Discovering an Adventure Ch. 1 The beginning of the end

I bounced to and fro on the leathery seat of the bus. Tracing the filthy scratches on the wall, I mouthed the lyrics to the Queen song I was listening to. Even on maximum volume, the music couldn't completely block out the deafening roar of early morning kids on a bus.
I love 80's rock. Hardly any of my friends do, though. Then again, my friends aren’t exactly the types of people who would care about the extravagant era of music we had all so narrowly missed. Except Nick, of course. Any guitarist in his right mind would appreciate Brian May’s talent. The rest of the group couldn’t care less about things like that.
"I don't want to die... I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all!" I sang under my breath in tune with the song, then did some intense air guitar.
The girl next to me looked at me, raised an eyebrow and scooted a few inches away. I rolled my eyes and set back to mouthing words that meant nothing to anyone but me, right then, right there.
Meet me, Shaq. Don't get me confused with the famous one, though. My full name is Trisha Queen (ironic that my last name is my favorite band). But it’s clear to see my friends don't like having two Trishas in their group. There's another, much more important Trisha. I don't like her much, but it doesn't matter. She's matters more than me, so I'm the one who's name has to be changed.
The bus stopped abruptly, sending all the backpacks flying to the floor.
I sighed at the ordinarity of my life. It was an ordinary school day, the sky a typical shade of gray, the same old scenery passing me by. In all the novels I read, something interesting or tragic always happened to the main character, which sent their life into chaos. Usually they had to go on some adventure, where they would meet many new people, and life would never be the same. But so far, everything in my life was going right on schedule. I hated it.
Even so, I kept believing that something remarkable would happen that would make me the one who stood out in the world. Something made me believe that I was special somehow.
Sighing again, I stood up and stretched my arms after the long, uneventful bus ride. I stepped out of the bus to my average middle school, at which I was currently an eighth grader.
I stayed behind as everyone rushed up the the doors of the school, hoping they weren't late. That hope was for naught, of course. Even Nicky ran to the doors today.
Kicking the early autumn leaves with the dirty tips of my sneakers, I closed my eyes, imagining the adventures I could someday have, the adventures that seemed so painstakingly far away. Maybe, just maybe, if I imagined hard enough, something amazing would happen.
I stood there, alone, in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the school, with my eyes closed and my mind focused on everything and nothing. For a moment, everything faded, and I was alone with myself.
There weren't any cars on the road anymore after school began. None of the caring adults brought their kids to school this late, except maybe the bus driver, but he hardly cared.
I opened my eyes, shoved my hands into my pockets, and walked slowly to the closed door of the now-quiet school.
I was just about to pull the door open, when something stopped me. A faint rustling noise came from behind my back. I was fairly sure it wasn’t windy today. Wind wasn’t ordinary in these parts; I would have noticed it. Maybe just a breeze, I thought.
I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see brown, crusty leaves that had most likely cause the noise.
Instead, I saw a thing that gave me more joy than it would have to anyone else in the world.
A pale, canvas colored folded paper lay on the ground where I had been standing just a few seconds before. It gave me joy because although there was no wind, the paper fluttered around on the ground like it had a mind of its own. A fat red wax seal was clear to see, and even from here I could see my initials elegantly shown on it: TQ.
Maybe this is the beginning of an adventure, I thought to myself hopefully, stepping back a few feet to pick up the strange piece of paper. In the back of my mind, I already knew that it was a letter, addressed to me.
I didn't even wait to unfold it. Fate willed me to open it up, so I did.1

You are the one. It is the beginning of the end.2

That was all the letter said.
I shrugged to myself, trying to keep shaking with feverish excitement. I began to fold the letter up again, but it fluttered out of my hands and to the ground. A new, remarkable wind picked up, sending the letter silently tumbling away from the school. I dashed after it, feeling rather stupid for letting it go, even if it had been an accident.
There was no way that after so much waiting for something interesting to happen I would let this letter get away. I just had to catch it.
I followed it behind the school and into the long park. I had always been a fast runner, fastest in my grade, but before I was even halfway through the park, my copper-colored hair was streaked with sweat and I was panting. Still, I pushed on.
In less than a mile, I came upon some woods. I didn't recall them being there before, and I my earlier happiness at this new wind had faded to frustration that it hadn't stopped yet.
I followed the letter into the forest like an animal scurrying into a trap after a cleverly placed temptation. The trees in the woods grew thicker and thicker and the space between them grew smaller. Soon I couldn't even see the gray sky between the tree tops. I wasn't concerned, though. I needed to catch that letter!
A few hundred feet in to the forest, the odd letter stopped flying away from me, as though it had given up. I finally stopped running, breathing hard, my heart hammering loudly in my ears. I couldn't see anything around my but trees, trees, and more trees.
Hesitantly, I picked the letter up again, unfolding it. I wasn't surprised to see that the phrase in it had changed. 3

It said:4

The curtain has been pulled. The end has begun.5

Suddenly, I knew that I was in the middle of something greater than an adventure. And I realized that I was scared. I didn't know why, but I knew I wouldn't be able to find my way out of these woods. The end had begun.6