1 Chapter One: The Beginning, Duh.

Okay people, there's something you need to know before you read this book. This story is an original, it's COPYRIGHT! I made up this story from scratch and if you intend to make your own story, create your own ideas! If I find out that you somehow stole my story or borrowed my ideas, I will find you and I will take the case veeeeeery seriously!

That being said😁😁😁 enjoy the story sweeties!

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This is the story of Valerie Reece and a world that only really makes sense with the help of our imagination.

Valerie was only 15 when she got to know this place existed.

It all started with a typical, totally boring Monday in Halsburg, Valerie's town.

I would say typical because her Mondays had a routine. She would wake up by her annoying alarm clock, slink out of bed because she never got enough sleep, drag her lazy feet into the bathroom and sit on the toilet for half an hour.

Then she would take a bath, style her hair as the spirit led, apply little or no make up only to hide all the effort under a wine colored hoodie.

Why a wine colored hoodie?

It's a long story but I have time.

Recently, bad things had been happening in Halsburg, not like the place was good to begin with but things were just...worse.

It was inexplicable though, everyday just seemed greyer and duller than before, people moved around quietly, there was nothing like lively people whistling merrily to work or school or where ever they were going, any chirping birds were shot down with catapults, there was no ice cream, everything was just there.

School was worse, bullies took over, everyone went to school only to survive the day and get the hell out of there. TJ and her gang made it a point to pick on Valerie as much as possible.

So she wore a hoodie with a not too dark and not too bright color to hide from them.

The only ray of sunshine in literally the entire town was her best friend, Sophie.

She smiled a lot, skipped everywhere, whistled merrily, raised her hand to answer questions in class and wore brightly colored clothes!

TJ never picked on her, in fact, TJ was scared of Sophie. She was just too bright and happy for her and nothing could make Sophie sad.

So you can guess who called Valerie, screaming what a lovely Monday it was.

Sophie.

"Hi Val-Val!" She screamed from her end of the phone "are you ready for school yet?"

"Hardly" Valerie mumbled.

"Oh come on" she chided "there's art class today remember, don't you want to show our cute art teacher, Mr. Knight your new art work?"

Valerie's eyes popped open, if there was something she loved more than painting, it would be pestering the art teacher.

"We're having Mr. Knight today?!" Valerie asked and glanced at her table where her latest art work was sitting.

"No, Val-Val we're having art class with Mr. Knight" Sophie said knowingly and her friend blushed.

Ok, she might have had a teensy-weensy crush on her art teacher but who didn't.

"Ok, ok, I'm ready, see you at school in a few!" Valerie said and hung up, she tossed her phone into her school bag with new spirit. She took one more look at her precious painting before putting it in the bag.

It was a painting of a night at the beach, the silver moon was shimmering on the dark ocean and the stars were sprinkled like dust on the night sky.

Valerie liked this one, if you looked, like, really looked at it, it almost seemed like you were in it.

"Valerie, you better not still be asleep by this time!" Nicole Reece yelled from downstairs.

"I'm awake!" Valerie yelled back, her mood darkening once more.

Nicole was so infuriating lately, her bad moods were the worst and they seemed to last longer and longer every single time.

Valerie understood her salon business wasn't going too well and it was becoming harder for her to pay the rent of this old house and provide for them both but she felt that she didn't have to rub her stress off on her, like, Valerie'd had enough problems of her own.

Like money for new paint, for instance.

She went downstairs as quietly as possible, sneaked past Nicole as she watched TV and finally let out a breath when she was at her exit.

"Bye Nicole!" Valerie said loudly and raced out before Nicole could tell her she forgot to do the dishes.

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"Alright, I'm doing this" Valerie whispered to herself as she pushed the door open and stepped into the school with her head down.

Looking up slightly, she scanned the arena for friend or foe, since neither were in sight, she scanned the quickest route between moving students to her goal: The old, orange door to art class.

Satisfied, Valerie put her head down and walked, she could only see the feet of students this way and no one could see her face!

It was a good idea!

That's what she thought until she walked headfirst into the last person on her meet and greet list.

Oh crap kebab, Valerie thought.

"Watch where you're going, idiot!" She heard TJ growl.

