The Child That Never Was (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“Ouch!” cried Bethany as we landed on the hard ground.  Our eyes were both filled with tears, wondering what was to become, or had become, of the boy we had just left.  Before this day, I had never known someone who had died.  An overwhelming amount of grief came over me.  I guess that this was called depression.  I looked over at Bethany who had the same facial expression as me, and ran to give her a hug.  I wanted to let her know that it would be alright, but I could not, for I was not in control of that sort of knowledge.

Neither one of us could bring ourselves to say anything, nonetheless talk about the happenings of the boy.  Was there even any sort of possibility in which he didn’t die?  Or was that factor so far-fetched that even dreaming about it would be an injustice to my mind?  I just held Bethany tight and allowed all of my emotions to flood out of me.  When I looked back up, I took a moment to look around my surroundings, not recognizing what I was seeing.

“Bethany?  Where are we?” I asked between sobs.  She lifted her head and looked around with confusion.  It was clear that she was as clueless as I was.  I nodded and took a step up, trying to picture where I was.  It just didn’t make sense; why were we being brought to these random places and who was sending us here?  The forces of nature don’t just tell people to go around hopping through little glows of light, which transport them to strange places.  It’s just not a thing that happens.

There were tall, dark trees, with long leaves hanging down from the middle of the trees and up.  The leaves were of a crimson green, with a purple and blue highlights and shadowing.  It looked very mythical, dreamlike, and artsy.  The ground was dark, covered with the likes of pebbles and stubs of trees.  The air felt cool, and the sky was darkly lit, which was unusual because I could see my surroundings like the light of day.  With all fairness, I half expected to see the Cheshire Cat show up.

Trying to help make light of the situation, I gave Bethany a smile.  “Are we in Wonderland?”

“Something close to it?” she laughed.

I shrugged.  “Bethany, I don’t know what it is, but something about this place looks so familiar.  Almost too familiar, you know?”

“Not really,” she gave me a sideways glance.  Maybe it was due to the fact that I watch too many fantasy movies in my spare time, but something about this place definitely rang a bell.  The only problem was that I wasn’t sure which bell it was ringing.

I took a few steps towards the one tree that stood in the middle of my viewpoint.  I touched the trunk of the tree, and smiled due to the familiarity of the tree.  It brought back both good and bad memories, which gave me such mixed emotions.  Standing there, a bit of anxiety rushed through me as my mind transported me back to a time in sixth grade.  I stood behind my desk which was the third row back, left side of the room, and the seat closest to the window.  I wore a typical outfit for sixth grade-me.  There I was in a pastel pink shirt, maroon corduroys, and a matching knitted, maroon cardigan.  In the middle of the room, Ashlee Wince stood behind the podium in the middle of the front of the classroom, used for presentations.  Her precious blonde hair was clipped back with a butterfly clip.  She wore a mini denim skirt, boots, and a pastel pink shirt, as well, except she had a huge red heart printed on the middle of the shirt.  Suddenly, I remembered this day perfectly.

"Don't look now," she snickered.  "But Miss Know it All is wearing corduroys!"  The whole class turned around to look at me, their faces filled with joy as they laughed at me, as if it had been the funniest thing she had ever heard. 

“Corduroys are cool!” my sixth-grade self-tried to stand up for myself. 

But no one listened to me.  They all began to laugh at me even more.  Ashlee laughed with her high-pitched, girlish laugh.  “She thinks that corduroys are cool!”  Everyone pointed their fingers at m, taunting me with laughter.  I stormed out of the classroom, right past the teacher who didn’t do a single thing to stop the chaos; no one could stop Ashlee Wince once she started.  They were all too scared.