The New Girl

The New Girl: Chapter 11

After school that day, Kota was waiting at the public library just a few blocks away from Fitzgerald Prep. Cody had his driver drop him off out front. He looked around and examined the old library before walking in. No one was inside other than the librarian.

"Excuse me. Have you seen anyone come in recently? I'm supposed to be meeting someone here." Cody asked.

"Are you Mr. Rhodes?" The librarian asked.

"Yeah, that's me." Cody told her.

"Kota's downstairs waiting for you." The librarian told him.

Cody looked over and saw the stairs.

"Thank you." Cody said.

He made his way down the stairs, trying to ignore the fact that each step he took felt like the stairs were going to cave in. In the basement of the library, Kota was sitting at a table, looking over Cody's essay's again.

"Is there a tornado warning I don't about?" Cody asked as he finally made it downstairs.

Kota looked over at him for a moment.

"What?" He asked.

"Why the hella re we in the basement?" Cody asked.

"I figured you wouldn't want anyone seeing you with me." Kota told him.

"No offense but I don't think anyone even knows this place exists. Hell, I thought it got tore down years ago." Cody said as he made his way over to the table.

Kota looked at him with reluctance.

"Did you look over the papers I sent?" Cody asked as he took off his jacket.

"Yeah. They're horendous." Kota told him honestly.

Cody stared at him for a moment before letting out a laugh of disbelief.

"What? Don't tell me you're surpirsed. You wouldn;t have asked for my help if you didn;t know you're horrible at writing." Kota added.

"Damn. You don't hold anything back do you?" Cody asked.

"Unlike some people, no.. I don't." Kota said in reference to his ex-boyfriend.

Cody paused for a moment and got situated in his seat.

"Your essay's are literally just reviews of the books. Not even that really because it's obvious you didn't read any of them, you just looked up summaries online." Kota told him.

"Do I look like I have time to read?" Cody asked.

"I think you can make time." Kota assured him.

Cody shook his head.

"Look, the point of these essay's is to show that you can comprehend the material. Yes it helps if you have at least average writing skills, which I think you have. But if you're not even reading the stories then it's almost pointless. You need to read the books and think about them. You've got to think about the story and what message it's sending." Kota told him.

"And what if I do read one of those books and what I write is wrong?" Cody asked.

"There really isn't a wrong answer in these essay's. The beauty in reading is that everyone takes away their own things from books. It's not one size fits all. Based on each person's own experiences in life, they're going to connect to different lessons in a story. All you need to do in these essay's is have an opinion. You need to understand your own thoughts on the book and explain them in writing. That's all Mr. Wheeler is asking for." Kota said.