Chapter Three - Deja Vu
Alright guys! After a pretty rough day at school, I'm really happy to be here and writing again. c: School, drama at school, band, musical, and personal issues are eating up my time recently, so I apologize that I didn't start on Saturday with my whole "only one story will get updates that week" thing. To make up for it, I'll keep updating this one till next Tuesday, and then I'll switch which story I'm updating for a week!
Evx : Haha, poor Mina indeed. She's got a lot to handle, doesn't she? It's very good that Jared was able to save and protect her, although whether or not it becomes more than that is yet to be seen for you guys. c; Of course I know. I am the author. I know exactly where this is going, and whether or not Jarina will make an appearance. :D And I can't wait to see how you react to Prince Teague. He is quite fun and is his normal Teague-ness, but it'll be fun to see how things go from there!
09Who knew09 : I'm glad I managed to surprise you. That's one of the things I enjoy doing in my writing, although I do like having some predictable things too. I'm glad that Templestiltskin's appearance and the relationship of Jared and Mina were still good, even though they were a little rushed. Although, seeing as Jared's and Mina's relationship being rushed is somewhat involved in the plot - since it seemed to move faster - some of that may be confronted a bit this chapter. I promise, there is actually some stuff that we'll be learning that may make the relationship less rushed. I'm glad that Jared's last sentence good! I was happy ending with that, because it left us wondering about Mina and it also got the readers thinking. c: And I'm glad that the chapter was good. It's kind of hard sometimes writing this, seeing as the entire story "came to me in a dream" - as weird as that sounds - but I enjoy the challenge. I'm glad that it's proving to be a success! Hopefully my writing improves. I definitely fell back a little bit in the two/three/four month break I took from fanfiction writing, so I'm trying to at least get back to where I was, which is proving to be a challenge.
Anyways, let's move on to this next chapter, hm? I've blabbered enough as it is. cx
"Are you okay?" Jared, looking concerned, approaches slowly. He extends a hand, touching the tendril that Templestiltskin turned gold. It instantly goes back to it's normal, chocolate brown color once he touches it.
"Yes." I nod, but he frowns.
"No, you aren't." He sighs. "I'm sorry. It's very difficult to track you and keep you safe though when you aren't allowing me to become your guardian." However, his frown shifts to a rather crooked grin. "Good thing we got that sorted out, hm?"
"I suppose so." This time it's my turn to sigh.
"Hey, you're fine, okay? You're safe."
"It's not that. It's just...All this...It made me realize something...It doesn't really matter..." I shake my head.
"Hey, you can tell me, okay? I know you don't really know me. But I want to help you, and seeing as I'm officially your guardian now, I'd like to be able to at least make you a little more at ease." He extends a hand towards me.
After a moment's hesitation, I take it. "I guess this is just making the curse seem more real. It's really scary. My home may not be the best place ever, but it's still my home. I can't imagine leaving it...And yet there's less than two weeks till I'll be ripped away from it."
Biting his lip, Jared takes a minute before responding. But when he does respond, his gray eyes meet my chocolate brown ones, and I find I can't help but trust him. There's something there that I can't help but feel drawn to. "Think of it this way, Princess." I open my mouth to protest the nickname, but he plows on before I can express my dislike for it. "Would you like to stay in a place where you are not wanted, or take your chances in finding yourself a spot in a place where you are?"
Mina's Point of View
Two days after the "Templestiltskin Accident" - as I've so lovingly named it - I found myself in my room working on homework. To be more specific, I'm working on my math homework. Not that I've really accomplished anything so far, seeing as I've been distracted all day.
Several things have been eating away at me. The first one would be that there are ten days left till my sixteenth birthday, and that means there are ten days left till Prince Teague comes to take me away. Going hand in hand with that is how I feel about Jared's question. And, to be honest, I really don't know how I feel, or how I should feel. Should I be excited to leave a life that seems quite awful? Probably. Should I be frightened of such a big change? Almost definitely. Should I be nervous about meeting Prince Teague? Yes, considering he's a Prince. Should I be sad that I'll have to leave behind my friends that I have? That question I can answer with utmost certainty. Yes, I should be sad to leave my only friend - Nix, who helps me out with schoolwork and is the sweetest, goofiest guy I have ever met - I have behind. Plus, I barely even know what this curse is going to entail for me, minus the fact that according to my mother, it's "horrible, horrendous, and challenging" and "you are almost definitely going to die trying to complete it."
She likes to "encourage" me by telling me stuff like that. It definitely makes me feel better about myself, and puts me in a great mood.
This stuff was so distracting that I didn't even react to the humiliation I suffered today, but that worked in my favor. The infamous - although famous by our school's standards - Savannah White decided it would be fun to pour the entire contents of a milk carton that was full of rotten milk onto my head today at school. Not to mention she poured some of her lunch on after that. It wasn't pleasant, but I really didn't care. In fact, I probably would've ignored it and pretended nothing was wrong if it wasn't for Nix rushing me out to get me cleaned off away from everyone else. Savannah is a brat, and this time - like almost every other time - I didn't even do anything to deserve to get picked on by her. I think she does it because it makes her more popular, but I don't see how that logic works.
Even when I was cleaning myself off the best I could, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the curse. I need to know more about it besides what my mother says! After all, what my mom tells me about it is of no help whatsoever. The only problem is, I don't know who to ask, because I haven't seen Jared in forever. Forever being two days, of course.
"Earth to Mina!" I blink as a certain redhead waves a hand in front of my face, a rather silly grin appearing on his face. "Welcome back, mind traveler."
