The Cedarwood Tales

The Cedarwood Tales

Chapter 1

“The hottest new book around! This book has everything a reader needs. Whether you like romance, fantasy, action, science fiction, adventure, or horror, it has it all! You’ve got to have this book is what you might be saying right now, and you’re right! This book is a must have. Now, before you head off to the book store to buy it, well, that’s impossible. This book is special. This book is one hundred dollars, and has at least a thousand pages. Now, on to the most important part, this is limited print. That means that only one hundred books will be available per each state. Only the United States, nowhere else. You can pick up this book at Barnes & Nobles in your state’s capitol. This book is out November twentieth. Get ready to get in line and fight for this book!”

Kelly sighs. She wants that book so bad. She turns off the TV in the kitchen, grabs a bowl, and pours her favorite brand of cereal into it. She’ll never get the book though, her parents would never let her skip school to go wait in line, no less let her drive to Tallahassee. Kelly’s parents are protective, very protective. It’s not a bad thing, but sometimes Kelly wishes they’d treat her more like an adult, she’s seventeen for crying out loud!

“Mom, have you given any thought about me and my friends going to get those books?” Kelly asks nonchalantly, but inside butterflies are fluttering recklessly.

Mrs. Matthews, Kelly’s mom, purses her lips at Kelly. “Sweetie, it’s not that I don’t want you to get the book, it’s just the part about skipping school. Is a book that important?”

Kelly keeps in the words she wants to sputter out. This book means the world to Kelly. She’s read almost every book known to man, and she’s not going to miss out on The Cedarwood Tales. If she misses out on this, the book club members would scoff at her. She’s the leader after all, and a leader has to be the best, read the best, search the internet until the sun rises for interviews of authors talking about things that didn’t make it into the books.

“Yes, mom, it is that important. Can you at least talk to dad about it?”

Her mother gives her one of those famous looks. The look that means, “It’s my way or no way”. Kelly knows begging her mother to let her go is hopeless, but it feels like she’s surrendering without a fight.

“Why can’t your friends get you one while they’re there?”

Kelly sighs impatiently and throws up her hands. “Because it’s one book per person. Come on mom, I’m a senior! They don’t even teach us anything anymore, it’s like they’ve run out of things to talk about.”

Wrong move. Kelly’s mother is a teacher, which is partly why she’s so hard on Kelly about going to school, being on time to school, getting good grades in school, not getting in trouble at school, pretty much anything that has to do with school. Not to mention homework.

Mrs. Matthews goes on about teachers being disrespected by students, and not being appreciative for their hard work. Kelly pretends to listen, but she has heard this speech once too many. She takes a bite of her now soggy cereal, and feels her hope slowly dissolve. The Cedarwood Tales isn’t educational so it’s not worth missing school for, or so her mother says. Kelly and her mom get along great, but days like this makes it hard for Kelly not to get upset.