NOTE:
This story was never finished within the circle itself. There were not enough
people within the circle to go on with the story. Partly this had to do with
a low turnout on the MUCK itself. Tell there is more added to it here is what
there is. I am working on adding more to it though.
Leo panted as he tried to keep ahead of the other three boys. They were after him again after school and his short raccoon legs just didn't have the speed of the other kids. He could see the library right ahead though. He would make it there for today.
"Leo is a sissy! Leo is a sissy! Leo is a sissy!" Chanted Fred. He was a lanky young coyote with a reputation for being the schools worst bully, at least when the teachers were not looking. He saw that Leo was going to make it to the library before he could get to him and was angry at that. He wanted to make the little bookworm cry, but had never been able to catch him in time! He was really pissed so turned to one of his gang and hit them on the shoulder. "HOW COULD YOU LET HIM GET AWAY!"
Leo made it through the doors of the library and slowed down from his dead run to a slow walk. He was still panting as he walked past the reference desk and toward the back of the Hillstown General Library. Where the comfortable reading chairs were. As he walked down an isle he ran his fingers along the spines of the books next to him. He was thinking about how much he hated Fred when his claws caught in the cloth of one books bindings and pulled it off of the shelf.
"Yeep!" Leo looked around to make sure that no one had seen the book fall and sighed in relief. No one had. He bend down and picked the book up and read the title as he started to put it back on the shelf. 'Read Me Leo' Leo blinked and looked at the book again. "Read Me Leo? What kind of book is that?" He looked over the outside of the book. There was no other marking. Not even the normal ID on the spine that the library put on all of its books. He thought for a moment and took the book with him to the back and sat down.
Leo opened the book and started to read. 'Hello Leo Raccoon, I know that you are tired from having run from Fred Coyote so I will be brief.' Leo blinked at the words. "What the heck is this?" He read on. 'This, as you asked, is your book. For now and forever I am your friend. Go on, I know you have been thinking it, open my pages at random and look at the wonders within my small binding. You must ask a question first though.' Leo did just that, feeling very strange about talking with a book. "Who are you?" Leo opened the book to the tenth page. 'I am your book, for now and forever.' Leo blinked. They were the only works on both pages. He closed the book and grinned. He had an idea. "How can I get Fred back?" He opened the book again to the tenth page. It was filled with words! 'I can help you with that Leo. Just read the next part of this book on how to take over the world in twelve easy steps. Step one......'
Leo put his finger between the pages of the book and got up from where he was and took the book over to a corner table. It was more out of the way then where he had been sitting before. He laid the book down and took a seat, then began to read again. "Step One... " a noise further down the room caught his attention and he looked up. He watched two small children pick up some books they had dropped and then looked back at his own book. "Step One... Watch other people carefully, learn all that you can about their likes and dislikes. Getting to know what makes them mad or happy.
Step Two.....
Leo closed the book. "I don't wanna take over the world book. I want Fred and those jerks he runs with to leave me alone! How do I stop him from being a pain in the ASS?" He hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath and opened the book for the second time.
"To stop Fred and his gang is an easy task. You have all you need at home. Now, put me in your book bag and go home. We will begin . . .
--
That evening he worked feverishly on his new project. Everyone at school would take notice. The bullies wouldn't be so quick to mess with him if this worked as he had planned. The book had been explicit in it's instructions. All was prepared. In the morning, he would go as usual and then. . . this was just going to be fun! He couldn't help but snicker as he closed his dads old briefcase and set it by his bed.
Morning came . . . Leo ate quickly. He hurried on his way to school. If the book spoke true, and his work was Grade A, then this school was in for a wakeup call, courtesy of Leo Sanford!
"Well, if isn't the nerd!" Leo froze momentarily.. FRED! He turned and set the briefcase to the ground. It was done. Fred approached menacingly. "Get 'em!" Leo ran and Fred laughed and grabbed the briefcase . . .
Fred's screams shrieked through the halls like lightning. Everyone froze. Nothing that scary ever happened that early in the day. No one moved. All eyes turned to the schools entrance and there on the ground, struggling and dancing about was Fred, unable to let go the briefcase.
Leo chuckled. Time for phase two. He slipped on a pair of thick white gloves, reached into his back pocket, then advanced on Fred, a wide grin on his face. "What's the matter, tough guy? Can't take a surprise?"
"Stop it! STOP IT!!" Fred shrieked.
Leo grabbed the briefcase from Freds trembling hand and set it aside. "Next time, it'll be worse!" he hissed. "Leave me and my friends alone! We don't want anything to do with you JERKS!"
Fred came up snarling. he grabbed Leo roughly.
