The phone buzzed inside my pocket.

Every time I hear that sound it always baffles me, mostly because receiving text messages for me is a rare thing, especially receiving one while walking to school.

I am not the type of person who likes to share my personal information with other people, so having someone else know my number is unusual. There are only two people who should know my number; my Aunt Faye, and Noah, but even they rarely text me.

After taking my phone out and checking who the sender is I discovered that it came from an unknown number, feeling curious I decided to read the contents.

Lunch break.

Student council’s office.

I’ll be waiting.

-M

With the first read I immediately figured out who sent the message.

How the hell did May get my phone number?

Now that I think of it, Noah must’ve given it to her. And what’s with the M there in the end? Is she trying to be mysterious or something? I took a deep breath and calmed my mind, it’s no good being irritated so early in the morning and being hungry won’t help either.

So before heading to school, I took a quick detour to the nearest convenience store. I checked for something that will be the most satisfying to eat. The selection was the traditional hotdog sandwich, tuna sandwich, and a slice of pizza, nothing surprising really.

While pondering about what to eat, I felt something sharp touch my back,

“Don’t move” Judging by the voice the one holding a sharp instrument behind me is a man.

He proceeded to wrap his right arm around my neck as I tried to squirm free but to no avail. He then removed off my left earphone from my ear, before whispering the word “Money”, causing me to panic.

“O-okay, here, just take it, okay?” I said, pleading to the man as I took my wallet out of my back pocket.

“Take this as a lesson, boy, and try to pay more attention to the things around you”

“I will, I will s-so, let me go already, I gave you what you want...”

“Well-- brhg-- Ahem. What if I told you-- hm-- ahaha! I can’t, I can’t hold it in anymore, hahaha!” his deep and intimidating voice faded into something more familiar as he laughed out loud. I turned around finding out that the one holding what looked like a pen behind me was in fact Noah, who almost fell on the floor laughing.

“Oh for the love of— I hope you die laughing.”

“I just might…” he said as he struggled to take a hold of himself. “But if I did, you won’t have any friends left.”

“Just give me back my wallet already”

“But seriously, try to pay more attention to what’s happening around you. What would happen if someone decided to rob you for real? Drown them with your tears?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I learned something today.” I said while returning my earphones to their rightful place.

“You better. You can’t keep being like that forever, you know.” He coughed to clear his throat.

“Don’t give me that. What are you? Aunt Faye?” I continued to scan the shelves.

“Anyway, since that you’re going to have breakfast here I might as well join you. Let’s see here…” He gazed at all the food items in front of us, it looked like he was having a hard time deciding what to buy.

“Hmm, Ah. Pizza it is.” He grabbed one of the slices of pizza on the shelf. “Nothing beats a piece of bread with red sauce on it.”

“Eh, I’m more of a sandwich person.” I grabbed one of the tuna sandwiches in display. Before heading to the counter, I checked how much money I had in my wallet, and to my surprise it was empty.

For a second, I thought that I maybe forgot to bring any, but I quickly realized that Noah was holding it just a second ago.

I turned around and to look for Noah, I saw at the cash register handing over the cashier the money that was in my wallet a few seconds ago. After paying he looked at me with a grin on his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to keep the change.” I held my forehead to my dismay and returned the sandwich back to where I took it. My hunger disappeared.

“You’ll be buying lunch for the both of us.” I grabbed the change on the counter just before he picked it up.

“What? Didn’t you think I was going to give it to you?”

“Lunch. For the both of us.” I said in a more serious tone, making sure he knows it’s a fact.

“G-got it...” he stuttered a bit as he replied.

“It’s about time we headed to school, 1st period is about to start.”

We exited the store and headed to the intersection.

It was strange, looking at where we were going and realizing that an explosion occurred there not long ago. The media were all over the incident. Some say it was an unfortunate accident, others say it was a work of terrorism. The only common denominator between their interpretations was the fact that the driver of the vehicle escaped before it exploded. And as of now, he’s still at large.

“It’s been two days, huh.” Noah said, taking a bite out of his pizza.

“Yep.” I replied.

May never talked to me since the accident happened, but now she suddenly texts me about going to the student council’s office.

“Here” Noah said, offering me half of what he was eating, “Come on. Take it. Or else I’ll feel guilty.”

I just stared at it, hesitant. I wanted to make sure of something first.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m still going to buy both of us lunch.”

“Good.” I took it from him then proceeded to eat the piece of bread.

“God this taste’s awful.”

“I know right?”

“Wait,” taking a bite of that pizza made me remember something, although I have no idea why a disgusting slice of pizza would’ve contributed to that happening. “Did you give my phone number to May?”

“Nope.” He replied.

“Come on, don’t lie to me”

“I’m not.”

“If you didn’t, then who did?” I said, scratching the back of my head.

“Well, why not ask her?”

Both of us finished our meal as the traffic light changed from a red to a green, it was time to cross. There were a lot of people crossing the road, mostly students. As we walked across someone or something suddenly bumped into me, “Oh, my bad, are you alright?” the person apologized.

“Yeah…” as I turned around to look at him I realized that the one that had just bumped into me was no other than Glenn, the student council president, “I’m good.” I continued.

“Well, I’ll better be going now, see you later then, Damis.” He sprinted to the other side, like he was in a hurry.

Wait, something he said caught my attention; see you later? What did he mean by that? And how did he know my name? Hold on, how does he know that I’ll be going to the student council’s room today?

While deep in thought, the sound of a loud clap pulled me back into the real world.

“Pay attention.” said Noah as he walked in front of me.

I shook my head as if I was trying to wake myself up, then followed.

“So, what will it be?” Noah asked.

“… What?” I answered.

