A H.E.R.O.S PROJECT 12

17. Meeting

Richie issued a meeting in the computer room inside the library. Suzy, Lee, Dougie, and Richie are all in a group chat and voted on the meeting spot without my knowing. I immediately texted Richie, and he put in me the discussion.

At Eugenes High, no one went to the library because it smelled of dust, allegedly haunted by ghosts, and is Richie, Lee, and Dougie's hangout spot. Those three variables kept everyone away.

The good news for us...no one would be in the library, so we were free to do as we liked.

Tristian and I walked to the back of the school, where no windows lit the hallways, and all of the nearby classrooms had been closed for never-ending renovations Principal Haaris said had been in the works for years. Planks and chains and caution tapes blocked off those classrooms. A very eerie sight indeed, and this is why there are ghost rumors.

At the end of a long narrow hallway, we stand before a single grand door that meets the ceiling and white and green checkered floor. Made of the blackest wood, engraved with silver and gold swirls, I brace the black metal doorknob, turning it quickly. I open the door and take my first step inside. Tristian sidesteps me and goes inside first, hands cooly in her pockets, her head held high.

She does this thing with her eyes, hyper-analyzing every bit of an unfamiliar room as she enters. Her head smoothly glosses over everything left to right, right to left, saying nothing, studying anything that intrigues her.

"I hate this place. It doesn't feel right," Tris confesses, evaluating the library, the shelves, the archaic glass chandeliers above, and the curved staircase along the wall that takes you to the second-story wing. She twists her shoes into the short red carpet, slightly spreading her legs and inspecting the floor. Tristian sighs, taking her shoes off and putting them into her bag. Sufficed by her decision, she walks off without me to the front desk, where a woman wearing a red sweater, the same red color as the carpet, rests.

The woman is young, and I'd seen her before at assembly meetings and certain school events related to reading and literature and celebrating Eugenes' founders. She's quiet, tall, and prone to sleeping on the job as she is now. The librarian is fast asleep in a black leather recliner with her legs crossed on the desk. Her round glasses slumped down her button nose. A small pink tv airs an old black and white sitcom called "House of Confusion," a show I've watched on one of the thirteen channels available in Eugenes.

Tris slyly creeps to the librarian and steals a pack of Twizzlers off her lap. I shrug and say nothing. Free candy is free candy. I only wish to have one Twizzler, and Tris agrees to my term.

"Over here!" It's Richie. He opens the door to the computer room. He stomps his foot twice, pointing a disciplinarian finger at Tris to leave the library lady alone. Reluctantly, a centimeter from taking the librarian's name bag card, her name is Thena, Tris slyly recoils her hand, stuffing it back into her pocket.

Richie stomps his foot twice again, and we run to him.

I slow midway to Richie to stare at a kid with a bowl haircut climbing a bookshelf like a damn idiot. I'd seen the kid around campus, he's a sophomore like Richie, but his name also eludes me. I watch him, waiting for him to misstep and fall. And he will fall. The bookshelf sways as the boy struggles to ascend to the top.

Richie tells me to mind my business and leave the boy alone. "Clay chases all his desires. If he wants to die, he died living the way he wanted to," Richie shrugs. "Even if you tried to save him, you'd be getting in his way."

"Dark," I say, and Richie shrugs again, fully opening the door.

Tris cuts me and walks into the computer room first. A short exchange of insults passes between my brother and best friend.