Trying to smash all her papers into a bag quickly, Katy swept all the notes and unfinished pages from the counter into the opening of her messenger bag. “I’m not going to make it!” Katy repeated to herself over and over running from room to room gathering all her supplies. Katy had stayed up later than normal to cram for an English test and to complete an essay on T.S. Elliot’s “The Wasteland”. At 2am Katy thought it was a fitting poem since her essay was a desolate wasteland of content; and just like the poem itself, the study guide didn’t make any sense and just wouldn’t end. Katy quickly jostled her hair into a pony tail after getting a quick glance at herself in the mirror and rushed out the door.
While not looking her best this particular morning, Katy didn’t stand out in any spectacular way. For the most part, she was slightly below average. The only good thing physically going for her was she wasn’t overweight, nor underweight, just enough to add some curve in places that most girls had been blessed with long ago. Her small B cup breasts blended smoothly into her chest enough that on the weekends Katy didn’t bother to wear a bra under her t-shirts. She wasn’t going to win any awards about her back end either. Katy’s overall appearance could be summarized by her friend Amber’s “motivational” speech after Katy broke up with her 2 year boyfriend, “Don’t worry about him, there are plenty of guys out there who would be happy with a safe pick like you.” It sure wasn’t an appreciated compliment, but Katy couldn’t disagree with it. And that’s what she like about Amber, always honest and straight to the point.
Thankfully, Katy only had to jog a bit to make sure she caught the local shuttle to school. It took a bit of waving her arms and only a small amount of yelling, but the driver of the shuttle waited for her before taking off. “Thank you so…so much!” Katy said out of breath to the driver as she made her way towards the back, exhausted and slightly swaying back and forth from the exertion. She could see Amber sitting about half way back. Amber was probably 2 notches higher than Katy on the attractive side, but she never flaunted it. She had good genes in her, solid C cups, about 5’7” 125 pounds and long dirty blonde hair. Her glasses were a bit big for her face, somewhat hiding her pretty eyes. Amber liked to keep it simple with her appearance, but when she fancied herself up she always received more attention from the guys than Katy when they went out.
“Wow, cutting it closer and closer I see.” Amber slid over so that Katy could sit next to her. “Yeah, well, some of us had to study and write useless papers all night. Why do we need sooo many tests?! It’s not like this stuff is important. Nobody cares about poems or essays or anything like that.” Katy vented as she tried to sort through her bag finding the pages that had yet to be completed.
Amber listened to her friend rant on, being the good friend and all. Nodding where appropriate and trying to sympathize. “Just last week weren’t you saying how much you loved this class?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, but that’s before all the classes stacked up their tests this week! I thought they would all be next week since it’s right before spring break… I guess that would be too much to ask for.” Katy began to scribble down the last paragraph of her essay. Every pebble the shuttle hit felt like a speed bump and made it harder and harder for her to write. “Ugh, I just wish this was [Bump] as easy for me as it was for you.” Katy glared with a smirk. Amber grinned back, “I’m not any better than you, I just finished it up Wednesday instead of waiting until last night.”
“Well then miss ‘I’m done one day and night before you’, what did you write about for the literary [Bump] elements?” Katy asked pointing to the last section. “I don’t know, it was late and I just wanted to finish. [Bump] And I had other plans that night so it wasn’t exactly my best writing.” Amber answered. Pleading with her hands together Katy asked, “Come on, give me something, I’m begging you here. Can’t you remember how you started it?” Putting her hands on Amber’s lap and bowing sideways into them. “Please oh mighty Amber, I foresee you!”
“I think you mean beseech, unless you think you can see into my future.” Amber said modestly trying to lift Katy from her lap. “See?! Right there, that’s why I need to know what you put! I just need to know what went on in that head of yours. Eek!!!” [BUMP!] While Amber was looking down at Katy the shuttle took a tank shell, or perhaps just a pothole, but it caused the two to be sent slightly into the air. Katy turned in her seat trying to return to a sitting position and panicking as Amber’s knees pushed her head a bit further up in the air. Both girls flinched just before their faces collided.
…
Katy’s face was still scrunched up waiting for the bump to happen. It took a couple seconds for her to realize she was standing up and the hit wasn’t going to happen. Opening one eye slowly to see what was happening only led to more questions. “What is this? Where’d I go?” Looking around, Katy could only see a white horizon and empty space. There was no sun, no lights, but everything was bright enough to see; just an ambient glow from… everywhere. “Hello?!... Amber….? Anyone?” Spinning around Katy saw a large building that was coming into focus, like a mirage that was becoming reality.
“What the…” Amber stood in awe as the building completed itself. It was an antique looking building with white pillars like Greek architecture, but didn’t have the grandeur of a place meant to worship a god. Above the doors there was a metallic plaque that read: AMBER. “Well, I found Amber.” Katy said to herself still trying to figure out what was happening to her. With nowhere else to go but the infinite horizon, Katy decided it would be best to try and find someone inside to answer her questions. Making her way up the small steps to the double doors Katy noticed there wasn’t any dust, or sign of wear and tear. Everything was perfectly clean and up kept. “There must be someone here.” Katy tried to reason. Knocking a couple times with no answer, Katy just tried pulling on the big doors. As they creaked open she could start to see what this place was: It was a giant library.
