There Is No Comfort Zone

Milyah- Prologue

Milyah Crossbook had only been going to her elementary school for two years now. It was a fairly normal place when she was in her quaint little Kindergarten class. There, everyone had learned their ABCs and sang the most joyous songs. The stories her teacher strung into the heads of her students were always filled with magic and strong morals, and during school hours, the bad children got punished for doing wrong. But perhaps the most important thing of all: an injury could be easily fixed. The nurse would either slap a bandage on, or hand you a bag of ice. Then it all became better in a pinch.

None of that was true in first grade.

Milyah could have told you that the exact second she walked through the door on her first day to see a little girl with messy black curls crying in the corner.

Their teacher, Mrs. Roni attempted to comfort the strange girl to no avail. The more she did, the more tears fell from the little girl's face. Her sobs reverberated throughout the room, and she trembled uncontrollably, only occasionally gasping for needed air.

Milyah frowned. Class hadn't even started, and yet someone already had a break down. But why? Was it that one of her toys was taken away? Or had the teacher scolded her, and the pressure had been too much?

Milyah took slow steps towards the newbie, her caution not misplaced. Nearly anything could offset the stranger, and it was not something anyone in the class had fully experienced before. The girl practically radiated sadness, and it was like a heavy weight set atop every child surrounding her.

What was the girl's problem? She was destroying the room just by weeping, which wasn't something that happened often. Someone would throw a tantrum daily in Kindergarten, and no one would flinch. Was this the first grade fever? Had everything changed now?

Milyah had no idea at the time that while it was true things had completely altered, it had nothing to do with her new title as a first grader. No, but instead, all it took was someone who was engulfed by unusual circumstances. It was positively mad, but alas it was the truth. They just had yet to realize it: something big would be approaching sooner than they could have possibly expected. For now, thin slivers of it was all they had to go by.

"Why are you crying?" Milyah finally asked. Her patience for an answer was extremely thin, although she still had to wait what she deemed as FOREVER for a single reply.

"I, I d-d-don-n't, want t-to tal-lk ab-bout it." The nameless girl said between sniffles. It did seem like she was attempting to calm down now, but that peace hadn't come to a closer yet.

Milyah was furious! She shouldn't have had to wait that ridiculously long amount of time for such a meager response. Now she was no closer to the knowledge she wanted than she had been when she started. Why would a kid be so upset? (Well, other than the fact that she was at school.)

The black-haired girl had placated herself. No longer was she a bawling mess, although she was still shaking. In her left hand she attacked a poor pizza-shaped stress ball.

Milyah's answer was probably the most obvious thing. She nearly smacked her own forehead when it came to her. She might have been young, but it was too simple. What every little kid loves most:

"Is this because of your parents?"

And the girl was thrown into another fit of uncontrollable sobs.

The girl's name was Alice Glasscard, and the reason she had been crying most certainly was because of her parents. Alice was homesick. Because on the first day of first grade, her parents had been among the deceased for two days. Now, she lived with the only family she had left, her Aunt Minda. And that woman was loaded!

In order to try and make it up to Alice, Aunt Minda spoiled her senseless. So that meant that Alice's dream to travel throughout the world would be a reality in the time to come. With wild adventures comes crazy stories, and soon they learned that Alice was a magnet for trouble. With her around you, there is no comfort zone.

Author's Note! Milyah is Firebolt-cat's OC, and so I want to make that clear. Well, thanks for reading this far! Have a great day! ~DawnLune