Daughter Nature

Lost in Her Own World

Leia Harrison had long, wavy dark brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders. Her emerald green eyes sparkled with a flicker of joy and hope, a stark contrast to the heaviness sheoften felt inside. Her freckles covered her entire face, even her ears. She had bow-shaped lips and a button nose. She was quite skinny for her age and not that tall.

Leia Harrison was just a normal 13-year-old girl, or so she thought. Little did she know that soon everything was about to change. On a Thursday night, her parents were fighting once again. It gave her a headache. She decided to go to her own spot to escape the yelling and clear her head.  She put on her sneakers and jumped on her bike. Luckily it wasn't far. About a kilometer from her house was a luscious forest. It was called Wispwood Forest. She loved to go there to escape reality.

When Leia and her twin brother Leo were just four, their parents would take them on adventures throughWispwood Forest, laughter ringing through the trees as they played in thesun-dappled clearing. Those memories felt like a distant dream now.                                                                                                                                       Over the years it had become her spot. She found a little clearing with a giant tree in the middle where no one ever came.

Once she arrived, she locked her bike and started walking. As she was walking, she felt a sudden cold breeze. She shivered a little and pulled her sweater closer to her body. The girl sat down by the willow tree which she often referred to as 'Ilana'. It was a Hebrew name that meant 'tree'. She began to think about everything that had happened this week. How she got detention for drawing in class, the big fight between her and her older twin brother, Leo, and the recent fight between her parents, Naomi and Peter Harrison.

Every time Leia entered the kitchen, the air thickened with unspoken words, a heavy silence that pressed against her chest. Her parents' voices, sharp and angry, echoed off the walls, leaving her feeling like a ghost in her own home. When she was just a kid, her brother knocked over her great-grandmother's vase. Leia was also in the room at that moment, so he blamed her. She was grounded for four weeks, only allowed to go to school and back. Once she was home, she had to go straight to her room. She could only go downstairs for breakfast and dinner. Those weeks felt like months. Things like this always seemed to happen to Leia. Her parents had always favored Leo since they only wanted one child, especially a boy. This always causes her to feel unwanted and unnecessary.

At school, she didn't have friends either. Everybody thought of her as 'the weird quiet girl' since she never spoke to anybody, scared that she would do something wrong or embarrassing. Instead, she drew all sorts of things; animals, people, objects, but mostly nature. She always thought that nature had this calm aura to it. It helped her with anything and everything: when she wanted to forget something or when she wanted to remember something, to escape reality or come back to it. Nature had been her happy place, the home she never had.

Now she was sitting here, at the foot of the tree Ilana. She had encountered many animals in the forest, such as squirrels, bunnies, and butterflies. Last month a Western Bluebird landed on her shoulder while drawing here. She didn't have any food for it; instead, she petted it and it nuzzled in her neck. She had decided to call him George.

This wasn't the first time an interaction like this happened. When Leia was seven, a white bunny with black spots approached her and sat in her lap. It had gorgeous amber eyes and the cutest little nose Leia had ever seen. She guessed the rabbit was not that old since it was really small, about the size of her hand. She didn't know why wild animals kept approaching her, especially since she had no food. They kept calling her a liar when she told people these stories since wild animals would usually run away.

Lost in thought, she didn't hear the rustling of leaves next to her, but sudden whispers brought her back to reality. She couldn't make out what the voices were saying, but as suddenly as they came, they disappeared again. Leia thought she was starting to hear things because she was getting tired and decided it was time to go back since it was starting to get dark.

While walking to her bike, she encountered a wild fox. She has always been fascinated by foxes and has never seen one in real life so Leia was very excited, but she didn't want to get her hopes up since the fox would probably run away due to its instincts. However, the fox walked slowly and cautiously towards her. She sat down and was careful not to make any sudden movements, who knows when she would get this chance again? When the fox was close enough, it sniffed her hand. To Leia's surprise, it then licked her palm. She carefully petted the fox as it stayed still, staring at her with its big brown eyes.

At this point, she had already forgotten all about the whispers she heard. 'Hey there buddy', she softly said to the fox. It kept staring at her. She then remembered that vixens (female foxes) usually have a more slender neck and head than dogs (male foxes). This probably meant that the dog in front of her was a vixen. 'What do you think of the name Roxy?' she asked the fox.

It blinked a few times before running circles around Leia. This made her chuckle. 'I guess that means you like it', she said.

After saying goodbye to Roxy, she started her journey back home, well, more like her house. She could see a beautiful sunset; a combination of red, orange, and pink. It looked like a painting, no, a masterpiece.

When she arrived 'home', she tried to be as quiet as possible since she really didn't want to get grounded again. Luckily for her, everybody was already was already asleep. She crept up the stairs, avoiding the ninth step since it cracked. She changed into her pj's and passed out the second her head hit her pillow.

The next morning Leia woke up to the voice of her mom:

'Up! Get up, now!'

Groaning, Leia got up and got dressed. Today she wore classic jeans with a white T-shirt. It was not much, but she also didn't have a lot. She had three shirts, two pairs of jeans, and one sweater. She had to do her own laundry but she didn't mind this too much because it taught her how to be independent. While brushing her long waves she remembered what day it was today, her birthday.