White Lies (Book 1)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I day I had first met Robbie was a cloudy one.

After the whole albino incident, I couldn't seem to walk down the corridors without hearing a muttered slur. The dirty looks had increased, and even the teachers couldn't help but join in. I couldn't hand in an assignment in biology without getting a pitying look from my teacher.

My non-existent reputation had plummeted, and I soon began spending my unlimited free time at the library. The one person who seemed to be completely oblivious to my reputation was the librarian.

Just from watching her surf through the countless books and titles on one of the library's shelves, I had already known that I would like her. Her chin-length hair seemed ill-fitting for her tiny shoulders, making her look smaller than she was. She had struggled to hold a pile of books stacked under one of her arms. Noticing this, I'd quietly walked up behind her, and had hoped to assist.

"Do you need some help with that?" I still hadn't given up on my accent at the time.

She jumped. I'd caught all of the books before they hit the floor.

"My goodness, you startled me!" she cried.

"Sorry."

"It's perfectly alright. I do appreciate the extra help," she smiled. "Are you new to this school? I haven't seen you around before."

"Yeah, just moved from another state. I'm Shelby." I lied.

"Shelby. That's nice," she complimented me. "I'm Ms. Casey. Help me put these books on that desk, will you?"

I followed her to the aforementioned desk, which had been piled with countless amounts of books which needed arranging. The library was decked with the latest technology, so much so that a robot assistant waiting for her behind the desk wouldn't have looked the slightest out of the ordinary.

The town really was made of money.

"Thanks for the help, Shelby. Do you need help looking up anything you need for today?" she'd asked.

I shook my head. "No, I'm just looking around." Lie. The thought of spending even a minute outside as the one-man band member of Lonerville made me want to puke.

"Okay," she smiled. She had small white teeth. "Not many students come to the library very often. I'm glad to see you in here."

An unusual, warm feeling had spread over me. I smiled back and prepared myself to venture into the space around me. I absently ran a hand along the spines of the books, inhaling the musky smell of the library. Nothing to do, no one to speak to. I was deeply and suddenly alone with my thoughts.

Until somebody cleared their throat. I'd spun around, startled.

Seated in one of the very long line of tables along the study space was a slim boy with a big black mess on top of his head. He'd never heard of a hairbrush in his life.

"Hi," was all he said.

"Um. Hi."

"Are you the albino girl?" he blurted out.

"Are you the guy who doesn't know what a hairbrush is?"

He then realized what he had just said, and had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean—"

I'd decided to drop the accent. "It's fine. Go ahead. I guess I sort of put that onto myself," I admitted. For some reason, I didn't bother to use my South African accent. I studied him, deciding that he looked familiar.

"Hey, are you in one of my classes or something?"

"Yeah, we have English together. I have to admit, I kind of fell for the whole albino story. Even if it did end up being a lie after all, I thought it was still cool," he'd confessed, albeit sheepishly.

His honesty had been so unexcepted. I laughed. He really was speaking to me, and not at me. It felt unfamiliar. It felt amazing.

A slow grin had crept onto his face, and he then motioned me to sit down across from him. Thus began one of our many lunch times spent talking. I'd begun talking about how I came up with the lie, and him about the book that he was currently engrossed in. In that afternoon, I had smiled and laughed more than I had in months. It had also occurred to me that it was the first real conversation I'd had with anybody from this school, and it felt pretty good to socialize. What a luxury this was.

When he asked me what school I had come from, of course I lied. I told him I had taken a break from school to go backpacking in Holland with my mother and stepfather. Mother had had a hard time coping with her winter blues, and soon enough, we came back to the US to live in the house that my mother had inherited from her uncle, who had just passed.

The lie was pretty unbelievable in itself, but I had been good enough to pull it off. He ate all of it up. He asked me what Holland had been like, and I'd begun describing all of the photos and postcards which I'd seen in travel books and guides.

Too soon for my liking, the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over. We sighed and got up at once, walking out the library together. We had left Ms. Casey in the dust, who was smiling wistfully as the heavy wooden doors closed behind us.