“Lunch, Damis.” He replied sternly. I looked around and realized that we were inside the school cafeteria. “You really have to stop doing that, phasing out all the time.”

“I can’t help it, I like to think.” I replied as I pointed at the plate of spaghetti on display at the counter.

“Thinking is different than daydreaming.”

“You don’t know that.” After purchasing the plates of spaghetti we continued to sit at one of those tables that were attached to a wall. I like sitting there; I like to eat where no one can stare at you while you gulp down your lunch.

“So, are you going?” he asked.

“Of course, we are.”

“We?”

“Yep.” I took a fork-full of spaghetti a plunged it down my throat.

“I don’t think she’ll like that.” He said as he ate a fork-full of his own.

“She didn’t tell me to go alone though.”

“Why do you even want me to go with you? Scared?” he said jokingly.

“Actually, I am.” Upon hearing my answer, he turned his eyes towards me.

“Oh.” He said. We finished up our meals then worked our way out of the cafeteria that was starting to fill with starving students.

“So, where to?” he asked, stretching his arms a bit.

“The student council’s office.” I answered.

“Well that’s weird, I thought she’d be telling you to go to the rooftop again.”

“If she did, I would’ve told her that I wasn’t interested.”

He has a point though, why would she pick the student council office of all places?

Thinking about it again, that would explain why Glenn knew we were coming.

We walked up the stairs to the second floor where the room was located. We took a quick detour to the library since I needed to return some of the books I borrowed a while ago. I noticed that there were quite a few students inside the library, and most of them weren’t reading but looked like they were trying to find something. The library woman was helping them while they searched, while her young assistant remained on her desk by the entrance.

“It’s been three days already and we still can’t find it,” said one of the students. “Are you sure it wasn’t misplaced or anything Ma’am?” he continued.

“I’ve been working her for years young man, misplacing a book will be the last thing that could happen.” The library woman answered. The students continued searching for what appears to be a missing book.

“Sheesh, it’s just the first week of classes and things are missing already.” Noah said.

I shrugged in response.

After placing the book I borrowed on the tray, the library assistant checked the back of the book.

She was a frail and young looking girl. She looks to be a student because of the uniform she’s wearing, although her necktie looked pretty unusual compared to the other students.

“Umm, you forgot to write your name here on the back.” She said as she pointed towards the card placed on the back of the book. She spoke with a soft voice that matched her reserved and timid demeanor.

“Sorry.” I muttered.

As I took the card with a pen in hand, I noticed that there weren’t any spaces left to write in another name.

“I can’t write my name here anymore.” I said as I gave the card back to the assistant, who was busy staring intently at the book cover.

“Oh— I’m sorry.” She said, flustered. She took out a fresh card out from under her desk and placed it in front of me.

“Do you like that book? You’ve been staring at it a lot earlier.” Noah said to the assistant.

Trying to avoid eye contact, she nodded in response.

“I knew it!” Noah exclaimed, “Damis also acts like that when he sees a book he likes.” He nudged my shoulder with his elbow.

“Really?” I replied.

“Yeah. You always look at it like you’re trying to memorize the book cover or something.”

Well, now that he mentions it, I do like to stare at the cover of a book I found really interesting. There were a few times where I try to see how well the cover of a book portrayed the story within. In my opinion, a well written book with an equally well made and well thought out cover can be considered a true work of art.

After writing my name on the card I gave it back to the assistant and we left the library. Turning to our left and walking a few more steps, we arrived at the office.

I hesitated to knock.

“What are you waiting for?” Noah whispered.

I took a deep breath and readied myself. Before my fist could touch the door, it opened, and on the other side was May.

“Took you long enough, come in.” She said, opening the door to let me in.

Upon going inside I realized that there was another person inside the room, it was none other than Glenn.

“Greetings” He said, with a smile on his face.

“You, the other one, get in” she said to Noah that hid behind the corner of the wall just before May opened the door.

She closed the door, with both me and Noah sitting on the only sofa located in the room.

“Comfy.” Noah commented.

The room contained two pairs of desks which were placed in the opposite of each other forming a short column, and one desk with a chair that Glenn was sitting on.

There was a computer installed on top of each desks, with various documents scattered all over, though a file cabinet can be seen next to the left wall. There was also a moderately sized sofa located next to a wall near the door, where Noah and I are currently sitting. May sat on one of the chairs, playing with her phone.

And before long, silence filled the room.

“So, you’re the one they call Damis I presume?” the student council president asked, staring at me. He slightly adjusted his glasses as he waited for an answer.

“Uh, yes.” I answered.

“So that make’s the other one, Noah, right?”

“Yeah, Noah Mecker.” Noah answered with a charismatic smile.

“And I’ll assume that you both already know me, seeing that we’re all on the same year level as each other. But, for formalities sake I’ll introduce myself once again, I am Glenn Caster the current student council president, this is my second year as the student body president and by the looks of it, this will be my last. Nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you.” I answered.

“Likewise.” Noah replied, still wearing that smile on his face.

I took a quick glance at the papers on the desk once again. They looked like club application forms.

“Looks as though the council’s been busy…” Noah muttered.

“Unfortunately, we’ve always been busy. But that’s just how it is with the council, every one of us are working students after all.”

Being a member of the council sounds like a lot of trouble, more than I could ever imagine handling. It’s great to be working as a student to pay up for school fees, and just being a member of the council grants you extra credit with most of the subjects, but, if you add in the responsibilities of being in the student council and academics, it just becomes way too busy.

For the people who are still managing to stay sane while working in these harsh conditions, I offer you my respect.

Without warning, Glenn stood up and started pacing towards the middle of the room.

