John reveled in the bright sunshine and light breeze of early autumn. It truly was a beautiful day. Too bad he had to stay inside all day.
John worked at the local bookstore, which was at the back end of the town, furthest from the port and nearest to the mountains. It surely was a peaceful place, but never very exciting. John loved the adventures and action in his favorite books, and wished that he could be a part of them. John helped everyone that came to the small shop, from toddlers who had just begun to read to well-educated and wise philosophers and mathematicians. He had read each and every book in the store at least twice over in his free time, so he knew all of the information sealed between the covers.
He was currently on his way to work, in fact. The vibrant autumn sun beat down on his back, warming him in the early morning chill.
"Agh!" he cried out as the presence of another person appeared on the back of his slim figure. He tumbled down onto the dusty cobblestone.
"Hey, John!" a peppy female voice said.
"Ja-e geroff mr!" John attempted to shout, but his face was firmly pressed to the ground. "Jade!" he yelled more clearly. She quickly hopped off of him.
"How you doing, John?" Jade asked cheerfully. Jade was John's cousin and one of his best friends. She lived alone up in the mountains outside of town. John had asked Jade many times if she would like to live with him and his father, but she always politely declined.
"Fine," he answered bluntly.
"You should skip out on work today."
"I can't."
"But it's the same people every day."
"No, new ships come in every Tuesday, and guess what day it is?"
"Tuesday," Jade frowned.
"So people will come to the bookstore today and mister English is sick."
"But John!"
"No, Jade," she flashed some puppy-dog eyes and John gave in, "If you really want to, you can come with me, as long as you don't bother me."
"Sure thing!" she brightened up and followed John to the bookstore.
The store was especially crowded today with scholars and noblemen. This ship must have been some sort of royal expedition, John thought. He hurried to assist everyone in the store as well as he could. Jade lounged in one of the arm chairs next to the fireplace reading a book on astrology.
The day was mostly quiet and peaceful until one Dave Strider strode into the shop.
"Hey, Egderp," Dave smirked. John looked around the customer he was attending to and grimaced.
"What do you want, Dave?" John asked.
"A little birdie told me that you and Jade were hanging out here, so I decided to pay a visit," John hastily finished with his customer and glared at the cool kid. At that moment, the one and only Rose Lalonde, Dave's step sister, entered the shop. "And there's the little birdie now," Dave finished.
"You've been spying on us, Rose?!" Jade screeched.
"No…," Rose trailed off.
"You're a terrible liar," Jade pointed out
"I can be a fabulous liar when the matter is important enough, but this one isn't, so I see no need to lie," Jade raised her eyebrows, "Yes, Jade, I was spying on you because I was bored. I decided to stir up some trouble."
"Trouble is well stirred, baked, and decorated, and is ready to be served," Dave said ironically.
"Guys, there are customers!" John hissed at the other rowdy young teens, but as he glanced around the store, he saw that no one was there except him and his friends, "You drove the customers away!" he shouted.
"Chill, man. There was only that one guy that you were helping in here when I got here," Dave said, "Why don't we leave this hovel and go somewhere fun?"
"We can go to the waterfalls over by my house," Rose suggested.
"Oh yeah!" Jade exclaimed.
"I can't," John said.
"Stop being such a party pooper, John!" Jade cried.
"Yeah, John. Are you allergic to fun or something?" Dave jeered.
"Ugh, fine. It's almost time to close up the shop for today anyways," John sighed.
With that, he and his rowdy group of friends left the small bookstore and went to Rose's house.