2|| Whispers in the Wind

14|| mystical, magical

Kalyani

"Excuse me? There is no fucking way," Arlo snapped.

Wilder rolled his eyes. "Stop being a big baby, this is for Kalyani, not you guys." He had been deemed the group friend, the one person they could all agree they liked.

"Can I at least team up with someone else? I'd rather even have Aria!"

"Gee, thanks," snorted Aria. 

Evelyn sneered. "I'm not that hyped for it either, just so you know. Wilder, we are switching this up for the sake of my sanity- you're going with Kalyani, Arlo's going with Aria, and I'll take Leo, and Jacob can go solo."

"Um yeah, I think not," her brother said. "I am taking Leo, you can handle it on your own. There's no way we're letting you go off to a corner together."

"I don't think you're letting her do anything," said Wilder wryly.

After a short squabble, everyone went their separate ways. Wilder turned to Kalyani. "Sooo. Library?"

Kalyani nodded. "I still can't believe Leo has a library."

Leo's house was a mansion. It was genuinely so huge that she was shocked it could even exist in a town like Fir Hills. The architecture was exquisite, and she could spend days trying to figure out the components and the physics of it all. Leo was so humble; he'd never once hinted at being loaded. She, Aria, and Arlo were the only ones shocked by this, so she assumed the others were really close with him.

Wilder tugged on her arm. "C'mon, let's go!" Kalyani laughed as he started dragging her up various staircases. The house was genuinely a maze, anyone could get lost in here. Forget the Labyrinth- this gave it some competition. 

"Here we are," Wilder announced finally. He pulled an intricate key out of his back pocket and stuck it into the door handle.

"There's a key? Why isn't it just unlocked?" Kalyani asked.

"Leo's parents are very strict about their library. They say that books preserve the knowledge our brains fail to contain. His great grandpa was an inventor, and his great grandma was an author. They immigrated here from Taiwan, and they brought oodles of nerd magic with them."

"Your attention to detail is impressive."

"It's one of my many unique qualities." But all thought of humor faded from Kalyani's mind as they entered the room. At least twenty roof-high shelves comprised the room, some in spirals and some adjacent to the walls. Each of them were filled to the brim with not one space to spare. In other words, Kalyani's dream room.

Wilder chuckled at her expression, guiding her over to a bookcase. She gasped as he turned a lever and the shelves turned, revealing more books behind them.

"Holy shit," she breathed.

"I told you, Great-Granddaddy Chen was an inventor."

"Okay, this may be the coolest place ever," she decided. 

The boy grinned. "It is pretty neat, isn't it? Leo's added some of his own touches throughout the years, too. Books have never really been my thing though. They get boring fast."

Kalyani stared. "Are you crazy? Books are the base of everything we learn. If they didn't exist, many great scientists and authors wouldn't have developed an interest in what they did! We literally wouldn't be so well-developed if people didn't write down that they knew."

"You're cute when you're passionate about something," Wilder said. If he was intending to shut her up, he definitely succeeded. Kalyani was so grateful she was brown and couldn't visibly blush. Thank you, Gods.