Realm of Renee

Chapter 22

19th June 2019

RENEE

"Renee, are you alright?" Clover appeared immediately by my side and helped me up while staring at the bookshelf in horror.

It was colossal damage, seeing that the bookshelf had fallen on two neighbouring plastic chairs, which were now broken beyond repair. Not to mention the numerous books, with pages strewn apart, and I saw an easy math problem on one torn page near my feet.

I don't linger too long on the math problem, since Mrs Sanders, the librarian, had arrived, and tried to calm all the panicking students.

"Silence students! This is a library," She yelled, but everyone had already begun to circulate their own theories.

"Did someone push it?"

"I've told you, everything in this school is old, wouldn't be surprised if the whole place fell apart tomorrow."

"Is Renee trying to injure herself again, because she knows that she hasn't studied for the exam this time?"

The third speaker was Ned, who was giving me a malicious grin. He often went around school, trying to tell everyone that he was smarter than me, but the tests and exams said otherwise. He would never accept that I was better than him, and he'd laugh at me for the smallest mistakes, calling me stupid.

He and Shay would be best friends if they had met, they both had a knack for insulting me.

"Have you actually managed to get some studying done, Renee?" Ned walked arrogantly towards me. "Pity the bookshelf didn't give you a reason to skip school for another two weeks."

"Are you wishing that the bookshelf fell on you instead, Ned? Because I think you're the one who is looking for an excuse..." I said, trying to match his tone of hatred.

"Get lost, Ned. We don't have time for you," Clover gave him the finger and pulled me away, back to the table where we were sitting.

As she packed her stuff, I stared at her in surprise. "What, do you think I couldn't have handled Ned by myself?" I asked.

"Yeah, I saw how well you were doing there," Clover said sarcastically. "Besides, we need to get out of here, before something else kills you."

"That shelf wouldn't have killed me," I retorted.

"No, it would've just crushed all the bones in your body, and you'd be bedridden for life," Clover rolled her eyes.

I picked up my stuff, stumped that Clover was bossing over me, even though I knew that she was right.

The librarian soon approached me with concern. "Are you alright, Renee?" She asked.

"I'm okay, Mrs Sanders," I answered. "Thank you."

"Do you know why the shelf fell down?" She asked me kindly.

"No, I don't know," I shrugged.

"I think someone pushed the shelf from the other side," She said, giving me a worried look. "Our shelves are very sturdy, they don't fall just like that."

Clover and I exchanged looks. "Do you know who pushed it?" Clover asked.

"No, but I wanted to check in the security cameras. You girls want to come along?"

"Yes, Mrs Sanders," I replied promptly. People had already removed the bookshelf from the area and cleared up the books, which were stacked neatly on the nearby table. We head to Mrs Sanders's office, a small area that was built in the library, specifically to hold security cameras.