And Then There Was Lathlynn

Chapter One: The Flyer



You see, I'm not the kind of person who gets involved with people, the friends thing hasn't been working for me. I'm the kind of girl who walks down the ditch and sticks her head in a book. I go to school and go home. I'm not invited to that girl's party that apparently everyone knows, I'm not pushed to be in clubs or to join sports or anything. But one day, that's all it takes, a flyer went out about a book club...



A smile instantly came to me, although it didn't shine through in any way. I had never been so excited and happy. The flyer said, "Do you like to read books? Then guess what! There is a club for you! Come join us after school Wednesday in the library for a meeting and a schedule for more gatherings and a list of books to read. Thank you." I guess I found it odd that they had a list of books they wanted us to read but I figured 'why not? it's the first thing this school has that I like.'



I went home and put the flyer on the fridge with a magnet for my mom to take a look at it without me saying something to her. Down the hall I went, away from the kitchen, and into my dark room that my little sister insists I paint a bright pink. I sink down into my bed into my dark blue blankets. I grab my small flashlight and the book off my bedside table and hide under the blankets.



"Lathlynn!" I hear my name a few more times and after that finally crawl out from the blankets. I turn the light off on the flashlight and used it as a bookmark for my book. I glanced up at the digital clock sitting on my dresser and see that it's 6:27 and now know that my mom is home. My hand grabs the cold doorknob and I turn it and walk out into the living room.



There sitting on our leather couch was my mom and younger sister, Rose. My mom has a grin on her face, showing her dimples, and making these bags under her eyes that she normally doesn't have because her skin is so perfect. Rose is sitting on the couch next to her peeking over at the flyer in my mom's hands.



"Yes mom?" At those two words my mother's face came up and she looked at me, yet no words came out of her mouth. Rose looked up at me too, for some reason her smile annoyed me.



No one was talking so I said, again, "Yes, mom?" I think my mom noticed I was getting impatient.



"Oh, what is this?" She said finally. I don't understand why she asked me this, she read it and the flyer says exactly what it is.



"That's for the book club." I thought it was obvious.



"Lathy's a nerd!" Rose shouted out with that little high pitched voice of a 2nd grader.



I rolled my eyes at her and looked at my mom and waited for her to say something. If I didn't have control over myself I would've yelled at Rose and maybe even hit her.



My mom's eyes rolled also, and she pointed her finger at Rose and I watched as her dark brown eyes widened and her eyebrows rose up. That meant, "You've stepped out of line, get back in the box."



I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and thought I'd end the conversation. "Yeah, uhm, I was planning on joining the club..." After I said this I slowly began turning my self so I could remove myself from the openness of the living room.



"Well, that's wonderful! You know this would be a great opportunity for you to meet new people, make some friends." My mom's smile got bigger and the one I felt inside faded.



With a smirk on her chubby-cheeked face, Rose stated, "Who would wanna be friends with Lathy!? She's weird and quiet and doesn't like color!"



My mom scolded her. You shouldn't say that, were her words. That's not nice, followed right after. I would've said the same thing about myself. I am weird and quiet and don't like colors, not bright colors at least. It's not like she's lying. But, I know that her saying that was mean, it's hurtful, and that's just another thing I'm gonna keep to myself.



"So, it says to come to the library Wednesday after school, I was gonna go. I'll just walk home like I always do whenever it's over." I began biting the inside of my lip. I felt uncomfortable and just wanted to leave. "If that's all, then I think I'm gonna go ahead and go back to my room."



I turned around and left without waiting for a response. I went down the the hallway walking on the cold wood floor and into my warm dark room where I wanted to stay for the rest of the day.



"Lathlynn.." I hear my name a few more times after this but I don't go. Why should I? So my sister can insult me and I can see my mom give her evil eyes? No, it's just not worth it. My room is quiet and relaxing and I feel most happy when I'm hiding under my blankets with my small flashlight and book.



After awhile of being under the blankets I realize how late it must be and I'm still in my jeans. I crawl out from my bed and go to my dresser. The drawer on the bottom has my sweats and t-shirts. It's also the hardest drawer to open. I opened the drawer anyway and I pulled out the first sweats I saw and the t-shirt on top. I quickly undressed, throwing my jeans and my navy blue sweater in the basket, and then sliding into my baggy, black sweats and pine-tree green t-shirt that said, "Save the forest." I was ready for bed.