“You see, May here said that she will be waiting for someone, here in the office, and having to know May as more of an, introverted type of person, hearing that was news to me. Anyways, seeing as you have already arrived, the people whom she was waiting for, I see no reason for her to continue staying here doing nothing as the rest of my council members try to solve a problem none of them have the capability of solving.” He said, staring at May, his voice getting louder as he finished his sentence, while May seemed to ignore his minor outburst and continued to pay attention to her phone.

We sat there, ever so quiet. Even Noah managed to stay silent for more than a minute.

“Okay, how about if… I do this week’s Science homework for you?” Glenn pleaded, May still not moved by his display. Glenn started to tap his feet and scratch the back of his head as though he was beginning to get irritated, it seemed like he had anger issues, trust me I’d know.

After a few moments, he let out a deep sigh.

“All of your homework.” He said, looking defeated.

May, who finally heard his plead looked at him and smiled, “You should’ve said that earlier, come Damis.” She stood up and hurried her way to the door.

“And Noah, do you want to tag along?” she asked.

He took a quick glance at me before he gave his answer, “Nope.”

I couldn’t help but slap my palm on my face.

“Well, you should.” She debated, “Isn’t that what you wanted, Damis? Why else would you bring him with you?”

“Of course.” I turned around to glance at the cheeky guy.

“Let’s get going then.” she said as she opened the door.

“To where, exactly?” I asked, propping myself up.

“The school library.” she replied before leaving the room.

Before approaching the door, I glanced at Glenn to say goodbye.

“Go on, you wouldn’t want her to wait.” Glenn said, sitting on his chair while resting his head on the palm of his hand.

“Is she a member of the student council?” Noah asked abruptly, pointing towards her direction. It caught me by surprise, but I too was somewhat eager to know the answer.

“Not really. Well, I offered her a spot before but she declined, she said it was too… social.”

“Okay then, we’ll be off now.” I said, gesturing Noah to get a move on.

“Good luck.” he smiled and waved goodbye as I closed the door.

He was pleased, and for a second, he looked a bit too happy.

"I didn't expect you to come." said May, leaning against the wall in front of the closed door.

"I guess you got that wrong then.” I replied.

She smiled. I don't know why but it ticked me off.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not here because of that text you sent me.” I clarified, “I'm acting out of curiosity is all."

Well, that’s half of the reason I decided to come here.

If there weren’t that much people in the library I would’ve just read a book till class started. But I wanted none of that stressful atmosphere. Normally if the library isn’t available I’d read in our classroom instead. Unfortunately, staying in the classroom today wouldn’t be an option since it had just been too noisy there recently.

"Yes, I am aware of that. Let's get moving then."

We began walking to the library.

"So, are you going to tell me how you got my number?"

"There were many ways that I could get a hold of your number, but after examining all of them I chose to do the quickest and easiest one, I got it from a post in your Twitter account."

"Twitter account? I don't remember having one in the first place"

"Dude,” said Noah, "you told me to make one for you remember?"

"What? No I didn't, why the hell would I even want one?"

"Seriously? I'm sure I heard someone telling me to make an account for them..." He scratched the back of his head as he tried to remember.

"Damn it Noah."

"Come on Damis, it’s okay. Nothing's bad with getting with the times y'know? And you should really try to connect with people more--"

"Yeah, but I didn't tell you to make one."

"You two sure are a lively duo." said May who stopped and looked at us with crossed arms.

“Anyway, couldn't we just do this after school? I mean, there's no need to rush." Noah asked.

"No, that won't do, I usually finish these before class starts.” She continued walking.

"What do you actually do?" I asked.

"I just pass the time."

“That doesn’t really answer my question…”

After a few more steps we finally arrived at the library, greeted by the same scene as earlier. With the same students still busy trying to find something.

“Does this have anything to do with the lost book?” I asked, reaching to that conclusion after overhearing their conversation earlier.

“No not book, Books.” She answered.

One of the students looked our way, he looked quite mad.

The red tie walked towards us, staring intently at someone in particular, someone that probably forced them to come here in the first place.

“Where were you?” he asked.

“I was in the middle of a negotiation.” May answered, seeming to take the student lightly.

“... Right” he answered wearily, “Anyway, we have three missing books.”

May looked uninterested at what she had just heard. The boy coughed then continued, “Three books, all from the same author with the name of Jonathan Lewis,” he glanced at May and noticed that she still rather uninterested with what she was hearing, but after letting out a sigh he continued. “They disappeared last—” just before he could finish, May interrupted him,

“Labels?” she asked.

He looked at her with confusion, “What?”

“I mean titles, what were the titles?” she clarified.

“Uhmm... They were the moon and the lake, the invisible woman, and the night to surrender.”

“When did they... I mean, who noticed that they were gone?”

“The library woman, yesterday.”

“All of the books were gone by then?”

“Yes.” the library woman answered after overhearing their conversation, "We check the books regularly. In all of my years of working here I have never misplaced a single book let alone lost one. "

"So, you think they were stolen?" May asked, glancing at her phone. Can't she let go of that phone even for just a second? I held my forehead in dismay.

"I know they were stolen." the woman answered, "Those books were donated by the headmaster and said to have cost a fortune. It wouldn't be a surprise if someone had decided to snatch them all away and sell them to the highest bidder."

"I know I would." said Noah, jokingly. The woman stared at him for a while, Noah just smiled as she glared at him. I tried to hold in my laughter at the sight.

“I highly doubt that." said May who held her phone up to show us what she had been doing with it earlier, "Jonathan Lewis is a contemporary novel writer. It's highly unlikely for him to have such high valued books when most priceless literature are classical, not contemporary."

"So, they weren’t stolen after all…” Noah muttered.

