• tab Nate watched the princess walk away from him. Though she was trying to hide it, he knew that the minute she was alone, she was most likely going to break down into tears. He felt bad for her, something he hardly ever felt for people who weren’t his two best friends. He knew it was wrong to think, but he truly believed that the people who made it their life mission to put down other, deserved to be punished somehow.
    tab But not like this.
    tab Jenna probably hadn’t been lying when she told him that she wasn’t the girl he imagined her to be and she definitely didn’t deserve what had happened to her. Ok, so he had been wrong about her, but it wasn’t like he was going to tell Cass and Theo. He was stubborn and hated to admit that he had been wrong about something. Besides, he got the vibe that Jenna didn’t want her secret to be told, but it wasn’t like he was going to say something anyway.
    tab Upon returning to his friends, Cass sprinted towards him looking concerned. “Where is the princess?” she asked as Theo caught up with her.
    tab Sighing Nate sat down on the sand. “The princess has returned to the castle of White Sands, she told me that she felt ill.” He hated lying to them, but what else could he do?
    tab Cass’s face lit up, “Does that mean that Jenna can join us?” Eagerly she sat down besides Nate and played with his hair, a habit of hers that she did whenever she got excited.
    Though she hadn’t said it, Nate figured that her friends had most likely turned on her. Popular people always abandoned their friends when they proved to be useless. So she was an outcast like him and his friends, who cared? Jenna probably didn’t even want to hangout with them anyway. Why would she? To people like her, she probably thought that Fantasia was just another immature kid’s game that three loser teens insisted on playing. Glancing over at Cass, he guessed that Cass already knew that Jenna was alone, that she was probably hurting on the inside.
    tab Sighing Nate ran one of his hands through the sand. He didn’t want Jenna to join them, he wanted to keep Fantasia between the three of them, but with Cass he knew that in the end, she’d get her way.
    tab “Fine,” he said at last, “she can hang with us, but that doesn’t mean I’m ok with this,” he replied as he swatted her hands away.
    tab Cass cheered as she jumped to her feet, “Don’t worry Nate, I’m going to give her a crash course in Fantasia so she’ll be ready for tomorrow,” she gave Nate a quick hug, “I promise you won’t regret this.” Then she was gone, jogging back towards the boardwalk with a smile on her face.
    tab As soon as Cass was gone, Theo sat down besides him, “What the hell are you doing? I thought we agreed, no outsiders,” he snapped bitterly
    tab He didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to be reminded that he had just broken a promise that he had made years before.
    tab “I know that Cass wants her to join, but since when do you bow down obediently to Cass?” Theo went on to list all the reasons, reasons that Nate was already aware of, of why Jenna shouldn’t be allowed to join them. “She’s going to ruin everything. People like her just don’t understand.”
    tab Running a hand through his hair, Nate stood up, “You think I don’t know that? And besides, I only let her join so Cass would leave me alone. Don’t go thinking that I like her or some other crap like that.” And that was true. He had only let her join mostly out of pity.
    tab “Anyway,” he added as he and Theo started to head back to their beach blanket, “just because she’s joining us, doesn’t mean I’m actually going to be nice to her.”

    tab That night, Jenna didn’t sleep very well. Tossing and turning, she kept seeing Jason’s twisted smile as he ran his hands over her body. But then, just before he could do anything else, there would be a bright flash of light and the knight that Cassidy had drawn on her cast would appear and fought with Jason. The setting changed and instead of Jason’s room, Jenna was standing in a field of flowers, wearing a gown that looked like it had come straight out of King Arthur. Once Jason, who transformed into a dragon, was defeated, the knight would walk over to her and bow. Taking her hand, the knight kissed it softly before lifting his face to meet her eyes.
    tab For some strange reason, Nate looked even more handsome than she remembered him to be. Over and over again, the dream replayed itself to her that night. Each time, just as Nate was about to kiss her, Jason the dragon would reappear and attack Nate with his tail. As soon as Nate was out of the way, Jason would grab her in his claws before opening his mouth and tossing her inside. Then Jenna would wake up gasping for air, covered in sweat. All of Cassidy’s talk about knights, elves and dragons had gotten to her. Now she was even dreaming about them! Climbing out of bed, Jenna opened to door to balcony and watched the navy sky slowly turn light yellow and pink as the sun started to rise. If it got cold, Jenna would put on the jacket that Nate had given her and closed her eyes. For some reason, whenever she wore his jacket, she felt as if nothing could hurt her, not even Jason.
