At the response to an annoying alarm, Chad quickly snagged his phone and clicked stop. He rubbed his eyes until his vision turned to stars, but he was still extremely tired. He had quite a bit of trouble getting to sleep last night, leading to the bags under his eyes being more prominent than usual.

“Back to it I guess.”

He slid his legs over the side of his bed and stood up with a small hop, heading to the closet. He put on a blue dress shirt along with a matching tie. The khakis his mother recently bought him slid on nicely. A snug fit, but not too snug. He grabbed his nicer shoes and carried them downstairs, not wanting to walk on the carpet with them on.

After dropping off his shoes by the front door, he made his way to the kitchen. He opened the door to be greeted by a beautiful woman as well as the sweet scent of banana bread.

“Good morning honey.”

“Mmm.”

If it wasn’t for this being the usual, he would’ve been surprised that his mother was up before him with how late she worked.

Chad went straight to the pantry, pulling out a granola bar and immediately started chowing down on it. His mother was by the sink, slicing potatoes. She must’ve been preparing lunch or dinner, he wasn’t sure of which. With her mostly working from home, she made a lot of home cooked meals. Although, since she would get called into work randomly, she sometimes left only half finished meals waiting for him when he got home from school or work.

“Sweetie, did you end up joining the student council?”

“No-”

Chop!

A poor potato was mercilessly sliced in half.

“I’m sorry honey,” Rebecca turned towards him, holding her kitchen knife tightly, “I don’t think I quite heard you. What did you say?” Her cheerful smile didn’t match the malice in her eyes.

“I-I didn’t say no.” Chad pleaded, “I- uh just asked to sleep on the decision.”

“Oh,” she resumed her food preparation, “Well I think,” Chop, “That joining the student council,” Chop, “would be a great thing for you.” Chop, “And it would be terrible,” Chop, “If you made the mistake-” Chop, “Of not joining.” she glanced back at him, “Does that sound reasonable sweetie?”

“Uh yea, reasonable. Very logical.”

He usually didn’t get intimidated by other people, but his mother was an exception.

Wanting to flee from his sadistic mother, he quickly stuffed the rest of his granola bar in his mouth and grabbed a slice of freshly cooked banana bread from the kitchen counter.

“I’m going to head to work now.” he said, still chewing his granola bar.

“Make sure to think carefully about your decision.” she gave him an eerie smile as he fled the kitchen.

Does that woman just love to torture me or something?

***

The local library that Chad worked at was a bit farther from his house than his new high school. He probably could walk that distance, but that would be too much of a hassle. Biking was the much better option.

He rode down the small sidewalk. One hand on his handlebars, the other holding his banana bread. As he munched on his breakfast, he was scheming how he would get out of his situation.

He could just tell Rose no and then lie to his mother that they actually ended up not wanting him to join. The likelihood of that plan ending in failure was high. That really shouldn’t even be an option. The current option, that he was working on, is trying to convince Rose that he would be an awful candidate. At first he thought that could work, but after she uncharacteristically spat back at him last night, he started to doubt this plan. The final option was to accept the offer and join the student council. This, of course, would come with loads of responsibilities and drastically alter his precious schedule.

“Ha. There’s no way I’m joining. I’m sure I’ll figure something out by the time Monday rolls around.”

He kept riding along to his job. The school year was well into the fall season so the weather was a bit chilly, but the wind felt pretty good on his face. The tree’s were turning a plethora of gorgeous colors including crimson red, rustic orange and bright yellow. It was pretty and gave him quite a view on his short commute. He didn’t necessarily spend a lot of time outside, but he still admired its beauty.

With a turn of a corner the library came into view. It was an older library and wasn’t all that big. It was made of wood in a cabin style, similar to how a Lincoln log house looks. Instead of a wooden green roof, it wore tan tiles. The building fit comfortably in a small cove of trees touched by the colors of fall. Overall, the whole building and scenery would always be a calming sight for him. The bike ride into work was a good way of starting off his weekend.

“What the-”

There was somebody standing in front of the library. As he approached he made the figure out to belong to a woman.

