To Alexa

Now that I have told you about my book, let me share how I got this idea.

Alexa is the typical mean girl you think of when I say the words fashion, blonde, egotistic, and the b-word. 

So why on earth would I be dedicating my book to her?

Here's why: she gave me the idea for it.  Yep, that's right, Alexa, the most snooty girl ever to walk my school hallways, gave me the idea for a book I hope one day to be as popular as Harry Potter.  It all started like this:

I was taking a "Conceptual Physics" course in my freshman year of high school.  We were discussing philosophers, and how different ones viewed the world different ways.  A few philosophers had the idea that all humans were made of one of the four elements.  One guy thought we were made of water, because of our watery blood.  One guy thought fire, because we are always so warm (well, most of the time).  Anyway, Alexa had this boyfriend named Nick, and she took these things and said, and I quote (as best that I can, it was so long ago):

"Ha, that would be so cool if, like, I was a water child, and Nick was, like, a fire child, so we would totally be all 'hisssssss' and steamy."

I took it as one of her little she-thinks-it's-flirtatious-but-it-is-just-really-annoying things and was about to move on, when what she said caught my mind.  On the back of my notes page for class (and I hope to have that thing be worth over a thousand dollars someday) I scribbled a little note to myself: "Elemental School: Write!"

What came after that was such a big thing that I just had to dedicate my book to Alexa: the girl who gave me the idea that changed my life.

By the way, I told her this info around May.  She looked at me like I was crazy, stopped as her small little brain processed what a book dedication was, and finally just nodded and gave me a tiny smile, like she understood that because of me, her name was gonna go up in lights.  She hasn't been mean to anyone since.

A bit Beyond the Usual for her, don't you think?