It all started with an unexpected newspaper article. 

    I was in my bedroom, studying for my Geometry test tomorrow. My bedroom had white walls and black doors with golden door knobs. The floor was dark brown and wooden. On the center of the wall adjacent from the door sat a queen sized bed. My bed had black sheets and a white duvet. There were gold pillows and a gold blanket at the end of the bed. Above my bed there were seven golden letters: X,I,O,M,A,R and A. On the wall with the door there was a black dresser with gold handles and a gold mirror. On the wall adjacent to my bed without the wall there were two doors and a bookshelf. One of the doors led to my closet, and the

other led to the bathroom. The bookshelf was black and had gold boxes on it. On the fourth wall, there was a black desk with golden legs and a golden pencil holder. 

    I had just finished question twelve on my study guide. I went downstairs to make myself a well-earned snack. The staircase was brown with black railings. The kitchen had black cabinets with gold handles. There was a large, marble island in the middle. The appliances were silver. The door to the pantry looked like every other door in the house: black with a gold doorknob. I grabbed myself a bowl of peanut butter pretzels and grabbed the newspaper of the shining island. I then went back upstairs to my room. 

    I had black hair, brown skin and green eyes. My hair was long and straight. I was wearing a gold leotard. Overtop I wore a white cardigan and black leggings. 

    I scanned the newspaper for interesting headlines. One caught my eye: MISSING HIPPOS. I read through the article. Apparently zoologists last week had seen 100 hippos altogether, but this week those hippos had vanished off all radairs and the scientist hadn’t found any new hippos. Where did they go? I thought. And why the hippos? I then heard the doorbell ring. RING! RING! 

I went downstairs to see what it was. It was probably the mail. I opened the door. I was right. There was a stack of letters and a package. I then went into the 

kitchen to sort out the mail. The package was to Dad. It was probably boring salesman stuff. There was a letter that looked like a bill, one that looked like a work letter and a catalog of advertisements. I then noticed the bottom letter. It said Xiomara Yang 492 oak street Atlanta, Georgia. It had no return address. I left the other mail for Mom and Dad and went upstairs to read the letter. It was probably from Madja, my best friend. She always forgot to add return addresses. But she never had my last name on a letter. And this wasn’t her mom’s, her dad’s or her handwriting. It was neater and had all the correct spelling. I opened the letter. It read:

Dear Xiomara,

I know you have seen the article about the vanishing hippos. I don’t know who took them, but I know they were stolen or captured. I won’t write anymore in case this letter is intercepted.

From,

Jocelyn

    Who is Jocelyn? I thought. This could be useful information, but it was from a stranger who knew my address. How had this Jocelyn figured out my address? I then did what Mom and Dad would've considered the worst thing you could do when you got a letter from a stranger. 

    I wrote a letter back.

Dear Jocelyn,

Who are you? And how do you know my address? Also, why do you think your letter would've been intercepted?

From,

Xiomara Yang

    I then went back to my math study guide. Eight more questions to go. 

    Three days later, I got another letter in the mail. The return address was Jocelyn Abara. It wasn’t an address, but it was a start. This letter read:

Dear Xiomara Yang,

You already know I am Jocelyn Abara. I am an African sorceress. I used magic to get your address. The hippo queen, Alyssa, told me you would save them from upcoming danger. Three days ago you read about the upcoming danger. I thought the letter would be intercepted because I don’t trust the postman. I think

they’re just spies in fancy clothing. I think email is more secure. What is your email address? 

From,

Jocelyn Abara

    This was useful. Now I knew who Jocelyn was. But what about the hippo queen? When was there a hippo queen? And how did Alyssa tell Jocelyn about upcoming danger. And why was I chosen? My thoughts were a racing river as I tried to understand this. So I did the 

most sensible thing I could think of that my parents would've considered a very bad idea. I hopped off my bed and sat down at my desk. I ripped a page out of my spiral notebook.

Dear Jocelyn,

xiomara.yang@gmail.com

From,

Xiomara

    I really hoped this would answer at least some of my boatload of questions. The thing was, she didn’t tell me her email address. So I had to wait for her to send me an email before I could send one to her. I then went into my closet and grabbed a pair of white PJ’s with golden stars. 

    My closet was about two-thirds the size of a master closet. It had a black dresser against one wall. The dresser had black handles. It held winter clothes. There was also a nightstand that held socks,  underwear, and PJ’s.

     I then hopped into bed. My alarm clock read 9:45. That night I dreamt of hippos wearing jeweled crowns