Enchanted [ON HOLD]

Chapter 2

     "Remember: keep silent, class, and choose the proper books," Mrs Dakota spoke as loudly as she could without having to contradict herself, "so boys, no books with pictures, please."

     Some people sniggered, those who always talked back rudely to teachers. But with the wave of her wrist, Mrs Dakota allowed us to disperse after we all had handed in our assignments. It was a free period in the library for us, we only needed to borrow an "educational book which can be used to write a book report."

     "What are we, five-year-olds?" Sophia whispered contemptuously to me when I walked farther away into the school library.

     "Mm," was my response. Lately, Sophia had been tagging along wherever Laetitia and I went. The cafeteria, the mall and now even the library. She was always either talking about celebrities to us (like we cared), telling us about certain hot boys she met on the street (as if we'd be interested in her affairs), or giving snide remarks about the Geeks.

     Sophia kept up with my pace. "So, what do you say about borrowing Teen Vogue? It's not like Mrs Dakota knows what it's about."

     "I'm sure you can write a book report on it," I replied shortly.

     "We could go to a corner, and talk about," she paused, "Troy Rossi." She bursted into a fit of giggles at his name.

     I frowned but held my tongue.

     Turning left into the section with books for higher intellect than that of Sophia, we passed a small corner with sofas, one of which was occupied by my classmate already.

     Sophia cast a pointed sideways look at the girl reading her book silently. She mock-whispered into my ear, "Geez, Elena's reading like a Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes."

     I hurried my legs away from her.

     "Oh. My. Gosh." Sophia's eyes and mouth widened. She didn't even bother to whisper. "Did you see the book she had?"

     "No."

     "It was like, the world's lamest book, Pride and Prejudice," she scoffed. "Who reads it anyway?"

     Sophia was really starting to get on my nerves, especially when she didn't know Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy.

     "I can't believe Elena the Geek was once your friend. You were right to have dropped her, though you should have done it much sooner, Charlie."

     That was it. "Sophia, I have no idea what your freaking problem is. You go around insulting others, commenting on their looks, behavior, for what? Just so you could be popular? No way, not over my dead body. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You look disgusting. And the eyeliner you wear? You look like a raccoon that has tumbled out of the washing machine. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a book that's way more engaging than your mindless chatter."

     With that, I walked ahead, not keen to be involved in a cat fight in the library under Mrs Dakota's eyes. I didn't hear footsteps behind me anymore.

     The fantasy section of the school library was, thankfully, unoccupied at the moment. Part of the reason why I didn't wish anyone to see me here was because everyone seemed to have the misconception that fantasy books were like, well, fairytales.

     Had anyone read Lord of the Rings? I doubted so.

     The books were categorised by the last three letters of the author's family name. Scanning through the books under the label of TOL, I found, much to my surprise, a book I had never come across before. Not that I knew every book in this library, but that its cover was so intriguing I couldn't help but wonder why it hadn't caught my attention before.