The Principal's Son

Sandra read the spine of the book she was holding, then scanned the shelves as she searched for where Anna Karenina should go. Tolstoy… Tolstoy… ah, there it was. Sandra slid the book into place, but not before lingering a moment longer, her fingers running down the spine. It wasn’t a cheap paperback cover like most of the other books in the library. This one had substance, like it had been made to last. Of course, the book was so large that it may have been out of necessity.

“I see you’re enjoying the new job.”

Sandra turned and saw her two best friends, Amanda and Gracie, watching her from the end of the aisle. They were both grinning and had their arms laden with books.

“Sorry, I don’t get an employee discount,” Sandra teased.

Amanda’s lips dipped into a frown and she exchanged a disappointed look with Gracie. “I guess we’ll have to put all of these back.”

Sandra laughed. “Or you could just use your library card.”

Amanda’s smile returned. “Yeah, there’s that.”

“You’re so lucky,” Gracie said, shifting the books in her arms. “I always wanted to work in a library.”

“I honestly don’t know how I even managed to get it,” Sandra said. She had applied a couple of years earlier, but Lakeview only had one small library, and there was rarely an opening. She’d forgotten about her application until the librarian had called and told her they’d kept it on file and a position had opened up. Sure, she was just scanning and shelving books, but Sandra was thrilled at the opportunity. She hoped it would open the way for her to eventually become a librarian herself.

Speaking of the librarian…Mrs. Klemin was walking toward the aisle where Sandra stood talking to her friends. In an effort to avoid making a bad impression on her first day, she grabbed a book off the cart next to her, and as Mrs. Klemin reached the end of the aisle, Sandra said, “A school project, huh? I would recommend this one.” She held the book out to Gracie.

Gracie raised an eyebrow, but when she glanced over her shoulder and saw the stern-looking woman with elf-shaped ears, she turned back and took the book. “Thank you. I think,” she looked at the cover, “Twelve Ways to Find Love is exactly what I was looking for.” Gracie crinkled her nose, and Amanda stifled a giggle.

“Just let me know if there is anything else I can help you with,” Sandra said with an over-the-top smile.

Gracie added the book to her already large pile. “I certainly will.”

As Sandra’s friends walked away, Mrs. Klemin approached her. “It seems you’ve got the hang of things.” She eyed the cart next to Sandra. “Though I would have expected you to have already finished shelving those books by now.”

Sandra tried not to balk. The cart was still half full. How on earth did Mrs. Klemin expect her to have all those books shelved already? “Sorry, still getting used to the layout of the library.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Mrs. Klemin didn’t smile, but her tone was warm. “Come find me when you’re done, and I’ll show you how to check books back into the system.” Her gaze lingered on Sandra’s wrists for a moment.

Oh, shoot.

Sandra had changed her shirt—she doubted Mrs. Klemin would’ve appreciated Sandra’s usual Day of the Dead attire—but she had forgotten to remove her spiked wristbands.

To Sandra’s surprise, Mrs. Klemin’s lips twitched up. “I like those. My daughter wears something similar, but yours are a bit more classy.” And then the librarian turned and returned to the main counter at the front of the library.

Well, all right then. It seemed there was more to Mrs. Klemin than Sandra had first realized.

With a smile and a shake of her head, Sandra returned to her cart. She had just placed the last book on the shelf when Gracie and Amanda reappeared next to her. They now held cloth bags that bulged with weight.

“Hey, I thought Mrs. Klemin had run you two off,” Sandra said.

“We don’t scare that easily,” Amanda said. “Besides, she and my mom worked together on the Town Council. She invited us to stop by her office for some toffee.”

“Toffee?” The librarian hadn’t offered Sandra any.

Gracie laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get some too.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Mrs. Klemin said, reappearing at the end of the aisle. “That is a privilege Sandra hasn’t yet earned.”

Amanda and Gracie spun to face the librarian. Was she following them?

“Meet us next to the stuffed panda in the children’s section,” Amanda said under her breath. “We need to talk.” Then she gave a little wave and said loudly, “Thank you for your help.” As she and Gracie sauntered off, Mrs. Klemin’s gaze followed them.

“Do they not realize I know they are your friends? It’s a bit obvious. Though the redhead is very loyal. She checked out that book you gave her about ways to find love.”

Sandra didn’t know what to say to that. She’d only been working for a couple of hours, but it seemed the librarian was like a living, breathing security camera who popped up whenever was least convenient.

