Chapter one – life In the future
It was the first day of summer break and Arthur was more than ready for their family vacation to California. As soon as he got home from school on the last day he raced straight up to the attic go grab his suit case to start packing, even though they weren't leaving for another week. It was dark with no sunlight, just an old nearly dead light bulb to light to small room. Bags and boxes covered the floor and lined the walls. As he was rummaging to get to the back wall he came across an old and tattered box with Simon printed on the front in his mother hand writing. One he knew all too well after forging a number of fake gym excuses. Just as he reached to open it the light bulb blew.
"Damn!" he yell as he tried to find the nearest wall to guide him back to the light from down stairs.
"Everything all right Arthur?" His mother Cath called from downstairs.
"Yeah, the light just blew could you bring me a torch please." He replied. Cath climbed up the ladder shining the torch straight into his eyes, blinding him as he walked. He reached his mother and before she left
"Mom, what's in that box that has Simon written on it?" He question as she climbed her way down the ladder.
"Ummmmm, nothing, just don't open, Okay." Cath replied as she walked away hoping that her son would listen to her for once.
Don't open it completely means open it he thought to himself as he made his way back to the box. When he opened it all he found was old laptops covered in dust. As he pulled them out he found a stack of book, Simon Snow book. He pulled them out one by one trying not damage them after his mother told him not touch them. He quickly grabbed his bag and carefully placed all of the books into it to take back down stairs.
Once he got back to his room that he shares with his sister he dropped the back on the floor and unzipped it.
"I hope you bought my bag down no Art, No way in the world am I going up to the Attic, just saying it gives me shivers." His sister Avery said as she continued to lay out her outfits that she was planning to wear each day while they were in California.
"No I didn't get your back, but you wanna know that I did get," he said as his sister continued to stack clothes, "A stack of old books that mom told me not to touch." He unpack the book stacking them up in order, Avery wondered over to inspect the books.
"Simon snow and the magic heir, blogs to Cater Avery." This is mom, I didn't know that I was named after her name." Avery said as she flipped the book over to read the back, "If you're expecting me to read these for you I won't but I still got dibbs on reading them first," Aver said as she took the first one over to her desk and sat down and started to read it."
"No, I will, finder keepers loser weepers, and besides you're sitting next to mom on the plane and shell kill us if she sees us with them!" Arthur said as he grabbed the book back and hid them under his bed.
"Correction, mom will kill you if she see us with them, you were the one told not to open the box." She replied emphasising the word you. She continued to mutter to herself as she pack dragged boxes of shoes out from under her bed; "If she does decide not to risk spending her life in prison she'll just send you to spend the entire summer with Aunt Reagan in Canada, where it's like it isn't even summer." She laughed as she stacked the shoes up.
"Fine I'll go and get your bag, but you can't tell mom about the book alright."
"Fine" Avery sighed.
Arthur left the room again, this time with the torch in hand and headed back to the attic, he could hear his mother and father in the kitchen chatting away, he couldn't make out what they were saying, he crept down the stairs, skipping the creaky second stair from the top.
"He found the books Levi, you said that they would never be aloud up there, my old computers in that box too." He heard is mother explain to his father.
"If you told him not to look in the box, then he won't look in the box. He is a good boy, he wouldn't blatantly disobey us like that." Levi said as he tried to comfort Cath
"You know what kids are like at this age. They will do the complete opposite of what you say. I don't want them reading those book or my stories. They mean a lot to me and I don't want them to see that." Before Cath finished Arthur had disappeared back up stairs. Ran to the attic grabbed Avery's bag and got back to his sister as soon as possible.
"Avery, guess what I heard mom telling dad down in the kitchen." He said as he threw his sister bag on her bed completely destroying her piles of clothes."
"Urg, why did you have to do that," she glared, "You were snooping again weren't you anyway what"
"No just using my super hearing. Well mom said that she didn't want us reading her stories. Mom is Gemma T. Leslie." He said as he grabbed the first book in reach and waved it his sister face.