Janet and William walked into the library, backpacks slung over their shoulders and their eyes glued to their phones. "When is our paper due?" Janet asked.

William sighed. "Day after tomorrow. We better start." They both groaned. Each day for the past two weeks they had come to the library to work on the English paper. Each day for the past two weeks they had played games on their phones, sent very important text messages about the latest gossip, and stared at the walls. After two weeks, neither one had even pulled up the prompt for the paper.

William plopped down into a chair at a table near the window. Janet tossed her backpack onto an empty chair and sat down across from him. "Let's get this over with," she said, pulling her English binder out of the bag. Across the table, William was also pulling his binder out.

"Wilde Paper,"he read. Then he paused. "OH! I never noticed the 'e' on the end of Wilde. That makes a lot more sense. This will be about Oscar WIlde." Janet gave him an incredulous look that seemed to say, 'DUH!'

"What did you expect? We've been talking about Oscar Wilde for the past month now." It was true, too. They had spent the last month in English class reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of WIlde's most famous books. She began reading the assignment instructions.

"Go to the Hawkins Library on 22nd Street."

William rolled his eyes. "Check."

"Check out The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde." Janet stopped reading and looked at William. We may have killed ourselves by procrastinating so long. We have to read a whole book for this assignment."

William grimaced. "Maybe we won't." He continued reading the assignment sheet. "At the end of Act I, you will find your instructions."

Janet and William both stopped. "Whaa???" Janet was stunned. The title of the assignment said Wilde Paper, but the instructions had no information on writing a paper.

They sat there for nearly five full minutes staring at the assignment paper- as if looking harder at it would cause more normal instructions to appear.

Finally, William stood up. "I guess we go get the book. I hope it isn't as long Dorian was." William acted like he had hated The Picture of Dorian Gray, but in reality he had liked it. It was about a man who had his portrait painted and somehow his soul had entered the painting. So anything that happened to him, actually happened to the painting instead. He didn't age, but his painting did, etc. William found it a fascinating story and had truly enjoyed reading it. He enjoyed reading it so much, that Mrs. Hicks will give anyone who reads it and sends her a summary extra credit. In fact, if you can prove you read the entire book, Mrs. Hicks will put those points in place of an entire assignment or test.

Janet was already at the computer searching for the book in the system by the time William stopped thinking about Mrs. Hicks and her extra credit opportunity and started paying attention to reality again..

"Looks like the book is in the back section." Janet pointed to the section of the library the book was in. It was in an alcove back behind the Young Adult Fiction section. The pair headed back to the section and started looking for the book.

"I hope the library has several copies and that they aren't all checked out already." Janet looked up at him, horrified. That thought hadn't occurred to her. She got so tense that she breathed an audible sigh of relief when she found it, stuffed in the middle of the 'Y' section rather than the 'W's'.

"Okay," William said, "end of Act I." He started flipping the book to find the end of the first act.

Janet rolled her eyes again. "We are supposed to READ the first act, Will." He didn't listen and continued flipping.

"Here it is." In pencil, below the words 'End of Act I' was a note.

"The key to the garden is Jack's origin."

Janet looked at William incredulously. Think that will make sense if we read Act I?" William shrugged and flipped the book back to the beginning.

After they read Act I, Janet looked up from the book. "I think it means the garden of the library. Look! That door has a lock on it." William pulled up the lock.

"Eight characters. Looks like we need seven letters and symbol of some sort. Jack's origin. What could that mean?"

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Read Act I. Find Jack's origin and enter it as the password to get to The Garden.

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