Mrs. Klemin seemed to have sensed Sandra’s distress, and she waved a hand in the air. “Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble.” She paused, and her gaze landed on something at the other end of the library. “They’re looking bored. You might want to hurry over to your secret meeting. But next time, tell them not to choose the panda. They don’t exactly fit in over there.”

Now Sandra really didn’t know what to say. If she didn’t know better, she’d say Mrs. Klemin had just tried her hand at being funny. But Mrs. Klemin was stern and humorless—at least that was how she’d seemed in Sandra’s interview and for the past two hours. And librarians did have a reputation.

“Well?” Mrs. Klemin raised an eyebrow. “Grab the cart by the counter. That one has the picture books. If I’m going to pay you, you might as well work.”

Sandra gave a quick nod, then grabbed the handle on her empty cart. She pushed it against the side of the counter, then grabbed the one full of books with talking animals. When she reached her friends, they grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the panda that was as tall as they were.

“You know you’re not fooling her, right?” Sandra said. “She knows you’re hiding here.”

Gracie looked shocked. “You told her?”

“Um…no. She saw you. It’s a small library.”

The three friends turned. Mrs. Klemin was helping a patron, but her gaze met theirs and she gave a little wave.

They shot back behind the panda.

“Fine,” Amanda said. “Maybe we’re not as stealthy as we thought. But we really needed to talk to you.”

What could possibly be so important that her friends were acting like they were in Mission Impossible? “I was with you all day at school.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t know then what we know now,” Gracie said. “If we had known what we know, then we could have told you. But we didn’t.”

Sandra looked between her two best friends. They stared back, their eyes dancing with excitement. She had a feeling she didn’t want to know what had brought them to the library on her first day of work. Truthfully, they probably would have come anyway, but Sandra could tell these girls weren’t there for idle chatter. “O-kay.”

Amanda and Gracie exchanged looks, like they were figuring out who should speak first.

“As much as I love you two, you need to hurry this up,” Sandra said, tapping a bright pink book that sat on the cart. An elephant wearing a tutu graced the cover. “I don’t want to lose my dream job on my first day.”

“Fine,” Gracie said, releasing an exaggerated sigh. “So, the Valentine’s Day dance is coming up in a few weeks. Twenty-four days, to be exact.”

Oh, not this conversation again. Amanda was going with her dreamy boyfriend, Cameron, and Gracie’s boyfriend, Markus, was visiting from MIT. Sandra didn’t understand why he’d leave the college scene to attend a high school dance, but apparently he had no intention of missing their first Valentine’s Day together. Which left Sandra. Alone. They’d never had this problem before, because they’d always just skipped the Valentine’s dance and had an epic girl’s night instead.

Not this year.

And out of the goodness of their hearts—or more like the guilt that resided there—her friends were intent on finding her a date for the dance.

“I told you. I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me,” Sandra said, grabbing the elephant book off the cart and looking for its home on the shelf. Anything to keep her occupied and not having to look at her friends. She didn’t want them to realize how not okay she was with the situation. It wasn’t their fault—it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just how the chips had fallen. They had found the guys that made them swoon, and Sandra hadn’t. It was as simple as that.

Well, maybe not quite as simple as that. These types of things were never simple. Which was just another reason for Sandra to stay far away from anything that resembled a romantic relationship. Nothing good could come of it. Maybe for other people. But not her.

Amanda hesitated before speaking. “Look, I was talking with Cameron—”

“About my love life—or lack thereof?” Sandra interrupted. Great, now everyone knew how pathetic she was.

“And he thinks you should go with Blair,” Amanda finished.

Blair.

Cameron’s best friend.

Sandra’s breathing grew shallow. She gave a quick shake of her head and grabbed another book off the cart. No way. Sure, he was nice. More than nice. He had attended Amanda’s Christmas party and he’d been Sandra’s secret Santa. She still had the gift he’d given her. The Nightmare Before Christmas snow globe sat on her nightstand. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone had given her. But it had been because he’d picked her name—he’d had to give her a gift. It hadn’t meant anything.

And now Amanda and Cameron were trying to force them together again.

It would be a pity date, and Sandra was sure Blair would rather be at the dance with someone else—anyone else. She saw how the other girls looked at him. Why wouldn’t they? He was a hot swimmer who had toned muscles that she was sure felt amazing when they pulled someone in for a hug—or a kiss—

No. She wouldn’t let her thoughts go there. Before Amanda’s party, Sandra had gotten to know Blair a little when they were working on the set of the school’s Christmas play. And, although they had worked well together when wearing safety goggles and using a drill, he had shown no interest in her.

