Narnia; the Next Generation

Chapter one; Brunette Troubles

I was playing on her laptop until her grandmother, Susan, yelled at her to get off. Well maybe not yell, but sassed her. "Ryley stop playing that contraption that eating away your brain." She said it nicely, but seemed serious about the eating brain thing.

My grandmother has been living with us ever since dad died in March. Mum is usually taking double, sometimes triple, shifts so someone needs to 'watch us'. And all my grandmother does is watch soap operas and Texas Ranger reruns.

"Does that really eat away your brain, grandma?" I heard her little brother, Clotin or as I call him Colt (he was so excited and fast all the time, almost like the horse), asked. He was only 9 (to him his 'exact' age was 9 years, 2 months, 29 days, and 2 hours,) and he looked like our mother, black hair, which I don't know where she got it from since no one in our family has black hair before mum, and regular blue eyes. He was not as keen as me, but was pretty smart for his age. Also, Elizabeth, my older sister, (she and Colt almost looked like twins besides of height) was the smartest in her grade. Did I envy that? Not one bit. I had more common sense in my pinky finger than they had combined.

My motto, 'School smarts may get you through school, but street smarts get you through life.'

Ya, I know. I was the weird one out in my family. One of many reasons is my appearance. I had caramel brown hair, (technical term, I was a brunette) like my great aunt Lucy, who unfortunately passed away young (my family never told me how), but my favorite part was my eyes. They were bright green, very rare, very awesome. My father had the same kind of eyes, that's reason he brighten so much when he saw me. He said my eyes have power, at first I thought he meant like wizard powers, but over the few months I realized that was my imagination, he meant finding peace and strength power, not phony child stuff.

Another reason why I was weird was, I was usually never cheerfully unless my dad was involved (ever since my dad died, I had become more and more quiet, keeping my feelings inside,) or my friends when we weren't in school. Colt and Elizabeth were always cheery and glad. I was more of a quite gal, while they ran around the library when we were young and dad was getting books, (we shared that in common too, we both loved to read) I would sneak around the building, as silent as a mouse and cause trouble.

I was the trouble maker; Making Unstoppable Trouble Together, or Mutt, is what my little group of friends and I call us. Any ways, back to the library stunt that still haunts the librarian to this day.

I saw the big mean lady, I was 6 and I didn't know her name, behind her desk, shhing whoever came by talking. She made Colt cry last week when they left and she yelled at him for running around. I wanted revenge!

I heard something falling over in the back of the room, probably my siblings pumping into something. The mean lady got up and hurried to the back. I saw this as my chance.

I ran across the floor, spy style, I had seen movies when they did that so I wanted to go original. By the time I got to the desk, I could hear more stuff falling over. Perfect, I thought, more time, the better.

I remember taking a bunch of glitter and paints and throwing it all over the desk, making sure every area was covered, and making sure nothing got on my hands. I heard yelling in the back and I rushed back to my hiding stop, which was behind a bookcase in the fiction section.

The mean lady came back to her desk and sat down; at first she noticed nothing out of the usual. When she picked up her coffee and took a sip, her eye widened. She screamed orders at someone who did not work there and they just stared at her. I was laughing my head off.

I needed to get out of there before she looks for suspects. I would be the first on her list, one because I was a kid, and two because I was nearby. I ran to the children section, where I was 'suppose' to be, but I never did what I was supposed to do. I saw this kid follow me into the room, my age and she seemed to be laughing so hard her black her was flying everywhere.

"I know what you did." The boy said. "And it was AWESOME!" I smiled at him and we became close friends, and we still are. His name is Ayden, and he is my second in command in the Mutts. We're exactly alike, but he has blonde hair, with a touch of black at the roots. I know it sounds weird, but really it looks awesome on him. He has green eyes and quite tan skin for a city kid.

By the time my dad came back to get us, the mean lady was cleaning up her desk. I got away with that, and told Colt everything. He smiled so bright that month that he smiled in his sleep.

I got out of memory lane when someone started talking. "No Colt," Elizabeth said calmly, I prefer to call her Lizzie though she hates it. She's only 15, but she practically takes care of Colt, and gets As, and is the MVP in soccer. Me? Well, I get Bs and Cs, leader of the skaters, aka Mutts, so does that count for something? To my mother, no.

"Oh, I just thought that was why Riley is dumb." Colt said through a cocky smile, sometimes I just wanted to kill the brat. But I kept my cool; I'm practically the only one who can do that in my family.

