Nico and the girl stared at each other for a bit, she more surprised than scared that she had been caught apparently, and he surprised that he had actually caught someone going through the books in the library.
"What are you doing here?" She blinked at him for a bit and tilted her head. Had he said something wrong? River had told him that his German was pretty good. That's when he realized that she wasn't questioning his German, she was questioning his accent.
"Borrowing a book, what are you doing here? And why do you talk like that? You're clearly not German."
"Well thanks for pointing out something I already know. I'm from Italy, that's why. Why are you borrowing books?"
"I like to read. Why are you here and not Italy?"
He groaned, "Because my parents think it's the safest place right now until some trouble my family's in blows over."
"What kind of trouble?"
"I don't know, they told me the less I know the better. So, you have your book now, can you go?" He gave her a glare, but was taken back by her clear and fearless refusal to leave, she sat down on the window sill.
"Why are you doing that?"
"Because when I do it people usually leave."
"Why's that?"
"Because everyone's scared of me."
"Why is everyone scared of you?"
"Well, look at me, I look scary!"
"No you don't, you just look silly pretending to be angry, you're probably just sad about leaving your family and all."
Nico paused for a bit, "Well, there are other reasons."
"What are those?"
"I-it's hard to explain . . ."
"I'm not stupid."
"I didn't say you were! And it had nothing to do with being stupid or not, it's just, it's a dangerous secret."
"Is it the same secret that's gotten your family in trouble?"
"No, I don't know that secret, this one I do because it's part of my family history."
"Oh, are you related to pirates?"
"I wish, but no."
"Ghosts?"
"Aren't your ancestors ghosts?"
"Oh, right."
"Wait, were you listening in our conversation yesterday?"
"Sort of, I was wanting to return this book, but I left since you and the girl were talking in the library. Do you like books?"
"Of course you were, thanks for being kind enough to not listen in on the whole thing. Yes, I like books, they're easier to deal with than people, you can shut them up whenever you like."
The girl laughed, "I guess you don't like dealing with people."
"Not really, especially dumb people."
"Like me?"
"No, you're just inquisitive, you're working on being smart, not dumb."
She smiled and stood up, "Well, it was nice chatting with you, but I should be going, school's going to start in a few minutes and I'm afraid I'm already late. Good day."
"You'll come by tomorrow?"
She shrugged, "Maybe, depends on how fast I can finish this book."
"Alright, well, Lucy would probably like to meet you. I'm Nico di Angelo, by the way."
"Pleasure to meet you, Nico di Angelo, my name's Liesel Meminger. Is Lucy the girl you were chatting with yesterday?" Nico nodded. "Great, I'd like to meet her too. Maybe I can bring my friend along, actually maybe we should meet in the woods just outside of town tomorrow afternoon, if you don't mind coming outside for just a teeny bit."
"No, actually, we were wondering what we could do instead of moping around here all day. We'll meet you in the forest tomorrow, after school gets out, right?"
"Of course, we can't meet if we're in school!"
Nico rolled his eyes, "Right, of course, how dumb of me."
She chuckled, "You know, if you weren't so busy being gloomy and all, you could make a great comedian."
"Yeah, I'd still have an empty audience, they'd all be ghost jokes."
"I'd pay for that, if I had any money," she replied as she proceeded to climb out the window.
"Oh look, there's my clumsy assistant," he retaliated, poking his head out the window to watch her progress. She glanced up to give him a look but didn't say anything as she concentrated on getting down without breaking a limb. He glanced around the area, realizing in a second that he was subconsciously checking the surroundings. He noticed a boy watching them from the treeline around the property, arms crossed. "My my, aren't you a little young to be dating?" She had finished climbing and now glanced at him with a questioning look.
"What are you talking about?"
He nodded in the direction of the boy, "Your blond boyfriend over there, he doesn't look too happy about you cheating on him." She looked over to where he was indicating and saw the blond.
"Rudy? What is he doing here? I need to go, see you tomorrow, Geist Meister." She dashed off to join the blond, the two getting in some kind of argument before she could give an explanation. When she did, Rudy seemed to calm down and even waved at Nico before the two disappeared behind the foliage. Meanwhile, Nico's mouth had fallen open, he had finally translated what she had said, she had called him Ghost Master.