Under the floorboards

Chapter 1

I woke up due to the sound of shouting. It was incredibly loud so it must've been the Beans. Groggily, I opened my eyes with a groan and sat up in my bed and looked around my "room", which was made out of a child's shoebox that I decorated to look slightly rustic. I took off my covers, which was made out of a piece of a purple tablecloth that my father, Spiller, borrowed from the lady Bean's closet. All of the items in there were never used, so there was no harm in taking a little bit of it.

As I got out of bed, I was hit by a cold blast of wind from up above that gave me a shiver down my spine and caused me to crawl back into bed and wrap myself up like a cocoon to hide from the coldness. It was early fall; the cold blasts were expected, but I'd never get used to them.

"Serena darling, get out of bed please. You're father's going to leave soon and you haven't even eaten breakfast yet!" My mother, Ariettey, called down from the kitchen. This caused me to wake up more. It was a tradition to see my father off before he went out Borrowing.

You see, we're Borrowers. We're what Beans (humans) call, "the tiny people under the floors" There are thousands of us, millions even. I haven't seen them all of course, just the ones that live in the houses that are in the neighborhood.

Every Borrower family has their own house and they're own family of Beans, unless there's only one Bean in each house of course. The Beans give us a home without knowing it. We live under their floorboards, in the walls, or in the attics of houses. Basically, places that the Beans could never find us. If they did see us, that would be catastrophic. All of the Borrowers in the house would have to leave their home that took them years to make and find a new Bean family to live with and make a new home all over again. It takes years to make a proper Borrower home. We have to be incredibly careful not to be seen and make sure that we don't borrow too much at once so that it isn't noticeable. But during times of crisis, for instance when a Borrower is seen or has just found a new home, we will take just a bit more than we need.

Now, it might sound bad that we Borrowers take things, but that's not how we see it. We don't ever steal, if its valuable, we give it back or don't borrow it at all. But if you don't need something, then we could use it to make our lives easier and yours as well. You'd have one less useless thing lying around and we could have a new piece of furniture or food, depending on what it is that we borrowed.

"Serena! I won't call you down again, so come here and see you're father off! He'll be leaving any second!" My mum screeched from the kitchen. You could hear my father chuckling and trying to stand up for me, stating that I don't have to come down every single time and that I should get to sleep in more. But as usual, my mother wouldn't hear any of it.

I quickly put on my clothes, which consisted of a simple orange doll's dress that had belonged to my my Grandmother (I thought it was gross to be wearing it at first, but now it means a lot to me) and a pair of boots that were also, from a doll, but hadn't belonged to my grandmother. The boots were from the young girl Bean's lost Polly in My Pocket doll. Father found the creepy toy under the refrigerator and borrowed the boots for me. Then he moved the doll to a spot where the young girl Bean would see it and came back home and gave me the boots for my birthday.

As I hopped down stairs, shoving on my left boot, I saw my father standing by the door, which was made out of an old and useless credit card that the father bean tried to throw out. When I reached the bottom of the stairs my father turned towards to me and smiled; then proceeded to hug me and kiss the top of my head before doing the same to my mother. After that he said the usual, "see you in a bit loves", and blew a happy kiss before heading out the door and down the hallway that lead to a ladder to climb up to a whole in the floor under the grandfather clock and out into the big world of the beans.

For about a minute, my mother and I stood there watching my father walk down the hallway before turning a corner. Then she turned to me and smiled, thanking my for showing up to my father's "leaving". Then she proceeded to begin making my breakfast, which was just a piece of a bread crumb and some strawberry creme with a cup of water. Not the healthiest meal, but it was definitely the best tasting thing Mum could make.

You know, my mother wasn't always like this. She and my father are both legends. They saved thousands of Borrowers from the Beans and they were pretty awesome back then. But, when my Grandfather died from getting squished by a Bean, she completely changed. She became terrified of the giants and refused to go out and borrower ever again. Then she got pregnant with me and she didn't want me to die like my Grandfather. But we still needed someone to go out and borrow. So my father did it. And its been like that ever since. My mother and I all cooped up in the house while my father's out having adventures and living life like a true Borrower.

I just about finished up my breakfast when I heard the thumping and giggling of the young girl Bean from up above. She sounded to happy and carefree. It made me slightly jealous. She didn't have to live her whole life stuck in a small space and in fear of being seen. She could go out and not live with the fear of being squashed or taken to be experimented on or cut open. There are times where I want to be like her. Tall. That's it, just tall. I could go out and see the world or even just walk a block down the road and look at a car or see the Beans out in their daily lives. At times I want to know the feeling of feeling stuck in a crowd or what snow feels like when it hits your tongue. I want to know what its like to jump into a huge puddle and getting covered in mud or the feeling of getting placed next to your crush in class. At times I even want to know what going to school feels like! I want to learn about Geometry or Chemistry, whatever that is. I want to know why the young Bean girl gets frustrated when she can't answer a question in her weekly reading packets. Its not fair! I just want to experience it all, but I'm just too small.

I decided that since I was just about to turn seventeen, I might as well be old enough to go out Borrowing. Dad started when he was fifteen and mum started when she was sixteen. So why shouldn't I be able to start now?

"Mum, why can't I go out and see the Beans? Sure they're big, but I promise, they won't see me! I'll be careful! Like you and dad said, borrowings in my blood!" I pestered my mother, who had never once let me leave the house. I constantly nagged her for almost my whole life about borrowing. To be allowed to just catch a glimpse of that huge thing they call a cat, or to figure out why whenever the Beans upstairs turn on the Hoover, we basically get sucked up until we hit the roof of our "home"; which was items from a doll house tucked away, under the floor where the Beans can't see us. But just as usual, she shook her head and gave me a cross look.

"For the hundredth time! No! You're too young!" I gave a huff in defeat and stormed out of the kitchen, basically dragging my body up to my room in defeat. It wasn't fair. She always kept my cooped down here, where there was little to no light and I could never see the sky. All my life I've been stuck down here, trapped under rows of wooden planks, where I was "safe" and out of sight, where not a Bean could see me. Stuck forever, under the floorboards.