"They WERE stolen, “she declared, "You heard the woman, she'd been working her for years, misplacing a book would be the last thing that could happen."

"That's what I told the other kids." the library woman interrupted.

"Of course, you did." she put her phone away and walked towards the other student council members who were helping out.

"Don't worry ma'am, we'll find those books." Noah said, trying to reassure her, I on the other hand called it BS.

He sprinted to the same place May was heading, to do what exactly? I have no idea. The student May was talking to earlier glanced at me then made a smile, guess he wants to talk to me now.

"I’m Lawrence, nice to meet you.” he greeted, holding out his right hand. Wanting to be polite I decided to introduce myself as well.

"Damis." I said with a smile.

"So… what position of the council are you in?" I asked, feeling the need to initiate small talk.

"I'm the vice president, bet I looked like an auditor or something.” he said jokingly.

"No no don't worry, you look the part." I tried to reassure him. Though I have no idea why he thinks being an auditor isn’t appealing.

"No, it’s okay. I'm aware that I'm not as smart or as good looking as the president.” he insisted.

Looks like this guy is a real downer, he just can't help deprecating himself for some reason. It’s either that or he’s just stupidly humble.

"Anyway," he said, as if he's trying to change the subject, "What's your relationship with May?" he asked, giving no underlying impression to why he asked such a question. It felt like he was just genuinely curious.

"Nothing, I barely know her.” I answered. I was thinking about saying more but I hesitated, no need to tell him what he doesn't need to know.

"Really? It's quite unusual to see May hanging out with other people, especially during a time like this.”

“Time like this?” I asked for clarification.

“When she does what she does.”

“What does she do, exactly?” I hate having to ask the second time. It makes me feel like I’m being ignored.

“The simplest way I can explain it is, she solves problems. She’s been doing this for a long time now, but this is the first time I saw her bring other people with her.”

"I can imagine why." he laughed a bit at what I said, and I let out a chuckle of my own.

"You know, I think she's changing." he whispered, "She used to be more difficult. But now she actually listens to people."

“… Really?”

I find that hard to believe.

We glanced at where May and the other council members were gathered, May stared at the empty shelf where the books were formerly located. She looked as calm as I remembered.

I tried to look for Noah and saw that he was chatting up one of the female council members, both of them enjoying each other’s company. That poor girl doesn't know what trouble she'll be into, especially after Noah gets a hold of her number.

I've known Noah to be a good looking and good guy, but his luck when it comes to romantic relationships is anything but depressing. But he's persistent, and never gives up easily. And sometimes, he just never gives up at all.

Though he may be annoying and narrow minded, his determination is a characteristic of his that I admire, and envy.

"So, how did you two meet?" he asked.

"It's a long story."

This phrase is handy.

It’s basically synonymous to “I don’t want to talk about it” or “You’re asking too much questions” or even “Do you really need to know?” It’s so overused but still reliable.

May approached one of the female council members and appeared to have said something to her, the girl then called Lawrence.

"Looks like we have a lead” he said as he sprinted to their direction.

My curiosity made me want to go and find out what their talking about so I decided to follow, after taking a few steps I felt someone walk past me from behind. Not giving it any thought, I continued to walk.

“So, what have we got?” Lawrence asked eagerly, he looked a bit excited. Probably because when this is all over they can finally leave this place.

Noticing me entering the scene May switched her attention to me then asked, “Ah, Damis, you like reading books, right?”

“Y-yeah, why?” I said, she asked so abruptly that it made me stutter.

“Have you read any of the missing books before?” she continued. The gazes of the surrounding students were fixated on me, I don’t really like this sudden wave of attention I’m getting.

“Uh, I don’t think so… I can’t remember…” I answered.

“Umm, I read one of the books” said by one of the female students at the library.

“Good, good. What was the book you read and when did you read it?” May asked, staring intently at the girl.

“Let’s see… I remember reading the invisible woman. “she answered,” I finished it just before summer break. The story was wonderful, it was about this widow who--”

“Did you notice anything weird in that book?” May interrupted, “Or something that might not supposed to be there?”

“N-no, not really-- Well, if I recall, while writing my name on the card at the back of the book I saw some numbers that seemed out of place, they looked like the dates on the calendar but for some reason the year was missing.”

“Do you remember those numbers?”

The girl held her chin while she tried hard to remember. “Two… and… twenty-nine, sorry that’s all I could remember.”

May pulled out her phone then started to mess with it.

“February twenty nine?” I asked abruptly, causing everyone’s gazes to be focused on me again, this is beginning to wear me out.

“A leap year.” said Lawrence, “It might’ve been a date for something.”

“Those numbers aren’t dates,” May declared, “Last year wasn’t a leap year. This year isn’t either.”

“Then maybe the dates were written later than that.” Lawrence suggested.

“The library lady would have replaced the cards by then. With the number of students visiting the library those tiny cards would’ve been filled with names in just months.” She took one of the cards from a random book in the shelves then showed it to everybody, trying to prove her point.

“She’s right,” The library woman added just as she walked in the scene, “that book has been pretty popular with the girls recently, I also remember changing its card once.”

“… Codes then… or some kind of cipher…” I muttered to myself.

I read something similar to this in the novel I recently borrowed from the library. There was one chapter the detectives found a small piece of paper that was slipped inside a book, and on that piece of paper were random pairs of numbers. They eventually figured it out to be a cipher and used the book itself to decode it.

“Pfft—A cipher?” Noah said as he let out a chuckle as he glanced towards me.

I didn’t expect him to hear what I said. Did I say it too loud?

“That sounds a bit farfetched.” Lawrence said doubtfully.

Now I regret even saying anything.

