The Guardians

London, the sun is shining, everything is calm. Everyone is living their everyday lives, not thinking about the mysteries waiting around every corner. The mysteries caused by the guardians working in petto. Their job: Making beauty immortal.

It was one of the very few days in spring on that the sun was actually shining from the early morning hours on.

In Mesa Grammar School the student, especially the students of Mr. McQuaid's Geography class, were looking out of the windows praying for their lessons to be over soon. Mr. McQuaid was that type of teacher that you would not want to appear in your worst nightmares. Writing at least 13 pop quizzes per semester and being the by far strictest teacher of the whole school, he was hated by most of the students but he did not even seem to mind. It almost seemed like he liked it. In his Geography classes time seemed to slow down. It felt like they were at least two hours long even though they were just 50 minutes long. " If he keeps talking that slow, he'll die before bringing up the next pop quiz ", Aisling said leaning over to her best friend Kathy. " Ms. Atteberry, would you like to enlighten us about the development of Nigeria from 1999 until now?", McQuaid suddenly asked. Aisling, completely caught off guard, did not answer. " Thought so.", he simply said before turning his back to the class to write something on the board. " For tomorrow's lesson you all please write an essay about the content of the few lessons. 500 words at the minimum." Then the bell rang and within two seconds everyone had packed up and left the room.

" Bye, Kath!!! ", Aisling shouted after Kathy after putting her books into her locker. " See you tomorrow, Ash! ", replied the friend.

As Aisling stepped out of the building, the lukewarm spring-wind hit her face and for a second, she just felt relieved. It was 4.10pm when she finally decided to start her walk to the Underground station. She knew that she would not be able to catch the next Tube home but if she hurried up, she would make it to the next one. She ran through one of London's beautiful park, when suddenly something shimmery caught her eye. A golden necklace was laying on the lawn, an hourglass-like pendant on it. She looked around whether she could see someone who could possibly be the owner of the trinket. When she saw that she was basically alone in the park, she picked it up and placed it in her bag. " 4.26pm?! God, no! " The next train would leave at 4.30pm. She was now running down an abandoned alleyway, her dark curls flying in the wind, leading directly to the station. Turning around the corner she ran into someone falling over and dropping her bag. All the contents of her bag were lying all over the side walk. When she looked up, she saw that she bumped into a boy around 18 years, just like her. " I'm really sorry. I wasn't paying attention. ", the stranger spoke. " Let me help you", he added helping Aisling gather up her things. " Westwood. Finn Westwood.", he said holding out his hand and giving Aisling a smile like he just jumped out of "Teen Vogue". But that did not impress her at all, so she replied in just the same almost self-regarding tone: " Bond. James Bond." He chuckled at her respond. " Okay. I'm Aisling. Aisling Atteberry." " Well Aisling, I see you are a guardian as well. How come I've never seen you?" Aisling had absolutely no idea what the blonde bloke was talking about but she decided to play along. " I'm new. I joined today." Finn gave her look of disbelief. " So, you joined today? Which section are you in?" Aisling gulped: " Section B.", she answered trying to sound convincing but it sounded more like a question than a statement. " And what are you doing in Section B?" Just event something, he won't notice, she thought to herself. " We're helping the old." That was bad, she thought. " First of all, there's not such a thing as

Section B. Second of all: Guardians are not helping the old. Well, not directly. So, where did you get the key? ", he stated sounding sterner than before. " Key? You mean the necklace? I found it in a park nearby. May I ask what guardians do if they don't help the old directly?" Aisling's curiosity has reached a level where see would not stop asking questions until she got exactly what she wanted. " Do you trust me? ", Finn asked. Aisling hesitated for a second but then nodded her head. " Follow me.", he simply said. Seriously doubting her common sense, she followed Finn until they reached another alleyway which lead into nowhere. Great, he led you into this alleyway and now he's going to murder you. Is that how you want to die, Ash?!, she thought to herself. But instead of making any movie to hurt Aisling, Finn took the same necklace she had found out of his jacket and pressed it against a wall. Out of nowhere suddenly a door appeared which he held open for her: " Lady's first."

When she steed in, Aisling was in awe. They were standing in a giant entrance hall. The walls were glittery gold and a huge stairway lead up to a balcony. " Welcome to the library. ", Finn announced. " What is this for?" Aisling asked, still not quite believing what she saw. " The guardians' duty is making beauty immortal. The key you found helps us to do this by giving us the chance to go back in time to change certain events. We are responsible for all beautiful people on this planet. The ones who are alive now and the ones who are still to be born.", Finn explains. " Why are you doing this? Beauty is not everything, you know?" " This organisation is based on Shakespeare's first Sonnet. We have to keep the beauty of a person alive by-" Aisling cut him off " - invading people's private lives, changing their past and future and changing basically everything that has ever happened! Are you aware of the fact that World War I could have been your fault?!" Finn laughed receiving a death glare from Aisling. " Look, we just make people meet other people, so they get together and get children to carry on their beauty. We have another department that always has an eye on our actions to prevent us from changing important events That's not our division. This is saved. Trust me." Aisling was eyeing the files in the shelves on the balcony. " Are these the files of all beautiful people? That must be like 500 000." " No", he laughed " that are just the files from A-C. The other ones are on the other floors." Aisling's jaw dropped " Oh, and that are 1.3 bio here" They continued walking around the fancy building and for some reason Aisling stopped questioning what she was doing there or if it was even real. To her it was real in that moment. " Why is it so important to 'make beauty immortal'?", she asked. " Can you imagine a world without beautiful people? For us it is most important to give later generations the chances to have the same amount of beauty as we did and well if you ask me, people who don't share their beauty with other and other generations are just selfish. I mean everyone deserves the chance to see what we saw. Equal opportunities for everyone, right?" Finn kept on talking about beauty but Aisling was not listening anymore. She was lost in these beautiful blue eyes, wondering how many people had the chance to see them before. 

I'm dedicating this short story to my former British History teacher Ms. Aslan, who made me fall in love with Shakespeare and English literature. Thank you
~Jessie