1
SAMANTHA
My thick fur coat seemed as if it wasn't even there, as with my other clothing. But, I knew it was, for if it wasn't, I surely would have felt the plane's freezing winds and emptiness. I was between planes, falling, falling quickly. So quickly, in fact, that the wind had completely thrown my hair out of its thick, tight braid. It was now flying freely, whipping my face. The terror that filled me was the only thing keeping my hands tight enough to hold onto the large cardstock cards which had been my constant companion, and had gotten me into this mess. I braced myself for the smack of my body against the barrier into the next dimension, but it never met me. Instead my body seemed to pass through a thick, viscous substance with a pop when I reached the other side.
And I was falling again, but this time truly falling. Everything was there, and my hair wasn't the only thing stinging my face. There was a light snow, and it bit my cheeks like a swarm of mosquitoes. Sadly for me, it was only a very, very light snow. Most likely the first. Not enough to create a soft, cold snow drift to break my fall. When my body flipped over and I saw the ground coming toward me, a loud, involuntary shriek escaped my throat. Loud enough to alert the young garden hand (I believe that was what he was) below me. He dropped his sheers into the snow and fled. I was within 100 yards of the circular shrub that was about twice my height. I braced myself for the crash of leaves, twigs and branches that would be my burial ground.
But it wasn't.
I landed in the garden hand's arms, who had climbed to the top of the brush. Normally, I would have wondered how he broke my fall, but I was too terrified to even think other than to notice that the world was becoming a bit darker than normal around the edges.
ᴕᴥᴕ
I nervously fingered the magic cards that were worn at the edges from use.
"Samantha? Samantha Weever? You're up, hun. It's your turn."
I exhaled loudly and gazed at the top card, the Fairy of the Highlands. Her message was "It's Time To Be Brave". Yeah, definitely. I didn't need The Cards to tell me that, I had known it all along. I tucked them back in their pocket of my plaited skirt. I straightened my tuxedo shirt, whose tails reached below my skirt, and picked up my USB Drive. I fumbled through my presentation on the pertinence and proof behind the chaos theory, and a short addressing of space time. Blushing profusely, I took my seat and Mrs. Krineery, my astro-physics teacher, smiled at me and nodded.
The rest of the class was silent and barely acknowledged my existence.
After class, Mrs. Krineery passed out grades and reviews. The only writing on my sheet was a circled ninety-eight and a short note that said she liked the fashion of my presentation and the relation between the space time continuum and a bowling ball and a sheet.
I walked out of the mass of much-older classmates and leapt on the bus leaving the high school. Even though I was thirteen, I took all high school and college classes, and got top grades, despite being the youngest. I had skipped so many grades that I knew no one in any of my classes, and they were all too old and biased to give me the time of day. So, each day I took the bus to hell, hung out there for seven hours, and took the bus out.
I took my seat and flipped through the pages of homework, quietly burning them all to ashes in my mind.
Thirty minutes later, I jumped off the bus and began the long trudge down my family's dirt driveway. Halfway down what would have been a twenty minute walk, I hopped on my pink 12-gear bike and zoomed down the bumpy road, slowing down only when I reached the wrought iron gates of our old mansion.
I carefully pulled open the large gate, staring at the shine of copper where my hands had worn the gates over years of opening and closing, and gazed up at my "home". It was imposing and slightly unsettling, considering it had more rooms than you could count, and was four stories tall. It was more like a Gothic themed hotel than "home". I meandered up the last piece of the driveway and pushed open the large doors.
"I'm back!"
My exclamation was met with the sounds of fervid typing to my right. This would probably be the sounds of my work-a-holic dad. I peered into his office and saw him hunched over, in the dark, staring at the screen, probably calculating stock averages. I suppose there were some advantages to having busy parents and a huge house. For one thing, no one bugs me (and on the rare occasion [read: like, never] that they do, they can't find me), I can do whatever I want, I have a credit card, and I get to explore the collective places I like to call 'remnants of owners past', which are basically the attic, the basement, and all the secret rooms that no one knows about but me.
It was no shock that when I had finished the climb to the third floor, I found my mom holding a meeting (read: party) with her co-workers, and my little brother playing Mario on his DS. He looked up, waved and returned to his game. I waved back and returned to my ascent.
Finally, I reached my destination, the fourth floor. My floor. Also the most interesting of the main floors, not including the dusty, unused basement and attic. I wandered down the carpeted hallway and wondered how long it had been since someone other than me had walked the fourth floor. Using a tail from my tuxedo shirt, I shined one the dusty windows that faced out back. It had warped over time, but I could make out the mossy gazebo and maple trees below me. I made a silent vow to wash the windows after I had finished my reading.
Pushing open my door, I ran over past the ancient bookshelves that had been there since I was born, pulled on my ancient fur coat and leapt onto my canopied bed.
The canopied bed which was one of the oldest pieces of furniture my family still used.
The same bed that gave me The Cards.
I flipped over onto my stomach, and stared at the ornately carved headboard, which if you looked at closely enough, you would notice that it was part of the wall. My vision focused on a single rose in the pattern. I pressed it in and the headboard tipped back, into the wall. With a firm grip on The Cards, I tumbled through the cramped space and landed with a thud in the next room.