Who Rules the Universe?
Girls Versus Boys
by Dakota Orlando
Chapter 1: Smoke Gets in My Ears
It all started when I opened the weird, old book in the public library in Walla Walla, Washington—a book I had never seen there before. The girl-hater gang roaming up and down Alder Street had just finished torturing me for the twenty-seventh time this week. I rushed straight to the library to be with the only friends I had in the world—my beloved adventure stories.
Pulling an old book from the shelf, I lifted it to my nose.
Peeeeeuuuuu! It smells like rotting mushrooms, I thought.
Lowering the book again, I looked carefully at its faded cover. It had once been white but had long since yellowed with age. Frayed fibers stuck out like miniature skeleton fingers all around the cloth edges. The spine bulged every two inches with a rounded ripple running across its spine. The worn cover was so badly faded that I had to open it to search for its title.
Once opened, the bizarre drawing of a mysterious castle filled most of the first page. I could tell it was a castle only because the four towers on the corners stuck up taller than the walls, and a drawbridge crossed a water-filled moat circling it.
But everything about the castle appeared built out of tall, pointed, six-sided crystals. Some appeared darker than others and may have been different colors at one time, but since the book’s publication, everything about the drawing had faded to blacks, grays, and browns.
I sat in the corner of the library, my favorite place because it lay out of sight of everyone except people in the last aisle—the reference section, the least used row in the library. Of course, being early Saturday morning, and because Walla Walla was a small town, not a soul was there but me.
And that was a good thing because it meant no one saw the smoke at first. It billowed out of the castle picture, hit the ceiling, and spread out in every direction—thick, gray, puffy smoke that stayed within inches of the ceiling.
What kind of smoke is that? Why doesn’t it fill the entire room … and why hasn’t the fire alarm gone off?
I slammed the book shut, but smoke continued to spew out the top. Shoving it sideways under my fanny only worsened my situation because the smoke streamed out on either side of me. I yanked it from under my skirt and shoved it under my top. Boy, oh boy, was that ever a mistake. Smoke plumed out from all around my collar, and the smell of overcooked barbecue meat gagged and choked me.
I yanked it out again and threw it at the base of the bookshelves, but it continued to pour smoke.
I glanced down the aisle.
Not a soul in sight.
I looked at the ceiling and discovered the smoke had crept halfway down the aisle and spread toward the library’s center.
The librarian will see it!
Shaking, I sprang to the book, kneeled, opened the cover, and slapped my hands over the picture. My eyes opened wide, and I felt a smile spread across my face.
I stopped it!
My ears tingled. I shook my head, but my ears started itching. They got warm, grew warmer, then grew hot. Something rushed out of them. I jerked back on my heels, letting go of the book, and noticed swirling smoke in front and on either side of my head.
Did that just come out of my ears?
I gawked at my palms to search for the holes that allowed the smoke to travel up to my ears—but there weren’t any.
Boy, oh boy. What’s going on here?
I watched the book as it billowed more smoke. Bending over, I blew on it until my face turned blue.
Something popped out of the castle, forcing me to fall back to a sitting position. I blinked several times and spied the shape of—the shape of—
A face?
END SAMPLE CHAPTER
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