Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer

Chapter 1 | Something Familiar

She had missed Gabrielle more than she could care to admit, Avis realized the second her old friend walked into the classroom. It was painful the day Gabrielle moved away. It had felt like a knife was being driven into her stomach, going deeper and deeper each day her closest friend had not shown up to school. But with all wounds, the pain eventually had turned into a whisper in the background, a dull ache that she didn't notice most days. Yet there Avis was, three years later, feeling all of the pain flood her body again at the sight of Gabrielle. Gabrielle with her almost elvish ears, button nose, and round face that reminded Avis of a fairy from a children's book. Gabrielle with her tan skin and bright brown eyes that radiated the same warmth as a burning fire in the middle of winter. Gabrielle with her soft loose black curls that stopped right around her chin.

"Ah, class," the teacher called out, snapping Avis's gaze and attention from Gabrielle to the middle-aged woman. "We have a new student today," she gestured to Gabrielle who walked from the doorway to the middle of the front of the room, before continuing to speak.

"This is Gabrielle Smith who will be a part of our English class from now on. Please help her ease into things smoothly over the next couple of days," she finished before returning her attention to the attendance sheet. Gabrielle's gaze ran across the classroom before landing dead on Avis, leaving her breathless.

"Avis," Gabrielle breathed out, a surprised expression making its way onto her face as she walked over to the girl.

"Gabrielle," Avis responded with. A thought in the back of Avis's mind told her that she should probably be more surprised than she was at that moment, seeing that Avis had no knowledge that Gabrielle moved back into town. Yet Avis found herself not surprised at seeing Gabrielle's face, almost as if she knew that she'd see the girl again after all those years.

"You're still here," Gabrielle observed as she made her way to and sat down in the empty seat to Avis's right.

"You still go to this school," Gabrielle added for clarification.

"And you came back," Avis replied.

"Yeah, I guess I did." Gabrielle still seemed caught in a slight haze of shock as Avis's mind began to travel to her thoughts again. Gabrielle was there; She was back by Avis's side. The pain that had pierced through her soul since Gabrielle's departure was replaced with something else. With something familiar; Something familiar like finally getting home after a long day.

"Holy crap," Avis murmured to herself in embarrassment, rushing to exit out of the window on her new laptop as she heard footsteps walk down the staircase to the living room she was in.

"The new laptop working out for you, Aves? No issues from the previous owner?" A man with dark brown skin and dark brown eyes, spoke as he stepped off the stairs and into the living room.

"Yeah, Dad. It's working just fine," Avis answered, hoping she didn't sound suspicious in any way. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. Technically all she was doing was transferring documents from her old laptop to the slightly used one she bought from the day before. She had just happened to stumble upon some stories she wrote in seventh grade. If anything, the stories were more embarrassing than something that would get her in trouble. But still, how was she supposed to explain to her dad that the stories she was reading were actually fanfiction she wrote? And how was she supposed to explain further that it was about her and her classmates? And the worst thing of all, how was she supposed to explain that maybe the last one she wrote was from only a few months ago instead of three years ago when she was in middle school?

"Well that's good. Just wanted to check up on you and see if you needed any help from your tech wizard of a dad," he joked as he walked through the living room into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of fruit punch, the shade close to Avis's hair color that she inherited from her mother.