Above the Pink Clouds/Prologue

## Prologue

The following is the prologue for *Above the Pink Clouds*.

## Prologue

“Jasmine! Jasmine, where are you going?”

Jasmine was about to leave the house, when she could hear her younger sister Ashley dashing towards the door.

“Oh, hey Ashley. I was just about to take the dog for a walk. You wanna come?”

Ashley perked her head up and smiled. “Sure, why not?”

“Then you better put some actual walking shoes on,” chuckled Jasmine, as she glared down at her sister’s animal paw slippers.

“Ah, yeah. Hold on.” Ashley ran back into the hallway. After a moment, she rushed back to Jasmine.

“Okay, *now* I’m ready.”

“Great, we can leave now.” Jasmine opened the door to let Ashley and the dog out first.

The sky had been mostly cloudy for about a week, but the weather was fine to take a walk in as it wouldn’t rain for a while. The local park would only take a single block of walking to get to, but the small effort is easily worth it.

As Jasmine walked up ahead, she heard Ashley ask her something behind her back.

“Can we sit down? I want to talk to you about something.”

Jasmine sat on the nearest bench on the outskirts of the park, then commanded the dog to do the same. “Of course, you can always talk to me. What’s up?”

“I’m not really looking forward to going back to school,” said Ashley.

Jasmine assumed that this was just a regular student feeling. “It's a good thing that we have a few months before any of us need to worry about school, right?”

“But you only have one more year of high school, and then you’re, well… going to technical college for broadcasting…” Ashley sighed. “I’ll still be in middle school this year! Why can’t I be a high schooler like you?”

“This’ll be your last year in middle school,” commented Jasmine. “And *then* you’ll be a real high schooler.”

“Yeah, but…” Ashley shied away. “I wish people would just leave me alone.”

Jasmine was surprised by her sister’s somber attitude; she was hardly ever like this. “How come?”

“I’ve been getting bullied a lot more often than usual. For starters, some of my classmates keep calling the books I read stupid, and it kind of makes me want to stop reading them.”

“Your taste in books isn’t stupid at all! Why didn’t you tell me all of this was happening until now?”

“I’ve been ignoring them at first since it didn’t seem like too big of a deal, but it was getting even more frequent and annoying. They’re really good at covering it up too, I guess, since most people haven’t even seen it happen.”

“Is that why you want to jump right into high school?

“Yes,” murmured Ashley.

Jasmine placed a hand on Ashley’s shoulder. “If it makes you feel better, people are less likely to harass you in high school, or that’s how it’s been from my experience. Everyone worries more about tests and stuff.”

“But next year, we won’t see each other as much anymore, and I’ll miss you.”

Jasmine couldn’t help but feel sorry, as she had to leave sooner than she thought. “Well, just remember that I’m not going to disappear from the face of the universe. I’ll still be in contact with everyone in one way or another.”

Ashley started to lighten up. “If you end up getting an actual job at that TV station, will you mail some stuff to us?”

“I can definitely try,” said Jasmine.

Ashley jumped into Jasmine’s arms and gave her a hug. “Thank you so much. You’re the best!”

Jasmine didn’t do anything but hug her right back. “You’re welcome. How about we get drinks somewhere?”