Chapter One: Bad Day!

Chantal twirled her led pencil as she sat in class at the end of the long round table, which sat in the middle of the Graphics classroom. She blinked, trying to stay awake for the lecture that was being given. It was rare for her teacher to give a lecture on a Friday, especially for the last hour of the three-hour class. They usually only had the three hours to work on any projects they were currently doing. She sighed as the lecture continued; the piece of paper in front of her was full of little scribbles and drawings. 'School is almost over, ' she told herself. This morning hadn't been going that great for the twenty-one year old. She had forgotten her assignments at home, the computers had been hanging up on her, and she lost some of the work she had been working on. Her pink highlighter broke in her pencil case and had made a mess all over her hands when she pulled out a pen. Chantal looked at her watch: 11:10am. "About ten more minutes, almost home time," Chantal said to herself. She was so glad she only had morning classes on Fridays. She then looked up at her teacher, who seemed to be starting to wrap the lecture up. Something then caught her attention at the window at the end of the room. A white barn owl landed on the ledge and looked through the window.

"Jareth," she breathed. She shook her head. "No, can't be. It's just my imagination." She closed her eyes and rubbed them, she looked down at the piece of paper in front of her, afraid to look back at the window. She then heard tapping; she dared a look back at the window.

The bird was still there. Nobody else in the room seemed to notice it. As she stared at the owl, it stared back; a shiver ran down her spine and she dropped her pencil to the table. "Oh no. This day just can't get any worse," she groaned. Two of her classmates looked over at her with puzzled looks on their faces. "I'm out of led," she said holding up her pencil. They turned away and looked back at the teacher. Chantal looked back at Jareth. "Five minutes!" she mouthed to him, holding up her right hand, all five fingers extended. The owl seem to nod.

Five minutes ticked by slowly, but eventually class time was up and the teacher brought the lecture to a stop and dismissed the class. Everybody packed up their books and left the classroom. Chantal stayed behind, waiting until everybody was gone. Once everybody had left, she closed the door. When she turned around, she found the Goblin King leaning against the long table situated in the middle of the room.

"Not you again," Chantal groaned. It had been nine months since she had last seen Jareth, and it was because he had needed her help. "You know that you just made my day even worse."

"It couldn't be any worse than my day," Jareth countered.

"Goblins harassing you?" Chantal asked.

"Worse. I can't get into the castle," Jareth told her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Again? What happened this time?" Chantal asked.

"I do not know." Jareth said truthfully, a hint of worry in his voice. "Could it be your friend again?"

"I don't know. I can check," the twenty-one year old said as she walked up to the computers that were located to the right of the room. She moved the mouse to get the screen-saver on the computer to stop. She was already logged into the machine from earlier that morning. Chantal moved the mouse to the task bar and double clicked the little MSN icon, opening the program; she then logged in. "He's usually on at this time of day," she told the Goblin King as MSN connected. She looked at the computer screen and saw that Paul, who had ruled the Labyrinth for one day, was indeed online. She double clicked his nickname: "Dark Archon" and sent him a message.

Chan: poke

Dark Archon: pounce

Chan: Ack! What are you up to?

Dark Archon: Not much. Was about to go play a game.

Chan: Cool. I just wanted to say hi. Guess I'll talk to you later.

Dark Archon: Alrighty!

Chan: Bye!

Dark Archon: Bye!

Jareth leaned over Chantal's shoulder and stared at the monitor and Chantal closed the conversation.

"Well it's not him," Chantal told him. Jareth frowned then started to pace back and forth, a worried expression on his usual still face. "What? What is it?" Chantal asked starting to get worried.

"I cannot find Stephanie." He revealed.

"What?" Chantal asked, not believing.

"I was going to ask her help first. When she wasn't home, I looked everywhere. I can't find her," Jareth replied.

Chantal shook her head. "This day is just going from bad to worse."

Jareth walked over to the round table and leaned over, looking over Chantal's notes. "Weren't you supposed to be paying attention to the lesson?"

Chantal rushed over and stuffed the papers into her binder. She smiled innocently at him. "I was! I just tend to doodle as I listen to the teacher." Jareth looked at her with a raised eyebrow, not really believing the girl. Chantal glared at him then grabbed her pencil and pens and placed them in her pencil case. She wondered where Stephanie could be that would prevent Jareth from finding her.

A lot of things had happened in the last nine months since she had been to the Underground. Chantal had finished school and graduated from College, summer had come and gone, Chantal had worked most of the summer to make money to return to school in the fall, and Stephanie had moved south to go to school. Chantal paused. She spun around to look at Jareth.

"What?" he asked staring at her.

"You do know that Steph is gone down south to school, right?" she asked him.

"Of course," Jareth replied. Chantal nodded and began to think again. She stopped and looked at Jareth suspiciously.