“She lost or something?”

The library didn’t open until nine and it was currently a little past eight thirty. The woman was just standing in front of a locked building. She didn’t look like she was trying to break in or anything. She was just standing, doing nothing.

He continued to ride along, the distant building coming closer in view. It did irk him that somebody was standing outside. He would probably have to tell them that they’re closed until nine. What a bother.

He took his attention away from the nuisance to come and focused on parking his bike and locking it to a bike rack not too far away. He then made his way by foot to the library.

That can’t be Yuna can it? I guess she could’ve lost her set of keys. Wait a minute.

“Oh, hey Chad.”

There’s no way.

“Um... hey Rose?”

Rose was standing outside of the library he worked at. She was wearing another sundress, a bit underdressed for the brisk weather. This one was pink with some sort of purple pattern. He couldn’t quite tell if it was just some arbitrary pattern or if it was supposed to resemble something. Her hair was down similar to the night before, but this time instead of having curls it seemed that she straightened it. Her glasses sat all the way down at the tip of her nose, looking as if they were about to slide off.

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

He had a feeling of dread, but he had to confirm it.

“Why are you here? The library doesn’t open for another thirty minutes.”

“I know, I was just waiting for you.”

Now I’m sure of it. She’s a full on stalker.

“Did sleeping help you make your decision?”

“Well I-” Chad rubbed his brown hair, “I was talking to my mom about it-”

“Oh, how is Becca doing?”

“Becca?”

“Your mother. Did you thank her for me? That cornbread was really yummy.”

Oh right, that was a thing.

“Uh yea, She’s doing alright.”

“That’s good. What did she say about you joining?”

“She said that it was a really important decision... and how I should really think about the consequences of saying yes or no. I’ll need more time to make such an important decision.”

“Oh,” her voice turned a bit melancholy, “Well, I think you’ll make a great student council member.”

“Thanks,” he grabbed his work keys from his pocket and opened the library doors, “I need to get to work. Good seeing you I guess.”

“It was nice seeing you too Chad. I’ll see you in a bit.”

A bit?

He walked into the library shaking his head. He didn’t want to think too much about her last comment.

Chad was a tad early to work. It was about ten before nine at the time he stepped into the library. He left his house this morning prematurely to avoid conversing further with his mother about the whole student council thing. Yuna, the librarian and his boss, still wasn’t here. She usually arrived exactly at nine so it wasn’t too surprising.

He opened the cabinet that held the returned books and began organizing them between fiction and non-fiction. The first task of the day usually was documenting and putting back any returned books. They usually got a lot of returns Friday night for whatever reason, so him working Saturdays worked out smoothly for Yuna.

After he finished putting away a hefty pile of books, he checked the time.

“Nine twenty, hm. I wonder where she is.”

Yuna had never been late to work while he had been there. She was notorious for how seriously she took her job as a librarian.

He heard the front doors open and his attention naturally went to the entrance.

“Sorry I’m late. I hope you didn’t miss me too much!”

“Don’t worry I didn’t.”

“You’re just as cheerful as usual.”

Yuna Cori, the twenty-seven year old librarian. She had long silver hair that ran down the entirety of her back. He wasn’t sure if it was natural or not. Can silver hair even be natural? Anyways, she was well known around town for being the local librarian. One reason being that she was so young. Not every town had a silver haired beauty running the local library. Another reason for her popularity was her habit of going above the call of duty. Most libraries sent notices and reminders about overdue books and such. She would personally track down the culprits and demand it back or force them to pay the fine on the spot. It was quite an effective method, this library currently had almost no overdue books. She also took the upkeep and maintenance of the library seriously. The library didn’t have any type of janitorial staff. In other words, that was Yuna’s and Chad’s job. She made sure to put him to work and they both kept the library spotless.

With her being a whole twenty minutes late, Chad's curiosity got the better of him and he just had to ask.

“What kept you Yuna? You’re never late.”

“I was chatting with that girl outside. Is she your girlfriend or something?”

She’s still there?

“Agh, no. She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Uh huh. Well it’s still rude to keep a girl waiting.”

