The Constellation of 12 Hates

The Librarian's Room

"What?"

Fae and Tania look at each other when they finish reading the invitation letter at the same time. “How could someone who rarely even visits the library be chosen to be in charge of the school librarian?” Fae asked the same question to herself in her heart.

"Why do they choose you?" Once again Tania opens her mouth. The blonde haired girl looked around the classroom, “Why not the weirdo Jessy or the nerdy Martin? Why should you… and Neythan who also doesn't seem to be ‘dealing with books if he doesn't have to’?”

Fae shook her head not understanding, "That's also my question."

Tania patted Fae's shoulder as she returned to her seat behind the girl. “Well, the only answer is to fulfill the invitation and go to the rearmost side of Azure High.”

Fae sighing and put the paper back in the envelope. Tania is right. There was no other choice, and it seems that being a librarian isn't such a bad thing either.

***

“I'm going to see Livy and Christine. See you tomorrow!"

Fae waves her hand and replying Tania with, “See you later!” when the girl walks out of the classroom. Fae smoothed her slightly wrinkled shirt before grabbing her backpack and stepping out of the classroom. Unlike most students who stepped forward to leave Azure High, the girl stepped towards the back of the school.

She could see several groups of men crowding the football and volleyball fields. Fae stepped on the sidelines while looking around. The cafeteria seemed to be filled with yet another group of students. Passing by the gymnasium, Fae complained, "It's really far behind."

"Are you talking to me?"

"Oh, God!" Fae immediately looks back and finds someone who -surprisingly- has communicated with her for the third time on this day. A very large number for the size of students who have not known each other before.

"I'm just talking to myself." Fae slowed down, giving Jack permission to walk beside her. "There's no one else here. I thought you were talking to me." Still in a disinterested tone and low voice, Jack replied to Fae.

“You do realize that what you said just now could be your longest line of the day, right, Neythan?” Fae folded her arms while looking around. It's true what Jack said. The location after the gymnasium is very quiet. Perhaps none of the students thought of drowning in books on the first day of school.

"Just call me Jack."

Jack puts his hand in the pocket. "Should I call you shorty?" Jack could even see the top of Fae's head standing next to her. Fae replied with a shriek before replying, “Fae. Don't you ever try to call me shorty, or—"

"Or what?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Or I'll kick your ass." Jack's crooked smile was created. The man opens the library door for himself and the shorty. "Thank you, I don't know how many times I said it today." Jack shrugged and approached the librarian's front desk.

Fae giggled. "Of course no one. We'll be the ones sitting down and guarding this place." Those words seemed to answer Jack's thoughts. "We'd better checking around and looking for the group that also has this invitation letter." Fae glances at the envelope in her hand and without waiting for Jack's approval, the woman steps to the right of the librarian's front desk.

"Wow, the library’s turns out to be wider than I thought."

This is the first time Fae has been impressed by the Azure Library Center. The wood brown nuance with the distinctive aroma of books wafted as soon as Fae stepped into the library. There is a long table lined horizontally in the middle of the room, with tall wooden bookshelves on the right and left. There are four rows of bookshelves, two on each side. There are probably about 20 shelves in each row. She doesn't know what books can be stored on all this shelves.

On the right side of the room -and perhaps symmetrical with the left side-, there is a personal booth for those who want to concentrate on their reading. The divider screens limit each table. The table itself is in a long line attached to the wall. Several large windows with dark brown curtains help light up the library when opened. Currently the curtain is closed because the air conditioner is activated. The yellow light from the chandelier is a substitute for lighting.

"Here."

Jack's voice brings Fae closer to the back right corner of the room. The girl could see that the back side of the Azure Library Center is filled with a file room on the far left, a toilet, a janitor equipment's room, as well as a room that titled as 'Librarian's Room' on the door on the right side. That's where Jack calls Fae.

Apparently, the room can be opened, and there is already several students waiting inside. Fae greets them friendly and gives her best smile, but it seems that not everybody here is someone who will smile back in a friendly manner. Some were silent, and two people didn't even bother to turn their heads for seeing the arrival of Jack and her.

The librarian's room looks like a typical student organization room. There is a wide table in the center of the room, a blackboard attached to the right side, lockers lined behind the door -across from the blackboard-, two pairs of long sofas on the other two sides, a large wooden cupboard, and also a water dispenser.

Fae could see that Jack doesn't say hello at all. He immediately puts the bag on the wide table, and pulls out one of the chairs before sitting down. Fae sighing and sits down on the edge of the sofa closest to the entrance.

The minutes passed in silence, Fae is seeing one by one the people in the librarian's room. Two girls and three boys besides Jack and her. There are total of seven people in the librarian's room at this time.

Two people who didn't want to bother too much to stare at her presence, one of them was a woman who was standing staring at a large window that was above the sofa opposite Fae. A skinny woman, long black hair, and the dark aura that surrounds her fits perfectly with the impression of horror. The only thing that made her look normal is her average height. Fae had time to see the direction of the girl's gaze, the window with the curtains that’s open. There is nothing behind the school but the remains of the building's logs, a few tall trees, and shrubs bordered by a tall, net-shaped high fence.

The other is a man with a perfect face. The man leans against the locker and busy playing with his cellphone while smiling lopsidedly. Fae feels that the man had an annoying aura. Fae had seen the expression the man has just now, but she is forgotten what kind of expression it is.

Another girl sitting across from Jack didn't look much different from the previous girl. Only long wavy hair and height above the average woman in general that distinguishes it from the other girl. Oh, one more! The indifference that the two girls have is their face.

The remaining two men are the most normal and sociable in the room. The two sit next to each other on the sofa opposite Fae and chatted after smiling and greeting Fae back with "Hi!". One of them looks tall, has short hair, and is of medium body proportion. The other is not much different from Fae -maybe about 160 cm and included as short for a man-, wearing glasses, and has straight hair that goes down to cover his forehead to touch his eyebrows.

Just as Fae was about to open her mouth to ask who else they should be waiting for, three people entered the room. Two boys and one girl. “I only found two of them.” said the girl. The girl looked breathless, maybe because her body was quite fat. Fae immediately gets up and takes a paper cup, filled it with mineral water, and hold it out to the girl with wavy hair. The girl fixing her glasses before accepting Fae's gift.

"Do you want a tissue?"

Fae sits back down, looking for something, then hold out the pocket tissue she had just taken from her bag. The girl sits next to Fae and accepted it. "Thank you."

“Who did you ‘find’ just now?”

"Two athletes who probably wouldn't have attended the meeting if they are not being forced to."

Ah! Fae felt familiar with the faces of the two men who pulled up chairs and sat next to the wide table, close to Jack. As Fae recalled, one of them is the captain of her school's basketball. Third year, handsome, tan skin, and perfectly formed muscles. Fae often hears girls want to win the basketball captain's heart. Another is a man with wet-looking brown hair, taller than the basketball captain, and a darker complexion on the skin. Unlike the serious-looking basketball captain, this man clearly lacked confidence.

Fae looked at the man who is bowing his head. Somehow, she could feel herself inside that man… Her old self.

It seemed that the man felt someone is staring at him, so he lifts his face. Fae turned her gaze towards the entrance automatically. Where’s to put her pride if he’s being caught of observing a man she doesn't even know before? Just then, two other people entered. Whoa, so many of people! How many more people will come for the invitation?

"Sorry, we’re late."