Lost and Found

Finding Friends

There's half an hour before I have to go downstairs for the welcome speech and dinner. I've finished unpacking and decide to try out the window benches by sitting down and staring out to the view. My room looks out onto the beautiful gardens at the rear of the school; large stretched-out lawns with a grand fountain in the middle, a fire pit off to one side, a greenhouse on the other, and many flower beds and benches. This is definitely where I'm going to be spending most of my time, I decide.

The door gets pushed open again, and Asher walks in, but this time with a girl, who I assume is Saffi. She's petite with long, dark brown curls and dark brown eyes. She catches my eye and smiles,"Miyah?"

"Yeah, Saffi?"

"Yep! So nice to meet you, and I think you've already met Asher..." she smiles and nudges Asher's arm gently. "I'm glad you've unpacked. I actually came to see if you wanted to explore with us? I think we've got like twenty-five minutes before dinner." She checks her watch and then looks back up to me anticipating my answer.

"Oh, that would be great," I sigh a sigh of relief internally. My roommate and her assumed boyfriend seem lovely, and I can get to know the building a little better with them.

So the three of us walk around the building, pointing out the lecture theatres we'll be in, homerooms, kitchens, the dining hall and toilets before Saffi stops in her tracks, "Ugh, I totally forgot I said I'd help Aimee and Professor Mason stock up the supply closet! Are you alright to show Miyah the library, Asher? I think it's that way" she pointed down the long corridor that seemed to go on forever.

"Yeah, that's fine; you go help,"

"Thank you, see you both at dinner," and she runs the opposite way down the corridor, leaving me alone again with Asher.

"I'm so happy that there's a library," I say, eager to strike up a conversation as we start walking back down the corridor.

Asher turns his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "Oh? Big reader?"

I nod enthusiastically. "Definitely. I can't imagine a life without books I think the window benches in our room will be a perfect spot to read. I've always wanted one."

Asher's eyes light up with genuine interest. "You're in for a treat then. Those window benches are a bookworm's paradise. Autumn and Winter are the best, blankets and hot chocolate on one of those things, and you'll never want to move."

"Sounds like you've done this before," I tease.

He doesn't look the slightest bit fazed as he answers, "Yeah, I had one in my room at my last school. I'd spend hours sitting there."

"Right, so you really have done this before,"

He rubs the back of his neck, looks at the floor and chuckles. "Yeah lots of practice. I like to read too... Basically, all my free time I spend reading."

We come to a halt outside some grand double doors, and Asher grips the grand brass handles, ready to pull them open. "You ready?" He looks at me with excitement.

"Heck yeah, open the door already."

He pulls open the door and holds it open for me to walk inside. It turns out that I was, in fact, not ready. I'm breath taken. The library is enormous and filled from top to bottom with shelves full of every genre of book you could ever imagine, and has one of those ladders with wheels you'd only ever seen in a Disney movie to help reach them. The floor has a white carpet like our bedroom, and armchairs and sofas are scattered around as places to read or study. The room is lit by warm yellow lamps on side tables, but there's also a huge chandelier-like light fixture on the ceiling with fake but very realistic-looking candles which even flickered to give the effect. Against the wall on the right-hand side stands a beautiful fireplace with a gentle fire glowing inside and around it are more armchairs and sofas facing inwards towards a coffee table, white marble with brass legs.