Looking Back

Chapter 5: Saturday

The next morning, I woke up early to get ready for work. I worked from 7:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. A part of me wanted to get away from the house, the other part wanted to talk to Felisha and get to know her more. So after I took me a shower and was dressed in a red long sleeved shirt and dark blue jeans, I slipped on my black furry boots and a matching black vest before I slipped outside to start my morning walk in the cold, but before I even walked two blocks, a familiar red truck pulled up beside me.

"Do you need a ride?" asked Tanner with his window rolled down.

"Umm..." I didn't know what to say. I wasn't used to people stopping and asking me if I needed a ride.

"Hop in."

I smiled. "Okay." I climbed up in his truck and put my seatbelt on.

"Are you going to the library?" he asked pulling back on the road.

"Yep," I said sounding like a complete idiot.

"Me too." He took his eyes off the road for a minute to glance at me. "What happened yesterday?"

"What do you mean?" I asked thinking of the events that happened yesterday morning.

"I heard you got sick."

"Oh." I looked at him surprised. "Who told you that?"

"Felisha," he answered.

"Oh. Yeah, I was running a little temperature."

"How do you feel now?" He asked with concern written all over his face.

"Good." It wasn't a lie. Actually, it surprised me how he seemed so concerned. I gave him a curious look. No one ever bothered to ask if I was alright. I guess people didn't want to have to deal with unconceivable problems.

"Oh, I brought the survey papers." He said putting his hand on the stack of papers sitting in the middle of the front seat of his truck. "I was wondering if I could still help with your project."

"Sure. Of course."  I picked up the stack of papers and began to look through them.

When we pulled up at the library, I checked in and make sure Felisha knew I was here. With Tanner and me sitting at one of the tables with the surveys, we began to estimate and average the most common books teenagers would read. When we finished we had the top five listed: Supernatural, Love, Mystery, General, (and surprising me) Christian. That was the order. With those top five categories that eliminated 15 out of the eighty leaving us with 65 books that would interest teens.

Now we just had to place the information in the right hands to have that person spread the news to the right teenager and I knew just the person.

"Me?" asked Tanner for the fifth time when I first explained to him my idea.

"Yes, you," I said growing exasperated. "I can't believe I didn't think of you at first."

"There has to be someone else we can think of."

"Nope, you are doing it." Once my mind was set there was no going back on it.

"Why?"

"Because...we need someone who is popular-"

"I'm not popular." He said denying the truth.

"Yes, you are. Everyone likes you, you just don't notice it."

"Really," he asked with a sly smirk on his face.

"Yep."

"Even you?" He asked catching me off guard.

I froze not knowing what to say. My heartbeat tripled. Immediately I felt my face growing warm.

"How is everything going," asked Felisha breaking the awkward silence.