Escaping Ordinary

by Scott Reintgen

  “Woke up every morning before dawn,” he said. “I’ve never run so much in my life. Every hour we had a new class. Lunch breaks if we were lucky. I’ll admit there were a few times I thought about giving up. A bunch of kids dropped out. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” He paused to look around at the others. “How about you? Was your Hero thing fun?”

  Their crew exchanged glances before bursting out laughing.

  “Fun,” Indira repeated. “That’s one word for it.”

  Their crew headed back through the halls of Protagonist Preparatory. Indira ran a hand along the wall. She missed the old school. When they reached the front entrance, Maxi heaved a huge sigh, taking in their crew one more time.

  “Well, it’s been fun. I’m so glad you guys called me, but I’ve got to get back to headquarters. No rest for the weary and all that…”

  Indira could tell she was stalling. She smiled at her best friend.

  “Maxi. How about white mochas first? On me?”

  That was greeted by a squeal of delight. “Thought you’d never ask!”

  Naturally, they headed straight for the Talespin coffee shop.

  * * *

  Mr. Threepwood quickly wiped down their permanently reserved table. Indira was a little embarrassed when he said, in a voice loud enough for other nearby tables to hear:

  “I feel like you should get a new table every time you save the world!”

  Indira smiled back. “We’re fine with just the one. How about some white mochas?”

  Gadget leaned in. “Could I actually get an iced, sugar-free vanilla latte with soy milk?”

  Squalls added, “And please don’t poison mine. Thanks.”

  Threepwood blinked in confusion before noting those requests and rushing off to fill their order. Phoenix grinned at Indira as David started pelting the group with questions, having finally figured out they’d saved the world a second time. He kept shooting astonished looks over at Indira as they told the story, and saying things like “Well, of course, she’s my baby sister after all”—which had Indira laughing.

  It was the kind of day that could only be spoiled by the fact that it eventually had to end.

  Indira stood in front of her first Story House, feeling shocked and honored. The sprawling gray house looked nearly the same. Three levels high, a pair of balconies, storm-gray bricks. The only notable difference now was the thousands of little strings attached to the roof. Indira had started counting them and quickly given up. David stood beside her.

  “I told you the readers would come. Just look at all of them!”

  There were a few golden threads. Indira knew what that meant—for those readers, the story had become one of their favorites. A treasure they’d keep with them their entire lives. Other colors—like silver and green and cerulean—coordinated to other emotions. Maybe it was the first book a reader had picked up in a long time, or the funniest book they’d read that year.

  The fact that there were any threads at all warmed Indira’s heart.

  “It’s their story now,” she whispered. “Come on. Time to get to work on the sequel.”

  When she’d left, her first Story House had been on the very edge of a new neighborhood. It had seemed a little lonely. Now it felt like it was the middle of a busy town center. There were coffee shops built into the lower floors of certain buildings and even a market square.

  Indira knew these were good signs. Healthy stories and healthy characters made up a healthy neighborhood. All the new readers would keep the place blossoming with life.

  She whispered goodbye and started down the nearest hill. A new neighborhood had sprouted there on the edge of the constantly growing township. There were buildings of all shapes and sizes, all in different stages. Indira and David made their way through crowds of characters, many taking breaks between scenes, and came to a stop before a rose-red home that looked more like a shed than a house at the moment. It had a gleaming black door that shivered with light depending on where they looked. An unfinished porch wrapped around the front like the beginning of a dragon’s tail. Indira’s eyes settled on Phoenix.

  Her friend sat cross-legged between their house and the neighbors’, quietly studying the Author’s directions for the first scene. His first scene. Indira crossed the square and stood at his shoulder.

  “Nervous?” she asked.

  He looked up at her. “Weren’t you?”

  “She kept going to use the bathroom,” David remembered. “Classic delay tactic.”

  There was a little commotion as someone pushed through the crowd. Indira recognized the dark sunglasses, but Maxi had set aside the official Editors’ attire for a more fashionable vest today.

  “Maxi?” Phoenix asked. “I thought you had to go to headquarters or whatever.”

  “And miss your first scene?” Maxi smiled. “As if! We started this whole thing together. I was here for Indira’s first scene. I wanted to be here for yours. What’s the point of having best friends if we don’t celebrate all the little things? Now get in there and don’t mess it up. I brought popcorn!”

