Chapter One – The Fall
Kayla Wright had always hated Tuesdays. The fifteen-year-old girl had no idea why, she just did.
Yes, on Tuesdays she had the first Art lesson of the week with her best friend Adele, but that was only one hour of the very long six hour school day.
Kayla sighed, putting her thick chocolate-coloured hair up in a bun so that she could focus on the very difficult math equation she was trying so hard to solve.
Math, Kayla found truly was appalling. She just could not get the hang of it - how anyone could was beyond her. The young girl sighed once more, throwing her black pen down on the old wooden table whilst massaging her temples with her fingers. It was not even Ten O'clock and she could already feel a migraine coming on.
Kayla absentmindedly looked out of the large glass windows. What was Adele doing now? Was she finding maths as difficult as she was?
"I hope that I'm not the only one in this situation. What an awkwardly boring class…" Kayla trailed off quietly so that no one could hear her. Usually the dark-haired girl was loud, outgoing and got on her teachers nerves, but today just felt different - she could not explain it.
As Kayla released her hair from its bobble she tucked it behind her ears before she picked up her pen once more, still determined to muster up whatever determination she had left.
Adele Greene sighed as she drew random doodles in the back of her already scruffy maths book. Another day, another maths lesson.
Adele had always disliked maths with a passion. The young girl supposed that she was not too bad at basic multiplications or anything like that, but give her equations and she just could not figure out any answers.
The light haired girl frowned as a piece of crumpled paper landed on her desk with a small 'thud'. Her head whipped around as she tried to find the culprit and eventually piercing blue eyes met her stare. Adele exhaled in fatigue.
Taylor Moore; her Ex-Best Friend. Long story short, Taylor had chosen the 'popular' girls who weren't particularly nice over being friends with Adele. Adele did still want to be her friend, but Taylor apparently didn't see her views and told the 'populars' every single one of her secrets.
Adele shook her head before she threw the paper into the bin beside her desk. Ignoring Taylor's ignorant pout she picked up her pen as she continued to figure out the puzzle.
Adele eventually gave up and freed her hair from its ponytail. How she longed for Kayla, her best friend to be there. She absolutely hated her classes! Well apart from Art, but that was a different story.
Later that day, Adele stumbled into her Art room to find the whole class – including the teacher – staring at her. She bit her lip as she prepared for the telling off she was bound to get.
"Miss Greene!" her art teacher Miss Griffin snapped, "Why are you late?!"
From the corner of her eyes Adele could see Kayla trying not to laugh, which made Adele smile to herself. Bad idea.
"Why on earth are you laughing? This is not a laughing matter!"
Adele blushed in embarrassment, glancing down at the wonky table Kayla sat at, "Yes Miss, sorry Miss." she timidly stated.
The teacher sighed before she gestured for the young girl to sit down next to Kayla at the quieter Art table. The girls usually kept to themselves as they did not really know the others in their class well, but weren't against talking to them.
"Why were you so late today, Addie?" Kayla asked her friend as she sat next to her. In turn, Adele only shrugged before getting out her Art book and pencil out of her rucksack.
"I'm really not sure, Kayla." She started casually, leaning in to talk to her friend more privately, "Something's off about today. I can't put my finger on it – it's weird and I don't know why."
At this, Kayla looked alarmed before she replied; "That really is weird… I've been feeling the same today." The pair frowned, Adele biting her lip whereas Kayla stared into space, seemingly thinking about what it was that she felt.
The two Sixteen-Year-Olds slowly drifted off into a comfortable silence which broke after precisely seventeen-and-a-half minutes.
After those seventeen-and-a-half minutes, Kayla suddenly felt like something – or someone – was staring at her back so she turned around, her short, cocoa hair whipping the base of her neck, only to be met with no one; not Miss Griffin or any other of her classmates. Nothing was there – only the wall which was weirdly as pristine as fresh snow that glimmered during a vivid sunrise. It contained shelves of colourful artwork, unique designs and art books that previously belonged to other people who had moved on from High School within the past few years - nothing out of the ordinary.
