GWFD Chapter 1
Granted Wishes, Fragmented Dreams
Notes: This is rated T there is some harsh language in this chapter and there will be harsh language and violence in future chapters. Lines with in single quotations (‘ ’) and in italics (‘something like this’) indicates personal thoughts from a character.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Lord of the Rings or Lord of the Rings characters. However, the original characters are mine, along with whatever part of the the story tied in with my OCs that are not J. R. R. Tolkien's.
__________________________________________________________________________
"Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough,
You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it."
-Sir James Matthew Barrie
Chapter 1: Desperate Wishes
‘Stupid, they’re all just so dumb...’ Katie Harris slightly narrowed her green eyes as she watched the twelve or so people, crowding at the front of the small classroom. Perturbed by the presence of the group, she brought up her right hand to play with a strand of her medium-length fuchsia and black hair, causing her bracelets to lightly clang against each other on her chubby wrist, while she clutched a book that she had brought along for the wait with the other hand. And after silently disapproving of the small crowd for a couple more seconds, she went back to reading the book, picking up where she had left off.
‘Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undómiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people. Long she had been in the land of her mother's kin, in Lórien beyond the mountains, and was but lately returned to Rivendell to her father's house.’
‘It’d be great if at least one character wasn’t so freakin’ gorgeous and actually did something besides Éowyn,’ she thought bitterly as she paused from reading The Fellowship of the Ring.
Even though she had read The Lord of the Rings, Katie enjoyed rereading it form time to time, considering it to be one of the characteristics of a true Lord of the Rings fan. However, there were some complaints she had with the series.
Even in the stories that she liked so much, the girl felt some dissatisfaction. Almost always the characters were thin and beautiful, causing some discomfort to Katie, who constantly compared her own looks to the various heroines’. Katie knew that she was overweight, she did not have a gorgeous face, and was not supermodel tall, however, she took comfort knowing that she was intelligent, interesting, different, and an overall good person on the inside. It was the inside that mattered, she would often reassure herself, taking pride in knowing the real truth of the matter.
It was 6:30 at night. The class was Japanese Culture, a course that briefly covered various arts and culture through some films. Class was usually held for three hours; however this was the last session at the end of the semester. About half of Katie’s class had shown up for their graded research papers. Aside from Katie, all of the students huddled around their professor, impatiently waiting to reclaim their work.
She continued to glare in the back of her classmate’s heads; the girl could not help but feel anger towards them. A large portion of her class has taken the course as an elective and had no genuine interest in Japan or its culture, unlike her. As far as Katie was concerned, they didn’t deserve to pass the class.
From what she could tell, all of the students, save for a few, seemed very pleased with their grades. After twenty minutes, only a couple of her classmates remained. Katie watched with particular distaste as one of her classmates got back her paper and seemed particularly satisfied with her grade. The thin blonde, Jessica Thompson, was a girl who often dressed in short skirts and pink, had a cute face and remained tanned all year around.
‘Anorexic bitch was probably just cheated or got lucky.’ Katie smiled, sure that she was overall far more superior to that Thompson girl. Katie believed that people who were attractive were usually superficial and actually quite ugly on the inside. ‘Sorority slut for sure,’ she sighed, bowed her head, and closed her eyes as she thought of how pitiful her classmate probably was.
“Katie?” a hesitant female voice called out. “Are you okay?”
“Huh, what?” Katie was pulled away from her thoughts, finding Jessica Thompson standing beside her.
They didn’t exchange many words in class and never socialized any other time. Even so, just being in the presence of the blonde and her fake tan tested Katie’s patience; especially since Jessica had called her Katie, even though she specifically said that she went by Nikki at the beginning of the semester. For Katie, it was only further proof that Jessica was just a bimbo that couldn’t even remember people’s names properly.
“Oh um, well I just wanted to say have a nice summer and bye if I don’t see you later next year,” Jessica bubbled, smiling that brilliant smile with perfect Katie was used to seeing as she chatted with some of the guys who sat by her in class.
