Chapter 1

“HELLO SIR, MY NAME IS MS. TALLYWAGGER. I WILL BE TEACHING ECONOMICS THIS SEMESTER.” A squeaky female voice yelled from across the room. Firstly, one must learn about the economy at large. Then one must learn about all the bad habits of the community so that one may keep their money and inherited wealth at large. All the children jumped on top of the desk and sang Joss Stone and danced for the entire lesson- while the teacher wasn’t looking, of course. One day Ms. Tallywagger got sick and tired of the misbehaving children. This was about a year after she had began teaching and it was at the end of the second semester. Ms. Tallywagger scratched her fingers on the chalk board and everyone was silent at once. This was an attempt to teach and have a job that was useful to the community. She had spent seven years in prison and it was not a very nice place to be. She had spent ten years after that in the nunnery. Her lessons from then on were about as dull as dull can be. All the children would have to know all the details of microeconomics before they could compete in the spelling bee or any other sport. There was a dreaded game that they played every year. All the children would go out on the field and there would be a football game, but without any padding or protection. All the teams would suit up and put on war paint. They would ram at each other. Any one who was hurt or had a brain injury  would be expelled. Any one who conquered all would become the valedictorian or the head honcho.
     All the children who had been expelled formed a cult. They decided that one day they would all get the teachers back. They stayed in the basement as long as their parents never caught them because they were forbidden to tell the parents that they had been expelled. They were required to stay in the basement. One of the girls found a necklace underneath the freezer that stored all their food. The necklace had a heart shaped pendant on it. She wore the necklace. The first time she wore the necklace, she would get all As even though she didn’t know anything about microeconomics. She would eventually be the first to have her papers buried under the ground because the teacher knew the power of the pendant. But the teacher was evil and would not tell her the pendant’s power. The girl was a Christian and one day she had an urge to get rid of the pendant. It was the best thing she had ever done. The teacher wanted it back.  Ms. Tallywagger would have to drink wine from the roots of one of the deepest tree roots to ever come close. She did not know this though for a long time she had lost her connection with God by being so mean to her students and being surrounded by mean nuns.
There was a boy in the class called Ethan. He was an unusual boy. When he was young he had been in a car accident. His whole family had died except him. He had been adopted by a couple. The couple was less than favorable. His step mother was extremely chubby. She ate bacon every morning. He had to cook it perfectly. If it was not good enough, she would scold Ethan with profuse language. It was a thursday morning, his stepmother, Ms. Hornicon, had told him to cook extra bacon for dinner that night. He was never able to eat the bacon he had prepared. Mr. Hornicon scolded Ethan  for never getting up early enough. Ethan was originally from England but he lived in the states. He had  very few friends.

     Then one day Ethan met a girl. Her name was Louise. She was knew to the school. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was blonde, tall, and slender, and had a large chest. She was extremely good at gymnastics. He stared at her day after day. He knew she was way out of his league, but he tried anyway to get her attention. When he passed her in the hallway, he would say “Hey gorgeous”, and she would say, “Get lost, loser”. Even though she was a extremely mean to him he was still in love with her. He told himself that she was too beautiful and perfect to be anything but extremely sweet.
When he went home he went home he told his mom about the girl and how he was in a one-sided love affair. She felt bad and took him to a comedy roast. At the roast there was a fairly large woman. She made fun of all the Chinese people there as well as everyone who was thin, including Ethan and his mom. (“What are you, anirecsic?”). Ethan replied, “Yes, of course I am.” They both got a good laugh and moved on. However his mother was very upset. She did not like being called anarecsic and tried to fire the comedian. The comedian was fired and Ethan’s mother, Susan, felt much better.
Ethan decided to use the love-hate tactic with Susan, the blonde. He wasn’t too mean, or hoped he wasn’t. He was normally a regular and good kid. “Hey shortie” he teased. Susan was a few inches shorter than he was. “How’s the weather up there?” She replied. He laughed. She smiled and walked away. Girls...Ethan thought, so hard to read...THE MAGIC OF LOVE

