The bell rang, signalling the end of class. Callas packed up her things and slung her bag over her shoulders, picking up the jacket, looking at the timetable. It said she had a free period, so she thought about finding the library to start researching for the History project. She'd rather get it done now than wait until the last minute, she wanted to do it on her own so she knew that she'd be putting in the effort that was needed, she didn't really want to work in a group because she didn't know if they would put it off and do a bad job on it last minute. That and she didn't know anyone besides the boy, so she wasn't ready to mingle just yet. The corridors didn't have any signs pointing towards the library, which meant Callas would probably use up her entire free just looking for it.
"Wait up!" Callas heard the boy yell from behind her. She didn't stop, but she slowed down.
Callas wasn't too sure on him yet. Something about him just seemed rather fake and forced, he was too happy and enthusiastic about certain things, too willing to talk about himself like he had nothing to hide. Everyone has secrets. Including him. Which was why she was being wary of him. The boy caught up to her, putting his bag on his shoulders, holding an opaque water bottle in his hand. When she turned down one of the corners, he almost continued walking straight ahead before he looked over to her and jogged to catch up, laughing a little bit to himself as he watched Callas bite down on her lower lip, trying to find the library.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "So, I never got your name."
"That's because I never told you it," she mumbled as she looked into one of the rooms, there was a class going on.
He paused. "Right." He nodded. "Well, I'm Henry." He held his hand out to her with a grin. Callas, reluctantly, shook his hand.
"Callas," she mumbled back before looking down at her timetable, sort of wishing that there had been a map.
"Like the flower?"
"No, like the soprano singer."
Henry took a swig of his water, clearly accepting her answer, with some still in his mouth he asked Callas, "What are you looking for?"
Henry looked over her shoulder and at her timetable. She could feel him breathing on her, it made her uncomfortable that he was so close to her. Letting out a sigh, as she folded the paper up and put it in her pocket, she turned to walk up a small set of stairs, catching Henry off guard. He let out another laugh to himself, which baffled Callas as there was nothing remotely funny about the situation, yet it seemed to entertain Henry quite a bit. Skipping some of the steps to get up them faster, Callas heard Henry speak up again;
"Cally, wait up!" She paused, allowing him to catch up to her. Now, side by side, she continued to walk, hoping to find the library soon. "Want to tell me what you're looking for? I can help, you know."
"The library," her voice was quiet as she glanced into another room.
"We're going the wrong way." He laughed.
Her voice was barely above a whisper, "Well, I didn't know that."
"Come on, I'll show you where it is." He placed his hand on her wrist, pulling her back the way they came.
Henry pulled her back down the stairs, his hand never letting go of her. She kept quiet, not knowing if she would come across as rude if she pulled her hand away, he just wanted to help and she didn't need to argue or upset him before she got to the library. Henry, who turned to look back at her, smiled a toothy grin as he walked to one of the doors leading outside. Pushing the door open, letting go of her hand, the cold air made its way over to Callas causing her to shiver. But she couldn't be bothered to put the jacket on as they were already close to the other side of the courtyard, walking through another set of doors to the library.
Surprising, the library was quite large. It had two floors, the top had mostly bookshelves and a couple of tables, while the downstairs had a maze of bookshelves and a cluster of tables in the middle of the room. There was a block of tables with computers set up in one area in the middle with the main desk on the right side of the entrance, where two women sat, typing away on two small computers. Callas walked straight over to one of the empty tables, placing her bag down on the desk, her jacket draped over the back of the chair. She sat down, opening her bag to take out her notepad and pen along with her laptop.
Henry followed in suit behind her to the table. "What are you doing?" Henry sat down beside her, placing his water bottle down on the desk.
"History. I want to get a head start," she mumbled as she turned her laptop on.
"I've already read over the chapters in the book, we could work together, if you want? I mean, two brains are better than one, and it will halve the time and effort for you if we do it together."
Callas was desperate for him to stop talking. This ruined her plan of doing it by herself. She knew she could say no, but he was right. It would give her more time to work on one-half and make it great. But then again, how could she know that he would do the same with his half? Her fingers hovered over the keyboard on the laptop, thinking about the offer. Henry could be useful, he did say he had already read the chapters. With a sigh, she turned her head to look at him, nodding her head in agreement. Henry gave her the same toothy grin as he nodded back.
"Great, I'll go find us the books to start." He took his bag off his shoulders, placing it down on the desk.
