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The Chilton library felt like a cathedral, its towering shelves brimming with books and its silence demanding reverence. Golden afternoon light streamed through the tall windows, casting a warm glow on the polished wooden tables. Ronnie sat at one of them, her notebook open and filled with a chaotic mix of neatly written notes and absentminded doodles of coffee cups and stars. Across from her, Josh sprawled in his chair, balancing precariously on its back two legs while flipping through The Iliad.
"You know," he said, shutting the book with a dramatic thud, "Homer really needed an editor. I mean, 'Sing, O Muse'? What is that, ancient Greek for 'I have writer's block'?"
Ronnie smirked, looking up from her notes. "You do realize you just insulted one of the greatest works of literature ever written, right?"
Josh shrugged, his grin unrepentant. "Greatest? I don't know, Gilmore. I feel like Die Hard had better plot twists."
She snorted, leaning back in her chair. "Yes, because nothing screams epic like Bruce Willis crawling through air vents."
"Exactly," Josh said, pointing at her with mock seriousness. "Odysseus could've used a little more action and a lot fewer metaphors about wine-dark seas."
Ronnie shook her head, a laugh escaping despite herself. Josh had a way of making everything feel lighter, like a spotlight in a room full of heavy shadows. She glanced back at her notebook, trying to refocus.
"You're distracting me," she muttered, tapping her pen against the table.
Josh leaned forward, his elbows on the table now, and grinned. "Is it working?"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you want me to fail my paper on The Iliad?"
"Fail? Please. You could write it in your sleep and still get an A." He picked up one of her doodles, a haphazard sketch of a bird perched on a branch. "Though maybe you should include some of this artwork. Really show off your range."
Ronnie snatched the page from him, fighting a smile. "You're hopeless."
Josh leaned back again, his grin widening. "And yet, here you are, studying with me instead of some boring Chilton overachiever."
"I think I've lost my mind," she quipped, shaking her head.
"No, you just know quality company when you see it," he shot back with a wink.
Ronnie rolled her eyes, but her heart wasn't entirely in it. She couldn't deny that Josh had an easy charm about him, the kind that made her forget, even for a little while, about the whirlwind chaos that usually surrounded her life.
As Josh launched into another diatribe about how Achilles was the original diva, Ronnie let herself enjoy the moment. It was nice to laugh, to feel a spark of something normal amid all the complications.
