Free For All

Chapter 1

Simone wrenched her eyes away from the open notebook, held reverently in her hands, as if it were the Rosetta Stone. "This is-"

"Shit. Absolute fucking shit." Ellyda crossed her arms across her chest, snorting with distaste and looking away.

"Oh shut up! This is- You have no idea how amazing this is! It makes me feel. It's like I'm Elira and I can relate to her on a deeper level. This is the one. You need to enter this."

"It's still not finalized, it has a million loose ends, it's practically useless, it has no morals or lessons or educational shit and compared to Rachel's entry, its like a child's unrhymed poetry." Ellyda let her eyes skim through the school paper.

Then she blinked hard, keeping the paper down on the library bench and gently extracting her notebook out of Simone's hands. "Plus, there's no chance someone like me could ever win a spot in the school paper, not when there are so many better writers out there."

Simone stood up, "Maybe not but it doesn't hurt to try!"

"It does." Ellyda gathered up her things. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The school corridors had emptied out, leaving only a spattering of students but when Ellyda inevitably tripped over the untied laces of her Vans and dropped all her possessions, the corridor rang with silent laughs.

She turned red and closed her eyes in mortification before picking herself off the floor and bending down to pick up her fallen notebook.

It was open to the page with her most recent scribblings.

                                                                     *~**~*

She laughed as she ran, her sheer purple lace dress floating behind her, the wind stealing strands of her face away from her face. Her knee length dress billowed around her like a magnificent obstruction, it caught hers legs, already hindered from the thigh - high stalks of Jinny joes surrounding her, and she fell, legs splayed, arms spread wide, with an equally wide smile on her content face.

The large figure that followed behind her was almost blurred by the jinny joes floating around her. He fell on top of her with a thump and a small, blonde body joined it, both the father and the son, looking so alike with their blonde hair, tickled their mother, their laughter echoing in the otherwise empty field.

The little boy stood back up on his feet, "C'mon mama, we've got to paint the jinny joes, we've got to paint them, fast!" And he ran off to the direction of their car, just outside the field where the painting equipment was kept.

She stared, amused, into those deep blue eyes of her husband. Eyes that made her feel hot and cold, nervous and confident, flustered and collected, all at the same time. Eyes that were the sea to her anchor, the storm to her waves. He stared right back into her lighter blue sapphires, eyes ringed with grey. His eyes were dark, almost a dark purple, hers were the light of a bright, sunny day.

"Did I tell mommy she smells exceptionally delicious today?" His voice was deep, hoarse and it sent goose bumps prickling across her skin. She repressed a shudder that released itself when he lowered her head to her neck and kissed her pulse, inhaling deeply.

She closed her eyes and prayed for control. "Miles!" She warned, before adding with a slight blush, "it's the perfume you got me for our anniversary, last month."

He lifted his head and his lips spread into a boyish grin, "Best decision of my life!"

He laughed and stated leaning in to kiss her-