Leo stood his ground and frowned fiercely. "LET GO OF ME!"
"Or what? You'll cry?" laughed Fred.
"No, YOU'LL cry!" Leo grabbed Fred's ears. A distinct crackle could be heard. Fred went down in a heap, begging to be let go. His body twitched and he babbled tearfully.
Leo snorted and let go. Fred fell to the ground puffing. "You aren't hurt! Just leave me and my friends alone, or it gets worse . . . JERK!"
Fred was furious! He was as mad as a hornet and couldn't do anything about it! Leo was just standing there as he got to his feet and backed away. He needed to get his thugs in on this one. "I'll be back Leo Sissy Sitter!"
Leo watched him run off and giggled happily to himself... there was still plan B through G that he hadn't even got to try yet. He reached down to the briefcase and turned off the battery that was inside. It had made it so that Fred wouldn't be able to let go of it. With the super hot inferno chilly powder on the handle Leo picked it up carefully with his gloves. He didn't want to get that stuff on his paws! No way.
In another part of the school. Fred rubbed his ears at he looked at Bow and Ted, his two best thugs. "That little twit hurt my reputation really really bad today! You two are going to do exactly what I say. First you get that case away from him.....
Leo sat down in class and thought. "What will they do next book? I have to be ready you know." He opened the book to a random page and read. 'Ah, as with all bully's they will try and get back at you. What you need to do is this...' Leo read on and grinned more and more as he went. "Oh. This should be fun."
Leo made his way home. The case lossy held in his paw as he walked waiting for Freds thugs to show up. Sure enough they came running out of an ally behind him and grabbed the case. He let them and laughed happily as he pulled a string out of the lip.
Ted got the briefcase and danced back in triumph! He got it! The next moment the case popped open and exploded with green goo....
Ted squealed as the green goo sprayed all over him. It had an evil smell and began to make him itch. He dropped the briefcase and ran off yelling and cursing. His partner in crime looked shocked and backed away from the briefcase, then turned tail and ran too.
Leo chuckled to himself and pulling his gloves into place, he carefully picked up the case and continued on his way home. Whistling he waved at the neighbors as he turned down his sidewalk and went up to the door. Leo opened the door and made his way to the wash-room to clean up the briefcase.
Leo snuggled into his sheets and closed his eyes. He had taken care of the bully's for good. He would keep around a few of the gadgets that he had not yet used to be sure that he could still take care of himself. Then he cocked his head to the side and turned on the light. "Book. How, well I guess where, do I find high adventure?" He took the book off of the night stand and opened it to the middle. 'Ah. I thought that you would never ask me Leo... helping you get bully's is all fine and good but gee. It is not really something that I would want to do. Go into your dads computer room and turn on his HAM equipment to a sub-band in the four Megahz range. Then say tap out hello.' Leo finished to the end of the page and got up and went to his dads computer room and played with the main dial on his tuner. Then he leaned over and licked his lips. 'dit dit dit dit, dit, dit daw dit dit, dit daw dit dit, daw daw daw' "Hello?"
Outside the home, where Leo and no one else could see. Something happened.
The starlight shown down on the old woman's head as he bent over to fix her jeep, but she looked up at the code coming from the old radio... "Hello?" an uncertain voice wavered out... The woman slowly got up...
She walked over to her car and opened the door to listen carefully. "Did you hear that? I could have sworn I heard someone say hello from inside this car." The mechanic looked up and shrugged his shoulders. He took a red rag from his back pocket and began wiping his hands then moved around to peer inside too.
Leo looked at the microphone a little uncertainly. He pressed a switch and turned a dial just so. Then he spoke into the microphone again, "Hello? Is anybody out there? Can you hear me?" The old woman looked startled and the mechanic jumped a little and took a step back bumping his head on the roof. "Do you suppose your radio is picking up a strange channel, Lady?" The woman nodded and looked up at the mechanic, "Very strange... this radio hasn't worked in five months. How could it be picking up anything now? It's not even turned on. Look...." With that she clicked the knob and the radio crackled with static, but not another sound. At least, not another sound until she turned it off again.... "HELLO! This is Leo..." She blinked in surprise and backed out of the car. "I think it must be haunted or... or something.
The woman moved over to the other side of the care and go into the passanger seat. She was overcame with curiosity, and she became entranced as she picked up the mike to the small radio in the car. "Hello?"
Leo shivered in front of the HAM radio--he was nervous as when he was facing those bullies--only this time he wasn't facing a physical opponent--what was he was scared of? Was this what the book had wanted? What could you do when someone unseen, someone was talking to you and you couldn't tell WHAT they were thinking? What if you said/did the wrong thing and you couldn't tell? And everything was going so well, "Hello?"