    tab The next morning, Dahlia informed her of the annual swimming tournament that was held on the same day as the apartment building’s anniversary.
    tab “Every year I enter and end up coming in second, but not this year, this year I’m going to wipe the floor with Nate,” she announced cheerfully as she poured Jenna some more orange juice.
    tab Looking up from the newspaper that she had been reading, Jenna watched Dahlia pull two pieces of toast from the toaster. “What does Nate have to with this?”
    tab Dahlia laughed, “That boy may not look it, but he’s been coming in first since he was eight. He’s a swimming prodigy or something along those lines.”
    tab She couldn’t be talking about the same Nate that Jenna knew. The Nate she knew looked like he didn’t have any muscle within his body. From far away, he could be mistaken for a scarecrow. Besides, hadn’t Cassidy said that none of them were good at sports? If Nate was such an amazing swimmer, then why didn’t he compete in school?
    tab “As I was saying, I’ve been training hard for months and this time,” Dahlia took and impressive bite out of her toast, “this time I’m going to show him whose boss.”
    tab Smiling, Jenna promised to root for her during the race. Though she was secretly interested to see just how good a swimmer Nate was.
    tab “So what are you’re plans today buttercup?” Dahlia asked as she turned the small TV set on n the kitchen.
    tab Taking her empty plates, Jenna walked over to the sink and started to clean them, “I’m going to be hanging out with Cassidy and her friends.”
    tab “Aren’t they a sweet bunch,” she responded as pulled out the real estate section of the paper. “I’ve known Cassidy for years and every summer she looks forward to spending time with those two friends of hers. And then there’s that game they play.”
    tab “You know about it?”
    tab Dahlia laughed a hearty laughed, “Know about it? I’m the one that told them about it. About eleven years ago, there was a big storm here and I was babysitting the three of them while their families were off somewhere. They were bored so I told them all about Fantasia, the same place I used to tell you about when you were younger and couldn’t fall asleep at night.”
    tab She was right. Back when Jenna had been about three, Dahlia was stilling living with her family. Every night, Dahlia would sit by her bedside, and tell Jenna about a fantastical world where warriors, princess, and monsters dwelt. How had she not realized this before?
    tab “So anyway, since then, every summer afterwards, the three of them come together and play that game the whole summer through.”
    tab Glancing at the clock, Jenna noticed that she was late. Thanking Dahlia for breakfast, before rushing into her room and changing. Remembering what Nate had said about her constantly hiding her skin, she opted on a t-shirt with a Japanese cartoon figure on it and a pair of old-jeans.
    tab Before heading out, Jenna decided to give her parents a call. It had been about five days since she had last spoken to them despite Dahlia, who called them every night. After dialing her home number, she waited impatiently for her parents to pick up. At long last, she heard the sound of someone picking up the phone before her father’s warm voice was filling her ears. While she caught up with her dad, Jenna couldn’t help but think about how her mom had insisted that she spend the summer in Florida.
    tab “You’ve been acting so sad lately,” her mom had said on the car ride home from the hospital. Jenna had just received her cast for her broken leg. “Maybe a change of scenery would be good for you.”
    tab Upon arriving home, Jenna discovered her parents had already bought her a ticket and new suitcase. Even if she didn’t want to go, she was going no matter what.
    tab “So, meet any interesting boys yet?”
    tab Jenna smiled, her dad sucked at being nonchalant.
    tab Pulling out a pair of flip-flops, Jenna switched the phone to her other ear, “No dad, haven’t met anyone that’s caught my eye,” though for some reason, Nate’s face suddenly popped into her head.
    tab “What about friends? Your mother wants to know if you’ve made any friends yet?”’
    tab Besides Cassidy, Jenna doubted that Nate or Theo would go so far as to consider her their friends.
    tab “Yeah, I met a few people.”
    tab After talking a few more minutes with her dad, Jenna said goodbye and hung up. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she was already ten minutes late. Once she had slipped on her flip-flops, she got into the elevator and headed down towards the lobby. As luck would have it, one of the guys she had seen on her first day was in the elevator with her.
