Of Memory and Might ["The Fates Book I" fanfic]

1.1 - Fateful First Encounter

Author's Note: A scene with #Dacey to start off the fanfiction. The quote at the top is what I based this scene off of. Each scene will have a little quote from The Fates, just so you can see where the scene is coming from :)

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EPISODE 1: GLASS

Scene 1: Fateful First Encounter

"He nodded hello, tried to hide how his heart skipped a beat as her bright eyes met his. Even from this distance, they made his knees buckle. Just as if today were that first day of preschool all over again."

~ Nicole Fearahn, The Fates Book I, Part 1.5

A.D. 1997

"Have a great first day at school, sweetheart!"

Those were the words. The dreaded words Daniel Hollis's mother uttered as she all but pushed him out of their blue suburban. As she shut the door to make sure he couldn't get back in, and gave him the motherly don't-you-dare-start-crying inspection before rolling up the window and speeding away.

He stood on the sidewalk next to East Side Preschool, grey-blue eyes rapidly blinking at the departing vehicle. Then the stormy vigilance found someone else's: a shiny white Cadillac that couldn't have belonged to anyone less than a millionaire.

Almost afraid, he backed away from the incoming car, instead finding an unoccupied patch of the black gravel. Leaning against the red brick building of doom, as he had sometimes seen his brother do, before turning back to the expensive, luxurious sight. A sight that was all too unfamiliar in his limited years.

From it stepped a woman so ghastly looking; Dan almost lost his 'cool' pose. It wasn't that she was unsightly or monstrous. In fact, that wasn't the case at all.

Dan had always found himself in the position of knowing what a person's insides were like. He was no stranger to beauty, of course, even at four-years-old. However, his ability to look inside of the outward appearance- horrendous or beauteous-was something that he prided.

And she was awful; he could tell right away. Immaculately dressed, a dyed strawberry blonde, with posture so stiff he thought her spine might snap, she unloaded-or rather, yanked out-the cargo, her little girl. It was fair to say Dan Hollis and Katherine Weaver were enemies at first sight.

Her daughter? That was a completely different story.

Dan had met her before. In fact, he had admired and ogled from afar, his heart skipping a beat every time he heard her name. He heard it now, carried to him on the August wind. From Mrs. Weaver's lips, it sounded like an ostentatious simper, but nevertheless a ravishing two syllables.

"Lacey."

It sounded like heaven, to him, as though the angels above had breathed it into his ear, in all its ethereal glory. His knees turned to jelly.

"For heaven's sake! Stop touching your hair!"

Lacey's mother's voice could've been heard from anywhere in the preschool, or perhaps China. Dan fought the urge to cover his ears against the harsh, scraping shout.

The girl seemed unaffected by the sudden shriek, and simply brought her pale hand to her side, from where it had rested on her blonde crown. Returned her gaze to her feet, before taking her mother's hand and following her, past Dan, into the building.

He had no doubt what they were going to talk about.

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Four Days Earlier