Imaginings
an excerpt

“Hey Kit-Kat!”, a loud, sneering voice interrupted her musings. Her grimace at the unsightliness of the library morphed into a scowl. It was Greg. Her nemesis. She got a little thrill thinking of him that way. She liked that he didn’t know the meaning or spelling of a word that suited him perfectly.

He ambled up to her, giving her his usual contemptuous look as he took in her appearance. Greg was always the first to point out her poor fashion sense. A fact made incredibly amusing by his own apparel; a dirty pair of grey sweatpants with a hole in one knee, and a faded navy blue t-shirt. His dark hair always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and his freckled nose was more often dirty than not. He pushed at the bridge of his thick framed glasses, a compulsive habit of his.

“Nice outfit, two-eyes,” he sneered, the sneer quickly evolving into a smirk. Greg thought that making fun of people who didn’t have glasses was the cleverest idea ever.

Having had bits of wadded up paper thrown at the back of her head all through morning classes, Katherine’s temper had been stretched to breaking point. Normally she was the sort to scowl and shuffle off. Not today. She felt courage welling up inside her. A strange feeling. A new feeling.

She gave him an equally contemptuous look, arching her dark expressive eyebrows as she replied with an almost eerie calm, “I didn’t know you were so interested in ladies’ fashion, Greg. So sorry I’m not as well dressed as your Barbie dolls.”

She spun around, light on her feet, and practically glided across the library to her favourite table. She seated herself primly, and promptly buried herself in a book. Not that she was all that eager to escape to another world when the real world had just given her such a treat. No, she just wanted to hide the horrified yet triumphant feeling that had suddenly overwhelmed her.

What had gotten into her? She’d never stood up to anyone before! Not outside of her head, anyway. She’d dreamed up some pretty exhilarating confrontations there, but never, ever, had one played out right in front of her like that. And not just in front of her, but within her! It was a heady, dizzy making sort of experience. She didn’t know what she wanted to do more, jump up and down, or throw up.