Ellie and Zinnia stood in the middle of a maze of book shelves. Rows and rows of shelves surrounded them. Ellie's eyes glazed over. Whose idea was it to organize the library this way? How was anyone supposed to find anything without begging the librarians for help? She followed Zinnia along like a lost child, putting her faith in Zinnia's seek-and-find skills.

"Do they shelf books by the author or the title?" Ellie asked. "I think the CAV section was that way...or was it that way?"

"They file the books by genre and the first three letters of the author's last name. Is this your first time you've been to a library?"

"Um, of course not," Ellie lied. Libraries annoyed her. The strict silence rule got on her nerves. What were they worried about, someone startling someone into accidentally ripping out a book page? A little noise wasn't going to end the world.

Ellie peeked around the corner, trying to find some more letters to orient herself by. She saw two familiar girls and a red haired guy sitting together at a table. Theres Diallo, a blacksmith's daughter, and one of Ellie's biggest non-fans; and Inger Agnitse, a baker's daughter, and another former friend of hers who hated her guts a smidgen less than Theres did.

"There's Theres," Ellie whispered to Zinnia. Zinnia pulled her backwards, further into the aisle and away from the trio's view. "What? Aren't you talking to her?"

"Yeah, we're friends," Zinnia said. She scuffed her shoe into the flat carpet. "I don't want to meet him."

Ellie scanned her over. "Is she going out with that guy?"

"If the way they're sitting is any indication, sure. I'm not going to ask," Zinnia said. "I'm not in the mood to deal with that or with refereeing a fight between you two today. Let's deal with you and Shreya, okay?"

"Are you sure? I can beat him up for you." Ellie sucked in her lip to keep from laughing and giving them away.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"No. The book's this way." She grabbed Ellie's wrist to keep her away from them.

 ~ * ~ * ~

Book in hand, Ellie stood with Zinnia outside of the library. They were lucky to have found it. It was the last copy that they had in stock.

"Good luck," Zinnia said. "If anyone could convince someone who they shot to talk to them again, I think it'd be you."

"Wait, you're leaving me? Aren't we going to write this apology thing together?"

"You know what you need to say. Take everything you told me before and put it onto the page."

Ellie scratched the back of her neck. "Can you remind me what I said? I forgot."

Zinnia sighed. "Just be honest and straightforward. As long as you do that, you can't go wrong with your apology."

"Yeah...I guess I can do that." Maybe.

"I'll help you deliver it in the morning," Zinnia said. "Ianes' Wall will be the best place to put it. It's sort of like your meeting point, isn't it?"

Ellie nodded. "I'll bring Sunflower with us, for added safety. She should be okay by tomorrow," she said. "Seriously, though, thank you. I was worried you didn't like Shreya. You seemed kind of on edge with her at first."

"I suppose she grew on me. She's not bad," Zinnia said. "Make sure you don't mess up on that letter."

"I'll try not to! See you tomorrow."

"See you."

Ellie headed home, her mind brimming with things to write.

-------------

A/N: Voting for Chapter 30 is happening on the main site until Tuesday, August 30th at 11:59 PM EST. Chapter 31 will be released on the main site on Tuesday, September 6th. The next RRL update will be Chapter 19.1.