A Preview: Mr. Linden's Library

     The smell of dust and perfume hung in the air.  The halls were empty.  The sky roof was clanking from the rain and hail.  It was a new school, Golden Hale Middle School, a rich, and snobby school full of over-privileged kids.  It was going to be hard.  To fit it, to be the only girl that isn't rich, and the only one that doesn't live in a huge mansion, the only one that wears Converse and hand-me-downs.  Mellie thought this as she walked down the hallways.
     She looked up at the ceiling, but just as she did, Mellie ran into someone, "Oh, hello," said the strange man.
     "Hi.  Sorry for bumping into you," Mellie said quietly.
     "That's quite all right.  It was my fault, my eyes aren't quite what they used to be," the man said, chuckling, "I haven't introduced myself.  I am Rupert Linden, the school librarian."  Mr. Linden was old, probably in his sixties.  He was wearing khakies with brown shoes, with a button-down shirt and an overcoat.  He was probably the most odd looking man Mellie had ever seen.
     "I'm Mellie.  Uh...a new student here."  She didn't talk too well in front of strangers.  She would often stutter and look at the ground.
     "Well Mellie, I look forward to seeing you."  The old librarian walked away, smiling.
     Millie thought about him, how nice he was, how different he was from the nasty principal, how the principal treated her and her family like dirt, but the librarian, Mr. Linden, was kind and wonderful.  She finally knew someone, someone who cared about her, or at least acted like they did.
     Soon the bells rang, and the kids filled the hallways like a river that broke its dam.  Mellie was overwhelmed.  She ran down the wide hallway, against the crowd, and ran into the bathroom.  It was as big as two classrooms at her old school combined.  She saw the room, with the dark marble counters, and cried.
      "Isn't this what I'd always wanted?  To go to a good school?" She said quietly to herself as she cried.  But she started laughing hysterically, because it was just so stupid, to be crying over something as stupid as this.  Just because she's the complete opposite of all of them.  Mellie is fine being herself.  In fact, she was always standing up for herself and other people for who they are.  She didn't have the money they had, but she had the personality they didn't have.
     Mellie thought about it for a while, but she wasn't the only different one.
     She stood up, wiped the tears off her face, and sighed.  She walked to the door and opened it slowly, and shut it behind her.
      The halls were quiet again.  Since it was her first day, Mellie was allowed to walk anywhere, take a tour by herself of the huge school.  She walked down the halls to the library.  She opened the dark, oak doors and walked in.
     It was gorgeous.
     There were more than twenty shelves full of beautiful, hard covered books.  There were buckled leather journals, with golden writing on the covers.  There also was a small fountain in the middle of the library.  There were big pillows on the floor.  The library was so huge that Mellie couldn't even see all of it.
     She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  The smell was amazing; it was musty and old, it was books, one of the things in Mellie's world that was meaningful to her.  She could taste it, the books; the pages, the contents on the pages, the wood which the dusty shelves were made from.  She heard the voices of the books, calling her.
     Mellie walked up the creaking stairs into the balcony of the library.  The balcony stretched across the whole library.  It had a gorgeous dark oak railing, with small designs carved into each of the poles holding it up.  She slowly rubbed her finger tips on each one.
     Mellie walked slowly around the balcony, walking with one hand on the railing, taking in deep breaths, with her eyes closed.
      "Why, hello again," said a familiar voice from behind her.
     Mellie slowly opened her eyes and turned around.
     "Do you like the library?  Barely anyone comes in here, unless they have to," Mr. Linden smiled while he was talking.  Mellie liked how happy he was, and how he always talked right to her, and not looking somewhere else.
     "Oh yes, I love the library, it's...it's...bigger than any library I've ever seen," Millie said this quietly, but instead of looking at the floor, she looked at him, in the eye, just as all of her teachers had told her to do.
     "Why thank you, I'm glad you love it.  Sometimes I mistake it for my actual home!" The odd librarian often laughed at himself, including now.  He walked over to Mellie and guided her down the stairs.
     "Mellie, when do you start your classes?" asked Mr. Linden.
     "Next Wednesday.  They're giving me some time to settle in," Mellie said with a sigh.  "Do...do...do you mind if I stay in here until next Wednesday?" she asked, with a crooked smile.
     "Oh of course you can!  I sometimes talk to myself when I'm alone.  It'll be nice having someone else around!" Mr. Linden chuckled.  Mellie liked the way he would always joke around with himself.
     The bell rand and Mellie looked at the clock.  
     "Oh well, I've got to go. Bye!  See you tomorrow," she said and smiled.
     "Ok, have a wonderful evening!  See you tomorrow!" the old librarian said happily as they walked toward the doors.
     Just after Mellie walked out the big doors, she waved through the tiny square window with a smile on her pale face.  Mr. Linden smiled, his odd, odd smile, and waved back.
     The next Monday, Mellie woke up to a sharp pain on the muscle of her arm.  Her little brothers were standing right by her bed, with their fingernails gouged in her arm.  She saw this and slapped both of them.  They raced out of her room into the kitchen.