  She waved a bucket that Indira hadn’t noticed until that moment. Something about this felt right. Phoenix stood. He’d traded the wizarding robes for a pair of jeans. Indira watched as he brushed dirt off them before striding to the front door of their Story House. He looked back with the same nervous grin he’d had that first day they met. There was still a taste of mystery in that smile. Indira couldn’t wait to see what was waiting for them.

  As he gripped the doorknob, the entrance brightened. From black to fire bright in less than a breath. Phoenix did not take his hand away. He opened the door, drinking in the scene that was waiting for him. Indira watched with a mixture of a hundred feelings that she couldn’t quite name. He took the first step inside and Maxi let out a little whoop.

  Any guesses at what happened next, my dear reader?

  Let me spoil it for you.

  The Story House came to life.

  The rain started at lunch.

  Joey West had been sitting with his buddies at the table, eyeing the coming storm. He’d spun his lacrosse stick a few times before a teacher told him to put it away. Brandon, one of his teammates, had elbowed him as the rain started coming down.

  “Looks like video games today,” Brandon said. “Want in on some Pirates versus Marines?”

  Joey watched the rain. “Maybe.”

  For some reason, that particular game no longer interested him. Months ago, he’d been playing twelve rounds a night. Sometimes with his friends, sometimes with strangers. But the game had started boring him. He wasn’t sure why. It made things a little awkward at school, though, because that was all any of his friends ever talked about.

  They herded into Mrs. Dailey’s class after lunch, only to be herded right back out.

  “We’re going to visit the book fair in the library,” Mrs. Dailey announced. “Don’t forget to bring your money down with you.”

  Joey had forgotten about the book fair. He kind of wished he had some cash on him as the class stumbled into the library. Sprawling displays of new books waited. Hardcovers decorated with bright colors. Glinting stacks towered like treasures. Joey paused in front of the first display. It was a Pirates versus Marines book. He flipped through the first few pages before setting it back on the shelf.

  The librarian danced around the room, offering advice. Joey thought she’d have worn a superhero cape if the principal had let her. She was kneeling down at that moment, running a finger along the spines of books before choosing one for a girl from the grade below them.

  “I think you’ll like this one,” she said with a knowing smile.

  Joey wandered deeper into the book fair’s displays. A few titles caught his eye, but he’d read the back of the book and get bored halfway through. Most of his friends were still cr
owded around the front entrance of the library. Brandon grinned before bouncing his lacrosse ball as high as it could go. Mrs. Dailey swept over that way like a hawk.

  As Joey circled back, movement caught his eye.

  He blinked a little before squinting. What on earth…?

  The cover of one of the books was moving. The sight dragged him a few steps closer. Was he seeing things? He frowned. There! It moved again. The image on the cover looked like an ocean. As he squinted, the dark waves were clearly rising and falling.

  “Cool…,” he whispered under his breath.

  A student nearby looked over. Joey didn’t notice, though. His eyes were pinned to the figures that had appeared on the dark horizon. He watched them grow in size and shape until they were close enough to be seen over the towering waves. The red-scaled dragon almost seemed as if it was flying right at him. Joey stared as the dragon approached, becoming more and more prominent on the book’s cover. And then he saw her.

  A girl with light brown skin, unruly dark hair, and a silver war hammer at her hip. Joey wasn’t sure why, but something about the girl looked so familiar that he actually stopped breathing. The dragon swept forward, wings stretching out, until the two of them were front and center on the dark cover. Joey’s heart hammered in his chest.

  The same girl who’d been helped by the librarian paused beside him, a few books clutched to her chest already. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Joey pointed foolishly. “The cover is moving.”

  She stepped a little closer. “This one?”

  Joey flinched as she reached out and grabbed the book. He thought the water of that dark ocean might splash right up in their faces. Or, worse, the dragon would take offense and breathe a great blast of fire in their direction. The younger girl held the book up and inspected it.

  “It’s holographic,” she said, like that explained things. “It looks like they’re flying, almost.”

  He wanted to tell her she was wrong. He’d been watching the whole time, and the dragon and its rider had not been there a moment before. The dark ocean had been empty. But that would have sounded a little weird. Joey nodded instead.

  “Yeah, holographic. Cool.”

  He waited for the girl to move on to another section before snatching the book off the shelf. His heart continued to thunder as he flipped through the first few pages. Something about a dragon. A boy a lot like Joey was in class, bored out of his mind, when he started sweating profusely.

  That was the worst. Joey had recently learned about sweat. A girl he liked named Laura had seen him in the hallway after gym class. He’d gone to offer a high five when she spied his shirt, soaked halfway through, and let out a little squeak. “Is that sweat?”

