BOOK ONE:

Chapter 1

 “Sky! Dinner! “ yelled Skyler’s mom from the kitchen.

 

"I smell pancakes! But why are we having pancakes for dinner?” Sky asked curiously.

She spilled syrup on her black shirt , white jeans and light gray sneakers.

“Well I know that you love pancakes so I made some since you're starting 8th grade.”

She said with a smile, glancing at Sky who had a mouthful of warm,fluffy pancakes. As soon as she was done Sky yawned and groggily walked upstairs to her warm and cozy bed.

“Sky.” said a low whispering voice. Sky slowly turned her head towards the unfamiliar noise. “H-h-hello.”  Sky said trying not to run away. “Sky,” the voice repeated. “Sky our kingdom needs you! Come join us ,save us.”...“Ahhhhhh!”  She screamed. She woke up terrified and afraid but curious about what the voice said about needing her to save their kingdom. But she realized it was just a little nightmare and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2 

The next morning she had the most dreadful thing any girl feared on a foggy monday 

morning . . . school. She hurriedly gathered all of her belongings and jogged out for the bus and all she could do was wait and wait until the bus arrived. 

“Morning Mrs.Jackie!”

   

“Morning … Sky Reed!” 

Sky walked to the very back seat where her best friend Sophia was sitting today.

“Hey where were you yesterday? You we're supposed to come over to my house to get ready for school,” she exclaimed.

“Oh, sorry. I had to go to my brothers baseball game,” Sky said slamming her hand into her face.

“It’s ok, I had a surprise dance meet.” 

Sky reaches into her backpack and pulls out her notebook and writes down the date and homeroom number.

“Ok now I've memorized the number of my homeroom and the date.”  Sky let out a slow dreadful sigh. After they picked up the rest of the students the bus arrives at the school. 

“Ok, see you later!” shouted Sky on the other wing of the middle school. Mr.William started to talk. He was the math teacher.

“Ok, students how is everybody today?” he said cheerfully but unlike him everybody groaned.”Well let's get to know each other”

Mr. William announced waving his hands at everyone.  “Mrs. Dawn will be around to pass out your ‘all about me’ sheets,” all of the kids started chatting and that's how you know none of them are going to do it or they are wrigting something stupid.                                                     

After school Sky asked her mom to drive her  to the store and spent $20 on something that she should not have bought. Sky bought a dreamcatcher. The dreamcatcher  was a pinkish-red with glitter and beautiful blue feathers on it. Sky hung the dreamcatcher over her bed and invited her friend, Sophia over to see. As soon as Sophia walked in she screamed and ran out of her room. 

Sky ran downstairs following her frightened friend. She sat on the couch with a glass of water and trying to catch her breath. “Get that dreamcatcher out of your house NOW!” she yelled, terrified. 

“Why?” Sky asked sitting on the couch next to Sophia.  Sophia went on and on about dream catchers being cursed and how to break the curse and all that nonsense. “So let's see what happens overnight and then we can return it into the store.” Sky walked upstairs and grabbed the dreamcatcher and returned downstairs. 

“But…” Sophia started “ No buts, we are doing this.” They changed into their PJs and drifted to sleep.

Chapter 3

“Sky . . .Sky . . . Sky!” Sky woke up to what she thought was a dream but it wasn't. “Where are we?” Sophia was starting to panic.      

“Hello,” a small purple creature was standing over her. The creature was about 2 feet tall with purple, fluffy fur and white shoes with blue eyes. With all of that, it had a very high-pitched voice. “Sorry I never meant to startle you.” 

The creature held out its hand but they ignored it. “My name is Amaryllis. I come from the Colored Cotton Chateau. I saw you fall from the portal and when you hit the ground you never moved. So I came over to see if you we're ok.” 

The two girls sat in terror. This time when it held out its hand, Sky shook it. Sky wasn't scared anymore and Sophia calmed down and shook her hand. But the moment only lasted so long. Three tall men smacked and whipped their fists at the shaken kids. “Intruders!” They attacked we swerved left and right to get away but all of the swerving had gotten someone hurt.

“Ow! My leg!”  Amaryllis was tripped by the more muscular men. They ran back as fast as they could.Sky told her to relax and she would carry her and Amaryllis would give us directions to her house or chateau or whatever she calls it.  “

OK take a left at the candy canes and a right at the gummy bears and at the end of the road there's a door. Open the door and close your eyes for 30 seconds then open.” Since they had never been there the two girls followed her directions carefully. 

They reached the door it had a purple fluffy ball that looked like Amaryllis. The girls opened the door and closed their eyes and counted to 30 aloud. There was a bright light, then Sky opened the door rubbing their  eyes. When they opened the girls saw creatures like Amaryllis, but in different colors. Everyone was working different jobs. A few were making houses, some of the younger ones were braiding cotton ribbon, but the rest were guards and were coming right towards the frightened girls. “Let me do the talking,” Amaryllis announced.  “Hello fellow cotton balls.These humans are my friends.This is Sky and this is Sophia,” she said pointing to each of them. 

“Hello,” they both managed to spit out. But the guards never listened to anyone but the king.

Chapter 4

The guards had them tied up with soft cotton ribbon and brought them to the chateau. The enormous castle was made of cotton. But they weren't going in there, they were going to the dungeons. Amaryllis was left there so the girls had no sense of direction, or an understanding of how to get out of the dungeons, so they were on their own. Someone brought them to a large throne and announced: 

“Who and where did you come from?! Answer me now!” After a while they both realized they were talking to the king.  And if they didn't answer he would have the girls executed for sure.  

“Sorry for the intrusion, but we are humans from the planet Earth, and we're friends with Amaryllis and we need your help getting home,” they blurted out for their lives. 

“Oh. Well, I'm sorry I can't help you get home but I know who can help you,  but . . . never mind, it is too dangerous.” The girls took a small glance at each other and quietly agreed, “Anything to get us home.” 

The king looked very unsure, but added, “And if you can’t make it home, come back to the castle, and you can stay here with us for a while until you can.” The king told the guards to let them go, but added, “Stay here for the night, for it is getting dark out.” The two girls were unsure, but finally caved and said they  would think about it on the way back to Amaryllis’s house. 

“So this is not a dream, but we’re not planet earth so where is this? Oh, I know what’s going on! I've been studying paranoia, and this is a side effect . . . delusions!” Sky said. Hearing the quiet conversation between the girls, the king said softly, “This is not a delusion, and this a real world, just one that has not been found, yet”  He gave them one last grin and climbed into a carriage and rode away.