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// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Pages of Red Diamond 
// by Katie052014 
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“Do you want to hang out before or after dance?” Lily Belle heard Junebug ask from behind her.

“Oh, I can’t today. Sorry. I have homework to do before dance and then I have to make dinner tonight because my Aunt has to work late,” Lily Belle said, turning her head so she could see Junebug.
“That’s fine. We can do homework together!” Junebug said happily.
“Sorry, I can’t tonight. I’ll talk to you guys at dance!”Lily Belle  said, waving goodbye and turning before they could find some way to change her mind. Lily Belle walked out of the school and headed over to the Pod garage. A Pod was sort of like a wagon and a scooter mixed together. Almost every kid had one. One of the cool things about them was that they came in every color. Lily Belle had a light blue Pod because that was her favorite. Other kids had orange, black, purple and even tie-died. Almost every place she went had a Pod garage because they were so popular with the ponies. Lily Belle got on her pod, put her key in, turned it on and headed home. About five minutes later, she arrived at her Aunts house. She put her Pod in the garage and went inside. On the table Lily saw a note.
Sweetheart,
I won’t be home until 8:30 tonight. I’m so sorry! You don’t have to wait to eat. There’s steak, mashed potatoes, salad, and corn in the fridge. And don’t forget – you have dance at 5:30 pm. Amber Shine's mom is going to take you. For a snack, I bought some popcorn and Fruit Waters. See you when I get home!
Love, Aunt Emerald Bell
P.S. Don’t forget to feed Snowball!
Lily Belle read the note out loud. Right when she finished, a white fluffy bunny ran into the room. Lily Belle laughed.
“Are you hungry, girl? Let’s go get some food!” Lily Belle said walking into the kitchen with Snowball trotting behind her. She put some food in the dog bowl and got her some water. Then she popped some popcorn in the microwave for herself and grabbed a Fruit Water from the fridge. Lily Belle headed to her room to wait for the popcorn. They really needed to get a new microwave. This one took twice as long to cook everything because it had trouble heating up. Right when she walked into her room she went over to her bookshelf, took a couple books off and saw a sticker of a big tooth with the words “I went to the dentist!” written on it. She gets one of those stickers in her little take-home bag whenever she goes to the dentist gently pushed on the sticker and a square panel of the bookshelf slid aside to reveal a key pad. Punching in the correct password would reveal a secret compartment. Lily Belle's Aunt Emerald Bell  had bought the bookshelf for Lily Belle when she was ten. She thought Lily Belle would want new furniture in her new room, though when she bought the bookshelf she had no idea about the key pad or the secret spot. Lily Belle didn’t know about it either until she was eleven and decided to put her dentist sticker on it. When she pressed the sticker to the shelf, she saw the key pad appear. She figured that this was where you enter a password, so thinking for a moment about what password she should use, Lily Belle finally settled on 4lives, since that’s what she was living.
The secret compartment was just big enough to fit a book, so Lily Belle kept a special one there that her dad had given her when her parents got their divorce. He told her that she could write her thoughts down in it. It was a big beautiful purple book with different sized colorful sequins on the front, and the thick pages were a cream color with tiny sparkles in them.
For about a year Lily Belle didn’t even look at the book because she was so angry with her dad and her mom for breaking up the family. But when she finally opened it, much to her surprise, it took her to another world, a world called Red Diamond, where they had been expecting her.
Legend spoke of a girl with eyes of hazel brown, who would travel to Red diamond with the help of a magic book. It also said that she would be a master of the martial arts and would help Red Diamond when it was in need. Lily Belle met all of the requirements. It was a lot for her to take in but she got used to it. Now, whenever someone in red Diamond needed help, whether it was getting a cat down from a tree or stopping a bank robbery, she did what she had to do.
When Lily Belle told all of this to her best friend Amber Shine, she called Lily Belle an undercover-secret-agent-ninja-thingy, which was actually pretty close. Lily Belle was a brown belt in martial arts and would be a black belt in a day. She had always impressed the teacher with how good she was. She had started about four months ago and already she was a brown belt. Lily Belle didn’t know why, but she was naturally good at martial arts, even before she had begun her classes. But her aunt (the only other person, besides Amber Shine, who knew about Red Diamond) made Lily Belle sign up for the classes when things started to get dangerous in Red Diamond.
Lily Belle typed “4lives” on the keypad. She heard a click and then the keypad swung up to revel a spot just big enough for her book. Lily Belle took it out, opened it and saw the word Trouble.
Whenever there was a problem in Red Diamond, the word “Trouble” would appear in big red letters on the first page of her book. A paragraph underneath would then describe what was wrong. To get to their world, Lily Belle had to hold the book, close her eyes and think about Red Diamond. She would feel a slight breeze, and then when she opened her eyes she would be there. She sighed and looked at the clock. It was three fifteen.
“I’ve got time,” she said quickly. She got up and ran over to her closet. She walked in and pulled on her black stretch pants, a baby blue tank top and a black jacket which held her gadgets. She slipped on a pair of black sneakers and pulled her hair back into a pony tail and quickly looked in the mirror and smiled. This was the outfit that she wore every time she had to go to Red Diamond. She liked it because it was comfortable and she could easily move around in it. Her Aunt and best friend Amber Shine called it her crime fighting outfit. She headed over to her book and read more about what was going on.