Wish (Wishing Well #1)

Chapter 4

“Thank you!! I was thinking of running to the snack machine real quick,” replied Emily.  “You want something?”

Angela nodded vigorously as she extended a few crumpled bills toward Emily.

“Please!” she replied, desperation coloring her tone. “Anything with chocolate!”

Emily laughed.  Taking the bills from her boss, she turned and made her way toward the door, tossing a, “You got it, boss!” over her shoulder as she left the office.  

One of the other student workers had arrived and was looking around.  When her eyes landed on Emily she smiled and waved. Emily made her way back behind the circulation desk to get money from her own purse.

“How’s it going Penelope?” Emily enquired, as she searched through her bag for her coin purse.

“Great!” Penelope chirped.  “I’m glad to be back, but I really, really enjoyed all the time off!  It was really nice of you and Angela to take care of the whole library situation!”

Thankful she was still crouched down, facing the cabinet, Emily rolled her eyes.  All of the student workers should have helped put the library back in order, in her opinion.  Once the time came to put the library back in order, she was the only one that had showed up to help Angela.  

Even though she was “second in command” it really irked her that the others hadn’t felt the need to help.  When she had expressed her opinion to Angela, Angela had laughed and told her, “Em, that’s just the way life is sometimes.  Not everyone is always as driven as we would like, or as reliable. Would it make the work go by faster for the others to be here? Sure. Is grousing about it going to make the work go by any faster? No.  So I figure that we might as well keep working and if the others show up, then great, and if they don’t, great.”

Emily rolled her eyes in annoyance and crossed her arms.

“Now, Emily.” Angela said with a stern voice and a sharp look on her face. “The others are only working in the library for their work study.  After so many hours they won’t be able to work here any more because of the guidelines with their financial aid. You were lucky to get hired on part-time as a student.  AND you love this job. You work more than you’re required to and you don’t even get paid for it. I may be in charge of the library staff, but for all we know they were told by higher ups at the school to just leave it to us and not come in so their work study hours would last them longer.”

Though she had still been unsatisfied with that answer, she knew that Angela was probably right and went back to work without complaint.

Shaking herself from her bad mood and her flashback, she stood and turned to face Penelope.

“Thanks.” she replied, trying to sound more enthused than she felt. “It was a lot of work, but surprisingly enough, Angela and I had fun.”

Emily started to move out from behind the desk again, money in hand.

“I'm getting a snack. You want anything?” She asked Penelope.

“Oh no, that's okay!” Penelope answered. “I had an early lunch before I came in so I'm good!”

“Okay,” Emily replied. “I'll be right back. The bell is on the desk. There isn't really anything to do, but maybe see if any of the books need straightening.”

Penelope chirped, “Okie dokie!” And headed toward the shelves. Emily made her way out of the library and down the hallway toward the snack machine.