She was always so happy in class and it used to make Katie sick. Jessica would giggle and laugh with those people who sat around her in the back of the class as well. Katie was sure that it was at her expense.
Jessica quickly moved to tuck some of her bleach-blonde hair behind her ear. She looked over the girl before her, wearing a black t-shirt, a little too small for her figure, with what she assumed was a Japanese cartoon character on it and Katie’s various bracelets around her thick, wrist caught her eye. At least one was a set of beads that almost looked like a rosary while another was a thin, golden band. Jessica eyed the band, trying to make out the design on metal oval faceted to it before Katie moved her right arm behind her, out of sight. Jessica quickly looked back up, meeting Katie’s eyes.
“Oh uh, the same with you,” Katie responded back as enthusiastically as she could, though she felt as if the fake-baked girl before her was trying to put her down. She averted her eyes, looking down to the paper held by her jubilant classmate.
Katie saw the paper that Jessica’s left hand was clutching onto. Even though the paper was being held against the blonde’s thighs, Katie could clearly the ‘A’ written in red marker on the last page, having bled through. There was additional scribbling from the professor, but it was illegible. Even if Katie could read it, she was too flustered to do so. As far as she was concerned, Jessica Thompson couldn’t have possibly written a good enough paper to get an ‘A.’
Jessica hesitated for a moment before heading for the door. “Well, uh... By Professor Okura,” she started, receiving a farewell wave from their teacher. “By Katie!” she cheered, holding up her paper. “Don’t worry, I bet you did great. I did fine; I got an ‘A’! Good luck!” And she was gone.
‘She’s gone. That stuck-up bimbo is finally gone! At times like this I almost start to believe that there is a God.’
“Ano... Katie-san,” Okura started, grabbing Katie’s attention. He rubbed the back of his head.
Okura was tall, thin and had a slightly tanned skin. Though he had been teaching at the university for several years, he still would slip into Japanese a bit during lectures in English. And even though she insisted on being called Nikki-short for, Nicole, her middle name-the professor often forgot. Despite the name problem, he was one of Katie’s favorite professors since he was from Japan, a country that she loved.
“Hai, Okura sensei!” she responded with a heavy accent, shoving her book back into her brown bag.
Katie was in high spirits. All the classmates she loathed so much were gone from her sight, it was the end of the year, she was going on a great summer trip with friends, and she was just about to get back an ‘A’ paper that would ensure her ‘A’ in the course.
The professor responded to her Japanese with a wary look. “You need to get your paper back,” he finished, Japanese accent barely evident.
“Oh, gomenasai Okura-sensei!” she gushed, trying to sound sincere while impressing her professor with her Japanese skills.
Okura silently handed Katie the paper as they exited the classroom and building. Giving their farewells and wishing each other a nice summer, they headed off in different directions. And after a couple minutes of happily strolling back to her dorm room, Katie paused to check her grade. She sobered up immediately upon seeing that she had gotten a ‘C’ on her research paper.
“I don’t understand,” Katie said aloud, “you said it was okay for me to do a research paper on ghosts and demons.”
Katie glanced at the scribbled message beside the letter grade: ‘I gave you a C because you didn’t do your paper right. I said in beginning no narutou, no inuyasha, no anime. I didn’t want to read anymore ten-page papers on an inuyaha episode. There is a lot of information on Japanese demons and ghosts that isn’t anime.’
It wasn’t fair, Katie thought to herself bitterly. She knew that her twenty-three-page paper was great but her professor had failed to give her out of the ‘A’ she deserved. She knew, at best, it was a ‘B’ for the class. ...After all that work, just a ‘B’. Jessica Thompson got an ‘A’ while she did not. She decided that she was having an awful day.
After hastily stuffing the cursed paper into her brown, messenger bag, Katie rushed home, seething with anger over the injustice. By the time she had gotten to the door, she was so riled up that she was unable to find her apartment keys in her bag.
“You piece of shit!” she growled at the bag. Katie mercilessly dug through it in search of her keys and just as she found them, the front door of her apartment opened.
“Woah, is everything alright Nikki?” a tall and thin girl with short, brown hair asked.
