Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved books. She lived in them. She was just a normal girl with a normal family in a normal school. She didn't like school very much. She liked learning, and she was clever so she did well in lessons, but she didn't have many friends to play with at lunch times. Sometimes the other children at school made fun of her, because there were some days when she couldn't bear to leave her book without knowing the end so she would sit on the playground and read it instead of playing with the other chldren. Her favourite books were the books that had teams of people in. Best friends who had adventures. She loved Harry Potter and the Famous Five. Her mother always said that real life would be a dissappointment, because in her head she was solving mysteries, learning to fly, travelling in time. In real life she didn't have many friends but in her head she had hundreds. They were the best friends and she know they would always be there for her. Even when people at school were making her feel sad she knew that the friends on the bookshelf would always be there, and she felt that she knew a secret that no-one else knew, she knew what the whole world had to offer her, and she knew about dragons, and mermaids, morse code and magnifying glasses, and her best friends from the story books.
She didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up because nothing seemed quote magical enough. People told her she could be an accountant and make lots of money, but money never seemed that important,and accounting sounded boring. As far as she could tell it just meant counting money that wasn't even yours all day long. She wanted to be something amazing. She thought maybe she could be a publisher and read books for a living, but people told her there was no money in that. She thought maybe there was no money in anything fun. She wanted to grow up, because the way she saw it, adventures either found you, or you had to find them. Adventures, at that time, didn't seem to want to find her, and she didn't feel brave enough yet to find them on her own. But she was sure that when she was big, she would be able to find adventures, or even better she would be so brave and strong that adventures would be queing up to find her. She was scared that when she grew up she would find that adventures didn't really exist at all, and all there was to look forward to were jobs and tax and insurance. The idea scared her. She looked around and all she could see were grown ups looking worried, because of money, and mortgages and frown lines. None of them seemed to be having any adventures at all. She worried because the key ingredients to adventures didn't seem to be present in real life. There were no mysterious creatures that one had to fight off, no treasure maps, not even really any proper villians. The villians that were around seemed more content with making her feel small than really trying to stop her in any quest. They didn't even properly insult her, they just corrected her alot and tried to show off by talking to her like she was stupid. This irritated her because, not only is this way of behaving really quite disheartening to a young girl, one doesn't feel like you can get properly angry, because if you wanted to tell someone there would be nothing really to say, it would just be a lot of teary, indignant, mumbling about 'ganging up on me' without any real specifics. Her mother told her this was bullying.
She didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up because nothing seemed quote magical enough. People told her she could be an accountant and make lots of money, but money never seemed that important,and accounting sounded boring. As far as she could tell it just meant counting money that wasn't even yours all day long. She wanted to be something amazing. She thought maybe she could be a publisher and read books for a living, but people told her there was no money in that. She thought maybe there was no money in anything fun. She wanted to grow up, because the way she saw it, adventures either found you, or you had to find them. Adventures, at that time, didn't seem to want to find her, and she didn't feel brave enough yet to find them on her own. But she was sure that when she was big, she would be able to find adventures, or even better she would be so brave and strong that adventures would be queing up to find her. She was scared that when she grew up she would find that adventures didn't really exist at all, and all there was to look forward to were jobs and tax and insurance. The idea scared her. She looked around and all she could see were grown ups looking worried, because of money, and mortgages and frown lines. None of them seemed to be having any adventures at all. She worried because the key ingredients to adventures didn't seem to be present in real life. There were no mysterious creatures that one had to fight off, no treasure maps, not even really any proper villians. The villians that were around seemed more content with making her feel small than really trying to stop her in any quest. They didn't even properly insult her, they just corrected her alot and tried to show off by talking to her like she was stupid. This irritated her because, not only is this way of behaving really quite disheartening to a young girl, one doesn't feel like you can get properly angry, because if you wanted to tell someone there would be nothing really to say, it would just be a lot of teary, indignant, mumbling about 'ganging up on me' without any real specifics. Her mother told her this was bullying.
