Lost Nor Found

Chapter 4

Mackenzie's murderous eyes pinned her to the spot, blazing with a fiery hate. Laelynn's heart throbbed the recent betrayal as fresh as the bruises along her back. Trusting Mackenzie Baker had been amongst one of the biggest mistakes she had ever made. It was still pretty hard to believe.

Didn't make it any less real, though.

Laelynn didn't let Mackenzie's glare dampen her mood, despite how it made her want to cower and hide in her closet back home. It was Wednesday, the day where she finally had English and Art on the same day. Two of her favorite subjects. In both classes, she never had anyone to make fun of her. Well... except for Mackenzie in English, but Laelynn could live with that. Besides, English was the last class before lunch, and there was no way Laelynn was going to eat in the cafeteria. So she got to spend more time in the library, which was an amazing bonus.

English and Art were the two things she excelled at. She loved to read and write stories, and she also loved to draw and paint. It was a distraction when the world became too cruel to handle – along with reading, of course. She would draw what she felt and then draw something to help her feel better. Then she would read one of her favorite stories, once again.

All too soon, class was over. Still, she rushed out the classroom, running to her locker and tossing everything into it. Grabbing her lunch bag, she ran to the library.

It was huge, though there were never many people. The ceiling towered high above her head, the entrance colorful and full of quotes from famous books. The deeper you went, the more amazing it got. There were rows and rows of bookshelves. For someone like Laelynn who owned very few books, it was a dream come true. The librarian, Miss Adeline, knew she loved to sit here, never once stopping her from bringing along her lunch. It seemed like she understood Laelynn's need for refuge here. Miss Adeline was probably the most kind-hearted person Laelynn knew.

As if right on cue, Laelynn spotted Miss Adeline standing by one of the bookshelves, returning a stack of books in their rightful place. She was a young woman, maybe about 25 years old, with sparkling hazel eyes and soft, wavy blond hair.

"Oh, here, let me help." Laelynn dropped her lunch kit to the ground and started organizing the books on the corresponding shelves. She had read almost all of the books, and some were even part of her favorite series. She'd read about anything you could imagine; wizards, demigods, cyborg princesses, elves, kids falling into fairytales, revolutionaries, heroes. And they all started off similar to where she was; ignored and broken, until they became more than they ever thought they could become. And sometimes...

Sometimes she liked to travel to these worlds, away from her problems and give herself a distraction. It was like she was a part of their world - like she was at home. Where they understood what she was going through since they'd been through the same. Other people never really understood her love of reading and they never realized it was a way for her to escape the stressful reality and float into a world of pure magic and imagination.

"Thank you so much, Laelynn." Miss Adeline said, smiling as Laelynn stopped staring at the book in her hands and actually placed it on the shelf.

"It's the least I could do. Thank you for always letting me hang out here."

The librarian laughed. "You are welcome here any time. How's school going?"

Laelynn sighed, placing two more books in their place. "Pretty good, subject wise. I'm not failing anything, even with all my absent days," she joked in a light tone. "But... I do want to score a bit higher in everything. It's not that I'm getting bad marks, it's just - I hope I can keep it up, especially with everything that's been going on."