"Okay," my grandmother said, she clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Who wants story time?" I stared at her blankly, but Colt jumped as soon as she said story.

"Oh yes grandma, yes please." Colt said politely, only because won't tolerate bad manners. Another reason why I wasn't grandma's favorite grand-daughter.

"Sure, why not." Lizzie supported Colt. I mean I could kind of see why Colt would want to, but Lizzie, was I the only one who acted like she was not a prissy?

I rolled my eyes at all of them, but stayed just because I had nothing better to do. She started to tell us about this made up world called Narnia. She told us about how her and her siblings would go to this world whenever Aslan called them. Their first adventure was amazing, and she called it "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". It was amazing how she could name so little details in a minor second when Colt asked, not even I could do that and I was the best at making up stories. I even remember telling Colt stories when I was 6. That's when I realized something, this wasn't made up. It was real.

The door opened when grandmother was telling us of the ceremony where she and her siblings were crowned royals. Mother walked in and realized what grandmother was telling us about. "Mother! I told you never to tell such silly stories to the children." She spoke with a slightly English accent, since she was raised in England, while I and my siblings were all raised in Pennsylvania, USA (even though we all do have an English vocabulary). Mother said it was the closest thing to England as possible.

Grandmother disagreed, as she did a lot. She said nothing was actually better than England itself. I could care less. "I'm only telling the children a story." But I could tell, she thought, no, she knew that it was real.

"Children bed, Elizabeth, make sure Coltin gets his teeth washed." Mother said that in a bad tone so she was really mad. Colt practically ran to the bathroom not wanting to get spanked, that's only happened once when Colt broke the TV playing football. Lizzie followed afterward, but before I left, I smiled at grandmother. Her eyes widened, and then sparkled with pride. And she knew I believed her.

"Riley. Bed. Now." Her voice got angrier and angrier with each word. I followed Colt's example and ran. But after a few minutes, I being sneaky, I crawled silently through the hallway and behind a chair.

"I don't see why telling the kids a story does anything." My grandmother protested.

"It's easy see; I don't want my children to go up to be hooligans that think there's another world out there somewhere. I don't want them to end up like you." Ouch, that must have hurt grandmother.

Then again, grandmother stood her grounds. "A story is a story. I told the same one to you, and see how you turned out. Fine and happy." I heard mother hmmp. "Every child grows up listening to stories. And look at how most are happy; don't you want your children to be happy?"

Ooh, Grandmother must have struck a nerve 'cause the next thing you know mother is shouting at the top of her lungs. "How dare you say that? Of course I want that for my kids, but I don't think you can bring that! Mother…I don't think you can stay here anymore." I choked on air, and almost jumped up.

Grandmother had a worse reaction. She had a heart attack. She fell to the ground and I ran to her side, not caring about hiding anymore. Mother got out her phone and called nine-one-one. By the time the ambulance arrived Lizzie and Colt were awake and crying. I was the only one that didn't cry, I was too strong for that. I promised myself then, I would only cry if she dies, or if anyone of my family dies, only then I cry.

For a moment I felt like I was head-strong, then Colt came over and started crying on my shoulder. This is what my family needed, someone to cry on, and I was that person. I was the strong one, the one who thought out plans before acting, and didn't over think. I was like a queen…..or at least a good friend of a queen. In technical terms, I was….. in a way.

Mom left for the hospital and told Lizzie to be in charge. Wow, she told the crying one to be in charge? Good to know she cared. I thought bitterly. I walked over to the couch with Colt still crying his eyes out on my shoulder, so I had to half carry him to the couch. I let him sit on my lap and started to make funny faces. It used to word when he was younger but I guess he was too old now.

He just stared at me weirdly, it worked in a way; he stopped crying. Lizzie walked over and started to hug Colt. Then I remembered when I was young, grandmother used to read me stories out of small journal of hers, I think it was called Narnia, that would cheer him up. I smiled and walked to grandmother's room. It was right on the bed, perfect thing to help at the moment.

I grabbed it and headed back to the couch. When Colt saw the cover, his eyes widened, but he didn't exactly get happy. So I began to read, the first story, and I, being an awesome storyteller, made faces as I talked to fit the talker's voice. That at least made him laugh, for a while.