Then why did it feel out of the ordinary?
"Kayla, do you need anything? I'm nipping to the store cupboard for another glue-gun." Adele questioned her friend whilst she stood up. Kayla only shook her head, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the wall which of course stayed as still as a statue.
"No, it's fine. Don't be too long though-" Kayla gestured towards the other end of the room, "-Miss is just about to lose her temper with Rebecca and Lindsay over there." She finished with a grin. Adele shook her head in humour before wandering off to the cupboard which fortunately was only a few metres away.
Adele opened the door to find that the usually luminous light-bulb was not working, but shrugged as she soon found a small oaken stool to keep the door from slamming shut; the young girl had never been fond of the dark.
She peered at the numerous shelves, the seemingly never-ending stacks of vivid poster paint, sugar paper and scrap materials (just to name a few), before her eyes caught sight of the large, pale glue-sticks that attached to what she had been looking for; glue guns. In fact, Adele was just about to touch the plastic navy handle of the nearest device when it happened.
The already frail door slammed shut which left her in complete darkness, save for the lights from the classroom that gazed through the rectangular window into the tiny room she was now trapped in.
Bewildered at how the small stool had moved from where she had sturdily placed it, Adele toughly pushed down on the door handle, expecting it to open as that is what doors usually do when vigorous pressure is applied.
However, this door had clearly decided that it was far from usual as it was reluctant to open at all.
"Gosh!" Adele faintly exclaimed as she frantically tried the handle again and again. Still, nothing happened.
Kayla could sense that something was wrong as she frowned before she sat up in her chair, craning her neck in order to look down the corridor where the cupboard in question was, only to find that the door was completely closed, Adele still inside the room.
"Oh No..." Kayla quietly stated, before getting to her feet.
After stumbling through the classroom desperately trying to avoid Miss Griffin's attention, Kayla practically ran down the freshly-cleaned corridor, her boots not helping her case as they made more noise than was necessary with every step she took. Luckily, no one had noticed the commotion going on, and were all loudly getting on with their work.
Kayla finally reached the room as she heard Adele's cries for help. However just as Kayla was about to touch the metallic handle the door swung open itself, revealing Adele's hysterical figure which was ironically just below the neon-blue box labelled 'glue-guns'.
"Well, that was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced." Adele muttered as she ran her shaking hand through her chestnut-coloured hair. She quickly grabbed a glue-gun from its box before sternly pulling the wooden door to a close behind her.
Kayla placed her hand on her friends left shoulder, looking at the smaller girl in concern.
"What happened, Adds?!" She questioned in disbelief.
Kayla knew that Adele had a phobia of small, dark places – that they made her feel claustrophobic. Adele's fear of the dark had seemingly come out of nowhere; causing Kayla to believe that there was more to this phobia than Adele let on. But no matter how much Kayla was worried about her friend, she had never been pushy and so was waiting for Adele to reveal what had caused the anxiety and paranoia. She knew that whatever it was, it was not good.
Adele only shook her head as the two made their way back up the corridor.
"I honestly don't have a clue." Adele paused, recalling what had happened just moments ago, "I only went in to get a glue-gun, and I even put a stool beside the door to keep it from… well, doing what it just did!" She shook her head a second time, very confused, "… a second later the door slammed shut and I was in complete darkness… it was like… I don't know… magic, or something."
Kayla didn't know what to make of the situation and the two continued back into their classroom in silence. They were both thankful when they were able to sit back down on their stools without much trouble; people within their art class always wondered in and out so they did not attract any unnecessary attention.
Absentmindedly, Adele's gaze wavered from the materials in front of her to the back corner of the art classroom, left of where the friends had seated themselves. She sighed, looking back at her work as she prepared to actually start, before freezing as she realised what she had just seen.
"Kayla?" She all but whispered, her voice unnaturally high-pitched.
"Yes Ads?" Kayla was focussed on the fabric in her hands, attempting and luckily accomplishing sewing tiny, neat red stitches onto it.
"What…." Adele gulped, confusion evident in her tone, "... have you ever seen that before?" She gestured her head discreetly towards the usually plain wall.
