The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Pete—or Pirouette Pete as the girls in my advanced ballet class call him—and I went on at least half a dozen dates. Kissed a bunch of times and everything. Of course now he’s going out with Sean, but not because of me. He was always gay; he just didn’t realize it until after we went out.
    But because I don’t need to spend every waking moment with my friends, Cindy has the nerve to say I don’t have any. Yeah, we’re always competing with each other for the lead in the next show or for the first place trophy in the latest competition, but we get along. Usually.
    “Hey Al, how old are you?” Cindy asks over the music, which thankfully she left down.
    “Nineteen.”
    “Hot. College student?”
    “Cindy!”
    I pull a face. Really? She’s going to hit on a guy the size of her thumb. That’s messed up.
    “College.” He repeats the word carefully, as though there’s some hidden meaning behind it. “I don’t think it’s the same thing here as in my world.”
    “Your... world.” Cindy mulls over the idea for a minute while I very carefully try not to. Miniature men are hard enough to deal with. Add in magic and now other worlds, I’m surprised my brain hasn’t exploded. “Of course!” She slams her palm against her forehead. “It explains the clothes. And the accent.”
    I turn back to my window and pretend the conversation between my sister and the man in my necklace isn’t happening.
    “Gran would sometimes tell stories about another world, remember Lou?”
    I do, but I don’t acknowledge the fact. I tried to block those stories from my mind a long time ago.
    “Another world,” Cindy says more to herself than either of us. “Where all the things from myths and legends are real and life is dangerous and exciting and amazing. Gran told us she was from another world, remember? I wonder if it’s the same one.”
    “Gran wasn’t exactly in her full mind,” I say. “Mom said Gran has always been a little strange. She should have been on medication.”
    “Of course you’d believe Mom over Gran,” Cindy says. “But I remember when you were a kid you used to love her stories. You’d act like an idiot, running around her house with a cardboard sword saying you were a knight on a quest to save the princess. Until Mom convinced you to be the princess instead.”
    I watch the buildings flow past, and don’t argue. It wasn’t only Mom who wanted me to be the princess. I did too. Mostly.
    “Please tell me you’re a knight,” Cindy says. “Or a pirate. I love pirates. Especially the Johnny Depp kind.”
    “I’m not sure what you mean, but I’m not a pirate.”
    “So you’re a knight?”
    He hesitates. “No.”
    “Okay, so you don’t go to school, you’re not a knight, and you’re not a pirate. What do you do?”
    He doesn’t say anything for a long time, until Cindy makes an irritated sound and honks her horn at some poor pedestrian who has the right-of-away.
    “Sorry,” he says, though he sounds more worried than sorry. “I work in the field with my father. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
    “Ooh,” Cindy smiles and gives him a sidelong glance. Or actually, she gives my necklace a sidelong glance since she can’t actually see him inside the container. “A farmer. Sexy. Bet you have awesome abs.”
    So wrong. “You sure you know where you’re going?” I’m pretty positive she’s headed in the right direction, but I want her to stop flirting, so a subject change is necessary. “I could set the GPS guide on my phone, you know. If you didn’t break it.”
    “I remember the way to Gran’s house. It’s only been a week since she died after all.”
    She adds something else under her breath and turns up the music. Ten minutes in and I already have a headache. This is going to be fun.

Chapter Four
     
    My eyes flutter open as my brain catches up to what I already know. I’m in a car. The car is stopping. Okay, I can deal with that. Wait, why am I in a car again? And then I