Somewhere over the rainbow...[ic]

Landon sighed. "Is something the matter, Landon?" asked Lionel, his loyal butler. The blue-eyed boy had been lying out near his pool shirtless, on his back, as he stared out into the sky. Thinking. Thinking about what? How rich he was? How perfect his life was? ..No, not really. More like general spacing out. WIth nothing on his mind. That wasn't normal, was it? Normal teens would be worrying about .. hmm, what would they be worrying about? Pimples? Finding a girlfriend or boyfriend? Landon had no idea. Well, at least being worry-free meant being stress-free. And everyone knew that was a vast improvement from his nervous breakdowns.

Whilst Lionel awaited his reply, Landon shifted onto his stomach, propped his sunnies onto his head and watched as his mother approached them. "Maybe," he finally replied, quietly so only Lionel would have heard. "Landon! What are you doing?" her authoritative voice made it seem like he was doing something wrong. Ignoring it, he replied unenthusiastically, "Isn't it obvious?" His mother shot him an unapproving look before letting it slide and continuing, "There's a new girl in town. You should go meet her. After all, everyone in Red Apsley should know who you are, including newcomers."

It was funny how his mother made it seem like a choice, but really it was an order. It seemed like Landon needed to keep on top of his social status if he couldn't handle the stress of being successful. Sliding the sunglasses back in place, he lied back down and waved his hand as if dismissing her.



Landon drove by in a fancy white limousine, his window open so he could see where they were going. They stopped by a very old-looking house, the type you'd think was all rickety and run-down, inhabited by ghosts or something. Actually, when he was a kid, Landon had been inside the house on Halloween. It was all broken on the inside back then and it served as a haunted house for kids who wanted to scare some innocent little ones. "Landon, we've arrived. I've been told a girl around your age is a part of the family. Alivia Price, if I'm correct." He nodded at Lionel and stepped out of the car.

It looked like they were in the middle of unloading the car. He walked toward them in fresh, designer label clothing, tousled hair and a friendly smile. "Welcome to Red Apsley!" He stopped before them and continued, "I'm Landon Farrell, I'm not exactly a neighbour but I thought I'd come to welcome you and uhh .. do you guys need help unpacking? Here, let me help you." The sixteen-year old adolescent moved in closer to the boot of the car and grabbed a box, grunting as he lifted it up.

Lionel appeared by his side and whispered something into his ear. "Oh, right. We have some .. people who can help you," he said a bit hesitantly, not really loving the fact that he was rich and his parents wanted him to show off. A couple of professional moving men arrived in a truck a few seconds later and filed out to put their things into the house. Landon shuffled on the spot a little nervously.

Westley Wyatt woke up to the sound of his stereo blasting Zeppelin; apparently, he had forgotten to turn it off the previous night. It was evident that his parents hadn't bothered to come home, or they would have come in and at least turned off the music. Weak shafts of sunlight had broken through the venetian blinds hanging, bent and crooked, on his window, illuminating his messy room.

He groaned and buried his head back in his pillow, reaching out blindly and smacking at the stereo until he succeeded in smacking the "off" button. It took him a moment to work up the motivation to actually roll over and sit up; he rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand, feeling impossibly bleary and out-of-sorts. He couldn't exactly remember coming home last night, which probably meant he'd been drinking; he was still in the jeans he'd been in last night, although his shirt and sneakers were laying somewhere on the floor. More than that, he had a splitting headache and no doubt a vicious hangover.

Stumbling to his feet and kicking through the piles of discarded clothes on his floor, he made his way out of his room and through the house. There was still a little bit of coffee in the pot on the counter, which meant that maybe one of his parents had been home after all, but West was only mildly grateful. Drinking old coffee was, after all, better than having to make coffee for himself; he poured some into a cup and microwaved it before chugging it down as quickly as he could. It was some weird flavor, like graham cracker cinnamon or whatever the hell Starbucks was selling these days, which meant that it had been his mother that was home.

He peered out of the window absentmindedly, swirling the last dregs of coffee around in the bottom of the cup. It looked like someone was finally moving into that ancient old house at the end of the street. He noted that there seemed to be a girl stuck in a box, but any interest he might have had in this was over-ridden by the fact that his headache was getting progressively worse and he was in dire need of some form of painkiller.

