"Alicia? Where are you!"
Alicia jumped at the sound of her grandmother's voice. She snatched up Inkheart, and stuffed it into her satchel that she always kept with her.
"Alicia!"
She groaned and yelled back: "Coming! I'm coming!"
Alicia jumped and weaved through the emense piles of books that cluttered up the spacious attic until she knelt beside the trap door and climbed down the ladder backwards. She jumped the last few rungs and landed with a thump on the hard wood floors.
The house that she lived in with her grandmother was gigantic, and living there for seven years gave Alicia a reliable knowledge of all the secret passage ways and tunnels.
That is how a minute later she jumped out of tunnel behind a hinged portrait; and stood in front of the kitchen door, She lightly dusted herself off and pushed open the swinging door.
"mm, Smells delicious Grandma'm." Alicia said taking her bag off and hanging it on a back of a chair. A middle-aged woman in her late fifties was leaning over the stove fiddling with the knobs and dials.
"Thanks, But what did I tell you about calling me Grandma'm. It's Grandma Meggie."
Alicia smiled and pushed her bag back behind the chair a little further. "And whala!" Grandma meggie said with a flourish of her hand; Sliding a plate of eggs in front of her. "Breakfast for dinner!"
She grabbed her own plate and sat opposite Alicia; who was shoveling her delicious eggs into her mouth.
A few minutes passed in silence until Grandma Meggie asked: "So what have you been doing all day?"
Alicia gulped, "Well you know...Doing stuff..."
Grandma meggie rose a questioning eyebrow (Which was always a warning sign) She sighed and shook her head. "What is it you've done this time?"
Alicia put on her most innocent looking face and muttered airily: "Just..Hanging out in the attic..."
Grandma meggie narrowed her eyes, "You know your only allowed in the attic for special reasons."
Alicia's heart was beating as fast as if she had run a marathon, as she struggled to find a loop-hole. But she decided to tell the truth.
"I was looking for a book to read."
Grandma meggie's face relaxed. "Oh, well that's definitely a good enough reason. Find anything good?"
Alicia exhaled in relief and quickly muttered: "Yeah it looks like."
Alicia's grandmother smiled knowingly, as if she knew that one of her forbidden books were lurking in Alicia's bag.
"You can be excused if you like, I know what's its like to have that itching to read a good book."
Alicia nodded in thanks; quickly stuffing the remender on her plate into her mouth.