“Next, please,” William hollered.
While Nicole stood paralyzed, I cut around her to show her how easy moving through the line could be. Maybe she had never gone through security before. Or maybe she was a library assassin whose secret objective was to eliminate those who read some rare book. Because that would make an excellent Lisa Montgomery novel, and I wanted to read it, not live it.
The closer I moved to William on the other side of the metal detector, the more I could relate to Nicole’s nervousness. William wore a perpetual frown, and his intense hazel stare under his dark Roman-style haircut made it even more pronounced. Luckily, I didn’t trip the metal detector.
William once again settled his gaze on Nicole, who hadn’t budged from her spot back by the conveyor belt. I gave her a subtle jerk of my head to come hither.
Everyone at our little intern party was staring at her, the poor girl, and the color of her cheeks showed just how little she cared to be the center of attention. Was she afraid of William and his big man hands for some reason? Was she caught off guard that she’d captured his attention? Because if he wasn’t checking her out before, he definitely was now.
His dark lashes fanned lower while he took all of her in, and I couldn’t blame him one bit. People would kill for her porcelain-smooth skin, as evidenced by murderer and all around creepy dude, Ed Gein, and inSkin Deepby Lisa Montgomery. Not that I was thinking of skinning her or anything, but wow. She was gorgeous.
“We coming, dear?” Janice said, her perfectly plucked eyebrows slanting in a furrow.
With jerky movements as though she was attached to puppet strings, Nicole finally set her parachute on the conveyor belt. She eyed it while she stepped forward through the metal detector, then leaped for it once she was through the other side, all while ignoring everything in William’s general direction.
“Well,” Janice said with a clap of her hands, “that took a while, didn’t it? Hopefully I’ll have time to conclude your tour by lunch.”
Nicole wilted into her flats at my side, everything to the tips of her ears flaming, but I held her by the elbow and dragged her up a few steps.
“Don’t worry about it,” I muttered, though I wasn’t sure exactly whatitwas. “Everyone will forget all about it.”
“Yeah, until I have to do it again when I leave,” she whispered, and the panic in those words tugged at my heart.
I glanced back at William, who stared after us while scratching his head. Nicole was leaving a path of confusion behind her, yet I didn’t want to pry or make her feel worse than she already did.
“Just focus on this.” I swept a hand to my left at the Great Hall with its marble flooring, grand staircases, and high ceiling, but we could only enjoy it for a second before we were ushered into the cloakroom.
“You will each be given a locker to store your belongings and a key.” Janice pulled a key from her jacket pocket and dangled it in the air from a red plastic tag. “Try not to lose it,” she said in a withering tone. “Abrams, Jewel?”
The girl with the tissue clutched tight in her hand stepped forward. New keys appeared from Janice’s jacket to dangle in the air while she recited the names of the interns without the use of a clipboard or any kind of notes. She was a walking computer on stilts.
“Lao, Charlotte?”
“That’s me,” the girl with the ass-kicking boots said.
The woman glanced down at the girl’s ensemble and dropped the key in her hand with a look of absolute disdain. Charlotte curled her fingers around the key and smiled.
“Martinson, Doug?” the woman said.
“Here.” The boy caught his key and twirled it around his index finger like a toy.
“Sullivan, Paige?”
“Yep.” My key read LOC Intern 157. All odd numbers and all unlucky according to Chinese numerology. Awesome.
“West, Nicole.”
Nicole gripped her key tag so tight, I imagined the ink had soaked into her skin, permanently marking her as LOC Intern 158. If it did, she probably wouldn’t want to trade. Besides, something told me she’d had enough bad luck in her past. But other numbers marked her porcelain skin, too, along her wrist and thumb and across her palm, faded like she had tried to scrub them off. I swept my gaze over the rows of lockers so I wouldn’t stare.
After the rest of the interns retrieved their keys, Janice posted her hands on her hips and smiled. “Over one hundred applicants applied to be interns for the Junior Fellows program this year, but the sixteen of you stood out among the best and brightest. You can be proud of your accomplishments thus far. Remember we will have a rare books librarian position open at the end of your internship.”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I’d worked so hard to be standing here, and if I earned the chance to get paid to stand here... Well, I wouldn’t just be standing here. Excitement at the possibility spread to Nicole, who kicked her leg back and quirked her head to the side in a kind of spastic happy dance. We were such kindred spirits since our dreams revolved around books.
Not Doug, though. His dreams revolved around his hand with that damned key. But that thought made me hate myself for immediately disqualifying him from the running for LOC librarian. Because she had saida position, not positionslike the acceptance letter had me believe. An unfortunate typo, I guessed, which made me think I was interning for the library version of the Hunger Games. Still, the whole idea that this was a competition deflated my excitement some.
“Without further ado, it’s time for a special tour where you’ll meet some of the staff and go where the general public isn’t allowed to go,” Janice said with an air of mystery. “Now let’s not dilly-dally in here too long. Meet me outside the cloakroom once you’ve stored your things.”
Anxious to get started, I scanned the row of lockers for 157 and shot toward it. Two twists of the key and a pair of empty hands later, I stood outside with Janice, who was so impressed with my speed, she examined her cuticles with a frown.
