A flashlight in the shadows.

Chapter 2: The book theif.

D
ina met me in the hallway before we entered Mr. Bowel's class. She was smaller than me by six inches and nearly 36 pounds, but she could be feisty when she wanted to be. Her hair was dark brown and her completion was tan. Her eyes were so dark, they had an almost black hue to them. She walked up to me, looking sorry.
"Sarah, I'm so sorry! I meant to get the book, but every time I tried I couldn't find it and..."
"It's ok, Dina. Don't worry, Mr. Bowel won't kill us, I'll just ask for an extra day," something I hated doing. My friends just assumed that because the teachers liked me, that meant I had immunity from punishments. They haven't been proven wrong so far, but there's a first for everything. She sighed and smiled.
"Ok, call me when you get it and we'll work together, ok?"
"We won't have time, I'll just do it myself." I stated, walking in the room with her. She followed me to our desks and sat down.
"Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?" I asked, pulling out my textbook. She threw her hands in the air.
"Work!? That's all you ever do is homework and chores. You need a life, girl."
"I have a life. My life," I stated, smiling. She flipped the hair away from her eyes and sighed.
"I mean you should go out and do stuff."
"Like what?"
"Like come to my place this weekend. My parents are leaving town and I don't wanna be alone," she crossed her legs and sighed. I shrugged and said,
"Ok, fine. It's a date." She scrunched up her nose and giggled.
"Now you're just being weird," I punched her playfully and Mr. Bowel scooted in the room. He was a nice teacher, but if you so much as whispered in his class, he'd send you to lunch detention with Mr. Fadden, the principle of our school. I'd never actually spoken to him, but he seems like a scary guy. To me, at least. He started class by giving us an extra day for our assignments, leaving me smiling in relief. The assignment was to read a book of our choice and right out the main ideas and plot. We then had to write two alternative endings to the book. I'd read almost every book in the public library, but neither me or Dina had ever read, 'the book thief' by Markus Zusak. I've heard it's one of the best books ever, but I'd be the judge of that. When Mr. Bowel wasn't looking, I pulled out my phone and texted Kendra,
'Drop me off at library after school, k?:)'
'K;)' I sighed. Mr. Bowel turned to his desk and told everyone to silent read. I smiled and pulled out, 'To kill a Mockingbird.' I was about halfway done with chapter 7, when Dina slid a small piece of paper in front of me. I looked down at it and read;
~I need 2 ask u something.~ I frowned and wrote on the back,
-what?- she grabbed it, read it, and scribbled down,
~do u mind me asking Bennett out?~ I shrugged and jotted down,
-why would I care? Go ahead.- she read the note, then frowned. She mouthed,
"I thought you two were an item." I frowned again and shook my head no. She sat up and said, "but, Kendra told me you were." I scowled. Kendra, she should know better. I rolled my eyes and whispered,
"Go ahead, I don't care." She smiled and went back to reading. I sighed and looked back at my book, smiling at the old pages, caressing the pad of my thumb against them.

