By the end of the week, whispers, rumors, and complaints had already filled the studios. Flyers began to appear on walls in bold letters: NUTCRACKER AUDITIONS: CASTING UNDER NEW DIRECTION. 

parts of me i’ll never forget

Then I wrote,“U need to put on some makeup u sucker :)”

My vision starts to black out, and then I am holding out to something, anything, for just a little support. I find nothing of the sort. Instead, I am falling. No. No.

I grew up here, in the library with books instead of parents and stories instead of friends. I have spent the past twenty years of my life in the Draethym and yet I still have not mapped out the entire library, and that isn’t due to lack of effort. Although I have gotten close, I still don’t know if the end might even be near. I don’t even know if there is an end.

Everyone doubts Kevin’s dreams of making it to the NBA. But when he gets sucked into a virtual championship game, will he change their minds with one last shot?

A shining stage, masked actors, and a perfect role. But as the curtain rises, Gaston realizes that some encores never end…and some stages are impossible to leave. 

In the darkness, alone in the emptiness, the sorrow echoes through the nothingness.

The girl in the light blue sweater shuffles her feet and twists her fingers around in a way that makes me look up at her face and notice the slight downward tilt of her smile and droop in her eyes. She doesn’t want to be here and the sweater is too tight for her liking. I can tell because she pulls at the sleeves in a nervous way that I sometimes do to my skin. 

Eyes. There’s nobody here, and yet I feel the eyes of the world, rubbing against me like thick honey I can’t wash off. Such an odd sensation, feeling as though me and my tied up ginger hair and bandaged arms, me and my miss-matched socks and flower dress, me and my confusion are out on display.

And so, like every other night, I will go out onto my balcony at dusk and play pretend. I will smile, because people don’t like when the sun is angry, and I will let this kingdom be deceived by a facade for a little longer. I will be their illusion, the royal family’s lie. And I will do it again. Over and over again. 

A sixteen-year-old me had run into the garden just as wild as her surroundings, with messy tears running down her cheeks and found the best thing in her life.