Turning his back on the window, he started searching the cabinets for a bottle of Advil.

Isabella frowned at Kelsey, the college girl who usually worked the bookshop during the week. “What do you mean you’re on today? I work weekends!” In honesty, she wouldn’t have made such a big deal out of this if her family didn’t need all the money they could get. Her Grandmother’s prescriptions were costing more and more and Izzy could barely keep up with her two jobs.

Kelsey shrunk back from Izzy, obviously knowing her reputation for throwing fits. “Well Lily told me I was on today. I don’t know what to tell you.” She crossed her arms, throwing Isabella a haughty look over her glasses.

Izzy braced both hands on the counter, sending the college girl a frosty glare. “Listen bitch, I don’t care what Lily told you. I work weekends.” Kelsey opened her mouth to shoot back a comment, but was interrupted by Lily coming out from the back room.

Lily brushed a strand of her silver hair away from her face, frowning at the blonde girl. “Isabella, I know you didn’t just use that kinda language in my shop.” She gave the now blushing girl a pointed stare. Bella may have had an attitude with everyone, but Lily was a different case.

“No ma’am,” was her simple reply. Isabella twirled her hair around her finger, grinning up at the older woman.

Lily chuckled. “That’s what I thought. But I did tell Kelsey to work today. I figured you’d want some time with you grandmother.” She gave Bella a big smile, as if time off from work would help. Izzy nodded, pasting a fake smile on her face. “So you get out of here and I’ll see you next weekend.”

Isabella exited “Over the Rainbow”, a tiny bookshop that she’d been working at since she was fifteen, with a scowl on her face. What the hell was she going to do without this weekend’s pay? And what would she do now? She started home, eyes focused on the floor underneath her feet.

Her latest conquest, Mitch, was away for the summer so she didn’t have him to run to for some fun. Izzy was considering texting him and telling him they were over so she could find some other guy to amuse herself with.

Just as she thought this, she heard a voice speak from the driveway of the house she was walking past. Izzy whipped her head towards the voice and sneered at the girl sitting in the box. Internally, her conscious was shaking it’s head, telling her to stop scaring away possible friends. But she couldn’t help it. It was a knee-jerk reaction to be mean to everything and anything that came into her sights.

“I hope you know that’s a box and not a chair.” And before the pretty girl could really respond, a white limo pulled up in front of the old house. Bella rolled her eyes. “Oh fabulous. The king comes to greet his lowly subjects.” She snorted, watching the admittedly good-looking boy get out of the car and walk straight past her. Of course he would. That little thing sitting in the box was absolutely perfect. Isabella glanced down at her large hips, frowning. It’d been three days since her last real meal but it just wasn’t working!

Landon’s gentle voice broke her out of her thoughts as he hefted a box out of the back of the girl’s car. She watched with an amused smile as his butler (who had a butler these days?) came up to him, whispering something in his ear. A swarm of moving men showed up around the same time and Bella just felt sick.

How the hell did they have so much money? Izzy and her Grandmother could barely get by and this kid was probably wearing clothes that cost more money than her house!

“Well, it seems the king is here to save the day. Shall we see how his beautiful princess reacts to this act of heroism?” Rolling her icy blue eyes, Isabella plopped down on the cement, content on watching the scene before her.

Despite it being almost the afternoon Ariadne was still asleep in her bed. In her dream she was reliving her past through her dream. When she was six and the hobos tried to grab her and she screamed and screamed trying to get them to let go. While she was dreaming this she would turn and finally it got to the point where she fell off her bed and onto the floor making a small thump sound.
Greg stood in the door way with his arms crossed smiling at Ariadne. When she pushed her self up into a sitting position. She lightly rubbed her eyes and tried to get her eyesight back. "Have a good sleep there Nay?" Greg asked laughing than added. "Does your head hurt?" He just kept smiling and waited for her to respond.
"No Greg, my head does not hurt." She said and sat there looking down at her hands that now rested in her lap. She was rather sad and Greg could tell. Sitting down in front of her she looked up at him. "What happened in your dream Nay?" He asked concerned. Ariadne sighed. "It was about what happened when...I was.." She broke out into tears not finishing her sentence. Greg took her into his lap. "It's alright Nay, no one is going to hurt you here or take you away from me, I promise." He said smoothing her hair down trying to calm her so her tears would stop.