"Sorry" Valerie coughed and moved out of the way, hoping to escape before TJ did anything.

But there was no such luck in Halsburg. Meryl, one of TJ's followers pulled down her hoodie and snarled at her.

"Well well" TJ chortled and came to face her victim "if it isn't little Miss pretty face"

Without wasting much time, Meryl pushed Valerie face first onto the lockers and yanked her bag away from her, tossing it to TJ who would check for food or money or something sparkly.

Oh no! Valerie's art project was in there!

"Wait!" She said pushing against Meryl who had a death grip on her. "There's nothing in there, just science books and vegetables!"

Like it was a curse, TJ dropped the bag to the floor "eww! You nerd, how dare you?!"

Valerie sighed inwardly with relief. Good.

"I hate vegetables!" Chelsea, another member of TJ's gang said and started stomping on the bag with her giant combat boots.

Bad! Bad! Really bad!!

Soon, the rest of the gang joined in the fun, all Valerie could think was how dead her painting was.

Suddenly, her very own ray of sunshine saved the day.

"Hello friends!" Sophie Sanders who was dressed in a neon orange top and matching shorts called as she skipped over "isn't today such a marvelous day?"

Immediately TJ and her gang froze.

"It's Sophie Sandals!"

"You silly girl" Sophie laughed merrily "you always get my name wrong, it's Sanders not sandals, come, let me give you all a hug to start your day...."

"Let's get outta here!" Chelsea screamed and they all ran away.

"Hi Sophie" Valerie said sadly as she picked up her miserable bag from the floor and took out the painting. It was ruined.

"Oh no, not again" Sophie said taking a look at it "why does TJ pick on you so much?"

"I don't know" Valerie said, shaking her head. "Now what am I going to give Mr. Knight?"

"A hug?" She heard Sophie ask and her face flared up, right away.

"What?! I can't give Mr. Knight a hug as my...."

"I was asking if you wanted a hug, not suggesting you gave one to him, Val" Sophie said with a grin and her best friend's face heated up even more.

"Yeah, a hug would be good" she whispered as Sophie wrapped her arms around her.

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Mr. Knight was the best!!

For some reason, the teacher didn't request for any assignments and majority of the art students was happy about that. Most especially Valerie.

"Ah, he's so dreamy" Valerie sighed as the blonde teacher with his model's features and nice orange tie scratched his cute tushie.

He probably thought he was doing that in private, little did he know that somewhere in the middle row of the seats, a brown haired student with big blue eyes was staring at him like he was playing a harp.

"You'll get over it" Sophie who was sat right next to Valerie, said as she prepared a spit ball.

Valerie did a double take in Sophie's direction, wondering why she was rolling up paper to shoot her spit ball, but then she went back to ogling her art teacher.

Suddenly, Marina Ferry spoke up "Excuse me Mr. Knight!" Every one groaned, Marina was an obnoxious nerd and know-it-all that always went ahead of herself every single time!

Now she was about to remind the teacher to collect the assignments because she was the only one who did hers!

Valerie watched Sophie turn around to look at Marina with her rolled up paper in between her fingers.

"Yes, Miss Ferry?" Mr. Knight's smooth cool voice, said.

"I believe you forgot to ask for our ass-ah!! Ak...akkkk!" The girl choked on something, holding her throat. That "something" was Sophie's perfectly aimed spit ball.

Sophie smiled sweetly and put the rolled up paper away. Ok, maybe she wasn't a ray of sunshine all the time.

"Wow, you're choking Marina, maybe you should go see the nurse" Mr. Knight said indifferently.

Everyone in the class laughed as the girl ran out to get rid of the spit ball.

"Today might not be so bad after all" Valerie sighed happily as she went about her business.

After class, Valerie was just about to leave the room with Sophie when the teacher called her back.

"Miss. Reece, might I have a word?" Mr. Knight asked quickly like he had almost forgotten to call her.

Valerie did a little dance inside as she hurried over to the teacher who was standing in front of his desk searching a dusty old box for something.

"Yes, David?" Valerie said smoothly as she made to lean casually on the desk but missed and almost fell. Thankfully, Mr. Knight didn't see that.

