Sorry if the characters from the movie are at all OOC. I've only seen the movie once so I need to rely on my memory.
My parents had always told my little brother and me stories about tiny warriors called Leafmen, who lived in a land called Moonhaven that protected the forest from the dark savages known as Boggans. We couldn't see them because they moved too fast for us and we moved very slowly compared to them. We had received the nickname "Stompers" from them. My father, Nod, told us stories of the many battles the Leafmen had been through and my mother, Mary Katherine (or M.K. as Dad called her) would tell two stories that we could never get enough of. One was about a girl from "our world" that ventured to the world of the Leafmen and helped them defeat the leader of the Boggans known as Mandrake. The other was about a Leafman that decided to live the life of a Stomper to protect the people he loved. Their stories were described so well, you would have thought they had been there themselves!
I would love the stories so much that I would always tell them to my best friend and next door neighbor, Corbett, who loved them just as much as I did. However, while my now 11 year old brother Cassius still believed their stories, I wasn't a little girl anymore and I realized around age 13 that they were just fiction. The same came for Corbett.
This is what I'd always believed, until the day Cassius, Corbett and I got sucked into the world of the Leafmen and the Boggans. My name is Jet, and this is mine, my brother's and Corbett's story.
()()()()()()()()()
It all started the last day of school, the final day before summer vacation. It was only a half day. My mother had asked me to walk Cassius to his final day of elementary school. I agreed since it was a special day for him, and he had begged me. Unlike a lot of siblings, Cassius and I rarely ever fought and we were really close. Our schools weren't that far apart anyway.
We had just walked out the door, Cassius telling me about the dream he had the previous night about our whole family becoming Leafmen, when Corbett walked out slowly to meet up with us. Corbett and I always walked to school when it was warm out. I didn't quite have my driver's license yet, but I only needed to have my permit one more month. Cassius and I gasped at what we saw.
Corbett had a new scar on his left cheek.
Cassius immediately ran up to Corbett, who put a smile on his face so as not to scare him. "Corbett, what happened?"
He tousled Cassius's short, blonde hair. "I just fell down on that rock path in my backyard. Nothing serious." I could see the pain and anger in his eyes and knew he was lying. If he ever got a new scar or bruise (it wasn't very common) and Cassius noticed, he would always tell him some story of how he got hurt. I was the only one who knew the truth.
Cassius bought his lie and the three of us walked him to school. He asked me a million questions about what his last day would be like. I answered every one of his questions whereas Corbett looked like he was about to turn into the Hulk. Luckily, about that time, we reached the school. I hugged Cassius and he dashed in without a goodbye.
I looked at Corbett. "What really happened?" I whispered as we walked towards our school.
He grit his teeth and growled, his hands turning into fists. "My mom got too drunk last night. Someday I'm just gonna… rrgh!"
I put my hand on his shoulder. "It won't be long before you can leave this town, do all those things you always talked about. Get a house, write novels about the stories I told you as a kid and forget about the past." I said. He had always wanted to write fictional novels about the Leafmen and Boggans, even though he no longer believed they were real.
"Jet, it's still two years away!"
"Well, it could be worse." I know that sounded dumb, but it was all I could think of saying.
"Well, someday I won't be the one being beaten!"
I stopped walking. "What do you mean?"
"It's my dad's fault! He left me knowing what I was going through! Someday… I'll hunt him down!"
"You can't be serious."
"I'm more serious than I've ever been in my life!" he growled.
"You won't do that, I know you won't!"
"How could you know that?"
"Because you're a better person than that!"
Corbett growled. "Jet, you just… don't understand! You have a brother, a mom that cares about you, a dad that didn't abandon you-"
"And you have friends that care about you! Have you forgotten about Cassius and I?"
Corbett was silent for a minute as he ran his fingers through his spiky, blonde hair. "…No. You two are all I've got." The pain was still evident in his eyes, but he forced a smile. I did the same.
