"Z, Y, X,..." I was in Borders, the book store, looking for a book by Jules Verne, Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea to be exact, but every other time I've looked it hasn't been there, "W, V, Vy, Vu, Vr, Vo, come on where is it? Vi, Ve! Verne!" There was only a book I had already read there, The Mysterious Island, a good book but not the one I was looking for.
I was getting up to leave after giving the books one more reassuring glance to make sure I hadn't overlooked them when something caught my eye. It was a small series of eight, leather-bound books. At least it looked like a series but all the books were the same each were done by unknown authors and each were called An Unfinished Tale.
The books seemed to call out to me like a sad puppy in the shelter, right before they take it into the back room. It looks at you and just begs you to take it home, to save it. So, I reached out and took the first one off the self. I opened it to the tittle page and began to flip through it. I didn't get very far before I literally dropped the book. The book landed with the dedication page open with my name staring straight up at me. There it was in plane black and white, "Dedicated to Joelle Nicole Personett." The book was dedicated to me, no one ever dedicates anything to me! I looked at the other seven books still on the shelf. Were those also dedicated to me?
I grabbed the next one off the shelf and opened it to the dedication page. I nearly dropped that book too not because it was dedicated to me, it wasn't, but because it was dedicated to one of my best friends Candice Jenkins.
I looked at the other six, leather-bound books now sitting innocently on the shelf with a mixture of foreboding and curiosity. I could probably guess who the rest of the books were dedicated to. We're a group of tightly knit friends the eight of us are. In school we'd be considered the geeks or the weirdoes, we just want be ourselves, at lunch people dare other people to sit at our table or throw food, bottle caps, and even dimes at us. Our names are Candice Jenkins, Cassie Clark, Melissa Kass, Krista Payton, Sarah Holthouser, Skye Woestehoff, Josh McArthur, and me Joelle Personett the eight of us formed the Brotherhood of the Lemur (inside joke, don't ask). Seeing as how there are eight books and eight of us each one was probably dedicated to one of us, but just to make sure I thought I should probably check.
I reached up to grab the next one but stopped short thinking about that stupid saying "Curiosity killed the cat," but then I thought, screw that, the cat has nine lives and there are only eight books. I grabbed it, sure enough the book was dedicated to Cassie Clark. I checked the other ones and they were true too. Then I flipped to the character page of each book. The character drawings looked like my friends and myself and were actually ones that we had invented of ourselves.
I sat there puzzled for a moment not knowing exactly what to think of this discovery. Was this some extremely elaborate practical joke if it was, my complements to the joker, it was pulled off brilliantly. But if it isn't, what then, what's it supposed to mean?
The ringing of my cell phone snapped me back to reality and I looked at the display screen and saw that it was my dad. "Does he ever stop calling me?" I mumbled at the phone as I opened it up. "Hello?"
"Hi sweetheart! Want to come out to the hanger and help me out?" he always wanted me to come out there.
"Sorry I can't I just meet up with some friends and we were going to see Return of the King and then get some supper." not exactly a lie, an idea had just crossed my mind.
"Oh well, tell your friends that they can come out to the hanger too and haven't you already seen that movie two times?"
I laughed, "Yes, but I want to see it again and more of my friends are here too."
"Well OK, have fun. I'll see you at home, bye!"
"Bye!" I hung up and then went straight to my phone number list and called Candice.
"Hi, this is Joelle. Could I please speak to Candice?" I said as soon as someone had picked up.
"Speaking."
"Oh hi Candice! You have to come to Borders right now!" I practically yelled.
"Why?"
"Because I found these books, about us"
"What?! Are you joking?" sometimes we liked to screw around with each others heads, one time Cassie almost convinced us that she was pregnant, but I don't think she'd ever do that accidentally.
"No I found them in the U section they're by an unknown author and are called An Unfinished Tale. They have our own characters in them, and they're each dedicated to one of us" I tried to convince her.
"Who's us?" she asked
"You, me, Krista, Mell, Cassie, Josh, Sarah, and Skye that's who."
"OK so then what's my character look like?" she was testing me but it wouldn't work.
"It's a Mew of course." I replied knowing she already had a comeback for that.
"But you already knew that I would've been a Mew."
"Well how many people know that I would be a red Griffin furry, and know exactly which weapons I would use: two Elvish blades, an Elvish dagger, a whip, and a bow and arrows." I pleaded with her trying to make her believe me.
"I would know because you just told me."
"Well fine don't believe me." my attempt at reverse psychology.
"Well OK fine. What are the others?" she was starting to believe me a little.
"Well, Mell's a vampire, Josh and Cassie are elves, Krista's a fairy, Skye's a Mew/Fairy, and Sarah's a fox furry." I laid the books open as I read them off.
"Wow! That's weird. I still don't believe you. How much are they paying you 'cause it's not enough." I'd lost.
"Candice please believe me!" Now I was begging.
She sighed, "Look, buy the books and then bring them to school Monday."
"All right, you'll have to pay me back though. Oh Candice, could I interest you in going to see Return of the King with me and as many other people that I can get to come?" I had remembered what I had told my dad.
"You are determined to get me to the mall aren't you?" I couldn't help but smile at that, "I guess I could come I've got nothing better to do."
"OK! Call Mell and see if she wants to come and tell her, if you think she'll believe, about the books. Tell her to call Krista then you call Sarah. I'm going to call Cassie, Josh, and Skye. So, see you in about a half-hour?"
"OK, see ya! bye."
"Bye!" I hung up. Now to convince Cassie. I called her up and the conversation went about he same but finally I got her to come see the movie after she called Josh. Now I had to call Sarah, this was simply to get her to come see the movie, I was tired of arguing. I only hoped that every one else had been called and could come.