Leo

And the Curious Case of Aria Jewels

Book 1

By Nicholas Rovert

PROLOGUE

Leo was never thinking what anyone else was thinking. He was very absent-minded, very random, and he never listened to his parents. But soon his whole life will be re-written. Because, Now he has a thirteen- year- old writer named Aria in his life. Aria loves to write, and when she starts to write her new book, Leo, things start to get out of hand. Soon after, Leo discovers a secret about his family that will help him with problems in the future.

CHAPTER 1 – A Night with No Moon

"Leo! You're going to be late for school!" Mom yelled up the stairs. Leo was always running behind. It wasn't his fault, though. It was his little sister, Emily's fault. She was always early because she was an angel, and she always woke up early and hogged the bathroom so that Leo couldn't use it.

Leo was not fond of his new house, Or his parent's divorce. Because his parents got divorced, His family didn't have as much money and their house used to cost lots of money. Now that they had no money, They moved into a small house in the middle of nowhere that only had one bathroom.

"Coming!" Leo yelled down the stairs. He jumped up and landed down on the railway. He zoomed down and almost hit the knob sticking out of the end railway. He jumped off and let his warm feet land on the cold concrete floor. They also didn't have enough money for a carpet in the Living Room.

Leo ran through the Living Room and jumped up onto the Island Counter's stool and poured himself a cup of Orange Juice that his Mom had left for him.

"Alright, Leo and Emily, I will be at work all day, but you can call me on my cell phone. Ok, Bye!" Mom said. She kissed the top of their heads, jumped into her winter boots, and ran out the door. She ran out so fast that she almost couldn't close the door.

Leo had some pancakes for lunch. The good thing about Emily was that when you did something you weren't allowed to do, she never told anyone. So, Leo could use the oven every day to make his pancakes and his Mom would never even find out.

Leo drowned his pancakes in maple syrup and plopped some grapes on for eyes and a nose; He put clementine slices for eyebrows and plopped on a sausage for a mouth. Emily was disgusted by Leo's syrup-covered sausage.

Leo carefully cut the sausage with his knife and fork. When he dug his fork into the sausage it sizzled. He stuck his fork into one of the grapes and shoved it into his mouth. Emily never cared about what Leo did, but she was concerned about a year ago when Leo had made pancakes and set the smoke detectors on. "Hello?"

Leo looked around the room. He had heard whispering.

"Hello?" The whispering was still going on and he wasn't leaving it alone. But the weird thing, Emily couldn't hear the whispering.

"Hello! Hello! I heard you the first time and we already said Good-Morning an hour ago! Who are you talking to?" Emily asked.

Leo looked in the mirror to see of there was anyone really there, If there was anyone ducking behind the island so that neither of them could see them. 'What a hiding spot?' Ya, Right. Who wouldn't think of ducking behind a counter in the middle of the floor?

But the real question, Why did their mom have a mirror dangling just off of the ground? So that people could look at their feet, perhaps?

Leo didn't feel like arguing. If Emily wanted to think that he had an imaginary friend, or something than so be it. It was okay with him, considering his entire family had to be there when Emily was going through that stage. "Why Ashley, Would you like a refill on your cup of tea?" That was what Emily named her imaginary friend, Ashley. To Leo, it just sounded like a fire with a 'ley' at the end of it. So, maybe this 'Ashley' character liked the name Lee, and the letter y. Leo didn't worry about stuff like that, but if it were to come across his jumbled up mind. And, If he even wanted to think about it, (Which he didn't) then why would he be thinking about it during his Happy Pancake Moment?

Not that Leo didn't like Emily, But she was just too concerned about, well, everything. She worried about the environment, (Which Leo cared about it, too) but she really cared about it, too much.

"You don't hear it?" Leo asked. Emily looked at Leo with a confused look. "Hear… What?" Emily clearly didn't hear it. But when Leo had problems hearing, and seeing, He got concerned. Or, maybe he wasn't having the problems. Maybe it was Emily who had hearing problems!
"Great, Now I'm getting worried about probably, nothing more then a voice in my head." Leo said to himself.

"Forget it, Just… Go get ready for school" Leo demanded to Emily. Emily glared, annoyed at Leo and ran up the stairs to get dressed. She usually was never annoyed, and she was never annoying, but when Leo bothered her very much, she would freak and always be annoyed. It was just with Leo, like he had the 'magic touch,' or something. But again, Emily didn't worry about stuff like that. That's the only way that she would ever be compared with Leo. And, Leo liked it. Because, soon Leo would definetly need someone to be like.

It was morning. But, somehow there was twilight out the window. Leo shoved the curtain out of the way and the moon twinkled his hazel eyes. It was dark, out. Leo glared at the clock. 8:00? P.M.? No, Leo squinted to see the small letters beside the time. A.M.

Wait, the moon suddenly began to disappear. And, just the night was in the sky. The streetlights flickered on. It was a night with no moon. And, it was the first that they had had in a long time!

CHAPTER 2 – Bells

There was still that whispering noise. It had not left him, just sense he sent Emily to get dressed. The whispering wouldn't stop. What did it want? And, why was it only following Leo? He couldn't tell exactly what the whisperer was saying but if no one else could hear it, Why Leo?

"Shut Up!" Leo ran out the door, and looked around the corner. Where was the whispering coming? Was Leo saying it? No, Leo would know what he was saying. He wasn't that stupid.

Emily ran down the stairs. The door was still wide open from when their mom had flung it open. "Are you talking to yourself?" Emily asked.

A girl walked by the house. She was about thirteen. She had long brown hair and a black sweater. She was also wearing red jogging-pants. She was holding a notepad, and a ballpoint pen. Every once in a while, she would scribble down a few words, and cross out another few. Once she reached the driveway, She looked up at the house and stared at it for a while. Once she noticed that she wasn't alone, She glared at Leo and Leo glared back. She quickly looked down at her house and drew a quick sketch of the house. She wrote a slogan under the picture. Then, she glanced back at the house. Once she saw that Leo was still staring at her, She trotted of across the road.

Leo didn't know what had happened. Why did that girl look at him with such a scared face, and why did that girl draw a picture of his house? And what was she writing down? An unfinished school paper, perhaps?

Whatever it was, Leo couldn't worry about it or he would be late for school. He never liked to worry about things. No matter how weird they were.

Leo ran up the driveway and jumped through the still open door. He swung his arms through the arms of his coat and zipped it up, quick. He shoved his hat onto his head and slid his mittens onto his hands. It was Cold February Weather, and Leo was ready for it.

Once Leo had gotten to school, he sat down on his portable's steps. He waited for his friends to come. But he waited, and waited. No one came. Finally, the bell rang. But the bell was different. It wasn't the usual ringing noise; it was more like just a single tick. His friends came from out of behind the portable, or perhaps, from hiding.

"Where were you guys, I was waiting forever?"

Michael looked at Leo, with a strange look.

"You didn't hear?"

What could he be babbling about? Didn't hear, what? Leo thought he knew everything about the town. Unless something happened last night, When he was having his 'Me Time' and didn't bother watching the news with his family like he usually did.

"Hear, what?" He thought aloud.

Michael looked to see if anyone was behind him, although everyone already knew the secret. He leaned forward to get his mouth closer to Leo's ear.

He opened his mouth with all his might. He opened it like somebody had just given him the biggest piece of pizza in the world, and he was about to shove it into his mouth. Michael bent closer to yell something in his ear. That's what he did! He yelled with all his might. He was imitating what had happened yesterday, in class.

The day had started off normally, Just a normal day. Everyone had just took all of their clothing off and were sitting in their seats, waiting for their teacher, Ms. Dry, to give them their math test that they had been wishing for. The ESL Boy in the class was standing in the front of the class. He did exactly what Michael had done, he opened his mouth and shouted at the top of the lungs, and Leo could have sworn that he heard his lungs burst once the horrifying noise had stopped.

So, that's what Michael did. He imitated what the ESL Boy, Sam had said. Ya, sure! Of course his name was Sam. Probably something more like 'Saminki' or something. But Leo wasn't imagining about this boy's name. His ear was in too much pain. He could hardly hear himself think.

"What did you do that for?" Leo striked Michael right across the face with all his might.