Trying to be anything more than casual acquaintances would get her hopes up and could only end in disaster.

“I’m sorry. But I think Cameron is wrong,” Sandra said, shoving the book where it belonged. She didn’t miss the look Amanda and Gracie shared—the one that said they were unsure what to do at this point. What had they expected, that she would hug them and thank them for their brilliant idea?

Gracie tucked a strand of red curly hair behind her ear. “It’s not like you’d have to date him. It’s just one night.”

“Yeah, I’m not really into one-night stands.”

Amanda huffed. “It’s not like that, and you know it.”

“Why do you care?” Sandra asked. It wasn’t like her friends to push her like this. “Why is this so important to you?”

Silence.

Sandra turned away and gabbed another book, having given up on receiving an answer. She wished her friends could just be straight forward with her. And then Gracie suddenly blurted out, “Because Blair needs this as much as you do.” Sandra turned back in time to see Amanda gave Gracie a warning look. Gracie clamped her lips shut.

Sandra folded her arms. “Why?”

Amanda gave a resigned shrug. “From what I hear, it’s not easy being the principal’s son.”

Each day, as soon as school let out, Sandra hurried over to the library. It had become her sanctuary, one that Amanda and Gracie hadn’t entered since they’d tried pressuring her to go to the dance the previous week. There had been a weird tension between them since that day.

So Sandra had focused on being amazing at her job. If she was going to become a librarian, she needed to prove to Mrs. Klemin that she was the best there was. Sandra was getting quicker at shelving the books and could now do a cart in twenty minutes. At night, she kept her mind busy by reading everything she could get her hands on. The more books she read, the more she’d be able to help the patrons in choosing the right book for them. Mrs. Klemin had noticed the difference, and Sandra had earned a toffee the previous day for her efforts.

When Sandra arrived at the library that afternoon, late for her shift, the key was barely out of the ignition when she jumped from the car, dragging her purse with her. Mrs. Klemin was waiting for her when she walked in, which was unusual. Sandra’s footsteps slowed, and her mind immediately jumped to worst-case scenarios. Was this because she was late? It was only by about five minutes. Was she about to be fired? Sandra didn’t think she could handle losing her job. This was something she needed, not just financially or for her future career.

She needed it for her own sanity.

When Sandra was at school, she was lumped into a group with her two best friends—the three of them were rarely apart and were seen as one entity. This had never bothered her, and until recently, she’d loved it. But ever since her two friends had gotten boyfriends, an invisible wedge had appeared that they were trying to figure their way around.

Not at the library.

Here, she was just Sandra. She was appreciated for her skills and her knowledge. No one cared if she was dating anyone, they just wanted to know things, like if she had any recommendations for an eight-year-old boy who loved trains.

Mrs. Klemin wouldn’t take that away from her, would she?

“Good afternoon, Sandra,” the librarian said.

“H-i,” Sandra said, the word elongated into two syllables.

“Do you mind if we have a quick chat?”

Sandra gave a slight nod, but then realized Mrs. Klemin had probably not even seen it because she’d already turned away. “Sure.” Sandra followed the librarian into her office.

“I am very impressed with you, as are the patrons,” Mrs. Klemin said before Sandra even had the chance to sit down.

Sandra stared. There had to be a but in there. Mrs. Klemin didn’t continue, however, and Sandra said, “Thank you.”

Mrs. Klemin studied Sandra for a moment before saying, “I hope I wasn’t too hard on you the first couple of days. I’ve found things usually go smoother if I start out more strict and loosen up over time, rather than the other way around.” Mrs. Klemin looked like she was trying to choose her next words carefully. “I haven’t seen your friends since your first day here, and you work nonstop from the moment you arrive until your shift ends. I didn’t mean to push you to the extreme.”

Sandra released a long sigh of relief. Mrs. Klemin was worried that Sandra was working too hard? That was something she could handle.

“No, you were right. I wasn’t trying my best, and that needed to change. Like I told you in my interview, I want to be a librarian, and that means excelling at everything, including shelving books.”

“As long as you know that taking an occasional break is perfectly acceptable, and your friends are always welcome here, provided you still get your job done.”

Sandra appreciated the sentiment, but she wasn’t going to pass along the message. She felt a prick of guilt, then shoved the feeling aside. After being stuck at the hip with them for the past six years, Sandra needed some space from her friends, and there was nothing wrong with that. Although she wasn’t sure if Amanda and Gracie would agree. That was another thing she’d keep from them.