Ten minutes later Ariadne and Greg were walking down the street and Ariadne would not walk any more than twenty steps ahead of Greg. "Nay, do you have any friends?" He asked. She nodded her head. "Like who?" He asked. She smiled and pointed at him. He just smiled. "I am your friend but I am also your father. I was talking about anyone at school." Ariadne shook her head. "Well is there anyone you like at school? Like for a friend? or a guy?" He asked trying to know these things. She nodded her head. He actually seemed quite surprised. "Have you tried to talk to this person?" Ariadne shook her head. That was when a girl came by she looked about in her twenties. She had bumped into Greg. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to." She was fairly pretty but Ariadne had no interested in her.
"It's fine, I'm Greg and over there is Ariadne." He said smiling at the girl. The girl smiled and than looked at Greg and then to Ariadne. "Hi, I'm Samantha." When Samantha wasn't looking Ariadne gave her a sour look. That was when Samantha asked a question. "So, is Ariadne death?" Greg shook her head. "No she's not death at all, she just doesn't like to talk to people she just meets." He said. "So is she your girlfriend? Sister?" Greg shook his head. "No not at all, She's my daughter." Sam nodded. "Oh I see..." She said trailing off. "So that means you have a wife?" She asked. Greg shook his head. "No I don't have a wife, I adopted Ariadne." He said smiling.

Not wanting to be apart of this anymore and without thinking about her past and how it lead her to stop walking streets alone she started walking down the street away from Samantha and Greg. What kind of father didn't realize that his own daughter left him? Oh ya the kind that flirted with girls on the street. Ariadne kept on walking until she had happened to trip over a leg. She fell to the cement and laid there in pain. She was never really into getting hurt often because of the times she had usually spent at home. Ariadne breathed in deeply and felt the pain lock up in some of her joints. That's when she felt a hand grab her leg and her eyes went wide. "Leave me alone!" She said. Than she kicked her foot down and back up. After she did that she shook her foot back and forth and until the grip was let go. Ariadne got on her hands and knees quickly and started crawling away as fast as she could.

After being at least a big way ahead she got up and started running and running. She was well, lost. Ariadne was hardly ever out walking around in town so she didn't know her way around here. Finding an art shop she walked in. Looking at a lot of the pictures that was when her eyes caught sight of a painting. She walked up to it. "That's a fine painting you're looking at, girl." Said a woman. Ariadne looked at her and than back at the painting and realized it was hers. "It-It's m-m-mine." Ariadne said with her bad stutter. Walking out without another word she was now heading around the streets. Feeling like she shouldn't be lost no more she sat down on a bench and started to cry because she didn't know where to go.

(Any one can talk to Ariadne. Sorry for my crappy post.)

Landon has always tried to avoid her. Tried to avoid talking to her, avoid listening to her, avoid looking at her .. even avoid being in the same place. From whom, you might ask? Izzy. The Wicked Bitch. Sure, she was pretty. And hell yeah, he was attracted to her. But her personality .. it was a huge turn off. She loved to torment others and she always had to pinpoint and flesh out people's insecurities like that. And everytime she shot a snide comment at him, it always got to him in the end.

Landon was taken aback with Libby's defiance but looked over to her mother with a reassuring smile. "It's nice to meet you and your family, Miss Price," he said, shaking her hand. Out of the blue, Sam came out of nowhere, catching Landon by surprise by bumping into him. He groaned in response and recollected himself before pulling Sam up and going, "Woah! You okay there, buddy?"

He watched with surprise as the events unfolded and looked on in a stupor as Libby walked off with tears in her eyes. Mia's voice barely reached him. Looking back at her, he smiled reluctantly, "It's fine, really. It isn't something you should be apologizing about. I'd love to come by some time .. but it looks like Libby wants to be alone right now. Thank you for letting me help you with your stuff. If you need anything or have any questions, feel free to call me." He handed her a card with his name and number on it. A professional business card thing that his parents gave him and told him to give out with every opportunity.

