writing_shadows

"Huh," Pete panted, curled up in his reading beanbag. His giant legs were bunched up tight against his body, allowing him to rest the book between his knees, and he was trying to leaf through the pages with his chubby fingers. The beanbag was the only place he could do this, he'd discovered. He could just about sit on a wooden chair without it collapsing underneath his girth, but curling up? Curling up was right out. He'd already broken four chairs.

The book was a bright lime, with big, clear writing on the cover. The back had nifty quotes from experts, clearly marked as such by the little "Dr"s and "Prof"s in front of their name. It was called Decision Making for the Indecisive. Pete couldn't make his mind up whether he was indecisive, but a quick search of the library had yielded no alternatives.

After flicking through a few pages, he'd come across a chapter on joining things: Going for It: How to Make Friends by Joining Groups. He had read it in full, memorised it, and then applied the advice in a big chart on his wall. The room still reeked of marker pen, but at least he could hold a marker correctly; pens tended to be too small for his grasp.

First up, list the benefits of joining. That was easy, and he'd already done it. Next, list the number of people that had encouraged him to join a particular sect. That was even easier. Summer scored the highest, then Autumn, with Spring rock bottom. He was now getting somewhere.

Next, he needed to decide what he liked, so he could spend time with people with common interests. That was even easier - Spring came out on top (he liked parties and wanted to lend books), then Autumn (knowing things), then Summer (hitting things). The author of the book, it turned out, knew her stuff. That led to the final piece of "decision equipment", as the book called it: trustworthy advice.

He discounted the fact he had to be beautiful to join Spring, as everyone had told him to ignore See-through Man. In fact, they'd told him to do the opposite of whatever See-through Man said. See-through Man had told him not to join Spring. Therefore, Pete reasoned, one point for Spring.

And Mortar had told him to do something other than what he did There. That was look after books, lend books, and hurt people. But he liked looking after books and lending books: that left only hurting people... and the opposite of that was healing people.

"Huh," Pete gruffed, finally satisfied with his tally. Spring had the most marks. He grinned, clapping to himself with pleasure.

"I guess me join Spring," he chirped. "If Spring let me. And it not make other people sad."

Pete considered this for a moment, then trundled off to the phone. He needed to make sure the nice people who'd helped him didn't mind.