The Runner

 Hello, readers! I'm very proud to say that I won NaNoWriMo again this year! Yes, I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days, or, to be more accurate, 51,112 words in 29 days, but who's counting? It's cool because when I write fantasy stories now, I'm more aware of stories and creatures from other cultures that I learned about because I write this blog. And when you like to rewrite fairy tales and folk tales like I do, that comes in handy.

In any case, it's December, which means that I'm right on track for rewriting a story about a gingerbread man. Although, this might not be a bright and happy tale, since in the original everyone wants to eat him. On the other hand, it's another story involving Lizzy. This time with some of her friends in high school instead of her magical family.

Sometimes, running is the answer.

 Dale was a runner. Not that he ran track and field, or anything. His solution was just to run. Missing homework? Run. Awkward conversation? Run. Passed his driving test, but got too emotional about it? Run.

I didn't say he only ran from problems.

Dale and I didn't have much to do with each other. We had classes together, but he had his friends and I had mine. So, he was the last person I expected to walk in to the coven meeting. Most of the girls in this coven actually were witches. I'd never really been able to use magic, but I thought it was cool. Since my grandma never did any real magic for me, I thought I'd see what spells girls my age got into. This time, they wanted to open a door into another dimension.

I thought that was a little above them, but I didn't say a word. It would just make them mad and then I'd have to explain how I knew about opening a door into another dimension, and I didn't want to have that conversation. I didn't know much about it, really. I'd just casually asked Grandma Hazel about it once when I saw something about it on TV. Her eyes had gone faraway and she'd warned me not to mess with them. But I figured these girls wouldn't be able to do it anyway, so there was no need to stop them.

So, Dale walked in to the chemistry lab, backpack in hand, and startled them right when they were casting the spell. Uma jumped, scuffing the chalk line they'd put on the floor. Apparently she scuffed it just right because the door behind Dale slammed shut. We all looked at each other for a moment.

"Dale, wait!" I yelled, but it was too late. He was a runner. He had already turned around, opened the door, and ran through it.

For a moment, we all looked through at the landscape on the other side. It was odd. It was like a forest, but all of the trees were made out of gingerbread with frosting leaves. There was a cheerful path between the trees, made of giant Smarties. Dale just kept running. Well, there went our evening.

"Uma, Monica, and Yasmin, come with me. And don't eat anything!" I said, heading toward the door.

"Who made you the boss?" Marge whined.

I turned my "I don't have time for your crap" look on her. I perfected it on my brothers. She backed down right away. Good.

"The rest of you, stay here. Once we get back, we need to close the door, but not until then, all right?" If they stranded us here, I was going to be so mad.

They nodded and I ran after Dale with the three cleverest girls in the coven. Uma and Monica both had magic, and Yasmin and I both seemed to understand it, so I was hopeful we'd be done with this quickly.

The only problem was that Dale was much better at running than any of us. He should be from all the practice he got at it. Still. I looked over at Monica. "What do you think about casting a spell on us to run faster?"

"Or on Dale to run slower?" Yasmin asked. She had a good point.

"I think it'd be easier to cast on us," Monica said, between breaths. "I can't see Dale anymore."

It was true. He was out of sight. I hope he stayed on the path. At least then we could find him. "Do you need to stop to cast the spell?" I asked.

Monica shook her head, already mumbling.

Soon afterwards, I could feel my strides taking me a further distance, and my breathing actually slowing down.

"It won't last forever," Monica said, talking more easily. "But we should be able to catch up to Dale now."

I nodded and we all focused on the path ahead. Sure enough, we could see Dale, and we were gaining on him. A bird flew across the path. Its body was made of a gumdrop and it had rock candy for wings. I wondered how it flew.

"A bird," Uma said. "I wonder what else lives here."

"I hope we don't find out," I said. So far, it seemed that nothing malicious had noticed us. Maybe there wasn't anything that wanted to harm us here, but I didn't want to find out.

Up ahead, I saw Dale stop. Was there something coming out of the trees? It looked like the trees, but as we got closer, I could see it was person-shaped. A living gingerbread man. They were talking, but I couldn't hear what they were saying over the sound of us running on the path. Then, I saw Dale pale, turn, and start running. At least this time he was running toward us.

"He wants to eat me!" Dale yelled.

"Come back here!" the gingerbread man yelled. "You look delicious."

Well. That was unexpected. Monica, Uma, Yasmin and I all did quick turns and started running back the way we'd come. Monica's spell was still going strong, but now we also had fear fueling us. Still, Dale was catching up to us. I guess he was more afraid of the gingerbread man than he'd been of us.

The gingerbread man behind us yelled, "Run as fast as you can! I'll still catch you. I'm the gingerbread man!"

Did that mean there was only one like him? I hoped so. The door was getting closer. It was still open to the chemistry lab. The girls inside just looked confused. I guess they couldn't tell what was chasing us.

Dale made it through first, collapsing on the floor, but thankfully missing the chalk marks we'd put down earlier. Monica made it through next, with Uma right behind her. I made it in next and by the time I turned around, Yasmin had ran through the door as well. I slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Undo the spell!" I yelled.

Quickly, Marge wiped through the chalk drawings, opening up all the circles they'd drawn. I felt it when the spell disappeared. A change in air pressure or something. I sagged in relief. Then I unlocked the door and pulled it open.

"No!" Dale yelled, but it was just the chemistry classroom on the other side.

He looked at the classroom, then back at us.

I opened my mouth to try to explain, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

Dale just nodded slowly. "Next time I'll knock," he said. He picked up his backpack and left. I guess he was too tired to run this time.

I looked around at the rest of the coven.

"What happened out there?" Marge asked.

Yasmin started telling everyone about the gingerbread man. I thought that maybe there was a reason Grandma Hazel had never shown me magic like this.