Penelope
I almost ran away when I saw that crazy girl Aidene Rayners head towards my table. But then she said she wanted information and my reputation as the school's broker is very important to me. So I told them to meet me after school because the school bell had rung, notifying everyone to get to class but I said mostly because I needed to prepare myself if I wanted to face the craziness of that Rayners girl.
I stared at the clock next to the chalkboard and looked out the window at the small town as our teacher was telling us that even if it was our first day she wasn't going to hold back on homework. Our English teacher, Miss. Danvers was one of those old-school women who thought 'nice little girls' were not supposed to wear pants and not supposed to do sports. In short, she was ancient. She might as well have been a corpse for her age but she didn't look as she probably was. She always wore a pencil skirt with one of those shirts which had a frilly chest (didn't that go out of fashion like in the 17th century or something?). Her salt and pepper hair was made into a tight knot above her head and had pins stuck in them. She wore glasses at least a few inches thick so I doubt she would have seen me throw little paper balls at Caleb's head.
"You will have to read the..." I heard her painfully shrill voice saying. And that's when heaven saved us. The bell's melodious sound echoed through the halls marking it as the end of school for today.
I ran at full speed towards the school gates trying my best to not tackle everyone in my way. (I said 'sorry'...). I stopped in front of my clients with a look of confusion. I say confusion because they were not wearing the uniform and class just got over a few minutes back, no way they changed so fast.
"HI! Last period was free." Rayners said jumping up and down, picking up my obvious confusion. Her teal ends somehow managed to clash with her coffee brown hair and look good at the same time. She wore a red shirt with the word "BELIEVE" printed in white, tucked into a pair of faded black jeans and knee-length boots. All of it brought together with a bright canary yellow unzipped hoodie.
I landed my eyes on the pale bluish green ones of the stark-opposite friend of Rayners, Anne, who wore the same grey coat which she had worn in the evening when she had arrived, this time with an orange shirt and black jeans for a change. She waved at me.
Aidene hitched her backpack excitedly and looked at me.
"So, are we getting a tour?"
"I'll show you guys around as we go. But what did you guys need, you realize that you guys need to pay me back right?"
"We need to talk to someone who is an old resident of this town or something like that" Aidene jumped up and down as she talked. She is too overactive for her own good.
"40 bucks and a pack of gum"
"What?" A bewildered look crossed Anne's face as she said that.
"The payment for the information."
I watched as Aidene took out the money and slapped it onto my hand.
"This is only 20," I said looking down at my hand.
"We are splitting the bill" Aidene looked at Anne, with a raised eyebrow.
Anne rolled her eyes and sighed. She took two 10 dollar notes out of her pocket and put them down on top of the twenty.
"Gum?"
"We'll buy it on the way. Now let's play, 'follow the leader' and you Penelope have the honor of being the leader." Aidene said
"I don't think that's a game... anyway follow me."
---
We walked through the cheery neighborhood I called home, 'Deadwood'. A bit of a dark name for how pleasant it was most of the time and also the school which is called 'Havenpoint'. I walked down the stone pathway while chewing half the pack of gums at once (It's more fun that way don't tell me otherwise).
I spun around and looked at my accomplices. I was getting worried because Aidene had not spoken for almost a full minute. I caught the sight of her bobbing her head to whatever music she was listening to on her teal colored headphones (what is with that girl and colors). She must have had the headphones in the bag.
Anne trailed behind both of us staring at nothing in particular, probably spaced out.
"HEY Penny!" Aidene shouted over however loud she was playing her music, by which I was shocked hasn't made her go completely deaf yet.
"DO NOT CALL ME PENNY." I shouted back loud enough so she could hear it although I might have overdone it from what I could tell from the expression of a senior couple walking by us. Clearly somehow she did not hear me or she's just being a prick and ignored me semi-screaming at her.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE HEADMASTER'S NAME?"
"STOP SCREAMING YOU LIL #$$#$!%^"
"Woah language." Anne replied after she had been snapped out of her trance by our shouting.
"Wait I actually don't know his name. Come to think of it he never introduced himself and everyone was too scared to ask... Wha- how did he go more than 3 decades without students using his name, even once?" I felt like a let down for the students mostly because it was my job to know everything about everyone in the school, teachers included and all I knew about the headmaster was:
He is scary.
