As far as I was concerned, my time in the Labyrinth was as epic as my life would get, and I was perfectly fine with that. I'd long come to terms with what I learned there (if not necessarily the ways how) and decided that if nothing had happened to me after two and a half years, nothing was going to.
True, I still spent some time with Hoggle and the boys every week, even though we all seemed to be getting a bit busier. Goblins would show up for cookies or sympathy every so often, but I got used to my new version of normal. It was when Dad moved the family to Oddford the autumn after the Labyrinth that I discovered how normal I really was. Lydia, Richard, Coraline, and Helena all were new friends with stories similar to mine. I thought of our proverbial trips through the looking glass as a part of growing up and the general weirdness spicing Oddford as a fact of life.
So I thought that was it. Supernatural things were the spice in my life, occasionally providing some help or diversion, but never again taking center stage. It would be the beginning of my junior year at Oddford High when I found out the opposite was true, and I was going to be the spice in their lives.
But not willingly.