"Riley. Riley. RILEY STROM!"

I jumped, startled at hearing my name being shouted. I had been daydreaming again, staring out of the window to my left. The teacher, Mrs. Plax, was glaring at me from the front of the classroom. Kids around me laughed and whispered. I gritted my teeth. I hated school so much. "Can you repeat the question please?"

She sighed impatiently and rolled her eyes. "What formula would you use for this equation?" she pointed to a complicated problem on the board.

I stared at it, concentrating. Try as I might, I couldn't conjure up any of the information I had previously learned. "Uh…" I said the first words that came to mind. "Pythagorean theory?"

"Wrong!" She turned her attention toward a boy with a bush of curly brown hair. "What about you, Sean?"

"It'd be the Pythagorean theory, right?"

"Correct," Mrs. Plax replied, and turned back to the chalkboard.

The kids around me began laughing again. I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. All I really wanted to do was get out of this building and go exploring in the woods around my house. I was friends with no one here. They all judged me for my lack of desire to go shopping and gossip like the other girls. Instead I liked to read, dig in the dirt, climb trees, and be in the fresh air.

The wind outside rustled the trees and nearby bushes, and it seemed that the leaves were waving at me, beckoning me outside. I heard a slight whisper in my ears, as if the breeze was trying to speak to me. That was different. A slight chill crept down my body. I thought I saw something in the sky then, something dark and purple, but I couldn't be sure- it only lasted a second. Before I had time to contemplate it too much more, the bell rang, signaling my release. Finally! ***

When I got home, my aunt started time I walked in the door. "Well! If it isn't the genius prodigy herself!" I tried ignoring her and kept walking through the kitchen to my room. My aunt had always hated me, even before my parents had died, forcing her to be my guardian. She blamed me for everything, especially "taking her fun life away." She wasn't done yet though. "Your teacher called, said you were still stupid." I gritted my teeth and continued on.

When I reached my room, I threw my stuff down on the floor next to my bed and went to my closet. I reached in and pulled out an old hiker's backpack that I used whenever I went walking in the woods. Inside was a pack of crackers, some beef jerky, a book, and a knife. I flung it on my back and pulled out the three foot walking stick from the corner. It was really a branch from a tree, lightweight but sturdy enough to be used to beat back thorns and steady myself in slippery mud.

I tromped back through the kitchen, past my aunt again. "Yeah, just go off and stare at dirt again. Why don't you at least try and do something useful?" She snorted. "As if you could. You couldn't do anything worthwhile if you tried."

I let the door slam shut behind me.

I ran at a dead sprint toward the trees behind the house. I was sick of that place. I was sick of my aunt. I was sick of school. The only thing I still liked was the woods. The trees never disappointed or judged me, not even when I've been so mad I screamed at them my problems. They just stood there, silently listening to my rants. What I wouldn't give for a good dog. I thought. A dog would like me. It wouldn't think I was useless. I made it to the trail, still angry. I had begun beating a path through the forest where these two trees stood side by side, forming a sort of natural gate. From there, I followed my trail to a small clearing which I had cleaned and smoothed out, making a wonderful relaxing place. But today, I didn't want to rest. I wanted to go. I looked around and saw a spot that looked like a nice place to begin another path.

I instantly began stomping down barbs and thorns, beating them to the side and pushing other flora out of the way to make a suitable track. After about an hour, I found myself entangled in one of the worst briar patches ever. I struggled to free myself without getting too scratched up. After about five minutes of this though, my patience waxed, and I shut my eyes and just charged out of it. I felt my skin tear in various places and my eyes watered as my nose was scraped. At last, I burst forth from the entanglement and fell onto all fours- right into an ancient warzone.