The Inside Story

Plan of Action

This is the 24th chapter of the book! The reason why it's significant is because my first book Fairytales Aren't Real was 23 chapters long excluding the Not An Update chapter. It matters to me because I wanted to improve on making the story rich and the Inside Story has been so much fun to write. I'm so glad it still has some time left cause we're not even near the end! Alright, back to the story!

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Katie's POV

"Where are we going now?" I asked as I accidentally squished my foot in mud, trying not to groan in annoyance. These boots were new as I hopped on one foot to a nearby rock, using magic to make the mud disappear. Ella watched me with her arms crossed, trying not to gasp in surprise at my growing ability to use magic. Alejandro was walking forward and looked back at me, choosing to shake his head. I frowned, he had been increasingly negative ever since my return without any reason.

Sooner or later, I was going to have a talk with him to find out what was going on. Robin was still a bit closed off as I hadn't had a chance to talk to anyone besides the girls. Surprisingly, there was less drama with the girls than with the boys. Ironic, much?

"Nimue's house," Marina replied as she gave me a warm smile, giving me a quick one-armed hug. I could smell the heavy wooded scent of the forest on her and the others as we trekked forward. We were on full on sneaky mode, following the magical piece of fabric Rapunzel gave us that belonged to Nimue, which was leading us to her house. I was kind of glad we didn't have to wait for her as I was in no hurry to confront another evil witch.

As we were walking, I noticed that the group had gotten closer to one another than when I left. Selena, Snow, and Briar were having an animated conversation with each other while I was with Marina, Jordan and Robin were actually acting civilized, and the pair that shocked me the most: Ella and Alejandro. Despite the fact he was ignoring me, Ella was talking to him and Alejandro actually responded in a friendly manner. I was kind of sad that they were actually getting closer and Alejandro had shown no attention to me.

And then there was Robin.

He had been strangely taking quick glances at me, looking at me when he thought I didn't notice. I tried to make eye contact with him once and Robin reacted by tripping over a log. Jordan made fun of him naturally while he just cursed, steadying himself and getting up. I stifled my laughter as I stuck close to Marina and Jacob. Well I tried but my friends kept close to him like glue, they all loved him.

Wow Katie, a well-liked man. Wouldn't it be awesome if he was your dad?

Wait, where did that come from?

Jacob's insistence that he was my dad was starting to plague my thoughts. It was probably that empty space in my heart, most likely hoping that Jacob was right so he could fill that emptiness. My mom was great and all but there will always be that hole where I know I will never see my father again. I would have to eventually find out why he's lying to me and how he's so convinced I'm related to him though, after I'm done with this Sierra business.

I narrowly avoided another mud pile, I could tell it had rained last night as there were numerous puddles surrounding our trail with the air feeling moist with humidity. The flowers beneath us had their leaves dotted with water droplets gliding unto the grass as our footsteps disturbed the peaceful motion of this routine. I pulled my hair back, doing my best to braid my hair back. I hope Nimue won't be too hard on us for trying to break into her house to take Marina's magic back.

"Shh, everyone stop." Marina said as she held her hand up, cradling Ijorid with the other. Selena took him, making sure to feed him some of the grass that was wet and ready to eat. "This is the place," she said as Marina pointed towards an old cottage with a uneasy roof, it looked ready to fall over into dust.