2 Chapters in two days? What? After uploading the last chapter last night, I realized (thanks to ClickClackClickClack's comment) that I had accidentally uploaded The Art of Lunch (Ch2) as Gateway. So if you've been following from the start, I'd recommend rereading Gateway, as it has changed. As kind of.. compensation for my goof-up, I'm posting this chapter a bit early. Thanks all!
Homura stared dejectedly out the window. So many of her plans had been ruined by the sudden on pour of rain. Clouds, steely grey, glare down upon their unfortunate target. An unlucky first Saturday. Homura had hoped to go watch the tryouts for the soccer team, then maybe explore the town located at the bottom of the hill from Yamaku.
But alas, all of her plans were ruined. The rain pounded down as though the clouds were having a fist fight with the building. There was no way she'd trek through that just to wander aimlessly around town. And the announcement had already been made that the soccer tryouts were rescheduled for Sunday. Sayaka looked just as upset about this as Homura.
Homura had grown to love soccer. She watched it all the time during middle school, and it was the only thing she did at the hospital besides read. She never played, only watched. She didn't have the athleticism to play even for fun.
The bell rang, signaling the end of classes and the start of the student's first weekend. Homura made her way towards class 1-C's room.
"It sounds like you won't be getting to explore the town," A familiar voice said, a hand latching onto Homura's sleeve.
"No, it's raining pretty hard," Homura groans, leading Mami towards the cafeteria. This had become their usual routine, or at least for the past four days. "And they cancelled the soccer tryouts, too."
"I didn't know you were a soccer player," Mami said, interested.
"I'm not, I just like watching."
"Ah, I see."
"Do you have anything planned for today, Mami?"
"I did want to take a look around the library. I hear it has quite the selection of braille books."
"Mind if I join?"
A grin split Mami's face. "I'd be offended if you didn't."
Homura laughed, turning into the cafeteria. "Then I've got my afternoon set."
The two joined the lunch line, slowly proceeding along. Homura had gotten better at telling Mami what they were passing.
The lunch line was strange. Everything was in pre-packaged tin-foil-wrapped containers, pre-measured with surgical standards, and then remeasured before being handed to a student. It reminded Homura a little bit too much of the hospital, everything perfectly calculated for every possible allergy or eating problem.
Homura and Mami took their seats at the round table in the corner, the loud banging of rain smashing itself against the window filling their spot. By now, it seemed everyone had a "spot", a certain table or section of a table that everyone sat at.
"Your teacher pop any more tests on you today?" Homura inquired jokingly. Mami's teacher had given class 1-C no less than 3 tests over the past 4 days, including trigonometry, Newtonian mechanics, which everyone failed, and poetic devices.
"Meiji Restoration," Mami sighed heavily, not nearly a groan, but almost. "I'm sure half the class failed that one."
"Hey, everyone failed the physics test, so fifty percent is better than one hundred, right?"
Mami chuckled, a smile brightening up her face. "Unfortunately, that fifty percent includes me."
"Well, we could get you some books on that while we're at the library."
"No thank you, please."
About half an hour spent on the second floor, Homura and Mami realized something. They had no idea where the library actually was. Besides the second year classrooms, nearly every room on the floor was unmarked. And it seemed like there were hundreds of unmarked doors, with no gaps big enough to possibly hold a library. Especially one of the size Mami had described over lunch.
"I think we've already been here, Miss Akemi," Mami grumbled.
"I know, it's just," Homura said, glancing around, "Where is it?"
"You're really set on finding this library," Mami giggled, smiling.
"Any other ideas on what to do today?"
"A fair point." Mami sighed heavily. "I do wish I could be of more help."
"It's alright, you wouldn't be able to do much better."
"Oh, you think so?" Mami teased.
Homura smiled. "There's nothing on any of these doors. No plaques, nothing. And none of the gaps between doors seems big enough."
"What about this one?" Mami inquired, tapping a door with her cane.
Homura glanced at it quickly. She looked up and down the wall it was on. No other doors… It was the only door on this side of the hallway for quite a ways.
Goddammit.
"This may well be it," Homura sighed, defeated.
Mami giggled. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Miss Akemi."
Homura slid the door open. "Yeah, yeah. A blind girl can find an unmarked library better than I can."
The two passed through the slightly ajar door into a room that was most definitely not the library. The small room looked only a tad bigger than it really was, due mostly to the white walls. A table, much too large to be in this room, sat against the wall opposite the door, the shadow of the iron curtain hanging above Yamaku cast over it's softly colored birch surface. A few dejected chairs, in full cushy black regalia, had been cast in the corner. A mini fridge sat beneath the counter that ran across the corner furthest from them. The marbled blue counter tops were decorated with a small rose in a vase and a microwave. There were several hanging cabinets, done up in white paint to match the sides of the counters they perched above. The room smelled of janitor's disinfectant, and not much else. A bit of old wood and paint.
"I take it this is not the library," Mami murmured.
"It looks more like a faculty break room or something," Homura answered. She felt a little bit happier that Mami hadn't been correct. A minor victory. No hard feelings. "It doesn't seem like anyone's used it in a while."