"Oh, Thanks for the pain!" Michael grabbed his bright red cheek, and he toppled over onto the floor, "That really hurt! Besides, you know what I'm doing! I know that Sam's scream just scared the crap out of you, So I wanted to try to pull it off!"

Leo was angry, of course. But he wouldn't be so angry if he got a signal from his other friend, Mary. She obviously knew it was coming because she was still stretching her earlobes.

That screaming noise was like a bell. Leo just hoped that he would never hear that nonsense screaming, again!

CHAPTER 3 – Ink Spill

Ms. Dry was very old fashioned. She had feather and a cup of ink sitting on her desk, instead of the ordinary pocketed pen that all of the other teachers had. She believed that is people used it at one point and survived, then they should be able to manage, too.

Sam was standing at the front of the class. Leo shoved his hand over top of his mouth, hoping this would prevent there being a replay of yesterday's incident. Leo couldn't take anymore screaming for the day.

"Alright, Leo and Sam! Could you please take your seats? It's time to start today's lesson!" Ms. Dry dug the tip of her feather into her bowl of ink and slid it across her white paper that was sitting on her desk. "Today we're practicing handwriting!"

Leo sighed. He hated handwriting and he wasn't very good at it, either. Why would anyone need to connect letters in a fancy way? He probably just needed a little help to get it right, and he needed that girl from his driveway. He remembered how neat and curly the writing was. Great, now he was falling for some girl, just because she could write neater than him. Leo looked at his paper. He had written down his exact thoughts in perfect handwriting. It was like, when he thought about the girl, he could be her. Laura was peering over his shoulders. Great, now she knew that Leo liked someone! He quickly shoved his paper into his desk, but Laura had already read the entire paragraph. But the other problem, he could still hear the whispering, and the noise of a typewriter ticking. "Shh!" Leo yelled to Laura. She had been babbling about how she was going to tell the entire school. He could tell what the whisperer was whispering, now. It was saying what he was doing. He heard the voice over the sound of the ticking from the typewriter. Someone was recording his life. And, he was definetly not happy about it. How could he hear the voice? All right, so someone was writing his life! But he shouldn't be able to hear what they're saying. So mean. Why do they have to say everything that they type? Whoever was writing it was an idiot. Leo pulled the paper out of his pocket, and looked at the other side, the side that he hadn't seen yet. It read, by Aria. Leo laughed aloud. Aria? Aria, what? Aria Carpet? What kind of name is Aria? What was her brother's name? Perhaps, perimeter? Leo wasn't thinking his stupid jokes were really funny. He was still staring at the name. So, the girl with the writing hand's name was Aria. It was a pretty name. But, not for a writer, It was more like a carpenter's name! But, seriously. Leo wasn't laughing anymore.

Laura snatched the paper from Leo's hands. "Who's Aria?" Leo couldn't let her find out her name, too.

"Um… My older sister!" Leo blurted out.

Laura looked at Leo, confused.

"You never said anything about an older sister, Just your younger one, Emily!" Laura said in the meanest way, possible.

"Ya, cute kid!" he lied.

"Maybe I'd like to meet her!" Laura flipped over the paper, "Is this your house?" she asked.

Leo had no choice, but to make up another fib. "Ya! She had to draw it for an art project! She just wanted to draw a quick sketch of it, first!"

Laura smiled. "Oh, I see!"

Leo's lies had worked, for now.

"Can I meet this 'Aria' character?"

He had to lie, again.

"Um… No! She's really busy with school. She studies at a university in Cali!" he blurted out. He'd never used the short form 'Cali' before. He enjoyed saying California. If he were talking to someone from California, right now, he would have never tried Cali. Besides, to Leo, it sounded like a type of cow. But then again, Everything reminded Leo of something else.

Leo desperately didn't want anyone to find out who Aria really was. Everyone would think that he's a complete freak. "Like a writer would waste their time writing about you!" they would say. Leo could just hear it coming out of someone's mouth.

His class was getting very predictable.

Leo was tired.

He leaned against his teacher's desk. Suddenly, the desk started to slide away from him. Leo grabbed part of the desk, and directly knocked over the ink bowl. The ink spilled and surrounded most of the teacher's desk. Leo glanced at the puddle of ink, lying on the teacher's desk.

He expected to see his reflection, but saw Aria. She was sitting in class, scribbling something onto a new paper. Her face was plastered with pen's ink. She looked tired, like she had been up writing the entire night.

But, If this Aria person really was writing a book about Leo, why Leo? Did she make up a character or did she somehow know Leo from somewhere?

Leo grabbed bunches of tissues from the teacher's tissue box that sat at the corner of the desk. He threw them on top of the ink. It wasn't helping. The ink soaked slowly through the ink until the tissue was completely stuck to the teacher's desk.

But, the part that Leo couldn't forget was that he saw Aria in the ink puddle. But, why was she following him? Why him?

Ms. Dry started to walk back to the desk. She squeezed her stubby legs through a large crack in the desk. She expected to see her desk nice and clean, and, well dry! Leo grabbed two more tissues and quickly threw them randomly on top of the left over ink. It soaked through. He rolled all of the ink-covered tissues up into a small ball and wrapped them in yet, another tissue. He felt the desk. It was still wet. He grabbed Ms. Dry's handkerchief from her bag and dabbed the leftover ink. He hid the wet tissues behind his back.

"Well…" Ms. Dry said, hoping to find out why Leo was standing in front of his desk. "What are you doing here?"

Ms. Dry gave a confused look to Leo. He thought it was funny looking and he almost laughed right in Ms. Dry's face.

"Sorry, I'll go back to my desk!" Leo said, dabbing the desk with his hand.

Laura stood there, amazed at how Leo had gotten away with it. She had to blurt in.

"But, aren't you going to tell Ms. Dry about the accidental ink spill?" she yelled. Leo was furious. He showed this to Laura by giving her the meanest look that he had ever gave to a living person.

"An ink spill? What happened?" It was an accident. But, Ms. Dry would never believe that. Leo was so mad at Laura. She got him into this mess; She would get him out of it, too.

"Ya, Laura accidentally knocked over your ink bowl!" Leo lied.

Ms. Dry was curious. It seemed like she would have to find out more by…

"Detention!" Ms. Dry yelled, "for lying to your teacher!" How did Ms. Dry know that Leo had lied? "I saw you spill that bowl of ink from across the room, Leo!" Of course, she wasn't facing them but teachers have eyes on the back of their heads, all of them did. And, Ms. Dry was no acception.

It seemed like Leo and Laura would have to go to Detention Hall, that recess. But Leo wasn't worried because he had a plan, and Leo knew that his plan would work, they always worked. Otherwise, he would get into even more trouble. His parents had always wanted him not to break the rules, but his parents were going to have to be disappointed in Leo just a few more times in life. Because in a few years, he'd be living in a College Dorm.

"I've never had a detention, before!" Laura claimed, clenching her teeth together. Leo and Laura were both sitting in Detention Hall. "Why don't they just lock me up in Juvenile Detention?" Laura whined.

Leo looked at Laura, confused. 'She had never been in detention, before? Goodie Good' Leo thought to himself.

Leo mumbled about a million reasons about how neither of them should be in detention, but it wasn't long before Ms. Dry was shushing them quiet.

After a while sitting in Detention Hall Laura finally cracked. She had to get out. "Ms. Dry, can I go to the bathroom?" Ms. Dry silently shook her head, yes. Laura stuck her tongue out at Leo, and she ran out the door.

Not long after, a girl came into Detention Hall. Leo could have sworn that he saw her before. She sat down at the closest desk to the door and she pulled out a piece of paper from her side-bag.

Leo knew who it was. The way she erased, the way that she sharpened her pencil, the way she shoved all those words down onto such a small paper. And, most of all, the way her pencil never lifted the paper.

It was Aria. He was sure of it.

Leo grabbed his belongings, and moved down to the seat in front of Aria. He didn't want Ms. Dry to shush him, so whenever he talked he made sure it was just a whisper, but loud enough for Aria to hear him. And, he never gave eye contact with her. Otherwise, Ms. Dry would lift her head from her dictionary and her squinty eyes would see them talking to each other.

"Hey, Aria!" he whispered. She wasn't in the mood for talking, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Leo almost laughed out loud by how serious her voice was.

