As Zane walked down the hall, pink slip stuffed into his pocket, he could feel the faux confidence flood out of him. His heart rate rose and the weight of the situation fell on him. He doesn't know why he stands up to Keith, he knows he should just roll over and let Keith walk all over him, but something deep down keeps him from doing so. The adrenaline from the fight left him, and suddenly his bruised ribs felt a lot more tender than he felt before. Zane made his way towards the nurse's office, a walk he has taken far too many times.
As the door opened to the nurse's office, he was met with a far too familiar smiling face.
"You know, I had a feeling I'd see you today!" Luke said.
Luke was far too young to be playing the role of school nurse. He was a skinny black guy with the best laugh Zane had ever heard, and he was probably the nicest one Zane interacted with in the entire school. Luke had just gotten out of nursing school when he got his first job here. In his words, this job was just "resume padding" before he got his first real job at the local hospital.
"It's good to see you too." Zane smiled.
"Keith?" "Keith."
"What'd you do this time? Insult his mamma to have him beat you like that?" Luke said, looking at Zane as he sat on the observation bed.
Zane chuckled as he said "I popped a kickball," he said, waving down to his body "and this is what I got."
"Seriously?" Luke said, surprised, "That's all you did?"
"Oh, yeah, I also broke his nose" Zane said, meekly.
Luke just sat there, wide eyed. Zane had always fought back, maybe landing a punch or pushing Keith over, but he had never landed any significant injury. Luke's grin widened as he slapped Zane on the back, making him wince.
"You broke his nose and all you got was detention? I had half a mind to think you would at least get suspended for that man!" Luke said.
"I think his mom's afraid of a police investigation, any risk to her precious baby's future is too much for her." He laughed, wincing from his injuries. "Yeah, I think I have some bruised ribs, do you have Advil and an ice pack?" Zane said, touching his tender ribs.
Luke nodded as he went to grab him a paper cup with 2 Advil, some water, and an ice pack. Zane's visits to the nurse's office were common, but not always for injury. Zane would occasionally claim to be sick and make his way to Luke's when he had a class he wanted to skip a certain class. Zane lay in the bed just nursing his injuries, he wasn't hurt too bad, so the aching in his ribs went away after about an hour, but the black eye stuck around.
"Alright man, I gotta let you go, if Ms. Jackie realizes you're skipping her class in here again I'll get my ear chewed off." Luke said. "Again."
Zane laughed, as he hopped up, giving Luke a fist bump as he walked out of the room.
"May this be the last time we meet under these circumstances!" Zane said in a grandiose voice.
'But of course, good sir!" Luke said with a bow, snickering.
The rest of Zane's school day went by without event, he went to class and got a mean stare down from Mrs. Richardson in detention. The only thing that Zane could think of was that he would be late for work again. At least this time he would have a good story.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Zane stood before quite possibly the oldest building in the city, the library. There wasn't a record of when the library was built, but it was guessed to be in the 1800s. Of course it has been rebuilt before, but some parts of the original building still remained. Zane had began working here as an assistant to the head librarian when his family moved here. The library was only two blocks from Creekbend High so it was perfect when he approached the head librarian for a job. Zane walked up the stone staircase to the front door and opened. He made his way through the building as he made his way to the front desk and plopped down his backpack.
"Ms. Wen, I'm here!" Zane said into the room behind the desk.
Some shuffling was heard and some grumbles as he heard a heavy "THUMP" as an old woman shuffled out from the back room.
"Detention again?" Ms. Wen said, holding a box in her hands, "Or did you just decide to be late for fun, hmmm?" She said, putting the box down on the desk. "I need you to-" she stopped speaking once she saw Zane's face.
"Sorry for being late Ms. Wen, I got into some "trouble"". Zane said, sheepish smile tugging the corner of his lips.
Ms. Wen approached Zane, tsk-tsking all the while.
"Now why did you go and do this to yourself?" Ms. Wen said, touching the black eye on his face.
"I'm fine Ms. Wen, there's no need to-" Ms. Wen didn't listen as she walked back into the back room.
"Come now, get some tea, it'll make you feel better." Ms. Wen said, pouring Zane a piping hot cup of tea.
"Ms. Wen, I'm really fine, it doesn't even-"
"Drink." Ms. Wen demanded, shoving the cup into his hands.
Zane sighed as he held the cup, he took a sip, spreading a warm feeling through his body. He didn't know how, but Ms. Wen's tea always made him feel better. Zane nursed his cup of tea as he asked:
"Did I miss anything important?" Glancing at the box Ms. Wen had placed on the desk. Ms. Wen crossed her arms, her usual stern expression returning to her face.
"Had a donation come in half and hour ago, six whole boxes! You're lucky the nice young man was willing to carry most of them, but I still had to carry two!" Ms. Wen said, a hint of helplessness in her voice. It took everything Zane had not to roll his eyes, Ms. Wen is the most fit old lady he had ever met, he wouldn't even be surprised if she could lift more than he could.
"Apologies Ms. Wen," Zane said, "It will probably happen again." Zane could almost say he saw a smile begin to form before she frowned again.
"Come on now, you have work to do!" Ms. Wen said, pointing to the box on the desk, "Sort, label, and shelve the books in this box, and when you're done, go get another from the back." Ms. Wen said, pointing to the back room.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Zane went throughout his shift, working through four of the six boxes by closing time. At 7:30, Ms. Wen came to the front desk, with the only word Zane could use to describe her face being, excited?
"Hey, Ms. Wen, I got through four of the boxes and should finish the last two done tomorrow." Zane said, patting the empty box in front of him. She waved a hand as to dismiss the work he had spent all afternoon doing.
"Eh, that was busy work, just wanted to keep you busy till closing time." Ms. Wen said, looking rather proud of herself. Zane looked down at the empty box, confused.
"What's happening at closing that made this busy work?" Zane asked, confused.
"I wanted to tell you when you got here, but I figured I'd save it for the end of your shift." Ms. Wen said, smile now evident on her face.
Zane narrowed his eyes, Ms. Wen wasn't an expressive person often, and the expression was usually anger for an unruly guest or at Zane for dropping some books, so seeing her smiling was making Zane concerned. Was she going to punish him for being late? Maybe have him stay after closing to finish shelving the last two boxes of books?
"I'm going to need you to stay a little after closing today." Ms. Wen said, beaming.
Zane groaned internally, his fears realized, he was being punished for being late and not finishing his work today. Ms. Wen walked over to the desk she worked at, opening a drawer and pulling out an envelope. Ms. Wen handed it to Zane, its seal, a wax letter M, was broken. Interested, Zane pulled out the contents, where he found a hand written letter, reading:
"Greetings Ms. Wen, I am what you would call a purveyor of lesser known literature. I have spent many years of my life collecting and have found that one item evades my collection. I have found, through your online database, that you, in fact, are in possession of the final book to complete my collection. The book is named "Tales of the Aether" and it is a book in the "Tales of" series. This series is extremely obscure, and while it holds no monetary value to most, it holds incredible sentimental value to me. If you are interested in parting with the book, I will personally donate to your library fund a sum total of $10,000,000, but this price is negotiable, and subject to change based on the quality of the book. If you are interested, I will personally visit your library on October 20th at 8:30 PM, where we will discuss the price of the book, as well as the quality of the book. I hope you will see the opportunity for both you, and your library's future."
Sincerely-
M. Millian