Tales From Under the Maple Tree

Sitting at my desk, in class, I looked over at Evie with a nervous anticipation. Was I drooling as I sat mesmerized by her long, brunette hair that fell into cascading waves over her shoulders and beyond, or dreamily stared at her perfect facial complexion with no sign of acne or any other imperfections?

No not literally, but figuratively, yeah, oh yeah, I absolutely was drooling.

The form-fitting top she wore went perfectly with her skin-tight leggings, both of which perfectly accented the curves of her body. She was only able to wear those sinfully delightful leggings because she covered them with a dress-code approved mid-thigh length skirt. Although, the dress code said nothing about allowing skirts that were obviously too tight.

Evie simply had a figure to die for, one that both guys and girls craved, as she was completely fit. My only complaint with her form was that she could be a little more top heavy, but nonetheless, she was clearly the most attractive girl at my school . . . and I told myself she was soon to be all mine.

Smiling, I relaxed my posture as Mrs. Jenkins continued her lecture on .... on, ah, who am I kidding I had no clue what she was droning on about.

I've had a raging crush on Evie for the past couple of years, one that had practically reached an obsession.

Multiple times, I've wanted to ask her out, but every time I chickened out. Evie would never go out with me, and I understand. She's out of my league. Normally, she dates the hunky athletes or the rich boys, while I'm just an Average Joe.

Over the years, I've tried to work out and improve my figure, but no matter how many squats I do or weights I lift, I still retain my skinny figure. I've tried dating other girls to take my mind off of Evie, but no matter what, no girl feels good enough for me.

If I can't change myself to make Evie my girlfriend, then somehow, she would have to be the one that changes. It's definitely quite the conundrum, and somehow, I had found the solution.

A few days prior, my father had brought home a bunch of old books. A bad storm hit downtown a few days prior and the giant old Maple tree that stood on the square, and was supposedly older than the town itself, toppled.

Ironically, when it fell it landed on Maple Tree Antiques, Books, and Oddities Shop. Instead of rebuilding, the elderly owners decided to close down, so they had a going out of business sale.

My dad gave me a few of the books, thinking that I would be interested in them.

They all had weird names, like "Alchemus Slrinumus," "Book of the Shayatin," and "Secrets of an Ancient Jaini." I guess my dad thought they were old fantasy books.

Anyways, I started browsing these books, with none of them making any sense until I opened up one called "The Tome of Morgana." This book claimed to be a spell tome, listing all of the spells supposedly crafted by Morgana La Fey, the witch in the King Arthur legend.

There was a warning on page one, but I didn't believe it at first, so I absentmindedly read the first spell aloud.

Words cannot describe how shocked I was when I grew three feet in almost an instant (thankfully I was sitting down). I found I was able to reverse the spell by reading it again.

Once I had realized that the spellbook worked real magic, I started to silently read through it quite seriously. There were spells for just about anything, such as turning copper into gold, teleporting, age progression/regression, and so on. Just reading through all of those spells made me realize the power of the tome.