Betty looked at the radio again and grinned. It sounded like a kid on the other side. So she hit the send button again. "Hello Leo, It is nice hearing your voice. I don't get many calls on this radio you know."
Leo grinned. He did get hold of someone. "Umm.. I wanted to find high adventure. Do you know anything about that?
Betty grinned and shook her head. A kid, a young one at that. Then she cocked her head and picked up a little book with the title 'Betty Read Me' It was old and well used. Maybe more then fifty years old now. Under her breath she asked. "Oh, what should I tell this young one?" Then she opened the book and blinked. "Well well well."
Leo listened to the radio and worked hard to hear everything said. Then the voice came back. "Well my name is Betty. It is nice to meet you Leo, and yes. I think that I can help you with the high adventure bit. This weekend. See if you can talk your parents into letting you come down to the race track. Will let you see the cars and such. Just go to the vender gate and tell them you are with me. Al-right?
Leo grinned happily and almost danced. "Yes yes yes! I will be there!"
Betty grinned and tucked her book into her vest. "Now you go to bed Leo and I will see you this weekend." She heard him say yes and log off the air. She waved to the other guys and walked up to her office and sat down. She had to make plans on way to make her newest friend happy. She grinned. The book had never been wrong. None of them ever were.
The young man slept through the night. For all the rest of the next day his mind and imagination were almost overwhelmed with the possibilitys. Who was Betty? Why did his book tell him to contact her? What kind of high adventure was he going to get into? The possibilitys were almost more then he could think of.
Leo looked around all of the people can cars at the car show. It was like really really cool with all of the funny looking things with huge wheels and red, yellow, and blue paint. He was leading his dad and mom around after having gotten into the show for free. He looked for Betty and asked in a whisper. "Where can I find Betty?" He opened his magic book and looked at the page. 'Look to your left, over at the big yellow car. She is right next to it with a red hat.'
Betty turned around as a raccoon kit ran up and smiled. This must be Leo!
"Hello Betty! I'm Leo." He looked up at the old badger and grinned back at her as she had a big smile on her face.
Betty chuckled, "Hello Leo. It is nice to meet you face to face. Would you like to see the insides of this funny car?
Leo danced on his feet... oh would he!
Hours later Betty was having dinner with Leos parents, he has run off to use the little raccoons room and they started talking.
Sandy, Leo's mom, looked over at the old Badger. "I have not seen Leo this happy in a very long long time Miss Rodgers. However did you too meet?"
Betty laughed. "Over the HAM."
Leo's dad blinks. "Oh the little rascal has been into my equipment has he?
Sandy laughed and hugged her mate. "We will talk with him later about that. Maybe it is time that you showed him how to use the stuff!
Betty nodded and looked the the left. Leo was running back to the table again. "If you two wouldn't mind I would be glad if Leo could come over after school to my shop on 6th street. He can learn about computers there. I run a shop that fixes the things.. have sense the 70s. I just knew that it was going to be a big thing!" She smiled to herself and chuckled. "Read about them in a book somewhere."
Leo overheard a part of this conversation. "Oh! Can I? Can I? I would like to go over and play on the computers! They sound like a lot of fun mom? Dad?
His parents both looked at each other. Betty seemed a nice enough Badger all in all. His mom grinned at her son. "Yes Leo. You may go over there after school. You have to keep up on your homework though!
The next day, the old badger took Leo back out to the track. Betty looked around, shading her face with her hand. Already sweat ran in rivulets down her back. Her project car was just coming out of the showroom to go for a spin around the track. "See that car over there Leo?" She pointed over to where the new all computer designned car was coming out of the showroom. Leo nodded. "Well that is why I am out here on this field. That is going to be next years new model from Ford. "Woah!" he asked with all the excitement of a young kid. "What kind is it???"
Betty laughed. "It is a new sports car. It should be the hottest thing to come off of the line in years." She grinned and looked down at the kid next to her. "You wanted high adventure though. Right Leo?"
Leo nodded. "That is what I asked for." He looked over at Betty just as she grinned very very wide and reached into her jumpsuit and pulled out his book from an inner pocket. He blinked. His BOOK! His paw shot to his backpack and felt for his book. It was still there.
Betty watched Leo's eyes flash in recognition of her book and almost laughed out loud when he felt for his own. "No Leo, this is not your book but mine. I have had it for many many years. I was thirteen when it came to be to be my book. Have you asked your book why it is your friend yet?"
Leo gulpped and took his book out of his pack. He looked at the lady badger and shook his head. "I... I... I didn't think about it."
Betty nodded. "Well, go on and ask it. Or would you like me to just tell you Leo? I can if you would like."