1 Awry

You wake up. The sun is shining brightly, and you're determined to have a good day. You get dressed, put on your favorite Vans, grab your backpack, and walk to school. You stop at the bakery and get an apple turnover on the way. So far so good.

Your best friend Emily meets you at your locker. She's always the first student at school.

"If you could move anywhere and live there for free," She starts, "Where would it be?"

"You know I wouldn't even dream of living anywhere other than New York," You reply.

"You are so predictable," She puts on another layer of lip gloss, "I literally told myself earlier that you'd say that," Emily pulls a book out of her backpack, "I even wrote it in my journal. See? Look."

You look down, and indeed the words "I know that you will say, New York." were scrawled in. You smile, every day Em makes your day.

"Em," You say, "That's 'cause you ask me the same question every day."

"Would you dream of living in that one place you read about?" She asked, "The one the others ridicule you for liking?"

"Umm," You say, "First off, Alagaesia is a fictional location, I couldn't live there if I wanted to. Secondly, living in Alagaesia would be horrible, life would be so hard, and they always seem to be on the brink of war."

"Oh," She blinked, obviously surprised. She knows nothing about your favorite book series.

"Yeah," You reply, "Come on. It's almost time for first period. I am not ruining my 'not-late-for-class' streak."

The day passes. You ace your math test. You take an easy biology test. You head home and stop at Starbucks for coffee.

You get your homework done in less than an hour and curl up with your favorite book, Eldest, from The Inheritance Cycle. As soon as you pick up the book, you know something is awry. Did Mom get you a new copy of eldest? The wear on the cover is gone. The pages are not warped from where you put your fingers.

Whatever, You think, I needed a new copy anyway.

You get through half the book, and then the pages are empty. Not even a page number. You furrow your eyebrows and turn on the radio. Your favorite song, Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry is playing. You scan through the pages. Only one has a page number.

You investigate and brush your finger against it. Only, your finger gets stuck to the page number. you can't move it at all. You lift up your arm, the book follows. You try to yell for help, but your jaw is stuck too. Suddenly! A sound like whooshing wind is all you hear. You close your eyes, trying to block it all out.

The next thing you know is that you're awake.