Laughing Hatred - 1

Chapter One
The Mismatched Shoes
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Strands of delicate strings of dragged lead upon paper knitted together, wrapping around themselves into the stretching shape of the spread wings of an owl in flight. The lines tangled amongst themselves artistically, leaving detailed tendrils in their path, winding their way masterfully up and down the form of the creature. The owl had a malicious sort of glint in its black eyes, claws outstretched and wings thrown behind it, stretching across the lines of the paper once intended for lesson notes.

Sarah sighed contently, shifting her hold on the pencil in hand to softly drag it across the paper, leaving trails of shading in its wider wake. Her arm rested upon the desk in a rather bored manner, her left hand's fingers curled beneath an uninterested chin. Her eyes were nearly as if in a dream's trance, her fingers lead the pencil in it's path across the page as if they had a mind of their own.

"Sarah." A voice sounded ahead of her, barely directing her attention upwards, her hand only briefly stilling in its action as she distractedly pulled her eyes upwards, "Hmm?"

"Sarah Williams!"

"Present!" Sarah tore her gaze away from the drawing, raising her hand for attendance, the pencil clattering to the ground. Unfortunately, however, as the laughing of her classmates sounded in her quickly growing red ears, she SUPPOSED she was to answer some question pertaining to the mathematics on the board.

Lovely.

It was going to be one of THOSE days.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Perched on the window sill of the classroom, a softly brown owl inclined its head greedily to the paper at the desk just on the other end of the pane of glass. It was a flattering enough image, Jareth supposed, though he most certainly could not be captured COMPLETELY on a single page of paper.

But, well, she could TRY.

A crumpled up sheet of paper snapped through the air, bouncing off the back of Sarah's head, much to her tired annoyance. The moment the teacher turned her back to the class, as she often did, the neglectful woman, Sarah leaned down out of her desk, picking up the crumpled paper. Sitting up, she opened the paper, and gave a bored look at the contents, scrawling something onto the sheet before recrumpling it in a foul temper.

Waiting once more for the teacher to turn her back to draw something non important upon the board, Sarah turned back to the rear end of the classroom, noting the snickering form of one of the supposedly 'cool' children, a boy, no less, not even deserving the right to be a man. He was such an awkward thing, with a sad start at a beard, acne, and baggy clothing, apparently the culprit of the annoyance.

And very soon after the owl noted such traits, the thing came to have a crumpled sheet of paper in his hair.

His friends erupted into outrageous laughter, bringing the instructor to whirl around as if someone had just lit the place on fire. Hawk like eyes resting on the body of Sarah, still twisted to have her attention in the rear of the class.

"Sarah, are you TRYING to be sent to detention?" She snapped furiously, the harpy.

"Are you offering?" Sarah answered back as if resigned to something that was to happen whether she begged or not.

"Not anymore, office. Now." The instructor demanded, pointing a boney finger to the doorway furiously. Rising, Sarah seemed resigned enough to her fate, striding over to the door, face red at the still spreading laughter and mocking tones at her back. The instructor turned to her class, voice sickly apologetic, "Some students are simply disruptive, and there's nothing you can do about it, James, I'm sure-"

"Oh come on, you're the strictest teacher here!" Sarah whirled around, her long brunette hair falling about herself in her fury, "Really, someone sneezes and you practically toss them out the window! If you MUST know, though you didn't even ask, I didn't throw the note in the first place. But since your concern is so touching," She added sarcastically, voice dripping with mockery, "let's see what it said, shall we?" Sarah strode over to the desk of James, an air of powerful fury about her, someone simply pushed to the edge one to many times, "After all, it can't be TOO bad, can it? Since it's your prized, JAMES we're talking about." She encouraged with a bitter and slightly malicious sort of grin.

Oh yes, Jareth thought sarcastically, Sarah didn't throw temper tantrums any more.. Not in the slightest. The only thing that would make the scene more childish, would be if she gave the ground a little stomp on her way out the door.

"Let's see here, 'What the hell, Sarah,'" She read aloud, looking up from the page in her hand shortly to the class, adding quipply, "Mm.. We're off to a great start here. He even spelt my name wrong. It's S-A-R-A-H. Not S-E-A-R-A, genius." She looked over the paper, glaring at the boy who'd thrown the note. He, for the most part, tried to put on the air of someone that was too cool for the entire situation, but his features were burning as the laughter of the class reached a peak at his expense, "'I just sat in some feathers on your seat.' Because, apparently I molt, and you can teleport, be in two places at once, AND be invisible. Frankly, if you can do all that, I question why you're in school, just go and be superman or something. 'CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF.' All caps there, really wanted to get the message across, OR, he forgot the english language." She gave a long, thoughtful pause before continuing, her bitter tone snapping through the air like a whip, "Could be either."

"O-Office, Sarah!" The instructor bellowed over the laughter of the children. "How shocking!" Sarah exclaimed temperedly, stepping out of the room and slamming the door behind her.

What a stubborn child, Jareth speculated shortly, turning his attention to the abandoned image lying atop of her desk.

OoOoOoOoOo

Sarah heaved a sigh, leaning her back against the hallway's corner softly. She hadn't meant to lose her temper, but oh.. She found it harder and harder to put up with the sort of abusive shit that her classmates attempted to put her through after having defeated The Goblin King. After all, why should she have to put up with offensive, poorly written notes, when she had thrown the heads of the fieries? When she had escaped the Bog of Stench? Led a seige through the Goblin City..

Even if that WAS a fair amount of time ago.

"Well, come on," Sarah muttered aloud to herself, "There's no use regretting it now." Crumpling the page further in her shaking palm, Sarah tossed the crinkling paper into one of the many periodically placed garbage cans that lined the halls. Crackling softly, the paper opened up further in the dark of the garbage, revealing a red tipped pen's scrawlings in the bottom right side quite legibly.

'You wouldn't last two minutes in The Oubliette.'

Sarah passed the detention office, not even giving it a sideways glance. To be honest, her teacher was well known for her open manner for detention appointments, and hardly ever checked up to be certain the time was actually, in itself, served.

Besides, Sarah mused, looking to the hanging clock hanging upon the mantle of the stairways to the ground floor. It was nearly time for the school to be let out, and she did have a promise to keep to Crystal and Toby.

They were young enough that the idea of someone not keeping their word was practically a sin, punishable only by the burning of one at the stake. But not quite young enough to forget the promise after a few hours. Still, Sarah pondered, skipping a fair amount of the stairs on her way down, she did enjoy time with her siblings.

Crystal had just reached the age in which bubbles were a constant wonder, a touch of magic upon the world, she could be found fawning and chasing after a few of the oily circles. While Toby found himself at the age in which EVERYTHING was to be climbed, and really, she simply HAD to be nearby to catch the little adventurer!

The world, Sarah pondered, was a boring thing, particularly when one thought on the subject for any length of time. Indeed, everyone was content to be discontent, waking each morning to complete a task that encompasses all of the day, in order to earn a currency that was, quite literally, not worth the time spent upon it when in regards to the prices that seemed to spike the moment anyone saved anything. Yes, Sarah thought to herself, lifting her backpack from her locker, something was very, very wrong with the world.

The release bell rang through the air in a thought searing, mind numbing tone, just as Sarah closed the locker, spinning the dial to any random digit.

At least the Labyrinth had openly admitted that it was defective.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"I'm home!" Sarah called out, closing the door behind her with her left boot. Merlin, a rather shaggy looking, older dog of a breed she wasn't quite certain, trumped down the hall, tongue lolling out of the corner of his mouth. Adorning his tangled, long fur, were quite the collection of pink bows, spilled glitter, and, of course, the liquid of many slaughtered bubbles.

"Played pretty princess again, did you, Merlin?" Sarah laughed shortly, resting the backpack at her feet as she crouched in the doorway, affectionately scratching behind the dog's ears. Happily, his tail threatened to move fast enough to get him some air time, and agreeably, he threw his head back in a pleased bark.

"You know that means you'll need a bath now, don't you?" Sarah pointed out, to which the dog's head dunked to the ground, tail between his legs. He made to remove his head from her hands, and slink down the hall in an attempt of escape. Laughing, Sarah rose, "Go on now, run! I can't see you slinking down the hall, I promise."

Merlin practically crawled down the hall, promptly ignoring her as he turned a corner down the far end, slinking in every sense of the word. Leaping over the dog, a rather pink blur came bounding down the hall, leaping into the air at Sarah. Grinning wide, Sarah widened her stance slightly, catching the laughing girl in both hands, carefully holding her above the ground. "You ready to go, Crystal?"

