A

Thousand

Lives

Rachael Wing

“Quill Calamus! Get out of bed right now! We have to go to school and we won’t make it if you don’t wake up!”Why do little sisters have to be so annoying?

 She leans into my doorway with her bottom lip sticking out, “Oh I’m sorry. Did I wake you from one of your wonderful dreams involving your beloved fictional friends?”

I roll my eyes and throw my pillow over my head, “go away Rian!”

“Well, I’m not leaving until you put your feet on your floor! I’m not going to be late just because you’d rather be dreaming about your darling fictional characters.”

I grab my pillow and throw it at her across the room. I slowly slide off of my bed until my knees are kneeled on the floor and my face is lying against the bed. “There! Are you satisfied?!”

“Ah! Very! Now, you only have thirty minutes until we have to leave so you better get ready!”

I groan and sit on my bed with my head in my hands regretting those last seventeen chapters I read just to finish that book last night. Well, technically I don’t regret reading the book; I regret not starting earlier so I could get more sleep. I climb back on my bed and lay on my back staring at my slanted ceiling that is covered with movie posters, pictures, and quotes.  I glance over at the side of my bed and see the book laying there sprawled open. I should’ve put it back in my book case because now the cover is bent. I pick it up and walk over to my book case and set it between some others to fix the cover. I smile as my hand runs along the many books piled onto my bookshelves, hardcovers, soft covers, fantasies, mysteries, romances. I’ve lived different lives in each of these books and I shall live hundreds, maybe thousands more.

“Quill, stop daydreaming! You only have twenty five more minutes! Actually you have twenty four to be exact!” Rian says.

I roll my eyes, and walk over to my closet to grab a pair of jeans and a gray sweater. I slip them on quick and grab my brush to comb through my thick brown hair quick. I glance in the mirror before I walk out. I realize how much I look like my mother, we both have thick, long, brown hair and tall thin figures; the only thing I got from my father is his dark brown eyes. I grab my school books off of my desk and shove them into my backpack. I glance around my room to see if I need anything else.

My room isn’t significant in anyway, it’s quite small actually. My small, unmade bed sits in the corner against the wall with my tall bookcase positioned at the foot of it and a rustic wooden desk next to it. My window is across the room from my bed which overlooks our small driveway. I grab my backpack then run into the kitchen.

“Fifteen minutes!” Rian says as I run into the kitchen.

“Will you just shut up?! Why are so you anxious and pushy anyway?”

 “Well first of all, I don’t want to be late. Second, I have friends to see and I want to do that before class starts, and third, you’re driving so if you don’t go I don’t. Now it’s fourteen more minutes!” She winks then runs back to her room, probably to fix her perfect self. I glance at my sister as she runs out of the room realizing how completely opposite we are, she has perfect blonde hair with pink highlights in it, and her eyes are bluer than the sky. Even though she is fourteen, three years younger than I am, she is ten times prettier. Unlike me, she would rather spend her time on the phone, at the mall, or at any high school sporting event. I do my best to stay away from any place that involves crowds of people.

“Quill! We have to…” My sister says as she rushes back into the kitchen and to the front door.

“Yeah, I get it! We have to go!” I say as I shove the last spoonful of cereal in my mouth.

“Hey, mom I’m staying at the library after school while Rian is at dance and Desmond is at baseball. Speaking of Desmond, where is he?”

“That’s fine,” she says “Desmond! Honey, it’s time to go!” He runs into the room, she kisses him on the forehead and runs her hands through his curly, thick, brown hair. “Have a good day dear!” She says to him.

“Quill!”

“Rian, I’m aware that we have to leave. If you don’t stop reminding me every five minutes I will purposely make you late.” I open my car door jump into the driver’s seat and buckle myself in. “Everybody buckled in?” I say.

“Go! We’re going to be late!” Rian yells.

“Ok! I’m going! Goodness! Crazy woman here!” I say glancing at Desmond as he giggles. He looks so much like my father in so many ways with his curly brown hair, dark brown eyes and dimpled smile.                                                             

“… and so she like thinks I’m crazy for wanting to color my hair purple but I told her it’s my hair and I’m going to do what I want with it. She just rolled her eyes at me and walked away.” Estella explained

I nodded to show that I was listening even though I wasn’t. I was thinking about the new book that was released this morning and when I’ll have a chance to pick it up.

“And then this purple elephant came in with an electric guitar and started jamming out, and these blue zebras came in and started dancing and singing Christmas carols.”

I just kept nodding.

“Aha! I knew it! You’re not even paying attention to what I’m saying!”

“Huh? What? Oh, sorry.” I say

“So, what’s more important than listening about my purple hair dilemma?”

“You’re coloring your hair purple?!”

“Yes! If you were paying attention you would’ve known that about a minute ago. So what were you thinking about?” she says as she puts her hands on her hips and turns toward me.

“I… well, um… I was thinking about a book.”

“A book?!” she says as she raises her eyebrows.

“Yeah…”

“Really?! Are books that much more important than my dear hair? Anyway, should I go like dark purple? Maybe I could do blue!”

