Short Story Excerpt: TEOS: The Search for the Ruby Necklace - Ch1 (Pt1)

Overview: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/short-story-fantasy-the-emerald-of-secrets-pt-2

Previous: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/short-story-excerpt-teos-the-search-for-the-ruby-necklace-prologue

Now we're starting the story! This should seem more familiar if you read my posts on Natalie the Necklace Fairy. This chapter was long so I chopped it in half.

Chapter One

Being the New Kid is Never Easy

Christy Banks looked at her new school, Anderson Junior High. It was bigger than her last school in Chicago. Ever since her family moved to Orlando, Christy had been fretting about starting school. She didn’t know if she would make any friends. She already had a friend in Chicago, Annika Thompson, and wished that she was still there. If this was a normal day, she and Annika would be in the cafeteria, exchanging their weekend stories while they waited for the bell to ring.

Starting seventh grade mid-year was going to be tough. She remembered how easy it was back at her old school, Stevenson Junior High.

Christy sighed, pushed her short, dirty blonde hair out of her hazel eyes, and walked in the doors.

According to the schedule she got yesterday on a special tour of the school, she had math first. Yay! Her favorite subject! Well, that was a plus.

*****

When she got to room 165, she quietly opened the door. The whole class turned to look at her and Christy thought her heart was pounding loud enough for Annika in Chicago to hear it.

“Hello!” said the teacher. “You must be Christina Banks!” When Christy nodded, the teacher smiled and said, “I’m Mrs. Hamilton.”

Mrs. Hamilton was pretty. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her deep brown eyes shown with kindness. She took a deep breath and said, “Where do I sit?”

“Right here,” said Mrs. Hamilton, pointed to an empty desk.

Christy walked over to the desk and sat down. The girl next to her looked over at her. “Hi, Christina,” she said, sticking out a hand. “I’m Trish Karr.”

Christy hesitantly took Trish’s hand, shocked by her kindness. “H-hi,” she said, shyly. “I’m Christy.”

Trish had brown hair with bangs just above her brown eyes. Her smile was so sweet, Christy nearly forgot she was the new kid.

Mrs. Hamilton passed out papers with a bunch of math problems on them. When Christy saw them, she took one look at them. This is easy, she thought.

Christy was one of the first ones finished. She got up to turn it in, then went back to her desk to wait. Trish then got up to turn her paper in. On the way, she gave Christy a thumbs up. Christy smiled and picked up her book about history. That’s what she liked, real things. Real things were real and imaginary things were imaginary. There was no such things as fairies, goblins, dragons, or magic.

“What. Are. You. Reading?” said a voice behind her.

Christy turned around. A girl with ruler-straight black hair was glaring down at her. “I’m reading about the history of the United States,” she said.

The girl wrinkled her nose. “Sounds like work,” she said, and walked away.

Christy felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around. It was Trish.

“Don’t listen to Aria,” she said. “She’s doing it for attention.”

Christy nodded. She looked at the book in Trish’s hand. “What’s that?” she asked.

Trish held up her book. “Fairy Tales! I love them!”

Christy raised an eyebrow. “Do you believe in them?” she asked.

Trish shrugged. “Kind of. I don’t expect a fairy to appear to me, but I want one to!”

Christy sighed and went back to reading her book. But she didn’t read. She just moved her eyes across the page to make it look like she was reading.

Stupid! She scolded herself. That was rude! You might’ve ruined your chance at getting a friend!

But when she looked back at Trish, she still had that warm glow in her eyes.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Hamilton passed out the papers with grades on them.

“Darn it!” said Trish. “Missed one.” She looked over at Christy’s paper. “Wow Christy! You got a 100!”

Christy blushed, shyly. “Hey, 95 isn’t bad.”

“It’s not fair!” said Aria. She stomped over to Mrs. Hamilton. “Why do I get a 65 when Christy gets a 100?”

Mrs. Hamilton sighed. “Because that’s what you got. Aria, go sit down.”

“But Mrs. Hamil-,”

“Now!”

Aria stomped back to her desk, shooting Christy a nasty look.

"Her smile was so sweet, Christy nearly forgot she was the new kid." Gay?

A nice embellishment of the first two pages of the original fanfic. I don't like the inclusion of Aria. I wrote this around seventh grade, when I was now the same age as Christy and Trish.

What's funny is that re-reading this, I initially thought that Mrs. Hamilton and Christy's American history book was a reference to Hamilton, since I went through a deep phase and referenced it way too much in my books, but I realized I didn't listen to the musical until the end of eighth grade. I last edited the original document a year before I listened to it. So it's just a weird coincidence.

I like that I made Christy more of a non-believer in magic and Trish a strong believer. That wasn't that present in NTNF, but it makes sense given what little we knew about them.

I changed Christy's original design to make her have different hair and eye color than she did in the original, maybe so she and Trish didn't look that much alike any more and they could have more distinct designs.

Anyhoo, not a bad embellishment, and whenever I get around to rewriting this, I'll keep it similar to this, but change anything up that I don't like.

Don't go