The first thing Katie noticed was the golden cross that always hung around her roommate’s neck. It really bothered her that her roommate would wear that thing around her, knowing how much she hated Christianity and organized religion. And then Katie noticed that her roommate looked like she was on her way out to the campus gym. The brunette had on a tight, teal tank-top with the straps of the red sports bra peaking out from underneath, tight, grey stretch pants, and white running shoes. The outfit looked great on her, while Katie knew that she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.
“I’m fine Jessica,” Katie barked as she pushed past her roommate. ‘Why are all girls named Jessica so annoying?’ she thought to herself as she rushed into her room, locking the door behind her.
Jessica closed the front door and went over to Katie’s bedroom. The tall girl lightly knocked on her roommate’s door. “Nikki,” she called.
“What?” Katie sounded as if she was trying not to cry. “What do you want?” She asked as she sat at her desk, using her laptop computer.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. What do you want?” Katie asked shakily, waiting for her roommate on the other side of the door to continue.
“I’m going to meet up with the girls at the gym to workout. You wanna come?” Jessica paused for a moment.
She knew it; it was like Katie’s roommates were always trying to change her. They were all thin and attractive, always trying to insinuate that she was ugly and it was her fault for being overweight. “No, I’ll pass. I don’t feel very well today.”
“It’ll make you feel better,” she added, trying to convince her roommate to come along.
“I don’t want to go,” Katie bit out slow and angry at her roommate on the other side of the door. ‘Why don’t they ever listen to me!’
“Fine,” she backed away, “I’ll see you later then?”
“Yeah, bye,” Katie called, her voice less angry.
Katie waited until Jessica had left to emerge from her room, heading to the kitchen. It was dinner time, so she grabbed remaining four slices of white pizza. The hungry girl also grabbed a jar of French onion dip and ruffled potato chips, bringing it back to her room and setting it on the desk next to her computer. She quickly returned to the kitchen a liter of her diet cola that was in the fridge and a cup from the cupboard.
The pink-haired girl started her nightly routine of eating dinner in her room and using her computer. While satisfying her appetite, she read and reviewed fanfiction of some of her favorite series. She even wrote some stories herself. If not slash, it was stories featuring her original, female characters. She took pride that her writing was far superior to so many others that she reviewed, believing her characters and fanfiction stories were significantly more intriguing, dynamic, and real. However, to Katie’s dismay and displeasure, she would undeservingly receive vile flames instead of real reviews praising her works. The flamers were just jealous of her writing ability, she’d conclude after fuming in disbelief that anyone could actually dislike her stories or her characters.
It didn’t matter though. Katie wrote the stories for fun and getting positive reviews was just another perk. Being a fan, she enjoyed reading well-written fanfictions and writing stories herself. It was one of the things she could do to further submerse herself into the fandoms, beyond just watching the TV shows, the movies, the comics, or reading the books. Writing fanfiction was more hands-on, however Katie still wasn’t content. Many times she had dreamt of being able to take part in the stories she loved so much. It did, however, help her forget that her current lifestyle was hardly gratifying. Her classes were always full of a bunch of stuck-up fools that seemed too good to give her the time of day. Typically if there were nice people in the classes, they were somewhat simple-minded according to her standards. And she had very poor luck finding a decent guy. In her opinion, the boys in her classes were brainless-pigs, losers, jerks or all of the above. It was almost as if any decent guy was taken or took completely different classes, she had concluded.
Katie knew that her life would be better if was sent to one of the worlds from the stories that she loved so much. As knowledgeable as she was with The Lord of the Rings, she was sure that she would be properly appreciated and her life would be infinitely more fascinating in Middle-Earth. Katie believed she would have better chance finding love too. Unfortunately, she knew that it ever happening was truly improbable, in spite of hoping and wishing for it constantly.
After a several hours of reading and reviewing fanfiction, four slices of pizza, a pint of soda, a bag of chips, and playing with her bracelets that she seldom removed, Katie headed to bed. It was already after two in the morning and she was supposed to be ready in less than six hours. Soon she’d be on a trip with her friends.
