The alarm buzzed in my ear an annoying reminder for the umpteenth time this year that I needed to get up and ready for school. I wasn't one to typically ignore the irritating device, but this morning was just one of those days where I really would have given anything to be able to hit the snooze button. I wasn't asking too much to have five extra minutes of sleep.
"Gemma, time to get up!"
My mother's sudden yelling was enough to get me upright in bed. There was a moment where I considered lying back down to finish my final five minutes, but that thought was quickly squashed when I remembered that she would just walk into my room in the next two minutes to roust me out of bed. That was decidedly more unpleasant than her yelling from the kitchen one floor below me. I had been through that unpleasantness more than enough times to know that I didn't particularly want to go through that this morning.
With a groan I pulled myself out of bed and went about finding my school uniform. Just like clockwork, there was a knock at my door with my mother on the other side.
"Gemma, are you up?"
"I'll be down now in a minute," I grumbled at the door.
"Good girl," she said in that chipper morning voice and went back down to the kitchen to finish breakfast like she always did.
Finding my white shirt and grey school skirt I pulled on my clothes and went to the bathroom, while grabbing the navy and red school tie, to wash my face and fix my hair. A good splash of cold water and a bit of scrubbing with a wash cloth usually did just the thing to wake me up the rest of the way. With a quick brush through my hair and letting it part wherever it happened to fall I took one final look at myself in the mirror. Ordinary blue eyes stared at my ordinary brown hair and deemed it acceptable. It wasn't like it was going to get much better than this.
I made a face at myself in the mirror which brought me out of my ridiculous obsession with trying to look like some super model. I was never going to be what the world thought was gorgeous, and that was okay with me. At least it meant that I ate real food and still had my real face unclogged by makeup. It also meant I could have a normal, uncomplicated life. If you were average looking–in other words, boring–most people would leave you alone unless they were genuine, not that I had much experience with that.
"Gemma, your breakfast is getting cold!"
Once again, my mother's shouting voice brought me back to reality. With another quick glance into the mirror I made my way to the kitchen and took a seat at the dining table where Mum had set out a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast along with some orange juice. Nothing like the breakfast of champions to get the day started. At least, that's what Dad would have said, if he was here. His job kept him away from home a lot, but while he was here we had some great times together.
"You're moving a bit slow today. What's going on?" my mother asked as she finished cleaning the pans she'd used.
"Nothing," I said with a stifled yawn. "It's just been one of those mornings."
"Mhmm," she hummed with that motherly gaze that always saw through everything. "And you staying up all night reading had absolutely nothing to do with it, right?"
Busted. My lousy poker face did nothing to help me. Somehow she always knew. She called it her Mum-o-vision, her special superpower. Dad said it was her Wife-senses tingling since she had been seeing through his own little deceptions since the time they were dating. Personally, I was convinced she was just part psychic. Mum said I would learn this ability when I became a mother. I wasn't totally sold on that, but that was supposedly how it was supposed to work.
"Sorry, Mum," I muttered through a bit of toast.
"We've talked about this, Gemma. You know how bad you are the next day," she lectured gently.
"I know. I couldn't help it. I just get sucked in, and one hour turns to two. It's just downhill after that."
"We had a deal, remember? Stay up as late as you want on weekends, but school nights you put the books away. I don't want to have to become the evil mum who has to lock all the books up to make sure you get some decent sleep."
"I promise, Mum. I'll even go to bed early tonight, if that'll make you happy," I said in an effort to placate her.
"What will make me happy is you getting a move on it. You're going to be late for school."
I glanced over at the clock to see that it was seven. That meant that the bus would be here sometime in the next two minutes. If I missed the bus, I would have to beg Mum to drive me to school. Somehow I got the feeling she wouldn't be feeling all too generous this morning given that she'd already figured out I had been up all night reading...again.
"I'll be fine, Mum. Don't worry," I said as I quickly scarffed down the last of my breakfast.
"'Don't worry' is the last thing a child should ever say to a parent. It just makes us worry more."
I smile at her knowing she's only half serious.
"Don't forget your blazer!"
I quickly run back to my mum and grab the blazer off her shouting a 'thank you' as I rush towards the door and onto the school bus waiting near my house.
"Cutting it a bit fine this morning?"
I turned around a bit in my seat and faced Laurence, the boy I had been sitting next to on the bus for the last couple of years. He was in the year below me and halfway through his GCSE's. We were still in the first couple of weeks of school and it was still rather obvious that I hadn't quite got used to the early mornings yet.
"Just a bit," I answered, which brought a brief smile to Laurence's face, before double checking that all of my schoolbooks and homework were in my bag. We spent the rest of the journey in silence as I tried not to fall back to sleep.
Once we arrived at school I made my way to registration to sign in–which was silly since the teachers just took attendance when you got to class anyway–feeling very thankful that I was now in sixth form, the last two years of high school which came with a whole set of privileges like being able to bring your mobile phone to school, providing it was on silent, and not having to queue outside in lines but stay in the warm building. It was now drawing into autumn, and I could start to feel the promise of a winter chill as I drew my blazer closer, cursing myself for forgetting a coat.
