It was the last week of school, and the sidewalks were full of slammed lockers, half-zipped backpacks, and kids ready to bolt into summer.

Alex didn’t bolt. He walked alone, head down, earbuds in—but he wasn’t listening to music. He was just trying to get home to start enjoying his summer vacation.

That’s when he saw the notebook.

It was sitting just off the curb, half-open like it had something to say. He picked it up, brushed off a smudge of dirt, and flipped through it.

Inside were sketches—page after page of wild creatures with horns, feathers, or glowing eyes. There were notes in the margins, maps, scribbled lists like “Names for Sky Forests” and “How to Build a Sword from Fog.”

He paused at the inside cover.

Jordan M.

Drawn in bold, spiky letters.

He knew the name. Jordan was in his grade, sat two rows up in history, always sketching in the back of his notebooks. Everyone knew him. He was “the art guy.”

Alex had never said a word to him.

He shut the notebook and held it in both hands. For a second, he wanted to keep it—not to steal, but because it felt familiar. Like someone else’s dream looked a lot like his.

But it wasn’t his.

The next afternoon, he found Jordan at the library, hunched over a blank sketchbook with a half-broken pencil.

Alex walked up slowly, clutching the worn notebook. “Hey,” he said. “You dropped this.”

Jordan looked up. “What?”

Alex held it out. “Yesterday. Near the sidewalk.”

Jordan stared for a moment, then grabbed it. “Oh man. I thought it was gone. I—I worked on this all year.”

“I could tell,” Alex said. “The maps are cool.”

Jordan opened it and flipped to a page with a monster made of smoke and vines. “This one took, like, four tries to get right. I couldn’t even sleep last night thinking I’d lost it.”

“I do that too,” Alex said quietly. “The drawing thing. Just not like this.”

Jordan glanced up. “You draw?”

Alex pulled out his own notebook. Smaller. Rougher. But he handed it over.

Jordan flipped through it. “Yo—this is awesome. You’ve got some cool creature ideas. This one looks like it eats lightning.”

Alex smiled, just a little. “That was the idea.”

“You make up stories too?”

“Sometimes. Mostly I get stuck.”

Jordan nodded. “Same. I’ve got, like, ten beginnings and no endings.”

They looked at each other for a second.

Then Jordan said, “We should try doing one together.”

Alex blinked. “Like, a comic or something?”

“Yeah. I mean, we both draw monsters. Might as well team up, right?”

Alex hesitated, then said, “Okay. Let’s do it.”

Jordan held out a fist. Alex bumped it.

“Cool,” Jordan said. “So… team meeting tomorrow? Library?”

Alex nodded. “Library.”

And that was it.

No big deal.

Just the beginning.

_{“Lost and Found” by Nina D. Smith © 2025. Retelling of THE BARONS FIRST WANDERINGS by Rodolph Eric Raspe from The Children’s Hour in Ten Volumes.}