Notes: This is rated T there is some harsh language in this chapter and there will be harsh language and violence in future chapters. Lines with in single quotations (‘ ’) and in italics (‘something like this’) indicates personal thoughts from a character.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Lord of the Rings or Lord of the Rings characters. However, the original characters are mine, along with whatever part of the the story tied in with my OCs that are not J. R. R. Tolkien's.
__________________________________________________________________________
"Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough,
You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it."
-Sir James Matthew Barrie
Chapter 1: Desperate Wishes
‘Stupid, they’re all just so dumb...’ Katie Harris slightly narrowed her green eyes as she watched the twelve or so people, crowding at the front of the small classroom. Perturbed by the presence of the group, she brought up her right hand to play with a strand of her medium-length fuchsia and black hair, causing her bracelets to lightly clang against each other on her chubby wrist, while she clutched a book that she had brought along for the wait with the other hand. And after silently disapproving of the small crowd for a couple more seconds, she went back to reading the book, picking up where she had left off.
‘Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undómiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people. Long she had been in the land of her mother's kin, in Lórien beyond the mountains, and was but lately returned to Rivendell to her father's house.’
‘It’d be great if at least one character wasn’t so freakin’ gorgeous and actually did something besides Éowyn,’ she thought bitterly as she paused from reading The Fellowship of the Ring.
Even though she had read The Lord of the Rings, Katie enjoyed rereading it form time to time, considering it to be one of the characteristics of a true Lord of the Rings fan. However, there were some complaints she had with the series.
Even in the stories that she liked so much, the girl felt some dissatisfaction. Almost always the characters were thin and beautiful, causing some discomfort to Katie, who constantly compared her own looks to the various heroines’. Katie knew that she was overweight, she did not have a gorgeous face, and was not supermodel tall, however, she took comfort knowing that she was intelligent, interesting, different, and an overall good person on the inside. It was the inside that mattered, she would often reassure herself, taking pride in knowing the real truth of the matter.
It was 6:30 at night. The class was Japanese Culture, a course that briefly covered various arts and culture through some films. Class was usually held for three hours; however this was the last session at the end of the semester. About half of Katie’s class had shown up for their graded research papers. Aside from Katie, all of the students huddled around their professor, impatiently waiting to reclaim their work.
She continued to glare in the back of her classmate’s heads; the girl could not help but feel anger towards them. A large portion of her class has taken the course as an elective and had no genuine interest in Japan or its culture, unlike her. As far as Katie was concerned, they didn’t deserve to pass the class.
From what she could tell, all of the students, save for a few, seemed very pleased with their grades. After twenty minutes, only a couple of her classmates remained. Katie watched with particular distaste as one of her classmates got back her paper and seemed particularly satisfied with her grade. The thin blonde, Jessica Thompson, was a girl who often dressed in short skirts and pink, had a cute face and remained tanned all year around.
‘Anorexic bitch was probably just cheated or got lucky.’ Katie smiled, sure that she was overall far more superior to that Thompson girl. Katie believed that people who were attractive were usually superficial and actually quite ugly on the inside. ‘Sorority slut for sure,’ she sighed, bowed her head, and closed her eyes as she thought of how pitiful her classmate probably was.
“Katie?” a hesitant female voice called out. “Are you okay?”
“Huh, what?” Katie was pulled away from her thoughts, finding Jessica Thompson standing beside her.
They didn’t exchange many words in class and never socialized any other time. Even so, just being in the presence of the blonde and her fake tan tested Katie’s patience; especially since Jessica had called her Katie, even though she specifically said that she went by Nikki at the beginning of the semester. For Katie, it was only further proof that Jessica was just a bimbo that couldn’t even remember people’s names properly.
“Oh um, well I just wanted to say have a nice summer and bye if I don’t see you later next year,” Jessica bubbled, smiling that brilliant smile with perfect Katie was used to seeing as she chatted with some of the guys who sat by her in class.
She was always so happy in class and it used to make Katie sick. Jessica would giggle and laugh with those people who sat around her in the back of the class as well. Katie was sure that it was at her expense.
