FLYNN BARNES
Flynn noticed the signup sheet for the spelling bee posted on the library door when he was on the way to lunch. After the harrowing announcement, the rest of the day had been relatively easy.
He had tried his best to act like he didn’t care about the thing. But seeing the actual paper made it so hard to keep the resolve.
“Thinking about signing up?” a voice said.
Flynn flinched before he turned around. Tara was standing behind him, a few feet away, clutching her notebook, smiling curiously.
“No. Just looking. It just sounds interesting. That’s all.”
“I mean, you do already collect the words. That’s kind of….Spelling Bee Training 101, right?” Tara asked.
Flynn tilted his head. “I guess.”
Before he could say anything more, Flynn heard laughter. He turned to see that Dylan and his friends had stopped, pointed, and smirked at the two of them before walking off.
Tara frowned and then looked seriously at Flynn. “Ignore them.”
Flynn stepped back away from the bulletin board. He swallowed, but his jaw reminded him what happened the last time he tried to stand out. Easier said than done, he thought.
“I think I might sign up,” Tara added. “It sounds intense, but I think it’ll be fun. What do you think?”
Flynn widened his eyes a little. If she signs up, that means she and I could be in the spelling bee together, he thought before looking at his backpack before changing his mind. No. All the more reason to not do this thing. No new friends, no attention, no record of us.
Flynn shrugged when he looked back at Tara, who looked at him with a curious, concerned expression. “I think that will sound great for you, but I don’t think it’s my thing.”
Tara’s curious, concerned expression evolved to be more concerned than curious.
With no further ado, Flynn didn’t move closer to the sign-up sheet, leaving Tara behind.
No, instead, he walked away from the area, heading for the cafeteria.
It was after school when Flynn and his mom were back in the hotel room. Flynn had gotten started on his work while his mom was looking at job listings on her phone.
But then the peace and quiet had been disrupted by someone knocking.
Flynn frowned. Was it Miss Rachel again? he thought.
But when his mom opened the door, it was not Miss Rachel. Instead, it was someone that he and his mom had recognized to be the motel manager.
“Good afternoon, Miss Barnes,” the motel manager said:
“Good afternoon, sir,” Flynn’s mom said guardedly. “Is there something the matter?”
“Why, no,” the motel manager replied. “I’m here because this came for you.” He pulled out an envelope.
Flynn’s mom frowned as she took the envelope from the motel manager. She stared at it before looking back at the motel manager. “Who dropped this off?”
“Someone must have dropped it off about a couple minutes ago…I have no idea who. This motel had not received letters like that in a long time,” the motel manager replied.
Flynn’s mom nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
The motel manager nodded back. “You have a good one, ma’am.” He then left.
The moment that Flynn’s mom closed the door slowly, she walked back to where she was with her eyes wide.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Flynn asked. “What did he give you?”
“Don’t worry about it, honey. Just concentrate on your work, OK?” his mom said in reply.
Flynn opened his mouth as if to protest, but then decided against it. Whatever it is, it’s probably got nothing to do with me, he thought. But then he shook his head. I’ve got to ask at least one more question. “Is it a letter? Is it addressed to me or you?”
Flynn’s mom closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s addressed to you.”
Flynn widened his eyes. “To me? From who?”
Flynn’s mom opened her eyes and turned over the envelope. “Honey, that’s the most concerning part. I’m looking all over this envelope…and I don’t see a return address anywhere.”
And with that, my 3-chapter premiere of this serialized novel ends.
If you’ve read all 3 chapters of this premiere or even if you’re just now reading one of my posts for the first time ever, I just want to say thank you and welcome aboard this new journey for this website.
I hope these 3 chapters excited you enough to read the rest of this book.
The next chapter will arrive on Friday, January 9th at 8:00 am.
Let me know of what you thought of this chapter and/or this 3-chapter premiere overall.
Stay tuned!
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