"Miss Reece" He said looking at his student with brown eyes "stop calling me David, I am your teacher, see?"

"Whatever you say, David" Valerie said batting her eyelashes.

Mr. Knight only looked at her the same way an ordinary person would look at Picasso's painting.

"Right" he said with a careless nod and went back to the box in his hand "I wanted to give you this"

He held it out and Valerie took it, confused "you got something for me?"

"No way" the man actually chuckled before turning serious "those were your father's"

"Oh" Valerie said, disappointed but also intrigued. Valerie's father, Handel, used to attend Halsburg high before he died, or rather, went missing.

Handel and Nicole got married and had Valerie a little too early, so they were both high school drop outs, he went missing a few months after Valerie was born, probably because he hated diapers, who knew? But Valerie never met him, the sad part was, Valerie had a lot in common with him.

According to Nicole, her husband had beautiful brown hair and bright blue eyes and just like Valerie he was a painter, he was the best, apparently.

He'd disappeared during a terrible hurricane. Just like that.

"The principal thought it would be a good idea to let you have it, his work was extraordinary, you could learn a thing or two from them" Mr. Knight continued.

Valerie rolled her eyes with a sigh "I don't need any of this- oh is that paint? Hell yeah I'm taking it"

"Good, now you can leave for your next class" Mr. Knight said going to sit behind his desk with a huge novel in his manicured hands.

Valerie smiled at him "what if I don't want to leave?"

"Well, you would get detention for getting to class late, do you really want to spend another second in this boring-as-hell building they call a school?" He asked in boredom, not taking his eyes off his book.

"With you, I would love to!" Valerie said with a giggle behind the dusty box.

"Miss Reece!" Mr. Knight exclaimed and she turned around to walk out.

"I'm leavin' I'm leavin'" she said playfully.

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There was a strange book in that box. Valerie had taken her time to look through it during PE which she ditched.

The book was brown with gold intricate writings and symbols on it and it looked completely new even though it was way older than she was, the writings and symbols were strange, she'd never seen anything like it before, it was a big book too. It even reminded her of a Qur'an in a way.

The white pages were thick enough to paint on without the paint sinking through the material.

"This would be perfect for my art!" Valerie mused as she traced the gold with her finger tips.

She searched Sophie's locker for a magnifying glass, yes they knew each other's lock combination. And Sophie had a magnifying glass because... yeah Valerie didn't know why.

She used it anyway, to get a clearer view of the writings on the book.

Maoruka. It said, and apparently, it was in three different languages, she only read out the one she could pronounce.

"Hmm" Valerie said under her breath "marooka" she whispered.

Immediately, the gold words flashed brightly! Startled, Valerie screamed and tossed the book across the room.

The book landed on the dusty floor, blank pages open wide.

Valerie's eyes were wide open as she shook her head, laughing at herself "all this dusty art stuff is making me jumpy" She took the book off the floor, it looked as brand new as ever even though she had just picked it up from brown icky dust.

"Marooka" she said again, looking at the book. Nothing happened.

She shrugged and tossed it in the box along with the rest of her father's stuff.

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"This looks like some kind of ancient handwriting, I think this is Greek" Sophie said, looking closely at the book.

Valerie had shown her friend the reason she borrowed her magnifying glass.

They were done with school for today and now, they were walking home together.

"You know Greek? That's cool!" Valerie praised.

"Pah!" Sophie laughed "I don't know Greek, I only said I think it's Greek, but if you look closely...whoa!"

Valerie watched in alarm as Sophie tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell.

"Sophie!" Valerie squealed "holy barnacles, are you okay?!"

Sophie rolled into her back and put the back of her palm over her forehead, dramatically "I'm afraid I have sprained my left ankle, my dearest friend!" She cried "pray, go on your way and leave me here to die for I cannot carry on"

"Shut up Sophie'' Valerie said holding back laughter as she knelt next to her friend "does it hurt?"

"So bad" Sophie groaned, moisture threatening to spill from her eyes "can we stop by for ice cream though?"

"Sophie, you're hurt, and have you forgotten that the whole of Halsburg has no ice cream?" Valerie said "come on sunshine, I'll help you up and walk you home, how about that?"

