Author's Note: I know these chapters are short. I'm sorry! But that's the way they have worked out; maybe they will be longer in the future!

Chapter Two

I found this place when I was around 11, when Joy, Carol, and Grace started letting me bike around town by myself. I kept to Main St. at first, and then I ventured out to the town, and one time I noticed a break in the trees in the forest. I kept along the path, sometime having to swat away branches that overgrew across the path. I found a small clearing in the forest, with a small waterfall. The waterfall was no more than 15 feet tall and was easily hidden by the trees around it. I could easily get up to the top by rock climbing up next to the waterfall.

Not long after I found the waterfall did I buy a small hammock with my money that I saved up from my allowance and set it up between two trees at the top of the waterfall. It is quite worn now, over 5 years later. There are areas that have been re-tied together after the rope snapped and areas where there are wilted flowers twisted into the ropes from when I would pick the flowers around the waterfall. There are even areas stained different colors from when I was younger and tried to drink juice on it, though those are very faded now. It is my favorite place to be in the entire world, besides being with my moms, but this was all my own. I have never brought anyone else here; it was my secret hide away.

Whenever it got too cold outside for me to come to my secret waterfall I would roll up the hammock and hide it in a shoebox in my closet. It was always hard in the winter when I couldn't get away from my moms. Don't get me wrong, I love them with all my heart, but since I am homeschooled and we live where they work, it was basically 24/7 with them, and man did I want some alone time. I would make do with sitting on my windowsill in my room to read, but even then I could hear Grace and Joy bickering. I have no idea how they spend so much time together, and how Carol keeps her head on strait between them.

Whenever it got warm enough in the spring I would put my hammock in my backpack and head back to the waterfall as fast as I could. I love this place in the spring the most. There are flowers everywhere just blooming and the trees are budding and growing leaves and flowers of all colors. The colors in the forest in the spring are gorgeous. In the fall also, with all the leaves turning different shades of red and yellow and the smell of the warmth of the summer fading. But now it is summer, everything is in full growth and green. The waterfall is also at a nice steady pace, during spring and fall it tends to be stronger due to all the rain, but now it bubbles along softly. Where I set up the hammock sits right under a good cover of foliage, so I don't have to worry too much about sunburn sitting under the shade, ever though some rays of sun filter through.

I made it to the clearing and set my bike against the cliff. I started climbing up the rock, trying to be careful because I was wearing a dress. I tried not to rip many of my clothes because when I would give them to Joy to mend, it always brought up questions about where I went, and I don't want to tell them about my hideaway. I made it too the top and quickly stepped across the stream using a couple of rocks that sat above the water. I went over to the hammock and set down my backpack. I reached down and grabbed the sharpie out of my bag. I had just finished a book the day before so I took my sharpie out of the bag and went to my hammock.

Jane & Edward

I wrote into one of the wooden sticks at the end of the hammock. Every time I finished a book with a romance, I write the two characters names into the wood. There are many names on the wood, most of which are too faded to read. I write them down as a way of honoring their love. I'm a sap for all that romance stuff, I always have been. There is something about true love that I am enraptured with even though I've never had anything close.

There were boys that I had fleeting relationships with. Two actually. A boy from town a year ago, when I just turned 15, Jake. We dated for about 2 months, but we broke up when he went back to high school and decided he wanted to ask out a girl there that he saw more often. I didn't blame him, we didn't see each other much once school started because he went to the local high school and I was homeschooled, but I did cry. There was also a boy that I dated when I was 14, Daniel. Him and his family were vacationing here all summer and we met and dated while he was here, but that also ended when he went back home. I never went farther than kissing with them, I mean, we were barely teenagers. I think that is another reason Jake left me, because I wasn't comfortable going farther. But I don't regret my decisions to keep my distance in that way, seeing as neither relationship worked out and neither were anywhere close to true love.

After I wrote the names of Jane and Edward from Jane Eyre, I grabbed my new book that I just rented from the library, The Tales of the Brothers Grimm. I laid down on the hammock and started reading. I read until maybe 1 PM needed lunch and knowing I had errands to run for Joy, Carol, and Grace before dinner. I packed up my book and empty juice bottle and granola wrappers and crossed over the river again, and carefully made my way down the rock. I got back on my bike and went back to town.

That's when I saw her. I knew it was her as soon as I laid eyes on her. She was on sort of wagon, with only two wheels. Strange. She was beautiful, more than I could have ever imagined. I called after her. "Aurora!" I yelled, but she did not respond. I tried to run after her, but she was too quick on her two-wheeled wagon. I wished I had Samson with me; she wouldn't have gotten away then. I needed to speak with her; she had to come back with me within the week. I decided to wait until the next day, knowing I couldn't possibly be able to traverse this new realm. I walked back to the forest that she emerged from and hoped she would come back the next day.