I guessed that Wednesdays at the library were pretty slow because barely anybody came in. Mr. Cummings said it was the slow day in the week, and I believed it. But the shelves and books were in major disrepair, which gave me plenty of time. Mr. Cummings was too old to keep up with everything. Also he had hurt his back in the First World War, and it had grown worse over the years.

"Rachael!" Said a voice, something I had not heard for a while in the tomb like stillness of the library.

I turned to see Neil come in from the air outside that had chilled down quite a bit from the afternoon heat. He had his long school overcoat on and was holding a quite outrageous lamp. The shade was torn up and dirty, while the stand was of a drudgy looking man.

"What is that?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

"Tis the god of the cave, mi'lady," He said in a mock British accent.

"The god of the cave?" I chuckled, unable to hold in giggle.

"Yes, and do not ridicule his majesty," He replied coming up beside me and setting the lamp down on the floor where I sat.

Crouching down beside me, he picked out a book from the shelf, "Hmm, what is this, I see, sonnets of Shakespeare."

He opened it up, and I watched anxiously as he turned the crinkled pages, hoping that they wouldn't tear.

"Neil, I just put that book away-"

"Shh, shh!" He insisted putting a finger to his lips, "Be quiet while I'm reading."

Dramatically, he stood and read aloud, "Let me not to the marriage of two minds; love is not love, which changes when its alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove," He knelt down again, "Oh tis an ever fixed mark, that stares tempests down and blah blah blah,"

He slammed the book together with a shout of laughter and put it back in its place.

"Neil careful, that copy's from before the turn of the century, you don't want to get Mr. Cummings upset," I scolded.

"Ah whatever, Mr. Cummings is from the turn of the century," I was thankful that he wasn't in the library at the moment to hear that, but my thankfulness was stopped when Neil pulled me up to my feet and grabbed the lamp.

"Come along, everyone else is at the cave," He said starting toward the door.

"I'll be along in a little while," I said, "I have to finish up here."

I turned back to the case.

"No,"

I looked back over at Neil, who stood leaning against the case.

"Excuse me?" I inquired, putting my hands on my hips.

"No," He said, this time grinning.

Pushing the lamp into my arms, he literally picked me up, the god of the cave in my hands and all, and started walking toward the door.

"Neil Perry, what has gotten into?" I almost shouted, laughing.

"This," He said setting me down.

I smoothed out my skirt and set the lamp down, as Neil fumbled in his coat pocket for something.

"I found out about it yesterday, but since I didn't see you I couldn't tell you," He explained handing me the bent piece of paper, "Since you didn't inform me that you were going to be helping out here for the rest of your vacation I didn't know where you were."

It was true; I had missed him since Monday when I went to my first meeting of the society. I unfolded the paper and saw in bold letters that Henley Hall declared it would be giving open tryouts for a production of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

"This is wonderful," I said, a little unsure, "But what is it for?"

"What is it for?" He asked breathless with excitement, "Rachael, it's an opportunity to show what I really want to do!"

"Act?"

"No ballet dance," He said sarcastically, "Of course act! Rachael, can't you see how great this is for me,"

I looked up at him and smiled, "It's wonderful, and when are the try outs?"

"Tomorrow," He said, smiling so wide his lips took up half his face at least.

"Well good luck, I know you'll do well," I replied handing the paper back to him.

"Could you come with me to the try outs?" He asked.

I wasn't expecting that, but I smiled and nodded, "Sure, if you want me to,"

"Alright," He said, "Let's get going to that meeting though,"

He picked up the lamp and started the leave.

"Wait, what about Mr. Cummings?" I asked.

He turned, walking backwards and shrugged with a lopsided grin, "Carpe Diem?"

I put the books I had been sorting on a table and followed Neil out to the woods.

We made it to the cave just as everyone was settling into start and we were met by a chorus of, "Neil! Rache!"

Surprisingly Charlie quieted things down from the noisy state it had been in, but only he could get racket to stop by creating only more racket. He had brought that god awful saxophone with him. Generally he was very good, but now he was pulling that stunt that he had done so often with me where he blow a short and out of tune note as loud as possible. Grandmother had made him take clarinet till he was about twelve. He revolted, however, when he was thirteen and took up the saxophone.

He proceeded to play a string of horrible, squeaky notes and quote 'poetruim by Charles Dalton', and ended in a brassy, show off riff, that actually wasn't that bad.

I now noticed Knox, sitting in the corner. He looked much worse than he had earlier that day.

After the 'poem', we all clapped politely.

"I can't take it anymore," Came an outburst from Knox, "If I don't have Chris, I'm going to kill myself."

That part scared me and I looked at Charlie in alarm.

"Calm down, Knoxcious," He said to his friend.

"No, no," Knox said getting up and grabbing his coat.

"What are you going to do," I asked him from across the room.

He looked up at me with a grin, "I'm going to call her," He said and turned around.

I let out a happy yawp with the rest of the boys and we all stood and ran after him, Charlie playing another crazy song on his instrument.

"Oh I want to see," I said sadly as we ran back after an exhilarated and confident Knox.

"I know what you can do!" Said Meeks, "Put your coat on and pull up the hood. Stick in the middle of us, you're tall for a girl, they'll never know the difference, anyways all the teachers are in their rooms helping with tutoring and stuff,"

I smiled and prayed it would work because I was not going to miss this.