It was raining, a thunderstorm. A little girl wandered through her grandmother's attic, her hazel eyes wide. She flinched at every crack of thunder and burst of lightning. She sped up the creaky ancient steps of the attic and whipped around the corner of the dark hallway. Her red curls fell over her eyes. She brushed them away impatiently, and looked around. Her small nubby child hands grasped at the book atop a shelf. She wanted her grandma to read her a bedtime story, like she always did when they had a sleepover. She thought the book on top of the shelf was her granny's storybook. Finally reaching it, she sighed in relief. She flipped the pages to find her favorite story, one about a blue dragon and a fairy princess. But there were no stories inside, just lots of cursive writing in black ink. The pages themselves were withered and yellowed with age. The girl, being only six, couldn't read very well, but was drawn to the book due to interesting pictures, and a few pages with colorful lettering. She flipped through it more, and giggled loudly. There was a crack of thunder, and a figure stood in the room. The little girl screamed and recoiled back. "Kara, what are you doing up here?" The figure asked. It was the little girl's grandmother. Kara, realizing it was her granny, came forward with a smile, the book in her hand. "I wanted you to read me a bedtime story, Nanny." Her grandmother smiled. "Oh, Kara...I'll read you one. Here, give me that book quickly, and then I'll read to you downstairs."

"Okay!" Kara giggled again, and, handing her the faded old book, ran down the steps in excitement, nearly falling but catching herself.

Her grandmother watched in alarm, but when her grandchild caught herself, she laughed and told her to hurry with a smile. When the little girl was gone for a moment, she let out a sigh, putting the ancient book away up high so Kara wouldn't find it again. Her name was Ruby Tilling. After the death of Kara's mother, she had had to take care of the girl sometimes because her father had nearly become ill with grief. He missed Emily, they all did, but she was gone, and wouldn't come back, at least not to the human world, anyway. Ruby moved her dark gray hair away from her face and scaled the steps carefully. In her old age, she could fall down these attic steps as easily as Kara could, but it would hurt her much more since she was an older woman. She reached the bottom of the staircase and went to find Kara, the book of stories gripped tightly in her arms.

Kara listened intently to the story that her grandmother was reading to her. It was her favorite one, after all. It was about a fairy princess and a shape changing dragon that could turn into a person or anything else. "There was once a princess with golden hair that streamed down her back like a waterfall. She was a fairy princess, so she never really cut it, but she would comb her pretty hair from time to time. She had long graceful glass-like wings like that of a butterfly, and clear blue eyes. Her robes were made of pink silk. " Kara smiled at the description of the princess. She wanted long, blonde locks like hers. "One day, she met a dragon. His name was Flit, and he was a young dragon that couldn't hurt a fly, but he was big for his age, and the princess was frightened when she first met him. He roared ferociously, for the princess had accidentally flown into his lair." Ruby stopped reading to look at an eager, happy Kara. "Can you roar like Flit, Kara?" Kara nodded, then went "Roar!" Ruby pretended to be terrified, causing Kara to have a giggling fit. She became tired soon enough, her eyelids drooping. Ruby saw this, and brought Kara to her bed. She fluffed her pillow and tucked her in, kissing her forehead. This made Kara laugh again, and she yawned sleepily, her mouth opening wide. "Goodnight, Kara," Ruby murmured, kissing the little six year old again. "Goodnight, Nanny," she mumbled, falling asleep at last. Ruby smiled and left the room, closing the door. "Remember this for me, Kara," she whispered. "All the stories I've ever told you are all real."

Nine years later...

Chapter 1

"Kara! Earth to Kara! Kara, can you hear me?"

Lily waved her hand in front of her best friend's face. "Hello?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Kara said finally, dazed. "Sometimes I wonder about you." Lily glanced at Kara's face, studying the freckles on the bridge of her nose and staring at her with her wide, mascara and eyeliner coated blue eyes. "Are you sure you're okay?" "Yeah." Kara's mouth opened wide in a yawn. "Just tired." "How many hours of sleep did you get last night?" Lily opened up her locker and glanced into her tiny heart shaped mirror to touch up on her makeup. She never really had to, it was just a habit of hers. Lily was the kind of person who never had a hair out of place. It sometimes made Kara jealous. "Three," she murmured, grabbing her white binder from her locker. It was covered with doodles from Lily and her other friend. Lily's were the best since she was currently taking an art class. Lily scowled at her friend. "Three hours? I swear, Kara, one day you're going to fall asleep in class. What'll you do then?" "I'll have you wake me up," Kara replied, laughing. She brushed her long fiery red hair away from her eyes and looked into her own mirror. She had a heart shaped one too.Lily had gone shopping with her before school started, and they bought matching mirrors. Friendship mirrors, Lily had called them. Symbolizing our friendship. Lily nudged her gently. "Cutie at three o'clock." Kara's eyes widened. It was Danny, her crush. His black hair fell in glossy layers across part of his face. He wore a gray Nike shirt and faded jeans. She memorized every detail of him and then looked away, her cheeks growing warm. Lily nudged her again. "I think he likes you back."

"Oh, stop it. He would never like a freshman." "No, really! I promise he does. It showed in his eyes." Lily smirked. "If you'd looked at him longer than a fraction of a second, you'd know that." Kara shook her head. "We should really be worrying about the science test that we're having today, not my love life." "But your love life is so much more important!" Lily protested. "Don't you want to date someone?" "Just because you've practically dated billions of guys doesn't mean that I want to or that it will be as easy for me to attract boy attention in a good way," Kara pointed out. "Ugh, I know. I'm just trying to help." "My education is much more important. I have to keep my grades up for this semester." "Grades, education, that's all you ever talk about!" Lily grumbled. "Why can't we have classes on dating and applying eyeshadow? That's what I'm good at!"

Kara laughed at this. "Nice." The bell rang for first period, and the two parted ways.

The rest of the day went by in a flash. Since it was Friday and the two girls shared a homeroom, they both were excited for the weekend. Lily was using her phone in secret as usual, and Kara pulled it away, pretending to be their elderly principal. The two giggled, and Lily accidentally snorted, causing them to laugh even harder. Some kids turned around in annoyance to look at them, but they didn't notice or care. The day finished quickly and the two eagerly left school. "Bye, Lily!" Kara called. "Bye, Kara!" Lily replied.