Long Overdue

Heart hamming against her ribs, she sprinted up the staircases and stopped just in front of the huge wooden doors gasping for breath. Her book bag hit her hard against the hips but Anna barely noticed the pain. Breathing in deeply, Anna ran her hand over hair to check for any loose strands. When she felt herself presentable, she shouldered her book bag and pushed open the wooden door nervously.

The library was hushed and quiet with only the sound of people flipping books and hands typing away at the keyboard. She tiptoed into the library with a bright smile on her face, trying to look confident and sophisticated. She was about to walk over to the lockers when in her happy state, she didn't realised the metal tin holding the umbrellas standing beside the door. As she swung around, her book bag caught the metal tin and the metal tin fell down onto the floor with a loud clatter – colourful umbrellas spread out on the floor. She blushed and cringed, turning around slightly on the spot, she saw that all pairs of eyes were focusing on her.

She could have smack herself on the forehead for her stupidity. The head of the Librarian, Ms. Taylor put one finger to her lips and hissed at her, her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. Anna smiled awkwardly back at Ms. Taylor and nodded her head. As casual as possible, she sneak a peek at the table beside Ms. Taylor and then she breathed out in relief – thank goodness she was not here to witness her humiliating incident.

Anna quickly scooped up the umbrellas and placed them in the metal tin. With another apologetic smile at Ms. Taylor, she hurried over to the lockers and pushed her stuffs haphazardly inside one of the empty cubbyholes.

Where is she? Anna wondered as she walked across the lacquered floors. She paused on her tracks and glanced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Maybe she's arranging the books?

Buoyed at the thought, she hurried towards the racks of book quickly as fast as she could. Anna slammed into a girl as she turned a sharp corner into the bookshelves.

"Sorry," Anna stammered to the student who glared at her, the words had barely left her mouth when she felt her back hitting something hard.

"Whoops, sorry, I–" The words died in her throat when she realised she had hit a wooden rack. Still smiling awkwardly at the girl, Anna backed her way into the rows of books, making a turn at the end of the shelf. When she disappeared from the girl's sight, Anna leaned against the cold metal shelf and breathed out in relief.

Why must she so accident prone? How she wished she could be more graceful and sophisticated like her. Anna let out a contented sigh when she remembered her – the new librarian.

Anna rarely came to the library, she had always been one to be loud and clumsy. In the library, you have to be quiet and speak everything in hushed tones, every movement of yours had to be graceful and quiet because it would attract everyone's attention and the last thing she needed was for her to be thrown out by the Head Librarian, Ms. Taylor. Anna found it hard to get a book without making a lot of noise, it was never her fault but people always stared at her and gave her this accusing look.

As careful as she tried, she always seemed to be bumping into people and when she took out the book she wanted, the other books will fell down like dominoes, making a ruckus. She had been given a warning by Ms. Taylor once last year and after that she had stopped coming to the library.

But last week, Sven had dragged her along to the library despite her loud protests and shouts. He said he needed to find some books to write his research paper and he wanted Anna to help him.

"What? You want me to help you in the library? That is so not my kind of place." With a shake of head, Anna turned to leave.

But Sven held onto her wrist tightly. "Come on, please? It will be faster if you help me out." One look into Sven's pleading eyes and Anna soon found herself at the library with Sven. Glancing at the list of books she held in her hand, she strolled through the book racks, trying to find the correct one. They had decided to split up to search for the books so that the progress would be faster.