Authors note: Oooopsie. In the last chapter I said that Jareth had green eyes, but they are really supposed to be one brown and one green… So, err, I fixed that. Thanks for the reviews! :D *hint* They made me update… *hint* … I'M SICK! …No, not sick of you. Just sick. Fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose… the works. And if I don't get better by Friday night, I'll miss out on midsummer nights dream. So, for now, I'm trapped in my room surrounded by my own tissues and strepsil packets, wishing this bloody sickness away… Wishing the goblin king with pop in wearing those pants… Sorry, it's the fever. I swear… :D Umm.. If anyone goes to a high school in Rockford, then please pm me… Is it a dump? Well mine is… so… Just.. :P Sorry, I'll shut up now. Read on.
Janine pushed her way through the crowded hallway of her small high school in Rockford, Illinois. The place was a dump. But they had better music and performing arts then any other school in the area.
Janine loved acting and singing. Acting was something she inherited from her mother, or so her grandparents and uncle Toby said. But mum doesn't act. She's a receptionist.
And Janine did not believe in 'inheriting' talents from your parents. Anyway, where did she get her voice from? Her love of rock music from the late 70s and early 80s? The rest of her family called it ghastly noise.
She smiled to herself as she made her way to literature class with her heavy book-filled backpack slung over her shoulder.
Well maybe she got that from her father. The mystery man that she has never met and knows nothing about. Her mother always told her not to bring that up whenever she asked. And uncle Toby was certainly no help at all. He was to busy with surfing and skating. He was immature for a thirty-one year old…
Janine stopped at the front of her classroom and peeked inside through the small square window on the door. At least fifteen people were sitting at the various tables scattered across the room. Her teacher was standing at the whiteboard writing up the work for the day.
Janine winced when she looked up at the clock. She was late. Damnit. I thought I was early, what with all the people in the hallway.
She opened the door, careful not to make a sound, and stepped inside. She tiptoed over to her seat, with half the class giving her suspicious looks.
"Your late, Williams." Said the gruff voice of her teacher, Mr. Colmo. He always named his students by their last names.
Biting her lip, Janine turned on her heel and faced her Literature teacher. He glared down at her through glasses that enlarged his eyes to the size of watermelons.
"I'm sorry, sir. I thought I was early." She mumbled. Janine had never liked Mr. Colmo. Loved the class, but hated who taught it.
He grumbled to himself as he crossed his arms, making himself look big and tough. "You better be. You're lucky you are my best student, Williams…" She walked over to her seat by the window and sat down with a sigh as he said this. Janine enjoyed reading and always finished the books they studied earlier then everyone else. She gained a lot of teasing for that, but she always shrugged it off. "But don't think I'm letting you off that easily. Detention at lunch."
"But, Mr. Colmo, I have band practice!" She exclaimed. She was the lead guitarist of a small band with 3 other boys. She had wanted to be the lead singer, but didn't have the guts to stand up and take it.
"You should know by now that I don't care." He muttered in an indifferent voice.
"Yeah, Williams." The boy sitting in front Janine teased. She turned to face him with a 'don't mess with me' look on her face. It was Bradley. A boy in her year with scruffy black hair and pimples scattered all over his face. It was a wonder he wasn't teased as much as she was.
"Shut your trap, Jones. I'm not in the mood for you right now." Mr. Colmo said calmly.
Bradley glared at him when he wasn't looking, before returning to playing his Nintendo secretly under the table.
Janine frowned, staring out the window at the lush green oval. A group of boys in sweats were playing soccer. One of them kicked a goal, his teammates cheering him on.
Janine turned her head back to Mr. Colmo. He was now sitting at the small desk in front of the whiteboard, typing away at his small laptop.
She read the work on the board, groaning to herself. They had to write a three hundred word essay on Gulliver's travels. And that was after they had finished reading the damn book. Janine had been busy lately with the school production and hadn't had a chance to read at all. She'd been to busy memorizing her lines.
She leaned back in her chair and stared out the window again. There was now a white and light brown owl perched in the branches of the tree just outside the window. It seemed to be staring right at her.
"Why, hello there owl… why do you stare at me like that? Surely you should be sleeping right now." She whispered. Janine had always adored animals. Especially mystical creatures that existed only in the pages of her books. She knitted her brow in confusion. The owl really shouldn't be there. But when she looked back out the window, it was gone.
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The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Janine sneaked out of detention to get to band practice, only to find that it was cancelled because the drummer – Jackson – was sick.
She then went off to the cafeteria with Will, the lead singer and Connor, the bass guitarist. Upon seeing the disgusting selection of sloppy burgers and greasy chips, Janine passed lunch. She left Will and Connor in the cafeteria and headed out to the library.
When Janine arrived at the school's large library, she gladly found it mostly empty of other students. She then walked over to the shelves closest to her and ran her fingertips over the spines of the books as she walked. She soon came to a laminated card stuck to the wall above her with a snake curved to make a capitol S.
Janine scanned the spines with her eyes until she found Gulliver's travels. It wasn't that she didn't like the book; it was just that school made it mind-numbingly boring. One can only probe and probe at something for a certain amount of time before you start shying away from it.
But Janine wasn't about to fail literature just because she found the novel boring. Oh, no. That was a high crime, in her eyes. Especially if she wanted to be a scriptwriter or author or anything else of that nature.
She clutched the book to her chest and walked towards the back of the library, where a couple of tables and sofas were scattered. Janine stopped in her tracks and bit her lip.
She sighed, turned around and walked back to the shelves. She found the C-section and found Alice in wonderland there in golden binding. She smiled to herself and continued walking towards the back of the library.
Janine sat down with a heaving sigh. She crossed her legs in an Indian position and opened Gulliver's travels. She thumbed through the introduction with a furrowed brow until she finally came to the beginning of the story. And fifty-three pages in, I finally find the first chapter of this dreary book. My, of my. She thought to herself.
After half an hour of reading the well-read novel, Janine put the book down and frowned. She had at least forty-five minutes left until she had to go to music class. That was all very well, but she had to sing 'Love me tender' in front of the entire class. Well, it was a good song, but singing it while shaking with terror won't be good at all.
It was her fault the teacher had told her to sing. If you had not been singing in class, without thinking about the people around you and, more importantly, the teacher at the front of the classroom then you wouldn't be worrying about such things.
She picked up Alice in wonderland and opened up to her favourite part, the mad hatter's tea party. She giggled silently every time the hatter made a remark.
Janine noticed the book before her darkening. The table and couch to. It was as if someone had dimmed the lights. But when she looked up, she realized it was merely a shadow of someone standing behind her.
She turned around in her seat to face the mystery person, expecting to meet the brown eyes of her best friend, Cassie. But there was no one to be seen. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, Janine turned back to look at the table where she had first seen the shadow. Again, there was nothing there.
She rubbed her eyes, tiredly. Congratulations, Janine, you have gone nuts. She thought sullenly.
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:\ Wellsies. Enjoy it? Well then. Review or pm me. And umm I-…… RAAARACHOO!…… D: That sucks. Anyway, I'll be fine. Nothing a little magic dance, Jimi Hendrix and Queen can't fix…