“Thank you,” Sandra said.

“Toffee?” Mrs. Klemin said, extending a tin toward Sandra.

She gratefully accepted, then got to work. She finished shelving the books quickly and, after Mrs. Klemin said she wouldn’t have anything for Sandra to do for a few minutes, she found herself with a bit of extra time. Sandra had a physics test the next day, and she settled in a chair behind the counter as she went over her notes. A few minutes turned into two hours. By the time seven o’clock rolled around, she knew the information backward and forward, and even sideways.

Sandra gathered up her things but paused when she saw a familiar handsome face in the entryway.

Blair.

He wasn’t holding any books, and he wasn’t walking down any of the aisles, but instead seemed like he was looking for someone.

The floor seemed to drop from beneath Sandra’s feet, and she placed a stabilizing hand on the counter. Her friends wouldn’t have sent Blair, would they? Not after what Sandra had told them.

Yes, they totally would have.

What had they told him? That she couldn’t find a date? Great. He was there to bestow his pity on her. Talk about embarrassing. She’d never be able to look him in the eyes again.

Sandra ducked behind the counter. How was she going to leave now? Blair was standing right in front of where she needed to exit.

“What are you doing?” Mrs. Klemin whispered.

Sandra jumped, startled by the close proximity of the voice, and fell backward. When she turned, she saw the librarian crouched down next to her. It would have been comical if Sandra hadn’t already been having a panic attack.

Sandra tried to come up with a believable excuse for why she was on the floor. “I—”

“If you’re about to tell me you dropped a contact or earring or something like that, I’m going to call your bluff,” Mrs. Klemin interrupted.

Well, there went that.

“Of course not,” Sandra said, her mind reeling as she tried to come up with something else. “I was going to say that—”

Mrs. Klemin straightened back up. “Good evening. Are you the reason my employee is hiding behind the counter?” she asked.

Sandra stared at the woman’s knobbly ankles, thoroughly confused, and it was a moment too late that she realized the librarian was no longer speaking to her.

“Um… I was just wondering if you have any books about Buddhism,” a low voice responded.

Crap. Did that voice belong to Blair? Sandra couldn’t be sure, but he’d been the only guy she’d seen in the library before taking refuge behind the counter. If what he’d said was true, then he wasn’t there to ask her to the dance as a favor to his best friend. But it also meant that if she popped up now, he’d know she was hiding from him, which would be just as humiliating.

“You thinking of converting?” Mrs. Klemin asked the boy.

A beat of silence followed. “No, ma’am. I’m doing a report for my world religions class.”

Maybe Sandra could crawl behind the counter and slip through the front door before Blair saw her. She took advantage of Mrs. Klemin grilling him about why he wasn’t doing his report on Hinduism and speed-crawled across the floor, the rough fibers of the carpet tearing at her skin as she went. She had just reached the end of the counter when she popped up and rushed toward the exit. Sandra only managed to walk a couple of steps, however, before she plowed into someone who stood in the entryway.

Sandra’s purse flew off her shoulder, its contents spilling across the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, dropping to the ground and frantically trying to scoop up as much as she could. Sandra kept her head down, her cheeks blazing, as she grabbed the last item, her Chapstick, and shoved it back into her purse.

“You forgot something.”

Sandra stood, and her gaze finally rested on the victim of her clumsiness.

Blair.

Her head whipped toward the counter, where Mrs. Klemin was helping a different boy with his Buddhism problem. Sandra turned back to Blair, who still held something in his hand. He extended it toward her, and her heart slid into her stomach.

A wrapped tampon.

Did Blair have any sisters? Sandra didn’t think so; maybe he didn’t know what he was holding. He didn’t seem completely grossed out and held it out as if it were a pen or any other generic object.

Sandra tentatively took it from him and then quickly shoved it into the darkest corner of her purse, hopefully never to rear its ugly head again. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Blair said with a melt-me kind of smile. “That time of the month, huh?”

Never mind. He had known exactly what it was. She groaned and buried her face in her hands.

He released an easy laugh. “It’s not a big deal, really.”

“Says you,” she muttered, preparing to make her escape.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Anywhere that wasn’t where Blair was.

“I just got off work and…have a lot of homework to do.” She was practically running out the door because she couldn’t wait to do her homework? She was officially the lamest person on the planet.

Blair’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “You work at the library?”

“Just started last week,” Sandra said, adjusting her purse on her shoulder. She felt skittish, and her feet wouldn’t stay in one spot. She probably looked like a boxer who was moving in place, preparing for a fight. Or flight, in her case.

