Enn's Magical Traveling Bookshop

Chapter One | The Girl with the Glitter

It was the second day of summer break (her first was spent sleeping in and then alternating between watching movies, pigging out, and dancing to her favorite BTS songs with her toddler sister), and the sun beamed down at eleven-year-old Vee while she wandered the sidewalks of her small town. Only a couple days in and already she was restless and bored. Though a troublemaker, Vee loved school; math equations to turn the wheels in her head, science experiments that caused her straight black eyebrows to jump up with joy, books in which she buried her nose, and, of course, school was the perfect place to cause a little mayhem. Well-placed water balloons, artistic displays of toilet paper, insects brought indoors... just a little mayhem.

She paced past the many stores lining the streets of the downtown square. All the shopkeepers knew her, and therefore both loved and feared her. Vee was a known causer of chaos, loud and proud ever since her first word ("Huy!"—which was what her parents called each other in her mother's native Laos language meaning "honey"). Vee waved at the bussers setting up the pizzeria patio, slapped a high-five on the outstretched hand of the locksmith struggling to unlock her own store's front door, and yelled a loud "HELLO!" at the old lady ducking out of the window the craft store she owned in which Vee may or may not have caused much mayhem.

But then, Vee came across the bookshop, a place that she had no idea would soon turn her life completely upside down, inside out, and fill with magic.

The bookshop was new to town, and that's why it was the perfect target for Vee's next prank. Sitting between the flower shop and the pizza place on the corner, it had a brightly painted sign that hung from the yellow awning over the storefront. It read "Enn's Bookshop" in deep purple letters that were surrounded by strange shapes and symbols in all the colors of the rainbow. Piles of books teetered just inside the front windows, and Vee peered through the glass with her hands cupped around her eyes. Bookshelves stretched endlessly backwards into the shop, much farther, it seemed, than where the back of the old brick building should have ended.

Suddenly, a little, blueish-gray paw tapped the spot of glass through which Vee snooped. She jumped back, but when she saw that it was just a little puppy, she laughed and scrunched her nose at it.

"Well, aren't you just the cutest?!" She squealed, and it yipped and wagged it's short tail, it's bright bellows only slightly muffled by the clear glass between them.

She was almost tempted to go inside and pet it. Almost. She had a prank to pull first. And Vee had just thought of the perfect one.

The next morning (Vee liked to start off her days of mischief early) Vee was crouching behind a bush at the edge of the sidewalk, stifling a self-impressed giggle as she prepared to watch her prank unfold. She had seen the silhouettes of the bookshop owner and the little dog rummaging around the shop just minutes before, but all had been quiet since she had taken her station behind the shrubbery. Suddenly, a tall shadow stretched out from behind her.

An unfamiliar voice sounded from behind her, "You look like you're having far too much fun. Can I join in?"

Vee whirled around and stood up, fibs already poised at the tip of her tongue. But words failed her as she took in a looming, silhouetted figure affectionately holding the cute little dog from the bookshop window.

Uh oh.

Holding the dog was a person with light purple hair in a pixie cut. They wore dark, simple linen pants and flat shoes with a long, cream-colored tee shirt.

Vee was impressed by their hair, but it was their eyes that truly dazzled her. Bright green and uptilted, their eyes were striking on their handsome, kind, bespectacled face.

Puzzle pieces fell into place in Vee's mind as she deduced that this person must be the bookshop owner. As cool and fun as they looked, Vee did not want to start off the summer on their bad side.