Lou started awake early Tuesday morning, promptly smacking her alarm clock, and rolling back over crossly.
" Dumb birds," she muttered to no one in particular, covering her head with her pillow in attempt to muffle the cheery chirping coming from outside her window, " Don't they have anything better to do?"
" Lou! Are you up?!" Harper called loudly downstairs.
She could practically hear his jolly smile.
Ugh. Freaking morning people.
" Yeah!" Lou yelled back, reluctantly dragging herself from her warm bed.
The frigid wood floor was unpleasant beneath her feet, but she didn't register it in her mind, as she hurried out of her bedroom for the bathroom.
Terry, coming from his room from across the hall, had the same destination. Lou sped up, but her big brother was faster, and he shoved her aside, making her land on the floor with a dull thud, and he tauntingly danced into the bathroom before slamming the door and locking it.
Lou huffed from her place on the floor, rolling her eyes at her brother's childish behavior. This is what she got for being the youngest. And the maturest.
Her father's door opened to her left, and he stopped short when her saw her lying in the hallway.
Gunner Greenbriar was a man of 6'2, with a curt, brooding nature and loud, low voice that rumbled. He was sort of unapproachable, with cold, emotionless eyes that made you squirm.
Lou and all of her brothers took after him; All tall, freckly, and brunette, with a slightly cleft chin and arching eyebrows.
Only Lou was a bit different. While her father and brothers had brown eyes, Lou had green. Her mother's eyes. Perhaps that was why her father would never look her in them.
" What're you doing?" Gunner asked her, raising an eyebrow.
Lou's befuddled, morning-mind told her to growl, " Don't judge me." But she thought better of it, sliding her blank mask on and kept her tone bland as she fibbed, " I fell."
No point in whining about it like some little baby. She thought.
" Well, try not be so clumsy." Her father said, his voice snappish.
" Yes sir." Lou got up robotically, making her way downstairs for breakfast without looking at her father again.
She plopped into her seat, looking from the towering stack of pancakes on her plate, to the twins, who were each wolfing down a bigger stack.
" Eat up, Little Lou," said Ray thickly, a bit of syrup dribbling down his chin. " Then maybe you'll actually put some meat on those bones," Ronny continued laughingly, gesturing to her skinny arms and chugging a glass of milk.
Lou didn't reply, and reached across the table for the cereal box, only to see Mike sit down and snatch it first.
He smirked at her, pouring the cereal into his bowl with some milk, and chomping his bites deliberately.
" Oh, Lou," Harper exclaimed suddenly, his voice taking on that horrible, 'mother hen' tone, "You're not going to school like that, are you?" He pointed fussily at her ruffled appearance.
Lou only shrugged as though to say, "Whatever," and settled on shoving a whole piece of toast in her mouth before going back upstairs and into the bathroom at last.
She grabbed a towel from the cabinet and turned on the shower, only pausing when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror.
Lou observed that her bed head was worse than usual; her hair nothing more than a massive amount of tangles, her bangs jutting upward as though they'd been curled that way.
No wonder Harper was so worried.
Sometimes, she thought he was going to be majoring in cosmetology and not political science.
She tore her gaze away from the mirror to step into the tub, not at all shocked to find the water was cold; her brothers always used all the hot water.
Fifteen minutes later, she stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself in the towel and standing in front of the mirror once more.
Lou pulled the wet hair from her eyes, drying it, then brushing it.
She hated brushing it. It was the worst part, the old bristles scrapped her scalp and tugged on the particularly stubborn knots in her hair.
After her hair was relatively tame, and there was a fair bit of it stuck in the brush, she hastened out of the bathroom and into her room to dress.
Dressing was just a task for her. All her clothes were never really hers, only faded hand-me-downs from her brothers, and one old dress of her mother's for church.
The only place she'd be caught dead wearing a dress.
By the time she'd marched back downstairs, her brothers were done with breakfast, and her bus was honking outside.
" Bye!" Lou called hurriedly, pulling on her hoodie and backpack.
She hit the porch running; she couldn't miss her bus, then she'd have to walk to school and be late, which meant detention.
She hissed bitterly as she realized it was raining, but kept running as she yanked up her hood.
Of course, she didn't bring her umbrella.
At times like these, she swore the universe had it out for her.
Lou skidded to a halt in front of the huge vehicle and boarded immediately.
She absolutely loathed Tuesdays. Tuesday was Wen's worst day. He seemed to be at the peak of his bullying on this day, even going as far to beat people up.
" Well, well," he said, catching her by her soaked sleeve as she passed by, " Did the poor wittle farm gwirl forget hewr umbwella?" By his side, Andy sniggered loyally.
Lou jerked her arm away emotionlessly, and slipped into her seat, looking out the window at the grey sky, blurred by the pelting rain drops.
Pitter patter, pitter patter, they went.
She tapped her hands on her knees, going for a similar sound.
Pat pat, pat pat, they went instead.
She liked it.
Pitter patter, pitter patter, pat pat, pat pat- " Hey, Greenbriar!" said a female voice.
