Lost

Something?

I quickly get out of bed and dress before anyone else wakes up in the morning. There is no time for me to lose before classes.

I laugh a little, feeling free and light as I escape the others.

Finally, I reach the library. I research 10 books and read them voraciously for a while, finding the important parts of them and bookmarking them. Two seem perfect, explaining the whole history of the library. But then I hear a voice in my head. Ridge's.

Maren, go to the classroom of Learning. His voice snickers.

I want to scream.

No! I manage to force into his mind. He snickers again.

Sure, Maren. Don't. Good idea. Disobey the leader of Solander. I applaud you.

I roll my eyes and walk over to the room, and sit down. A few others- Elissa too- are sitting down already. And so I guess Ridge was right. I glare at the floor. Ridge is an idiot.

Then a tall woman- no, the leader of Solander- strides in.

"Now more than ever, you must learn," she says. Try. She tells us.

Okay. I push into her mind.

Good, Elissa! Nice emotion. The leader tells all of us. Remember, I'm Miss Kathryn. Thank you all for coming early.

Hi, Miss Kathryn! We all say. Except me. I say Hi but I can't say Miss Kathryn. I bite my lip sadly. I'm never good enough.

She proceeds to spend the next twenty minutes teaching me various ways to improve, none of which work. The others practice emotionalizing. I feel stupid.

When we finally go to the rest of our classes, I'm relieved. I'm so behind the rest of them, and I feel like an outsider.

At the lunch period, I don't eat. I go to the library and research more.

It is speculated that the library is hidden within the real library. Perhaps it lies in the attic, or a hidden side of the buildings.

Though people have tried time and time again, all they have found is a riddle, pieced together through several journeys.

"Of the trails of our town
One is travelled less than far.
But you go farther, then go down
Until you reach where the blues are.
There lies a place, a dance, a song
To reach the final way to fly
And you shall find help to go further along
And find the books, if you just try."

I blink. This is a development. Perfect!

It would help, certainly, if I knew the town well enough. But I don't, not even a little bit. So how the heck am I going to find the books?
They're clearly referring to the lost books. And the 'help' is probably another riddle or clue that leads to the books.

"What are 'the blues'? Something sad? What is blue? Water, sky... WATER. There's probably a sea or a lake!" I ramble out loud.

"Miss, do you need something?" The (young) librarian walks over and looks at me expectantly. She's dressed in a simple flowered blouse and black jeans, and her hair is a pretty blonde.

"No, sorry. I'm simply rambling out loud."

She sees what I'm reading about and nods. "Many have tried. None have succeeded. But none have really looked, in my opinion. It's a game to them. Try, please, and don't give up. Baiche knows I'd love to see those books again." She looks rather sad.

"Wait!" I say. "Do you remember anything at all that might have been important? People, sayings? Places? Anything?"

She looks shocked, then contemplative.
"Erm.. yes. Ridge, the young kid who helps initiate you guys, his father was a leader of the group. Ridge might know something. His father has recently died, though, so be nice to him. Oh! Also, we- my older sister was part of the group, so I tagged along- often would sit in a rock, mostly hollowed out, by the water. I've always thought that that was the 'place' near the 'blues' the riddle mentions."

I smile widely.

"Thanks so much, ..."

"Call me Emily. Or Em." She smiles genuinely and holds her hand out. I shake it, loving the way she talks to me. It's so unlike Ridge's way.

"And I'm Maren."

"Maren, cool. Hi." She smiles again, her eyes sparkling softly.

"Hi, Emily." I reply. She giggles, then glances at the desk.

"Hey, I have to go, see you later, sorry!" She tells me in a rush as she dashes off to deal with the annoyed person waiting at the desk.

I shake my head with a smile as I walk away, hoping to find what I need- the path- from Ridge. Or at least the song or the dance.
But I have class. I frown the entire time, waiting for the end of them. And then I fall completely into my own thoughts.

"MAREN!"My Language teacher, Mr. Cansar, screams, frustrated. He's the Mad Hatter guy, the one who I thought was nice, but now he's annoyed.

"Maren, this is unacceptable. What has gotten into you today?"

I nervously laugh. "Um, sorry, well, you know-"

"I don't know, actually, Maren. Why don't you inform me?" He asks.

I was just about to do that! I growl silently to myself.

"Well, sir, I was in the library this morning and I researched something incredibly interesting-"
I begin.

"Maren, use your head. The rest of us are working." Heather growls.

I bite my lip. I've gotta do this. Prove myself and all that.

I'm bad at this! I inform Mr. Cansar.

Try anyway, he responds gruffly.

Now I'm really interested in the LLLB. And I can't stop thinking about it. Sorry. I preen, proud to have said two sentences in the thought-speak.

Well, go on and research. You pay no attention anyway in my class. Just do your homework, and get Greta to help you if needed.

My mouth falls open. Thank you so much, Mr. Cansar.

Go. He tells me. So I do, shutting the door on Heather's furious snickers.

Pleased with my unexpected good luck, I disguise my voice in my thoughts and ask Ridge where he is with thought-speak.

Go away, Maren. He responds. Guess it's hard to disguise your voice.

Katje says to give you a clue. You've been here before. He adds after a thought.

I bless his stupidity. I've only been one place where he and Katje could be. The room where he answered our questions.

I sneak over there, anticipating his reaction.
My footsteps are quiet, my heels gently pushing off the floor. I want to know why he and Katje are in the same room together, and how they are managing to do this during class.
A sudden, unbidden image of them kissing pops into my mind. No.

Yes.

I open the door softly and they're just talking. I breathe a sigh. I like Katje, I really do.

"Hey Ridge, can I talk to you later? I have a few questions," I say.

"Yeah, sure," he tells me.

Katje winks at me and rolls her eyes. I smile back and shut the door as I leave. Ridge will be no help at all, not even a little. I can tell by the way he sarcastically said 'yeah'. So I will research some more on my own. Without him.