I.. Can't... Stop.. . Wizard of Oz.. Fic... MUST.. AGHH.
I bet once I get this out of my system I can finally get my X-fics up and back in order. But.. I can't help it. Title: Straw Boys and Silver Sneakers. Once again, dear L.Frank Baum, I don't own your lovely creations. For my sister, Erin. People without brains sure do an awful lot of talking, huh?
Summary: Presant day, October 2007. On a little farm in Kansas, a 15 year old girl is blown away into a Tornado and thrown into the world of Oz, where she tries to piece together it's past while helping her newfound friends find a Memory, a Soul, and Nerve, and she herself debates over whether she really wants to return home. Movieverse, mild bits of 'Wicked' the Play.
Rating: T for teen.
Author: A.Farrell
October 20th, 2007
Kansas
"Erin! Erin! Did you get the chicken eggs, yet?"
A girl's head appeared from the hayloft.
"... No."
"I swear, Erin, your so lazy! If you don't get those eggs soon we'll have more chicks on our hands!"
"Sorry, Auntie Liz, I got preoccupied."
The elderly woman huffed and stormed out of the barn, and Erin jumped from the hayloft into a pile of hay on the barnfloor. A big black labrador's head appeared out of the straw beside her.
"Oh, there you are, Henri. Sorry if I landed on you, buddy." Henri whined.
Erin stumbled out of the straw, peering into the water trough before heading off. There was hay in her auburn hair, which she let lie, well brushed, across her shoulders. It almost seemed like she kept getting shorter, really, she was sure those pants hadn't wrinkled like that last time she'd worn them...
She slapped her thigh. "C'mon, Henri." The dog hurried after her towards the coop.
As Erin had indeed expected, the eggs were fine and indeed, quite warm to the touch, having it been a fairly warm day on the farm. A little unusual. Even more unusual for this season were the winds. But the biggest surprise she got was one of the farmhands, Ray. Ray was closest to her in age on the farm, at the ripe old age of twenty, he was still way too immature.
She waved, Henri running to hop on the man and lick his face. "Hah! Erin, get this mutt offa me!"
"Henri's no mutt, ya mutt. What are you doing?" She pulled Henri away, and the big floppy dog sat by her side.
"Workin', unlike some people, y'lazy bones." She frowned. "You guys just don't get it." "Ah we get it fine, Erin. Our heads aren't made of straw, y'know."
"But I have been working, Ray! I've been making something for all you-"
"I gotta go Erin, sorry!" Ray yelped, checking his watch. He pelted off. "See ya!"
She stood forlornly, as the wind kicked up dust and blew her scarf about her head. The one person she wished would listen to her didn't have the time. Erin could tell already that this would be one craptastic day.
The other two farmhands weren't any more understanding then Ray. Bert said she should have more nerve, stand up for herself better.
"Y'aren't gonna get anyplace by letting people walk all over ya," he'd said. "You gotta have the NERVE to say things."
"But I AM trying to say things, nobody's listening!" Bert just shook his head, and went on with the tractor through the cornfield. Erin had leapt off the wheel well and gone back to the house, where she met Jack chopping wood.
Jack was a kind man, his heart was nearly as big at the axe with which he chopped wood, maybe bigger. But he was no help either, no one would listen. All Jack said was that she just listen to her Aunt Liz and Uncle Max, and not cause trouble.
"Not cause trouble, hah! Ray causes more trouble on laundry day than I have my whole life." she slumped on the roof of the farmhouse, just against the old chimney. She could hear Henri down below, barking at something.
"Who am I kidding?" she mused aloud. "None of them notice me, i'm just the short kid they all live with." Maybe size was it. If she could find a way to grow six inches in the next ten minutes, well it would certainly help more than her stature of 4'10. She looked off into the distance, noticing a big Anvil shaped stormcloud on the horizon. She knew that meant something. She'd learned it in science class two years prior, but two years was a long time, and teenagers are notiorious for having short attention spans, so she couldn't quite recall. She crawled over to the edge of the roof and looked over, hair falling over her face as she peeked onto the porch, where Ray, Jack, and Bert were having a lemonade break.
"Guys? Guys, what do you remember from grade school science class?"
"Disecting frogs." Was Bert's succint reply.
"Gross." Was hers.
"Eh, I remember plenty, Erin, whats up?" Ray.
She paused. "Ok, y'know stormclouds are signs of stuff depending on what they look like and stuff, right?" Ray nodded."Well, what's it mean when they look like a big tower?"
Ray nodded. "Right, those can mean tornados, but thats not the most reliable way to know." Erin nodded. "But what if we DO have one?"
Jack shook his head. "Don't worry, Erin, if were gonna have a twister, the radio'll warn us. Now stop hanging off the roof, your head'll fall off."
"But what if-"
"Don't WORRY, Erin." Ray this time. "I'm not as stupid as I look, we'll be fine. Lets go, guys."
The three of them set off again. And Erin leaned back against the chimney. What was WITH them today? Criminy... If she got cut off once more today she'd go nuts.
"If he's so smart why didn't he stay in college and do something other than work on a farm..?" She scoffed. "I bet they wouldn't miss me if I left. Probably wouldn't even notice." Erin sighed deeply, glaring up at the Anvil-like cloud, as if perhaps, it's darkness was the source of all her frustration.
And then, the idea came to her. So utterly third grader and immature that it would work.
She'd run away.
She did feel pretty stupid, running away, blah. The very thought would shock her friends. In fact, she could hear them now.
"Hah! You ran away from home? What are you, twelve?"
So, she packed her school bag and slung it over one shoulder, grabbed Henri's leash, and the two left the farm, down the dirt road that had been there since before her grandmother.
She had only been walking about an hour when she decided to sit and contemplate if this was really the smartest thing to do. It was past supper, which meant the sun would be setting soon, which also meant night, and nighttime in October wasn't fun. PLUS she totally didn't intend to spend the night on the ground, she could get bitten by an animal, and she didn't want that. Though Henri would probably protect her, he was more useful as being a lazy companion then a defensive one, though.. She looked up at the sky, which had grown considerably darker since leaving. That massive cloud seemed even bigger, the wind had picked up too...
Yes, that was all the convincing Erin needed. "ALRIGHT, let's go Henri, we've missed dinner, Aunt Liz is probably pissed off even more. And I think i'll spend the night in the cellar." She hitched her backpack onto both shoulders, pulled off Henri's leash, and went running back down the road, towards home. Suddenly remembering why when she was twelve, she never did stay away from home when she ran off.
First chapter, we meet Erin. Local disgruntled youth. ... I should shut up now. -Blitz
She's actually quite pretty, with brown hair that's brushed back but left to hang like she doesn't care. And she doesn't. She has brown eyes, and freckles.
She's a complete lazy-ass who's way too smart for her own good, and would rather she be in the 1930s than the 2000s. She's probably PMSing this chapter.
She's also most likely being overly dramatic with her family right now.
This has a different plot from the original Wizard of Oz, it's not just her learning a lesson. It's taking a bit of a darker twist in the way that she's a bitchy teenager who might just decide to stay in Oz. But, keeping with good wholesome family VHS tradition, Erin will learn a few lessons about life along the way. I've been having my own teenage woes as of late, and I really wanted to start a story that would let me vent out feelings, Erin is an impersonification of my sister, and my teenage pissiness as of late.