Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 75: Friends

This shift at the library was more fun than usual, Dawn had to admit. It wasn't that her friends never came to the library while she was working—actually, considering she only worked three days a week, it seemed to happen a lot—but usually they had to ignore each other, since Dawn was working and her friend (whoever it might be) was doing homework. Now, though, every time she walked past Corrie, Corrie would look up from her history reading and make a silly face. Dawn would make a face back, stifling her giggles because it was a library, and walk on with whatever book she was shelving next.

By the time she was ready to go downstairs and get more books, or see what else Emi had for her to do, Corrie was coming downstairs too. "Did you get your homework done?" Dawn asked her.

"Sort of?" Corrie grinned. "I probably should have focused more. But I think I read enough to not get in trouble for failing to do the reading." The smile faded from her face as she looked around. "I don't see Roe yet..."

Dawn shook her head in amusement at Corrie's worry. "Edie's right there." She waved, and Edie looked up from her computer and waved back. "I don't think I'm in any danger, anyway. Sarah isn't supposed to work today."

"Oh, all right." Corrie patted her shoulder. "Just be careful."

Dawn went back to the desk, glancing over just as Corrie left, then turned to Emi. "Any more books for me to shelve?"

"Nope." Emi looked up with a wicked grin. "I have an even more thrilling task for you."

Dawn widened her eyes comically. "I don't want to know."

Emi pointed to one of the back offices. "Miss Pettifer wants you to do some photocopying for her."

"Photocopying? Really? What for?"

Emi shrugged. "She just said to send her the next available employee. Since I'm stuck behind this desk, that's you."

"If you wanted to, you could go do that and put me behind the desk," Dawn pointed out. "You did train me for checkouts, which I never do."

"Rank hath its privileges," said Emi. She smacked playfully at Dawn's shoulder. "Go photocopy."

"Yes, ma'am." Dawn started toward the back. When she turned to go into Lisa's office, she glanced out at the room to where Edie was working at her computer. Apparently she'd started focusing again, because she didn't look up; no one else seemed to be looking at Dawn, either.

The office door was open a crack, so Dawn knocked, then pushed the door open without waiting for an invitation. Miss Pettifer, one of the librarians on staff, looked up with a smile. "Dawn, right? Thanks for coming by. I'd normally deal with this stuff myself, but I'm so busy with paperwork right now. Trying to borrow some pieces for an exhibit on French late medieval poetry next semester... anyway, I guess you don't care about that."

"Hey, I wouldn't work at the library if I didn't love books," Dawn said, smiling. "But I don't take French. I'll tell my friend Edie, though—she might be interested. What did you want me to copy?"

"It's all on top of the copier. Right there." Miss Pettifer pointed to a large machine in the corner of the office, filling at least a third of the space. "Just a hundred copies of each, please. If they go quickly, I'll make more later, or have Sarah do it."

Dawn stepped over to the copier and picked up the papers on top. There were five sheets, and they appeared to be mainly study tips; as she flipped through, she realized that the first four were study tips and the last one was sexual health tips. Standard college stuff. As she situated the first one on the glass of the copier, she finally noticed what Miss Pettifer had said. "Does Sarah often do photocopies for you?" Was it just a coincidence that people seemed to mention Sarah to her more often lately? Maybe it was. She could very easily have heard references to Sarah earlier in the year, but failed to notice them because there were lots of people she didn't know on campus.

"Yeah, she works on Fridays and I tend to leave things until the last minute, so she does small stuff like that for me," said Miss Pettifer, raising her voice to be heard over the chugging of the copier. Dawn could also faintly hear her typing as she spoke.

Dawn cast about for a reasonable question to ask about Sarah. Her friends, that's who she needed to know about. "I would hate to work on Fridays. That's when I hang out with my friends. Sarah doesn't mind?" The copier finished with the first set, and she took it out of the tray, set the copies on a small table, and put in the second paper.

"I suppose not. I've never thought to ask her."

"Her friends never come to keep her company or anything?"

Miss Pettifer shook her head, peering at the screen. Then she looked up and frowned. "I've never seen her with a friend. She's never mentioned any. It does seem kind of odd, doesn't it?"

Dawn shrugged. She didn't want to draw attention to Sarah's strangeness except to the people who could do something about it. "Maybe her friends just aren't studious. I should introduce her to mine—they always want to come to the library with me."

"Now that's the right kind of friend." Miss Pettifer grinned.