"How did you know Steph was down south? We haven't seen you for nine months." Chantal asked seriously.

"I just do."

"Are you stalking her?" she asked accusingly.

"Of course not!" Jareth snapped. "Who do you think I am?"

"If you aren't stalking her, then how did you know where she was?" she asked, hands on her hips.

"It is hard to explain. I can sense her presence and I just know, sometimes even where she is located," he explained, not really in the mood to argue. "It comes with the territory."

"Stalker!" Chantal accused teasingly. He gave her an odd sideways look. "Alright! Alright! So you can't 'feel' her presence anywhere?"

Jareth shook his head.

"This is definitely not good," Chantal said leaning up against the table. "Maybe she just learned to hide from you because she thought you were stalking her."

"Enough with the stalking!" Jareth snapped.

"Fine!" Chantal said throwing her hands up in the air. "It's just creeping me out. Can you 'feel' my presence as well?"

"That is not important."

"Gah!" Chantal exclaimed, taking that as a yes.

"Calm down! I'm not a peeping Tom," he groaned.

"You better not be," Chantal said as she turned to place her things in her bag. Once she zipped her bag closed, she turned towards the door, her back to Jareth. "Could you maybe, um, disguise yourself to look, um, 'normal'? A guy in medieval like clothing and long hair just might attract unwanted attention." As Chantal turned back to look at Jareth, she saw that he had already changed his appearance. He now had short, half-spiky hair; he wore dark blue jeans and a white T-shirt.

"Better?" he asked.

Chantal smiled. "Much!" She walked out of the classroom, closing the door behind her, and then walked down the hall to her locker, with Jareth following behind her. Chantal opened her locker and shoved her binder in, then grabbed one of the books and placed it in her school bag. She was glad she had Friday afternoons free. Chantal closed her locker, then continued down the hall.

"Where are you going now?" Jareth asked, walking after her.

"To my dad's office to leave him a note, telling him a friend is giving me a ride home," she told him as she slowed down to let him catch up. Chantal's father was the head of the CS department, and had been one of her teachers the year before. They turned right, around a corner, down another hallway, and into an office. Chantal walked in and to her right saw one of the teachers busily preparing for her next class. She walked passed into the office a bit further and turned to her right and through another door into her father's small office. Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, she scribbled a short note, leaving it in the middle of the desk, ensuring that it will be seen.

Chantal then turned to Jareth. "Done! Now all I need to do is go home to get rid of my bag and to get a few things," she told Jareth as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the CS office and down the hall a ways.

Jareth stopped. "Ready?"

Chantal nodded. She knew her mother wouldn't be home and therefore was safe to teleport right into the house. Jareth smiled and a moment later, they appeared in Chantal's bedroom. Chantal laughed as she realized this was the only room in her house he probably knew, and then she grinned at the mess on the floor. She proceeded to drop the bag on her unmade bed, then to leave the room. "Are you coming?" She called after the Goblin King. Jareth followed her out the room and downstairs. Once downstairs, Chantal located a piece of paper and wrote a note to her mother informing that a classmate needed help with his computer and she was going over to his place to help. She also wrote down that she would probably be home about five or six giving her enough time to solve the Labyrinth puzzle once again.

Jaycie, Chantal's part black Labrador dog, approached Jareth and started staring at him. She then began to whine at him and tried to jump up to see his face better.

"What is the matter with your dog?" Jareth asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"She probably recognizes your smell but you don't look the same as you did the last time you were here," Chantal told him as she left the note on the kitchen table. Chantal laughed as Jareth changed back to his normal appearance. He smiled down at Jaycie, sharp canines showing.

"Boo!" he said.

Jaycie jumped back then began to whine even more, this time in a different tone. Chantal laughed. "She's giving you shit now for hiding your true appearance," she told him before he could ask. Jareth only raised an eyebrow.

Chantal took hold of her dog's collar and led her towards the door. She opened the door, grabbed the dog chain, tied Jaycie up and left her outside. "Now just let me grab a few things then we can get going," Chantal told the Goblin King as she walked towards the kitchen to fill up a water bottle. About ten minutes later, Chantal had all her things she wanted packed into her usual blue bag and was ready to go. All she needed was Serek, her little purple dragon that she had found from her first adventure in the Underground. Chantal opened the door, ran outside to the backyard and called out to him.

"Squeeee!" came a response from the trees. Suddenly a dark purple object glided down and landed on Chantal's shoulder, wrapping his long fuzzy tail around her neck. His orange eyes whirled with excitement.

"Hey boy! Ready for another misadventure?" Chantal asked the dragon.

"Squeeee!" Serek replied.

Chantal returned to the house, after letting Jaycie in and locking the door, she turned to Jareth. "Let's go!"

Jareth smiled as he rested a hand on her shoulder; a moment later, they blinked out of sight.