A Castle in the Sky

The Beginnings of a Dream

A Castle in the Sky

By Parmesan_Chez

(This story is not associated with the film A Castle in the Sky. I never even knew the film existed until I searched for images of a floating castle. Speaking of which, I do not own the story's cover-art. It's just a temporary solution until I can find something else to replace it with. With that being said, happy reading, and thank you for choosing my story! )

Frances Hampington Middle School (FHMS for short) was a rough, rowdy place. The school was built a very long time ago and named after some lady named Frances Paddy Hampington, and the location wasn't the best. Broken bottles sprawled across the streets and shady people sat in every corner, waiting for something that may never come. Crime ruled the night, and the law enforcement was lazy and irresponsible. All in all, Gonsville was a terrible place to host a middle school.

Every afternoon, all the students in the tiny, bland school would have lunch. Friends would gather together and claim the best tables they could find under the large metal shading structure above them, and they would babble while they ate whatever they were served, some children being louder than others.

Somewhere in this crazy mess of adolescents, a lone girl approached a table. The table had chocolate milk spilled across the top of it, and sticky foods were stuck to the ground underneath it, but it was the only available one left. Besides, the girl would only need enough mess-free room to host one person, and that was herself.

With a quiet rubbing of Styrofoam, the eighth-grader sat down in the cleanest spot of the table she could find. Her raven-black hair fell around her face, covering the almost-white skin of her face which was spotted with freckles around her nose.

Before the girl could even dig into her mushy cheeseburger sliders, a voice called out to her, clear over the noise and bustle of the crowd.

“Noeva!” The voice yelled. “Noeva!”
With a quick surge, a crowd of smirking girls surrounded the one sitting alone at her table, who made no attempt to move or speak.

“Ewe, this is nasty!” One of the girls called out, as she displaced her foot from a spot of something sticky underneath the table. “How're you sittin' here, Noeva?”

“Yeah, this table is gross.” The girl who seemed to be leading the gang gave a nasty smirk. “But I guess that suits you, Noev.”

“Be quiet.” Noeva said, in her tiny voice. She kept her eyes on her lunch tray and shakily picked at her hamburger sliders with a spork.

“Huh?” The gang of girls stood as tall as they could and surrounded the loner, as to intimidate her. “What you sayin' Noeva?”

Noeva stood still, keeping her eyes on the meal. Her brain was flooded with shame, embarrassment, and a desire to flee or plead for help. She'd had this happen too many times before, and she didn't want to deal with it again. She just wanted to eat her food in peace, even if it meant being alone.

“What's what I thought!” The leader of the girls said, louder than before. She glanced at Noeva's teal-colored backpack, which was taking the only other semi-clean part of the table.

“Move it.” The leader said.

Noeva did nothing.

“Move your backpack.” One of the girls said, a bit forceful.

“I don't want to.” Noeva said, loud enough to be heard by the others.

“Too bad, you're the one who listens to us here. Move your backpack, so we can sit down!” The same girl said, and she tapped her foot impatiently.

There were a few moments of silence between them all, which felt like hours in Noeva's mind. She was so ashamed, shocked, and scared that she was immobilized, and her brain wouldn't do anything.

At last, the girl gave a loud huff of breath and shoved the backpack off the spot. It tumbled onto the dirty floor, where many passerby stepped on it. A few boys even laughed in surprise and proceeded to stomp and jump on it with their feet...boys that Noeva didn't even know.

The gang of 6 girls all tumbled as fast as they could onto the bench around the table, pushing and shoving each other as to gain the spot that would only seat three. Noeva's brain finally started working a bit, and she thought about running, but her limbs were still overwhelmed with emotions; they wouldn't respond, so all Noeva could do was hope for someone to come and save her or for lunch to end.

At last, three girls sat on the bench beside Noeva; the leader, the one who had commanded her to move her backpack, and a posh-looking Chinese girl whom Noeva had never met before...she must've been new. The other three stood huddled around their friends, eyeing Noeva down.

“Why do you do this?” Noeva called out, in a tiny voice. “Is this fun for you?” She hoped they would just leave her to eat in peace, but such things did not happen. Instead, the leader looked at her and gave her a mean laugh, to which her friends joined in.

“Noeva, you're just so silly.” The newer girl told her, a bold move for someone new. “I haven't even been with my friends this long, and I already know how...imperfect you are.” She smirked. The insults burnt inside Noeva like acid, but it seemed distant and muted; reality right now was this gang of girls.

“You're weird, Noeva. You don't act like the rest of the girls at this school. You don't act normal, you don't look normal, you're not good at anything that we can all do, and that's why nobody wants to be friends with you.” The leader of the girls said, as if she were reading the words from a book, as if they were facts. “Everyone knows this. This is why you're alllll alone here. You'll never have any friends.”

By now, tears had formed in Noeva's eyes, and she did her best to conceal them. She must not show weakness, that was something she'd learned when she first had to deal with these girls in sixth grade. There was nowhere for her to run, nobody for her to go to, nothing she could do that could make this go away. Nothing that could make this all better....she was a caged animal, frantically trying to better herself so she could have just one moment of peace in this constant wheel of stress, worry, embarrassment, and teasing.

At last, a large ringing announced that lunch was over. Slowly, the gang of girls gathered their things, and then they trotted away in a group, as if they hadn't done anything.

People had begun to clear out of the lunch area, so Noeva could see through the crowds now. A few passerby were staring at her now, then quickly turning away when they realized that she was a 'loner'. They didn't want to meet her eyes, for fear that she would do something to damage their reputation. To the others, Noeva was nothing. They all ignored her because she was alone in this world.

Slowly, without meeting any eyes, Noeva shakily picked up her backpack. It was no longer a lovely shade of teal, now it was dusty and spotted with footprints. There was a large hole in the side of it as well, but thankfully nothing had fallen out. Awkwardly, Noeva dusted off her backpack, trying her best to remove the stubborn footprints, which just smudged under her attempts to rub them off.

The encounter was over now, and Noeva was safe. Now it was time for class, which was a much more forgiving place.

Throwing the backpack over her shoulder, Noeva was off.

(Please let me know what you thought! This is my first story on Wattpad so far, and I'd like to know how I did. To be continued.)