“That’s super cool.”

It was?

A girl came through the front door, and Sandra moved to the side to allow her to walk past, but she instead stopped next to Blair. Of course she did. Another one of his adoring fans, probably. Or his most recent girlfriend. He went through them fairly quickly, from what Sandra had seen. Not that she had been watching.

“Sorry I’m late,” the girl said.

“No problem. I just got here,” Blair said, giving her one of his adorable smiles. “Do you know Sandra?”

The girl’s smile wavered for a brief moment, but it returned as she turned to face Sandra. “Not officially, but I’ve seen you around school. I’m Julianna.”

Okay, this was awkward. At least she now knew Blair was here to meet a girl, and not because he had been coerced into asking Sandra out. Though this knowledge wasn’t as comforting as it should have been. Instead, it left Sandra’s stomach tangled up in knots. She wasn’t jealous, was she? Julianna seemed like a nice girl, and she was very pretty. Why shouldn’t Blair be interested in her?

“It’s nice to meet you,” Sandra said. The three of them stood awkwardly, and Julianna looked like she wanted to ask what Sandra was doing there, but she remained quiet, as did Blair.

Sandra shifted from one foot to the other and wanted nothing more than to leave but didn’t know how to do it gracefully. She should have just reiterated the fact that she needed to get home to finish her homework, or something equally safe, but her brain had apparently stopped functioning, and she instead turned and hurried out the doors. Sandra didn’t even say ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later.’

She relived that moment over and over as she drove home, mentally slapping herself. If Blair had ever thought he might be interested in asking Sandra out, he certainly wouldn’t now.

At least she wasn’t any worse off than she had been before he had walked into the library.

Except for the fact that Blair, one of the hottest guys at school, had held her tampon.

Yeah. There was that.

* * * * *

Sandra forced her eyes open when her alarm went off. It was that time already? She groaned as she reached for her phone. She hadn’t fallen asleep until three o’clock in the morning, her mind not leaving her alone. It took a couple of tries, but she managed to silence the alarm before falling back asleep.

She was startled awake when her mom knocked on her bedroom door before leaving for work. Crap. Sandra only had thirty minutes before her first class was supposed to start. That was enough to get her out of bed.

Thank goodness her mom didn’t have any early morning meetings and was able to drive out of her way to drop Sandra off at school. Sandra waved as her mom pulled away, then trudged up the steps and into the building. All night, the image of Blake holding her tampon had haunted her, except in her dreams, he’d held a tampon that was ten times bigger than its actual size.

Sandra walked into school expecting the gossip to hit her like a train, plowing her over. But no one looked her way more than usual when she walked down the halls and into her physics class. Was it possible that Blair hadn’t told Julianna about the unfortunate tampon encounter at the library? She’d assumed he’d at least told Cameron, but when Cameron walked in with Amanda that morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no way Cameron wouldn’t have told Amanda, who would have told Gracie, who would have told Markus…

Huh.

Either Blair hadn’t told anyone, or no one cared about tampon-related embarrassing moments anymore.

Yeah, there was no way it was the second option. They were the epitome of embarrassing moments.

Sandra forced her thoughts away from the previous evening as Mr. Lindley laid the physics test in front of her. Glancing at it, she knew she would pass this thing easily. It was a good thing too because her brain still wasn’t fully functional after her restless night’s sleep. Sandra flew through the test, finishing before anyone else. She laid her pencil down and rested her chin in her palms, trying not to fall asleep. It didn’t work. The next thing Sandra knew, she was startled awake by her chin slamming down on her desk.

She groaned and rubbed where it had hit. Her chin was wet. She had been drooling.

Awesome.

Another second passed before she was aware of laughter. Heat crept up her neck as Mr. Lindley walked toward her desk.

“May I have your test, please?” he asked.

Sandra handed it to him.

He raised an eyebrow as he flipped through it, then took the test with him to his desk and studied it further. Sandra didn’t know what he was looking for, but he seemed to have found it because he returned a moment later with a slip of paper. He placed it on Sandra’s desk, then left, all without saying a word.

Dread settled in her stomach as she opened it.

Please report to Principal Howell’s office at 3:00 pm.

This had to be a mistake. Sure, her dozing off had been a bit disruptive to the class, but it shouldn’t be worth a trip to the principal’s office. Sandra raised her hand, but Mr. Lindley shook his head. Apparently it wasn’t up for discussion.

Ugh. If this was how the day was starting, she didn’t want to know how it was going to end.