before hastily dressing in her best skirt, blouse and dress shoes, painting on some minimal make-up, and grabbing a mug of coffee before rushing out to her car with the papers.

It had taken less effort to bring the administration over to her point of view. All she had to do was show the principal Emily's paper, show him her old ragged copy of the labyrinth, and he was on board to take care of the rest, though she would need to be there for it. She stood fidgeting in the office while waiting for the principal to locate Emily and have her first period teacher send her into the office. She stifled a groan as Emily sashayed into the office, her trade-mark smile in place, showing no hint of guilt, though she did hesitate for a second when she realized Sarah was also in the room.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Hammond?" Emily asked as she stopped in front of the principal's desk.

He stood. "Yes. It has come to our attention that you have been practicing plagiarism, Ms. Watson. Do you have anything to say about this?"

Emily's eyes flickered to glare at Sarah for a second. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean, Mr. Hammond. Plagiarism is copying stuff, right? I certainly haven't done that."

Mr. Hammond pulled a book out from a desk drawer and flipped through until he found the page he wanted. "These are the District's policy on plagiarism, Ms. Watson. As you should well know, since your teachers include one in every syllabus they give you. ' Cheating and plagiarism constitute fraudulent misrepresentation for which no credit can be given and for which appropriate sanctions are warranted and will be applied, including dismissal or expulsion.' 'Plagiarism, according to , is 'the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, as by not crediting the author.' I'm sorry to say, Emily, that this paper you turned in to Ms. Williams yesterday, fits this definition to a T. There are undeniable parallels between your story and this book, the Labyrinth, was it?" He glanced at Sarah for clarification and she nodded. "Would you care to explain to me why this parallels exist, Ms. Watson?"

Emily was clearly beginning to lose a bit of her self-assuarance. She had crossed her arms and was looking increasingly annoyed. "Fine," she pouted. "I wish the Goblin king would come and take both of you away, right now!" Sarah sucked in a sharp breath.

Mr. Hammond looked at the teenager in complete disbelief, obviously wondering whether he should call the girl's father and perhaps the nice men in white coats. "This is no laughing..." he began, only to stutter to a stop as the lights flickered and lightning flashed though it had been a sunny day mere minutes before.

Sarah continued to hold her breath as she waited for the familiar figure that haunted her dreams, and on rare occasions her mirror as well, to appear. He didn't dissapoint, bursting into the room in a puff of glittering smoke, wearing the black armor Sarah had first seen him in, with black highlight in his blond hair, and those inhumanly arched eyebrows, and the glitter above his mismatched eyes. She was never really sure how he managed it, but she was certain the look would never work on any man but him. Any other man would look absurdly feminine, but Jareth simply looked deliciously, malevolently, male. The look in his eyes and the way he held himself shouted that he was a being far above mere mortal concerns.

Shaking herself out of her distraction, Sarah stepped forward to meet him. She took slight pleasure in the way his eyes widened ever so slightly before he caught himself and his habitual disdainful smirk appeared.

"Wishing people away again, are we, Sarah?" he asked, and Sarah fought the tingle that wanted to race up her spine in response to the way her name sounded in his decadent voice.

"You know very well that it wasn't me, Goblin King," she replied, hopefully sounding more sure than she felt.

A hint of a mischevious twinkle appeared in his eyes. "Ah, yes. It seems you've been the one wished away this time." He stalked through the room, his cloak flowing behind him as he glanced around, his sharp gaze taking in Sarah's boss and the foolish girl who was staring at him with wide eyed astonishment. "And you, child," he sneered ominously, "are the one who summoned me. What gave you the impression that I took multiple people? Or adults?"

"But-tt..." Emily stuttered, "Why wouldn't you?"

"Why wouldn't I indeed? Adults don't turn into very good goblins, I'm afraid. Foolish, spoiled young girls on the other hand, do. After all, they are already most of the way there." he mocked before turning to Sarah, who was trying not to laugh at the expression on Emily's face, while at the same time wondering what Jareth was up to.

"I propose a bargain, dear Sarah. If you come with me to my kingdom, I will let these two go." He grinned, seeing her denial coming. "I will of course return you here in time for your next work shift."

Sarah frowned at him suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

His grin turned wolfish. "I will expect your presence in the castle once a week, for twelve weeks. If, after the fifth week, you wish to end our agreement, you will be free to do so."

"And if I don't agree to this bargain?"

"Why, I'll take your principal and your little student, of course. I'm sure I can find some use for them. Perhaps I will let them wander around the labyrinth for a while. It might be entertaining." His grin was beginning to get on Sarah's nerves. She pondered the bargain, wishing she saw another way out. But she didn't.

She sighed. "Fine, but only for two weekends," she countered.

"Seven."

"Three."

"Very well, five."

She glared at him but nodded. "Five." She looked around the room noticing that the other two people in the room had completely frozen. She looked up at Jareth, only to realize that he was standing much closer than he had been a moment before. His grin turned wicked as he pulled her against him and they disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Author's Note 2.0

As previously mentioned, I intend to post other chapters as soon as I am able. And here I've been promising myself that the next time I post a fanfic it'll already be done. Oh well. I swear I will finish this, I've got it mostly planned out, unlike my poor star wars fic from six years ago now. It shouldn't be too long, but I promise nothing. It really was supposed to be a one shot. Comments, questions, constructive criticism, and grammar/spelling corrections are welcomed and even encouraged, and quite possibly rewarded with a reply, digital cookies and/or stickers.

About the Story:

Earlier today, I noticed that a rather well known Labyrinth fanfic author, whose work I am quite fond of, had taken down all but the first chapter of her stories here as of a couple months ago. I followed her profile link to her sight, and saw to my scholarly rage that she had been having problems with people plagiarizing her works, and just like that, a rabid horde of plot bunnies descended on my brain and wouldn't let me be. I would like to hope that this story might discourage people from doing such things, though I'm a bit too jaded to be certain that it will.