Landon sighed as he walked off, toward Izzy. "Amused?" He gave her a fleeting glance.

Isabella watched the scene before her unfold, blue eyes wide. What the hell was that all about? Here went a young boy, plowing into Landon as a bunch of pictures seemingly exploded into the air. In what seemed the blink of an eye, Libby was running down the street leaving all present in a shocked silence. Her mother broke the awkward silence and spoke to Landon.

When he’d said his goodbyes, his royal highness walked towards her. Izzy grinned at Landon’s comment, standing up slowly. “I am indeed. Watching your princess throw a bitch fit? Priceless.” She chuckled quietly; making sure Libby’s mom couldn’t hear her. Bella wasn’t a complete bitch. She didn’t want to hurt or offended Libby’s mom after she had lost her husband. Izzy knew a thing or too about loosing people you loved.
“Did you enjoy that, Mr. King? You flashed your money around and your little princess rejected you.”

Izzy giggled again, running her hands through her white-blonde locks. “If you want to blow some money, sweetheart, you’re looking at the right gal.” Bella was disgusted with herself. How could she say those things to him? Why couldn’t she stop the damn comments from spewing out of her mouth? With great effort, Isabella managed to add quietly, “But I know how princess feels. It’s like a piece of your heart has been ripped out and torn to shreds.”

Swallowing thickly, she continued on, “So how ‘bout it, honey? Let’s go blow some of your parent’s money and do something fun.” It would seem like Bella was actually trying to be semi-nice, in her own way. She might even be considered… Pleasant.

Sorta.

Landon raised his eyebrows. It wasn't surprising, really. But he wasn't raising his eyebrows at the idea, it was because he was actually considering it... As his lips parted, he thought Sure, why the hell not. It's not like I'm going to have heavy repercussions or anything.. But instead, he surprised himself with his reply, "No thanks." It seems like his brain was controlling the situation this time. He knew nothing good would come out of hanging around this wicked girl and he sure would like to avoid a lecture from his parents about image and reputations.

Standing there looking a bit stunned, he snapped out of it and started to walk off toward his ride. He just avoided making a dangerous mistake .. He should feel relieved right? ".. On second thought, let's do this. Get in." Whether it was impulse talking, or the rebellion or perhaps his libido; Landon had no idea. "I hope you know what you're doing," Lionel's voice murmured past his ear as the butler held the door open for the fair-haired girl.

"So. You like money, huh?" he asked, somewhat distracted as he looked forward. It should be obvious. Girls like her are gold-diggers or something. "Where do you wanna go?"

Izzy wasn’t at all surprised at Landon’s cold reply. What had she expected? To be swept into his limo and treated like a bloody princess? She wasn’t the fucking princess of this story; she was the Wicked Bitch who was destined to be alone for the rest of her goddamn life. No matter how many cronies she had, at the end of the day she was still alone.

She watched Landon walk away from her with a blank expression. She wasn’t going to show how… Disappointed she was. Why the hell was she even disappointed? He wasn’t anything special. He was average at best – but she knew that was bullshit. Landon was… good. He had that whole princely thing going for him. Speaking of Landon, he was saying something to her.

“Wait… What?” Izzy glanced at the butler dude holding the door open for her to get in. “He’s kidding, right?” She stared opened-mouthed at Landon. “You… You’re kidding, right? Honey you don’t want to mix with - ” she stopped talking suddenly, thinking things over. Why would she warn this kid away? He was another conquest she would achieve. Just another screw. He didn’t mean anything. “Well alright, your highness.”