I crawled back into my bed, of course grabbing the flashlight and my book, and then that was it. The last thing I remember was reading, "...watching the boy through slitted yellow eyes while he ventured among the headstones. It kept..." and then it was dark.



Chapter Two: To The Library



The clock on the wall says 2:25. I'm waiting for the bell to ring so I can dash out of the classroom and speed walk my way down to the library.



I can't help but wonder who's going to be there. Who else besides me loves to read so much that they'd show up? What are the going to look like? Will I be forced to read with someone? I don't think me being partnered up with someone is a good idea. I'm just feeling so anxious.



A voice comes on the intercom just as the clock says 2:27. A lady's voice says, "Sorry for the interruption, but I have some afternoon reminders..." Oh, one of these. She goes on to talk about basketball practice being canceled and tryouts for spelling bee and something about the swim team. But then she says, "Also, just a reminder, there will be a meeting held here in the library for the book club. Thanks and have a good day."



The clock now says 2:29. My eyes refuse to move from the clock as I wait for the time to change. In one minute I'll be free from this room and will finally see this book club I've been getting all nervous for.



DING! DING! DING! At last, the sound of the bell is displayed all throughout the school for us junior high kids to hear.



As I stand up from my desk I drop my pencil which for some reason I hadn't put away. I bent down to get my pencil but just as my hand was going to grab the orange colored piece of wood I see someone else's hand. The hand was much bigger than mine.



Who's ever hand it was picked up my pencil and then we both stood up. Not only did this boy have big hands but he was very tall. He had short dark brown hair and hazel eyes that seemed to fit perfectly on his suntanned skin. He began smiling at me and I soon realised that his teeth were a bright white but yet crooked.



I put my hand out for my pencil, I should already be at the library. He gave me my pencil, I said thanks and walked out of the classroom.



It's a long walk to the library from Mr. Wilson's classroom. My school doesn't really have halls, so I'm walking outside. There are these plants along the way that smell funny and make me sneeze. I walk past them as fast as I can hoping not to get even a little bit of the giant poofy's plant smell.



"Achoo! Achoo!" I sneezed twice and both times my head went forward throwing my long brown hair in the air.



"Bless you!" I hear a boy's voice say from what sounded like behind me. I turned around.



It was him, the boy from class.



"Oh, thanks.." For some reason I felt under attack, like I was being pressured into doing something I really didn't want to do.



The tall boy caught up to me and smiled, revealing the bright crooked teeth I wasn't looking forward to seeing again.



"My name's David, I've seen you in class... a lot." Now I know the tall boy's name.



I felt that his statement was stupid. I'd assume he's seen me in class a lot; I'm not invisible and school has been going on for about four months now. That's when I say, "Oh... I don't really think I've ever seen you."



He put his head down, as if he was embarrassed. Maybe he was disappointed? It's not like I lied to him; I don't really pay too much attention to the people in my classes, none of them have ever talked to me before.



"Really?" David's eyebrows are bushy yet not too bushy as they move displaying his confusion.



I'm thinking, yes really. If he could be listening to my thoughts, these sentences running through my head, he'd understand that friends aren't really on my to do list. He'd also realise that him talking to me is making me feel uncomfortable.



Just as I'm about to tell him that I'm not a people person and to stop talking he opens his mouth and begins talking again.



"So, Lathlynn, right? Where are you headed?" The tall boy knows my name and now he wants to know where I'm going.



I suppose it can't hurt telling him even though he's slowed me down by trying to speak with me. "I'm going to the library.."



"Awesome! Do you mind if I tag along?" His smile got really big, giving him the same dimples and bags my mom get except his are boyish unlike my mom's.



I nod, but don't talk. That's how I want it to stay for the rest of the walk. I know the library is no longer far away, only a few seconds and I'll be pulling the cold metal handle from the door.



David and I reach the door's handle at the same time and for a second our hands touched. It gave me a chill up my arm and down my spine straight into my stomach. I pulled my hand away from the handle and he opened the heavy door for me.



I love the feeling of being in the library. It's my second favorite place to be, if I'm by myself that is. All the books; I can just see the words running out of from the pages and all around the room; words of many great authors going past my eyes.



