One book, however, caught Stinky's interest - mostly because it seemed so out of place amongst the rest of the books on the shelf. The spine was completely white, with no title or author's name alongside it, like it was blank. Confused, Stinky quizzically tilted her head.
Huh, she thought. Wonder what the deal with this one is?
Stinky extended her hand out towards the book and pulled it from the shelf by its spine, only to then realize that both it's back and front covers were also completely blank white.
"Is this... just the book with no title or something?" Stinky asked herself.
She then opened the book to see if anything was even written in it at all. "Be weird if Dom just had a totally blank book in his library," she added.
Upon opening the book to its first pages, text was indeed there to fill them. Stinky laughed to herself.
"Pffft, guess the cover's just missing or something."
As her eyes glazed over the text, nothing of note caught her eye at first. It wasn't until she turned to the next page that a single word jumped out at her, demanding her attention. The word was a name of one of the book's characters, but what Stinky noticed was that it was instantly familiar:
It was Eloise.
The moment she read the name, Stinky stopped for a second, staring at the page. Even she wasn't entirely sure why.
I mean, it's not THAT big a deal, right? She thought. Eloise is a common name... but, for some reason...
Stinky then sat down slowly on the floor in front of the bookcase, saying, "Let's see what this story is all about."
She started from the beginning, to see if anything would indicate what the name of the book was called or to see where it could be going. Upon reading, she learned the set-up for the story, simple as it was - the protagonist seemed to be a girl named Eloise Robinson, and the story seemed to be just following the events of her daily life.
Despite how broad of a concept that was, Stinky found herself relating to Eloise almost immediately - like her, Eloise was an only child, as well as age 11. Her best friend was a boy named Cameron, but Eloise called him Cam, for short. Cam was 12 years old, and the two had known each other for about as long as either could remember. Eloise was also friends with another girl named Dylanie, a rather casual, often rude girl that Eloise got along with regardless.
The names alone stirred within Stinky's head.
Cam... Dylanie... Almost sound like Sam and Dylan, she said to herself.
But then the last thing Stinky learned about Eloise surprised her the most - in the book, Eloise was born with a condition that resulted in "extreme chronic flatulence." A little further in, it was revealed that Dylanie also had a similar condition to Eloise.
Hold on... Stinky thought. This book... this book feels a LOT like it's about me and my friends. The main girl evens farts a lot like I do! ...What are the odds that someone would make a book about a gassy girl named Eloise anyway? And her friends even have similar names!
Stinky stopped and took a breath. "Oh please!" she giggled to herself. "It's just a coincidence! Dylanie's a girl in this book, and the Dylan I know is a dude! I'm totally thinking too much about this."
After putting her mind at ease somewhat, Stinky continued reading. She was still compelled enough to want to know where the story was going. While the premise seemed simple at first, it quickly became very strange.
At first, Stinky expected the story to be about a girl dealing with something she say as an embarrassing problem, and over the course of the book, learn to overcome her insecurities. But, the book quickly made it clear that that was not the focus much at all. Instead, each day in Eloise's life focused on a completely different, separate random scenario, with no sense of cohesion or through-line.
The first day focused on an adult samurai who had been transported to Eloise's time, and the two would be joined by an overweight boy who happened to be a samurai enthusiast - so much so, that he even dressed up as one. The three would then try to find a way to get the adult samurai back to his time period.
The second day, Eloise drank a potion that shrank her down to a third of her height, and she was being accompanied by two other girls, who also happened to be rather gassy themselves. The potion had seemed to be the creation of one of the girl's grandfather, who was an elderly man named Chemsey. The rest of the story was about getting Eloise back to her regular height.
The third day, Eloise and Cam were hanging out in their tree-house in the middle of the woods, when they had realized that time had suddenly stopped. As the explored the woods to find what could be causing the phenomena, the two met with a large female alien who claimed to be a princess from another world, trapped in a time prison of sorts. The three then decided to work together to find themselves a way out of the time-freeze.
As Stinky continued to read, she couldn't shake this odd sense of deja vu that niggled at the back of her mind. It was as if, somewhere deep down inside her, these completely insane, extraordinary events were somehow... familiar.