Except, the wall was not usual or plain at all. The walls were still white- however, not pristine –and the shelves were still a dark metallic-grey colour.
Adele's eyes had not been caught by the walls themselves, more like what was attached to the walls that had not been there before; the portrait of a lion - very much like Aslan in the fantasy movie Narnia, which both the girls loved to watch at the weekends. Their guilty pleasure was that they both loved C.S Lewis' creation as it was a great escapism and something that the two friends were extremely passionate about.
Kayla's gaze hardened, "I don't think so… no, it's not familiar in the slightest. We've sat over here all year so far, and there's never been any lion painting there before, not even earlier today. I suppose Mrs Griffin could've placed it there whilst I was helping you in the store room, but it's very unlikely…"
Completely ignoring everyone else around her, Adele stood up and walked a few steps so that she was almost directly in front of the painting.
Adele could only stare at it, captivated by the fine lines of the artist's brush strokes. The work was magnificent – there was no doubt about it – however, something about the whole scene was off. How was the class so oblivious to the obvious, large painting?
Kayla gulped as she stood out of her chair as steadily as she could, not wanting any attention on her person. In a way, she felt as though the painting was something truly special, something personal that she did not want ruined by a few of her narrow-minded peers.
"It looks so much like Aslan-," Kayla started in a mere whisper, Adele practically straining her ears to hear her friend, "-but it can't be. Narnia is a fictional world; three films and a book series prove that. It would be impossible to believe otherwise!"
Both Kayla and Adele adored the fantasy world that was Narnia, but that did not mean they thought any of it was true. It had proven to be escapism throughout their lives, throughout their heartbreaks and health issues – both mentally and physically.
However, this was their world; normal, comfortable. Doors like that were never opened, bridges never built.
Adele eyed Kayla wearily as the taller girl edged closer towards the artwork adorning the grim classroom walls. Eventually Adele followed her friend, moving even closer towards the mysterious artwork, ready to pull Kayla back towards the desk if Miss Griffin's attention was averted from the work she was marking. As she did so, Adele realised that she too had suddenly been captivated by the lion trapped inside the canvas, like... it was calling her.
Kayla reached out, lightly making contact with the bumpy surface of the canvas, shuddering as though she had travelled from England to the Antarctic. Adele gripped onto Kayla's shoulder, also shuddering like she had received an electric shock.
The two girls retracted their hands, Kayla turning to Adele, both staring at each other in confusion. What had just happened?
They sat back down quietly and sudden, not wanting to suddenly attract unnecessary attention. Kayla took a long sip of her water as Adele just sat on her seat blankly, resisting the urge to bite her nails in anxiety and worry.
"Okay, I've had enough!" Miss Griffin's voice pierced the air. Kayla had not realised how loud the class really was, wondering why as soon as she had made contact with that painting she could not hear a thing.
Once the class really was silent, Miss Griffin continued, "Lately, this class has been a nightmare to handle and-,"
Both girls did not hear much more of that pleasant speech. Not because they weren't paying attention, like in their Maths class - but because they were both suddenly overcome by dizziness and nausea.
Kayla rose from her seat, attracting unwanted attention, but more focussed on the fact that she knew she was going to be violently sick. Adele stayed in her seat, wanting nothing more than an ice-cold cloth to place on her head.
Before Kayla could rush out of the room and Adele could ask for a cold paper towel, they felt themselves falling, probably tripping up over something small; a loitering water bottle, for example...
For both girls, the experience of falling was very blurry and embarrassing. Everything in the room – themselves included – felt like it was moving in slow motion.
All eyes were on them, and the pair hurriedly braced themselves for the impact of the cold, concrete floor. Kayla covered her face with her hands, although she realised it would not help the pain she would most likely feel. Adele quickly opted to stretch her arms out in front of her, to attempt to steady herself. However, that choice did not help either.
However, instead of being met with stinging palms and a cold, harsh floor, Kayla and Adele were both met with the soft, earthly feel of grass covered with small but brightly coloured daisies. The vibrancy of the grass was… unreal. Almost like they were in a dream, a fictional world.
