BRUNNHOLD LIBRARY| MORNING
Alone? Why the clocking hell did the politician need alone time with the Hoxian?
“I—of course Incumbent! I would—uh—we can…” She listened to Ezre talk, nodding affirmatively and adjusting her straps on her satchel with one hand. They could take the garden, and the girls would take the Library. Divide and conquer. Out of nowhere, the youngest of the peculiar group burst out with her fervent desire to come with them, still, and in fact to the library. Lilanee turned her blue gaze on Madeline and beamed, snapping her book shut and tucking it under her arm.
“To the Library then, Miss Gosselin!” She agreed with a sharp nod, giving the dark eyed boy one last look that held all manner of volumes, before turning on her heel and walking towards the wing that housed the standard student accessible library.
“You were very good back there Madeline.” Lilanee said after some time, clutching her notebook to her chest and walking with purposeful strides, but not too fast. Just fast enough that it mattered to keep up. She pushed her glasses up her nose and kept her gaze on the grass ahead of them.
“I couldn’t help but notice though, the way you…speak. Is there anything the matter?” The ninth form smiled, looking over a the girl for a second before turning back to the path they followed across the courtyard towards the Library.
“I’ve been sixteen once before too, and Brunnhold isn’t always the easiest place to settle into. Sometimes the other kids are really impossible, I mean truly. Other times, they can be the nicest people ever. If you’re having any trouble with anyone, you can tell myself or Ezre, and we can raise it to the Headmistress anonymously if you require.” Smiling again, the Hessean shrugged.
“Just saying, if you should need anything like that, we can definitely help.” She would stop talking for the moment then, either allowing Madeline to add her two tallies, or to stroll in companionable silence till they reached the Library doors. Lilanee would grasp the handle of the first one, tugging it widely open for the younger girl to enter first, before following behind her.
“I love it here.” The red head whispered as the door closed behind them, letting her gaze lift upwards to scan over the towers of bookshelves that filled the room, turning slowly as they walked under the chandelier in the entrance hall, smiling as she looked back down at Maddie. Turning to face the front again, she approached the front desk and beamed at Rosie Opkins.
“Good morning Rosie, I hope you’re marvelous this fine day! I was wondering, perhaps, if you would happen to know where Miss Wentworth might be working at present?” Rosie Opkins blinked slowly at Lilanee, managing what might have been the most disinterested stare in all of Brunnholdian history. She swung her gaze slowly to Madeline, as if to say, ‘really’?, her face a mask of pure boredem. Finally, she rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, waving towards the right hand side of the lower floor.
“She’s usually down the back, in the non-fiction between F and J.” It was all the help they were going to get, and after staring at each other for a few more seconds, Lilanee nodded and looked at Madeline.
“Right. Okay….this way I guess?” The older student would lead the quiet march across the hardwood floor and into the depths of the booklined aisles. They found F, and started there, moving through one end to the other, the tall shelves standing over them like silent watchers. Miss Wentworth wasn’t in F, or G, or H, but when they reached I they saw a woman with a book trolley, one old leatherbound tome in her hand as the opposite hand brushed over the spines of the musty books on the shelf.
She was an older woman, in her late forties by the lines on her face and the grey strands in her black hair. Anaxi, by the look of her, with her hair pulled into a gentle but function bun and dark framed spectacles on her nose. A thin silver chain went through the arms and around her neck, so she could take them off and they would hang there till required again. Her yellow eyes scanned over books, head tilted slightly so she could look through the bottom of her lenses, mouthing the titles silently as she looked for the appropriate place to insert the book.
“Miss Wentworth? Jasmine Wentworth?” The woman paused her review of the spines, turning her same downward gaze on the two students with all the professionalism of her profession.
“Yesssss? Though I hope you aren’t in the habit of addressing people by their first name young lady. Highly improper.” Looking between the girls, she raised a salt and pepper brow.
“Do I know you? Can I help you?” The older library assistant asked cautiously, not quite sure whether she really wanted to engage with them. It was getting close to morning tea break, and she was ever so aware Professor Hulle took her tea around this time. They were both avid readers of The Sergeants Calling, a weekly novella that was printed in the Kingsway Post, involving an intrepid and dashing Seventen Sergeant and his detective work in Vianda—a fictional city based off their own. The newest release had seen Miss Vrzk, the stunning but mysterious Hoxian diplomat burst into his office pleading for his protection from the elusive Miraan Marauders, and everyone was a buzz with the tension that was obviously palatable between the two main characters just as the episode ended! She needed to debrief and gossip as to what next week would bring, and Hulle would be just as eager.
The annoyance was there in her field, dancing around the edges, brimming with impatience.