The Last Time (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 1

"Robin Goodfellow?"

"Here," he said, staring at the sheet of paper lying on top of his desk.

"Sabrina Grimm?"

With a raise of my hand, I muttered the appropriate response.

I couldn't wait to graduate from this hellish place. It was the official last day, and I graduate tomorrow.

First, I needed to finish this last class of English with Mrs. Charming. When I first met her, she had a style and spunk that I admired and could relate to, but since then, she's lost it. She married Prince Charming and her it changed her. No one knew why, and honestly, after today, I don't really care.

"Today, we are going to pair up and write three paragraphs about what our plans are for the future."

"C'mon, Mrs. C," Peter yelled, "It's our last day."

Many of my classmates joined in the protest, but Mrs. Charming shook her head and said,"That's exactly why we are planning our future today."

As the class settled down in a unanimous groan, I leaned my head into myself, and pulled out a sheet of paper. I hated group work. Time and time again. I was either paired with some random person or forced to work all on my own.

While I waited for Mrs. Charming to find a "third wheel" to pair with me, my chair was pulled out from beneath me and I spilled onto the floor.

"Nerd." Peter giggled as he stepped past me.

As much as I hated to admit it, but this was a normal occurrence for me. Peter hated me and made it known through constant bullying and harassment. I was deemed to be gothic and a nerd because I chose to find a better world in books than reality. Nobody understood what the Everafter War had done to me. Granny and the rest of the family tried to help me deal with the trauma and loss I felt, but nothing ever worked. My suffering from all of these losses plagued my body and soul day in and day out.

A hand reaching down in front faces of my snapped me from my thoughts.

"Need any help?" Puck asked.

I grabbed his hand, allowing him to help me off of the floor, but with a small misstep, I stumbled a little bit and crashed into him.

I heard a whistle come from the direction of Peter and his girlfriend, Wendy.

I stepped back quickly, and picked up my pen and paper.

"Goodfellow. Grimm. Partners." Mrs. Charming said shortly.

Puck grabbed the desk from the next row and pushed it towards mine.

"Okay," he said after adjusting his position in the chair, "What are your goals, Grimm?"

I glanced at my paper, and noticed I had been drawing simple versions of the very gory war.

Flipping over my paper to shield it from Puck, I forced a smile, "I want go to college and get a good job?"

He laughed, "You couldn't get any more creative than that?"

I shrugged as he continued to giggle.

"I put that I wanted to go to college, find something that I love to do, convince the girl that I love to love me back, and make sure that she loves me for who I am."

I glanced at him from behind my glasses.

"I know that it's a little corny, but it's my hopes and dreams" Puck said softly.

I nodded and looked at the clock at the same time that the bell rang. The shouts of excited seniors filled the classroom and echoed down the hall.

I gathered up the paper and stuffed it into my bag, slowly walking out of the classroom.

I pulled my phone out of my sweatshirt pocket and saw many texts from Granny and one from Uncle Jake. Quickly, I replied saying that I was fine and that I was heading to the park after school so that they wouldn't worry.

Granny replied back in a heartbeat. "Take Puck with you."

I rolled my eyes, but turned around to scan the crowd. I finally found him, hanging out with the other members of the football team and cheerleaders.

Ignoring Granny's orders, I turned and walked to my locker, emptied it, and headed to the park. Alone.

When I got there, I took a deep breath of the fresh, summer air. Something about the fresh air and sounds of nature gave me a sense of peace. I sat on the bench and pulled out my sketch book and pencils.

About a half hour later, I had a black and white sketch of the distorted, spiritless corpses that littered the ground all those years ago. I felt the tears forming in my eyes and started muttering about how I didn't want to be like this. I wanted friends. I wanted to be around people who didn't think that I was weird. I wanted to be the pretty one that had a boyfriend and enjoyed high school, but the war had destroyed any chance of that for me. My emotions were destroyed and no matter how hard I wanted to be normal, I never could be.

"Why did you leave without me?" I heard over my shoulder.

It was Puck, and I could tell by his tone that he was angry.

"Granny told me that she wanted me to go to the park with you to make sure you were okay, but you weren't at school."

The tears were still falling from my eyes and a loud, unwanted sniffle escaped from me.

I felt the bench shake and realized that Puck was now sitting next to me. He put his strong arms around my quivering body, and pulled me into his chest. We sat there for hours with him just holding me and me crying about what we had lost what it had turned me into.