Avalon: Princess (Avalon, #1)

Chapter 1: Halloween

Jade kept glancing up at the clock anxiously. She wasn't allowed to leave the stifling office until the bell rang, but she dreaded going home.

She hated sitting in the chair in the office. Every time someone new came in, they gave her a look that said they knew exactly what she had done even though they really didn't.

Tommy's mom had picked him up two hours ago, but Aunt Anna had never come for her. She knew why. Aunt Anna was at work. She worked at the big school down the road, and she couldn't just leave whenever Jade did something stupid. It used to be that Grandma Molly would have been the one to get the call. She used to wait for Jade at home, but not anymore. She and Grandpa Charlie were in the Home now. They weren't allowed to come pick up Jade anymore. Now Jade and Aunt Anna had to go to the Home to see them.

The minute hand ticked one minute closer to Jade's release. She wanted to cry, but she knew that if she did, someone would see and it would surely get back to Tommy, and she could have none of that. So she held back her tears, and watched her life tick by much too quickly.

Mr. Knucke had already called Aunt Anna at work; Mrs. Johnson had told Jade that when she came to give Jade her homework. He'd called Tommy's mom too. That's why she'd come to pick him up. Aunt Anna would be furious. Jade was usually a good kid. She got her homework turned in, she helped out Mrs. Johnson after school sometimes, and she even helped her aunt around the house, but she had an awful temper especially when it came to stupid people.

It seemed like only seconds ago that she and Tommy had been on the playground with all the other kids at recess. She refused to give up the swing. It was hers. She had waited in line, and she wasn't going to give it up just because Tommy wanted it. So, he started talking. The more he said, the angrier she got until finally, she dug her heels into the dirt, got off the swing, and walked right up to him. He was grinning happily because he thought he'd won. That was when Jade's fist had met his face.

The bell rang right over her head. Jade leapt from her chair, grabbed her jacket and book bag, and high tailed it out of the office before Mr. Knucke could call her back into his office. The short walk from the school to the house went quickly. A little golden light followed right behind her, singing nonsense words in the prettiest little bell voice.

Jade couldn't remember the first time she had seen Lali. She had just always been there. Aunt Anna called her Jade's imaginary friend. Jade didn't blame Aunt Anna for thinking Lali was imaginary because Lali was very shy. She only ever came around when Jade was alone and needed someone to play with.

She was a nice little fairy, but she was always getting Jade into trouble. On her way home, Lali kept going on and on about all the things she would have done to Tommy if she'd been there. Jade ignored her mostly. Nothing Lali could say was going to make her feel better because she knew exactly what Aunt Anna was going to say when she got home.

She dumped the contents of her book bag out on the floor of the living room as soon as she entered the house and went to the kitchen. She filled her backpack with snacks, and then grabbed her journal off the counter where she had left it that morning. She didn't say a word or even acknowledge Lali as she walked out to the woods. She followed the trail that she herself had worn through the trees to the small clearing with a circle of mushrooms and sat down with her back leaning against her favorite tree.

She took out a pencil and opened her journal, but she did not start drawing. She just sat there and waited as the sun crept closer and closer toward the ground.

"Jade Elizabeth Green!" Aunt Anna called all too soon. "You get in this house this instant!"

Jade stood up, dropping her journal in the dirt where she had sat. She did not pick it up. Leaving her book bag there too, she started trudging back toward the house. She walked as slowly as she could, but soon enough she had broken through the line of trees and could see Aunt Anna standing at the kitchen door, arms crossed, still dressed in her work clothes with her ID badge hanging around her neck. Lali left her side the moment Aunt Anna called her name, so Jade approached her aunt alone.