Everyone's their own Gossip Girl *BOOK PREVIEW*

Gossip #13:

It was library week, and Kyle had been helping for the last six hours, hoping Katrina would walk by, but she wasn’t here. What happened to the nerd who was studying all day on Saturdays?

“She’s not here?” Vanessa asked, raising an eyebrow at Kyle as she stacked the books up against each other. Vanessa was in a much better condition and for the past three hours had been explaining how the side effects were going away and she was feeling so much more “energy”.

Kyle scratched the back of his neck, rolling his shoulders. He glanced around the library, his mouth twisted and his eyes squinted. It had been a six hour work block with one thirty minute break in between and he had to wake up at six to get here. It was now noon, and he was honestly too tired to be looking for Katrina. He was probably suffering from a horrible case of bad breath. “I guess not.”

“Now go pile these books over by the kids’ section,” Vanessa instructed, handing the basket of books over to Kyle. She seemed like the one with the easier job now that Kyle realized how you didn’t move around at all in her shoes. All she did was assign people this and that, but then again, if the librarian was here, didn’t have the flu, then Vanessa would be the only running around the library.

Kyle nodded as he grabbed the baskets. He waddled over to the kids’ section to see a little couple, both around the age of six. They seemed to be having a marriage proposal or some sort, except the ring was made of liquorice and it seemed completely fake. The little blonde girl was in tears, fanning herself dramatically, and the little boy was in a suit, kneeing down to one knee, showcasing the piece of candy with all the bridesmaids and groomsmen around them, clapping, wiping their invisible tears.

It was the Pre School class next door. The teachers were religious to the fact that better reading led to better studies, except these kids had no idea that reading meant taking a book and reading it aloud than take the hardcover books and creating some kind picnic mat to sit on and rearrange every now and then with those plastic cup of tea. It stressed Kyle out how those six year olds could propose to each other so easily and how hard it was to talk to the girl. She wasn’t even that much of a stranger, she was the same person he had been attending the same school with since the beginning of first grade.

Kyle didn’t even know to what he could lose to. Katrina was just another one of his many crushes, but the only girl who he actually never had acquainted (or were they friends? Kyle didn’t even know!), the only girl he hadn’t stopped thinking about, the girl he had the longest crush on. The girl he might as well knew absolutely nothing about and yet, she still had just a nice scent to her and such stunning independence.

Someone as quirky as Kyle, it was odd to understand his taste in ladies. He liked the girls who were passionate about something, strong believers, and whose who were diplomatic, conservative, and had a strong mind. They were all things Kyle didn’t classify as, but for some reason his crushes have always been either the smarter girl in his grade, or the most rebellious, part of the reason how he had ended up with Vanessa a few years ago and how he had ended up with all those different girls like Oyster’s sister who he had tried to make a relationship work with except she was a year younger and was “too busy” with her girlfriends and parties to attend. This was only last year.

Like a peasant, hoping none of the kids would notice him and use him as their new royal stallion, he quickly scattered the books around, slotting them in, one by one, where they belonged. That is, until the bride stormed her way over, blinking up innocently at Kyle.

“Why is your face like that?” she asked, startling Kyle. “Why are you ignoring me?”

In fact, Kyle wasn’t ignoring the girl, and he was only composing his next sentence. Little kids made him nervous, or else the little kids who were over-spoilt brats who didn’t know the line between common sense and respect. “I wasn’t ignoring you, sweetie.”