New Beginnings

Chapter Nine

<NORMANI POV>

Normani didn't know why she suddenly felt so jealous of this mystery person who suddenly had Lauren's attention. Maybe it was because she had just gotten Lauren back in her life and the idea of sharing her did not sound very appealing. Yeah, that was probably it. Nevertheless, she wiped the blank expression off her face and faked an interested smile so Lauren wouldn't question it too much.

"Well tell me about this mysterious person," Normani urged slightly nervous, "is it a boy? Or is it a girl? I mean, not that you're into girls or anything, but uh..." What the hell was she saying? Why would she practically imply that Lauren might like girls? Why was she being so weird?

Lauren turned her head to the side questioning Normani's weird behavior but then shook it off and began smiling thinking about her encounter from that morning. She began to describe in great detail the events that had transpired in het meeting with Connor. From what Normani could tell he was very charming, a tall, brown haired, blue-eyed, attractive geek. Which sounded like exactly the type of guy Lauren would be into. She thinks? Does she even know Lauren well enough to know what she's into? She knows Lauren has a thing for brains, and the way she was describing this guy made it seem like he was just her type.

Normani was in her own thoughts so much she didn't even realize Lauren had stopped talking and that she had missed a lot of the story. When she snapped out of it she saw Lauren giggling at her blank faced expression.

"What is with you today?" Lauren laughed, "I think three classes in a row might be too many, your brain is like mush right now. Did you even hear what I said?"

Normani shook her head, "Yeah, sorry, you're right I think my brain is fried. But hey do you want to go to the bookstore and help me get all my textbooks, I really need to start getting into my classes, I don't want to get too behind."

"Whoa, Mani chill," Lauren said putting her hand on Normani's shoulder, "it's literally the first day, how behind could you possibly be? But sure I will go with you, I want to get a new novel to read anyway."

The girls gathered their things and knocked on Dinah's door to see if she wanted to join them. After the Polynesian girl was ready they hopped on the next bus for the short ride to the other side of campus to the bookstore.

<LAUREN POV>

Bookstores had always been like an escape for Lauren. Growing up in Kerrigan (after Normani left of course) Lauren needed something to get her mind off of the horrible town. She did that by immersing herself in books. All kinds of books too. Romance novels, Sci-Fi, suspense, biographies, history books, you name it. She loved the idea of creating images in her own mind. She loved the idea of a world existing outside of her own where everything was controlled and perfect with a beginning, middle, and end. She loved the idea of someone else's life that was more interesting or exciting than her own. So she spent a lot of her days at an old bookstore on the corner of downtown Kerrigan.

Not many people went there but Lauren was their most frequent customer. She would go in after school and browse through books finding ones that caught her attention, sometimes by the name, sometimes by the cover, sometimes because it looked super strange. She would spend her allowance on books and read them in a couple of days and then be right back at the bookstore.

Eventually the owner, Mr. Marv, got tired of seeing a young teenager spend all her money on books and made a deal with her.

"Lauren sweetie," Mr. Marv said as Lauren carried a stack of books to the counter of the store, "no 15-year-old should be spending their allowance on books like this. You should be spending it on candy or clothes or hell even drugs, I don't know!"