{later that day, dada dada!}

Kendra pulled up to Hawkins memorial library, letting me hop out. She waved goodbye and I walked inside, gripping the books I needed to return. The librarian, a quiet old lady named Mrs. Damon, greeted me with a big smile, her little frame beaming with light.
"Hello, Sarah."
"Hey, Mrs. Damon, how are you this evening?"
"Oh, I'm just wonderful, thank you for asking. What brings you here?" I handed her my books and smiled. She shook her head and sighed.
"You know, you'll have to request books pretty soon, at the rate you read them." I giggled and started walking to the catalog section. There were two ways to find a book at the library; one, the computers, or two, the catalog drawers. The computers were almost always taken up, so I didn't bother even trying to get to one. I opened the B drawer and filed through it. When I didn't see the book theif, I searched M for Markus. I found it and started towards the section where it placed the book.
The library was filled with books, as you can imagine. There were large windows that ran the height of the building, giving us a view of the street outside. There were tables everywhere, and very few people acquired them. I turned into the isle where it said the book thief would be, looking up and down for it. It rested on the second to top shelf, and I reached for it. But I felt a tug from the other side of the book shelf. Someone else was trying to get it. I sighed and said,
"Um, if you don't mind, I kinda need this for a book project."
"Well, I would really like to read it," said a voice. I frowned and said,
"I promise it'll be here tomorrow, I just really need it." There was a pause from the other end, then the voice said,
"Ok, I've read this book before anyways." I pulled out the book, only to be met by grey eyes from the other side of the book shelf. I gasped and stepped back, then frowned and said,
"Bennett?" He met my gaze, looked around, then ran out the door. I considered running after him, but what would I say? Hey you, why're you at the library? No, I couldn't say that. I stood frozen for a few moments, blinked a couple times, and sat down at one of the small tables, reading and taking notes. Dina texted me at 7:30;
'Omgomgomgomg!!!!'
'What?!' I texted, smiling to myself. She texted back,
'Iaskedbennettoutandhesaidyes!!!!omgomgomg!!!!'
'Im happy 4u;)'
'Yay!!!:3' I rolled my eyes and took the last of our notes, slinging my back pack over my shoulder. I sighed and called dad. He picked up on the second ring,
"Hello?"
"Hey, daddy. I'm at the library, could you come get me?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in...ten minutes."
"K, bye."
"Bye," he hung up and I sat on a bench outside of the library. The night air was crisp, and there were a ton of stars in the sky. Everything seemed to be going well, then out of no where, I saw a figure make its way towards me. It was tall and muscular, and it was a man. No, a boy. From my school. I sat and watched one of the school's best basketball players, Carson Leroy, sit down next to me, sighing. I scooted a little away from him, hugging myself. We sat in silence for a few moments, then he broke it by saying,
"Beautiful night out." I frowned and nodded.
"Yeah, it is."
"So, what're you doing here?" I smiled, looked back at the library, and gestured,
"I was reading, but now I'm waiting for my dad."
"I see." He stated, nodding like he meant it. I squirmed in my seat a litte.
"So...what are you doing here?" I asked, looking at him. He smiled and said,
"Well, I'm waiting for some friends to pick me up. But, I'd also like to ask you if you're free Saturday night?" He smiled wider now. I frowned and shrugged.
"Why?"
"I'd like to go out with you," he stated, smiling. I opened my mouth, closed it, and stammered,
"I-I don't know what to..."
"Just say yes, that's all you gotta do," he stared at me. I shrugged and nodded.
"Ok, um....sure."
"Great, I'll pick you up at 6:00 that night."
"Ok, um, I live at..."
"I know where you live," he stated, getting up to leave. I frowned,
"How do you know where I live?" He turned to me before saying,
"Bennett told me," he then disappeared as quickly as he'd shown up. Bennett webber. He was seriously begging for it now. Dad pulled up in his truck, opening the door for me.
"So, how was your day, pumpkin?"
"Uh..I just got asked out this Saturday," I stated, awed. He frowned and looked at me.
"By who?"
"Carson Leroy." I stated, staring out the window. He smiled and nodded.
"I knew you could get a boyfriend if you wanted to."
"You sound happy about it," I stated, turning to him. He frowned and said,
"And you sound like you wanna puke. Do you like the guy or what?"
"I don't know! He just showed up and said, 'nice night, oh by the way, wanna go out on Saturday?' I didn't know what else to say, so I just agreed!" I stopped, catching my breath. He rolled his eyes.
"You'll be fine, kiddo. I'll give you some money to go shopping on Friday night, ok?" I just nodded and laid my head on the window. The street lights passed by in a blur of colors. We pulled up to the house and I walked in to see jane at the kitchen table, working on homework. I smiled and sat next to her.
"Need help?"
"No, I'm almost done. You can go to sleep, I did your chores." I smiled, hugged her, and ran upstairs to grab some clothes to change into. I took a blue tank top and a comfortable pair of black shorts and closed the bathroom door. I threw them on the toilet and turned on the shower, stepping underneath the powerful shower head. I used my favorite shampoo, something called 'Minty wonders,' and lathered my hair, soaking it all in. Once finished changing, I sat on the bed, opening to the last page of the book thief.
'Then, as she stared into his eyes, she new their journey was far from done...' I was interrupted by a small sound. I sat up in the bed, listening. After about three minutes passed, I went back to reading.
'She held his hand, fearful of letting go...' Another sound came. I got off the bed and frowned. I looked out the window, only to see Bennett leaning halfways out of his with a sling shot. He was shooting pebbles at my window, but now that he had my attention, he picked up a piece of paper and wrote something down. I crossed my arms and waited. He turned the paper around so I could read it;
'Hows it going book thief?;)' I clenched my jaw, grabbed a sheet of paper, and wrote down;
'My name is Sarah!' He read it and smirked.
'I like book thief better.' He winked at me. I rolled my eyes, gave him the only finger that matters, and sat back on my bed, fuming with anger.
'He kissed her cheek, sensing her terrible worry..' Yet another pebble hit my window. I clenched my fists, whipped the hair out of my face, and walked up to the window, writing down,
'What do you want?!' He read it, smiled, and wrote,
'Carson wants you 2 wear something sexy on Saturday;)' I stopped, staring at him. I closed my eyes, breathed slowly in, and smiled. Then I wrote down,
'You're the biggest stalker in the whole world.' He read it and smiled to himself. I rolled my eyes and went to sit down again. I heard my email go ding, so I opened my computer and saw this;
'Im a guy of many talents,' Bennett. I huffed and angrily typed,
'Where'd you get my email address?!'
'I have my resources:)' I tucked my hair out of my face and typed,
'What do you want? I'm trying to read.'
'You're always reading, and your friend asked me out 2day.' I smirked to myself.
'I know, she told me.'
'Where should we go?' He asked. I frowned and thought to myself, why does he want to know? Does he actually care? I rolled my eyes and typed,
'Shes into cheesy guys. Bring her on a picnic or something.' I waited three minutes before he replied,
'K:)' I leaned back in the chair, biting my nails. Then, I bent over the keyboard and typed,
'Were you at the library earlier?' He didn't respond for 7 minutes. Then, I finally got a ding,
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Then why'd you call me book thief?' No reply for the rest of the night. I sighed, yawned, and laid down in bed, thinking of Friday night shopping. Wonder if Kendra and Hannah are up for it.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks everyone! Hope you like the next chapter, bye!C: