First Flight's Always The Best

Right now, all I can hear is screaming and meowing. I'm screaming, running around my large, English, house because I refuse to comb my hair. My nanny won't let my long, dark, hair be. The meowing is from my faithful warrior cat; Hook. He's in my arms right now as I'm running through the halls of our home.

"Annabeth Mary Rose Thomas! You come here at once!" Nanny shouted, waving a large brush around. "I refuse!" I screamed. Me, I'm a 13 year-old girl; with four brothers. They are in the bath right now, and I'm out here having fun. It's there loss, not mine. "Meay." Hook attempted to meow "Mary" but being a cat, he can't speak.

I turned to look behind my shoulder and smirked playfully. Then I fell to my bosom. I looked up slowly, and saw my father with his hands on his hips. I was almost scared, for the first time in my life, but he just smiled. "Anna, you need to listen. I'm sure you don't want your mother to scold you later." My eyes strayed to my dirty little toes; I'd been walking around in the forest earlier, and decided to play warrior princess.

"My hair's fine." Hook purred, and rubbed against my father's legs. He kneeled down, to my eye level, and then gave me a kiss on the forehead. "Go, before I do get your mother." He emptily-threatened, and stood back on his feet. "Hurry, up too. We're going to be late for the party."

I sighed, and walked to Nanny. She brushed my long hair, and then saw my toes. "My goodness, Annabeth! You must wash yourself immediately!" She shooed me to the second bathroom up near our bedroom; the nursery.

I stripped off my nightgown; dirty, torn up, and holy, and hopped into the sudsy bathtub. I realized it was pointless to brush my hair, and I'd have to do it yet again after my bath. The last thing I heard before I leaped out of the bath was the yelling of my mother; my stepmother, actually.

At the party...

Well, this party is for my cousin, Burton, and he's turning only 9. It's this big fancy party for his day of birth. I wish my family was as rich as them so they could get me arrows and stuff for archery; they don't believe in a young lady holding a quiver of arrows on her back.

Anyways, they got me all dressed up for a birthday party of a cousin that I absolutely hate. He's such a spoiled brat, and gets everything he wants. A prime example is the first five minutes of being in their mansion. "Uncle James! Aunty Primrose!" He jumped up into my father's arms, and got a kiss from my stepmother. "We have a present for you," My dad started, and Burton was about to rip it from his hands. "Ah ah ah! No touchy." Father pulled it back from Burton's grasp, and handed it to his brother.

"Phillip, it's been a while." They gave each other a handshake, and Burton saw me and the boys. "Daddy, I want to play with them!" He practically whined. "That's fine, we have games set up in the back for you kids." Uncle Phillip led us to their monstrous backyard.

There were children running around playing tag, hide-and-seek, and many other games. "Enjoy bud." My uncle fixed Burton's hair, which was sticking up in any way possible. "We are going to play 'Blind Man's Wish'." He said proudly. "That's not even a game!" James, one of my brothers, contradicted. "It is a game, and it's my birthday." Burton looked rather evil.

"So, how do you play?" I put my hands on my hips. "Well, we have to assign a 'wish' to each player. There are going to be five of us running around so there'd be two 'wishes'..." Burton continued to explain the game, and we played. It was fun at first, but I couldn't run around in my stupid dress. I hated it; not only that it was a dress, but it was pink too, one of my least favorite colors.

Then it started to get frustrating. Burton kept cheating, and changing rules so he'd win. Then I just quit, and ran off to get something to drink. My brothers followed me, and left Burton crying like the baby he is.

The party is now over...

I crashed into my bed, and was tired from eating so much delicious food. As soon as I walked into the nursery, I shut the door, locked it, and stripped the dumb, pink dress off. In it's place, I threw on my holy, dirty nightgown on, and took out the annoying matching hair accessories from my hair.

The party ended well; I started a food fight among us kids, and we ended up getting in big trouble with the adults. My stepmom just shook her head and practically cried. Her thought were probably, "This is not my daughter, she's not even a young lady!"

I had to wash out the raspberry cake out of my hair, but I didn't care, I've gotten worse things in my hair; cotton candy, mud, bubblegum (I had to chop my hair off when I was four), and much more vulgar things...

Once I opened the nursery door, I saw my father and stepmother standing in front, as if they were waiting. "Anna, I, we, want to talk with you." Father put his hand on her shoulder. "Honey, Annabeth has a name, and she'll be proud of it." She glared at me, and I glared back.

"We've been talking about this for a long time now, and," My father looked at me with his bright blue eyes that I also shared with him; unlike my brothers who had my stepmom's green eyes and red hair. If you must know, they are my half-brothers. "Decided that it's time for you to move to your own room." I gasped. "You're a lady, not a boy." My stepmom held her hand out to put on my shoulder, but I backed away.

"Sweetie, I know that-" But I ran through them both, and rushed down the stairs, not knowing where my feet were taking me. I soon realized that I was rushing to my tree house by the creek in my forest. The trail there was familiar to me, and invisible to others. The branches of low-hanging trees and bushes grabbed onto my nightgown, leaving scratches and cuts that I never felt. The leaf-littered ground felt sooting to my toes, and I almost smiled, but remembered that I was mad at my parents.

Once I reached my tree house, I climbed quickly to the top, and settled into my fortress. I was angry. Stupid parents, my mother would be here if it weren't for the dumb doctors. I wouldn't have to deal with my stepmother and her "lady-like" ways of life. My mother would accept me for who I was, and would read stories to me every night.

I opened my eyes, which were shut pretty hard, and looked around. My bookshelf was in the corner; chock-full of notebooks that had sketches and observations in. I imagined fairies, and dragons, and other mythical creatures of the unknown. I had a trunk full of my brother's hand-me-down trousers that were too big for them that I wore instead. Instead of throwing them away, my dad gave them to me, as a gift...

I laid down in my little miniature bed. It was basically an old mattress with a sleeping bag on top and a pillow. Nothing special. Then I remembered that I built a pulley system so that the roof opened up to the starry night sky. I pulled on the rope, and the flaps of the roof opened up to what would be my sanctuary.