A/N: Yaaay, my second ficcy! This idea sorta just popped into my head randomly and I was like 'wow! I should use that as a ficcy idea!' So guess what! I am! Hah! Warning for those who have NOT finished FFX, there are potential spoilers in this ficcy and I'm only going to tell you once! So if you haven't finished it, close this browser window RIGHT NOW and go finish it! –cracks whip- it's worth your while! –nods- Umm... anyway.. please please PLEASE let me know if the main character starts turning into a 'Mary Sue' cause I DEFNINATLEY don't want that to happen! One of my friends warned me that I was 'toeing the line' so I guess I gotta be careful. –nods- anyway, onto the ficcy! I hope you enjoy!
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DISCLAMER: I do not own the Final Fantasy series company thing. Yet. –evil grin-
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Chapter One – Sketches under the Willow tree
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Report card day. The one day I hated the most in the entire school year. Granted, I never liked school, but report cards always seemed to ruin my day. Doing well in school was hard for me... it seemed no matter how hard I tried and no matter how much I studied I always seemed to fail a class or two. I started to walk towards the gymnasium where my High School always decided to hand out report cards. I knew for a fact I was going to face certain death once I got home with my report card to show my mother. I knew I failed math from the look of my final and maybe, just maybe I scraped by with a C in French.
Finding a spot in line for the grade ten report cards, I could already see the scene in my head with my mother when I got home.
'You're never going to get anywhere with these marks, Ember! How many times do I have to tell you that you have to buckle down and study more! Every day!'
'Mom, you know I have trouble in school and I always have, there's nothing we can do about it alright!'
'Nothing we can do about it, eh? We'll see about that, you're going to summer school.'
Then I would sigh loudly and storm off into my room, tugging at my long jet black hair while trying not to scream bloody murder at the top of my lungs. Oh yes, that was exactly how it was going to happen.
"Hey Em! You excited that school's out for the summer?"
I turned around to see my bubbly friend Jaymee bounce into line behind me. I should say my only friend. Somehow her and I got labeled as outcasts on the first day of grade nine. Neither of us could ever figure it out and finally came to accept the fact that we would never be accepted by the 'in' crowd, or the 'popular' people. High School cliques made me sick.
"Not really. I know for a fact my mom's going to send me to summer school. Again." I said, sighing. My mother started sending me to summer school against my will after grade six, even before my marks started slipping. I was doing fine in grade six but she decided to send me to summer school anyway. I would never know why she did... though I often liked to come to the conclusion that my mother was insane and needed to be committed.
"Rats, that sucks," Jaymee said, twisting one of her bouncy auburn curls on her index finger. "Why does your mom make you go anyway? She's been sending you there since what, grade six? That's just insane."
"I duno why," I admitted. "Seems to me that she thinks it'll better prepare me for next year or something."
Turning around I noticed that I was one person away from getting my report card from the secretary that was handing them out. My heart skipped a beat; this was the moment of truth. The moment I would find out whether or not I would be chained to the wall, hanging by my thumbs all summer in summer school. My marks always seemed to dictate how long I would spend in the concrete prison they called summer school.
"Name?" The blonde middle-aged secretary asked.
"Ember Yevon." I replied. My last name was supposed to be pronounced 'Yey-vonne' but everyone always found ways to vary the pronunciation.
The secretary pulled out a cream colored envelope from the box in front of her and handed it to me. "Have a good summer," she said, smiling.
"Thanks.." I said, forcing a smile. How was I supposed to have a good summer when I was to spend it in a concrete and tile cell, trapped on an uncomfortable wooden chair?
I waved to Jaymee; I didn't have time to share my marks. Not that I really wanted to at that. I had to catch my bus home.
Walking across the wooden floor of the Gym seemed to take forever. Outside lay my few minutes of freedom before my mother's screeching could be heard across town. Sighing, I pushed open the heavy doors and inhaled fresh air.
Just then my bus trundled by.
"Greeeeeeat," I muttered. Now I had to wait another half hour before the next bus came. Not that I was in any rush to get home.
Sighing, I let my backpack fall to the ground with a heavy thump underneath the willow tree in the school's front yard. Sitting down beside my backpack, I ripped open the envelope, wanting to get it over with.
Scanning the sheet in front of me I took in my marks for this semester. Math – 49, History – 64, English – 83, French – 55, Art – 96.
I muttered to myself as I dug out my sketchbook and art pencils. That stupid bitch of a math teacher couldn't pass me now could she? Noo she wanted to make me suffer all summer! Well now we knew where my real talents lay. Art and English. 'Whoopee, that's going to get me reaall far,' I thought to myself as I started to sketch on a blank piece of paper.
Fifteen minutes later I had finished a rough sketch of scenery that had been haunting my dreams for the past few weeks. In the distance were several people, all of whom I had never seen but in those dreams. In the sky above a girl with her hands raised over her head, a staff in one hand, hovered what I thought looked like a giant monster-like thing. It had a wingspan of at least ten feet, with claws for feet and a bird-like face. It looked like a monster, but somehow peaceful and harmless to the girl standing beneath it.
I sighed and brushed my fingertips over the lines of the scenery. I wanted to know what these dreams meant, if anything. I'd been having dreams with these seven people in it with scenery similar to the one I had just sketched. Some nights some of the seven people were missing, but in this sketch I had included all of them. I had never seen all seven of them in this scene in my dreams, with the tall palm trees of what looked to me like a tropical island, but I had wanted to include them all in my drawing.
Still running my fingers over the sketch, I stopped abruptly. My fingers were... tingling? Staring at the picture, my mouth dropped open into what passer-by would have thought was sheer joy at the drawing I had created. The look on my face wasn't joy... it was shock. I couldn't remove my fingers from the paper... they seemed stuck.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the page in front of me, even if I had wanted to. The page was slowly starting to fill itself with colour, faint at first but then vibrant, bright colors before my eyes.
My fingers started to slowly sink into the page before me. "What the bloody hell...?" I said out loud. My whole hand was now submerged in the paper itself. I could feel the paper drawing me into it, and with a sudden yank on my arm, all that was left under the willow tree were a few stray pencils.
A/N: Well? What'd you guys think? Good for a start? I hope so! Leave me reviews and suggestions about how you think Ember should react to what is going to happen next and how her attitude would be! You never know, I may just use your idea! –nods- Reviews = happy, inspired me! So if you want to see more, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do!