TearingDownCastles

A Fairytale Reality
Chapter 7.

During my whole, awkward, conversation with Rivers I'd completely forgotten Ian was in the room. My attention quickly snapped back to him,
"Oh, yeah. You're here, sorry. Um," 
"Is Mom gonna come get you?" He asked.
"I don't think so. It wasn't anything too terrible, so I'll probably just pay and we can leave," Just as I answered, a nurse walked in with a big smile that matched her big body,
"Hey, hon. You feeling okay?" 
"Yep. I feel great, actually. Um, would it be possible for me to not have to call my mom? She's at a new job, and I don't want her to get a bad first impression... I could probably pay the bill," 
"Yeah. You weren't admitted under emergency conditions or anything. You can go straight to the front and pay your way out," While the bill was probably going to be the rest of my hard-earned money, it was better than having to deal with the nightmare called Olivia Lawson. The nurse walked over to me and carefully unhooked my IV (while I winced, and looked away. I couldn't stand needles. Which was why I only had my ears pierced, and I got them done when I was 3) Then she walked out, smiling.
I started to stand up, then realized I'd be exposing my butt. I looked at Ian,
"Can you get outta here for like, five minutes? So I can change," He nodded and got up to walk out. After he shut the door, I climbed out of the bed, wiggled into my shorts, and pulled my top over my head. I gathered my purse, hat, and slipped my shoes on then walked out of the room. I walked up to the front desk and waited for the lady to get off the phone. While I waited, I scoped out the lobby. My eyes scanned over all the people and came to a screeching halt on a boy walking in.
Rivers.
"Hey, it's Captain Destructo. You all clear to go?" He winked at me, and sent my heart soaring. Thank God there was no heart monitor hooked up to me this time,
"Yeah. Well, I have to pay and all.. Why are you still here?" I looked at him skeptically.
"My, uh, my car won't start. Hah, I've been trying to get it to work for about 10 minutes now. I just called a truck." I laughed,
"You could've asked me, I could probably get it running," He looked genuinely shocked, which made me laugh more. 
"You could fix it?" 
"Most likely. Eidetic memory, remember? I've read a lot." I winked back at him, hoping I looked breezy, and not like I had an eyelash in my eye. 
"Haha, oh yeah. Well, if you could I'd be forever grateful," 
"Well, you just better make our date extra fantastic," I smiled, as he smiled back. Wow, only one day of knowing this kid and I'm already going on a date... Fantastic. 
I finally paid the bill (which was 65 dollars) I made sure Ian stayed by me and we walked out to Rivers' car. It was a Range Rover, my absolute favorite car in the universe. 
"Oh. My. God. I love you! I mean, uh. Not you, your car! I love your car" I stammered. He laughed,
"Thanks. Maybe if you get it running, I'll let you drive me home." I smiled nervously and stepped into the drivers' seat. I popped the hood and tried running it,
"It just needs jumped," I told him, hopping back out of the car. 
"Okay," He pulled out his phone, "I'll call my friend to drive over here." I leaned against the side of the car and listened to Ian tell me about his day at the mall. I smiled, and nodded pretending it was as interesting as like, Jesus. In actuality, I was studying Rivers. 
His tan skin. The perfectly messy hair. His triceps. Broad shoulders. The perfect slouchy to skinny-ness of his jeans. And his butt, oh my, his butt. I'd never paid attention to a guys butt, until now. Good Lord, it was actually perfect. 
What was I even talking about? 
"Serre?"
Mmm.
"Ser..."
Mmm?
"SERENDIPITY. ARE. YOU. WITH. ME." Ian shouted, bringing me back into my body.
"Whaaaat?! I'm right here! Good God, Ian. You almost gave me a heart attack." Rivers turned to look at me, I blushed.
"I asked you a question." Ian said, calmly. 
"What was your question?"
"Do you like that boy?"
"Who, Rivers?" 
"Yes."
"Uh.. No."
"Do not lie to me, Serre. I see you look at him all lovey," Great. Even my eight year old brother noticed it.
"Ian, we just met."
"That still doesn't answer my question... If it helps, he looks at you the same way." Butterflies raced all through me, making my head pulse.
"Really?" I squealed as quietly as possible.
"Yes. Now, do you like him?"
"Yeah, I guess so." I smiled.

A Fairytale Reality
Chapter 4.

