Elana Vice

Chapter 1 - A Normal Life

ELANA

"No, Elana, I said no!" her dad shouted from across the kitchen counter.

"Dad, everyone at school is going to be going trick-or-treating. Everyone except me."

"Elana, don't test me. A no is a no."

"Dad, but it's not fair," she exclaimed in remark.

"You know, Elana, sometimes life just isn't fair. You're not going!"

Elana stomped up the stairs, rage reddening her face, her dad staring after her. Her life was never fair, that's the thing. Her dad had become overprotective of her ever since her mum had passed away when she was young. And she was often bullied at school because her dad held her back from doing the normal teenage stuff; and because of her two, sticked-out teeth, which gained her the nickname, "Squirrel".

The only two people that have managed to get Elana through her endless life of boredom are two best friends, Lola and Penny.

Lola White is a tall, olive-skinned girl with long, dark hair, that drops down to just above her hips. And her eyes are a deep green colour that are nothing but hypnotizing (letting her have a certain kind of control over people (most of the time anyway)).

And then there was Penny Rogers. Penny was quite short for her age – being 15 that is – which also came with her short temper and patience. Her ginger hair was wavy at best, but was often in a loose bun at the base of her neck, with strands this way and that, quite like a wildfire. Splayed across her rosy cheeks, and bridging across her nose, were millions of tiny freckles. There were so many freckles in fact, that Elana and Lola often wondered if they were real or not.

Together, Lola and Penny, were quite strong, powerful women who most definitely knew how to stand up for themselves. And of this, Elana was quite jealous.

When Elana reached her room, she was greeted by the scent of cinnamon and a mixture of old and new books. Normally, if her and her dad had gotten in a fight, the calming musk would have taken her anger away, but Elana's face was a deep scarlet and it would have to take something a bit more to relieve her of the fury. She jumped onto her bed, burying her face into one of her pillows. Elana suddenly remembered when her mum used to sit here, at night, and would tell her all the best fairy tales to make her fall asleep.

'CLINK!'

What on earth was that?

'CLINK! CLINK!'

Elana walked to the window nearest to her bed, her memory being dispersed from her head, as more stones were thrown. Opening the window, she saw two people standing on the pavement. Lola and Penny looked up at Elana, a stone in each palm, ready.

"Hey, you okay?" Lola called up.

"Yeah. Hold on, I'll be down in a sec," Elana replied.

Lola and Penny ran round to the front of the house, as Elana rushed downstairs to the door. But as she got there, her dad had already greeted them inside.

"You girls staying for dinner?"

"I don't know. I'll have to call my mum," Penny replied.

"Same," Lola added.

Her dad looked back at Elana, who was sitting on the stairs waiting for him to be done.

"Looks like someone's waiting, eh?"

Elana gestured to Lola and Penny, and they followed her up the stairs and into her room. They sat on the purple, oval rug in the middle of the room and Elana perched herself on the edge of her bed.

"So, what's wrong?" Lola asked.

** ********** **

Lola and Penny had gone home hours ago, and Elana was on her bed reading her book. (Which in fact was written by her mother.) Before she died, she used to be a professional writer; writing of fantasy and mysteries and would often go out on small adventures in the woods nearby to get inspiration. Aline Jenkins, Mistress of Fairy tales. Jenkins, of course, was her maiden name. She always used to think it made her sound more fantastical and mysterious.

When Elana was little, she would watch her mum do illustrations for her books and she would try to copy. And then, her mum would put her own illustration at the front of the book and Elana's at the end – that's how you knew if the book was a first edition or not.

The book that Elana was reading, was an old-looking, leatherbound guide for magical creatures, featuring plenty of creatures. Some that we know of, like unicorns and phoenixes, and some that her mum had made up, like a special kind of faerie called the 'Elakora'. A special kind of faerie nymph that lived in tree hollows by small lakes and ponds. Elana knew that her mum had named this after her.

This is one of the few kinds of hidden messages that her mum would hide within her books for Elana to find.

Elana put the book down. It was now quite late, the light from the sunset gone for the night, and to return in the morning. Since tomorrow was a school day, she laid her uniform out on the small pouffe at the foot of her bed, brushed her teeth, changed into her pyjamas and got into bed.

"Goodnight," she muttered to herself. She turned her bedside lamp off, and drifted to sleep.