“Hold on, Damis might be on to something.” She replied, smiling. Lawrence and I was caught by surprise. “It could probably some kind of cipher that can be decoded using the book with the card it was written on. The first number probably indicated the page number and the second number was for the word number. Unfortunately, we only know one pair of the numbers, and the book used to decipher them is nowhere to be found. But we do know that the person who wrote those messages probably had something to do with them being stolen.”

“And how can you be so sure about that?” the girl intervened.

“That’s because I’m never wrong.” She replied with outmost confidence.

Lawrence smiled as he shrugged, “Can’t deny that.”

Well, I have to admit. From what I’ve seen, her intuition is a lot better than most people.

“So, you guys found the thief yet?” Noah suddenly whispered into my ear, catching me by surprise.

“Not yet.” I answered.

May reacted as if she noticed something, she looked around the room taking a quick glance at each person around her. She’s quite the eccentric one, isn’t she?

“One is… missing...” She muttered. Lawrence and the other student council members stared at her, confused.

“There is one person missing in this room.” May clarified.

I remembered noticing someone walk past behind me earlier.

“Someone left here a while ago. Just as I walked here earlier I felt someone walk past behind me, seemingly in a hurry.” I said, making me realize something afterwards,” Wait, did you just count every person in this room?”

“Oh, that was Margo,” The library woman replied, “She’s my assistant. She said she wanted to go to the comfort room.”

Without saying a word, May started to walk outside the library. Lawrence managed to catch up to her just before she left the room.

“Where are you going?” Lawrence asked.

“I need to go the CR.” She replied, her eyes focused on the corridor ahead.

She continued to walk to the girl’s comfort room which was just a few steps away then after checking the inside she walked back to the library.

“She wasn’t there.” She said with crossed arms.

“So, she’s the one that stole it?” I asked.

“That or she knows who did.” She answered, “Why were the numbers written on the card? If it was me I would’ve just slipped a piece of paper containing all the numbers inside the book, then I’d be able to remove it whenever I wanted. It would’ve been cleaner, right?”

“Yeah.” I replied. When you think about it, that’s the best way something like that could’ve been done. There must be a reason why it was written on the card…

“Maybe writing it on the card was the easiest way for it to be noticed.” I suggested.

“Noticed by who?” May asked as she turned towards me.

“… Probably the one who handles the books, the library woman, no, the assistant.”

Lawrence turned to face the other student council members, “Find her.”

“She shouldn’t have gone far. Message me when you find her” Lawrence said, instructing the other council members.

“I’ll help.” Noah volunteered. But I bet he just wants an excuse to leave this place.

As the students went on their way, all of us sat at one of the tables.

“How could I have let this happen?” The woman muttered, brimming with disappointment as she fixed some loose books on the shelf. “She’s my responsibility, I should’ve paid more attention to her.”

“So, where do you think the books are now?” I asked.

“No idea, we don’t even know her motive. It might not even be her at all.” May answered, staring at the distance.

“She’s always been by my side…” The library woman continued, but what she said sparked something in my head.

Always by her side, huh?

“What year is she in?” I asked, hoping to get some additional information. I felt as though I was getting myself more involved than I should. But as much as I don’t want to admit, I can’t help feeling curious about all of this.

“Oh, she’s not a student.” The woman answered frankly, “She’s works here. She started a year ago.”

May turned her attention towards the conversation.

“But the uniform…” I said, hoping to get some clarification.

“She had always been mistaken as a student due to her uniform, she often talks to me about it.”

“I did not know that.” Said Lawrence who’s dumbfounded by the revelation.

“She looks exactly like a student…” May muttered, holding her chin.

“She looked so young,” Lawrence interrupted, trying to change the subject, “attractive even, anyone could’ve mistaken her to be a student here.”

“Well of course”, the library woman replied, “she’s not that old. If I recall she’s in her twenties. Ah, I can’t help being envious myself.”

“Lawrence,” May said, staring at him, “If you didn’t know that she wasn’t a student here would you have considered asking her out? You said she was attractive, right?”

“Umm… yeah, maybe, if things had ended up that way then… I would’ve considered dating her.” He answered, a bit embarrassed by the topic.

“Then what if she never told you about not being a student here and that she was a lot older than you while you two were dating, and you ended up finding about it yourself, what would you feel?”

“How is this going to help us, exactly?” he asked.

“Just answer the question.” May declared, sternly.

“Well…” he uttered, looking away while May stared at him. What’s with all this tension in the air?

“I guess… I’d be okay with it?” he answered, shrugging.

“Ugh, why did I even consider asking you about this…?” May said, disappointed.

The conversation was interrupted by the buzzing of a phone, Lawrence took out his mobile then took a quick glance.

“They found her.”

The rest of us students walked to the school courtyard where one of the council members found the assistant sitting under one of the many trees scattered across the area. She sat beneath, on the lush green grass that grew atop the soil where the tree was planted many, many years ago.

The tree looked as old as the school itself, its thick long branches reaching as far as it can in many directions, its leaves as green as the grass beneath it, and as still as the melancholic girl who sat under the branches it grew on, hugging both of her knees as she stared at the distance, seemingly waiting for something.

We didn’t approach her immediately. Lawrence wanted this to be as chill as possible. And she didn’t seem to notice we were there.

Noah and the few council members gathered on the walkway we were hiding in, all trying to figure out the best way to handle this situation.

“Damis,” May called, “How about you go over there and talk to her for a bit?”

“Why the hell would I do that?” I debated.

“She looks rather dejected. I want you to go there and try to chat with her, make her open up. It’ll be easier to get her to talk that way. ” she argued.

“Why me of all people?”

“I don’t think she’ll talk to any of the council members. And due to my affiliation with them, I doubt she’ll open up to me.”