"Yeah ok" Sophie squeaked and with her friend's help, hobbled home.

Mrs. Sanders was at home waiting for her daughter, with any luck, she would have some snacks to offer Valerie.

She liked the woman, she had nice qualities like being able to cook delicious food, being able to offer Valerie delicious food and....yeah that's it.

"Hi Mom, I'm home" Sophie sighed as Valerie helped her into a fluffy sofa.

"Hi Mrs. Sanders" Valerie greeted and the auburn haired woman walked into the living room with a tray of cookies in her hand.

"Sophie, Valerie" Mrs. Sanders said sweetly "how did your day go? Here, Valerie, have a cookie"

"Everything was going fine mom, till I sprained my ankle on the way home, I'll live though" Sophie said.

Valerie was just about to grab a chocolate chip cookie when Mrs. Sanders withdrew the tray slowly.

"Um..." Valerie said looking up at the woman who was staring at her "the cookie?"

"You hurt Sophie" Mrs. Sanders said slowly, almost robotically before something flashed in her eyes.

Valerie raised her eyebrows as Mrs. Sanders' expression morphed into anger, something Valerie had never seen, she was so confused and creeped out by it that it took a while to process what she had said.

"Hurt Sophie?" Valerie asked quietly.

"Mom, that crazy, Valerie would never..." Sophie cut in.

"Zip it, Sophie!" Mrs. Sanders snapped at her daughter who looked taken aback. "You hurt my Sophie and you brought her here to make me think you are innocent, you lying, conniving assassin..."

"Assassin?!" Valerie interrupted, hands in that air "of all the words in the English dictionary?"

"You think I'm kidding here?" Mrs. Sanders asked furiously, this was a side of her neither of the girls had never seen, she was always so sweet before and all of a sudden, she changed.

Just like mom. A small voice said in Valerie's head but she chased that thought away.

"I don't want to see you near my Sophie again, and if I hear that you still talk at school, I'll transfer her!"

"Mom!" Sophie gasped.

"Jeez ma'am, you should've just said you can't afford to offer me free snacks anymore instead of blaming me for something I didn't do so I can stop coming over" Valerie said pulling her hoodie over her head "I'll see you later Sophie"

Without waiting for a reply, Valerie took her bag and the box before getting out of there.

Even after she had gotten home, washed the dishes, eaten lunch and collapsed in front of the TV to watch, she was still shaken up.

What the heck was that? Mrs. Sanders was the second nicest person in the world and now she was blending in with the rest of Halsburg?

That was just terrible! What if Sophie turned too?!

Nicole wasn't the nicest mother in the world at first but as time went by, she changed, she was a million times worse than ever and Valerie was the only one suffering from it.

She sighed and switched off the TV, she wasn't in the mood for Regular Show.

She went upstairs to her room and brought out the contents of the box Mr. Knight gave to her.

There were medium sized jars of fresh paint, all the five primary colors were present, so were neon pink, orange and green, there was a set of paintbrushes and an odd one out, it had a transparent white handle and a brown brush.

There was an old palette too with previous paint stains present on it. Valerie smiled softly when she noticed the "property of Handel Reece" inscribed with something sharp under it.

So, after the inspection, she went to work and opened the book, mixed the paints till she got the shade she wanted and set to paint.

She never really planned what she wanted to paint in the first place. She painted with her mind, she painted how she felt at the moment and she always felt way better afterwards.

Now she was using a lot of green and black. Drawing sharp strokes and angry lines.

An hour later, she had finished a small painting of a storm over a green ocean. The grey angry clouds were releasing lightening and green rain, the waves looked tremendous even from her point of view.

"Hmm" Valerie said looking at a small black stroke she made in-between the waves, it was a mistake but a good one, since it looked like a stray log floating on the surface of the water.

She sighed, her life was a mess.

Suddenly, at the top edge of the page, she saw silver writings flash to life and reflect in the light.

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Hellooo guys!!

It's me. Rhodes. Thanks for giving this book a try, you deserve a muah!😘😘

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, please don't forget to comment and/or vote!

It would be so cool if you do.

XOXO

Rhodes.