Grinning, Isabella slid into the white limo. Bella sent him a wry smile. “I know I seem like a golddigging whore, but I’m only a whore. Besides, you have to actually have money to like it. I’m poorer than dirt, sweetheart.” She strapped herself into the seat. “Where to go… Where to go…” she mulled it over, biting her bottom lip as she thought. “I suppose… We could go to the mall? And walk around, I guess. But I’m sure you don’t want to be seen with me in public. I might ruin your good boy rep.” Snickering, she continued, “We could go to the park and just walk around. I don’t really care…”

She planned on staying silent after that spew of words, but something in her decided to open her big mouth. “So uh… I’m Izzy.” A faint blush covered her pale cheeks. “I mean – I’m sure you know but we’ve never… Like, talked.” She fell silent after that, deciding to save herself from embarrassment.

Landon chuckled, his eyes lighting up as he replied to her referring to herself as a whore, "You've got a lot of self-respect, huh?" Still, Landon wouldn't have expected the Wicked Bitch to be poor .. or as poor as he imagined. He would've imagined her to be .. well, not as wealthy as he was but well off enough so that she was spoilt rotten. That would explain her sour personality. Figures, that explanation was too simple. So maybe Izzy was more complex than meets the eye ..

His lips pressed into a thin line as she mentioned reputations. That's right, he shouldn't be seen with someone like her. She was riff raff, garbage. The scum at the bottom of the trash pile. She had the worst reputation around while he.. He had the best reputation. His status was much like a prince in this simple town and his parents wanted to preserve that. Yet, why had he invited her out? Actually, she had extended the invitation .. Landon only accepted. Nonetheless, it would end the same way. They would be seen. By someone, anyone. Together. The match would be merely impossible. But this gossip, even when untrue, would spread like wildfire.

Even if they weren't doing anything particularly hinting something more than common courtesy, none would perceive it the right way. His parents would strangle him. Yet .. yet.. Landon couldn't care less. For some reason he had been lacking in enthusiasm lately. Was it boredom? Perhaps. He didn't like acting like a prince. He wanted to be normal. Swimming at the creek, going to the beach with friends, going camping .. that sort of stuff.

He looked up in surprise as Izzy introduced herself somewhat coyly. "Wow." His mouth was breaking out into a grin. "What's this? Do I sense .. nervousness? Is that blush I see on your cheeks?" He dared to inch closer til their noses almost touched. He laughed before moving, leaning back in his seat. "Lionel. Take us to the lake." The limousine began to move forward and the rich boy slumped in his seat, his arms leaning on the back. "Izzy .. Isabella Black. Such a tame nickname for a wild girl like you. Izzy sounds fuzzy .. like a furball. You, on the other hand, are more sharp edges than anything."

He chuckled silently. "We're here." The door opened and Landon waited for Izzy to get out of the car first.

She shrugged. "Everyone knows I'm a whore. What is the point in denying it? If I seem proud of what I've done, I won't be showing weakness." Izzy flashed him a large smile. "My logic may seem flawed, but it hasn't proven me wrong yet. And besides..." She smiled up at him through her lashes, blue eyes sparkling flirtatiously. "You know you like it." When Landon began to talk about her being nervous, another round of blushing followed the first. She told herself it wasn't the fact that Landon's face was so close to her own. No, it was surely because he'd seen past the bitch for a moment. "You think I'm sharp edges? Honey, I'm all curves." She gestured down to her body with a tiny giggle. It was true. Izzy had a damn nice body and it wasn't unknown. Every member of the basketball and baseball team would vouch for her if you didn't believe it.

"But I can be tame - I'm just more fun this way." And then their short ride was over and Isabella was unstrapping herself from her seat belt and sliding out of the car. She spun in a circle, eyes taking in the sights. She saw the lake and grinned, turning to face Landon. "A lake? Am I supposed to swim in my bra and panties, Landon?" She took a step closer to him, having to stare up at him because of the height difference. "You could've just had your way with me in the back of the limo if you were so interested in seeing me without clothes on. Would've saved you the gas money." Secretly, Bella hoped he didn't want to talk to her just to hook up with her. Talking to Landon - a genuinely nice person - was different for her and she liked how he made her feel... Good.

Of course, she'd never say any of that sappy shit aloud. She wasn't delusional. He'd probably take what he wanted then leave her out for the next guy. Izzy liked to compare herself to a stray cat sometimes. Boys would take her home, take care of her for a night, and then drop her back out on the street. A simple cycle she could handle.