"Yes! Well actually, no." What was he supposed to say? He knew who she was, but did he know all about her?

"I'm confused." Aria said, in the most annoyed way possible. She was really having a grumpy day.

"My name is Leo, Leo Baltimore. I believe you're writing a book about me!"

Aria didn't lift her head for a while. But Leo could see her face. She was surprised and confused.

After a few completely silent minutes, Aria lifted her head and looked at all the features that Leo had the roundness of his head, the length of his arms. Her jaw dropped. She believed him, Leo could tell. But, she didn't want to admit it. "Oh," Aria said, "so this is what I get for wanting to be a writer!" she continued.

Leo was confused. 'What did I do?' he thought to himself.

"My parents always wanted me to be a car mechanic or something. They must have found out that I wanted to be a writer by reading my diary, then looking in that box that I have in my room! It's full with my stories packed in it!" Aria said, "They probably read 'Leo,' and they probably knew you from their book club or something, and now they're trying to confuse and scare me!" Aria said.

Leo was sad. Never, had he ever been so dissed in his life, before. "No, I'm a real person! I don't know how but everywhere I go, I hear your voice!" Aria thought about this. That's right, Leo was a story about a boy about his age, and it was about Aria writing a book about Leo, and it coming true!

Laura walked back in and plopped herself beside Leo.

Leo and Aria were staring at each other.

"You guys can keep thinking what you're thinking, I'm just going to keep thinking nothing!" Laura stupidly said.

Leo didn't want to stare at Aria's ink-covered face, any longer. He quickly changed the subject. "Alright, do you want to get out of this Detention Hall, or not?" he asked, and with that, Leo's plan burst into action.

CHAPTER 4 - Breakout

Aria pulled out a piece of paper from her side-bag.

Leo Layout

Who: Leo Baltimore and Aria Jewel

What: Aria Jewel is writing her new book, Leo.

When: Most of the story is in Presence

Where: New York City, California, Las Vegas, and The Moon

Leo was scared, but mostly because of the 'Where' category. And, he blurted his thoughts out aloud. "I have to go to the moon!"

Aria smirked at Leo, and opened her mouth to speak. Ms. Dry shushed her before she could. That's right! Leo still had to activate his plan.

Leo pulled his cell phone out from his coat pocket, and he quickly hid under a desk where Ms. Dry wouldn't be able to see him.

Bring.

Ms. Dry grabbed the phone from her desk, "Hello?" she asked. Leo quickly made his voice very deep.

"Um, Yes. This is Mr. Greg, the school secretary!" he said, "Miss Anne's Green Pontiac is about to be towed. Do you know how I can contact her?" Leo said, still using his deep voice.

"For your information, Miss Anne does not drive a Green Pontiac!" Ms. Dry said, as she stood up from her chair, "I do!" she blurted out, and ran out the door, leaving the phone lying on the ground.

"Alright! Let's get out of here!" Leo walked up to the door and began to open it. The door wouldn't budge, it was locked.

Leo glared up at the vent system. "Oh no!" Laura yelled. She was such a drama queen; "I'm not crawling up that thing! What if the furnace turns on?" Laura asked. "I've been up that thing so many times! The furnace is always on. This school had like a 'non stop heating' system!" he said.

Laura obviously didn't want to go, judging by what she had previously said. But, the door was locked and Leo was already unscrewing the vent. If she wanted to get out, she was going to have to take the hard way.

Leo crawled into the vent. Laura may not have liked the idea, but Aria was all for it. She crawled in as soon as she could shove her skinny legs into the vent. Laura didn't get in for a while, until she heard someone outside of the door. "Fine!" she had mumbled.

"Thank you, Leo!" Aria announced, "for finding a way to get us out of there. You really are my hero!" Aria claimed. Leo's cheeks turned bright red.

Leo pulled out a map from his pocket.

"Alright, according to the map, we should turn right at this intersection up here!" Leo stopped crawling. A noise was coming from a few tunnels away.

"What's that noise?" Laura asked. It was a human's voice.

There was someone else in the tunnel.

"How would anyone copy us?" Leo asked.

"I don't think anyone copied us, on those television shows the characters always escape through the air vents, somebody either finds out," Laura said, but Leo quickly shushed her. Maybe that person was the one who would find out. "Or, the vent brakes and everyone in it falls to certain doom!" Leo shushed her again, for two reasons. Number One, The person might hear their voices any try to find them. Number Two; all of the things that she just explained could happen. 'Don't jinks it! Or it just might happen!' he thought to himself.

Leo could only think of which it was, and the consequences…

Ms. Dry (Could get suspended)

Another student (Could become good friends)

Teacher's Assistant (Still get busted)

The School Janitor (Nothing)

Ms. Dry could very well be the person following them. Perhaps she came back from the fake Green Pontiac incident to find that Aria, Laura, and Leo were not in Detention Hall and the gate to the vent was open.

Another student could be the one, but the problem was that if they were a taddle-taler then they were all in big trouble.

A Teacher's Assistant could be him, too. In which case, they would squeal just to get an A+ on their makeup math test.

The School Janitor would be the safest one. Mr. Pierre was totally cool. He wasn't like a school employee; he was more like a 6-foot student. He would always help them with their personal stuff at school, and he would always be inventing things. If he was the one in the vent system, (he could be seeing if the vents are in order, or dusting them) then they would be happy.

But for now, all they could do was wonder. They tried to avoid the voice, crawling and tripping through the closest tunnels. But somehow, their twists and turns had led them directly to Mr. Pierre, they were safe. And it was definetly going to stay that way.

Mr. Pierre was the first to crawl out of the vent system.

"So, what were you kids doing in the vents?" he asked, "it's very unsafe, up there!"

Leo smirked. "We're not kids, anymore!" Leo claimed. "We're thirteen years old!"

Mr. Pierre was ashamed. 'Only 13? Way too young!' Mr. Pierre was probably just being a blow head because he was 'trained' to be climbing around in vents. Before he went to the Janitor Training Society, he was completely claustrophobic.

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" Aria asked. Mr. Pierre smiled. "No."

Laura and Leo smiled. But, the plan still wasn't over. They were still standing in the halls.

"I can't seem to find them!" A voice said in the background. Leo knew it was Ms. Dry. "Come on Guys!" he yelled, and began to run down the locker-covered hallway. Ms. Dry stepped out of the gymnasium, to see Mr. Pierre hiding behind his mop.

"Jake Pierre!" she yelled across the hallway, "You look like you just saw a ghost!" Pierre couldn't help staring at her. When he lied, he stared at who ever he lied to. "I can't tell a lie!" he squealed.

That was the only thing bad about Mr. Pierre. He could never do anything that would give him a bad reputation.

Meanwhile, Leo, Laura and Aria were already on the main floor. They were running so fast that Aria's long bangs flew back onto the top of her head.

On the way to the second floor, they had dodged three teachers, twelve students, and one mail cart. Make that four teachers.

They ran past the elevator just as it began to open.

After dodging a few more mail carts, they finally had reached the front door. Only it was locked. Leo visualized Ms. Dry. She had the key around her neck.

Jake Pierre was still babbling about how he couldn't tell a lie. He was telling some story about how when he was a child; he almost got arrested for telling a lie. Who knew that a school janitor could be a criminal, too?

After Pierre stopped crying, Ms. Dry began to speak. "So, have you seen Leo and his posy?" Ms. Dry said. 'Posy'? How 1970's' Jake thought to himself. Jake wouldn't lie. He would just tell the truth.

"I can honestly say that I have no idea where they are, or what they're doing!" How clever, Jake! "Oh." Ms. Dry sighed.

It had worked! He never lied. Mr. Pierre ran down the hallway before Ms. Dry could go any further with her questions.

Aria ducked down behind the garbage can. 'Oh Ya, I'm so sneaky!" she thought to herself. Mr. Pierre came around the corner of the school hallway and accidentally knocked down the garbage can. The garage came pouring down on Aria's head. "Hey!" she yelled out. Mr. Pierre glared down at Aria's garbage-covered head. "Sorry!" he said, as he picked an empty strawberry yogurt container off of Aria's head. Aria ran into the girl's washroom and glared at her head in the mirror.

Mr. Pierre ran over to Leo. "What happened? I thought you guys would have been gone, by now!" Mr. Pierre asked. Leo smiled.