"School did just start again this week, Miss Akemi," Mami pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but like," Homura scratched her hair, trying to think of how to describe it, what to point out, "I mean, there's just a bunch of chairs thrown in the corner. You'd think if they were even planning on using it, they'd at least have them not laying on their sides."
Mami considered this point. "Perhaps, perhaps," Was all the answer she gave.
"So, we keep looking?" Homura asked, unsure if her friend was getting bored.
"I didn't know there was another option," The blonde chuckled.
It was nearly another quarter hour wandering before they found the library. The large oak door creaked on old hinges, the smell of books wafting into the hallway. The scent brought a gentle smile to Mami's face.
The place looked slightly eerie because of the cloud cover. A few tables were visible, occupied by students reading. A few tottered down the aisles, books being pulled down, looked over, put back. Homura approached the large desk just ahead of them.
"H-hello?" She probed, hoping someone would be behind the counter.
A loud crash was her answer. A boy, around their age, stood up from behind the desk, rubbing his head and balancing himself against the counter. "Ow," He groaned, "I'm sorry."
"Is everything alright?" Mami inquired, unsure of what had just happened.
"Yeah, it's just, I was trying to organize books in the cart, and then you guys came up and startled me and I bashed my head on the cart," The boy said, before adding, "It's fine really,", noticing the worried look on Mami's face.
"Are you the librarian?" Homura asked.
"Me? No. She had something to do, but these needed to be organized so I offered to help," He explained, now using both arms to support himself. "I came in here to find if they had any music books or pieces or something." He glanced behind him, looking confused. "I, uh, I could use some help back here."
"With what?" Homura asked.
"I need my crutches, and they're over there," He said, motioning with his head to the back of the desk. "Crawling around is fine back here, but I still need to find what I was looking for. The books, I mean."
Homura grabbed the boy's crutches, bringing them over to him.
"Thank you," He said gratefully, tucking the crutches under his arms.
"Oh, Kamijou, how far did you get on the books?" A voice asked.
The boy spun around, at least as well as his crutches will let him, to face the owner of the voice. A woman, likely in her mid-twenties, entered behind the desk. She wore a pair of brown-rimmed glasses that match her chocolate-colored hair.
"I finished, they're all sorted," Kamijou said, nodding.
"Oh," The librarian said, surprised, "Well, thank you then. I didn't expect you to finish."
She glanced over Mami's way, suddenly noticing the two girls patiently waiting. "Ah, I-I'm so sorry!" The librarian quickly apologized, "I-uh, did-did you two need something?" She fidgeted nervously with her dress.
"If you, uh, if-" Homura stammered out, suddenly anxious of setting the equally nervous librarian off again.
"If you could point us towards the braille books," Mami said, taking the pressure off her nervous friend, "It would be much appreciated."
"Oh, and any music books or pieces you might have here," Kamijou quickly added.
"I, uh, Braille is off that way, along with audiobooks and large print," The librarian said, gesturing towards her right, "And I think we have a bit of musical, erm, stuff, off that way," She now gestures back and to the left. "Sorry for being so unhelpful. This is my first year here. The last librarian who'd been here forever went to Europe to do research for a book and then she got married so she's staying there and I go to the college not far from here and we've got a great selection here so I'd come over to study and then they asked me to be the librarian and I need money for college so… here I am."
"It's quite alright," Mami said, beaming.
"I, uh, yeah, thank you," The librarian replied, looking like she was ready to disembowel herself after divulging all that she had.
Homura led Mami in the direction the librarian had indicated, Kamijou giving a curt wave of goodbye before limping off towards the music books.
The light clacking of Mami's cane broke Homura from her book. "Hey, Mami," Homura said, grinning at her friend.
The blonde smiled, finding her way around the low wall Homura had hid herself behind. The raven-haired girl had found a quiet corner, separated from most of the library by a low wall. The rain had given up trying to batter Yamaku into submission, and had instead taken up tickling it with gentle drops. There was still no sign of the sun, but at least it was getting better.
Homura had piled up several, as in eight, unused bean bag chairs, along with a number of pillows, forming a little nest. Mami's cane tapped one of the bags, the light shimmying of beans giving away what it was.
"I see you found the bean bag chairs," The blonde giggled.
"I found a number," Homura smiled, "Just sit down. You'll land on something."
"I wish I had such faith in you, Miss Akemi," Mami beamed. She sat down, letting herself rest on one of the bags. She swung her legs so they were within Homura's nest, nearly kicking the grey-eyed girl in the process. "You've made yourself quite the bed here."
"I'd call it a nest."
"Did you find any good books?"
"Mm-hm, a few." Homura smiled, eyes scanning the shelves around them. "There's so many books here. It's amazing."
Her tone of wonder caused Mami to laugh a little, her face lighting up with a smile. "Then I'm glad we found it."
The rain continued for several hours, but by the time the two left for the dorms, it had let up. The scent of wet pavement and grass wafted around, and the sun sent warm rays through the soaked boughs of the trees.