I looked away and tried to think about it.

To be completely honest, I’m not really good at handling people. Most of them piss me off or make me look down on humanity.

What am I supposed to say to her anyway? She doesn’t even know who I am.

“Come on Damis, she’s in a state where she’ll accept help from anyone.”

May let out a sigh, “It’s either you or Noah.”

…

I guess I have no choice then.

“I’ll try.” I slowly walked towards the assistant’s location, with each step I take I tried to think about what I’m going to do.

How am I supposed to greet her? Will she even acknowledge my presence or just ignore me altogether? Man, I’m starting to get paranoid.

I stood in front of her, no response.

I coughed as if to ready my mouth for conversation.

Just before I could say something my phone started buzzing, I took it out then checked for messages where I saw one, and it was from May. Sit next to her, it said.

Why the hell do I have to do that?

I glanced at where all of them where hiding and saw may staring at me, the way she stared at me felt the same way Mrs. Palmers stares at me when I’m on the verge of doing something irresponsible. Without much of a fight I held my forehead and decided to do as she says.

I sat beside the girl, a few meters away, avoiding the patch of dirt at the side of the tree.

I received another message from May. Sit closer, it read.

Not having much of a choice in this situation I moved closer to the female beside me, inch by inch, as if trying to avoid her notice. I stopped when there were only a few inches separating our shoulders from each other.

I just sat there, quiet. I still have no idea on what to do in this situation. Maybe an introduction would be a nice ice breaker.

Before I could twist my neck to look at her she suddenly rests her face on my shoulders as she made unintelligible noises of sadness. I felt the cloth on my shoulder moisten as her tears began to soak it.

Still, I just sat there, trying to fulfil my role as a shoulder to cry on.

She started making more weird noises, little did I know she was actually trying to talk to me though I couldn’t make out what she was saying because of her constant sniffling. With my shoulders starting to wear out I offered her a handkerchief to mush her face on which she gladly accepted.

“I… never asked for this…” she said, managing to get a hold of herself.

I waited for her to calm down before I asked the question, “Did you steal the books?” I said, trying to be as gentle as possible while trying to get a grip of the situation.

After a sniffle she replied “Yes.” I moved a few inches away from her to give her some space.

“So… why did you do it?” I asked inquiringly.

“I… I just had to.” She answered.

Seriously? That’s all I get?

Here I am sitting my butt flat on fertile dirt trying my hardest to get information from you and you won’t even give me the pleasure of knowing your motive. Why am I even here?

This is starting to wear me out. I let my thoughts drift away for a few moments, wondering what would happen if I just suddenly walked away, if I stopped talking to her altogether and just sat there all silent, what if I farted.

Damn it. Noah’s bad jokes are rubbing off on me.

“Sometimes… I wish people can choose… what they want to remember…” she muttered weakly.

If people did indeed have the ability to choose the memories they wanted to keep, life would be a bit easier.

I myself have a lot of memories I’d rather forget. And having to remember them from time to time can be excruciating to go through.

“That’d be nice…” I said, not noticing that I was thinking out loud. Feeling a bit embarrassed I glanced at her to check if she heard what I said, thank god she didn’t.

“Why?” I asked, feeling that she was beginning to open up to me and might finally provide some explanation to this mess.

Suddenly, I began to hear footsteps behind us. They became louder and louder in quick succession.

A figure of a female student stood beside me, crossing her arms as she glared.

“What’s taking you so long?” said May, she looked irritated.

“I do things at my own pace okay.” I replied. I stood up to whisper what I’m about to say to her, “I thought you were letting me handle this?” I continued.

“Well I didn’t expect you to take this long, I mean, all you had to do was ask her why she did it.”

“How about you give it a try?”

“No thanks, I find drama appalling.”

“Then what do you think I’m going through right now?”

“Did she say anything involving the missing books?”

She just ignored my question.

I let out a brief sigh, “Well, she admitted stealing them.”

“Then our job here is done.”

“Hold on, we don’t even know why she did it in the first place. We don’t even know where the books are. ”

“I would like to know about it myself but our job is to find the thief, and we found her. The council will handle the rest, and considering that she’s a faculty member, the principal and the rest of the faculty authorities will join in so there’s really no need for us now that we got a confession. ”

“Umm… excuse me,” Margo said, she stood in front of us, “I’ll go. I know that what I did was stupid, I’m ready to face the consequences for my actions.” she reached for my hand as she gave back my handkerchief, “Thank you.” She made a smile so bright I feared it might blind me though her nose was still a bit red and a few tears still linger along her eyelids.

She walked past us and headed to the direction of the council members where she apologized.

“You already know her motive, don’t you?” I asked May. She just shrugged in response.

“There are two things that can make a person do stupid things, Love and Fear.”

“How would you know that?”

“I just do. Just like how I know the bell will ring a few seconds from now.”

She walked to the covered walkway as all the others walked back inside the building. And without fail, the school bell rang, just as she predicted. To be honest, I was beginning to get sick of it.

A gentle breeze suddenly blew across the courtyard seemingly from out of nowhere, as if telling me to get a move on. And because I know better than to disobey the call of nature, I began to walk.

It’s that time again, the time where all of the stuff you learned from school all day fade to nothingness as you cherish the moments where you don’t have to sit in a room with dozens of others while all of you try to listen to a blabbering adult calling itself a teacher.

Not that I despise teachers or anything, it’s actually quite the opposite. But I was exhausted. And I tend to get irritated quicker when I’m tired.

Before leaving like all the other students I noticed Noah still on his seat messing with his phone. I found that sight unusual knowing that he has a part time job after school he should’ve left already. Before walking towards him I saw him smile at his phone. It was a sight I’m quite familiar with, and it gave me an idea on what’s going on.

