The Miraculous Ever Afters

Prologue

Ella Abbott was in great, yet terrible pain.

She knew that what she was doing was incredibly wrong, but she was not sure what would happen to her if she stopped.

What would happen to Rory Landon if she stopped.

You see, Ella Abbott was in the middle of rereading the first book of The Ever Afters--Of Giants and Ice--for approximately the eighth time. As she was doing so, her neck was bent in an uncomfortable position, and it has been that way for nearly fifteen minutes. Why, you might ask? Well, Ella was hiding her book from her teacher during French class. Although it was fairly obvious, this fourteen-year-old girl could not see the consequences for doing this.

"Now, on to the next activity. Turn to page one-hundred-seven of your textbooks," Mrs. McGee commanded (at the same time as Rory Landon ran into the dragon's cave.) Ella's teacher gave a great, brilliant smile and flashed it at her students, surveying them, until she noticed a dirty blonde's head lowered to her lap. "Perhaps we should give answers in alphabetical order, hmm? Miss Abbott."

Unfortunately, listening to  music every evening with the volume at its maximum damaged Ella's eardrums...or perhaps she was just really absorbed into the Yellowstone National Park rescue that she completely blanked out of class. We all know the truth, don't we?

Mrs. McGee cleared her throat. "Miss Abbott, the first review question in the textbook?"

Ella froze. This time, she heard her teacher addressing her, and she was terrified of what she might see if she closed her book and looked up. But she did it, wincing. "Pardoneez-moi?" she said, hoping that if she said 'pardon me' in French it would make up for her mistake.

"Nice try, Ella. Now. What is a possible adjective you can use to describe the cat? As in, le chat?"

Ella felt the urge to smile, but resisted it. She knew the answer to this question. She would not get busted this time! "Le chat est noir," Ella said, her mind translating 'the cat is black' into the requested language.

"Yes, but without the 'est,' please," the French teacher said, staring slightly harder at Ella.

"Oh, le chat noir." As Ella answered, she could've sworn she heard someone cough and giggle behind her back.

"You gotta admit, he's pretty cute," one whispered not-so-softly.

"Come on, Alya!" another one hissed.

Ella rolled her eyes, temporarily forgetting that the teacher was still looking at her. These were some girls talking about their local superhero, Cat Noir, and, undoubtedly, they were thinking about his perfect partner, Ladybug, too.

Now that Ella thought about it, she thought that she heard a boy near her right side snort. She raised an eyebrow at the boy model, Adrien Agreste--

"Miss Abbot! Did you hear what I just said?" Mrs. McGee snapped impatiently. She began to approach Ella's desk.

     Uh oh. Ella quickly shoved her book into her bag under her chair.

"Please pay attention!"

"Sorry, Madame," Ella amended quickly. "I'll focus now."