Chase Turnleaf had never expected to fall so hard.
He was unaccustomed to even the idea of falling, not having thought about it for more than a second-or two, at most. He had no reason to consider it. Why let himself be crushed on the ground below? Why, when he had wings?
He had absolutely no use for falling. Actually, nobody did. So what was the point? Gravity would never win against him. He very much preferred to fly, anyway.
But then came Rory Landon, with her brown hair and hazel eyes and a face much like the one in his birthday dream. He could tell he would know her for a very long time, but that was all that was clear to him then.
But then Chase fell from a beanstalk with Rory.
And then he fell for Rory.
And he was pulled in by her gravity.
And rather than being crushed . . . he found he had a crush. On Rory. Of course on Rory.
A hopelessly large crush on Rory.
Rory Landon was afraid of falling.
Her fear of heights made certain things a lot harder, like the time she had to climb a beanstalk for Lena's Tale. Or come down it. That had been nearly impossible.
But she had to conquer that fear for her friends, for her destiny, and for her life, ironically. Of course it hadn't been easy.
Fear wasn't supposed to make things easy.
But when she was on the beanstalk, and she realized that she'd land safely, she found it easy to let go.
When she realized that if she fell for Chase, she'd land safely, she found it easy to let go.