CHAPTER 1
“HELLO SIR, MY NAME IS MS. TALLYWAGGER. I WILL BE TEACHING ECONOMICS THIS SEMESTER.” A squeaky female voice yelled from across the room. Firstly, one must learn about the economy at large. Then one must learn about all the bad habits of the community so that one may keep their money and inherited wealth at large. All the children jumped on top of the desk and sang Joss Stone and danced for the entire lesson- while the teacher wasn’t looking, of course. One day Ms. Tallywagger got sick and tired of the misbehaving children. This was about a year after she had began teaching and it was at the end of the second semester. Ms. Tallywagger scratched her fingers on the chalk board and everyone was silent at once. This was an attempt to teach and have a job that was useful to the community. She had spent seven years in prison and it was not a very nice place to be. She had spent ten years after that in the nunnery. Her lessons from then on were about as dull as dull can be. All the children would have to know all the details of microeconomics before they could compete in the spelling bee or any other sport. There was a dreaded game that they played every year. All the children would go out on the field and there would be a football game, but without any padding or protection. All the teams would suit up and put on war paint. They would ram at each other. Any one who was hurt or had a brain injury  would be expelled. Any one who conquered all would become the valedictorian or the head honcho.
     All the children who had been expelled formed a cult. They decided that one day they would all get the teachers back. They stayed in the basement as long as their parents never caught them because they were forbidden to tell the parents that they had been expelled. They were required to stay in the basement. One of the girls found a necklace underneath the freezer that stored all their food. The necklace had a heart shaped pendant on it. She wore the necklace. The first time she wore the necklace, she would get all As even though she didn’t know anything about microeconomics. She would eventually be the first to have her papers buried under the ground because the teacher knew the power of the pendant. But the teacher was evil and would not tell her the pendant’s power. The girl was a Christian and one day she had an urge to get rid of the pendant. It was the best thing she had ever done. The teacher wanted it back.  Ms. Tallywagger would have to drink wine from the roots of one of the deepest tree roots to ever come close. She did not know this though for a long time she had lost her connection with God by being so mean to her students and being surrounded by mean nuns.
There was a boy in the class called Ethan. He was an unusual boy. When he was young he had been in a car accident. His whole family had died except him. He had been adopted by a couple. The couple was less than favorable. His step mother was extremely chubby. She ate bacon every morning. He had to cook it perfectly. If it was not good enough, she would scold Ethan with profuse language. It was a thursday morning, his stepmother, Ms. Hornicon, had told him to cook extra bacon for dinner that night. He was never able to eat the bacon he had prepared. Mr. Hornicon scolded Ethan  for never getting up early enough. Ethan was originally from England but he lived in the states. He had  very few friends.

     Then one day Ethan met a girl. Her name was Louise. She was knew to the school. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was blonde, tall, and slender, and had a large chest. She was extremely good at gymnastics. He stared at her day after day. He knew she was way out of his league, but he tried anyway to get her attention. When he passed her in the hallway, he would say “Hey gorgeous”, and she would say, “Get lost, loser”. Even though she was a extremely mean to him he was still in love with her. He told himself that she was too beautiful and perfect to be anything but extremely sweet.
When he went home he went home he told his mom about the girl and how he was in a one-sided love affair. She felt bad and took him to a comedy roast. At the roast there was a fairly large woman. She made fun of all the Chinese people there as well as everyone who was thin, including Ethan and his mom. (“What are you, anirecsic?”). Ethan replied, “Yes, of course I am.” They both got a good laugh and moved on. However his mother was very upset. She did not like being called anarecsic and tried to fire the comedian. The comedian was fired and Ethan’s mother, Susan, felt much better.
Ethan decided to use the love-hate tactic with Susan, the blonde. He wasn’t too mean, or hoped he wasn’t. He was normally a regular and good kid. “Hey shortie” he teased. Susan was a few inches shorter than he was. “How’s the weather up there?” She replied. He laughed. She smiled and walked away. Girls...Ethan thought, so hard to read...