Spotting one of the few friends that I had left in school, I made a beeline for our usual desk. Most of the girls had left after their GCSE's–which I am sure is the government's answer to torture by giving all schools a national standardised test for all sixteen year olds that takes two years of our education to prepare for–choosing to go to college for the next two years rather than stay on for sixth form and do their A levels, the next round of torture that once again takes another two years to complete.
"Have you heard?"
"Heard what?" I asked inclining my head towards my friend Laura. She was everything I was not: she was confident and outgoing, she always seemed to able to say the right things at the right time, and I suppose it helped that she looked like a supermodel.
"That Mark Voltan is coming to our school to talk about our future!"
"Mark who?"
"Oh, Gem, you're so useless sometimes. Mark Voltan is one of the youngest successful entrepreneurs. At twenty one he owns one of the fastest growing import and export companies specialising in the moving of rare artefacts between museums and such. He's also been voted one of the top ten hottest bachelors in nearly every gossip magazine there is… and he's coming here… to our school… in Aberdare!"
I shook my head in exasperation as Laura seemed to be vibrating in her seat with excitement. Before I could comment further the bell rang, and we headed in opposite directions as Laura went to her art class, and I went to my English literature class. The class size was really small with only five other students as not many people had signed up for this option. Despite reading being one of my favourite pastimes, I always dread this class as the teacher seems to pick me out to answer all the questions as we are quite a quiet group.
The classroom was surprisingly empty when I got there and taking a brief look at the desk I saw a list of classes and assignments, which meant that the teacher wasn't in today. Writing down the essay title that she wanted us to work on, I once again relished in being a sixth former and not having to deal with substitute teachers since not only are we given more independence, but the subject content is more in-depth than what they are qualified for.
Not really feeling like starting the essay yet, I made my way to the sixth form common room and took out the book that had gotten me into trouble with my mum this morning: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. There is something about this series that just keeps drawing me in. I could read about Bella and Edward for days on end. It didn't seem to matter how many times I read this series; I could just never seem to get enough. They also reminded me of what my life was. That is, what I wish my life was. Aberdare, Wales was a lot like Forks, Washington: not very large and very boring. We even got a bit more than our fair share of rain. Now all that was missing was some mysterious boy that would fall madly in love with me and sweep away to his world. Vampire was a bit unrealistic, but there was such thing as modern day Prince Charming. Of course, they always went for people more like Laura: confident, charismatic, and gorgeous. So much for Prince Charming.
The rest of the school day passed quickly, and all too soon I was on the school bus making my way back home. The house was empty when I arrived, which wasn't too surprising as my mother often worked late now that I was older and more able to look after myself. Heading into the kitchen I grabbed a load of ingredients from the fridge before settling to make some spaghetti bolognaise.
While frying the meat I went through the list of homework that I had for that evening, which wasn't much as I had done quite a bit of it the previous couple of nights. Adding the onions and then eventually the sauce I placed some spaghetti into a separate saucepan and started to grate some cheese. When dinner was ready I set aside a plate for my mum that she could heat up later and went up to my room to eat while starting my English essay.
Placing my essay aside I glanced at the time and realised that I had been working for a couple of hours. Deciding that I deserved a well-earned break I grabbed the next book in the Twilight series, having finished the previous one in school, and lost myself within the world of vampires and werewolves… or shape shifters if you really wanted to get technical.
I sighed as I wearily placed the bookmark into my worn copy of New Moon. Glancing over at the clock on my bedside table I now understood why my eyes had been feeling heavier; my mum wasn't going to be pleased about this in the morning. Despite closing the book, I was reluctant to put it down. I desperately wanted to read to the end or at least until Bella left Italy. I could feel another yawn coming and knew that my fight against sleep had failed. I placed New Moon into my bag on the floor that held the other books in the series and slipped into a dreamless sleep.
My eyes fluttered open as my mind pondered on why my alarm hadn't woken me up. Stretching out my arm I tried to find my alarm clock, but all I met was air where my bedside table should have been. It was at that moment that I realized I was no longer on my nice, comfy bed. No, the surface beneath me was hard, cold, and most assuredly not my bedroom floor. That floor was carpeted. The surface beneath me was marble. Confusion and panic started to cloud my mind as my gaze darted around in an attempt to figure out what the heck was going on. This wasn't my room. This wasn't even my house. Feeling out of depth, I almost looked for a little black dog as I thought, Toto we're not in Kansas anymore.
A/N- So I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this but I was feeling very impatient so I hope you liked this. If you didn't catch it I have changed the preface, I am currently rewriting this story to give it a bit of depth that it was lacking with the help of an amazing beta FireStallion. Hopefully the next chapter will be up in the next week or two.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Tawny Owl
