Nine year old Sara Cobbler's eyes darted from title to title on the bookshelf. Her parents had brought her to Books and Crannies to find a new fairytale, a new fantastic adventure. She ran her fingers over the spine of a book titled, "The Hobbit".
"Excuse me?" A voice came from behind her. Sara turned around and saw a boy around her age, with dirty blonde hair and freckles. He was holding the hand of a little girl who had a twisted leg and a crutch. "I'm looking for my brother, he wandered off. Could you help me find him?"
"Okay," Sara said. She was a bit skeptical of the boy, but she wouldn't have wanted to be lost in the endless shelves of Books and Crannies. "What does your bother look like?"
The boy toed the ground, "He has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles all over. He's a bit of a trouble maker, so I'm worried he's going to bother the customers."
The boy spoke very officially, as if he worked at the shop, and was very worried for the comfort of his customers.
Sara nodded, "why are you asking me? Aren't there other grown ups? What about the shop owner?"
The boy blushed, "Mr. Reteep is on break". Sara agreed to help look for the missing brother, and spilt up with the two children. Near the back of the shop, she found a freckly little boy stacking heavy chapter books to make a house.
" Your brother is looking for you!" Sara told the little boy.
"Stranger danger!" The boy cried, and then he ran. Sara had to chase him throughout the store, which was hard, since he was much faster than her. Finally, Sara found the the freckly boy's brother and they cornered him.
"Thank you for finding Kalmar," said the little girl who had been holding the boy's hand said sweetly. "My name is Leeli and he is Janner," she gestured to the boy, who was scolding his brother.
Janner blushed when he saw Sara looking at him, and paused his scolding. He sat his siblings down at a table and made them stay put.
He awkwardly shuffled next to Sara, "I'm sorry I made you look for Kal. I saw you looking for books".
Sara smiled, "It's alright, I had a lot of fun. I wasn't really sure what book to get anyways".
Janner's face broke out into a grin, "I could show you some of my favourites!" He beckoned for her to follow him into the fantasy books aisle. When you the were finished, Sara had five books stacked in her arms.
As Sara looked over her books, she told Janner, "You and your siblings have unique names".
He shrugged, "My mama says we're unique people".
Sara liked Janner very much, and when she had to leave, she gave him her mother's phone number. She felt like they would be very good friends.