This Crazy Thing Called Life

Chapter 2

The bell dinged as a new customer of The Bookend entered. . Our motto was "The end of your search for books." I looked up from shelving to greet our customer, or rather, customers.
"Welcome to The Bookend!" I greeted. In came a few kindly-looking goat monsters with children in tow. For a moment they seemed overwhelmed by our assortment, but seeing as they had children I had an idea of where they wanted to go.
"The children's section is over there if you're looking for it," I explained helpfully, pointing to the front left of the store.
"Why thank you, young man," One of the goat monsters replied.
"Could you also direct me towards the human cooking section? We were hoping to learn some human recipes for our dear children," I looked over to see each of the ladies holding the hand of a smaller goat monster, who was holding the hand of a human child, and who was also holding the hand of another human child. Except for one, who only had one human child.
"Of course! Follow me, "I said, heading to the back right of the store.
"Why don't you all head over to the kid section, Fargo?" The kind goat lady said to her child before she and the other ladies followed me. I stopped when we arrived at the recipes and cookbooks.
"Here we are! I hope you find what you're looking for! Don't hesitate to come find me if you are having trouble." After I finished speaking, I left and went back to shelving in the graphic novel section, my favorite. At that moment, I felt my shirt being tugged, and turned to see one of the children whom the goat lady had referred to as BLANK, they signed something to me in ASL.
"I'm sorry, but it's been a while since I took ASL, could you sign that slower?"
The child nodded and re-signed, moving slower and pausing between words.
'Could you read this to us?' The child then handed me a copy of "Fluffy Bunny"
and I nodded, slowly signing back.
'Of course! I'll sit in the rocking chair and all of you sit on the rug.' We then headed over to where the other children were waiting. One of the other children went up to Fargo and signed something along the lines of 'What did he say?' to which Fargo responded, 'He said yes!' and the child was met with excited squeals. I sat in the creaky chair opening the book as the children circled around me on the rug. As I read the book, the goat ladies went up to the register and paid for their books, coming over to watch. After I finished, they thanked me for keeping their children out of trouble.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, I love reading!" I stated.

"Well, I am Catherine, and as a thank you I'd like to invite you over for dinner sometime if that's alright? And maybe we could become friends?" She offered, to which I agreed. She took out her phone so we could trade numbers as well. She then texted me the address.

"Alright, see you!" I said. The nice goat ladies and their children left, and I went back to shelving in my favorite section. I felt myself getting excited at the prospect of new friends. It was then that I felt as if I was being watched. However, when I looked around, there was no one but my coworker, Tamisra, who doesn't like me. Although, recently, she has seemed a lot more snarky. I'm not sure why though. I continued to stock and shelve books, moving from section to section, making sure everything was in its proper place. Soon enough, it was 6:00 pm. Closing time. After work, I went home to tell my mom about the awesome friends I made.
"-And then they invited me over for dinner!" I said excitedly.
"That's great sunshine! I'm happy you're finally going to get out of the house and socialize." She replied, seeming glad I was able to make some new friends. My mom's nickname for me was sunshine, despite me being goth. How ironic. I went to my room. I heard a "Ding" and looked down at my phone. I had a text from the group chat Catherine made. It was her.

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GroupChat

Catherine

Please let us know if you get home safely.

OllieOllieOxenFree

I am home and safe. Thank you.

Anastasia

It was no trouble at all.

OllieOllieOxenFree

Would you all like to schedule the get-together now, or are you all busy?

Alexandra

No, we were just watching the children play in the garden. what time would work for you?

OllieOllieOxenFree

Sometime during the weekend, preferably. maybe you could pick me up after work?

Charlotte

What a wonderful idea!

Catherine

Yes, I agree. that would be ideal for us as well. How about Next weekend?

OllieOllieOxenFree

yes, that would be great! See you then!

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I could not wait to make new friends. But for now, I needed to plan on a dish to bring. I think I'll bring baked mac n cheese, I thought. I decided that tomorrow, I would go to the store to get the ingredients I would need. I plugged in my phone, turned off my lamp, and climbed into bed. Today was a long day, I thought as I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Authors Note

this is my first time writing a book so please let me know what you think! Also if you have any ideas hmu.