There is a group of kids gathered together in a circle on the blue carpet, ten to be exact. One of them is tapping her fingers repeatedly. Over and over again her finger hits the floor. Another kid, who's hair looks like it is drenched in grease, is humming to a song that sounds familiar but I can't remember what it is. Then, at the corner of my dark brown eyes, I see Mrs. Keller, the librarian.



Using her hands, Mrs. Keller motions for David and I to come and join the circle they have created. I almost want to ask if I have to sit on the floor with people I don't know, and who appear gross to me, but I decided against it.



David and I joined the circle. To the left of me was a kid who's teeth were yellow and who's breathe smelled like onions. He had a white button shirt on with these greenish khaki pants and his shoes were black leather shoes like the kind my dad would wear at funerals. This boy makes me feel even more uneasy than David does, especially with him smiling at me and practically breathing on my neck.



I look over and on my right is the girl who won't stop tapping. Now that I'm closer I see that she has fat fingers, and with a sick mind I can't help but think she's trying to help her fingers lose some weight. Also, I notice that that rest of her has accumulated a little bit of chubbiness as well, but it doesn't look bad.



You can hear Mrs. Keller's feet in her little red flats coming around the circle to a spot almost exactly across from me.



Mrs. Keller takes a spot in the circle and with her little blue eyes she scans each of us. As she does this, the humming stops. I find it weird that just as the boy stopped, I knew what song it was.



When her eyes went past me I felt like she knew me. It was like, all of a sudden I no longer needed to tell her who I was and what I was like. She had somehow looked right into me, reading my thoughts and seeing all my memories. And this might sound weird, but it was like Mrs. Keller shrunk herself and jumped inside my brain and looked through the filing cabinets inside that held all my information.



"There are twelve of you. That's more than I was expecting!" Mrs. Keller has a smile so big that these lines like parenthesis start coming from her mouth.



"Well, we're going to around the circle and everyone is going to tell us their name and what grade they're in." She points to the boy next to her so we know who's starting and in which direction the names are going.



"My name in Jared and I'm in the eighth grade." He was very quiet and actually sounded nervous.



"I'm Karen, and I'm in the seventh grade." She wasn't much louder than Jared, but she was louder.



"Hi, I'm David and I'm in the eighth grade." I hadn't even noticed where David had decided to seat himself.



Another boy, the boy with greasy hair, is next. While he talks I count how many people are before me and I realize that I only have two more kids to go. Because I did this, I don't know the boys name, but I know it starts with an L.



"My name is Mandy and I'm in the seventh grade." I liked the way she talked, it was cute and made me think of a mouse..



"Hi everyone, my name is Gerald and I'm in the eighth grade." I wonder if the little girl Mandy got a whiff of his gross oniony breathe too.



All of a sudden eyes start looking at me and I know why.



"I'm Lathlynn and I'm in the eighth grade." All while I said this a little voice in my head was screaming and if that little voice was a one of the people in my head I'd say that she was running around, too. After I said this my heart was pounding so loudly inside me I wondered if others could hear it.



"My name is Cynthia and I'm an eighth grader." When she said that her fingers stopped tapping, but as soon as she finished it started up again.



Alyssa, Mark, Christopher, and Lauren. Christopher and Mark were both eighth graders and Lauren and Alyssa were in the seventh grade.



Mrs. Keller got up and went to her desk, which is on the other side of the room.



As soon as she was "out of range" people started talking to one another. I didn't want to have a conversation with any one here so I was just going to wait until Mrs. Keller came back to do anything.



All around the circle was someone laughing and someone smiling, like they all knew each other. Was I really the only one here who had nothing to do with people?



David's voice is loudest; the sound of his voice is for some reason the one I hear. His voice is not quite deep, but it isn't high either. Every other word it cracks and you hear this little squeak. after it would squeak he'd clear his throat as if that was really the problem and he'd start over talking again.



"Uhm, Lathlynn, so, how long have you been going here?" That's Gerald.



Actually, I find his question a little bit degrading. The last time someone asked me this it was one of my teachers and it was during the middle of the year, he thought I was new.



"Well, I came here last year.. and so this is my second year.." I don't want to talk with him.



"Oh, okay, well, I've never seen you before" Thanks a lot, I think.



I look at the clock hanging up over the door that I came in through. It's almost four.



Mrs. Keller finally comes back and everyone gets quiet. She's holding papers and even though I can't see what they are I know what they are.



