Wonderland

Chapter 1

I had been staring at the screen of my laptop for a good 20 minutes.  I wasn't reading anything, I wasn't typing.  Just staring. Blankly.  Praying to God that I hadn't made a mistake.  Moving to Los Angeles hadn't been a rash decision.  It wasn't done spontaneously.  I had thought it through very carefully.  Planned and planned some more, for over a year, saving money along the way. 

I wasn't getting any younger and I was wasting away in the insanely tiny town my parents insisted on moving us to when I was a small girl.  I had spent 5 years getting my Bachelor's degree in social work, only to discover it wasn't what made me smile.  After 2 years, it was clear my career was a bust.  Writing had always been what made me the happiest.  So after a terrible year that had all the feels of a badly written country song (my cat died, a case at work ended in a murder-suicide, a tornado ripped part of the roof off the house I was renting) I resolved myself to move and chase my dreams of becoming a professional writer.

Sure, I could have moved anywhere to pursue writing.  I didn't have to move to one of the most expensive cities in the world to do it.  To quote my mother who tried to guilt me into staying: "You can write here in Silver Lake.  You don't have to go across the damn country away from everything you know." But it's where He was.  The man who stole my heart a few years prior.  He didn't know I existed.  Hell even if he did, it wouldn't matter much.  Yet, I needed to be close to what gave Him inspiration.  If he could write the most incredible songs you ever heard and live in LA, then maybe I could write a publishable novel under the same sky.

So here I am, at one of your run of the mill coffee shops, shamelessly using their WiFi,  but not buying anything, and... well nothing.  I've got nothing.  I've literally typed three words, erased them.  Typed four more, erased them.  And now, my screen is as empty as my facial expression.

"I'm a failure!"  I mutter under my breath.

As quickly as I say that, His words come to mind.  'Dreams are the result of a million choices, a billion failures, and a few successes.'  I'm instantly reminded that in order to succeed, I'm gonna have to stumble first too.  Okay.  I can do this.  This is just my first minor setback.  I can try again tomorrow.  I begin to pack up my laptop when I hear someone ask if the seat next to me is taken.

"No go right ahead, I'm actually leaving."  I gesture to the area around my table.

"Do I know you, you look familiar?"  She asks.

I look up and glance at her, not really seeing her.  I say no to her question, because the chances of knowing anyone here is very slim, but then I steal another look at her face.  I gasp then gulp.  I do know her.  She shouldn't know me.

"Actually yes, well uhh no.  You don't know me, but wow!  I know you!  You're Shayla, right?"  I say a little too enthusiastically.

"Yeah.  But you look like someone I've met before.  Where do I know you from?"

"I can't imagine you remembering me,  but the only way you could recognize me is from the three Mars shows I went to this past summer, and then Camp.  I was at Camp Mars."

"That's it!  You were at Camp!  Oh he's gonna be so happy."

"Who?"  I ask with as much curiosity (riddled with a ton of doubt) as I can muster.  Mainly because there's no way it's who I'm thinking.  I'm hopeful, however.

"Oh, a friend of mine.  He had asked me to get your number at Camp,  but I had forgotten.  He wasn't happy about that.  Your face was burned into my memory in the unlikely event I ever saw you again and here you are 2 months later.  It's fate!"