  Joey flipped a few pages.

  The next chapter switched to a new perspective. It was the girl on the front cover. Her name soared off the page, rising into the air like mist: INDIRA STORY.

  Standing in the library, Joey knew it was impossible that lightning could strike him. But that was how it felt as his vision briefly blurred. He imagined himself on the back of a dragon, staring directly into the eyes of that girl, and it was almost like he was there.

  Almost as if he had lived another life.

  The vision vanished. He was back in the library, clutching another world to his chest like a waiting promise. He crossed the room and could not have explained what was happening to him. Only that he needed to read this story about this boy who was a dragon and this girl with the magic hammer. He had to know what happened to them. It felt like a story he’d started writing once, a long time ago, and for the first time he was being invited to see how it all would end.

  The librarian—angel that she was—let him walk out with it after he promised to bring money the next day. He ignored the calls of his friends as the group walked back to class. He realized that he’d skipped some of the beginning, so he turned back to the start and read the first line again. It thundered through him unexpectedly.

  Phoenix found out he was a dragon by accident, with only the school’s janitor there to witness the discovery.

  Acknowledgments

  Escaping Ordinary is one of the first books to reach publication without a ton of input guiding me along the way. By the necessity of deadlines and the rhythm of the publishing world, I ended up writing this story mostly on my own. But the curious thing about being a writer—and getting deeper into one’s career as an artist—is that certain voices merge with your writing at some point. You are so much more than your own imagination.

  Susan Letts is always at my shoulder reminding me I have a story to tell. Anne Dailey is always handing me a slip to go to the library, urging me to really dig deep into my writing for a few hours. Bland Simpson still takes time—in my head, at least—to quietly guide me back through the threads that make up a proper story. Alan Shapiro is there to remind me that while I wasn’t a great poet as a freshman, some of my lines really sing now.

  To anyone who might see me in the corner of a coffee shop, I would look very much alone. Working in silence. If only they knew what a talented team of people I had with me. The teachers who’ve guided me to this point. The writing group who knows some of my characters even better than I do. I always feel a little like Harry Potter, walking on to face his doomed end, but with a bright team of people whispering encouragements as he goes. Thanks for being my crew.

  But the loudest and most impactful voice has to be Emily Easton’s. Escaping Ordinary is our sixth book together. We’ve been to other worlds. We’ve tackled dark plots and greedy corporations. I’m especially certain on this one that your voice guided the story home. Thanks for your steady work, and for seeing the magic in this world. Our team at Crown BFYR deserves an equally large shout-out. Claire Nist and Josh Redlich are often behind the scenes, but no less vital to the success of the series. Thank you for your diligence. The art team was fantastic, and I cannot thank Maike Plenzke enough for breathing life into my characters on these great covers.

  Thanks to my team at Nelson Literary Agency. As always, a special hat tip to my partner in crime, Kristin Nelson. Your initial edits righted the ship that was Saving Fable. Without that guidance, there wouldn’t be an Escaping Ordinary for readers to enjoy. Thank you.

  I’m also thankful for my loving wife, Katie. The life of an author is chaos and out-loud thinking and impromptu readings about characters I’ve not even remembered to introduce to you, but you’re there for it every day and unwavering at that. Thanks for loving me and my books. I’m grateful, too, for Henry. You’ll be three years old when this comes out. I can write playful books like this one because we run around the living room pretending to be lions together. Thank you for stirring my imagination and always bursting out from your room to give me a hug when I get home. I’d like to keep that little tradition going until you’re sixty.

  Finally, I’ve dedicated this book to Thomas. As I write this, we haven’t even met. You’re about the size of an avocado, but growing every day. I wanted to dedicate this book about imagination and teamwork and overcoming great obstacles to you. Because I know from experience that all I’ve imagined about you will fall short of the real thing. And I know that you’re the newest member of a dysfunctional team, but one that always stands together, shoulder to shoulder. Lastly, I don’t know what obstacles we’ll face—together or apart—but I promise I’ll walk you through all of it, every time, no matter what.

  About the Author

  SCOTT REINTGEN is a former public school teacher from North Carolina. He survives mostly on cookie dough, which he is told is the most important food group. When he’s not writing, he uses his imagination to entertain his wife, Katie, and their sons, Henry and Thomas. Scott is the author of the middle-grade novel Saving Fable, as well as the Nyxia Triad and Ashlords for young adults. You can follow him on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter at @Scott_Thought.


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