The girls gazed upwards and instantly regretted it; sunlight pierced their eyes. Quickly peering down at the fresh grass, their eyes took a few moments to adjust from the artificial lighting within their school to the pure sunlight. Everything appeared golden, like the outside world was drenched in a candle flame.
Soon enough, they could look up at the sky – a perfect blue – without being blinded. It was only then that they realised they were in their classroom... now, they were not so sure.
"What in the world?!" Adele exclaimed, breathless. She was terrified, and extremely bewildered – not a good combination, "Where… where are we?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." Kayla replied, speechless. The taller of the two felt very anxious, unsure of what had happened, and how it had happened.
Both in awe they did not know what else to say, what to suggest.
"This doesn't look like Art class." Adele stated, gazing at the small cluster of trees to the right of where they had landed. Even they were perfect; the chocolate coloured trunks smooth, the leaves healthy, dewy and green.
They pulled themselves up from the ground, dusting the visible mud off of their uniforms, standing back to back.
Is this a dream? Kayla wondered, how are we both conscious and aware? She touched the lowest branch of the tree closest to her, taking in its texture, everything feels real…
This has to be a dream, Adele thought, but how are we both in the same dream? This just isn't possible…
"I wonder where we are…" Adele trailed off, trying to find some sort of explanation.
'SNAP!'
Kayla twirled around, towards the clear sound of a twig breaking, Adele following her friend's actions. What they saw… was not what they were expecting to lay eyes on.
Four children - around the same age as themselves - were stood near the edge of the small clearing, only a few metres away from Kayla and Adele's trembling figures. Needless to say, both girls recognised the entire group within seconds.
"How the heck is this… this?!" Kayla whispered to Adele, who only gazed at her friend in shock.
"Why, you're in Narnia of course." Susan Pevensie's soft voice spoke, sounding as confused as they felt.
Before Adele could laugh and reply 'funny joke', or Kayla could mutter 'Sure, and I'm the Queen of England', they heard the sound of the ocean crashing onto a bed of sand and recognised it from…
"We're… in… Narnia?" Kayla glanced around, "But…"
"That can't be… possible…" Adele finished for her friend, the two looking at each other as they felt their face's pale and even fainter than they did minutes ago.
Adele's hazel eyes found bright blue ones, gazing at her in such curiosity. All the Pevensie siblings glanced at one another, obviously baffled at how and why other people – Clearly from our own world, Susan thought, Judging by their school uniforms – could possibly have ended up in Narnia.
Exhaustion hit Kayla like a truck as she finally collapsed, the aroma of fresh flowers and salt water being the last thing she was truly aware of. Adele was not far behind her, finally sinking to the ground, blacking out entirely.
That day really had been out of the ordinary after all.
AN:
Hello, and thank-you to all those who have read this chapter.
I have started to re-edit this fic purely due to the fact that reading my "older" works/chapters makes me embarrassed, plus I have a better idea now of where I want this story to go, therefore it only makes sense for me to edit the chapters I have already published so they are to the best, or nearly to the best, of my ability.
I have spent a very long time editing this chapter (as I've had to do it in small chunks) and hope to have everything up-to-date by (at least) summer. I apologise for the long wait, but I'm extremely busy at the moment focussing on my own health – mentally for the most part, as my anxiety and depression have become much worse and have taken a toll on how I'm physically feeling too - along with attempting to catch up with college.
That being said, if any of you reading this spot any mistakes, or anything that you think could be made better, don't hesitate to inform me – I'm a work in progress, so constructive criticism really helps (no hate or mean comments though please).
Anyway, thank you again for reading/reviewing/favouriting/following, you don't realise how much I appreciate it!
(Adele Greene is portrayed as Jenna Coleman & Kayla Wright is portrayed by Emma Watson, although you can just imagine whoever you want to – these actresses were just who I had in mind whilst adding some aspects to each character… and maybe cause I love both Doctor Who and Harry Potter. SHOUTOUT to Narnialover14… :D )