"What's that you got in your hands Mrs. Keller?" Mandy's cute little mouse voice is once more in the air, traveling to all our ears.



"Good question Mandy." Mrs. Keller stops to smile at her. "What I have here are the lists of books you guys will all need to read and your schedules for the rest of this semester and next semester."



She hands one set of papers to Christopher and the other to Mark.



Mark hands me the paper with the book's we need to read. All they want us to read is 27 books. I'm not too sure why it's twenty-seven because that's an odd number. Should I ask why that specific number was picked or should I wait?



Christopher gives me the schedule. No more meetings this week. There are three meetings the week afterwards, though, and the same for the next three weeks. There is not any meetings the week of the seventeenth, and I assume it's because that's our last week til winter break.



"Alright, does everyone have two sheets of papers?" Mrs. Keller waits for a response and when she gets none, she continues. "Okay, good. We don't have all the books on the list and so the first five at the top that I put in bold letters you guys will need to find on your own." I zone out, only hearing every other word she says.



People go to the other paper so I do the same so it'll look like I'm aware of what's going on.



"Okay, it's four-thirty now so, I'll see you guys next week." And that's our cue to get out of the library so she can lock up and home to the life that I'm sure must be better than sitting in a room with kids.



I leave as fast as I can.





Chapter Three: Going Home



Out the big metal doors, through the courtyard and leaving by the main gates of the school. I hear the sound of the other kids trailing behind me. Then my hands instinctively goes up to my face to move the hair that fell out from my ponytail back behind my ears.



Even though I'm walking I get to the bike path to begin my venture home.



One drop. Then two drops hit my face. It's raining.



Here I am walking in the cold rain and everyone one else is in a nice warm car where they'll stay dry. The cars drive past me, and I see faces looking out at me.



"Hey! Lathlynn! Wait up!" It sounds like David.



Don't look back, I think. Don't look back and he'll know you're not interested. Just keeping walking and he won't follow you.



I looked back. My feet stopped and I waited for David. What was I doing? What made me think I should do this? It was like I did it out of instinct.



David, because he's wearing his backpack, does a very strange run to catch up to me. His legs are so long, not like twigs but rather small branches. Also, as he runs toward me I notice his hair and how some of it moves up and back. David looks perfect, even with these odd things about him.



Why me? I think of when Rose said, "Who would wanna be friends with Lathy? She's quiet and weird and doesn't like colors." Her question echoes in my head. Who would want to be friends with Lathy? Who would want to be friends with me?



"Hey, I didn't know that you were a walker." David is smiling at me again. His teeth are so crooked.



"Yeah, I've been waking ever since my dad left." I didn't say this, but I have been walking to and from school all while I have been here. Two years.



"Oh, sorry... how long ago was that?" I began feeling intruded.



Sirens are going off inside my brain and there are people running around, screaming. They're telling me that if I tell him then I am now open to being hurt, that I am open to him using me. It's like, they've locked the cabinet that stores that information and they've begun barricading is so I can't get to it, so I can't tell him. In my mind I see one worker, a man in white, this man is me, he goes right through the barricade and without a key pulls the cabinet drawer out. His hand grabs the yellow envelope that hides the paper that says, "My dad left two years ago."



They try to stop him before he gets to this computer that will send the words off to my mouth but they're too slow. He's inserted the piece of paper in what looks like a shredder, but it scans it, and soon enough I feel the words making their way up my throat and out my light pink lips.



"My dad left two years ago." After all that commotion inside of me, I say it.



Many of the people throw their hands in the air, and cover their faces. They shake the man, me, who let this happen. They say, What have you done? What are you going to do now?



"Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry for that." David doesn't seem like he'd blackmail me, so why are the tiny people inside me freaking out? Why am I freaking out?



"It's okay, not your fault.." How is it I go on in life without screaming if I got all that going on up there?



"Yeah, but I was... what do you call it?" He paused. I didn't know what word he was aiming for, but he wasn't going to rest til he shot it with an arrow and yelled it out to this small world.



David began mumbling to himself. He was talking to him self, saying, "Is it this? No.. What about this.. no."



"Were you sympathizing with me?" Where did this come from? I had never used this word before.



His hazel eyes grew and his bushy, but not too bushy, eyebrows rose up high into his forehead. I could see his crooked teeth again.