"Well, the door is locked! So, we can't get out." Leo announced. Mr. Pierre played around in his pocket until he pulled out a bronze key. It looked like the same one that Ms. Dry had around her neck. "Here you go!" Mr. Pierre tossed the key into Leo's hands. He smiled, and began to walk down the hall, hoping that this would be a great drama moment.

"Mr. Pierre, won't you need your key back?" Mr. Pierre blushed, and ran back to Leo, who was already unlocking the door. The door made an unlocking noise. Leo grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open. He tossed the key back to Mr. Pierre.

"Aria and Laura!" Leo yelled, "Come on! We need to go!" Laura came running from the Computer Lab and Aria came running from the washroom. Leo waved goodbye to Mr. Pierre, and walked out the door. Laura and Aria were quick to follow them. Leo's plan had worked.

They were out.

CHAPTER 5 – A Trip to the Moon

The doorbell rang in the morning. It was Saturday. Leo was still in his pajamas, but he came running to the door. Aria stood there, wearing an astronaut's suit. 'What?' he though to himself. Was Aria actually asking him to go to the moon? "I need help with my novel!" Aria said, hoping he would come.

Leo shoved his shoes on his feet and jumped out the door. The snow had melted and it wasn't very cold today so he didn't need his coat. A book sat on the sidewalk. Leo picked it up. Midnight with no Moon was the name of the book.

Aria grabbed the book from Leo. She shoved her palm onto the picture of the moon. She closed her eyes and mumbled something, but Leo couldn't quite tell what it was. Before he knew it, he was standing on the moon wearing an astronaut's suit. It was like Aria had read them to the moon.

Aria ran over to Leo. "We need to be back by midnight!" she mumbled through her head mask. Leo thought about this, but then he remembered the title of the book. Aria had a special gift.

"I don't see what we're supposed to be doing here!" Leo said. Aria looked back at Leo. "I need help with my book, the moon is one of the locations in it and I need to find out what will happen on the moon!" she said, "If you're not going to help me then you can just go!"

Leo smiled. He had always wanted to go to the moon. In fact when he was young, he wanted to be an astronaut, before he watched a horror movie about astronauts, then he was even scared of learning about the solar system in Sixth Grade. He was still scared about being on the moon, right now but Aria had claimed that as long as they got back by midnight, everything was going to be absolutely fine.

Aria was still carrying around her side bag. She must have brought it everywhere that she went. She pulled out a paper from her bag, and sat down. She began to draw her point of view. All of those craters, and the sun shining in the distance. The galaxy sure was beautiful.

She began to look around for her star that she had bought online. She had memorized where it was, just a few stars down from the Milky Way. She couldn't find it, though. She remembered what he star looked like down on Earth, it had a medium glow and it was fairly large.

Aria continued drawing the craters and bumps on the moon's surface. Leo ran over to Aria and snatched the paper from her lap. "Wow!" he yelled.

"Ya, I know. It's not very good!" Aria sighed.

"No, it's really good."

Aria blushed. No one had ever appreciated her art that much, before. Aria pulled an eraser out of her bag and reached forward so that she could erase the crater.

Leo shoved the picture into her side bag. Aria felt confident. She smiled, and swung her side bag over her shoulder. She pulled the book out of her side bag, and covered her hand over the moon picture. She mumbled the same thing as before.

With a flash and a spark, Leo and Aria were standing on Leo's front sidewalk. Leo walked over and plopped himself onto one of the chairs on his porch. Aria came over and sat beside him.

A
ria finally believed Leo, and he felt somehow that he was going to find out everything that he wanted to know, right now. And, Leo felt like it would help him understand what was going on. Those voices following him everywhere he went were hard for him, but now he could find out all about it, right here and right now.

Aria smiled, and stood up. She looked down at Leo, who was glaring up at her. "Do you really want to know?" Aria asked. Leo shook his head and Aria sighed. She opened her mouth to begin, "I am writing a book about a fictional character named Leo. I guess that maybe I knew you from somewhere, you have a story to tell and I guess that I was the one to write it down." Aria announced.

Leo leaped up out of his chair. "I don't have a story to tell!" he said. Aria smiled, "Everyone has a story to tell. Even if it's their life story!" Aria said. Leo smiled. "When you put it like that, I guess I do have a story to tell!" he said.

Leo's life was actually kind of interesting. You can write a story about anyone because everyone has a story to tell.

Leo and Aria plopped back down onto their chairs. Aria swung her side bag off of her shoulders and she pulled out a fresh new lined piece of paper. She set it on the table, and pulled out her pencil.

"Now that you know you have a story, you need to write it!" Aria announced. She was so happy. Having Leo with her would make it much easier to write about his life. He could get all of the details, and Aria could make up all of the creative, fiction things in his life. Leo grabbed the pencil from Aria and began to scribble down some words on the paper.

They sat there for hours, writing and erasing and finally the story was finished. Aria grabbed the paper from Leo and read the entire thing. Leo was definetly a fast writer. He had left some spots where Aria could write her creative things, and draw pictures. Aria flipped through the pages until she found the chapter about the moon, she read it, then grabbed the moon crater picture out of her side bag. She plastered the glue stick on the back, and shoved it into the space. Perfect fit.

Aria read the rest of the pages, when she was done she wrote a title at the top of the page.

She grabbed the pencil from Leo and scribbled down his name in handwriting. She quickly drew a picture of Leo beside his name while he wasn't looking, and it actually turned out quite nice. Before Leo could realize what she had done, she shoved the papers into her side bag.

Leo grabbed the papers back, and glared at his picture. "I have a really big nose!" he giggled. Aria laughed, and she grabbed the stapler out of her side bag.

She shoved the papers inside the edge, and pressed down on the handle. She kept pressing down on it until she heard the 'snip' noise, then she pulled the papers away.

Leo was stapled.

She shoved the story back inside her side bag and stood up. She swung it around her shoulder, smiled at Leo, and she walked down the front steps. Leo smiled, and got up. He walked over to the door and twisted the knob. He walked upstairs and laid on his bed, his face planted into the pillow. Although no one could see it, he was smiling a big, bright smile. His lips were almost to small to smile that much.

Aria had explained what she was doing here, she was completely innocent. Just a writer looking for something to write about.

He flipped over and gazed up at the ceiling, and it gazed back at him.

CHAPTER 6 - Gone

Leo had been so happy in the past few days, and tomorrow he would be even happier because him and Aria were going to call a publisher to publish Leo.

He could already see his name in the stores as he walked by. He imagined it.

The #1 New York Times Best Seller,

By Leo Baltimore and Aria Jewels

Leo

That's exactly what the poster and book covers were going to say. He almost laughed at his thoughts, two thirteen-year-olds writing an award- winning book, or even get Leo published.

Leo wasn't really laughing at the idea, he thought that the publishers would like such young kids taking interest in writing books. Maybe he would at least think about it. But for now, all that Leo could do was think about it. Maybe people wouldn't respond to such young writers in that kind of way, they could end up being the laugh-stalk at school, but then they could say 'At least we tried to follow our dreams!'

It probably wouldn't be easy getting Aria's father to agree with the idea, either. Unless of course, they never told him. Leo's parents probably wouldn't approve of the idea, either but they never had to know!

His parents wouldn't regret this. The book was going to be a hit seller, and bring in millions. Leo was sure of it. He had the feeling deep down inside of him. The book would be a success, and so would he.

Leo had cried himself to sleep that night.

Those past few days had been hard for him; he couldn't get his mind off of Aria. He had a horrible dream that he submitted 'Leo' to a publisher, and they rejected him and gave him a fine of Ten Million dollars for wasting their time. If he didn't pay it, he would go to jail.

Leo had nightmares sense he was just a child, the worst of them. Not just the ones where someone is chasing you and you run until your lungs burst, and you're left coughing up the small pieces. Leo's nightmares were scarier than life, itself.

From being buried alive to getting his head cut off and living, Leo couldn't resist begging his parents to let him stay up an extra hour on a school night as a child.

His parents had tried taking him to a clinic, wondering why he would wake up screaming, every night. There was no cure, and Leo still woke up crying every once in a while. There was even a few times that Leo had woke up, laying on the bottom stair of his house, wondering how he had got there.