That's all. My information tank on the principal dried up after that point. It was pathetic and I was frustrated. I was going to continue this train of thought when it was interrupted by Aidene getting weird looks from strangers. She was mouthing the lyrics to some rock song probably and air guitaring and drumming violently. We didn't bother to stop her cause we knew we couldn't. Honestly, I doubt she could have heard us anyway.
"So where are we going?" Anne said through a stifled yawn.
"Book Cavern. It's a library owned by the Caveras, one of the oldest resident families of Deadwood and of course the library they own is the oldest one in town. We, to be more specific, are going to be talking to Jake 'Jay' Cavera,"
"Does he know you?"
"Yeah. Pretty much any shopkeeper or librarian in town knows me or at least has heard of me. Comes with the job."
"Back to the principal topic, anyone else getting Captain Underpants, Professor "P" vibes for the principal's name?"
Both me and Anne turned our heads towards Aidene. None of us said anything but she was right.
We kept walking in silence. The sun burnt our skin and Anne looked like a vampire. The streets were mostly empty because of the scorching heat. I swear I saw a few mirages... or those might have just been puddles.
Quiet little brick houses lined both sides of the road and a few mom-and-pop stores scattered here and there. It was quite scenic really, but it was hard to notice it, or even appreciate it after going to boarding school here for this long and the heat was also making it hard to see, anything.
Anne was like a vampire (like I mentioned before) trying to stick to the shades and seemed to almost glow dangerously in the sunlight, while Aidene didn't seem to mind the heat. She actually seemed to be liking it. She skipped along merrily behind me like we aren't in the middle of 105˚F weather. At Least, that's what I deduced from seeing her skipping or occasionally breaking into a jog. Me, I was trying to reach the library as fast as possible to get this deal over with. After about half a mile of sweaty walking, we reached the library.
It was a grand marble building with Victorian style windows. The library was pretty big for a privately owned one, even though it's well over a few decades old.
"BOOKS!" Aidene yelled and ran into the library.
"Guess she likes books too?" Anne snapped, the heat must be getting to her.
I had to agree this girl got over excited about... basically everything we've seen so far, including the fat overfed pigeons that barely moved (she wanted to feed them. More.) and the dirty stray cats and even a cow we passed by on the little grazing field next to Havenpoint and to top it all of, Lucas' old raggedy-definitely-stale-candy store.
We entered the building. It smelled like pine and old books just like I remembered it. I looked around. I heard a distinct cackle from the balcony. Aidene.
I scanned the hall but instead of the source of the cackle and stomps I spotted a little eight year old arranging books" Amy! How are u doing?" I said as happily as possible (you have no idea how hard that is)
"Who is she?" Anne inquired, quietly to me so as to not be rude I guess.
"Amy Cavera she is the store owners little sister, only reason she helps around in the library is so she can get candy from the people who visit"
I turned my attention towards the eight year old heading toward us.Amy's wavy black hair which came up to her shoulders bounced up and down as she happily skipped.Her fringes covered her eyebrows and her hazel eyes shone with the curiosity,which every child had.
"Where is your brother?" I asked.
"The helpdesk" Amy replied simply with a slight Hispanic accent..
"And did you happen to see a crazy girl anywhere?"
"Blue colored hair?"
"Yup"
"Yes. She headed towards the mythology section"
"Can't we just leave her there?" Anne complained.
"If we did she would just find her way back, like some clingy dog"
We stopped at the mythology section expecting to see Aidene climbing the shelves or something but instead we found her on the ground leaning against the shelves with her nose buried in the book.
"I am gonna borrow this" She said to no one in particular.
"Okay let's go Rayners," I said, picking her up.
We headed towards the helpdesk with Aidene balancing the hardbound book on her head all the way, somehow managing not to drop it. I could see Jake 'Jay' Cavera was crouched over some book at the helpdesk, obviously not noticing us. As we got closer I realized he had headphones on and was literally sitting with his nose an inch away from the book. Seeing the opportunity I crept up behind him and backhanded him in the back of the head.
"GAHH. What? Who-"
I stepped back and did a half curtsy.
"Well if it isn't Miss Knight. What can I do for the broker's clients today," a kind smile took its place on his face.