"Sarah, wait up." 16-year-old Amy Miller yelled out as she trudged through the snow to catch up with her best friend, Sarah. It was a brisk December day on that Thursday morning and Sarah waited patiently for her friend to catch up.
"Hi Sarah." Amy panted as she caught her breath.
"Hey Amy. What's up?" Sarah asked as the two strolled toward school together.
"Not much, I didn't get much sleep last night. The new baby was up all night." Amy complained as she stifled back a yawn. Sarah nodded.
"I remember those days when Toby was a crying fiend. I'm so glad he's old enough to sleep through the night now." She replied hastily.
"Your parents went out again last night, didn't they?" Amy asked, remembering Sarah's long-winded complaints about it the previous day at school.
"My father and my step-mother went out." Sarah corrected her. "What else is new? I feel like Cinderella." Sarah's voice was whiny as usual, but her best friend Amy was used to it. Sarah was such a drama queen, complaining about her life in a poetic way, always reading with her head in the clouds. Amy was the complete opposite. She hated her life, it was true, but she managed to get by with keeping it all to herself. Sarah made it her life mission to make sure everybody knew all about her little problems. Sometimes it really irritated Amy, but Sarah was her only friend, her best friend. The two had been through so much together.
"Well, did you get your homework done?" Amy asked as she looked at her friend. Sarah shrugged.
"Yes, after I read the Labyrinth a little bit." Sarah replied and Amy rolled her eyes.
"You and that stupid book. I swear you read it like fourteen times a week. You should read different books." She said with a laugh.
"You make fun, but you haven't experienced it like I have." Sarah said firmly. Amy nodded.
"Oh that's right, you've been in the Labyrinth and met the Goblin King. Sarah, I still think it was a dream or something. You know there's no such thing as Goblin City or Jareth the Goblin King." Amy said bluntly. She was never afraid to say what she was thinking, and she knew Sarah was going to get all defensive, but she didn't care. Her best friend had to grow up and realize her fantasies were not reality. They were, after all, in the eleventh grade. They weren't children anymore.
"Amy, why don't you just believe me?" Sarah stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "The Goblin King kidnapped my little brother when I wished him away and I had to go through thirteen hours of hell trying to find him in this Labyrinth." She snapped. Amy raised her eyebrows.
"Sarah, I think you just read that book too much. Convient how your story fits perfectly to the plot of your book. Sarah, you're my best friend, but I think you're just making it up for attention or something. You…you to tend to overly dramatize things." Amy confessed. Sarah's eyes widened.
"Fine, you don't have to believe me. I know what happened. I don't need your belief. I did meet the Goblin King and I saved my brother, though sometimes I wish I hadn't. You just wouldn't understand, Amy. Maybe one day, you'll find yourself in Goblin City. Then you'll wish you had listened to me." Sarah turned and walked away, leaving Amy standing there, shaking her head. She knew Sarah would get over this and talk to her again. Sarah tended to get angry a lot and tell people off. Amy was used to it.
She continued her walk to school, kicking a stone along the way, thinking about Sarah's story. She wondered why she so firmly believed it. Maybe it's psychological or something. Maybe she believes it because she keeps telling herself it's what she wants. Or maybe she's doing it for attention. Or maybe she had a very realistic dream or something. Amy knew what those were like. Nightmares haunted her every night of her father who so badly beat her as a child. She was so thankful he finally left her and her mom alone. But then her mom remarried and they had a child together. This was why Sarah and Amy got along so well. They came from the same situations, give or take a few details. Yet they were still so different. Sarah in her light clothes, blouses and jeans, while Amy wore a lot of darker clothing. They dealt with their emotions in different ways as well. Amy was glad she had Sarah; she just wished she could figure out why she was still creating a false story after a year. For a brief moment as she walked to school, she stopped and thought, what if it is true? What if there really is a Goblin King? Little did she know that brief thought that disappeared rather quickly would open the door to disaster.