Leo shot up out of the bed and shoved his small feet into his mom's pink and fuzzy slippers.

He loved his mom's slippers. Not because of the pink and girliness of them, but because they felt so warm on his cold feet. Leo shoved his warm hands into his house coat pockets. He jumped onto the first step, the second step, then continued walking down the stairs. His parents were making pancakes for him in the kitchen. 'Pancakes? Who died?' Leo thought to himself. Leo smiled, and shoved himself onto the small stool.

His parents were smiling; they scooped three chocolate chip pancakes onto a plate and put them on the island table. Leo's dad grabbed the maple syrup out of the fridge and threw it over onto the table.

Leo smiled, 'Chocolate Chip Pancakes? All right, somebody died here!' he thought to himself. His mom sat down beside him and stuck her knife into a pile of pancakes.

"Good morning, son!"

Leo smiled, what was he supposed to say? 'Oh I'm good, who died?' he thought to himself. What if no one died, maybe they were just being kind.

"Good morning to you, too!" he blurted out, "What's with the pancakes?"

His mom smiled. "We know you liked them, you were probably getting tired of those toaster waffles!"

Leo had pancakes every morning. He gave Emily his toaster waffles, so that he could eat his pancakes and get away with it. He was getting tired of pancakes, but you couldn't go wrong with chocolate chips!

"Ya, I was!" Leo exclaimed. Did they know about the pancakes every morning, or the smoke detectors that alarmed, a few years ago? No, they couldn't know about it. They would have confronted him along time ago. Emily blabbed! That's what happened. She got tired of the toaster waffles and told her parents. They thought she was so innocent, just eating her Lucky Charms like she's an angel!

Leo finished his pancakes, got dressed, and left for school. When he got out, Aria was waiting for him on the sidewalk. She was glancing at him, with a pale face. She wasn't smiling her normal morning smile.

"What? You seem like you just saw a ghost!" Leo exclaimed. 'Why is Aria looking at me like that?' he thought to himself.

"I can't find Leo! It's been stolen." Aria said. Leo's smile turned into a frown. "Are you sure? Maybe you just misplaced it!" Leo blurted out. He couldn't believe it. After all that hard work that they put into writing 'Leo' it was stolen. 'Who would do such a thing?' he thought.

Aria pulled her side bag off of her shoulders, she rustled through the loose papers, Leo was still nowhere to be found. "Who do you think would steal it?" Leo asked her. She did nothing but shrugged her shoulders.

Leo was gone, and by the look on Aria's face, they couldn't count on it coming back. "What's the big deal? Why can't we make another one?" Leo said. Aria almost laughed. 'What's the big deal?' she thought to herself, absent-minded Leo, as always.

"The big deal is that someone has it! They can have it published, and they would get all the credit!" Leo had never thought about it like that, before.

Leo almost had a smile on his face. "Didn't we make a rough draft?" Leo asked. Aria shook her head, yes.

Leo had big plans. He sat down on the steps and pulled out his cell phone. He quickly dialed the publisher's number. A woman answered the door.

"White Cross Publishers, how may I help you?"

Leo smiled, and quickly changed his voice before anything else happened.

"Hello," he said formally, "My name is Leo Baltimore. I am interested in publishing a book!" Aria gave him two thumbs up.

"Yes, why don't you come down here late afternoon and we can discuss this." No one had to know that he was young, for now.

"Sure." He answered, "that would work perfectly." Leo pressed the 'TALK' button.

Aria had a big, bright smile on her face, showing all of her bright, white teeth. Her cheeks began to hurt.

"But, what are you going to do when they find out that you're just a kid?" Aria asked. Leo already had a plan, and there was no reason to have a drawing board, for this one.

Leo wasn't thinking at school, that day. Ms. Dry must have yelled at him at least seven times to pay attention. "Leo! Stop day dreaming!" she would yell, in her deep and scratchy voice. Leo would shoot up his head from his desk.

There was a knock on the door. T.J, who was the closest to the door, jumped out of his bright, blue chair and hugged the doorknob. He twisted the doorknob and the door swung open, leaving him bathing in a deep puddle, just out the portable door.

Leo wasn't paying attention to any of this, until he saw who it was that came in the portable.

Aria Jewels was stomping her feet on the ground as quiet, but as noticeable as she could, trying to get Leo's attention.

Leo sprang up from his chair, and waved. Once he noticed that the entire class was staring at him, she collapsed down, back onto his chair.

"Hello, Ms. Jewels," Ms. Dry said, "how can I help you on this bright and sunny afternoon?" Aria's face went pale, her smile turned into a frown. Thoughts bounced through her head, she tried so hard to remember what she was going to say that she could have sworn that she heard her brain erupt, inside her head.

After a while of her teeth doing nothing but clenching, an expression of astonishment appeared on her face, "It's Mr. Pierre, he wants to talk to you!" she yelled. Ms. Dry ran out the door. Aria shrugged her shoulders, and began to walk across the classroom to Leo.

"There, now I don't have to be embarrassed, coming into a different class!" she said. She collapsed into the closest, empty chair nearest Leo. She wasn't smiling, which meant that Leo was nowhere to be found.

At the end of the day, the bell rang.

Leo swung the door open, and jumped down the portable steps. Aria was waiting for him. She had the same big, bright smile, as before.

He ran up to her. They smiled at each other, and they quickly ran to Aria's house, where a taxi was waiting for them.

Leo hugged the door, and swung it toward himself. He jumped it, and shot his neck up, over the front seat pillow.

"Where do you need to go?" the cab driver asked, as he pulled out a city map. His finger raced around the area, until he found a street called 'Right Avenue'

Leo collapsed back into the back seat. The cab driver smiled, and stared at him. He threw a ten- dollar bill into his lap.

Leo's phone began to ring. Leo jumped at the loud bell. He scooted over, as far from the car driver as could be. He pulled his cell phone out of his furry coat pocket and flicked the cover off.

"Honey, where are you?"

Leo blushed.

"I'm at a friend's house!"

Aria glanced at him, and waved. He waved back, with an annoyed expression painted on his face.

"What friend?" she asked. Leo glanced at Aria, and mouthed 'What friend?' to her. Aria was quick to respond, and she pointed at herself.

"We're doing a science project!" he said, hoping he wouldn't have to mention any names.

"With who?" she asked.

He was going to have to say it,

"Just, this one girl" he spoke into the phone. Although Leo couldn't see his mom's face, he knew she was smiling and blushing. "A girl?" she asked him. 'Why me?' he thought to himself. "Ya."

Leo was embarrassed; he glanced at Aria, who was blushing. "The teacher chose the partners!" he quickly added, hoping it would happen.

"Oh, alright then! But be back before dinner!" she said. It had worked. Now he could get to the White Cross, and back without his parents discovering.

"Well, we better get started, bye mom!" he blurted, and quickly hung up the phone before his mom could make any more embarrassing comments.

The cab driver began to sing. Leo really couldn't tell what he was singing, nor could Aria. But, he looked old so they figured it was some 1940's or '50's song.

An old man singing normally wouldn't bother Leo, but the fact was that he was actually a really good singer.

Aria didn't think it was possible for an old man to be a good singer. Especially someone who looks like they should have retired, about a year ago.

He sang for the rest of the ride there. Once they arrived at The White Cross, the man got out of the car and began to dance. Leo couldn't spot another person for at least a block away, so they began to dance with him. He was doing some 'Disco 70's Dance,' so it was hard for Aria and Leo to follow him.

"Well, we really should be going!" Leo said, hoping that the man would agree, and leave.

"Oh, alright. Well, this was fun!" he said, opening the car to the cab, "Bye, now!" he said. The man got into the car, and drove away.

Leo and Aria weren't in the mood for doing anymore dancing, so they trotted off, to The White Cross.

CHAPTER 7 – Mad Man

Aria and Leo entered The White Cross.

There was a golden brown, wooden desk at the end of a long hallway. The sides of the hall were crammed with small offices and restrooms. Leo read the names on the office doors. They kept walking until they reached the end of the hall, with the desk.

There was a Middle-aged Texas woman sitting on the opposite side of the desk. The long table was flooded with papers, and an old, dirt-stained computer sat at the far end of the desk. A tall man was typing away on the large computer keyboard.