"Yes! That's the word! You're a really smart girl, you know



that?" David, the tall boy with crooked teeth, has complemented me without hesitation.



"I guess so..." I stop and think, manners Lathlynn, don't forget about your manners. "Thank you."



"Oh, you're welcome!" David is very happy. All I did was guess a word he wanted to use.



I'm a quiet person, like my sister says. I don't know how to keep conversations going, but I know how to get out of them.



"Where you headed?" David asked this question when we were walking to the library. It sounded exactly like how he said it then, too.



The people in my head began freaking out again. They don't want me to tell him. I see chains on the cabinet holding my address. There are guards with rifles standing in front. The man in white is strapped to a chair. I'm not getting that information.



Just as I'm going to tell David, I don't want to tell him, the man in white, me, gets out. He runs past the guards and he's tugging and pulling at the chains the others have so cleverly put on.



The chain breaks.



The man in white, opens the drawer and looks through some papers and then he sticks his head up and runs toward the computer.



There are too many people there, how will he get the words to my mouth?



The man in white does something, something I couldn't quite see, and the paper goes through the scanner.



I feel the words climbing up to my tongue and reaching my teeth.



"I live down Melinda Road. It's in the Michaelson houses." I can't help but wonder how long it took to get those ten words out.



"Oh, no way! I live down Lucinda Road, right after that one. Maybe... I can walk you home?" How ironic that he loves so close that he can walk me home.



"Sure." The people in my head bring a hand to their foreheads and look at the white man with evil eyes.



"Ha, cool.. So.." David had lost his words. He had them on the tip of his tongue but they fell off and now the people in his head needed to resend them.



I want to say something, but the people in my head are just sitting around in different chairs and against different walls. The white man, me, doesn't know where to look to find these words. Without my people, I am blank.



"So, do you like poetry?" David found his words.



A smile grows inside me. I love poetry.



"Yeah, I love poetry." The man in white is really winging it right now.



"Oh, that's awesome! Me too." David had those dimples and bags that I'm not used to seeing very often.



"Ha, thanks?" I laughed.



The people inside me jump to their feet. All of their eyes have widened so much that they could fall out. Even the man in white is surprised. I'm surprised.



David looks at me and smiles. He was already smiling, a lot, but this smile was different. This smile was for me.



"You've got a cute laugh. I wish I could hear you laugh more." David complemented me again.



I get a strange feeling in my head, my heart is loud. My cheeks feel warm, and the people in my head say, "She's... blushing..."



"Thank you, I'd laugh more if I had reasons to." The man in white looks tired, he's the only one working.



"Well, Lathlynn, there are plenty if reason to laugh. Like, when your little brother or sister gets in trouble, or they've got food all over their face and they won't listen to you and people see them like that. You laugh when your friends do something stupid, or when you do something stupid." The people in David's head had a lot of words to send.



"I don't find my sister funny... and I don't have any friends." Good job man in white.



I notice that it's not raining anymore, and that we've almost reached the end of the side walk where I can take the ditch that's behind my house.



When the sidewalk ends, you can either keep walking on dirt until you reach the corner or you can take the ditch which will conveniently get you into the neighborhood with being by road with cars.



"Oh, really? But, you're so fun to be around. Does no one really not talk to you?" David looks shocked. He expected a lot out of me.



"Yeah, you're the first person to really talk to me and treat me like.. a real per..son." My head turns away at those last few words. And now in front of David I would show him that I was sad.



The people in my head cover their eyes, some of them have covered their mouth, and the man in white sits in front of the computer, weeping. These people in my head let these words come out without their consent, they let me talk and say something that hurt me.



People wearing dark blue clothes, like the color of my blankets, come marching into the room of my people. They pick up, and pull away my people. It looks like the people in blue are police officers and they have just arrested my people for a crime, the crime of letting me break.



After all my people are gone, one of the men in blue tries to pull away the man in white. The man in white won't move. My people have also broken him.



A tear rolls down my cheek and then falls off my my chin and hits the ground. Another one, now from the left side, follows.



He came closer and held me and I put my head into his chest and cried. I had a friend, and he didn't seem fake. He didn't seem like he'd blackmail me or just leave me.



"Do you promise to always be my friend?" We stopped walking and without caring about the backpacks on our backs, he just held me and I had my small arms around his skinny body. I had taken my crying face out of his chest and looked up at him when I said this.