    “Hey,” he said with a dazzling smile, “I remember you. Cast girl right?”
    Not to fond of her nickname, she forced a smile, “It’s Jenna actually.”
    “Sorry, I’m Lance,” he shot her another breath taking smile, “and I’d also like to apologize for what Lena said to you, she can be a bit of b***h sometimes.”
    tab Punching the button for the lobby, Jenna watched the door’s close, “It doesn’t matter.”
    tab Leaning against the wall, Lance crossed his arms “So…are doing anything important today? Cause if your not, then you’re welcomed to come to the beach with me and my gang.”
    tab It was a nice offer, though she was sure the only reason that Lance was talking to her was because he thought she looked hot. But the idea of being surrounded by a swarm of hunky muscular guys, and most likely alcohol, didn’t seem very tempting to her.
    tab “Thanks but I’m actually hanging with Cassidy and her friends.”
    tab Lance laughed, “Don’t waste your time with them, that’s like social suicide right there.”
    tab Feeling her cheeks grow red, Jenna was thankful that the elevator reached the lobby just at that precise moment. As they walked off in their different directions, Jenna could hear Lance shout, “If you’re ever feel like ditching the dungeon and dragon team, I’m in room 720. You’re welcome anytime.”
    tab Jenna shuddered in disgust as Lance walked through the doors. No matter where she went, guys still mistook for the easy type of girl, the kind that would roll over if they asked her nicely enough.
    tab “There you are!”
    tab Spinning around, Jenna watched Cassidy raced towards her, her pigtails bouncing as she ran. “Nate was threatening to start if you didn’t show up in the next ten seconds.”
    tab Sure enough, trudging behind Cassidy were Theo and Nate who looked especially pissed to see her. Once they were outside, Cassidy started explaining the rules of Fantasia and how the ‘magic’ worked. Occasionally she would ask Theo or Nate to clarify something for her, but all they would do was cross their arms and look away.
    tab Once she was done explaining, Cassidy assigned her a role to play while in Fantasia.
    tab “Princess,” she declared happily.
    tab Unsure if being a princess was a compliment or not, Jenna just smiled though she noticed Nate and Theo smirking.
    tab “Ok, now that were all here and accounted for, lets play.” Turning around she gestured to Nate to speak.
    tab Clearing his throat, Nate took a step forward before reaching into his jean pocket and pulling out a piece of paper.
    tab “Today,” he read aloud, “we will be seeking out the vile Minotaur that had been plaguing the plains of Fantasia for the last couple years. With the sorceress Cass’s spells Theo’s enchantments, and my sword, we will rid the land of this foul beast once and for all.”
    tab Nate had read it so passionately that for half a second, Jenna had forgotten that this was all pretend. But despite his impressive performance, it hadn’t distracted Jenna from the fact that Nate had ignored her. She wasn’t surprised; Nate practically had a neon sign hovering above his head that said ‘Go away,’ in bright yellow letters.
    tab “Shall we go my brave friends?” The tone of Cassidy’s voice had changed. Rather then sounding full of doubt, her voice echoed with an air of newfound confidence. Before she could even say a word, Jenna watched Nate and Theo point towards the town rather than the boardwalk before taking off with Cassidy following right behind them, asking about their battle plans.
    tab They never looked back, not once noticing that she wasn’t among them. Figuring that once their minds were in Fantasia, Jenna guessed that they all ceased to see what was truly going on in the real world, only seeing what their minds wanted them to see. Sure, maybe Cassidy had been so excited about playing that she had gotten carried away, but it was obvious that Nate and Theo had purposely blocked her out of their minds. They didn’t want her with them so it made complete sense that they wouldn’t see her once in Fantasia.
    tab Sighing, she moved over to a bench and sat down. She felt like an idiot, having actually thought that she had managed to make some friends. Nate had been right, she didn’t belong with them so why had she even bothered showing up today if she had known that they were going to ditch her?
    tab Feeling stupid, Jenna stood up and walked back inside the building. What was the point of waiting for people who weren’t going to come back for her?