CHAPTER 2
Ms. Tallywagger was driving Ethan crazy. He wanted to quite school and go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Susan now had a boyfriend, Tim, which didn’t make it any better. She was missing out.. on something really special, Ethan thought. Ms. Tallywagger droned on and on about how the economy was falling and it is harder and harder to have an economic boom and all the poor souls in the classroom sat in their seats for fear of the dreaded fingers on the chalkboard.
One day, Ethan’s life changed. He got a letter from the Post Office:

Dear Ethan,
My name is Larisha. I am from Morroco. I am Susan’s friend. We met when she went overseas for mission work. I really want to meet you. I will be attending your school starting tomorrow. You seem like quite an extraordinary fellow. Many people have told me about you. I am hesitant to tell you this because no one has believed me so far, except my amazing mother, and of course my father, although somehow he sees it differently. I live in a fairytale. I am not dreaming and I am not lying to  you. I am completely and absolutely serious. You should come to my house and see for yourself. It is actually more like a combination of fairytales, they are different depending on the person. However, since we are a family, me, Mom and Dad go through our fairytales with each other. You should visit sometime and I can show you around. I have never had someone outside the family visiting, so you will have to see for yourself how my house works.

I wish Susan loved you back, but maybe there is an alternative,
Larisha
Ethan thought it was a bit strange but never the less he wanted to check it out. After all, anything was better than Ms. Tallywagger for another day in a row. And Susan, well, he had given up on that conquest. He couldn’t wait to meet this girl, she seemed  very interesting. If nothing else, she would be very entertaining.

CHAPTER 3
THE NEXT DAY WAS AWEFUL WITH A CAPITAL A. Larisha walked into class in all her beauty. Tall, dark, and amazing. She had long black hair, the physique of a model, and eloquently dark skin. Ethan was in love at first sight. That day, they had a substitute, his name was Will Nils. But after that day the students called him willy nilly. All he talked about was the environment of love. He had Larisha and Ethan demonstrate all possible dialogues and positions representing this issue. It was terrible. Larisha was obviously uncomfortable and Ethan could tell. After the demonstration was over, Larisha said, “Wow, you are bad at love in general. It’s no wonder Susan doesn’t like you. You’re a pathetic little midget.” Ethan went to the bathroom and cried for the rest of the day. He came back to see everyone leaving and only Larisha left. “Hey, she said, I was only kidding. I didn’t mean it. You want to come to my place?” “Thanks, you’re a terrible person or were one but I’m a bit of an jerk, I’m sorry that was weird for me.” “I am not a terrible person.” “Understood, you are amazing, I’m sorry.” “We’re cool. Do you want to come to my house?” Larisha asked. “Well, it couldn’t hurt.” Ethan feigned that he didn’t really care one way or the other.
THE CASTLE
“WOW!” Ethan exclaimed. Her house was a huge castle. “It’s humble, she said, but I like it.” “Humble, you live in a CASTLE?” To Larisha, it was a small cottage. She knew of it’s power on the interior, but she had never realized it had the same power from the exterior. Ethan was baffled. What, how could he see a castle while she saw... a “humble” dwelling. “Go inside the walls and it will all be explained.” Larisha answered. As she went to open the door, she went away from the castle- in the opposite direction and disappeared into the ground.  Ethan stood there, shocked. Suddenly a light came from the castle. The doors opened and an unearthly woman emerged. Some would call her beautiful. Yet her beauty was not innocent, as Larisha’s was, there was something dark about it. She beckoned with her finger for Ethan to come into the castle. He did not want to, necessarily, but something about the woman made him. As if in a trance, Ethan walked unconsciously into the castle. “Come to me,” The woman said, in an evil sounding voice. The light became a sickly green and the woman, now that he truly saw her, was ugly because she had an ugly heart. Ethan went inward for the first time in his life. He looked up, there was still a golden light above him, there was a red light on one side. And, thank goodness, there was a simple wooden door if he could just turn around and run for it. That must be the way out. He ran as fast as he could. The evil hand of the woman almost grabbed him but, just in the nick of time, he touched the door. It opened for him. He was in Sugarland. Everything was made of either sugar or candy, or some sort of desert. Now Ethan had a sweet tooth that he could not control. Ethan saw a sugar mushroom. It was right by the entrance. He ripped a bit of the top of the mushroom. Well, he thought, it was. As he was enjoying the sugar, a trap door suddenly opened underneath him. There was an ugly troll. He had a scrap of parchment paper. On the paper there were two rows. One was inevitably different, and probably better than the other. “Hi there, little one,” squeaked the troll. He sort of smiled. ‘Must be a good troll, at least on the inside,’ Thought Ethan. “You ate of your temptation.” “Never follow your temptations when you do not know the outcome.” Ethan bashfully raised the rest of the sugar almost to his mouth, and then quickly dropped. “That was wise,” squeaked the troll. “Resist temptation when the result is unsavory.” “Okay,” Said Ethan. “Can I go back to the land of Sugar now?” Hehehehe. The troll chuckled. “Do you really want to be tempted again?” “It looks like sugar but it is really...oh, can’t tell you.” He caught himself. “For now you are trapped with me.” In this land that you are in, one is tested with his strongest temptations, until he is either driven to destruction, or is able to resist during the entire journey.” “You, my boy, are in the balance.” “This here is a list of all the good boys and girls, and this (he lifted another piece of parchment paper) is a list of all the bad boys and girls”. “What list am I-” Ethan began. The troll continued to speak, without listening. “I will read you both lists, you decide which one you are on.” He read off the list of the bad boys and girls.
Larisha
Sam
Doug
Fats
Susan
Tom
Joanne
Harry
Ron
Wolf
Grandma
Niki
Nick
Anthony
Lauren
Tomasina
Then the troll read from the list of good boys and girls.

