Just One Life.

Chapter 2 ~ First Steps

💖 Arya's POV 💖

I don't really remember much of my first year. I had a pretty simple life.

Sleep, eat, play, sleep.

I worked out pretty early on that if I cried for something I'd usually get it pretty quickly so I did that quite a lot too.

Sleep, cry, eat, cry, play, cry, sleep.

I did a lot of sleeping, my life was pretty boring. I couldn't move so I just had to sit there, placed somewhere where everybody could see me. Somewhere they could shove their faces 2cm in front of mine, making loud "coooeeeyyyy" noises and expecting me to react, passed from knee to knee. I of course, had no choice in the matter. I was simply a cute, living, breathing, pooping toy they used to pass their time with their little lives.

Julia spent most of her time with her best friend Hannah and Hannah also had a daughter my age although she was slightly older than me. Her birthday was September 25th and her name was Emily.

I spent a lot of time sitting with her, there wasn't much else we could do so we just sat and watched and laughed.

My second year was slightly better. I learnt to walk.
Firstly I sat up, then I crawled to my parents delight. they were so happy about such a little thing, they gave me cake and chocolate and begged me to do it again, so I did.

Then I stood up. I had to use the sofa to pull me up and it took a couple of attempts but i was ecstatic because I'd spent over a year watching everybody else walk around, surely it couldn't be that hard?

It's harder than it looks..

So first I decided to help Emily stand up because I figured she could help me with the next step

It took a couple of weeks but eventually she did it, and then after a couple more I took my first step.
I remember a flashing red light In front of me, it was very intriguing. I tried to reach it but I could never quite touch it. it flashed over and over again at the top of a big black circle contained with in a big silver square. I wondered what it was doing. I looked across at Emily, I saw the same curiosity mirrored in her eyes.

Next year I spoke. Just simple words, "mamma" "dadda" "Em-ma" rather than Emily, I just couldn't get the "y" right. And for this, a new, strange creature was bought into my life. It was smaller than me, white but quite fluffy with a red bow around its neck.

My parents sat me down and put it on my lap and I ran my hands along its back, it tickled.
"This is Rosie" Dad whispered and she's our new dog!
A dog?
Why do we want a dog?
I guess it is kinda cute
Then she looked up at me and our eyes connected. She licked my hand and suddenly all my doubt flew away. Rosie was going to be for life, my partner in crime, my best friend.

I guess you could say Emily was my best friend too, we were never apart and once she started walking too, nobody could stop us.

We walked up stairs and down stairs, across the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, our bedrooms, everywhere. and then one day we went into the garden and sitting right in the middle was a fairytale castle, just like the ones I listened to in the stories mummy read to me every night. It was beautiful.

It had big red stairs we could climb, and matching swings, 2 of them. Monkey bars we could swing across, a small fort we could climb up to, a huge green slide but most importantly, a small house underneath the fort where we could sit and plan everything we could have dreamed of.

We were in the garden everyday after that, creating fictitious world we could play in. Drawing dragons and witches, princes and kings, queens and fellow princesses, anything and everything.

And that is how we grew up.

Always together, never apart. I saw her everyday, even the days she was ill I would go round to her house and we would play doctors so I could make her better again. I would put bandages all over her and make her cups of tea we could drink with her bears.

I loved life now, it wasn't boring. everyday was a new story, I wasn't myself. I could be who ever I wanted to be and each day I grew bolder and bolder until one day, I was pretending I was superwoman. I climbed to the very top of the fort, it wasn't very high, maybe 3 or 4 times the size of me? I was tall for my age so maybe it was a little high, but my heart beat and breathing stayed constant and steady, I feared nothing. I stood there at the top looking around at the garden, Emily playing with Rosie, looking, watching, staring at me to see what I would do next.

"I am superwoman" I said to myself
"I can do anything I want to do"

And with that I jumped off the fort.

Everything seemed to slow down. I felt like I was flying, the wind rushed past my cheeks, my clothes flapped around me and my brain soared, it was exhilarating.
I looked up. Emily's face flickered with another emotion, what was it, surprise? No. fear. Rosie got up, she barked. one clear, loud bark and she started to rush towards me. My mother, stood in the door way, her eyes and mouth wide open, hands out stretched, screaming my name. I heard the thud thud thud of dad racing down the stairs.

In reality it was barley 2 seconds, yet it felt like forever.

Why were they so panicked? This was brilliant! I was flying!

Wasn't I?

It was then I realised as I looked down that I was flying down. not up as I had intended but just as this realisation hit me, it was too late.
I probably should have been scared. everybody else seemed to be, but I wasn't. I felt empty. My heart started to beat quickly and I closed my eyes as I neared the ground, bracing myself for impact

I hit the ground with a large thud, just like Daddy running down the stairs.

I felt the impact

My head collided with the ground pushing my shoulders into my neck,
My spine compressed
My legs flung side wards, vibrating from the sudden loss of momentum like a fish out of water.

Then I expected to feel the pain

But I didn't

Everything went quiet and still.

The world turned black.

I don't remember anything else.

_______________________________

Authors note 💖

Hey guys 😊 so this is my new story,
"Just One More" I'm also in the process of writing another story, "The Game" so go check that out if you have time :)

I know there isn't much but hopefully this has helped to give you a fundamental sense of Arya's character!

My best friend Emily, (writing_by_emJ) has also begun to write a new story, "Eighteen" and it's brilliant already so go read it!

Make sure to tell me what you think so far!

Write soon :)

TJ xxx