Chapter One:
The Beginning of an Adventure
James Clayton sat in the road crying. The twelve year old was soaking wet, mostly because of the rain crashing down on his unsheltered body, but also because he was sitting in a puddle. His butt was cold and saturated, but he didn't notice for his tears would not stop falling. His fists tried to fight them off, wiping each one that fell, but the tears were too much and his fists were outnumbered. The wail he elicited hurt every passerby's ears, but all they did was quicken their pace as they left the child to cry in the puddle behind.
All James wanted was to be happy, but like every day Sarah was there to ruin it for him. She had been waiting behind a tree, watching all the kids leave for home as the school bell rang. Her eyes narrowed and an evil smirk appeared across her cute yet overly dastardly face when James appeared with his yellow umbrella.
It had been raining all day and James hated getting wet. He held up his yellow umbrella with pride, it saved him from the rain and made a soothing plip plop as the rain drops hit and rolled off it. For some reason Sarah was ignoring him that day, and he was in bliss. For the first time in weeks he was able to eat his lunch without an incident, could spend time reading under a tree during recess, and even raise his hand in class without Sarah behind him like a shadow scheming to embarrass, humiliate, or torture him. So, with a smile, James left school and enjoyed his walk back home, until Sarah appeared from behind a tree.
She quickly pushed him to the ground, his butt splashing down into the growing puddle. She giggled as she twirled in front of him, dancing in the rain. James' umbrella was knocked from his hands and was being pushed by the wind away from him. After his initial shock at being pushed into a puddle, he held back the tears that were trying to come, and reached for his protective yellowness. But, Sarah saw this and squatted down, filled her cupped hands with dirty muddy water, and threw it at James' face. The water stung his eyes and the boy screamed. It felt like a thousand tiny needles decided to poke his eyes. He was sobbing at this point, his hands made into fists as he tried to get the muddy water out of his eyes. Sarah laughed, stared up into the cloudy sky soaking in the rain, and then skipped off enjoying getting wet on such a wonderful day.
The rain and wind picked up, tousling James' hair and sending his umbrella down the road to God knows where. People passed James, their faces turning into an unpleasant frown as they quickly walked away from him. James wept in the puddle for a while, not really sure how long, until he finally was able to see again. At this point his clothes were drenched and water logged. He felt uncomfortable, violated, and ready to die.
With a sigh and a sniffle he picked himself up, tried looking for the umbrella that his aunt gave him, and headed home without any luck. Throughout the walk home, James was sniffling and on the verge of another breakdown, but he tried to keep it in. No matter how uncomfortable, cold, wet, snotty he was he would try and not cry again, at least for the day. The rain came down like a storm, the wind blowing the drops of water into James' face, making his face not only cold and wet, but pained by the tiny pricks the wind and water was pelting him with.
When he finally got home, the house was dark. His mother was still at work, and will still be at work until after dinner. James clumsily took off his water logged shoes and threw them at the doorway to dry. As he went straight for the bathroom he was taking off his articles of clothes, trying not to be in his wet clothes for too long. Dumping his water soaked clothes into the hamper, he drew himself a bath, hot of course, and slowly made his way into it. James cleaned his nose with his arm, thinking how in just seconds Sarah had ruined his near perfect day. He wondered why she did that, why she always picks on him, but he couldn't come up with an answer.
Feeling sad, James got out of the tub, dried off, drained the water, and made an attempt at eating a lonely dinner, before going to his room and putting on his pajamas. He wore the blue fuzzy ones, where the top and bottoms matched. They always made his nights much more comfortable and for some reason always cheered him up. He smiled slightly, the first since Sarah pushed him, and crawled onto his bed. He got under the covers and snuggled up to his big pillow. The pillow was the softest pillow that James had ever slept on, it carried him to dreamland so fast. But before he closed his eyes James grabbed his stuff animal Fluffy. Fluffy was a red and purple rabbit that had six tails. His aunt had given it to him when he was born, and when he questioned her when he was older on what kind of rabbit it was she told him she didn't know, but thought that it was from a cartoon years ago. James brought fluffy close to his chest, smelling his fur always drifted him off to sleep quicker and with one final snuggle James was off to dream land.
"Hey, Jamesy boy wake up!"
James blinked, trying to get the sleep out of his eyes as sunshine glared down at him. He tried to grab the covers and shield his face from the dreaded sun, but when he searched around he couldn't find it.
"You're not gonna find your blanket if that's what you're looking for."
At this James opened his eyes wide, he didn't recognize the voice that was talking to him. Who's in my room? he thought, but when he looked around he noticed that he wasn't in his room. He wasn't on his bed, sleeping on his pillow, or home. Around him stood a forest, with trees taller than skyscrapers and grass cozier than his own bed. He whirled around trying to find where he was.
"Wha….huh…ah….?" muttered James as he took in his surroundings.
"Jamesy boy, don't panic," the voice said. James whirled around quicker trying to locate it. All he could see was trees that blocked out the sun, making them dark and scary, but he was lying in a small field within the nest of trees. His heart was pounding and his eyes were wide trying to find out who was talking to him before it came again, "down here silly."
James looked down to see a red and purple rabbit with six tails grinning up at him. A bit of static could be seen jumping from tail to tail on him. He had big eyes and fur that you could curl up in.
"Fluffy?" asked James a little unsure of himself.
"Welcome to the Digital World!" cried Fluffy, giving James a huge grin that showed his pointed teeth. James wobbled for a bit as he took in his stuffed animal talking and moving, before he collapsed onto the ground.
"James?" asked Fluffy confused.