Chapter 1
Ava slid her math notebook off the bed. “Done!” she announced triumphantly.
She glanced at the science and history still waiting for her and considered doing them immediately. Finally she decided against it and figured she could take a break. It was Saturday after all.
Leaning back on her bed, she opened her drawer and pulled out a notebook.
Flipping through the notebook she smiling, taking a deep breath of the paper, then she closed her eyes and ran her finger over the page.
When Ava looked around again, she was no longer in her bedroom. She smiled and looked down at her notebook.
“Belle ran through the forest.” she read aloud.
A young girl materialized on a path near Ava, running and occasionally looking behind her in fear.
Ava frowned, this wasn’t right. Belle was supposed to be running to the Beast. Not away from something.
She glanced down at her story then back up again.
A young man came around the edge of the bend and yelled, “Stop Belle! I will rescue you from the Beast!”
Belle glanced back and called, “I love the Beast! I do not love you, Gaston!”
Ava watched curiously and followed the two characters, slipping from shadow to shadow, making sure they didn’t see her.
“Belle!” Gaston bellowed.
“Stop!” shrieked Ava.
The characters both paused and looked around.
“WHO CHANGED MY STORY?!” Ava yelled angrily.
Gaston slid awkwardly away back the way he came while Belle stood, completely confused, in the middle of the road.
Ava growled in frustration and flipped the notebook open to the page they were on. “It’s supposed to be, ‘Belle ran down the road, worried for her dear Beast and wishing she had never left him.’ No mention of Gaston! But instead it’s, ‘Belle ran down the road, looking fearfully over her shoulder. Gaston rounded the bend and-’”
“Wait, how are you reading our story?” Belle asked, walking a bit closer to Ava.
“BECAUSE I MADE YOUR STORY!” Ava yelled.
“How does it end?” Belle asked quietly.
Ava flipped to the end and read aloud, “‘And Belle and the prince lived happily ever after without all the stupid fighting that went on in the movie.’”
“What?” Belle slowly rose up in the air, golden sparkles climbing up her blue dress.
Ava clapped a hand over her mouth, “Oops. You’re going to the end of the story now Belle, cuz I read it aloud.”
Belle nodded, fear still written all over her face.
Slowly her dress transformed into a beautiful ball gown and she landed abruptly in the courtyard of Beast’s castle, beside a handsome prince.
She glanced up at him and smiled, knowing exactly who he was. “My prince.” she murmured happily, the stranger in the woods all but forgotten.
Ava watched from a hidden nest in the woods then opened her notebook and placed her hand on an empty page, closing her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she was back in her room, on her bed.
Ava grabbed a pencil and erased what had happened between her and Belle.
She rewrote it and put her notebook away.
“That...was an adventure.” she murmured to herself.
Ava jumped up to go ask her mom if she needed help with dinner when she spotted a notebook on the floor near her bed.
Curious, she picked it up.
The first words she read were, ‘Today, I met her.’
Ava gasped and threw the notebook down. “Impossible!”
