I hate the mall. Whoever invented the idea of taking a ton of different stores and putting them all under one roof deserves to be punished by having to walk through one for all eternity. Its always so crowded and busy that you never really have time to sit back and take it all in.

It was the last Saturday of the school year and my friends decided "hey lets go see a scary movie in the morning in middle of June! Won't that be awesome!?" Let me tell you my answer: no. It was the most idiotic idea ever. Instead, I went to the one place in the mall I feel like I could relax, the bookstore. Surrounded by thousands upon thousands of stories waiting to take you on a journey is just where I belong. I love books, but one problem is, I have dyslexia so I have trouble reading and ADHD so I never have the patience to sit down and read a book, but I make-do. I've read the classics like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, but I feel like I haven't found my favorite book series yet.

I wander up and down every single aisle, looking aimlessly for a book that calls out to me but sadly, one never did. I walk past the brightly lit and cartoon-filled kids section thinking maybe the book I'm looking for is in there but then think better of it. What am I, five? After about an hour of hopelessly wandering around the bookstore, I stumble upon the young adult section. Usually I wouldn't be caught dead in the young adult section because its usually filled with girly books and girly things but the books weren't the thing that caught my eye. There, squatting down to look at one of the bottom shelves was a girl who looked to be around my age and in all the time I've spent in the bookstore, I've never seen her. She had hair that reminded me of the darkest night of the winter pulled up into a messy bun atop her head and gray eyes that raged like the worst storm to ever hit the planet hidden behind hipster glasses. Very conflicting feelings, her hair was peaceful while her eyes were wild and alert. She was small, but I had the suspicion that if I made her angry, she could kick my butt.

She smirked at me, not taking her eyes off the shelf, "You're staring." She pulls herself off the floor and looks up at me, "Can I help you with something?"

I stutter, she took me by surprise. I'll admit, I was staring, but I was hoping she wouldn't notice. "Uh…Do you work here?"

She grabs the lanyard she was wearing over her shirt and holds it up, "Well, they don't just give these out to anybody, do they?" She smiles a smile that makes her gray eyes brighten just a little bit, "What can I help you with?"

"I need a book suggestion." I stop waiting for her to say something. When she doesn't, I keep talking, "I've read Harry Potter and stuff like that but now I'm stuck and I don't know what to read next." I pray I didn't sound like a loser.

"Have you tried the Percy Jackson series?" I shake my head, "They're phenomenal." She turns on her heel and walks towards the kids section. I just stand there not quite knowing what to do. She must have noticed I wasn't following because she stops and turns to me, "Well are you coming?"

I will my feet to start moving forward and follow her over the line I vowed to myself I would go over, the entrance to the kid's section. We wander through until we reach a shelf tucked in the back corner, stacked to the ceiling with books. The girl reaches up to grab a book on one of the higher shelves on her tip-toes but still couldn't reach. I ask her what book she was trying to get and she pointed out a book that had a teal binding. I grab the book off the shelf with ease and hand it back to her, "Thanks," she says with a genuine smile, "Short girl problems." I laugh, "Well here's the book. The series is five books long and theres a spin off series too that is also five books. They're my favorite series ever."
"Well thanks for the recommendation," I say.
She shrugs, "It's what I get paid to do." She looks at something over my shoulder, "Duty calls. Have a good day." And with that, the girl with the dark hair was gone.

Two books and multiple confused stares from parents later, I got out of the beanbag chair in the kids section and head to the cash register. The line was long but I decided to wait because these books were too good. I read The Lightening Thief and The Sea of Monsters while sitting in the beanbag and instantly fell in love with them so much, I decided to buy the whole series and the spin off series too. I hear a familiar voice call "I'll take the next person down here please!" over the noise of the store. I walk to the last register and as fate would have it, the girl with the dark hair was standing behind it.

"Well wouldn't you know." She says as I put the ten books down on the counter and she stares at them in amazement, "Wow. I see you were really interested in them." She scans the books and tells me my total. I hand her my debit card and I sign the receipt. Just before she hands me the customer copy, she grabs a pen and scribbles something down.

She hands me the receipt and says seriously, "My number, in case you need help with anything."

I look at her confused, "Either you just used the smoothest pick up line ever, or you're serious. Im going with the former."

She stares at me with such intensity I feel like the storm in her eyes was going to pull me in, "I disagree." She looks around her to make sure no one is watching, then leans close to me, "This book changes people. For better or for worse, thats for you to decide. But if anything odd happens, anything at all; a stranger staring at you weird or your mom is home even a few minutes late from work than she usually is, call me. Thats all the information I can give you right now." She pulls away from me and smiles a fake, cheeky smile, "Have a great day!" Then she turns into the direction of the line, "I can take the next person down here please!"

I stare at her as I walk away. She's kidding me right? A book that can change people. Yeah, okay. But then again, her stare was serious and (dare I even say it) scared, like she was afraid of me. I pull the receipt out of the bag and look at what she wrote. Where the customers signature goes, in curly writing, was a phone number and three letters: Meg