Slowly walking through the entrance and trying to take it all in, Katy could only look in amazement at the size of the place. It certainly didn’t look that large on the outside, but on the inside it must have been at least 5 stories with a large skylight made of stained glass in the middle. Light was being directed into the library by large cutouts in the ceiling that made the inside almost as bright as the outside. “Oh! A person!” Katy gladly remarked to herself. “Excuse me, do you know where I am? Like, what is this place?”
“It is Amber’s library.” The woman said. As Katy started to approach the woman, she started to realize it look a lot like Amber, but something was off a bit. It was Amber, but everything was a bit more…. Amber-ish. Her features were slightly more exaggerated. Both good and bad. There was a mole on Amber’s arm that was now at least three times the size of the one Katy knew on Amber. On the other end, this Amber wore a pair of glasses that really fit her face well. They were the same design, but they just looked better on this version of Amber. Katy always thought Amber had picked out a pair of glasses that were too large for her face, but Amber herself always insisted they made her super cute – much like how they looked on this version.
Katy was glad this Amber went back to work since at this point you could say she was past the point of just staring at her. “So… where are we?”
“Amber’s library.” The lady replied again.
“Yes… but where’s the library?” Katy asked trying to rethink her questions.
“Amber.”
Clearly this lady wasn’t interested in helping and wasn’t making sense, Katy assumed. “So who are you? Are you the only person here? What do you do here?” Katy probed, getting a bit more uncomfortable with the fake Amber.
“I am Amber’s Librarian. I am the only one here, besides yourself. I am the keeper of Amber’s self. What you see before you is what makes Amber, Amber. This places resides within Amber.” Amber’s Librarian gestured to the giant library before her. “Now, if you’d please excuse me I must get back to work. If you need anything, please ask me over there at the information desk. And as always, please keep your voice down to a whisper.” Amber’s Librarian walked over to her desk and began writing in a book that was already open.
Katy followed her to the desk still trying to decipher what was just dropped on her. “I’m in Amber!” Katy exclaimed. “Please keep your voice down or you will be asked to leave.” The librarian shot back. “You are in Amber’s library.”
Starting to get fed up with this Katy sighed, “Ughh….” Laying her head down on the elevated counter in front of the open book the librarian was writing in. After picking her head up Katy looked at the book the librarian was writing in. The sentences were basically bullet points and short descriptions. Katy turned her neck a bit sideways leaning over the counter, pushing her breasts just over the inner edge to get a better look at the book. This librarian was writing about the events in the shuttle!
- Morning; 7:15ish; Katy running after shuttle and yelling at driver to stop.
- Katy is wearing her short jean shorts and loose tank top. She is wearing a bra today. Move over to let her sit next me. She is wearing nice perfume. Violet scent.
- Old man two seats in front of me sneezes.
- Katy didn’t complete her assignments and is stressed out.
“How do you know about what was happening before I came here? Did you bring me here?” Katy asked close to the librarian’s face. The librarian put her pen down and looked at Katy without moving away, “I am Amber’s Librarian, I am the keeper of her self. I know what Amber knows and experiences. I did not bring you here, you entered on your own.”
“So you know everything that Amber knows?” Katy asked raising an eyebrow.
The librarian replied with a bit of pride, the first emotion showed by her, “It is contained in all the books you see before you. I know where every book is and what it contains. Some books are re-printed so they fit collections better, but there are no duplications.”
Katy slyly asked, “So if I wanted to know what Amber wrote in, say… a report she created on Wednesday, could you tell me where to find that?” – “Certainly, “ the librarian stated, “it is down that Time isle, sorted by date, 3rd shelf on the right, 5th row up, orange book, page 272 through 290.”
“Hmm…” Katy schemed to herself, losing track that she was in a foreign place with this librarian claiming to know everything about her best friend. Realizing she lost her head a bit in the amazement of it all, Katy asked “How do I leave this place, like, you know, get back to the real Amber?”
“Out those doors,” the librarian pointed to the same doors Katy entered in from, “but you need to check out any books with me beforehand; otherwise, I can’t let you leave.”
Katy felt a little intimidated by that last part, probably because she said it with such authority. “Ok, well, it’s been… well it’s been something…” Katy waved while back up as she made her way to the door, never turning her back on the librarian. It wasn’t until she was almost at the doors that she started to really worry about leaving since there was nothing but nothingness outside. However, as soon as Katy stepped off the last step the library began to mirage itself away. Katy immediately began to panic. “Wait! What am I supposed to do! Hel-”
“puh!” Katy and Amber’s heads finished bouncing off each other as the shuttle settled back into its driving lane. “I’m back.” Katy thought in relief. Thankfully nobody seemed to care about Katy’s sudden shock as everyone attributed it to her hitting heads with another girl. “Ow, that smarts!” Amber said while rubbing her nose and cheekbones while putting her glasses back on. “Yea… stupid bus...” Katy slowly remarked while reminiscing about what just happened, “It must be the lack of sleep or maybe I hit my head much harder than I thought”.
“Are you getting off Katy?” Amber sarcastically teased Katy. “Oh! Yeah, yes.” As she stood up and put her papers away shuffling off the ‘death on wheels’ it suddenly dawned on her that because she was so mesmerized and confused by the Library she never finished the essay, and she had English first thing!
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