"For hours!" Crystal bounced in the air, her straight blonde hair falling in silken strands at the height of her chin, drifting in and out of her features. She was rather small, and even lighter at that! Her pink dress was adorn in the patterns of countless flowers that spilled over one another in a rippling movement as she moved about on her adventures.

"For hours you say?" Sarah mocked shock, opening her mouth slightly in a joking jaw dropping moment, "Where are your shoes?"

"Oh." Crystal speculated, looking down at her bare feet, her blonde hair falling into her blue eyes, tightly clasped in her hand was a brightly blue yarn necklace, with three differently shaped glass bubbles strung through it. Held tightly in the other was a pink container for the creation of bubbles, the concoction spilling over the sides in a sloshing manner at her wild natures.

"Oh? That's all you've got to say?" Sarah teased, a warm sort of smile upon her features, "Come on then, let's get your shoes on and get your brother, we can't go to the park without either." Setting Crystal back in her feet, Sarah lifted one of the white little slippers from the box of shoes by the door, slipping it onto her tiny little feet.

Oh, she could remember all the times they walked to the park previously, when the little girl would stand tiptoe, take the hand of her older sister and lace her fingers into hers.

Such small, tiny little things, her fingers..

"Toby! Are you ready to go?" Sarah asked absently as she lifted the second slipper from the box, the silence stretching.

Heart pound.

"Toby?"

Her heart beat faster in the silence, slamming against her ribcage and bringing adrenaline down her muscles, despite herself. "Toby?!" She dropped the slipper, and practically sprinted up the stairs, taking them at least three at a time.

Toby opened the door to his and Crystal's room, peering out of the open door with a cranky, 'I just woke up' look about him. With ruffled short blonde hair and green eyes, his clothing was a bit wrinkled upon him, a grey T shirt and baggy jeans. Sarah breathed out, relief washing over her.

Oh, that feeling never went away.

"Come on, we're going to the park, while Irene's out and dad's at work, remember?" Sarah covered her relief with a smile, feeling as though she could breathe once more, "You've got to put your shoes on and grab a coat!"

"I'm not going." He stated sulkily.

"Sure you are, have a little faith in your older sister." Sarah joked, "Hey," Sarah smiled at him openly, crouching down to his level, "How about I bring a new novel I just got from the library? It's a good one, I can tell. We can read it at the park, it'll be fun, I promise. You know how I always-"

"Keep your promises." A grin placed itself on his features, seeming for all the world that it properly always belonged there.

"That's right, now go get your shoes on." Sarah pat him on the shoulder, rising as he walked past her in the manner in which all little children did. Toby stood by the shoe box beside his half shoed sister, fishing through the mismatched pairs for his own sneakers, still half awake and cranky in the company that he didn't particularly desire.

"Yours." Crystal held out the blue yarn necklace, a wide sort of bubbly smile across her features. "I don't want it." Toby snapped back, bringing the expression of heartbreak on the girl's features. Lip quivering, Crystal stood, and under the impression that he simply had to try it ON to appreciate it, dropped it over his head as he slipped on both of his shoes.

Furious, Toby snatched it from around his neck and threw it to the ground at her feet, eyes snapping. "Stop it!"

Crystal bent down, as hard as that was for small children, lifting the necklace from the ground with exaggerated gentleness. "Yours." She stated once more, holding out the gift to her older brother.

"I don't want it!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Both of you, stop it right this minute. We all know you can go for hours." Sarah called out from her room, lifting the new novel, 'The Oath' her backpack. Slipping one foot out of her uncomfortable shoes, she replaced it with a softer, nicer sneaker of a grey color. Leaning down, she moved to replicate this action with the other uncomfortable foot, when stringing through the hall, she heard those damnable words.

"I wish-" Well, Sarah thought to herself, those were innocent enough, still, they held a malice in the tone that struck her upside the head as if she had been punched. "The goblins really WOULD-" "TOBY, STOP!" Sarah stumbled over her own feet, sprinting down the hall in a dire manner, tripping over a rather offended Merlin in the mean time.

"-Take you away. Right now." Toby muttered to himself in a sulky manner, just as Sarah burst into the room.

The sun disappeared behind a cloud, the wind howling at the windows, rattling the house to the core.