Terror By Night

Chapter 2

After my last class, my shadow and I get to the library and see Zoe already at a table with books and papers spread everywhere. Surprised to see Nolan would be an understatement. "What in the world are you doing here? Did you get lost?" She exclaims. His disdain for the library is no secret to Zoe either.

A couple students turn their faces in our direction, clearly not happy with her choice of volume.

"Sheesh Zoe. I've been to the library before. I'm not banned from the place." Nolan is clearly not in the mood to be on the receiving end of Zoe's third degree. I give her the signal to drop it, hoping she'll catch now is not the time.

"Yeah alright," she says, looking skeptical. "Layken, any word on what was up with the teachers today?"

Not wanting to get into that again, especially with Nolan right here, I just say, "I have no idea. But if you don't study for this test, it won't matter. You'll be so grounded, you'll be doing homeschool with your mom as your teacher."

Her face scrunches. "Ugh, don't remind me," she moans. "I know, I know. I wouldn't put it past her. She can be so cruel."

I'm slightly dumbfounded by her reaction. I'm pretty sure she's missing the point. "Cruel? Zoe! You failed the last two tests. Come on. I'm here to help you. You just have to try."

She stretches her fingers. "Fine. Let's do this. Just go easy on me, alright?" She makes the funniest impression of a sad puppy face. With those big chocolate eyes, she pulls it off rather amusingly.

We laugh and start going over the assignment. I notice Nolan has his notebook out but he's not actually writing. He's slapping his pen on the paper looking back and forth across the library. He's clearly still full of nervous energy. His energy, however, is sapping mine; a reverse effect of what it should be doing.

He needs a task. "Hey Nolan, why don't you talk the librarian into letting us have some drinks in here. We need caffeine to ignite our brain cells," I tell him, hoping he'll take the distraction.

He looks at me momentarily, then back to surveying the room. He nods once, then stands to go. He seems lost as to what to do for a moment but wanders off anyway.

I shake my head. Zoe can tell how off Nolan seems. "What's up with Nolan today? I mean, he usually has his face in that notebook, but this is a whole new level of distracted."

"I'm not sure, but he's got a feeling something bad is going down around here," I reply.

"Oh, I agree something's going down, but you and I are out of the loop. I don't know how bad it might be, but it's something sketchy. It's clearly an adult only thing. Everyone can tell they're keeping something from us, but no one knows what. The question is, when or if they're going to share?"

"Zoe, you are such a conspirator. What do you think they know that we don't?" I shake my head at her. Sometimes I think her and Nolan are more related than he and I.

She pulls on one of  her curls, winding it around her pen. "I don't know Layken, but I'm telling you, they do. I'm with Nolan on this one," she says. That's no surprise. She always sides with Nolan, if not at first, then eventually.

Just as she's about to go into whatever conspiracy she's come up, I spot Xavier walk in. Well, he doesn't walk so much as swagger through the door. Before I can even speculate what he could possibly be doing here, he's sauntered to our table, grabs the seat next to Zoe, spins it around and straddles it.

Zoe looks at him, looks at me, and back to him again; hair flying around her face. I'm worried she might actually give herself whiplash from jerking back and forth so quickly. Neither of us utter a word. My mouth might literally be hanging open, jury is still out.