Sunday came and went fairly quickly without any unpleasant interruptions, for once. Lucilla and I played games together and talked while Salem was being his normal Salem self. It was a nice break from the chaos surrounding us. Blaze and Corliss decided that they're both staying in the house nextdoor, which used to be for sale. They took the for sale sign out of the yard and threw it in the trash. I was okay with it considering the house has been on the market for a long time, apparently, so nobody will probably notice. As for earlier this morning Corliss was grumbling as we all gathered onto the bus, saying how she's not exactly looking forwards to school. I also got to catch up with Cherise on the bus, who apparently spent the weekend over at Sapphire's house watching Harry Potter movies. As for right now, well...

I sigh as I rest my head in my hands and stare at the two fighting in homeroom.

"Yeah, well, you're stupid!" Blaze shouts with her hands on her hips as she glares at Asher.

"Is that so?" Asher scoffs and crosses his arms, "Well you're annoying!"

"Good! My sole purpose is to annoy you!" Blaze huffs.

"Does that mean that your sole purpose is to constantly be around me?" Asher smirks.

"Wha- no!" Blaze waves her arms around, "Stop being such an idiot!"

"Will those two ever stop?" Cherise sighs.

"I think it's pretty entertaining," Corliss laughs.

I smile softly and turn my gaze to the window and watch as a bluebird lands on a tree branch outside. The wind blows slightly and the bird stares at me for a few seconds before flying away. I watch as the trees start to sway before turning my gaze back to my friends. It seems as if today is just a gloomy day in general and it's weighing me down. I'm getting the feeling that we won't be lying low for much longer because we won't have the chance to.

"Aella, is everything okay?" Cherise asks.

"Oh, yeah," I nod and smile, "I was just thinking about something."

"You think about things an awful lot, don't you?" Cherise laughs.

"Yeah, I guess I do," I shrug.

That's just who I am and what I do. I think about things and run circles in my mind trying to piece things together, thinking of every single outcome, because that's how I am.

"I just can't believe that there's so many new students coming in!" Cherise changes the subject, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's kind of odd."

"Uh," Corliss scratches the side of her head, "I don't know how to respond to that."

"Sorry," Cherise smiles sheepishly, "It just baffles me. I wonder if even more people will be attending here soon too."

"Yeah," I glance out the window and say, "I wonder..."

***

During my study hall period I decide to walk to the library to grab the book that I have to read for my literature project. I make my way to the library and push open one of the tan, wooden doors that lead inside. A little bell rings above my head and the librarian at the check out smiles at me while writing down on her notepad. I smile back at her before making my way throughout the maze of shelves filled with a plethora of books. I watch the numbers along the shelves until I finally come to the section where the book I need is and I run my index finger through the air in front of the books as I scroll through them. I find the one with an old, worn, red cover and smile in success. I go to pull it off the shelf, but someone else pulls on it from the other side at the same time. I frown and pull on it harder, but so does the other person. I eventually get pulled so far that I hit the shelf, my eyes widening in surprise. The person on the other side snatches the book from my grasp and I back up from the shelf. I look through the shelf and find Salem standing on the other side, holding the book.

"So you're the greedy little book thief," I sigh and brush off my hands, "I should've known."

Salem rolls his eyes and points to a table in the back of the library.

"Come here," He says and starts walking over to the table.

I follow him to the table in the back of the room and pull out one of the chairs to sit down while he pulls out the other and sits on my left side.

"What are you doing?" I whisper as I watch him open the book to the middle and leave it lying open on the table.

"Hang on," He whispers and glances around before pulling a knife out of his pocket.

"Salem, what are you doing?!" I whisper frantically and look at him with wide eyes.

He rolls his eyes and stabs the book and starts tearing out a large square on the inside. I internally panic, thinking that someone might notice what he's doing. The only sounds in the library to be heard are the sounds of typing and the swoosh and tearing sound that happens when Salem cuts through the paper.

"We can put our research about Evangeline and her armies in here," Salem says as he cuts through another piece of the book, "I'll pay for this later."

"You're defacing school property," I whisper urgently.

He stops cutting and turns to look at me with his right eyebrow raised and a blank expression.

"Do I look like I care?" He asks.

"Not really," I sigh.

"Exactly," He says before returning back to the book.

"You'd better hurry," I say as I glance at the clock and then back to him, "The class period ends in ten minutes. And did you really have to choose the book that I need for my assignment?"

"Hey," Salem pauses to shrug, "I couldn't help it that this was the one I grabbed. I just looked for a big book so that we could hide a lot of stuff inside it."

"I don't think we'll need that much room," I say.

"Still," He glances at me and smiles, "We want to get everything that we can in here, right? That way we know everything we can, the more that we know, the safer you- I mean, we'll be."

"Salem..." I whisper and trail off as he goes back to finishing hollowing out the book.

That aching feeling returns to my chest and I raise a hand to it as I glance down. I raise my gaze back up to him and my eyes scan across his profile as he cuts out the final few pieces of paper.

"Done," He sighs and looks at the pile of paper on the table, "Can you throw the paper away? I'll go hide the book somewhere."

"Sure," I nod and pick up all the scrap pieces of paper.

I walk to the nearest trash can while Salem goes to hide the book somewhere in the library. As I go to throw the paper in the trash can my eyes drift to the window and they widen in surprise when I spot Tala standing outside in the courtyard. The wind blows and her blue locks fly around. I blink and within a second she's gone as if she was never there. I stand up straight and purse my lips. Something tells me that this peace won't last long.