The Girl Who Was Looking for a Book

Steven had been to the library thirty times.

Thirty.

At first, he'd thought it was funny.

A book of real magic spells? Sure. Why not?

He'd found the strange black book completely by accident, hidden between two dusty volumes on an upper shelf. There was no author, no publisher, no explanation for where it had come from.

Naturally, he'd assumed it was some kind of prank.

Then he'd started trying the spells.

Most of them had been ridiculous.

One supposedly made your coffee taste better. Another claimed it could make lost objects appear. A third promised to give the reader perfect luck for exactly ten minutes.

Nothing had happened.

Then he'd found the spell titled:

CHANGE OF APPEARANCE

Steven had laughed.

"Now that would be something."

He'd read the words aloud, followed the instructions, and gone to bed.

The next morning, the book was gone.

And so was his old appearance.

Steven stared at himself in the bathroom mirror for several minutes.

Long brown hair.

A completely different face.

A woman's body.

A woman's clothes.

He looked down.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

There was only one thing he could do.

Find the book.

That had been three weeks ago.

Now he was back at the library for the thirtieth time.

He walked through the doors, trying very hard not to look suspicious.

The librarian looked up.

"Oh, hello."

Steven smiled nervously.

"Hi."

"Back again?"

"Yeah. I, uh... really like books."

The librarian raised an eyebrow.

"You've been searching the same section every day."

"Research."

"Research for what?"

Steven froze.

"Women's literature."

The librarian glanced at his outfit.

"Oh."

Steven nodded quickly.

"Very... important research."

He hurried away.

One excuse down. Only about nine hundred and ninety-nine to go.

He reached the shelf.

Nothing.

Again.

He checked behind the books.

Under the shelf.

On top of the shelf.

Nothing.

Then someone approached him.

"Excuse me?"

Steven turned.

A woman around his age smiled politely.

"Are you new around here?"

Steven's brain immediately went into emergency mode.

"Yes."

"What's your name?"

He hesitated.

"Steven."

She stared at him.

Steven stared back.

"...I mean, Stephanie."

"Stephanie?"

"Yes."

The woman smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Stephanie."

"Nice to meet you too."

She walked away.

Steven exhaled.

That was close.

Then he realized something.

If he was going to keep pretending to be someone else, he needed to come up with a better name.