Surprisingly, Xander was really nice. His big, sparkly, brown eyes had really grown on me and he was absolutely mesmerized by my accent. Every time I said something "Australian" I could've sworn he did a fan-girl swoon. My favorite part about him was that he always made me laugh, without actually trying to be funny. He was just naturally hysterical. I could also have a real conversation with him, in just the first hour I'd learned that his dad died of cancer when he was 7, and his step-dad (ex step-dad) abused his mom until she finally got the balls to get a restraining order. It was incredible how honest, how real, he was being. I guess it's easier for American's to open up to people they barely know. This made me ask,
"Why do American's do that?"
"Do what?" He said, almost tripping over a step. I giggled,
"They open themselves up to the most random people... But their friends hardly know anything about who they really are," I pulled a strand of hair from behind my ear and chewed on it. He shrugged,
"I dunno, really. Maybe cause like, when you're talking to a complete stranger, you feel like they have no room to judge you. They know your deepest issues and that's it, there's no sugar-coated fluff to layer over," With that, he stopped walking and leaned against a Nordstrom wall. I leaned next to him and nodded, thoughtfully. 
"I guess. But, wouldn't your best friends be able to understand you more than anyone?"
"Not necessarily. I mean, if they met you and you're this out-going, over the top, kind of guy why would you all of the sudden bring up the skeletons in your closet?" 
Oh. My. God. This guy was like, perfect. The complete package. The whole enchilada. 
He was also really close to me. Like, his face. Close to my face. So close, in fact, that I felt his breath on my chin. It smelled like pretzels and mint gum. This realization made me blush. I looked down at my shoe, hoping he didn't notice my burning cheeks. 
"Serre?" I looked up at him.
"Yes?" I squeaked out.
"You're... You're really great, you know that?" He half smiled, which sent my heart soaring to the moon and back. 
"Thanks. You're not too shabby yourself," I leaned to nudge his shoulder with mine but his body was further than I anticipated. I leaned too far and fell over, into his arms. 
His strong arms.
He held me in his arms, like the boy would dip his girl partner in the tango, and just stared into my eyes. I felt like his eyes were a true portal to his soul, a never ending wonder land.
What was I saying? 
"Uh, hi." He smiled. 
"Hello," I breathed. I hoped my breath didn't still linger Bourbon chicken, I'd taken a piece of gum from him when he'd bought it at a little dollar store, but I didn't think I'd be this close to him. He smiled, which made me smile more. That's when it happened, he leaned in, still holding me in his beautiful arms. 

A Fairytale Reality
Chapter 3.

I ventured my way to the food court, realizing I hadn't eaten anything all day, and bought Bourbon chicken and a side of fried rice from the Chinese place. I sat down at a two-person table and ate awkwardly by myself. Not really caring about what people thought when they saw me, I lifted a fork piled with rice to my mouth, just as I did this; a group of boys sauntered past me. I must've somehow caught their attention because they all, in unison, stared me down. I casually dumped half the rice off my fork and daintily slid the remains into my mouth. I looked up from my styrofoam plate and one of the guys was still looking at me. They were now sitting two tables away from mine,
"Can I help you guys?" I asked. They chuckled and one piped up,
"My friend thinks you're hot!" 
Your friend? Really? I hate when boys think girls are naive. 
"Really? You have a friend that looks exactly like you? Cause you're the only one that's been staring at me this whole time." My response got a "hoot-ing" from the guys' friends. The boy huffed as I smiled, victoriously. 
"Well, sorry I look at pretty girls." He said. Ugh, too arrogant for my liking. I realized I was pretty much done with my food so I stood up with my "plate" and walked over to them,
"Then you won't mind throwing away a pretty girl's plate, would you?" I smirked, setting the plate down in front of him. I walked back to my table, collected my bags, and walked away. I still heard the boys' obnoxious approvals. 
I don't know why I didn't give him a chance. He was sort of cute. Wispy light brown hair, taller than me, and fairly well-built. His brown eyes glistened off his tanned skin. Surprisingly, I wasn't interested in him. Even more surprisingly, I was comparing him to--
"Rivers?!" A short, blonde, squeaked at her friend as they walked in front of me.
"Yeah, he was at Glenn's party. And Callie wanted to get with Tony, which I have no idea why. She deserves way better, and he was like, inseparable from Rivers. So, I had to be a faithful right-hand girl and hook up with him," She shrugged, her short curly bob jiggled,
"Well, I can't say I'm not jealous!" The blonde piped, "He's gorgeous. You're lucky," I let my mind wander off and think about him again, I had no idea why I was so mesmerized by him. Don't get me wrong, staring at him wasn't like staring into the face of a god, but there was something about his perfect dark brown eyebrows that framed his eyes, the hard-edge angle of his jaw, his muscles that didn't look like muscles... There was something beautiful about him. And you know I mean business when I say a guy is beautiful. Not many people do that, especially me,
"Hey!" A guy called, the two girls turned and smiled at whoever called, obviously they knew him, their arms raised in unison to wave. I ignored it all and kept walking. Then there was a hand on my shoulder, I turned to see the guy I'd just slapped my Chinese food left overs in front of, God, this guy was persistent. I had to have some admiration, my verbal beatings could be brutal to the ego and he seemed to be doing fine. Then again, that could be telling me that he has enough ego for the whole state of Texas to feed off of,
"Um. Hi?" I said, confused. 
"Are you always like that?" He said.
"Like what?" I said, playing dumb. La la la.
"Like, I don't know, defensive? You flipped just cause I called you pretty. Most girls don't do that," he shrugged, stuffing his hands in his back pockets.
"Well, have you ever considered I'm not like most girls? You don't even know me," 
"True... Well, could I get to know you?" He smiled a genuine grin, it was almost impossible to say no to. I laughed,
"You don't even know my name," 
"Could I? I'm Xander," He smiled what my friend, Abby, would call an 'imperfect, perfect, smile'. It was one of those crooked, yet charming, ones. 
"I'm Serendipity. Call me Serre, though. It saves time," He whistled, 
"Damn. That's quite a mouthful. But I like it. It fits you," I felt my cheeks burn a little, I looked down as if the dull, dirty, mall floor had suddenly become the most fascinating thing I'd ever seen in my life.
"Thanks," I mumbled, 
"So, do you wanna, uh, walk around?" I had no idea how I'd say no to him, even though he wasn't Rivers...

