In Too Deep

Chapter 1: At the Beginning

I'm flying.

I could see the homes, trees and clouds below me. I feel my hair and skirt flying around yet I can't feel the wind.

I'm flying and I don't know how.

Then I feel something clutch my waist – or maybe it was there all along, I just didn't notice. It was a claw.

Something hovered above me, shielding me from the sun but as I look up to see what it was, I felt the claw relax its grip and suddenly I'm falling and screaming but nothing comes out of my mouth. Then I hear something.

Tripping out, spinning around

I'm underground, I fell down

Yeah I fell down

Unexpectedly, I see my cat falling in slow-mo and singing in Avril's voice.

Wait, WHAT!?

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Ow!" I yelped when I fell out of my dream and my bed. I rubbed my behind which got kinda sore from the fall. "Why did you let me fall?" I kick the bedstead groggily. Right, blame it on the bed.

Lately, my dreams have become weirder and weirder I'm surprised I'm still not used to them.

I stood up and zombie-walked to the mirror, tried to fix my nest-like hair but gave up eventually. I realized the song in my dream came from the blaring speakers of our next-door neighbor. It's one of my favorites not only because of the movie and lyrics and tune, but because of its title. Alice. Not at all that far from Alys, huh?

Someone knocks on my door but I don't open it.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! You'll be late and it might start raining again." Dad's right. I look at the clock, 7:44 and I have an 8:30 class. Great.

After a quick, warm bath and selecting the most appropriate outfit for the seemingly rainy day, I strode to the kitchen where I found my Dad feeding Chesh. Chesh is my cat who also happened to be my best friend in the universe. Fine, scratch that. He's my only friend in the universe.

"Hey, you want me to drive you to school?" Dad offered. I could already hear the pitter-patter of the rain outside and I've half a heart to accept Dad's offer. But I knew he had so many TINkerings to do, being the only tinsmith in our little town.

"I'll be fine, Dad. Besides, I need to exercise to keep my shape." I answered, grinning like a fool.

He chuckled. "Yeah right. As if you have a shape."

A few minutes later found me walking clumsily towards the school gate. It was a typical school, the buildings looking dull and depressing, the teachers seeming worse than the buildings and the students being the worst of all. There were the varsity and the cheerleaders who thought they were the coolest, the bullies and jerks who went around terrorizing everyone (well, what did you expect?), the nerds who were the magnets for bullies, and the invisibles. And yeah, I'm one of those invisible girls, the ones you just passed your eyes over yet you didn't really acknowledge.

I was contemplating my wonderful school life when a car horn blows up my mind. I clamber up the sidewalk hastily to avoid the oncoming vehicle but since it was me and it was raining, I just had to make a scene there.

I lost my footing in the mud as I scrambled up and fell face down a muddy pool. Well, not really face down, my arms got there first but the splash was enough to mess up my face.

Practically, the school's whole population was there to witness my stupidity and clumsiness and I was the laughingstock. This is the first time I'm humiliated like this. I would rather be ignored than be The Biggest Joke of the Century. I clench my fists, trying real hard not to cry because I would only seem weaker then. And they would only laugh harder.

Only one thought runs in my mind: I wish the ground would just crack up and swallow me… I wish the ground would just crack up and swallow me… I wish the ground would just crack up and swallow me…

And the next thing I knew, the ground was cracking up and swallowing me into the deep.