The Library – Philipia’s Story

A Read Along to The Library

Finally, the old librarian guy was distracted by a family of five screaming kids and one very haggard mom. Alye looked at Tanya and me, then bolted for the weird door. As she opened the latch, we all stepped inside. The instant the thing was shut, the inside of the room went crazy with psychedelic colors, and the funny music and scents were back. I don’t know what began spinning first, us or the room, but as my friends and I started flying through the air, I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Hold hands!” I yelled. Then one of us (or all of us, I don’t know which) screamed.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You don’t even know who I am, or why that story changed my life.

Forever.

My name is Philipia Burgess. Don’t ask me why, but I’m named for my granddad Phil. My eyes are a really nice looking crystal blue, and my wavy brown hair extends to the middle of my back. Considering I’m five foot seven, that’s quite a (no pun intended) large feat.

My two friends are Tanya Omura and Alye Rayne. Tanya has shoulder length black hair and deep brown eyes. She’s a year younger and an inch shorter than me. We also both used to wear glasses, but that point is moot now. Alye is much, much shorter at five one. She has these weird, sith eyes; green irises with red-chestnut-brown around the pupil (when she gets mad, the red grows!) She has light brown hair that ranges somewhere in between straight sticks and spikes, though it is down past her shoulders. She’s very athletic, and our only real common ground (besides Tanya) are that we both love horses and fantasy novels, and the fact that we both-

Sigh. Once again, I’m ahead of myself…

This all started one day at the beginning of October. Tanya had seemed a little down in biology earlier that day, so Alye and I put our heads together.

“Ow!” I squeaked out. “That is NOT what I meant by that Alye!”

“Sorry.” she grinned, sounding anything but. Rubbing my sore noggin, I thought of a plan.

“When’s your next tutoring session and with who.” I sort-of demanded.

“With whom.”

“Wha?”

“It’s with whom, not with who.” I stared in shock.

“This coming from the girl who made my computer’s spell check explode.” Her face went from grin to Cheshire Cat.

“It’s at the Princess Anne library at four, with Thia.” Before we could continue any further, our teacher walked in, the bell rang, and our Intro to Law class began. I managed to slip her a note towards the end.

I’ll get Tanya there and a plate of my brownies as a payoff. Just get there on time!

Getting home that afternoon, I said hello to the three-legged grey streak running around (my cat Holly) and rattled off an e*mail to Tanya, then went to make my special, homemade brownies. I would tell you how I made them, but they’re a secret family recipe and if I divulge it, extended family members will hunt me down for breaking the super secret contract that I was blackmailed into signing… well, not really. Just as I slid them into the oven to bake, my computer chimed. It was Tanya's reply.

Uh, duh! Me? Miss a trip to the library? See you there.

Later,

Tanya

An hour later, the brownies on a paper plate in a plastic carrier and in my backpack, I was getting on my bike and waving goodbye to my mom and our three cats. I started pedaling.

Half an hour to get there. I thought. Plenty of time…