“You look happy.” I said to Noah, “No work today?”

“Actually, I have a job today.” He replied, looking all smug. He stood up and continued, “A job to mend a girl’s broken heart.” He made his signature grin as he basked in his non-existent glory.

“I knew as much.” I replied, “Let me guess, she’s a member of the student council?”

“Yeah. I felt sorry for her after I noticed she was looking all depressed which was not what a girl as cute as her should be looking like, so I approached her chatted with her for a bit. Can you believe she threw away all the gifts her ex gave her? Like the clothes he bought her and even a journal that they shared with each other. When I heard that I just knew that I had to help this girl. And it looked like she was more than happy to let me help. So now, I’ve got a date. “

“Wow, you work fast.” I replied, unimpressed.

“I know right?” he replied, “Well, I got to go now, wouldn’t want her to wait.”

“Sure, good luck.” He picked up his bag and sprinted outside the room to wherever he decided to meet up with her. I looked around and noticed that I was the only student left in the room. I fixed my chair and after checking my bag, and pondering if I should put on my earphones or not, I left the room as well. By the way I decided not to wear them.

I headed to the stairs where I saw May again standing in front of the steps, waiting for someone. This time I’m sure it’s me she’s waiting for, and this time, I don’t really care anymore.

As I approached her she seemed to not notice me, mostly because she was paying attention to her phone, unsurprisingly.

“Waiting for me?”

“No, I was actually waiting for Glenn” she replied, her eyes still glued to her phone.

I started walking down the steps.

“I was also waiting for you,” She said stopping me in my tracks, “We need to talk.”

“You should’ve said that earlier then.” I replied, “You didn’t have to lie.”

“I didn’t lie when I said I was waiting for Glenn.” She clarified, “So for now, let’s wait.”

“I hate waiting.” I muttered, leaning on the same wall as she is.

“We have that in common, but patience is a valuable trait. You know the saying, ‘Good things come to those who wait.’”

“Maybe not for the prisoners waiting in death row.”

“To them, death might be the best thing that could happen. Having to wait may be worse in comparison.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You’ll never know unless you become one of them.”

We stood there, waiting.

The school was quiet. It felt like we were the no other people there other than the two students who are having a chat about death row prisoners while waiting for the student council president.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait any longer because Glenn finally blessed us with his presence coming down the flight of stairs in front of us.

“Let’s go.” Said May.

They continued to walk down the steps as I followed. I walked behind, mostly because they kept talking to each other.

It looked like they were having a serious conversation but I think I overheard something about May’s uncle and the homework she made Glenn take care of. We reached the gate where both of them parted ways.

“Take care then.” Glenn said, glancing at both of us. He went in a cab he called then left the premises, leaving me alone with May.

She began walking to my apartment’s general direction though she’s probably heading to the train station near the intersection.

We continued to walk together. She was silent as she walked, but after a few moments she finally spoke.

“So, how is it?” she asked, “The visions, I mean.”

“It’s fine. I’m fine, I mean, haven’t had one since, you know…” I answered. Then, a brief moment of silence.

She cleared her throat, then she said something I never expected to hear from her.

“Thank you.” She said, “I appreciate your help last Monday. And for that, I offer you my thanks. Although if I didn’t grab you and ran off we’d probably be dead but… you did save my life. And I’m sorry about leaving so abruptly afterwards, I had an urgent meeting that day.” She stopped and turned to face me, “If it helps, how about I buy some groceries for you as replacement for the one’s you lost?”

She’s acting a lot different this time, compared to how she acted earlier. It wasn’t bad at all, but, like all things that goes beyond my expectations, it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

“No, it’s okay. I’ve already bought some yesterday so there’s really no need.” I replied and heading to buy groceries again would be a pain at this hour.

I felt the need to change the subject, this is starting to feel weird.

“So, was the library assistant really behind the missing books?” I asked.

“What? You’re still doubting what you heard yourself?” she answered, irritably, “Well, she officially confessed stealing the books and she told us where she hid them, but in the end, she never told us why she did it in the first place.”

“At least we know she really did it I guess…” I replied, “So, where are the books?”

“While you were busy talking to that girl in the courtyard earlier did you notice something unusual?”

“Well… not really…” I tried to recall the events that occurred that time as well as the courtyard itself. Attending school there for three years made it easy for me to paint a mental picture of the place.

Then, I came to a realization. Unlike all the other trees in that courtyard, the one we were sitting on was different, more notably, the ground beneath the tree itself.

“I… we were sitting next to them the whole time.”

She smirked.

“So, they were under our asses this whole time,” I continued, “What happened to her?”

“She was let off with a warning, though things might have ended differently if the books were never found. The head librarian backing her up helped a lot in her case.”

“Still… to go to such lengths as to bury those books inside school property, what could’ve pushed her to do such a thing?”

“I already told you, remember? Although she never told us her motive I already came up with a theory as to why she did it, but it’s only a theory. Without hearing it from her we can never be sure.”

“Has it something to do with love and fear?” I suggested, after recalling what she told me earlier.

“Probably.”

…

“So… are you going to tell me or what?”

“I’ll just leave it to your imagination.”

“Hey, you’re seriously not going to tell me?”

“Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about” she said, “I wanted to tell you this during the first time we met but I’ll just do it now.” She stopped in her track just as we arrived the intersection.

“I have a proposal. I wanted you to come to the student council office and join me for a reason. I wanted to show you what I do and how I do them.”

“Okay…” I said, feeling confused. She let out a sigh.

“I want you to help me, and I’ll help you in return.”

“Help me?”