Larisha R.
Ronald
Fred
George
Braums
Brook
Ruth
Robert
Peter
Cindarella
Thomasina
Thomas
Beetle
Bard
Lewis
Lucy
Susan

Ethan’s name was written on another parchment paper. This was one that had been blank. It now had Ethan’s name. At times the name appeared in green. At other times in red. The troll lifted up the formerly blank piece of parchment, out of curiosity. The name appeared in large letters:

Ethan Rochester
The troll knew that red meant Ethan would be doomed no matter which list he chose. Ethan saw the troll’s face of shock and wondered what was on the other side of the last bit of parchment. Ethan chose the first list, because Larisha, his (friend?) was on it. She had simply invited him to her house, and what a strange house it had been. But the further he went on his adventure, the more love he felt for her. He also sort of hated her though, because she had manipulated him into this strange world and never looked back.

  CHAPTER 4

Circumstance
The troll told Ethan that he could just go straight past him. Then there would be room for Ethan to continue his journey. He went on. There was a tunnel with a red lighted interior. He crawled through. Three days later he was still crawling through. Once he saw a picture of Larisha painted on the tunnel wall. Words were scrawled underneath: Lost, Needs Finding. Ethan wondered if this was literal, or if Larisha had lost her morals or part of herself and needed finding. He then saw, on the tunnel wall, a picture of himself. It scared him.  He saw his own face, with no eyes. His name was scribbled underneath his picture. It was in red. He had a feeling that red symbolized something bad...The mushroom of sugar that he had eaten had been red, his name had been red, and the tunnel had been red. Ethan had been breathing in something in the air, and he felt sick, and spacey. He saw a light at the end of the tunnel and crawled towards it.As he exited the tunnel, a light was shining all around. Everything was radiating, but it was not from the sun. It was from a single fluorescent light. A single flower was blooming. It was a gardenia. There was something eery about the flower. It was too symmetrical. There were two leaves, evenly spaced, and there were exactly twelve petals. The center was composed of exactly one hundred and eight little nubules inside the flower. Ethan smelled it. It was alluring. But, it seemed as though it was there as a test. So he continued on his way. Not soon after, a woman came to him. She attracted a side of him that he was ashamed to admit existed.
Ethan continued on his way after seeing the flower. He entered a beautiful garden. It was the only place he had entered on his adventure that was not artificial.