I laugh and roll my eyes. “It’s up to you!” Purple hair would suit her I guess. Nobody would ever guess that we are best friends; I dress about as plain as you can imagine and she looks like a rainbow that just exploded. Today she’s wearing a black leather jacket with a purple tutu skirt, galaxy leggings and combat boots.  Her hair, at the moment, is black with blue highlights and is in two pigtails. I say at the moment because she changes the colors approximately once a month.

“What are you doing after school today? You should totally come over and listen to the new song I just wrote! It’s like super awesome! It’s like…” She starts beat boxing and whips her hands around as if she’s playing drums.

I turn to her and put my hands on my hips, “Stella! Come on! We’ve been best friends ever since like sixth grade! You should know this!”

She groans and utters, “Oh, right… the library.”

I raise my eyebrows and say with a smirk, “You could come with me.”

“Me? Go to the library? Not in a million years!”

“I’ll get you to come one of these days!”

“Yeah, sure you will!”

“I don’t know what you have against libraries?”

“They’re boring and filled with books. I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with them!”

“Because they’re exciting and filled with books. Plus, when I’m in the library it’s like I still have a piece of my dad still with me.” I say as I look at the floor.

“Ok, ok fine.” she says as she puts her hands in the air, “but still, I’m not going in there.”

“Yes you will!” I say smirking.

“Whatever. Let’s go to class you ridiculous human being.”

We laugh and walk into our class.

I set my school books on the table in the middle of the library and look around, my eyes glance at the clock behind me which read five past three. What is taking so long? I sit down and run my hands through my thick, brown hair. I grab my math book off of my stack of textbooks and try to concentrate, but I can’t. I lean back in my chair and look around; the library is like a big rectangle with books covering each 70 ft tall wall. Every ten feet or so has stairs which leads to a ten foot wide walkway which … the whole library and then another set of stairs which leads to another floor and so on. Where I’m sitting there are rows of tables for reading and homework. Behind me are computers in a line next to each other, the librarian’s desk next to them on the opposite side of the room from me and multiple bookshelves scattered about in various places. I stand up to take a walk around before I start my homework so I start browsing between the bookshelves even though I know I won’t get any books. I’ve never been able to pick up a book and be totally immersed in it. I grab a book from the shelf and start flipping through it.

And that’s when I hear the commotion.

I know the time has come.

My waiting has come to an end.

I walk out of the maze of bookshelves which are towering over me and I see her.

The Library Girl.

She is unlike any girl I have ever met, well in this case haven’t met. Every single day she is here coming in with a stack of books and leaving with a totally different stack. The librarians love her and she spends time talking to each one of them.

At the moment they are handing her a stack of books that they must have put together themselves especially for her. I realize I’m staring so I glance down quickly as she starts to head my way and see her head towards her particular spot that she sits at every day; the window seat. It’s right across from my table at the other side of the room and I can only see part of it because the bookshelves that are separating us block part of my view.

The thing about her that gets me is how she can be so engrossed in a book; she blocks out the entire world and she looks as if she has disappeared and is never to come back. She doesn’t look up at the noise of a screaming child, or a person who doesn’t seem to bother plugging in headphones into their computer and has their volume blasted up. I don’t know what it is about them that make her totally lose herself in them.

She closes her book, sighs, and glances out the window then stands up and begins to walk toward the librarian’s desk. I realize I’ve been staring for far too long so I shove my headphones in my ears and try my best to concentrate on my homework.

I start to walk up to the librarians’ desk so I can return my book I just finished and overhear Mabel and Esther talking

 “That one, right there” Mabel says as she points to a boy at a table no doubt doing his homework by the concentrated look on his face. “his name is Flynn.”

“How do you know that?” replies Esther.

“Well I made him give me his library card and told him that I needed to make sure that he lived around here and was a resident of the city.”

“I didn’t know that only city residents were allowed here.”

“Well anyone is allowed here but I just made that up to find out what his name is.”

“That’s a very clever idea! I would’ve never thought of that!”

“What’s going on?” I say as I lay the book on the librarians’ desk. I prop my elbows on the desk and rest my chin in the palms of my hands.

“That boy over there…” Esther starts to say but Mabel cuts her off.

 “Oh, nothing at all dear! I see you finished your book in such a quick time. As always! How was it?” She says through a smile.

I raise my eyebrows and look at them both but they ignore me and start sorting through the returned books.

“It was good! She created a very good plot and the characters were nicely molded but there was something about it that just didn’t make it that interesting. It was slightly dull and felt like it took a while to get through.”

“Well, there will always books like that dear!” She pats me on the cheek and then gets back to sorting through books.

As I begin to walk away I overhear Esther say,

“Why didn’t you tell her?”

“Because she didn’t need to know!”

“But it was her he was looking at!”

I glance over to the boy Esther pointed out when she was going to tell me what they were talking about. That must be who she’s talking about; I see him glance up until he locks gazes with me and turns away quickly.

Why would he be looking at me?

I shake my head and go back to my window seat to start another book.