Chapter 1: Crystal Clear

Amber was at a castle. A dark, dull castle. Its crepuscular towers hung from the sky like corpses from a noose. The sky flashed and rain poured down on her. She was alone. Suddenly a shrill bleeping noise filled the sky, earth and air. She ducked and covered her ears, and fell into darkness.
Amber awoke sprawled across the floor. Cold sweat clung to her brow. Her alarm was on, its shrill sound bleating in her ears. She reached up and switched it up, 7AM; time to get up.

She quickly got ready for school, spending far too long on her silky, brown hair. She smiled at her appearance in the tiny bathroom mirror, then ran out of the house, snatching her bag and shouting a quick goodbye to anyone who would listen. She rushed rapidly down the hill to the bus stop, then looked at her watch. It was 7:20AM; she was 20 minutes early for her bus. What a waste of energy.
She trekked back up the hill, then thought better of it. She turned left along a small dusty tack until she came to the stables. Sure enough there was Tatti – her beautiful white Hanoverian mare. She would ride Tatti to school and put him in the barnyard.

Amber finally arrived at school at 7:40, what great timing - her bus would have only just reached her back at the hill! She tied Tatti up in the school barnyard stables and advanced slowly into the school building. She passed few girls in the corridors of Lastorn High Girls School. It was too early for most of them to be there.

Amber hurriedly unpacked her schoolbag, and made her way to her form room with a book to read, called Storms Wide. She had been reading it for only a few minutes when she received a tap on her shoulder.
“Excuse me, can you tell me what this says?” asked a particularly chavvy girl holding out a scrap of paper with large letters on.
“It says bo- Ouch!” exclaimed Amber. The girl had just yanked her hair particularly hard and was now running away with a few of her friends laughing their heads off. Very funny she thought moodily. She would get them back later. She returned to her book.

About half an hour later the bell rang. Sophie ran up to her,
“Come on, Amber its class time!” she exclaimed.
She grunted. But got up anyways and followed Sophie, Tara and Anita to Mathematics.

By the time the day ended Amber was well and truly bored. And has homework to  last her 4 years. She decided to stay until 5 after school to research for a history project on women through the ages.

Amber gathered all she needed and at 5:10 she left. It was already pretty dark outside and it was pouring down as she zipped up her anorak. She retrieved Tatti from the stables and rode her on down the path. Given that the weather wasn’t about to let up, Amber decided to take the shortcut up the hill. She was halfway home when the mud started to thicken, but she eased Tatti on. Suddenly, lightening flashed and illuminated everything. It blinded both Tatti and Linda. Amber struggle and Tatti stumbled down, into a ditch. Amber blacked out.