Jenna managed to make it to school with enough time to wash the sticky soda from her arm before first period, though her shirt would have a stain for the rest of the day. This wasnt the first time she had been the target of Derrick and his group of friends, and she was certain it wouldnt be the last. With her shoulders slumped in defeat, Jenna made her way to her first period as a library assistant. She had been most excited about this hour before summer vacation, but given the way her first day back had progressed, she no longer felt the same motivation and joy she had when she first signed up.
Mrs. Shellton, the Liverton High School's librarian, sat behind a desk to the left of the library doors. When Jenna entered, Mrs. Shellton greeted her warmly with a wave. "It is going to be a pleasure having you here this year." At 48 years old, Mrs. Shellton wasnt the youngest school worker, but she was Jenna's favorite. Her graying brunette hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, and she had the brightest blue eyes Jenna had ever seen. Jenna always thought her eyes seemed to twinkle with untold secrets and mystery, as if she knew the answers to questions unasked, but wouldnt share them even if you did.
"Hello Mrs. Shellton. Have we gotten anything new that needs shelved?" Though this was Jenna's first year being able to sign up as an assistant, she spent so much time in the library in previous years that she already knew her way around and even knew what jobs assistants were most often tasked with. Walking to the library desk, she saw she was spot on. The desk top was loaded with new additions that Mrs. Shellton had just added their library systems barcodes to.
"You certainly are on top of things, as always." Mrs. Shellton praised her with a smile. "These ones are for 10th and up." She explained, picking up a stack of books. "Aisle 6, please hunny."
Jenna sat her bag down behind the desk, then took the assigned books and headed to aisle 6. She had already red all of the books in that row last year, so she skimmed over the new additions as she placed them in their alphabetically correct sections. She was a bit disgruntled to see there were mostly sports biographies, probably the requests of the football and basket ball teams to get out of doing biography papers on presidents, though the one or two fantasy titles peaked her interest and lightened her heart.
The last book in her hands was oddly blank. She turned it over in her hands, inspecting the black leather cover for some form of embossing before she flicked it open. "Hidden Bonds and Bounds." She stared at the artwork of the first page, seeing a woman looking through a mirror at some fog. Jena frowned, squinting a second at the holographic, misty appearance in the middle of the mirror drawing. It almost looked like the misty appearance was hiding some form of lettering in its swirls. Tilting the book left and right, then forwards and backwards, Jenna worked out the phrase, "Traeh ruoy fo noitcel fera?" She looked at the swirling mist again, for a moment almost thinking she saw a face in it before she closed the cover.
Jenna snorted and plopped the black book into it's new place on the shelf, then walked away.
The rest of the school day was quite normal for Jenna. Avoiding people, doing the assigned work quickly so she could read in peace without a teacher reprimanding her for wasting time in their class. She managed to work her way through the day without any more altercations with any other kids by reading through one of the two fantasy books she had borrowed from the library earlier, and while she unlocked her bike to start home, she wondered if she should make a detour to catch a raid or two, maybe hatch an egg, before heading home. After spending all day inside, she felt like some Pokemon Go was more then deserved.
Jenna made it home just before 5:30pm. She hadnt found any spectacular pokemon on her hunt, which disappointed her and just seemed to cap off her cruddy day. Her legs hurt a bit from the longer ride, and she was mentally weary from the long day, but she knew she had to get dinner started or no one in the house would eat tonight.
Some days, she missed having her mother around to handle the household duties. Cleaning, cooking, folding laundry. Days when Jenna just wanted to rest or chill out, it had been nice to have her mother around. Frowning, Jenna started some water boiling for spaghetti noodles, her mind wandering off into the past. Some days, they had been a happy family. But then, the days when her mother had been drinking overshadowed and out weighed those happy days. No matter how tired she felt, Jenna knew they were all happier separated from eachother.
She sat down while the water heated up, opening her backpack to pull out her library books. She paused in the middle of shuffling through her bag, before pulling out three books in confusion. There were the two fantasy books she had borrowed, however, sitting on top of the stack was the strange black leather, unembossed book she had put away from this morning.