Mr. Cheater and Ms.Valedictorian (20,000 words, English)

The Book Tower

Friday—Grayson and Erin sit across each other in the middle table of the library. No one is around but the two of them and the librarian, Ms. Teresa. They are given permission by Sir Bert to bring food with them inside the library. Sir Bert thinks that if they were to eat inside the library instead of going to the cafeteria they would be able to save an hour or so which could be converted into precious study time. The two heed Sir Bert’s advice so they bring along bananas, apples and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They also have canned fruit juice with them.

It’s lunch time and the books just keep on piling up their table. They have all the different books matching each of their respective subjects in school. They have Physics books, Literature books, Values Education Books, Calculus books, Social Studies books, Geometry Books, Algebra books, Language Books, Computer Programming books, Economics Book, Accounting books and the El Fili spread all over the table. 

“These sure are a lot of books,” Grayson comments.

“And to think for some of these 1000 page behemoths, we only need a page or two,” Erin adds with a laugh.

Grayson starts piling up the books on the table in between them— one on top of the other.

“What are you doing?” Erin asks the busy boy.

“I just wanted to see how high the books will get,” Grayson replies as he positions one book on top of another.

“You’re crazy. Ms. Teresa will get mad at us,” Erin warns looking back at Ms. Teresa who is staying at the desk near the library entrance.

“Why? It’s not like we’re making a lot of noise. I mean you’re the one making a noise,” Grayson tells the now annoyed valedictorian in a low voice.

“Hmm.. So is that how you wanna play it?” Erin says as she juts out her forefinger making it hover over the now very tall pile of books between them. Erin looks at Grayson with a mischievous smile and then looks at the pile of books all the while shooting her finger towards the book tower stopping short of hitting it.

Grayson smiles nervously, looking straight into the playful eyes of Erin.

“Hey… hey now— you wouldn’t— Ms.Teresa will get mad at us,” Grayson tries to reason with Erin who at the moment is standing up with both of her pointer fingers zipping again and again towards the book tower. She doesn’t hit it however, but even with just her actions she makes Grayson nervous. Grayson tries to cover the book tower from Erin’s attacks by waving his right hand over its side while he puts book after book on top with his left. With the addition of the Calculus book, the book tower is complete.

With all the books piled up on the table, it’s now taller than Erin and is just about the eye level of Grayson.

“Hmm.. It’s pretty tall but I think we can make it taller,” Erin suggests with a grin.

They look at each other for about a second or two. Both of them now have that glint of mischief in their eyes. Then they dash around the library grabbing novels, dictionaries, hard bound compilations, soft bound magazines— just about anything that they can get their hands on.

Their book tower quickly rose higher and higher. It’s so high that the two of them are now looking up at its peak but they’re not done yet. Erin still has a small, yet extremely thick dictionary in her hand.

“This will be our tower’s peak,” she exclaims as she climbs on top of the chair.

Even then she is not tall enough to reach it. She stands on her toes to add that needed extra couple of inches allowing her to put the final touch. Erin, this time, makes the book stand on its bottom.

“There!” Erin says triumphantly.

After putting the tower’s peak, she jumps down to join Grayson marvel at their book tower. She must’ve put a little too much pressure while placing the book or she must’ve grazed some of the books on the side coming down, no matter what the reason, the tower starts to lean towards them. The whole thing is coming down.

Grayson quickly grabs Erin, holding her close, covering both of their heads with his arms.

*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The book tower topples and the books fall to the wooden library table in a series of loud thuds— a sound very much unwelcome in this room of silence.

After the barrage of falling books ends, Erin slowly opens her eyes. She sees Grayson’s face so close in front of her. He’s smiling as he puts his arms down.

The two look at each other and laugh.

“Are you okay?” Grayson asks.

“Yeah,” Erin says with a smile. “Thank you.”

“That was fun,” Grayson chuckles.

“And kinda stupid,” Erin adds.

“Well I’m glad that the pressure hasn’t made the two of you crazy,” Sir Bert’s sarcasm makes the two flinch.

They slowly turn to face Sir Bert, both of them still smiling.

“We were just—“ Erin starts but is interrupted by Sir Bert.

“No explanations necessary Ms.Nieves, just apologize to Ms.Teresa over here and clean this mess up and— go home. Rest, you deserve it.”

Grayson and Erin apologized to the shocked Ms. Teresa standing beside Sir Bert and proceeded to clean up the mess they made.

After returning all the books to their respective shelves, the two decide to go home. It’s about half an hour later than the time they usually leave. They smile awkwardly at Ms. Teresa and apologize again as they exit the library doors. Making their way down the stairs, Erin remembers that she still needs to checkout a book for their study session tomorrow. So she decides to return to the library.

“Grayson, you go ahead. I need to go back to the library to checkout a book. So, see you tomorrow?” Erin says as she turns to climb the stairs again.

“Ok. See you tomorrow,” Grayson answers, making his way down to the Greenvale High main entrance.