Everdine

Chapter 1

I open my eyes and the sun immediately shines into it, causing me to blink a couple times.

Where am I? And what am I wearing? I never wore anything like this in my life...  It's a plain white flowy dress with spaghetti straps, quite pretty honestly, but I'm shoeless! I run my fingers through my thin and straight light brown colored hair, wow... my hair is surprisingly not a total mess, it usually is when I wake up.

I sit up and take a look around. I instantly react to the texture of the grass, it's so soft I wouldn't even mind having to sleep on the ground. What a lovely forest... I take a deep breath and take it all in. The birds are all in sync while they're singing the same beautiful melody, and the sunlight feels like a warm long hug. The grass and the leaves on the trees is a deep green color that is really pleasing to the eye as well. The trees create a cool shady environment but the sunlight shines through the leaves and creates a perfect circle of sunlight beaming on me. I close my eyes and just relax...

"Helloooo!" A girl shouts waving her hands back and forth in front of my eyes.

My eyes instantly open in shock and I stare wide-eyed at the girl in front of me. She's very pretty... just like a doll. She has extremely long curly hair that's a light blonde color. She's wearing a simple white blouse and tan colored shorts that's about finger-tip length and also has black plain thigh-high socks and light brown combat boots on. Besides her clothing, she has a brown leathered satchel around her and a cute black headband with a black bow attached to it. The girl puts a hand in front of me offering to pull me up. I cautiously take her hand and she yanks me up so hard that I'm instantly up on my feet.

"I've never seen any other person around here, I usually go here to relax. Anyways, my names Madeline, yours?" She says with a calming smile.

"Aubrey, Aubrey Woods," I reply back in a quiet tone.

"Do you live around here?"

I instantly snap back to reality. Where even is this place? How'd I get here? What time is it?

"Where... what is this place?" I ask.

She looks at me with a confused look, "Uh, I'm not sure... Everdine doesn't really have names for locations..."

"Everdine?"

Now she's just looking at me like I'm crazy.

"Yeah... Everdine, are you... sure you're okay? Like, did you hit your head or something? Not trying to be rude but I'm shocked you don't even know where we live."

"..."

"Well, we should start heading out of the forest, I live fairly close so once we get to my house we can talk more there," Madeline says in a friendly tone.

"Also I can give you a pair of shoes," Madeline says as she stares down at my feet.

I look down at my feet and then look back up at Madeline. How embarrassing... 

We finally made it to the end of the forest and I instantly get a lot warmer, I don't really see much, the only thing here is the stone path I'm currently walking on and the open field of grass that has a few pretty flowers and trees now and then. It's refreshing to see this type of weather, it feels like I haven't seen a bright sunny day in ages.

After a few minutes of walking, I spot an elegant house that looks suited just for a princess. Don't tell me that's Madeline's house! We get closer and closer to the house and my jaw literally drops.

"That's- that's your house, Madeline?!"