“Your visions.” She said, “I can help you learn more about them, how to control them, maybe even remove them completely. You’ve seen what I can do, I’m sure I can help you with whatever that is.”

I can’t deny being amazed by her quick wit, deductive reasoning, and her reliable intuition. But compared to what happened during our first day of class and our recent trip to the library, my visions are on a league of its own.

“And I’ll help you with solving problems in return? What do you even do exactly?”

“You’ve been studying in this school for quite a long time now so I’m sure you’re familiar with the student council’s advocacy, right? The student council promises to help any student in need, no matter what the problem may be. But, even though the council is built up by hardworking students who are more than capable of managing student affairs, they are not perfect. When a problem arises that even the mighty few cannot solve, they consult the one student who can. At least, that’s what they did at first. But now they decided to let me handle everything directly. They even offered me a spot in the council but I thought it was far too—”

“Social?” I interrupted, I didn’t even notice saying it out loud.

I continued, “I find it hard to believe that you’d agree to help in the first place.”

“I wasn’t doing it for free. Of course. At first, they offered to do some of my homework and take-home activities for me which they still do up to this day but, I found the job to be quite enjoyable. Well, at least it used to be.”

I imagined it’d be enjoyable for her.

She looks like the type of person who always wants to do something yet doesn’t want to do everything.

For someone like her who has a distant and discreet demeanor, doing the stuff she does fulfils a purpose. Whatever purpose it may be.

“Anyway, what do you want to do about that murderer?” I asked recalling our conversation on the rooftop days ago.

“Murderer?”

“You know, the one you told me to help you find? Honestly, I don’t even know why the hell you’d want to find one.”

She held her chin as she tried to remember, “Oh, don’t worry about that. I just used it to get more information.”

“You mean it was a lie? Why’d you even think mentioning a murderer was a good idea?”

“Look, I really don’t like explaining everything I do, I want you to remember that. Because starting tomorrow we’ll be working together.”

“Hold on, I don’t remember agreeing to this.”

“Come on, I know you want to get rid of those visions of yours. Having it made you what you are today. A pathetic, weak willed, lazy waste of space radiating with hate for the world.”

I clenched my fists with anger, though I wasn’t ready to stoop low enough to hit a girl.

I wasn’t angry because of her searing personal insults. I was panicking to the point of anger, because she was able read me my like a book. Those were the last words I wanted to hear.

May notices this and changed her expression, “Insulting you wasn’t my intention.” She said, she lowered her head and took a deep breath, “Let me ask you this. Are you satisfied with living your life the way it is? Because during all the time I’ve been observing you, it’s as if you’ve always lived with regret. And to be honest, I’d go as far as to say that you’re whole being is so appalling that just being around you drains me.” The way she spoke was full of emotion in contrast to her normal calm demeanor, as if she was scolding me.

She let out one more sigh, “Help me, then I’ll help you. I’ll let you think about it.” She said, “I just hope you do actually give it a thought.”

“Wait. I just want to clear up something. Did you really stalk me this past year?” I asked her just before she went to cross the intersection.

“I did.” She answered, with not even a glance she crossed the intersection.

I stared at her as she disappeared in the crowds of crossing people. And to my surprise, one of the crossing pedestrians was Noah, and he was alone. He began walking towards me.

“Yo… so a new noodle shop just opened around the corner,” he said. He looked as happy as always but I knew him long enough to realize what happened.

“Let’s eat.” I replied.

We headed to the newly opened noodle shop near an old pawnshop and bought a pair of noodles.

They were good.

Good enough to waste my money on.

As we ate I recalled everything May told me earlier. What was that all even about? I know we’ve been in the same class for years now but how can she even yell at me like that? Why did I just let her yell at me like that? And I still haven’t gone over the fact how she went as far as too bring me along with her just to convince me about working with her.

The way she scolded me earlier, she was really into it. And for some odd reason, maybe it was the way she articulated her words but, the way she said it felt like I was talking to another person, almost as if she was only relaying some message.

“Looks like you’re thinking about a lot of things again.” Noah said.

“Same as always, I guess.” I replied before taking a forkful of noodles into my mouth.

“I bet it has something to do with May.”

“Hey, if you start prying I’m gonna ask about that student council girl.”

“Okay okay, I kid.” Noah held his hands up with a nervous smile, “I don’t even want to talk about it. Anyway, what do you think about this new shop?”

“You said this shop was new but, the noodles here taste’s familiar.”

“I knew you’d say that.” He said with a grin, “We ate here on our first year of high school, remember?”

“Isn’t that the noodle shop near the city’s park?”

“Apparently, they’ve moved their establishment here near the train station. That’s why it looks a lot different.”

“Why would they even do that? I thought being near the park was a good spot.”

“I have no idea.” Noah said as he laid down his utensils beside the empty bowl, “Maybe they thought it was about time for a change of scenery?

A change of scenery, huh…

“I think as a business, it’ll allow them to grow more. Then again, they might’ve left because the rent became too high.”

“Well, the reason why I never went back there was because it got too crowded.” I replied, finishing off my bowl of noodles, “So it might be a good thing.”

“You still hate being in crowds, do you? I thought you would’ve grown out of that mind set by now.” said Noah.

“For the record, I don’t hate being in crowds, it just makes me feel uncomfortable.”

After all, the more people I see, the more nervous I get about seeing a person’s death.

Hearing a truck pass by, the both of us turned towards the shop’s window to the right.

“It’s getting dark out,” said Noah, “I heard it’s going to rain tonight.”

That’s unfortunate.

I didn’t have an umbrella with me, and I doubt Noah has one too.

“We better get going then.”

As we finished our meals we went on our separate ways.

And as I walked back to my apartment, I took out my phone.

Chapter End