Easily Breakable

Chapter 3

Today was my first day of my senior year of high school. I pulled into the lot with my blood red Camaro. I stepped out and there were people everywhere. They were either talking, laughing, on their phones, or sitting by themselves. I walked forward, hoping and praying that I didn't embarrass myself.

       I had thrown on my gray crop top hoodie, holey jeans, and my black high top sneakers. My hair was in an untamed ponytail and I wore no makeup whatsoever. Some kids turned to look at me, others just completely ignored me, which I was totally okay with. 

       I lingered outside, looking around the courtyard until the bell rang. I walked inside, adjusting the strap on my bookbag. I walked in, finding my first class, which was calculus. Ugh. I walked in, finding a seat in the back corner. I stared at my desk while I waited for class to start.

       As always, calculus was uneventful and boring as hell, but I made it through. We had already learned this material at my old school, so at least I understood it. I scurried to my next class, which was geography, and once again, I sat in the cozy little back corner.

       All of the classes passed by slowly. After geography, I had an English literature class, which has always been my favorite, but again, they learned about stuff that I already knew. I took my time walking to lunch, because I knew that if I was one of the first few people there, I might sit in someone's seat at some popular persons table and I would really like to avoid the embarrassment.

       I walked in and the lunchroom was already packed full of people. I had paused in the doorway to look around and decided that I would eat my lunch in the library. I walked into the library to see that I was completely alone here. There wasn't even a librarian at the front desk. I went to the corner, as I've been doing all day and sat at the small round table.

       I take out my lunch and pull out a book that I had brought from home and start reading. I ate my sandwich and moved on to take a crunching bite out of my apple when I heard something. I lowered my book and looked around, seeing nothing. Was it just my imagination? Probably. It was known to run wild sometimes. 

       I lifted the book back up and continued reading, when I heard it again. I set it down on the table this time and looked around again, still seeing nothing, not even sure which the sound was coming from. Finally, I see him. He walks out from behind the front desk. I hadn't noticed the little office back there. 

       His arms were slam full of books and novels. He was dropping them, I could see his fingers slipping. Then, they finally fell. I took one last bite of the apple, set it down by the book, and went to help him. I bent down to help him pick them up and he looked up in surprise, but it soon turned into a warm smile. 

        "Thanks," he said. I shrugged my shoulders. "No problem." I picked up half of the stack while he got the other and followed him as he led the way to a table. I set the books down and turned to him. "Do you need anymore help," I asked. 

         He laughed and said "Not the kind that you can give, but obviously my therapist can't either." I cracked a smile at the joke. So he was a wise guy. "I meant with the books," I clarified. He waved me off with a flick of his hand. 

       "Nah. That's about it. I'm Kaleb by the way." The name fit him. His eyes were an unusual gray color, like slate, but the ring around the iris was black, contrasting against the white and gray of his eyes and it felt like they were slicing through me.

       "Um. I'm Arianna," I said. He gave me another friendly smile. "So you're new here." It came out more as a statement than a question. I nodded. I suddenly noticed that he was like, extremely tall. 

       He towered over me, and I was considered tall at five foot nine. He had an light olive skin tone and his hair was dark and shaggy. One ear was pierced with a stud and he was wearing dark jeans and a red polo shirt.

        "Why are you in the library? Isn't it lunch time?" I nodded n answer to his last question and then to the first, I said "I just wanted to read. Why are you in the library," I threw back at him. 

        He smiled. "I'm a member of the library council. More like the only member, besides the librarian. I basically work here for extra curriculum." I was suddenly curious. "So what is the library council, exactly?"

       "The library council is a group that helps with the books, like organizing them, trying to find new ones to add, registering them, checking them out for the students, et cetera. We also try to keep the place clean and sometimes we do fundraisers," he explained.

        "What do you have to do to get in," I asked. He shrugged. "You have to have good grades. If it's under a D then you can't be a member, and you have to be a model citizen, blah blah blah, all that good crap." I thought for a moment. It sounded interesting and I loved being surrounded by books.

        "So, uh… do you have to have like an application or something to register?" He nodded then went to the front desk, reaching behind it to pull out a piece of paper then brought it back over to me. "You have to have a parent's signature and two references. I can give you one right now if you want," he said. 

       I nodded. "Okay." He grabbed a pen and began to write on the paper. He handed it back to me and I looked down at it. His handwriting was impressive. It was cursive calligraphy and it reminded me of the writing on a treaty that I had once seen in a museum. I smiled. "Thanks." 

        The bell rang and I folded the paper and put it in my back pocket. I walked over, bookmarked my page and threw the Apple in the trash can. "It was nice meeting you," I called over my shoulder, but when I looked back, he was gone.