Jessica quickly moved to tuck some of her bleach-blonde hair behind her ear. She looked over the girl before her, wearing a black t-shirt, a little too small for her figure, with what she assumed was a Japanese cartoon character on it and Katie’s various bracelets around her thick, wrist caught her eye. At least one was a set of beads that almost looked like a rosary while another was a thin, golden band. Jessica eyed the band, trying to make out the design on metal oval faceted to it before Katie moved her right arm behind her, out of sight. Jessica quickly looked back up, meeting Katie’s eyes.
“Oh uh, the same with you,” Katie responded back as enthusiastically as she could, though she felt as if the fake-baked girl before her was trying to put her down. She averted her eyes, looking down to the paper held by her jubilant classmate.
Katie saw the paper that Jessica’s left hand was clutching onto. Even though the paper was being held against the blonde’s thighs, Katie could clearly the ‘A’ written in red marker on the last page, having bled through. There was additional scribbling from the professor, but it was illegible. Even if Katie could read it, she was too flustered to do so. As far as she was concerned, Jessica Thompson couldn’t have possibly written a good enough paper to get an ‘A.’
Jessica hesitated for a moment before heading for the door. “Well, uh... By Professor Okura,” she started, receiving a farewell wave from their teacher. “By Katie!” she cheered, holding up her paper. “Don’t worry, I bet you did great. I did fine; I got an ‘A’! Good luck!” And she was gone.
‘She’s gone. That stuck-up bimbo is finally gone! At times like this I almost start to believe that there is a God.’
“Ano... Katie-san,” Okura started, grabbing Katie’s attention. He rubbed the back of his head.
Okura was tall, thin and had a slightly tanned skin. Though he had been teaching at the university for several years, he still would slip into Japanese a bit during lectures in English. And even though she insisted on being called Nikki-short for, Nicole, her middle name-the professor often forgot. Despite the name problem, he was one of Katie’s favorite professors since he was from Japan, a country that she loved.
“Hai, Okura sensei!” she responded with a heavy accent, shoving her book back into her brown bag.
Katie was in high spirits. All the classmates she loathed so much were gone from her sight, it was the end of the year, she was going on a great summer trip with friends, and she was just about to get back an ‘A’ paper that would ensure her ‘A’ in the course.
The professor responded to her Japanese with a wary look. “You need to get your paper back,” he finished, Japanese accent barely evident.
“Oh, gomenasai Okura-sensei!” she gushed, trying to sound sincere while impressing her professor with her Japanese skills.
Okura silently handed Katie the paper as they exited the classroom and building. Giving their farewells and wishing each other a nice summer, they headed off in different directions. And after a couple minutes of happily strolling back to her dorm room, Katie paused to check her grade. She sobered up immediately upon seeing that she had gotten a ‘C’ on her research paper.
“I don’t understand,” Katie said aloud, “you said it was okay for me to do a research paper on ghosts and demons.”
Katie glanced at the scribbled message beside the letter grade: ‘I gave you a C because you didn’t do your paper right. I said in beginning no narutou, no inuyasha, no anime. I didn’t want to read anymore ten-page papers on an inuyaha episode. There is a lot of information on Japanese demons and ghosts that isn’t anime.’
It wasn’t fair, Katie thought to herself bitterly. She knew that her twenty-three-page paper was great but her professor had failed to give her out of the ‘A’ she deserved. She knew, at best, it was a ‘B’ for the class. ...After all that work, just a ‘B’. Jessica Thompson got an ‘A’ while she did not. She decided that she was having an awful day.
After hastily stuffing the cursed paper into her brown, messenger bag, Katie rushed home, seething with anger over the injustice. By the time she had gotten to the door, she was so riled up that she was unable to find her apartment keys in her bag.
“You piece of shit!” she growled at the bag. Katie mercilessly dug through it in search of her keys and just as she found them, the front door of her apartment opened.
“Woah, is everything alright Nikki?” a tall and thin girl with short, brown hair asked.
