Chapter 1

The adventure starts, Sage and Jax (the main characters in this chapter) head to the park to find out what was going on with the orange tree's

I quickly look out of the window of my classroom, bored with the lecture in math my teacher is currently giving us.

All of the sudden, I hear my name.

“Jax. What is the answer to this question?”

asks my teacher.

I quickly look at the problem on the board and try to solve puzzle in my head.

“Um… 23?”

I ask.

She rolls her eyes.

“Correct.”

she says, and looks at me.

Across the classroom I look to see Alex, my sister, staring at me and laughing.

Sometimes I’m lucky to have her in my classroom, sometimes I’m not. This is one of those, ‘not’ times.

She laughs at my guess on the question and getting it correct, though I can tell that she’s silently applauding my ability to get the problem right, and annoy the teacher at the same time.

At least, that’s what I think she’s saying.

Homework is quickly assigned, and we’re on our way out of class as soon as the bell rings.

I walk to the small car that is parked on the side of the school in my usual spot, just ahead of my siblings. I open the door quickly and pile into the hot car.

“Only 13 days left.”

I remind myself, remembering that summer is quickly coming. Within the next 30 seconds my siblings have made it to the car. We are quickly headed out of the parking lot, and heading to our house.

My sister Sage shuffles through her backpack in the seat next to me.

“What is this?”

she asks pulling out a piece of paper that looks ancient.

“How should I know?”

I ask

“Rhetorical question.”

she mumbles while shoving through her backpack as if to find hints that are leading to the answer to the question.

She opens up the piece of paper slowly.

“Why would I have a map in my backpack?”

she whispers to herself

“Maybe because you needed to go somewhere.”

I say.

“I know what I’ll get you for your birthday. A guide on how to tell rhetorical questions from real ones.”

She says putting the map back in her backpack.

“That’s good. Then I can tell. You never make it obvious enough.”

I say sarcastically, and roll my eyes.

“Shut up you guys.”

says Blaine from the back seat. He’s my brother. My only brother. But, we unfortunately don’t have as good of a relationship as I’d like. Sometimes I feel more attached to my sisters.

We spend the rest of the short car ride in silence.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *    *

When we get home, Sage comes to me.

“Look at this map, seriously!”

she says showing me the map she had made a comment about in the car ride

“It’s path leads to the park, but it leads back to the forest behind it. Then it get’s weird.”

she says, showing me the map. It’s in full color, and it shows the tree’s gradually getting more and more orange. Then it leads to a small house.

“That’s weird.”

I say

“Must’ve been a printing accident.”

She says.

“We should go check it out.”

I say

“Why?”

she asks

“It’s just a map, probably something from some old social studies project.”

she says.

“If it were, it wouldn’t have that big of a mistake, and you probably wouldn’t have taken it home.”

“Well, let’s just see what the heck is up then.”

Sage says, as she slips into her tennis shoes.

“Wait… seriously?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

she says,

“Unless you’re scared of the color orange.”

She teases

“Fine. Take my car.”

I say, grabbing my keys.

We jump into my car, and call our mom, saying we’ll be back soon on the way to the park. On our way we stop at a gas station, because I ran low on gas.

“Get the gas, I’ll grab some stuff from inside.”

Sage says, hopping out of the car.

“Fine.”

I say, getting out my debit card, and watching the meter on my dash go up, almost halfway before I stop it.

I unhook my car from the nozzle in the gas station, and park just in front of the gas station. I pull the keys from my car, shove them hastily into my pocket, along with my wallet, and I head into the small, surprisingly dusty store.

I roam around the aisles until I find Sage, who is grabbing a granola bar, and a pack of skittles.

“You love skittles don’t you.”

I say.

“If there’s anything I’m a sucker for, it’s skittles.”

she says handing me the small bag of skittles.

We head to the front of the store and put everything on the counter along with a 10 dollar bill, and head out of the store.

As I close my door, Sage stuffs the 2 granola bars, bag of chips, and pack of skittles into her purse, and as soon as she’s clipped into her seat belt, we’ve pulled into the parking lot of the park.

“You ready.”

I ask Sage.

“to go on a walk. Sure.”

she says sarcastically.

I sigh.

“If you say so.”

I say, and we hop out of the car, onto the worn concrete of the parking lot, as we head out to discover something I never thought I would, and lose things I never thought I would.

Author's Note

What do you think about the story line so far? where do you think it's going to go from here?

Reviews

[Shawn]

I'm liking the storyline so far, and I'm really intrigued! I don't know why you ask where the story is going to go unless you're looking for ideas, at a guess I'd say there's going to be a huge treasure and a mystery to be unraveled (I know, so cliché!).

A few grammatical mistakes I noticed, please pardon my OCD brain. Mostly apostrophe mistakes (get's isn't a word, and be careful of its vs. it's!), so not really a problem, but just something I noticed.

I'd appreciate it if you took the time to review my book too, I really need advice and critique. Other than that, it's golden, and I look forward to read more!

[Madison Rose]

I love adventures, and this is starting off to be a great one, making me want to read more!