A small headache formed, she rubbed her temples and stared down at the laptop screen. She glanced down at her notes, she had a couple of pages worth of information that she could use and expand on. Books slammed down on the table next to her, she jumped in shock and turned to look at Henry who walked away leaving Callas to look at the seven books stacked on top of one another. With an eyebrow raised, she looked to where he was going. A small rack of school laptops was placed in the corner of the library, Henry picked one of them up and walked back to the table.
"Why are there so many books?" Callas picked the first one up and looked through some of the pages.
"I'm a fast reader. Besides, the internet doesn't always have the correct information, so it will be more accurate to use the books." He shrugged in response.
She was sceptical of him still. So far, he seemed to have all the answers to her questions. Which couldn't have been something that someone, she had just met, could do. Henry turned the laptop on, getting out his own notes before he flipped open one of the books. Callas wasn't sure if he was just joking around or not, but he was scanning the pages almost too quickly. Surely, he couldn't have been reading them that fast. He let out a small laugh, making Callas glance up to his face. He kept his eyes on the book in his hands.
"You okay, Cally?"
Henry turned his head to look at her. She offered a small nod and smile, he looked back to the book, she shook her head, pulling her glaze away from him. Not knowing what it was about him, she decided that she wouldn't fully trust him until she really got to know him. Callas didn't even know if he had a free with her, or if he was just skipping out on his lessons to spend extra time with her. Which she didn't know if it was a sweet action or an unsettling one, he could be a stalker for all she knew. But then again, he could be just an average seventeen-year-old boy who was just kind. Whatever he was, Callas was bound to find out.
A quiet noise from her phone pulled her out of her concentration. A notification email came up, along with a few texts from Reed. She unlocked her phone and looked at her messages first. Reed had messaged her that he had arrived to Forks' Police Station safely and texted that he would email the details just in case she needed to get in contact with him. He encouraged her to make at least one friend and to take her nose out of her book. The last one was a reminder that Silas would be picking her up, as he would be getting home late to finish up paperwork from that day, even though it was only half nine in the morning.
One of the librarians cleared her throat, making Callas look over. Luckily, the librarian wasn't looking at her but at another student who was trying to be discrete as he ate, she pointed at the sign next to her, saying that no food was allowed in the library. Callas looked back down to her phone, opening the email. Just as Reed said, there was an email with the phone numbers and email addresses of some of the other officers, just in case she couldn't contact or get a hold of Reed for whatever reason. He also sent the address of the station and that he drove past an outdoor sports shop on the way.
Callas quickly texted him back, saying that they could go find running clothes and shoes for him if he wanted to start it up as well. She also thanked him for the numbers and email addresses, claiming that she would save them on her phone and laptop so she would have them some place that she could get to quickly. Her finger hovered over the off button of her phone just before Reed texted back a response that he would take her up on the offer of checking out the shop at some point. This time she turned her phone screen off and put it down on the table, going back to her laptop.
A group of students began to pack up and leave almost forty minutes later. Henry looked up at the noise and turned to Callas. "I think our free is up."
Callas checked her phone, it was break now, but she still had to find her next class. She began to pack away her things, saving her work. "Do you want to send me your work? Just so it's saved somewhere else?" Callas looked over to him.
"Yeah, that might be helpful." He nodded.
She motioned her hands to the laptop. Henry slid it over to her, she typed in her email and sent the work to herself before she handed it back. He quickly put the laptop away and walked back over, mumbling that he would take out some of the books he hadn't read yet to get more information for the project. Callas nodded in response. In some ways, she was glad to have Henry as a partner, at least now she knew that he was doing the work, putting effort into it. Of course, she would go over what she sent herself to make sure that the information wasn't the same as what she put.
With her laptop now in her bag, her phone in her pocket, she took out her timetable to see what she had next. "Do you know where Biology is?" That was a stupid question. Of course, he would know where it was.
"Yeah, it's near my Chemistry class. I can meet you afterward to show you to your other class. If you have one after Biology, that is."
She nodded her head at him, putting the jacket on before she slung her bag over her shoulders again. This day just seemed to drag on, even though she had technically only had one lesson, something about Henry just made time go slower. Not in a rude way, of course, but it was puzzling to Callas, to say the least. Henry stayed silent as he showed her to the Biology room, telling her that he would meet her afterward once more. She took out the slip she was meant to give the teacher and she sighed before entering the room.