I read him a full story in under an hour, how I did though, I had no idea. I skipped to the end of the next story because that was the one grandmother was telling us. He seemed happy about the ending, like it was happy, but to me, having to go back to the real world after all of that would make life hard and dull.

By the time it 1 or 2 in the morning, Colt started to feel sleepy. Lizzie had fallen asleep when I finished the first story, so I decided to stop and have all 3 of us fall asleep on the couch. "Why are you stopping?" Colt asked between yawns.

"'Cause I can't hear myself read over your yawns," Colt laughed and yawned again, "And it's one in the morning, we should get to bed." I lay down on the cushion and what Colt did surprised me. He cuddled up next to me; he never did that with me, only Lizzie. I waited for Colt to finally fall asleep, then I dozed off.

~~~~~pay no attention, just a time bubble~~~~~

I woke up at 7 by the sound of grandmother's book falling off the couch.

I groaned, and remembered what happened last night. No one was awake yet (btw, Colt looked so peaceful when he was sleeping, almost like a baby), so I gently moved myself away from Colt and checked on the house. You see, we lived in the city, and there has been brake ins, in our neighborhood for the past month. So who ever wakes up first, looks around the house for any open windows.

I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to the couch and saw Colt stirring. I made myself some cereal and left out the supplies for him, I mean, he couldn't reach the cupboard yet so I just made it easier for him. "Riley?" I heard Colt call.

"Table," I answered and heard Colt scramble over. He smiled at me, and then began to make his breakfast. He takes a long time, I mean compare him to the slowest person you know and times 10. "When should we wake Lizzie?"

Colt's smile turned into a smirk, "How about in five minutes with my blow horn?" I nodded and he snickered. I was rubbing off on him! I remembered his birthday when I gave him the blow horn. Mom was glaring at me the whole week.

We both finished our cereal and Colt ran toward his room while I bought the dishes in the sink. I covered Colt's ears as he blew and HOOOOOOONK! Lizzie shot up faster than a cheetah trying to catch its prey.

Colt and I started cracking up, the look on her face was somewhere between the Scream and Colt when he went on his first roller coaster. Hilarious moment for the family there.

Lizzie rolled off the couch and into the kitchen, and I sat down on the couch while Colt made a wild dive for the remote. I let him have it since his favorite shows were always on at this time. First we watched some TMNT, then some Pokémon, and finally a real show, Kickin' it on Disney XD.

Lizzie came in later with her hair up and all nice. "Shouldn't you two be getting ready for school?" She asked, and I gave her a face palm

"It's Saturday, dumbbell." Colt said and Lizzie groaned. "Looks like you'll miss your date with your boyfriend." Lizzie gave him a look that seemed to shut a normal person up, but hey, he is a demon. I should explain the boyfriend thing.

Well, Lizzie brought home a boy a few weeks ago, for a study date, the word date was all Colt heard and he's been calling the kid her boyfriend ever since. He taunted her about every single day. And right before we left for school yester day he said, "Be sure to kiss your boyfriend today." Right in front of mom. Was Lizzie mad? Yes. Could she do anything about it? No, 'cause mom would have her head if she even touched Colt.

"I'm going to kill you." Lizzie threatened, no more like promised. But I laughed, 'because Lizzie could barely hurt a fly, much less Colt. So instead she just flicked him in the head. He was used to it. That's the only thing she did to punish him. For me well, I would say good bye to my laptop for a week and I could care less about the TV.

My best friend, Ayden, let himself in. He's over here so much that my mother gave him a key. I mean, he's practically my brother! And everyone treated him like it. "What's for breakfast?" See, no hello or good morning, I would look at him strangely if that happened.

"We ate cereal," I said while not taking my eyes off the screen.

"I heard about your grandmother….." Ayden said awkwardly. I knew he was going to say that and began to hug Colt, who looked like he was going to cry.

"I just hope she makes it out," Lizzie said, looking suddenly deflated.

I smiled, trying to cheer everyone up. "Come on guys, gram was strong, I mean, is strong." catching my words. "One silly little heart attack isn't going to hold her back. Nothing can hold her back, even that evil old witch from the story."

Colt looked at me with a spark in his eyes. That spark was newly found hope. Then it all shattered when he looked behind me.

Like it, don't like it, I don't care, just review, I plan to get some more chapters in soon so…ya, hop you like it and didn't poke your eyes out 'cause this was so horrible.

Review, say you like it, say don't like it, criticism, praising, NO FLAMING!

~Ally out