Oh, perfect. Because Wen wasn't bad enough.
That would be GiGi Jeffrey, the leader of a preppy trio of girly-girl eight graders, called the Glossers.
GiGi was pretty enough, with flowing red hair and clear grey eyes, but she wasn't nearly as nice on the inside. She was possibly the meanest female to walk the Earth. She always wore some ridiculous shade of pastel and too much make up.
She had two minions as well.
One of them was Abby Clark, a thin faced, blonde girl with such a high-pitched voice she sounded like a cartoon character. She seemed to be second in command, judging by the way GiGi always went, " Abby!", followed by an order or a question.
The other was Bonnie Finns, a brunette girl who was easily the best-looking of all the Glossers. She had a glittering smile, big blue eyes, and a simper as sweet as honey.
GiGi seemed to shove Bonnie to the back, so that she couldn't eclipse GiGi's own beauty and authority.
There were three things that you could be sure about with this little trio;
One: the Glossers were going to wear too much lip gloss, their trademark.
Two: the Glossers were going to strut around in heels fit to break ankles.
And three: the Glossers were going to torture Lou Greenbriar.
" Hey, she's talking to you, Lou-ser!" Abby squeaked.
" Like my new coat?" GiGi asked Lou patronizingly, straightening her extravagant pink puffy jacket.
" Oh, Gi, this fur is so soft, what is it?" Abby trilled wonderingly, fingering the fur adorned hood, as Bonnie threw in a wide eyed, "Ooh!"
" It's genuine fox fur," purred GiGi impressively as her minions exclaimed, "Oh!", in unison.
Lou knew what they were doing. They were trying to make her jealous and insecure because they had money to buy new, expensive clothes and she didn't.
Only thing was, there was no way in heck she'd want that huge, pink monstrosity GiGi was wearing.
Lou drummed her fingers on the desk, staring blankly at the big, dry-erase board.
Math is stupid, she resolved, not understanding any of the problems, When am I going to use this crud anyway?
Apparently, the teacher thought that every time they say a circle, they would want to know the circumference of it!
The urge to bang her head on the desk was becoming overwhelming.
" Howdy there," whispered Wen's annoying voice in her ear. " Are them math prob'ems too dang hard for the dumb lil' farmer gal?"
Was he seriously imitating her slight hint of a southern accent? Seriously?
Kill me now. She thought, letting her head go plunk onto the desk.
Lunch was worse than math. Sure, it was usually people's favorite period, next to recess. But not Lou's.
All she wanted to do was sit and eat her peanut-butter sandwich, but no, because Lou could never have a moment's peace.
The Glossers sat across from her, smiling widely in false innocents.
" Oh, hello there, Lou," said GiGi. " We were wondering if you would eat with us," Bonnie asked sweetly.
Lou stared blankly.
Abby grinned a little bigger. " So will you?" She squeaked.
Lou looked from GiGi to her minions to the 'popular' table, which was full of the coolest kids in school, looking over at her, smug and expectant.
Something was definitely up.
" No," Lou answered finally, biting into her sandwich.
GiGi looked startled. " What d'you mean, 'no'?" She demanded, frustration coming into her voice.
" I mean no." Lou said indifferently. " You should be jumping up and down at the chance to sit with us, farm girl!" Abby squealed angrily.
Lou shrugged.
They probably just wanted her to sit over there so they could dump their protein-shakes in her lap or something.
The bell rang; end of lunch hour.
Lou walked away from the Glossers unconcernedly, though inwardly grinning at the looks on their faces.
Since it was still raining, recess was cancelled, meaning that they would have inside-recess. And that meant...
" Dodgeball! Why does it have to be dodgeball!" Lou exclaimed to herself, ducking to avoiding being smacked by a red ball.
The sounds of rubber colliding with skin and yelps of pain echoed through the gym.
Wen and Andy ruled this game, hitting people left and right, guffawing as their schoolmates winced and cried out when the ball hit them.
Lou, having grown up with brothers, two of them sports stars, had yet to be hit.
She lifted her leg as a dodgeball flew at her, and it zoomed under her, finding some other target. " Ha!"
Suddenly, a ball was speeding toward her face, this time finding its mark.
Her nose.
" OW!" Lou fell backwards onto her butt, clapping a hand over her face. Something warm and wet was seeping from her nostrils; the blood ran down her lips, stubbornly infiltrating its way into her mouth, filling it with that tangy metal taste. Her eyes watered and she almost didn't notice that the game had stopped. Almost.
" Ha, ha," gloated Wen, now standing over her. " Guess the farm girl can't do anything-" He was cut off as Lou stood up abruptly, not giving anyone or thing a backwards glance as she skulked off.
Though she took extra care to bump roughly into Andy's shoulder on her way out, the gym doors swinging shut behind her.
Once gone, she broke into a run, suddenly feeling self-conscious, as a few meandering students in the hall started to stare at her.
" I'm fine." She muttered, trying hard to convince herself.