Larisha’s Side of the Story
Larisha was absolutely gorgeous, and she knew it. She had a bit of a crush on Ethan but she wasn’t going to let on in any way. As she entered the house, (which was a small wooden one); she saw a list of the good boys and girls and the bad boys and girls. The bad list was written in red and the good list was written in green. As she looked at the list, she was confused. Her name was on both lists. However; on one list it was written simply as Larisha.. On the other list it was written as Larisha R.. Larisha’s full name was Larisha Margaret Rutherford, so either name could be accurate. As Larisha was looking on the shelves for something to eat, she found three small statues: A mushroom, a trool, and a small flower. She wondered why those three things in particular were in her hut. Then she screamed. Everyone and everything in the woods around her heard it. Ethan’s name was on the list of the bad boys and girls. He had done something horrible. She didn’t know what. She hoped they wouldn’t hurt him. Suddenly a trap door opened underneath her. . She fell for what felt like five stories. Luckily she landed in the water. Lilies had sprung up surrounding the lake Larisha had landed in. It was freezing. She was able to swim to the shore. She missed Ethan and she was hungry. Ethan had gotten lost as soon as they had entered her house (and everything that went with it.) As she walked through the lillies, she found a small thimble. There was only one difference: It was gold instead of silver. It’s glow seemed imminent. She placed it on her finger. She disappeared and ended up before a wooden door. It was locked. A note appeared on the door; it said use one of these statues as a ‘key’. Then it showed a drawing of a mushroom, a troll, and a flower. She picked up the troll statue and the door opened. There was the troll, the real troll.  “Hello sweetheart,” He grunted. “Hello pervert,” She replied. “Lost your way again?” “Yes,” Said Larisha. “If you go out the door behind me,” The troll began. Larisha went to open it. “Not so fast, pretty.” Larisha clenched her teeth so as not to scream at the troll. “Pretty” was the last name she wanted to be called. “Have I upset you?” The troll pried. “Of course not,” Larisha answered stoically.  “You must name the qualities of all the bad people.” “Some good people can have bad...” “DO NOT disagree, or interrupt me, NAME THEM.” “Okay,” Larisha said.  “Bad people are angry, mean , strict, ashamed,”- “STOP,” interrupted the troll. “Both good and bad people are strict.” “ You are done for.” The troll said with a smug grin on his face. Larisha slid down a dark black tunnel. At first it was fun, like a water slide. Then it got darker and darker until she couldn’t see a thing. She went faster and faster. She felt as if she had passed her own heartbeat as she kept going down. She was scared like crazy. As she was sliding down, she saw Ethan’s face. She was happy for a moment but then it faded. It must have been a mirage. She saw a mushroom on the side of the wall and tried to hold on to it. Perhaps she could climb up. It turned out that the mushroom was simply a picture on the wall. She kept falling through the dark tunnel. There was a light above her. She looked up, and for a brief second, she saw stars. Something real in this strange world, which she supposed was also real, in its own way. Finally Larisha fell down a large green hill. She tumbled and tumbled and finally came to a halt. It hurt. A rock had stopped her. As she turned around to get up, she realized she was on the edge of a cliff. As she looked way down, a magic spell from the fairy, who lived on the clouds, magnified her view, and she saw Ethan. She knew that they would probably be late for class tomorrow. She had lived in lands like this her entire life, and getting out of her house and then getting to school on time was one of the hardest things to do. Time management was difficult. Her house and the many lands within it, would sometimes not count time, and then suddenly the next day it would, and she would be late. The latter had only happened a few times. Exactly once in a blue moon. There had only been two blue moons in Larisha’s life, and both had been on Ms. Tallywagger’s birthday.
CHAPTER 5
The school bus rolled to a stop in front of the theatre. Ethan had dozed off for over two hours. Thank goodness it had been a dream, he guessed. Larissa was incredible and to him, she was perfect in every way.
That night, Ethan’s class was going to a comedy show. There was this teacher, Mr. Peepter, who absolutely loved inappropriate behavior, yet did not want to show it. As Ethan would soon discover; he had a demented sense of humor. Ethan and his class entered the theatre. Mr. Peepter was so excited he was blushing all over. They sat right in the front row so that they could hear everything. Larisha and Ethan sat next to each other. The show began as two men took the stage. Larisha thought they seemed familiar, she had seen them once in her house, yet they had been evil. Larissa believed one was a werewolf who transformed into the big bad wolf, and the other one she couldn’t quite place. The two men were dressed in flamboyant and colorful suits. The show begin:

The two men sat across from one another. One of them had messy black hair and glasses. The other had orange red hair and freckles.
“Ha, ha, you’re an orphan!!” Said the man with the red hair, trying to smile kindly. No one knew the man with the black hair was, indeed, an orphan. He had lost his parents in a terrible car crash when he was very young. No one laughed. The theatre was silent, except for Mr. Peepter laughing his head off. Ethan was not sure exactly how to act. Him and Larisha gave each other the “this is going to be a long night…” look and then tolerated the rest of the night. There were a few times when Ethan cracked up, but then he caught himself, knowing this must be mean. The strange part of it was that these two men seemed to be such close friends, they could as insulting as they wanted and still be friends. This show just seemed to be a way to pay the bills.
The show went something like this, beginning with the black-haired man:

“Ha ha, carrot head!”
“Ha ha, well at least I am not a wealthy, selfish git!”
“Ha,piece of s***!”

“I am just kidding, you are awesome.”
“Yeah me too man, are we cool?”
“Ha ha, yeah, I guess so, totally man”
And then, in unison, the duo thanked the audience. Yes, it was a very short show. And it was rather odd. The professor was very strange. He had a rather sadistic sense of humor.
CHAPTER 6
Larisha and Ethan went to Larisha’s house once again. She did not know what to say as they were traveling to her house. So far, there had been many stories in her home, but these had all been fairy tale. This time, as they opened the doors, they were suddenly overcome with unrealistic love for one another. Ethan realized that he had had a crush on Larisha for a long time, however he never realized just how strong love could feel. He felt as if he was sleeping, and he was in a blissful stupor. In reality; Ethan was walking without even realizing it. He was going towards a beautiful home, in the dead of a starry night. He was with all of his family members, yet they had a different last name: Capulet. He seemed to be in a different time…an earlier time. ‘What an odd dream…’ he thought to himself.
Larisha had a slightly different experience. She knew that her house was strange, and she also knew why. A long time ago, in 1987, a dark wizard had cursed it. He had vanished from the known world, and now all of his power was stored here. Although it looked like a beautiful, magical place, there was evil within it. She stayed there because her family were descendants of this dark wizard. Although she knew it was a dark place, there was a part of her that wished to make it better. For now, she put on a long lavender gown, and wore her hair loose, and went into her fictional family: The Capulets. She knew all of the stories were real, and she knew what was in store for her and Ethan. ‘What an odd manner to have an arranged marriage’.
What ensued was a haunting reiteration of “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, with Ethan hopelessly pursuing Larisha and believing he was dreaming. This was the trick of the house, it made it feel like one’s whole life was a dream, and one’s actions had no consequences.
Larisha was waiting for Ethan to fall in love with her, she had been in love with him for a long time. She had been hiding, though, she was not quite sure what to say or do. Finally the two kissed. It was the most incredible kiss either of them had ever had, and it was the first one they had ever had. The only problem was that, as many know, the end of “Romeo and Juliet” is tragic. Larisha’s kiss woke Ethan abruptly and he came back to reality. “What just happened!?” He said, “That was…incredible” he exclaimed with a goofy grin. “Yeah, it was” Said Larisha, “but we have to get out of here- fast!” “Do you know how this story ends?” Romeo and Juliet? This is where all of our stories come from in this town” “Oh s***” Said Ethan. “One, two three!” They said together and jumped into an abyss. The abyss was the only exit from the house which Larisha had recently discovered. Finally, they got out and were able to fall in love for real. Larisha decided to never go back to her house. Instead, she moved in with Ethan. They had many trials and tribulations, but for the most part they loved the simple lives they led. Ethan became a mathematician, and Larisha became a fairytale writer.

THE END