I chuckle a little at that comment, before frowning and saying, "Sorry about that, Nix." Concentrating on my homework is hard with all the thoughts bouncing around in my head. However, I have to try, seeing as Nix is here doing his homework with me so that he can help. "Where were we?"
He frowns a little, and disregards my question completely to ask one of his own. "Are you okay, Mina? You've seemed distracted all day."
His concern means a lot to me, and in truth, I'm not okay. However, I can't tell him the truth - that I'm distracted because I'm cursed - without losing the one friend I have. So, instead, I nod my head with a small smile. "I'm fine. Where were we again?"
Nix decides not to push the matter, and points the problem out to me. Once he shows it to me, I do my very best to push the curse from my mind for a little while. Nix is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He doesn't bug me about my home life - although he doesn't completely understand why it happens and I think he pities me for it - or anything else. About two hours later, Nix and I find that we managed to complete all the math, english, and spanish homework. That just leaves history to be done, but when we're about to start on it, he looks at the time.
"Shoot, its 6:18 pm!" He slides his stuff into his bag in a bit of a hurry, and apologizes. "I'm sorry, Mina. I have to get home, or my mom will kill me. She needs me to pick up Nan," His gorgeous, peppy, popular sister, "when her cheer practice ends, and I'll be late if I don't go now. You can manage the history homework without me, right?" He stands up, sliding his backpack on and pausing to make sure I can. No doubt he would try and convince his mom otherwise if I said I couldn't.
"I'm sure I'll be fine. You go." I smile in response, standing up to get the door for him.
He pulls me into a hug real quick - even though he does this quite a bit, it takes me by surprise every time - and offer me a big grin. I smile in return, my cheeks going a little red, and then grab the door for him. He hurries off, climbing down as quick as he can and heading in the direction that he parked his car in.
I shout after him, cupping one hand around my mouth so that I'm a bit louder. "Bye Nix!"
He turns to wave real quickly back at me, and then disappears into the trees. Sighing after he goes, I turn to go back to my homework. It's reading in the history book and then answering five questions real quickly. Honestly, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, if I can just stay focused. I kneel down beside my backpack - which is next to the "kitchen" table - to grab my binder and book. However, when I do, I find my binder is there, but my book isn't. Shoot! Did I leave it at school? I was so sure when I was leaving that I had it in my bookbag, but maybe I was wrong?
That's whenever somebody speaks up from behind me. "You humans don't have very interesting history." I turn around to find Jared - dressed in gray, as usual - laying on my bed, skimming through my 'missing' history book. "I'd like to hope this book is just lacking details. Should I get you a copy of a Fae history book? That might be more interesting to you."
Deciding that I don't feel like arguing with him over that, I groan instead, although I am relieved that I didn't leave it at school. "Jared!" Standing up, I walk over and snatch the book away from him. "I need that to do my homework!"
"I never did understand the reason for homework." Jared responds, sitting up and watching me set the book down on the table.
"Well, it's necessary in order for me to pass my classes!" I don't add that I do better on homework than I do on tests and quizzes. I need the points.
The oddest sense of deja vu over the whole book thing creeps into my mind, but I ignore it as Jared says, "Calm your jets, Princess."
I groan once again over the annoying nickname. "Why do you always call me that?"
He frowns at my question, as if the answer is obvious. "Surely you understand that by now?"
The choice of wording is a bit weird, but I pay it no mind as I shake my head and answer his question. "Why would I?"
"Because of the Grimm curse." He is honestly extremely confused as to why I don't understand this nickname, and I'm starting to become more and more curious as of the reasoning behind it. What does me being called 'Princess' have to do with the curse? Does that have anything to do with the question he asked before? I didn't really understand that either.
"I don't know anything useful about the curse, Jared, besides the fact that I'm almost definitely going to die." I sigh, and Jared runs a hand through his hair, as if unsure about how to respond to the whole 'dying' comment.
In the end, he ignores the comment about dying and says, "I thought your mom would've explained this to you." I originally think he looks concerned, but now I think he might actually be frustrated about this. "This needs to be fixed."
"Really?" I decide to ignore the fact that he is frustrated with my mom - mainly because I could go on for hours and hours about everything she does that frustrates me - and focus on my excitement about actually learning something about this curse. "Do you mean it?"
"Why would I say it if I didn't, Princess?" I leave him be for calling me that this time, although the odd sense of deja vu creeps up again.
"Alright! Should I start asking you questions, then?" I tilt my head as I ask, but he shakes my head, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"Not here. It may be protected from random Fae wondering in and trying to get you, but the Godmothers might be able to break through the shield. I want to go to somewhere more protected." He stands up, and heads for the door.
"The...Godmothers?" I frown, confused by why he sounds so worried about them. They sound like they would be good, after all. "Those sound like good people."
He chuckles, but it's not a nice one. It's rather bitter instead. "You would think they were, but they aren't. I know of a place that they can't get into though, and it'll allow us to talk freely. That way, we don't have to worry about anymore people trying to do what Templestiltskin did-"
"Templestiltskin was a Godmother?" I stood up to follow him, but now I hesitate.
"Yes. Now do you understand the danger? He wasn't very powerful, and I only just found out that he was one. However, there's no doubt that others will follow until your sixteenth birthday. There's someone at your school too, so I suggest you be careful. I'm still trying to figure out who."
"Wait, what?" My jaw drops.
"No more questions right now. I'm going to take you to the safe place. Come on." He opens the door for me, and takes my hand.
What did you guys think of this chapter? Was it good? Bad? Hopefully it wasn't as rushed as last chapter! Was Nix coming in good? What was all that "deja vu" feeling about? And what was all this about the Godmothers?
I'll try to update again soon!
~ Dagger