Hidden Realm

Chapter Two: Gifts & Goodbyes

I woke up to my alarm at 5am, like every other morning. Most people would say that I'm crazy, but I'm an early bird.

I turned the alarm off and was imedately awake. This is it, I leave today, I thought. The holidays ended in three days. It would take a day and a half to get to Dover in England, two hours to get from there to the boarding school, which Alex will drive me to. I would unpack the night I arrive and would have one day to look around.

I got out of bed and walked towards my walk-in closet, got out a pair of dark grey jogging bottoms, a white vest top, underwear and white trainers. I quickly got dressed, put my hair into a high pony tail and brushed my teeth. I grabbed my keys, phone, headphones and money, before quietly slipping out of the house like I done every morning.

I put 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers on and started jogging. The sun wasn't up yet, although it wasn't dark either, the sky was a contrast of pink, reds, orange and blue. Despite being a bird I rather enjoyed running. I ran for an hour before I got to the little coffee shop, that opened at 6am and I had left at 5:15 so I was good for timing, it had already been open for 15 minutes.

I came here every morning and I knew the old lady, Mrs Brown who owned the place and opened it in the mornings. Walking in I saw the old woman sitting behind the counter with a coffee cup in her hand.

"Hey, Mrs Brown." I greeted, sitting on a barstool at the other side of the counter.

"Hello, Nova." Mrs Brown replied, handing me a caramel frape.

"Thank you."

"No problem. You come here bat the same time every mornin', I'm used to it. So how's everything going, with getting packed for boarding school?"

"Fine. I leave today. This will be myg last early morning frape with you for a while. I'm going to miss it here." I sighed. I really would, I love the island, it was always so easy to cause havoc. Maybe the Outer Layers would be the same?

"It'll get better, Nova. You'll be back talking to me in the mornings before you know it. Besides the Outer Layers really aren't that bad."

And Mrs Brown would know it, before she had owned the coffee shop she had been a traveller and while in the Outer Layers she hard met her husband, a human man who had been studying mythology. He had been a smart enough to figure out what she was. Mrs Brown had barely been nineteen when she met him, he was given the choice to have his memory wiped or to live on the island. He choose the latter because he loved and accepted her.

I had seen a picture of Mrs Brown as a nineteen year old once. She had been very beautiful, with fine blonde hair and soft brown eyes. The old woman's hair had now been streaked with grey, but her eyes still held such warmth and knowledge, her face was slightly wrinkled and even at sixty-two you could see she had been beautiful.

"I know, Ma'am, I just hope that I can find a friend and try to at least fit in." I finished off my frape and said, "I'd best be getting back. Thanks for the pep talk." I handed over a five pound note, but the old lady only shook her head.

"Keep it. Call it a leaving gift."

"Ma'am, really-," I started, but she cut me off.

"No, Nova, it's fine and anyway it's rude to pass up a free offer."

"Its also rude to rob an old lady." I argued.

"You really are a tough one. Go. And good luck, I wish you the best."

"Thank you, Ma'am." I stepped out of the coffee shop, put my headphones on and jogged home.

When I got there everyone was still asleep, they probably wouldn't be up until nine. It was only eight, so when I got upstairs, I got out a floaty baby pink cami top, light blue skinny jeans and my white converse. I put them on my bed, grabbed a towel and went to take a shower in my ensuite.