There was a nameplate sitting on the desk, with golden letters. Leo squinted to read the name, 'Flo Anderson' he read.

"Can I help you?" Flo asked.

Leo smiled, with a mature smile. Leo was not mature, at all but by the expression on Flo's face, it seemed like she believed him.

"We called this morning. We would like to publish our story." Aria said, trying to imitate Leo's voice, as much as she could. Aria knew that he hadn't done a good job, but if Flo fell for his. Plus she was a way better actor.

Flo tilted her glasses to the end of her nose. Leo could hardly resist holding his hand under them and catching them incase they fell.

"Oh, I remember you, the one with the deep voice?" Flo asked. Leo flashed a brag grin at Aria. "Yes, it was sort of scratchy. But I'm feeling much better, now!" he said, still grinning at Aria.

"Okay, can I see your story?" Flo asked. Aria swung her side nag off of her shoulders and dug around until she pulled out about fifty papers.

Flo smiled, and snatched the papers from her hands. "Thanks, Good night." Leo blushed. "You mean, we can go now?" Aria asked.

Flo pulled out her keyboard. "Yes." So, Leo and Aria turned around and began to walk back to the front entrance.

Once they got about halfway to the entrance, there was a man standing at the doorway of an office. He was very pale, and he looked like he hadn't slept for a while because he had purple sags underneath his eyes. He was waving his arms, signaling them to come. Aria squinted, and she began to walk slowly towards the man.

"Who are -?"

"No asking questions, I need to talk to you!"

The man looked both ways to see if anyone was peeping, "But not here"

He tripped over, inside his office and flopped down on his chair. Aria and Leo sat down in the chairs opposite.

"Don't sit down! I just had those shampooed!" he said. Leo quickly shot up from the chair. "My name is Manny"

Leo and Aria leaned against the wall. They didn't know what to say Manny just sat there, staring at them.

It was too quiet; they needed to say something,

"Um – I'm Leo"

A smile appeared on Manny's face. Aria felt awkward.

Leo looked for a golden nameplate; there was one on the office door, instead of the desk. It said 'Manny Taws'

"Mr. Taws,"

"How do you know my last name?"

Leo sprang his thumb over his shoulders until he was directly pointing at the golden door nameplate.

"Oh" Mr. Taws blushed.

"Why exactly did you want to see us, Mr., um," Aria asked

"Mr. Taws, Mr. Manny Taws" Manny corrected.

"Right, but you still haven't answered the question that I asked."

Manny rolled his eyes, "I already told you not to ask questions!"

"I think he forgot that he invited us into his office. We can't even ask him why?" Aria whispered into Leo's ear.

"Hey," Manny yelled, "no whispering in my office! It's not good to keep secrets. That's what your father always told you!"

Aria was expecting no response from Leo, but a few seconds after Mr. Taws had stopped blabbering about keeping secrets and what not, Leo shoved his elbow into Aria's ribs and said, "Don't worry, I got it"

Leo tilted his head away from Aria's head before Mr. Taws could notice. "How do you know that?"

Mr. Taws looked both annoyed and confused, "know what?" he asked.

"I mean how my father always told me not to keep secrets!"

Manny's angry frown turned into a slight smile.

"You know, Leo Baltimore." He said, Leo was wondering how he knew his last name, too. "You should not be so scared of strangers, surely they may seem strange and scary, at first but isn't that the exact definition of strange-rs? You should not judge a book by its cover. I'm sure that both your father and your school librarian have told you that many times." By the way that Manny was looking at Leo, he could have sworn that Manny wasn't human. "What are you?" he asked, accidentally thinking allowed. "How many times must I tell you? Do not judge a book by its cover! You should definetly be taking some lessons about this, useless non-believers. You should definetly be careful, though. It may brush off."

Leo wasn't exactly sure what Manny was babbling about, but he had been listening enough to respond, and so he did. "Brush off on what?"

Manny was looking at Leo in a more non-human way then Leo would have even thought was possible. Manny jumped up from his chair, and stuck his nose up in the air. "On what you touch!" He said, his head dropped back down so that they could both see his nose again, before Leo could ask anymore questions, (which he knew that Manny would just refuse to answer them) he walked out the door.

So many unanswered questions were swimming around inside Leo's head. What did he not believe in? How did this man know his last name? How did he know about what his father and librarian told him? Leo thought and thought until he could have sworn that he felt his brain explode, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn't find a single answer to any of the questions.

Aria walked out the door, and Leo followed. Before they left, Leo glanced up at the top of the door, trying to find the golden nameplate. It was still there. He walked out, and after a few seconds facing the wall opposite to the office, he glanced back at the office. It was gone, and the only thing left was a photocopier and a printer. It was almost as if the office was never there. There was a shining gold board lying on the ground, Leo bent down to pick it up. It read 'Mr. M. Taws' in big, bold, silver letters. There were some smaller silver letters underneath his name, they read exactly what Leo thought that Manny was, he had to squint to see the words, this time Leo read the words aloud, "Mad Man."

CHAPTER 8 – Aria Jewels

Leo swung open the cab door.

It was a ride that had seemed like it had lasted forever. Leo had just explained everything about the nameplate. Aria had been too scared to stay at the White Cross, any longer and she had already been pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, calling a cab while Leo was just discovering the golden board, laying on the ground.

Leo wouldn't think that his parents would mind if he had a friend over, so he brought Aria inside with him.

"Hi, mom and dad!" he said, as he took off his boots. "I brought home a friend!"

There was pan clattering noises coming from the kitchen, and an empty egg carton sitting on the counter, so Leo was guessing that his mom was making 'Breakfast for Dinner' He could hear his mom's voice over the clattering.

"Really? I would love to meet them! Just wait one second while I put more bacon onto the pan."

Leo and Aria came in and sat at the island. Aria wasn't used to sitting up on a stool so high, and she almost fell off. (It had taken her a while to get on it, never mind staying on it)

His mom spun around, still holding the pan in her hand. The smell of sizzling bacon rose up to Leo's nose. How he loved bacon, so much.

"Who might you be?"

Aria was a lot of things, but 'shy' were not one of them, especially with parents. She treated parents like her friends, always trying to crack jokes. (Even though she wasn't funny, at all)

His mom pinched a piece of bacon to see if it was hot, and she shoved it into her mouth.

"I just might be the wonderful Aria Jewels!" she said. His mom spat the bacon across the room. The chewed up bacon flew; Leo could see some water (spit) on the bacon. It kept flying across the room until it landed on the floor.

"Eeeww!" Emily screeched. She didn't like eating bacon, never mind seeing it fly across the room, spit-coated.

Leo's mother's face turned bright red. His father shot his head up from his newspaper; he had both a green and white face. Almost like the man at the White Cross, but he also had the vomit green color tinged in.

"Erica," his father said. Erica was Leo's mom's name. "Can I talk to you, in private?" His mom looked scared, and nervous. Trying to hide this, she stood up straight and put the pan back onto the stove. It was still sizzling. Leo, Aria, and Emily ran out of the room. Victor, (Leo's dad) slammed it behind them.

Leo couldn't believe it. Never mind making a bad impression on Aria, but he didn't even get a bite of his favorite supper.

Leo shoved his right ear up against the door.

"Victor," that was his mom's voice, "what are we going to do?" Leo couldn't see it, but he knew that his mom had her hand on her hips.

"We definetly have to keep him from hanging out with her." Leo's face went the same color that his dad's face had been.

Aria jumped up off the floor, "What are they saying?"

Leo shoved his finger to his lips, "Shhh!" he hissed.

"But, it will be hard to do that when they go to the same school." His mom said. Aria had got the feeling that Leo wasn't going to answer her, so she ran over to the door and pressed her ear to the door, so that she could see Leo's expressions.

Leo collapsed down onto the ground so that he could see his or her feet, and know if anyone was coming. A loud screech came from behind Leo. It was Emily, crying.

"Emily," he said, comfortingly, "what are you crying about?"

Emily's head lifted from her knees, her eyes were blood-shut from the tears. "I am so hungry!" she said, "I got in trouble today, and my teacher made me stay in for the entire break. I didn't even get to eat!" she cried.

Leo stroked her hair, and wiped the tears off of her face with his sleeve. He jumped up, and went straight back to the door, just in time to hear something horribly painful.