David looked down at me and smiled, a small smile, and said "Lathlynn, I promise to be here for ever, if you want me too."



I continued looking up at him, into his beautiful hazel eyes. I ignored the cars passing through and the people inside who would be staring.



The corners of my light pink lips began to curl up at the ends.



I smiled.



New people began coming into my head at the command of the one man in blue. These new people did not look anything like the people I was so used to seeing. The new people wore a leafy green suit.



The man in white was no longer crying. He was sitting up, wearing the same smile I just put on.



We began walking on, and David had stayed close to me by keeping an arm around me. Soon, the path would end and I'd ask to take a shortcut to my house.



There's the ditch. If I don't talk now, we'll pass it and have to go the long way.



"Hey, can we take the ditch?" I said before we passed it.



"Sure." When he said this he pulled me a little bit closer with the one arm he had around me. It was his left arm.



After we pass the house with a dog so big you'd think it was a bear, there is a break in between the houses that I go through to get on my street.



I realize that he doesn't know about the dog. What if it scares him? I wonder if I should tell him.



Too late. We're here at the house with the dog.



It doesn't jump. I don't even hear him coming to the fence.



I lead David through the break and were in my neighborhood, on a sidewalk full of cracks.



"Only a few more houses.." I said to him.



"Okay.." He sounded sad.



361, 360, and then 359.



He walks me up to the door. His hand went up to wave, but I didn't want him to just wave.



I went up on my tippy toes and put my arms around his neck an hugged him. He completed the hug by putting his arms around me, again ignoring the backpack.



"Bye Lathlynn, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" He smiled. I nodded. He walked away.



Slowly, I turned around and stuck my key in the keyhole. I opened the door and saw Rose sitting on our leather couch eating pizza.



I was home.





Chapter Four: Quite A Bit Of Mulling



I stepped inside. Rose didn't really acknowledge my presence; just a little glance up from a TV screen with that sponge on it. Where had she gotten pizza from? Maybe mom bought some and I didn't know because I don't talk to her much..



I tugged on the door a little bit and locked it. Then I made my way straight down the hall and into my room. An instant rush of warmth spread all over me when I stepped into my room.



There I stood, silencing myself, soaking up the warmth my room was glad to share with me. My bones loved it. And even more so when my bag came off my shoulders and onto the floor next to my night stand. In a mere three seconds my small flimsy body came crashing down into my bed making the springs sound. More warmth, really making my body heat up, but I wasn't minding it. For some reason what may have bothered others felt absolutely wonderful to me.



My eyes wandered the walls, but found themselves stuck studying the patterns on my oh-so plain white ceiling. I soon found myself squinting, trying to see something formed by the bulged out lines. My heart beat a little faster as the image I looked at soon reminded me of my tall, bright crooked teeth friend.



Why is it David was appearing in the patterns on my ceiling? These new people must have snapped a picture of him so that now I can see him without him being here.



Quickly, I blinked my eyes to get the image of David out of my system and off my ceiling. It didn't belong there. Although, as my eyes closed his image still appeared, distorted and dim. Were my people trying to tell me something? Maybe he's being stuck in front of my eyes for a reason.



Not too long after this, I began mulling over David. Why had he all of a sudden begun talking to me? Since when does he walk home? How come he was able to break down the wall I had spent so long stacking up? Why did he want to be my friend? What made him think he should be giving me those cheesy smiles?



Too many questions. I've got to slow down and pick a topic before my mind blows.



So, why did he just now start talking to me? Was there motive? Was he going to use me? Or worse, was he stalking me and just now reached that step in his plan where he finally talks to me?



My eyes widened at the thought of David being a stalker. It was an awkward thought to have and made me rethink being his friend. Also, I realized I was still asking too many questions.



Mentally, I slapped myself. David is not a stalker, I reassured myself. I mean, why would he be?



I sat up and moved the falling hair out of my face, and as I did so I felt sweat on my forehead. Instantly my hand went back to my forehead to feel it, then feeling my cheeks. Maybe I should get a cold rag or something to cool me down. I'd never felt this warm and uncomfortable in my room before.



The new people in my head were blowing on that computer they had. It was as if, when I began over thinking the computer began over heating, thus creating the (literally) hot mess I am right now.



