Story Thieves Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t she just be back in a book right now, avoiding all of this?
    Taking a deep breath, Bethany stepped through the sliding glass doors, gave Owen a look, then nodded toward the computerless tables in the back, the ones no one ever sat at. He smiled at her, then winked way too obviously, which almost made her turn right around, no matter what he knew. She pushed on anyway and kept walking toward the tables, where she threw her bag onto a chair and sat down to wait.
    Less than a minute later, Owen slid into the seat across from her. “My mom’s watching the desk. I told her we were meeting to go over some homework.” He grinned. “A book report. You know, because—”
    â€œI get it,” Bethany said. “So, what, you just lie to your mother? No big deal?” Guilt swirled in her stomach, but she decided Owen deserved it more.
    Owen sat back in his chair, his face turning red. “Well, notusually, but I promised not to tell anyone, so I had to think of an excuse—”
    â€œRight, whatever,” Bethany said, waving a hand as she inwardly tried to ignore how he’d done it for her , which made this lie her fault too. “Listen. I brought you something.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the gobstopper.
    His eyes widened, and he took the candy in his hands almost reverently. “Is . . . is this a Wonka original?” he whispered.
    Wow. “Yup. And it’s all yours. You just have to agree to leave me alone and never tell anyone about what you saw last night.”
    His eyes widened even more, and he held the candy up so he could look at it more closely. Then he sighed and passed it back to her. “You keep it,” he said, shaking his head. “There are too many books I’d rather visit!”
    Bethany narrowed her eyes and pushed the candy back toward him. “It’s not a choice. You either get the candy and leave me alone, or you don’t get the candy and leave me alone.”
    He took the candy back, but set it to one side. “We can talk about that in a minute. I want to know how you do all of this in the first place.”
    Bethany glanced around to make sure no one could hear. “My . . . my father. He’s, um, fictional. You know, from abook.” She swallowed hard, knowing what was coming.
    Owen gave her a confused look. “I’m sorry, he’s . . . what?”
    â€œMy father is a fictional character ,” she said, her anger growing, which wasn’t really fair. It’s not like she had just told Owen her father was from Sweden or something. This wasn’t something that most people dealt with on a daily basis, so she should maybe cut him some slack.
    But why did she have to be fair to Owen about this? How was it any of his business anyway?
    â€œ. . . . What?” Owen repeated, still confused.
    â€œMy mother read books about my father , and somehow my father found his way out of those books, and they fell in love,” Bethany hissed, her anger growing with each word Owen said. “You know, I’d really like to not talk about this—”
    â€œHow does a fictional person just . . . get out?” Owen asked.
    â€œI don’t know!” Bethany said, annoyed at herself for letting Owen bother her so much. “Maybe I could ask him if he was around. Only he’s not, okay? Are we done here?”
    â€œWhere did he go? Back into his book?”
    â€œWhere did he go ?” Bethany said, her voice getting louder. “For my fourth birthday party, my mom told everyone I wasn’t allowed to get books for presents. All my friends’ parentsthought that was weird, but they listened. All except one. While my mom was in the other room, I opened a present and found a copy of Fairy Tales for Kids . And since I didn’t know what I was doing, I pulled myself, all the other kids, and my father right into the