The first thing Katie noticed was the golden cross that always hung around her roommate’s neck. It really bothered her that her roommate would wear that thing around her, knowing how much she hated Christianity and organized religion. And then Katie noticed that her roommate looked like she was on her way out to the campus gym. The brunette had on a tight, teal tank-top with the straps of the red sports bra peaking out from underneath, tight, grey stretch pants, and white running shoes. The outfit looked great on her, while Katie knew that she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.
“I’m fine Jessica,” Katie barked as she pushed past her roommate. ‘Why are all girls named Jessica so annoying?’ she thought to herself as she rushed into her room, locking the door behind her.
Jessica closed the front door and went over to Katie’s bedroom. The tall girl lightly knocked on her roommate’s door. “Nikki,” she called.
“What?” Katie sounded as if she was trying not to cry. “What do you want?” She asked as she sat at her desk, using her laptop computer.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. What do you want?” Katie asked shakily, waiting for her roommate on the other side of the door to continue.
“I’m going to meet up with the girls at the gym to workout. You wanna come?” Jessica paused for a moment.
She knew it; it was like Katie’s roommates were always trying to change her. They were all thin and attractive, always trying to insinuate that she was ugly and it was her fault for being overweight. “No, I’ll pass. I don’t feel very well today.”
“It’ll make you feel better,” she added, trying to convince her roommate to come along.
“I don’t want to go,” Katie bit out slow and angry at her roommate on the other side of the door. ‘Why don’t they ever listen to me!’
“Fine,” she backed away, “I’ll see you later then?”
“Yeah, bye,” Katie called, her voice less angry.
Katie waited until Jessica had left to emerge from her room, heading to the kitchen. It was dinner time, so she grabbed remaining four slices of white pizza. The hungry girl also grabbed a jar of French onion dip and ruffled potato chips, bringing it back to her room and setting it on the desk next to her computer. She quickly returned to the kitchen a liter of her diet cola that was in the fridge and a cup from the cupboard.
The pink-haired girl started her nightly routine of eating dinner in her room and using her computer. While satisfying her appetite, she read and reviewed fanfiction of some of her favorite series. She even wrote some stories herself. If not slash, it was stories featuring her original, female characters. She took pride that her writing was far superior to so many others that she reviewed, believing her characters and fanfiction stories were significantly more intriguing, dynamic, and real. However, to Katie’s dismay and displeasure, she would undeservingly receive vile flames instead of real reviews praising her works. The flamers were just jealous of her writing ability, she’d conclude after fuming in disbelief that anyone could actually dislike her stories or her characters.
It didn’t matter though. Katie wrote the stories for fun and getting positive reviews was just another perk. Being a fan, she enjoyed reading well-written fanfictions and writing stories herself. It was one of the things she could do to further submerse herself into the fandoms, beyond just watching the TV shows, the movies, the comics, or reading the books. Writing fanfiction was more hands-on, however Katie still wasn’t content. Many times she had dreamt of being able to take part in the stories she loved so much. It did, however, help her forget that her current lifestyle was hardly gratifying. Her classes were always full of a bunch of stuck-up fools that seemed too good to give her the time of day. Typically if there were nice people in the classes, they were somewhat simple-minded according to her standards. And she had very poor luck finding a decent guy. In her opinion, the boys in her classes were brainless-pigs, losers, jerks or all of the above. It was almost as if any decent guy was taken or took completely different classes, she had concluded.
Katie knew that her life would be better if was sent to one of the worlds from the stories that she loved so much. As knowledgeable as she was with The Lord of the Rings, she was sure that she would be properly appreciated and her life would be infinitely more fascinating in Middle-Earth. Katie believed she would have better chance finding love too. Unfortunately, she knew that it ever happening was truly improbable, in spite of hoping and wishing for it constantly.
After a several hours of reading and reviewing fanfiction, four slices of pizza, a pint of soda, a bag of chips, and playing with her bracelets that she seldom removed, Katie headed to bed. It was already after two in the morning and she was supposed to be ready in less than six hours. Soon she’d be on a trip with her friends.