The Pearl Inside of Anything

Wednesday, June 10th, Templeton Library 12:15 p.m.

"So we have a deal?" says Ben.

I shake my head. No. Deal.

Bran smiles and waggles his little wizardlet happily. Dirt sits up. Voluntarily. "I'm in," he says. "That means you're outnumbered, Wendy."

"Not if I'm not playing." I say. And I wince, because I well know what the sound of five-year-oldishness sounds like, and I sound very five. I even cross my arms in front of my chest for good measure.

"Wendy..." says Ben. He leans forward in my direction. Oh, his eyes are so dark and warm at the same time. Not that that matters or anything—

"Listen to me. It's simple, and it makes perfect sense. We have negotiated that Mondays and Fridays can be Dungeons and Dragons days. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we study History. We really focus. We can get way more done as a ..."

"...as a what? As a band of merry men?"

"That's Robin Hood," says Dirt, huffily.

"You know what I mean," I scowl back at him.

"Like I was saying," Ben continues calmly. "We can get way more done as a team this way."

"But it's two days less a week to study," I complain. "We only have to the end of the month."

"Well," says Bran, "Maybe if someone had been a better peer tutor, we wouldn't all have to be here at all, would we?"

"That's not fair," I say. Except that it is.

"Okay, fine." I say. "Just fine." And before I can even blink, Bran whips out sheets of paper with "Dungeons and Dragons" printed at the top and some charts and blank lists on them.

"Bran, it's Wednesday!" I protest.

"I know," he says. "But I'm making up for Monday. Prepare for characters."

***

By the end of the hour we know who we are. As we roll Bran barks numbers at us to write down on our sheets. He introduces us to his wizard, "Magnus The Guardian". I think that means Guardian of the Sandwich. We are short a player so Bran flagged Mr. Kovaks, the custodian, down in between his laps of dustmopping the library's hardwood floors. These things are done three times a day at Templeton. It's pretty spiffy here. "I be for to try!" says Mr. Kovaks excitedly nodding in agreement. "I be for to help you keeds learn Heestory." Nobody informs Mr. Kovaks of the fact that there really is no Kingdom of Golion and there never was a bi-pedal species of anything called ork, let alone elves that can whollop invisible attackers in a blind fight. When it comes to desperate trade off measures for getting Dirt and Bran to study, these are minor details.

When we are all sorted, Bran reaches into his backpack for a small fishing tackle box. Inside its compartments are a couple of dozen miniature creature figurines like Magnus. He hands one each to us in turn.

"Borwyn, you are a trained assassin. A Halfling veteran of the Battle of Oregano and loyal citizen of the Kingdom of Golion. You're also kind of feeble in the spells and magic department. We'll work on that. Welcome to the campaign."

Wednesday, June 10th, Mirabella Models, Inc., 4 p.m. sharp

"Vendy?"