The Heartless Dancer

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

“Today’s Valentine’s Day. There’s a whole day devoted solely to love. Does that make any sense? Nah. Loves makes us all crazy. But it’s fun too.”[1]

As soon as the break had finished the girls continually tried to get Noa and Reeve together. Reeve seemed to like Noa but he was also a very shy guy when it came to emotions and always joked about everything but at heart he was a good guy. He definitely made Noa laugh more than Bryar had ever seen. In the following weeks they arranged Reeve and Noa to be study-buddies or make sure that they would have to work on a project together. After a week they were virtually inseparable.

School had been very hectic around all their matchmaking. Bryar had to read more books for English and they had a big Drama and Art project coming up. Also they were doing a new musical: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was really good that they changed from plays to musicals every so often because then other people could also get the lead role. For this musical, Mr. Jackson had a car especially made so that it could fly and kind-of drive on the stage. It looked amazing.

Beside all of this, Mr. Reed had banged on about their History project and that it was extremely important not to forget about it. When Bryar found out Mr. Donohue couldn’t make their lessons and she had two hours free period, she decided to use them well and work on her History project. They were allowed to use any records as long as they were reliable, so basically as little Internet sites as possible. Bryar had asked her parents and she had written down their information. Also she had found her granddad, her father’s father of course, and had questioned her as well. Mr. Reed strongly suggested using the school library because they had information on nearly everything. Bryar trusted Mr. Reed’s judgement and went to the school library to work on her project. There she met the librarian, Mrs. Adela Page.

Mrs. Page wasn’t at all like a normal librarian, she liked her peace and quiet but was actually the troublemaker in the library. She was a woman in her early fifties who liked to dress in a sweet and flowery way and always had her hair up in a beautiful crown braid. Her face was crinkled around her mouth and eyes – like when people laugh – and Bryar never seen her without a smile on her face. Ever. She loved to chat and old students always dropped in for a visit and talked to her about their lives now.  When Bryar walked in she logged in onto a computer and started looking through the school index about the name ‘Kerrington’. Immediately thirty books popped up but not all of them were useful, some of them only briefly mentioned the Kerrington family and Bryar needed hard evidence.  Mrs. Page walked past Bryar while stacking books back on the right shelf.

“Do you need any help, love?” Mrs. Page was British and spoke in a very old fashioned way.

Bryar explained her situation and Mrs. Page immediately came to her aid.

“Mr. Reed, always the charmer. I often have students around working for his history project.” She said, smiling as usual. “What was your surname again, dear?” She asked.

“Kerrington.” When Bryar repeated her surname she saw a strange emotion flicker over her face but it was gone as soon as it came. She spent two full hours working hard on her project with Mrs. Page’s help. Other students passed by and asked for Mrs. Page’s help but she always returned afterwards. This continued for a couple of weeks when Bryar had time over to work on her project. One day Bryar asked Mrs. Page why she always sat and helped her, not that she minded in the slightest.

 “It’s your surname, sweetheart, it’s very special.” Bryar noticed that her voice had an undertone to it that she couldn’t exactly place but didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. She just carried on working on her project.