My eyes ventured to the clock on my dresser. 5:28 beamed from the boxy little space the numbers were allowed. Then my eyes looked down, just a bit, at the drawer with my shorts and more breezy shirts. Anything right now to cool me down was needed.



As I got up, the room I was in turned black for a few seconds, then a little fuzzy. My head had an unusual banging going on and my legs felt wobbly. Had I just gotten up too fast? I stumbled over to my dresser and my hands gripped tightly onto the top; an attempt to give my legs a moment to gain confidence and not let this 95 pound body fall simply to my bedroom floor. The totally lifeless dresser had somehow managed to keep me up.



I patted the wood, giving it my thanks. My hand reached down and pulled out the drawer. As if as race, my hands grabbed shorts and then a loose fitting top. The shirt had a panda lying down hugging bamboo with little z's going from the mouth that would always be open. My shorts were, oddly enough, shorts with a bamboo pattern. I must have actually matched things when putting my clothes away.



The grey long sleeve I was wearing was beginning to be pulled off my body by own hands, but I stopped at my neck. I then pulled the shirt, I so badly wished to get off, back down to cover my stomach once more. I tucked my change of clothes under my arm and left the room.



The hallway was so much cooler than my room. I took a few seconds to just breathe, and then I went to mom's bedroom. Her room is right across from my own.



Once in her room a sudden rush of lavender invaded my nose. I hated lavender. But, I was going to use her shower so I briskly adjusted to it. I was only using her shower because the other one is in a bathroom right near the front door, across from the living room. My mom's shower was just tons more comfortable to me.



Once inside my mom's restroom, I very happily stopped off the clothing that were beginning to suffocate me. I really could not take the heat at the moment.



My hand reached in the shower, going to the little faucet handle. At the turn of my first, water came spraying out from the shower head. My hand moved from the knob to the water, checking it's temperature. As much as I wished to cool off, I did not want to freeze. Without hesitation, my body moved itself into the running water.



It felt amazing. Warm water, in a lovely massaging pattern, hit my back. Truly, it was quite soothing.



Shampoo. Rinse. Shampoo again. Rinse. Conditioner. And then one more rinse. I didn't get out just yet, though. I wanted to stand there for only a little longer to soak up the water. My eyes closed, and once more an image of David was plastered up in my mind. I turned the water off and got out.



Hastily, I grabbed a towel hanging and dried my body which was now wishing I had grabbed sweats and a sweater. The water left on my bare body gave me chills up and down my spine, through my bones and into my toes. I don't think I could've put clothes on any faster than the way I did. I bent down, letting my hair hang, then wrapped my hair up in the same towel I used to dry off. It was white. Before in left back to my room I made sure to grab my dirty clothes off the floor.



I tossed the clothes into my hamper and looked at my clock. 5:41; my mom should be getting home soon. Until then, though, I would enjoy myself in once more loving the warmth coming off my room. My bed beckoned me to crash into it, like earlier, and soak up the warmth it had to offer. It's call was strong. My body was pulled to it like I was a bobby pin getting picked up by a magnet.



Now in my shorts, the warmth my bed gave me really did welcome me into a wonderful, dazed trance. Yet, my trance was disturbed by foot cramping. The pain from my toes curling up like they did made my eyes water and hands spring forward to massage the aching muscle.



It felt like an eternity to have my foot cramping like that. There was something I was sure of at this point. I was not going to relax for the rest of the hour.



Carefully, as to not cause a relapse with my foot, I stood up and went to my bag. Next thing you know, I back sitting on my bed staring at the list the librarian gave us during that meeting.



Nine books. That's how many I had already read. Plus, i was sure I owned quite a few of these.



I let out a long sigh, one that felt it needed to be released. After letting it out I felt better but still awkward and clammy. My stomach would be growling at me soon and I didn't want to be out when my mom got home.



Forgetting about my foot, which was now feeling a bit sore, I made my way out of my bedroom and into the kitchen. The floor was cold, but the fridge was even colder. My eyes caught glimpse of some pizza on a plate with a note that said Lathlynn on it. I assumed that meant they were mine. The second my hands got hold of the fridge-cold plate I heard the door open.



"Hey girls, I'm home." My mom's voice sounded shaky with excitement. The fridge door closed, and I inched my way out of the kitchen, to the living room. My mom stood there in front of the door, a smile wide across her face, and a tall man next to her.