“Waiting?”

She set her bag down on the counter, “She said she was waiting for you to make a decision. Did she ask you out? Awww, cute! Young romance, how pure and frivolous.”

“Of course she didn’t ask me out.”

As Yuna turned on her computer and got her desk ready, he explained his current predicament to her.

“Hmm. That is quite an interesting situation. I remember when my mom forced me to join the volleyball team in high school.”

“You couldn’t get out of it?”

“Mom’s tend to have a way of enforcing their will,” Yuna smirked at him, “Although, after I joined them their attendance spiked. I don’t think my mom liked how half of the male student body was gawking at me during the games so she let me quit.”

Yuna was quite well endowed. That along with her silky silver hair and golden eyes made her quite an attractive lady. Chad had to kick out his fair share of creeps who wouldn’t stop staring and making her feel uncomfortable at the library. He often wondered if the reason he was hired was more for security detail than actual librarian work.

Both of them sat in silence, trying to work out this student council problem. After about thirty seconds, Yuna finally spoke up.

“Why don’t you just join?”

“Wha-?”

He looked at his traitorous boss.

“I thought you were supposed to be on my side?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged, “I think you’re just making a big deal out of this.”

“If I join the student council my responsibilities will increase exponentially! I’ll have to stay after school every day, plan events and probably have to do a bunch of other stuff. Plus I’d have to deal with that crazy girl out there! It’ll also cut into my time I can work here. My schedule is already filled to the brim.”

She laughed while rolling her eyes, “Yes you’re right. You are such a busy person. Between your afternoon naps and laying around doing nothing all day I don’t think you could fit anything into that crazy schedule of yours.”

Chad winced at her verbal attack.

Yuna was a church friend of his mother. That connection was actually how he landed this job. Her word’s held truth and merit. She wasn’t just assuming his pastimes, she most likely knew them from his mother.

“Bu- I-”

He couldn’t shape any words to form a counter argument. She gave him a devious smile that reminded him of his mother.

“Take advice from another adult in your life. Being a part of a group is good. And if you can turn that group into friends that’s even better,” she softly caressed her watch, “It can make you really happy.”

Chad's irritation dwindled. Her teasing tone turned sincere. Sure he had talked with her before, but this felt a bit different. He didn’t quite know how to reply to her.

She sprung out of her seat, “You’re going to join!”

“Wha-”

Before he had time to process anything, Yuna firmly grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the entrance. She then shoved him outside. Rose was still outside and turned her attention to him. He heard the click of the door locking behind him.

Yep, all women are crazy.

“Chad, have you come to a decision yet?”

“Uh,” he looked back through the small window on the door. He could see Yuna giving him a big thumbs up, “I guess so.”

Rose’s blue eyes opened wide.

“And what’s your decision?”

He gritted his teeth.

Dammit Yuna, you were supposed to help me get out of this!

“I’ll…” The decision was already made for him, but he wanted to see how much damage was done, “W-what would my responsibilities look like as a student council member?”

“That’s a really good question. We usually meet as a group for thirty minutes to an hour after school. Even with the schedule changes I believe that will still hold true. We didn’t have to cut our time down even with the new rules in place.”

Figures.

“Besides the after school meetings, the time commitment is little to none.”

That’s not too bad. I think I can fit that into my schedule. A routine of half an hour to an hour after school, I can do that.

“Then I guess I’ll join. As long as I can keep the rest of my schedule the same.”

“Rest of your schedule?”

Don’t play dumb stalker, you probably already know it verbatim.

“Well like me working here. Also I go to church on Sundays and volunteer afterwards.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she smiled, “Thank you so much.”

The pleasure is not mine.

She dug around in her purse and pulled out a piece of paper.

“Here, you’ll need to fill this out and sign it to become an official member. Just return it to me on Monday. We meet after school in room 204C.”

“Will do.”

“I’ll see you Monday Chad,” she waved as she gleefully skipped away.

“Yup.”

He turned around and knocked on the door, signaling to Yuna that the task was done. The door was promptly opened. He walked into work a completely defeated man.