The Living Fantasy (On Hold)

The Living Fantasy

Chapter 1- The Living Fantasy

Books are little adventures we wish we could have. They bring a flood of emotions. In romance novels, they make you feel all giddy for the characters but then they make you feel lonely. In fantasy novels, they make you amazed at everything but you wish those creatures or those alternate universes actually existed. In adventure novels, they give you an adrenaline rush and they make your heart skip a beat but they give you the feeling like you are unproductive in life. Am I the only person that feels this way when I read a book?

Books are my favorite thing in the world. Reading is my favorite pass time. My nose is always stuck in a book and if you ever find me without a book in my hands, you should be shocked. While other fifteen-year old girls are worried about their social lives, I read.

Right now, I am reading about a girl that is a princess but she goes undercover and pretends to be a regular citizen. Her purpose is to see how citizens live and what she can improve on her kingdom, but she meets a handsome young man. I am assuming he is going to sweep her off her feet, but I haven't read that far yet.

My eyes go left to right fiercely as I get more into the book. The princess and the handsome dude are talking and he is flirting with her.

"Lace!" Mrs. Chestnut calls out my name, "Put the book up. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Oh and I forgot to mention, reading can get me into trouble a lot especially in this class. Mrs. Chestnut highly dislikes me due to the fact that I read while she talks about stupid Algebra. Letters belong in English and whoever thought they needed to be included in Math, is crazy. Seriously, I am not going to use stuff like the distance formula in the future because I want to be an author.

I gently place my special bookmark in the book and place it on my cold desk. My eyes lazily watch Mrs. Chestnut as she talks. I tune her out and just pretend to pay attention to her. It is like I pressed mute on my TV because I can't hear a word she is saying.

My mind dilly-dally's and I have to know what is happening in the book. My eyes drift from Mrs. Chestnut to the book that holds so many secrets inside of it. The urge to keep reading and see all those secrets unravel overwhelms me. I have to know what happens! Other people are addicted to drugs, popular TV series, and music but I am hopelessly addicted to books.

I force myself to stop thinking about what might happen next, but the bell rings. I hurriedly grab my blue chevron bag and shove my binder in it. My hands open the pages back so I can continue on reading. As I walk out of the room, what I hoped I would avoid occurs.

"Got caught again, bookworm. Won't you ever learn? And you know there is more to life than reading, right? I mean, there are people around you that you can socialize with." Tina snickers as she tries to get under my skin as usual.

You will soon figure out that Tina isn't the nicest person. And yes, she is popular -- unlike me, obviously, but she wasn't always popular; we were actually pretty good friends. It's funny how quickly people will leave you just to get something that will benefit them; for example, popularity was the reason she left me in the dust. Tina got what she wanted. If she was a book character, she would be looked at as the popular brat of the story.

"Why would I talk to others when there is nothing to say to them?" I quickly get away from her and make my way outside to take my walk home since it is the end of the day. I continue to read and I engulf myself in the whole story. You can tell if a book is good when you feel like you are inside the story.

The sound of a car passing by me makes me look up from my book. Immediately, my eyes focus on the gorgeous driver. His golden hair reaches down to his eyebrows and under those eyebrows are vibrant blue eyes that I can't ignore. His skin is flawless and nicely tanned, and his smile is the best thing about his appearance. He attends my school and he is a junior while I am a sophomore. I have been crushing on him since the school year started. Also, his name is Zac; I love it.

Once his car is out of my sight, I find myself with a smile on my face. Oh, stop it, Lace! I mentally scold myself for acting like a lovesick puppy over him.

Once again, I bury my nose into my book as I walk. Then, I find myself at my door to the apartment. My hands shove my book into my bag and I unlock the door. When the door swings open, it reveals my enraged father sitting on the couch.

Oh, no...

His cold glare makes me want to sprint all the way back to school. Fear stirs inside me about what might happen to me. Cautiously, I step inside the door and shut it back, "Hi, Dad. How has your day been?"

His face looks tired and his eyes are bloodshot. My father doesn't answer how is day was which is a very bad sign. An empty glass bottle is in his hands, and he lifts it up. Then, suddenly, the bottle goes flying at me and I jump out of the way. There is a loud crash when it shatters into dangerous shards. One lodges itself into my hand, and when I pull it out, it makes me wince.

My dad begins to stand up from the couch and I know he isn't finished letting out his anger. I run to the comfort of my room to get away from him. His footsteps are right behind me, and as I am shutting the door, he attempts to push the door open. My whole body weight pushes against the door, but my father is stronger than me.

Dad busts through the door and slaps my bag out of my hands. Everything from my bag falls out onto the floor, and I bend down to clean everything up. My dad's foot meets my side and pain shoots through my side. He kicked bruises that he created when he had a fit last week. Another kick to my side makes a few tears burn my eyes.

I get up to my feet and my dad gives me a hard slap to the face. That section of my face turns a stinging red mark. My arms flail around as I try to prevent him from him hurting me anymore, but he is better at fighting than me. A punch lands on my left eye and I plop on the floor.

"Stop it! I give up! Please!" I cry out, grabbing my injured eye. Tears flow out of my eyes and my father shows me mercy, leaving me alone.

There is no telling what made him mad today. He gets upset easily and he doesn't know how to let out his hurt and anger other than injuring me. A lot of the time, I am not involved in whatever his problems are, but I am his personal punchbag.

My eye and my hand start throbbing so I cautiously go to the bathroom and luckily, Father didn't notice. When my reflection stares back at me, I notice how my eye is already beginning to swell and it is transforming into the color purple.

First, I pull my strawberry blonde hair up in a messy bun so it is out of my face. After that, my bleeding hand goes under the running water, and I clean the cut. Once I dig around in a few cabinets, I find a Band-Aid to put on the my injured hand. Then, I lift my shirt up to reveal a plethora of different shades of blue, brown, and purple. Well, there isn't much I can do for that... maybe get ice, but if Dad saw me, he may have another fit. Instead, I grab a couple of washrags and soak it in cold water.

While they soak, I examine my eye. They are a pretty shade of aqua today; my eye color changes everyday. One day, it will be electric green, the next, it could be a shade of violet. It varies a lot, strange isn't it? When I was little, I imagined that I had some sort of superpower and my eyes changing into every color of the rainbow was a sign that I was special.

Quickly, I snatch the damp rags and sprint into my room. Phew, he didn't notice. A sigh of relief escapes me and I grab my book and lie in my bed. Gently, I place the damp washrags on my eye and my side. My hands tenderly and carefully open the pages and I continue to read on.

A calm surrounds me as I escape from reality and watch the princess and the citizen fall for each other. After about a hundred pages, the citizen begins to pour his love out to her and she feels the same way.

Funny... she gets a kiss while I get a black eye...

A/N: Hi, lovelies. I have been waiting to write this and I am excited about starting a new book. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope you give me feedback. Please let me know what you think! Love you guys! Thanks to fadedflowers for the cover!