"Should we move away?" his dad's voice asked his mom.

Leo felt as if his stomach had fallen out of his butt. 'Move away? Just becau-se of Aria?' he thought to himself. Leo was horribly sad, he might have even dropped a few tears. Leo wasn't listening, he wouldn't have heard much, anyway, just his parents saying "how long do you think they've been friends, for?" and "how long ago did they meet?"

A few quiet minutes passed, other then his parents still talking about where they were moving to, Leo had stopped crying and was doing the 'Are they Coming?' foot duty. Silence came from the kitchen, and they began to walk towards the door.

Leo and Aria sprang back from the door and they both sat on each side of Emily, stroking her head. They had gotten there just in time because the second that they began, Leo's parents stepped out of the kitchen door.

Leo could tell that his mom was crying, but she was trying to sound like not-hing had happened. "All right, who wants dinner?" Emily shot up from the hallway floor and she ran across the hall. She didn't stop running until she was sitting at the island, her fork and knives in hands.

Leo was the first to get his plate. Leo thought and thought. 'How did they know to make me my favorite dinner?' It was almost as if his parents knew that the entire 'Aria Jewels' thing was going to happen.

CHAPTER 9 – Confessions

Emily and Leo didn't sleep very well that night. His parents didn't, either.

So, Leo woke up, still tired. He remembered that it was Friday, so he still had to get to school.

When he arrived downstairs, his parents were waiting for him at the dining room table. Leo sat down at an empty chair, across from his father.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" his mom asked his father. He did nothing, but shook his head, "yes"

His father grabbed his son's hand over the table. Leo was scared. 'Am I in trouble?' he thought to himself. He had never seen his mom look so worried and impatient. His mother began to cry. "Just get it over with! I can't wait any longer!" she squealed.

His father let go of his son's hand, and he began to speak. "You're from the future." He said.

Leo didn't know what to say. 'Are you calling me old?' he thought to himsel-f, but he didn't say it aloud. That could make him very angry. "This entire family is from the future." His mom continued. His father was too deep in tears to explain any longer. "Just, ask one questions and I'll answer it, and continue." His mom said. Leo had too many questions, but he asked the one that came up to the top of his tongue.

"Are you out of your mind?" he asked, "everyone knows that there's no such thing as time traveling!" he continued.

"Leo, honey. You're making this harder then it needs to be. You are from the year 2030. We needed to move here so that you would be safe. Lord Jewels could have killed the whole town of 2030, we saved that from happening."

Leo had another question. "Wait, Lord Jewels? Is that…" Leo went pale in the face.

"Yes, Leo. It is Aria Jewels' father. That's what we were talking about, yest-erday in the kitchen. We didn't want either of you to find out about it. Neither you nor Aria was born when we moved. If we were to stay there a day longer then we would have all been killed, and you wouldn't be alive today. I was pregnant with you when we moved away from 2030. You were born about a month after we came here. Lord Jewels stayed in 2030, and Aria was adopted. She doesn't even know that she was, either. Lord Jewels was a mad man; he was plotting to kill all of 2030. We needed to move, right away. Then we just continued our lives, here. There is a special school for time-traveling children and we're sending you there, today. Your father had already packed the things that you will need. They teach more then time traveling, though. They teach magic and ordinary knowledge. It will be just like going to school, but you will learn a few things extra. The school is in the sky, so you will be staying there for the rest of the school year, but you shouldn't worry. They welcome new comers. I know that it will be hard to leave your friends, but The T.O.M. has many people. You're sure to find some new friends!"

Leo was crying, by now. "What is 'The T.O.M.?"

His mother smiled a big, bright smile. "I am so glad that I've told you all of this, T.O.M. stands for Time Traveling, Ordinary Knowledge, and Magic."

Leo's frown turned upside down. He was sad to leave home, but excited to get to The T.O.M.

After Leo had put his clothes on and had breakfast, he ran out the front door and there was a dark red double-decker bus waiting for him. He climbed in and saw that it was bigger and more spectacular inside.

There were many restaurant booths that were packed with people. At the back, there was a washroom and a small kitchen. A tall, skinny man was waiting for him at the back of the bus. "Are you Leo Baldimore?" he asked. Leo smiled, "Yes, and it's Baltimore!" he said. The man went pale, "Please, Mr. Baldimore, lower your voice or you will wake up the spirits!" he looked both ways. 'He's doing that to see if any spirits are there?' Leo thought to himself. The man climbed up the steps to the top level. The man led him down the narrow hall to the back seats. "You can sit beside Ms. Jewels!" he said, Leo searched around to find Aria, and saw her waving her arm off at him. He plopped down in the seat beside her, and gave her a tight hug.

"Oh my goodness, Leo Baltimore! Your parents scared me, I thought that I'd never see you, again!" Aria pulled her head off of Leo's shoulder. Leo glanced across the table. There was a kid sitting on the other side, he had dark, brown hair and florescent-green eyes. He had a strange smile painted on his face. "Who's this?" Leo asked.

Aria looked to see who he was talking about, and glanced back to Leo. "Who?"

Leo looked back; the small boy was gone. "I swear, there was just someone sitting there!" Leo had a confused look, "I don't know where it…"

Aria smiled, "It's alright, Leo. I believe you! You've never lied to me, before." Leo smiled. It was true; he never had such a good friend. "So," Leo said, "you really believe me?" they both went red in the face.

"Of course."

Leo had turned into a bright shade of magenta, and quickly changed the subject, "When did your parents tell you about The T.O.M?"

"They're not my parents," Aria mumbled under her breath, "they told me this morning. Before I could put up a fight, they were already shipping me out." Leo grabbed Aria's hand.

"They loved you, Aria. They just wanted to do what was best for you. Imagi-ne what would happen if they let you grow up, until you moved out of the house and they still didn't tell you?"

"Wow, I had never thought about it that way. Thank you, Leo. You really are a great friend!" Leo turned magenta, again.

"Besides, I'm sure that this place is going to be really cool." Leo said, as Aria pulled a 'The T.O.M.' brochure out of her coat pocket. The brochure had big, bright, gold letters saying 'The T.O.M.' it seemed as if they were popping out of the front cover of the brochure. Underneath the words, was a large, gray building?

Leo snatched the brochure from Aria's hands.

"Hey! Who's mom gave who the brochure?" Leo was concentrating on the building.

"I've seen this place, before!"

"Rubbish, this is the first time that everyone on this bus will ever be at The T.O.M. You know, this place has a very dull name. Couldn't they make it something like 'The School of Time Travel Transportation and Wizardry' That seems more interesting, otherwise people will be asking the same question for the rest of their lives," Aria turned her voice into a very high one, "What does T.O.M. stand for? Couldn't they just say Tom? Hey that's my brother's name! Why are you gossiping about my brother? He's big and manly!"

Leo wasn't listening to Aria any longer. He was already on page three of six of the brochure. He hardly remembered that he had seen the place, before. He was too busy reading about all of the famous teachers who taught at The T.O.M. He had even heard about some of them, himself. He didn't remember where, but he figured that they might have slipped out of his parent's mouth by accident.

"Where are we going?" Aria yelled. Leo shot his head up from the brochure and stared out the window. They were entering what seemed like a car wash. After a few seconds, they were flying!

There were some screams behind them, and they were soaring through clou-ds! A flock of geese flew past them. Airplane wings shot out of the side of the bus, it seemed almost as if it was a flying bus.

"This is so cool!" Aria yelled, her hands and face plastered against the window. Leo was excited, too.

Out in the distance, Leo saw the gray building, sitting on a cloud. The tension was building. They flew some more, and landed on a road that was attached to a cloud, a cloud very near The T.O.M.

Leo hadn't realized it, but he had a really big smile on his face. He wasn't sad about leaving home, anymore. There was nothing that he would have missed, now that he knew that Aria was coming, too. Of course, he would miss his parents, and maybe even Emily. But by the looks of the brochure and the school, it looked like it would be loads of fun.

Aria still had her nose flat against the window.

There were some other floating vehicles outside the window. There was a large garage on the front of the school, and all cars and buses of shapes and sizes came zooming out.