I pushed a strand of my red hair out of my eyes and looked at my watch. "Hey, we've got fifteen minutes to get to class. Race you!" We both took off.
Four hours later-
Corbett and I were on our toes along with the rest of our biology class. The clock seemed to go slower with every passing second. Even our teacher (who everyone swore hated kids) was watching the clock with anticipation. We were all leaning over our desks when the bell finally rang. We all jumped up and sprinted out the door.
The two of us sprinted through the whole school and all the way out the main door, not caring about the "no running" rule. I was always really fast, so I lived up to the name Jet. Corbett was panting by the time he caught up to me at the end of the school yard.
"I can't believe a girl can outrun me!" he teased.
"Hey, a girl can do whatever a boy can do…" I smiled. "And girls can do it while wearing high heels!"
Corbett smiled. "I'd like to see you run that fast in high heels!"
I rolled my eyes and adjusted my heavy backpack that I was so glad I could ditch for three months. "Let's go get Cassius."
We ran to the elementary school and found Cassius celebrating with his friends. They were all exchanging summer plans. The second he saw Corbett and I though, he said goodbye to his friends and ran over to us. He nearly knocked me down when he hugged me.
"You ready for Junior High?" I asked him.
"I'm more ready for summer vacation!" he nearly shouted.
"Well let's go get started!" Corbett said, giving my little brother a noogie. We all ran back to my house.
I finally reached the porch (I had beaten the boys by a mile) and noticed something green fly away quite swiftly. I squinted to try and see what it was. It didn't look like a bug and it was faster than any bird I'd ever seen. Eventually, it vanished but not before I recognized it as a hummingbird.
I had never seen one before, but by the direction it was heading in, it was heading for the woods where my grandfather Bomba's house was.
When Cassius and Corbett finally reached the porch, I shrugged away the hummingbird and opened the door. We threw our backpacks on the ground and ran into the kitchen to get something to eat. When we reached it, we stopped short. My mother was usually at the kitchen table reading a book or in our office researching something. Today however she and my dad rushed into the kitchen with two suitcases. Dad had a piece of paper crumpled up in his hand.
"Oh you're home." Mom said.
"Yeah, today was a half day remember?" I asked.
"I'm going into Junior High mom!" Cassius announced and hugged our mom. She returned the hug, but she was quick about it. I noticed she looked worried. So did my dad.
"That's great sweetheart." she encouraged.
"Jet, Cassius, your mom and I have to go visit your Grandpa Bomba for a few days. He's sick and we need to take care of him." Dad said. Cassius and I gasped.
"Is he going to be okay?" I asked.
"He'll be fine, he just needs some help." Mom assured, but by the look on her face, I could tell something was seriously wrong.
"Can we come too?" Cassius asked.
"I'm afraid not champ." Dad said. "We need you guys to stay here and take care of things. We called Mrs. Carlson across the street and she's going to look in on you every now and then. Other than that, you guys are going to have to watch yourselves."
Something was definitely very wrong here. Mom and Dad never left us on our own for more than five hours. Why would they suddenly be doing so for more than one day?
"There's a list of emergency numbers by the phone and there's plenty of food in the cabinet and fridge. We love you guys and stay safe." They hugged us tightly and I could tell they were in a hurry. They didn't set any ground rules or anything. They dashed out the door before we had time to say we love you too.
"I hope Grandpa's okay." Cassius said to me. We rarely got to see our grandpa and when we did, he came down to visit us. Our houses were about an hour away from each other and he lived in a thick forest. Cassius looked at me with tears in his eyes.
I gently hugged him. "He'll be fine." I said. I didn't dare tell him how worried our parents had looked.
"Do you guys want me to stay here for a few days?" Corbett asked.
"Are you sure?" I asked. Corbett nodded. I smiled.
"Sleepover!" Cassius cheered and hugged Corbett, temporarily forgetting his worries. I on the other hand couldn't shake them no matter what I did.
To be continued