"This book is... super weird," Stinky said to herself. "Have I like... read this before? I must have, I feel like I've definitely heard about all this stuff that happens!"
Eloise's fourth day had her and her friend Cam going to the school roof and stumbling across a hot air balloon. It seemed relatively normal, when compared to the other days... but then, Stinky said aloud, "What if she got so gassy, she could inflate herself and become the balloon? Heheh, that'd be somethin'!"
It was a joke, but as she turned the page, she saw that in the book, Cam looked to Eloise and joked, "Bet your farts can get this thing ariborne, huh? Maybe even inflate and become the balloon."
Stinky was stunned. How did... how did I KNOW Cam was gonna say that? She thought. I feel like... Somehow, I knew what Sam--er, CAM was gonna say!
Stinky continued to read, now thoroughly invested - everything so far was strange, but what she read over the course of Eloise's fifth day shocked her the most, by far.
The fifth day, Eloise was encountered by two different flatulent girls that were older than her. One of them, who possessed a rather large butt, proceeded to instigate a sort of farting competition between herself and Eloise. The other girl who acted as the sort of judge, had a large potbelly, and burped incredibly frequently. The match between Eloise and the big-butt girl was extended, with a winner seemingly not in sight. Stinky had to stop reading, though, once she realized that the two girls were part of a gang of teenagers who also happened to possess gassy tendencies.
Stinky closed the book abruptly. "W-Wait, hold on," she said. "The girl with the big butt... she runs a gang of other gassy kids? That can't be Betty Blast, can it? Betty doesn't even have a big butt! And, the burping girl with the huge stomach... is that supposed to be Fizzy?"
Stinky put the book down in front of her. "Alright, this is starting to get real weird... this book, it... is it about me? Why would it be? How can they get some things right and some things wrong? It's a story about a gassy girl who lives in a town with her friends and family, and... she hangs out with them. B-But, none of this crazy crap happened to me at all!"
Stinky started to get frustrated. "Urrgh, and the story doesn't even make sense! Each day is totally different! Why does this Eloise girl even act surprised after the first couple times?! You'd think if this all started happening to her day after day, she'd get used to it!"
As she continued to feel more flustered, that feeling in the back of her mind grew. I feel like I'm trying to remember something that didn't even HAPPEN! she thought.
Stinky grabbed the sides of her head, then let out a long, heavy sigh. "Phew... I... I need to get a grip. This book is working me up, for some reason."
A thought then crossed her mind.
"Hey, wait, how long have I even been sitting her reading this?" As Stinky darted her gaze to try and spot a clock, she saw that one of the clocks mounted on the wall of the library said it was 9:31 AM.
"9:30?!" Stinky exclaimed. "Damn, I've been reading that book for two hours!"
She than shot up from her seating position, then bent down to grab the book from the floor.
"I should put this back and start heading back home."
Just as Stinky finished sliding the book back in its original spot, she heard a voice.
"Hello?"
Stinky turned her gaze towards her left, where the voice was coming from - at the end of the shelf was another girl.
"Uh, hi," Stinky replied.
The other girl was about the same height as Stinky, but otherwise looked almost completely different - the only thing they had in common was that they both had blue eyes. The other girl had brunette hair styled in a ponytail that reached down past her shoulders. Her shirt was a white tee with a pink heart on her chest, and pink trim, and she was wearing bright pink-colored denim jeans and white tennis shoes.
"Need help with somethin'?" Stinky asked the other girl.
"Um... I think so? Can I ask you your name?"
"Oh, right - name's Elueze Robins, but everybody calls me Stinky!"
The other girl's eyes widened. "Oh... so... it has to be you."
Stinky raised an eyebrow. "What do ya mean? Do we know each other?"
"I think... we are each other," the girl answered.
Stinky laughed. "Pssh, heheh, yeah OK! If this is some prank, it ain't even good."
"I'm being serious!" the other answered. "You said your name is... Elueze?"
"Uh, yeah?" Stinky replied in a confused tone. "Why? What's your name?"
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