Lou didn't need any help.
She didn't need to run, crying, to the nurse like an overdramatic wimp. Then the nurse would call Lou's father, and it would be a whole big deal.
She was fine. Just fine.
She sped into the girls' bathroom, yanking some paper towels out of the dispenser and began mopping up her dripping nose.
" Dodgeball. Why did it have to be dodgeball?" Lou sighed again.
Needless to say, at the end of the day, when Lou slunk back to her bus she was exhausted and far more cynical than usual, but it was well masked by her bored face and dead eyes. It always was.
She sat in the front of the bus, because she would be the first to get off today.
Lou was going to go straight to Mr. Aarons', as he'd told her to be early the day before.
The ride was the usual, loud, bumpy, balled up paper hitting her in the back of the head.
The bus began to approach the familiar dirt road and Lou stood up, giving the bus driver an explanation, and then jumping down from the vehicle, skipping the steps all together.
Mighta misplayed that, she chided herself, as her nose gave an unpleasant throb.
She couldn't believe it was still raining. The world hated her.
She pulled up her hood bad-temperedly.
Lou walked carefully down the muddy path, to see Mr. Aarons out on the porch, waiting with an umbrella.
" Hey there," he called, squinting at her. He could probably see her swollen nose even from there.
" Hi, sir." Lou greeted back unenthusiastically, standing awkwardly in front of him.
" Bad day?" Mr. Aarons chuckled, tilting the umbrella over her.
" I've had worse," Lou shrugged.
They set off back down the path, but veered down another one, leading through fields.
" What happened?" asked Mr. Aarons, curious and concernedly.
But Lou wasn't listening, as she'd just caught sight of something unusual. " Whoa," she breathed in awe as they came to a stop.
There was a wooden bridge, over a gurgling creek.
It was probably the coolest thing she'd ever seen. It had an arch of tree branches, at the top of which sat a sign shaped like a shield.
" Nothing crushes us," Lou read aloud, eyes tracing over the faded paint.
" That's right." Mr. Aarons smiled.
" Where does this lead, sir?" Lou asked, looking up at him.
" Terabithia." He told her, his eyes gazing up at the sign fondly.
" I've never heard of that." She tilted her head, puzzled.
" I shouldn't think so, only two people alive know about it." Mr. Aarons said.
Lou's brow furrowed.
" Let's go," Mr. Aarons started ahead, and Lou ducked back under the umbrella to follow.
He led Lou through a kind of forest, stopping in front of an old, broken down truck.
There was a wind chime on it.
" What happened to it?" Lou questioned, inspecting it.
" The Dark Master doesn't like outsiders." said Mr. Aarons sagely.
" The Dark who?" Lou was bewildered.
" Look over there." He pointed to a kind of treehouse.
" Oh, wow!" exclaimed Lou, abandoning the shelter of the umbrella to run over to it. It had a tarp over it, and a swing underneath.
Like the bridge, it appeared to have been built by children.
" Can I go in?" Lou wondered. " You may enter my palace." Mr. Aarons nodded.
Lou raised an eyebrow before climbing the ladder into it.
The inside of the house was full of drawings and paintings, kept safe by the tarp. Lou saw that the drawings progressively got better and better, and she realized the first one was probably done by someone her age.
" Did you make these, sir?" Lou asked, voice full of wonder.
" Yep." Mr. Aarons answered.
Lou examined one of a large, greenish creature. " What's this?"
" That's the troll." He said lightly, as though trolls were normal.
" And this one?" Lou pointed at a painting of something that looked rather like a dragonfly.
" That's a Terabithian Warrior. From the Treetop Provinces." Mr. Aarons said in a matter of fact sort of way.
Lou felt disoriented, never had she been more confused in her life. " I don't think I understand, sir." She said slowly.
" What do you mean?" Mr. Aarons asked.
" This game," Lou elaborated, " I don't know how to play."
Mr. Aarons smiled.
" This isn't a game. It's for real."
Lou sighed.
Was Mr. Aarons a victim of dementia or something? Was he seeing things? Or was she just not seeing things?
Lou looked up at him. " Show me." She demanded, not willing to be in the dark any longer.
" Alright." He was still smiling.
Mr. Aarons led her through the forest, to a tall tree.
He climbed up and stared off into the distance. " Come on," he called to Lou, not looking away.
Lou climbed up tentatively.
" This is my kingdom." Mr. Aarons said placidly.
Lou gazed outward like him, but all she saw were a bunch of grassy hills and fields. " It's not much," she commented, humoring him.
Mr. Aarons laughed. " Close your eyes." He said.
She obliged. " Now what?"
" Just keep your mind wide open." He whispered.
With that Lou opened her eyes.
She was literally at a loss for what to say except for, " Oh my God."
Mountains, hills, valleys, a sparkling river! Lush purple flowers everywhere. A huge castle, strange creatures, bells, it was amazing.
When she looked back at Mr. Aarons, there was a shining silver crown in his head. " Welcome to my world, Lou."