They were still driving on the asphalt road, and they finally reached a large parking lot. The bus drove all the way to the very back of the parking lot, and parked in a large spot. Everyone jumped out of the bus and they landed on a long, concrete sidewalk. There was a very short girl standing at the front of the crowd. She had long, golden brown hair and hazel-brown eyes. She was wearing a brown and black striped cardigan and blue caprice. Behind her, was a large, gray table with books spread across it?

"Hello, first graders! My name is Professor Mackenzie. Here at the T.O.M, we teach you three things! Can anyone name one of them?"

A girl with red hair's hand shot up in the front, along with some other people. "Yes, redhead." Professor Mackenzie said.

The girl wiped off her angry face, and spoke, "The 'T' stands for Time Travel transportation!" the girl said.

"Yes, very good. Now, what about the 'O'?" Another twenty people's hands shot up. Professor Mackenzie pointed to someone in the back.

"The 'O' stands for Ordinary Knowledge!" the person in the back said.

"Wow! Your parents most have told you a lot! Now, last but definetly not least, it's the biggest thing…" Some hands were already shooting and waving in the air, 'Oh! Me!'

Professor Mackenzie finished her sentence, "that we support, here at The T.O.M!" People's hands were waving even harder, 'Me, me, me!'

Professor ushered her hand across the crowd, until she was pointing directly at Leo.

"You in the back, with the blonde hair!" she yelled. Leo glanced at Profess-or Mackenzie. "Me?"

"Yes!"

"Well, the 'M' stands for magic!" he said. The teacher gave a big, bright smile to him. "I expect great things for all who answered! It's hard to remember all of those things, I even have some problems with remembering them, myself!" her voice faded away, Leo guessed that she didn't want to talk about a professor forgetting their own school name.

"Now," Professor Mackenzie said, as she pointed at the table, behind her, "These are some of the books that The First Graders are privileged to read, they are all interesting and written by highly-skilled authors, who have attended The T.O.M, themselves. They all cost roughly seven dollars."

Leo stared at the sky. "I didn't bring any money!" he said. Aria smiled. "Don't worry, Leo. Your parents will probably zap you money very soon!" she whispered.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Baltimore pulled her wand out of her pocket and mumbled something under her breath, "Calabrazang!" she said.

Suddenly, Leo felt a drifting in his pocket. He shoved his hand into the pocket and pulled out three hundred dollars.

"Wow, they've never gave me this much money, before. Do you think that they really trust me with it?" Leo asked Aria. But, before Aria could answer, Professor Mackenzie was ushering everyone out of the parking lot, and into the building, where a new adventure would begin.

CHAPTER 10 – Hawks and Bewitcheds

Professor Mackenzie escorted everyone into a large, narrow hallway. She walked up, onto a golden and black stage. She stood with three other men, who Leo recognized immediately from the brochure's staff section.

"Welcome to The T.O.M. Main Lobby!" she welcomed, "Standing here with me are The T.O.M. heads, Sir Montgomery "Monty" Bewitched and Madame Monalale "Mona Lisa" Hawk." There was a large applause from the audience. "In a few moments, Sir Bewitched will separate us into our houses for the term. Then, each house will go out separately to the table to buy their books."

Sir Bewitched grabbed Mackenzie's microphone and tugged it toward his mouth. "Welcome to the T.O.M! If you would follow me down to The Grand Hall, then I will be able to separate all of you."

Mr. Bewitched spun around, and climbed down the stairs. He walked down a large hallway. In the hallway were some normal-sized doors that led to classrooms and at the end of the hallway, some large, marble steps leading to fancy french doors. Sir Montgomery walked down two steps, and stopped at the last. He turned around.

"The hall that you have just walked through is called 'Bewitched Hall.' Here at The T.O.M, we named the houses after the first heads of the school, which in this case would be my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather and Madame Monalale's Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother. They were married, and built The T.O.M, themselves, just six hundred years ago. When they built The T.O.M, there no doubt favorite room was the room that you are all about to enter. But, take a good look, because after this peek, you won't see it until Grade Six Graduation."

Monty spun around, and jumped down the last step. He walked down the short hallway that led to the Great Hall. He grabbed the handle, and pulled it open.

The Great Hall was by far the largest, and impressive room that Leo had ever set foot on.

In the middle of the room, was a large court, there was a large, round table in the center, and surrounded by it were some semi-circle tables. They all had golden nameplates, like the one that had been on Manny's door and Flo's desk. Surrounded by these desks, were some long and skinny tables on each end.

Leo looked up, there was a large balcony up on the wall, on that balcony was a square table. Leo could see that there was a golden nameplate on this table, but it was much brighter then the rest of them. Leo couldn't stop staring at the balcony.

"Who sits up there?" Leo asked Professor Mackenzie.

"Who sits where?" Leo pointed further, and more directly.

"Um. That's not important, right now." She said, and quickly ran over to Monty.

Surrounding the tables were large trophy cabinets and pedestals.

"Please gather around, everyone. Please form into a straight line." Monty yelled. Everyone skipped over to him.

"Thank you." Sir Montgomery said as he pointed to someone in the front.

"Monalale." He said. The girl gave a big smile, and ran over to Mackenzie.

"Professor Mackenzie and Madame Monalale, would you like to help me?" Monalale scurried over to the end of the line, and started thinking hard about each child, reading their minds and everything that they knew.

"Monalale, Montgomery, Monalale, Monalale, Montgomery." She went the fastest. Someone's hand spat up.

"What about the third house?" the person asked.

"The what?" Monty asked, trying to pretend that he didn't hear her, "That house is only available for the fourth graders and up."

The girl's hand slowly went down, but then shot back up.

"What?" Montgomery yelled.

"But, we're only first graders" she said.

"Yes, I know that! That's why I said it. You will just have to do very well, then you may have a chance of being in the other term house."

"What's the other house called?" a short, stubby boy in the middle of the long, narrow line asked.

"That information is only available for the fourth graders, and up!" There was applause of disappointment, waving across the crowd. Monalale and Monty continued putting everyone into houses. Everyone was crowded into his or her groups, at the end. Except for Leo, Aria, and another tall kid. They all had a look of panic on their faces. Monalale was gleaming at them.

Then it hit Leo, what if it was all a mistake – what if she told Aria and him that there were supposed to be some other people, filling their spots and that they needed to go home, immediately.

"You are some hard eggs." Monalale said, still resting her chin in her fingers, "but I think that what would be best for your large, intelligent minds would be…"

It was so intense. 'Why can't she just get it over with?' Aria thought. Monalale was gleaming at them, with bigger eyes then ever. Groups, Monalale and Montgomery were both gleaming at the three children. Mona-lale quickly changed her focus from all three of them, to just one.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Zererp Mow?" Monalale asked, dangling her fingers across the tall boy's face, his name was Zererp.

'What a strange name, Zererp!' Leo though to himself.

"Son of Sir Milos Mow and Madame Jane Zererp. Well, your records were by far most impressive, so, I think that it will have to be…"

Aria was still thinking the same thing.

"Montgomery." Monalale said. A jumbo smile appeared on Zererp's face. He was so excited! Zererp ran over to the Montgomery crowding.

Monalale set her eyes onto Aria and Leo.

"I think I might need a potion, for this one." She said, as she pulled out a wand from her knee-high sock.

"Macanius Monalale!" she said, pointing her wand to a large water glass on a counter. She walked over, and poured some of the contents into two small glass cups.

She walked back to Leo and Aria, and handed them both a glass. Leo gulped his down, and Aria slowly sipped hers. They both began to turn a bright magenta color.

"It seems that both of you are fit for a Monalale spot." Mona Lisa said.

"Wait, what does that mean, if we're meant to be a Monalale?" Leo asked.

"It means," Monalale said, "that you are both highly intelligent and will do best in potions and charms, you know, magic themes."

Leo blushed, and ran over to the Monalale group. Aria was quick to follow. And, so it was. Their first school year at the T.O.M. had begun, and Leo could feel that this would be something that he wouldn't regret. He wouldn't regret agreeing with his parents to come. He wouldn't. He knew he wouldn't.

THE END

The adventures aren't over yet…

Look out for

And the Mysterious Looking Stone

Book 2

Leo and the Prison of Lost Words

Book 3

Leo and the mystery of Victor Baltimore

Book 4

More books coming soon.