Bean's New Book

In which she escapes

She walked through the living room, dashed through the hallway, and quickly closed her bedroom door. She climbed into bed and switched her reading lamp quickly on. Her bright pink hair lay perfectly on her pillows as thoughts busied through her mind. Her bright blue eyes squinted as they searched the hanging bookshelf above her bed. They quickly un-squinted, as she sat up and pulled a tattered book out of it. This was her favorite time of day. She nestled under the covers and pulled her cat eye glasses off of her nightstand. She slipped them on and let the book flop open.

"Bean", as she was known in more prominent circles, was an avid reader. The common human, will most likely say they enjoy reading because it is like escaping to another world, and Bean would say the same. Not to say she didn't have a great life, but to read about places completely different than the ones she knew was exciting to say the least. Bean took book reading very seriously because when she did read, she did escape. She couldn't quite grasp the process herself, but as soon as she read a complete sentence in a book - she was gone. She suddenly was in the book. To be fair, it did not come naturally to her. In the beginning it took lots of concentration; now it took lots of concentration to not "pop" into every book. However she did master it, because she found the thought of suddenly disappearing in the middle of the science fiction section rather embarrassing.

When visiting her book worlds, she was not a main character, or even a supporting role, but an observer. She became a student at Hogwarts, an apprentice in Inargy, a neighbor to Nancy Drew, and a client for the Baby Sitters Club. It had practical purposes as well. History tests were a chinch after working at factories in 1918.

That night however she was going to try out a book she hadn't read before. It was a gift from her grand-father, and she was quite certain it was older than her neighbor's cat, Louis. (Louis was known around town as the "zombie cat" due to the fact she visited the vet every week for "vaccinations" to stay alive). The only thing she knew about the story was that he said she would enjoy it, and he was usually accurate when it came to things like that.

She prepared herself and read the first sentence. Then the process began. Her whole head felt as though it was dunked into freezing water, and then she instantly felt as though she was being stretched through a very long, twisted hallway. All of a suddenly, she was plopped into the middle of a kind of city she'd never seen before. If she hadn't been plopped into so many books before, she would have felt very strange. Due to the age of the book, she hoped it would be some sort of ancient European town — not an odd, metallic, kind of place. It was hard to put into words, but obviously the book she was in did it perfectly. She was surrounded by buildings so tall that when she tried to look at the top of them she got dizzy. They were in bizarre shapes, and had more windows than needed. She looked down at the ground and saw that the sidewalks were such a shiny metal that they would be classified more as mirrors.

As she took it all in she forgot herself, realizing she was standing in the middle of a road, where cars with strange inscriptions drove about. She heard a loud horn honk, which sounded much too old for the vehicle it came out of, and hurried onto the sidewalk. It was a crowded city, and it was difficult not to be swept away with the stampede of people. She quickly pushed herself into a shop so she could process all she saw. She found herself in a furniture store. Every piece was sleek and (like most things in the place) metallic. She made her way through and found a chair that looked extremely uncomfortable, but the perfect place to take a short rest. She dragged her fingers across the back of it — as though she was looking at it very closely — and then patted the seat of it. She sat down on it like she was testing it and found it much more comfortable than how it looked. She felt no metal springs, but it definitely had them. She felt like if she got up and jumped on it, she would hit the ceiling. It took a lot of will power to get off of it, but the thought of exploring the rest of the shop did it.

She continued her way through the store, admiring every piece, wishing she could take them home. She stopped at a tall, very thin, lamp which, instead of a bulb, had a sort of glowing ball at the stem off it. Curious, she poked her finger at it, which immediately began to burn. "Ouch!" she shrieked as she quickly grabbed her sore finger with her other hand, and held them both close to her side. It seemed no one heard her; she was glad. She looked at the lamp sharply, deciding that was one piece she did not need to own, and began through the shop at the opposite direction. She finally made her way to a long wall of mirrors, all shapes and sizes.

She looked at herself closely in their reflections, since everywhere she went she looked rather different. She was happy to find her hair was still pink. (Once she went to colonial England, where her hair was a curly, mustard yellow. She was happy once she finally stopped reading.) It was pulled into a twisted pony tail, which draped over her left shoulder. Her clothes where something in themselves. They definitely matched the city, but was not something she would like to wear on a regular basis. The top classified as a blouse. It was a cotton, and had long, poofy sleeves. The front was very ruffled and covered in buttons. She wasn't sure whose idea of fashion this was. Her waist was tightly synched with a leather belt, which was connected to a skirt which just passed her knees. Her size ten feet were squeezed into size seven  mary-janes, and she also found no makeup on her face. Which was one thing about this ensemble she actually liked.

From all of this, she took that it was a very interesting look, and the author had a rather different perspective than others she read. She decided that although the furniture store was fascinating, she wanted to see the rest of the book. She nodded at the lone cashier as she left the shop and began following the crowd as it busied along. She eventually pushed her way out of it, landing in a park. There was a large lake, filled with boats and canoes, and enough trees to make at least a million copies of the book they were in. She strolled through the park aimlessly; hearing the birds chirping quietly and the people humming as they also strolled. When reading, she was usually running around, thrilled and excited, because she got to experience the world she loved so much. However, she had never heard of this book before, let alone read it, so it was relaxing to mill around for a while.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in -- when suddenly she collided right into another stroller. They both fell back, leaving a pain in her elbow she was sure was going to turn into a bruise. Quickly, the other stroller stood up and dusted himself off. He did not hear whatever she was saying. He looked down at her carelessly and shot down his hand for her to take.
She growled and pushed it away, 

"I can get up myself, thank you very much!" She got up, flipped her pink ponytailed hair back over her shoulder, and began in the opposite direction.


He rolled his eyes and called after her, "You were the one that ran into me by the way!" she didn't turn around. He sighed and shook his head. What an absolute toad, he thought.
He began to walk off when he noticed something on the ground. He reached down and picked it up, a book mark. At least, that's what he thought it was. It was rather beat-up looking for a book mark. The leather trimming was faded, and the long strands attached at the back were covered in dust. He looked up and saw that the girl with the pink hair was continuing her stomp through the park. He dropped the book mark and began running after her, "Miss! Miss please! I have to talk to you! It's very important! I know your grand-father!"