A Fairytale Reality
Chapter 1.

"Serendipity, come upstairs!" My mom called. I sighed, rubbing white eyeliner on my waterlines. I stroked my overly-expensive Chanel Inimitable mascara onto my insanely long and thick lashes and climbed up the stairs from my room in the basement (Or, as I'd like to call it: the dungeon.) 
"What's up?" I said, stepping into the living room. A man stood up from the couch and extended his hand out for me to shake it. I stared skeptically at the guys beefy hand, but shook it politely. He looked like he was in his late 30's, just a few years older than my mom, his short brown George Clooney-esque hair was decorated with silver, and he had smile lines around his mouth. He was tall, very tall, and tan. If he wasn't 30 he'd have been cute,
"This is your new school's principal, Mr. Reid. He came by to see if we can make up a schedule for you before the year starts." I grunted at the thought of going to a new school in a few days, but forced a smile, sitting on the couch next to my mom,
"So, is your name actually Serendipity?" Mr. Reid asked,
"Yep. Serendipity Jane Lawson, my dad was a hippy I guess." I didn't actually know. My dad was in the Navy and died two weeks, from heart failure, after I was born. My mom told me that he'd always wanted a baby girl named that, and to my impending doom, he got his wish. I hated the name. My younger brother got the normal name, Ian, but I'm stuck with the weird one. 
"Interesting. Well we're lucky to have such an amazingly talented girl in our school. I can see by your report cards from your past years you're a straight-A student, no bad comments, no sign of struggle, so I'll see to it that we put you in all Honors sophomore classes." He smiled, scribbling in a notebook. 
"Wait, are the Honors classes filled with like, no offense, nerds and stuff?" I asked,
"No. We actually require that every student who is an athlete in our school takes at least three honors classes. We set the bar very high," 
This couldn't be more true. When my mom and I visited the school, she took a pamphlet for the school. It had said, 

"Harrison Ford High School. High standards, higher achievements." 

I nodded and ran my fingers thoughtfully through my chest length, 100 percent natural mahogany-red  hair, and sat back.
"Well then, I guess there's nothing more for us to talk about. It was nice meeting you, Serendipity. And you too, Ms. Lawson," Mr. Reid said, standing up and heading for the door,
"Nice meeting you too!" My mom said, letting him out. She had a smile so big I think the Hubble Telescope could've seen it. When she closed the door I stood behind her, arms folded across my chest, tapping my foot on our wood floor,
"What?" She asked,
"No. You cannot date my principal." I kinda felt bad for her, she hasn't been married since my dad died 16 years ago and when she had Ian, eight years back, the guy she was engaged to left her before they got married. She went on dates a lot, had some serious guys in her life, but nothing ever amounted to anything,
"But he's so cute!" My mom whined,
"Olivia Erin Lawson, you are not dating my principal. I already have to deal with being the new girl with the freakish memory and weird name, I don't need another excuse to be made fun of." The freakish memory thing was that I had a brain that could remember everything. Anything I've ever read, seen, or heard, is etched into my brain. I could also read about 900 words per minute, hence: the outstanding grades. 
"Fine," My mom huffed, "But don't be surprised if I suddenly end up a dedicated PTA parent." She winked, grabbing her purse, "I'm going to my new job. I start at one, and I'll be home around nine. Take care of Ian, maybe you guys can drive to the mall. You've got the other car," In Texas, where I now live, I can have my full license at 16, which I got about a week ago,
"Yeah, okay." I said, my mom's brown curly hair flounced out the door with her tight dress twisting and chunky black heels clicking,
"By the way!" She called, "I like your hair better when you leave it naturally wavy. The straight hair thing looks too main-stream." My mom would say something like that.
She was sure to impress her new boss at the hair salon.