Since we're gonna have to wait two weeks for the next episode (ugh!), here's a much longer chapter compared to the previous ones. I hope you enjoy. :)


CHAPTER 4

Every after class we have a ten minute break where we could go to the restroom, or the cafeteria, or just stay in the classroom to relax, chat with our classmates, until the next teacher arrives. Some of my classmates went to the restroom. Some just stayed put in their seats. Some went to the cafeteria to buy snacks. I chose to go outside the classroom and contact Jeff Malone, my bodyguard. I need to let him know that I have to stay for a few minutes after class so I could do my assignment with Harvey. Everyone in the security would panic like it's the apocalypse if I went off the grid even for a few minutes.

I clicked the number 3 on my speed dial. Number 1 and 2 were my parents of course, and number 4 was my driver, Ray.

"Hey Jeff? It's me." I said.

"Ms. Paulsen. What can I do for you?" Jeff asked in his deep voice.

Jeff and I are very close. He's like an older brother to me, and my childhood best friend. My first bodyguard was actually his father. And at the time, Jeff and I always hung around in our house and played a lot as kids. And he always called me Ms. Paulsen ever since. Mr. Malone was just waiting for Jeff to turn 18 so he could retire and Jeff could start working for us. And when he did, last year, he became my new guard. It was a little weird to have your childhood friend turn into your bodyguard, right? But I'd take it, there's nothing better than having a bodyguard who is also your best friend. I was very delighted. Their family has been very loyal to us through the years. They even flew to New York with us just to keep working for our family.

"Jeff, I'm sorry but I need to stay here for a few minutes after school, we have an assignment and my partner and I decided to do it in the library after class. Is that okay? It's just for a few minutes, I promise. An hour tops."

"That's okay, Ma'am. No problem. Let me know if you're done and we'll wait for you at the school entrance."

"Okay, I will. Thanks Jeff!" I said cheerfully.

"You're welcome, Ms. Paulsen."

"Jeff." I paused. "You really could just call me Donna, you know."

"Sorry, force of habit." He replied. I know he's smiling on the other line. That's always his response to me whenever I tell him to just call me Donna. He just won't do it. Probably has something to do with my Dad firing him if he didn't.

"Anyway, I gotta go. We only have a ten minute break. Our next teacher should arrive any minute now. Bye, Jeff."

"Bye, I'll see you later." I clicked my phone shut and went back inside the room where everyone is just eating snacks and talking to each other. I returned to my seat and put my phone in my bag.

"Hey Donna, you want some?" a voice from behind me asked. I turned my head and saw Harvey offering me a bag of chips.

"Uh- no. But thanks, Harvey." I smiled.

He frowned at me. "Let me guess, you're on a diet."

"Interesting. I just said no to you offering me a bag of chips and the first thing you assume that is is because I'm on a diet?" I asked him, acting like I was a bit offended. But I'm actually more of curious.

"What's wrong with that?" He countered, gesturing with his hand as he chewed with his mouth full of chips. "It makes sense. Aren't you getting hungry? It's been hours since lunch." He asked with a playful grin on his face.

"Hmm-" I frowned, really thinking if I indeed feel hungry. I don't. "Nah, I really don't feel hungry."

"Alright." He mumbled, shrugging his shoulders, sounding unconvinced with my answer. "These are really good chips though." He quirked his eyebrows at me and turned to take a seat.

"But..." I said, halting him from turning away. "I could try it if you say they're really good." I said, reaching with my left hand for the bag of chips.

He laughed, amused. "Here you go." I glared at him mockingly and took some of the chips on my mouth. He's right. They're good.

"I told you they're good." He grinned at me. Am I that obvious?

"Oh it's just fine." I said, pretending like I didn't care about that heaven-sent chips.

"You're welcome." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes at him.


"Okay, class dismissed. See you all again tomorrow." Our last teacher said as the school bell rang and he walked out of the room. My classmates all stood up and arranged their things and little by little walked out of the room to go home.

Yes, finally. Class is over. I survived the first day. I'm so tired. I just wanna go home and fall on my heavenly bed.

"Hey Donna, I have to go now. See you tomorrow?" Rachel smiled at me.

"Of course, see you tomorrow. Thanks for all the help today, Rach. Oh and your ballpen." I said as I gave her ballpen back. "Thanks again."

"No problem. See ya." She waved goodbye at me and walked out of the room.

I continued to arrange my things and I was about to text Jeff when-

"Donna, you ready?"

I looked behind me and saw Harvey standing, ready to go. Oh! The meeting! Right! I forgot!

A look of recognition passed through his face. "You forgot, didn't you?" he smiled knowingly.

"Uhm- A little bit. Yeah, I'm sorry." I looked at him sheepishly. "Anyway, yup I'm ready. Let's go." I said as I stood up and put my bag on my shoulders.

"The library is a little far from here. It's in the next building."

"Oh alright. We better get going then." I replied as we left the room and walked through the hallway of our floor. I got my phone to text Jeff that I'm on my way to the library.

"Is there someone waiting for you outside?" He asked as he noticed me texting someone.

"Uh- yes actually. My bod-" Oops, I forgot I couldn't call him my bodyguard. I cleared my throat. "My friend, he promised to fetch me after class today."

"Oh okay, we'll be quick."

"Alright."

There was awkward silence as we walked through the halls of our school. I kept thinking of a conversation-starter to stop the silence.

"It's your first day here right?" He asked. He probably sensed me panicking over the lack of conversation.

"Yes, it is." I replied.

"So? How is it? Do you like it here so far?"

"Yeah, of course. My seatmate Rachel is really sweet. Louis is very friendly, too. And also, you." I looked at him in the eyes and smiled genuinely at him. He smiled at me in appreciation. "I know it's gonna take some time for me to be completely comfortable in this new place. I mean, it's just the first day. Baby steps, you know? But so far everything is great."

"Good. What about your old school? In Canada, right? How is it there? I hear people are really nice there." He asked.

"Yeah, they're really nice. What they say on tv about Canadians are actually true." I chuckled. "It is very different there. The system, the people, the weather, are very different. I don't even remember feeling 'foreign' to that place. Ever since my first year in school, I've always studied there. So transferring here is a big move for me, you know?" I said as we turned to the left on our way to the library. He nodded in understanding. "How about you? Tell me something about you." I looked at him.

He frowned. "What exactly do you want to know about me?"

"I don't know. Hmm- I heard you're pretty popular here in school. Is that true?"

He pursed his lips. "I'm not sure how to respond to that."

"Oh come on! That's a classic Mr. Popular response." We laughed.

"Who told you that about me?" He asked.

"Oh I have my sources." I quirked my eyebrows at him.

"Sources. Which means… Rachel?"

"Hey! It may be my first day but Rachel's not the only person I know here." I snapped back. He laughed. I don't know, it's just the first day but I already feel comfortable around him. That's pretty weird considering he's Mr. Popular and I'm just a nobody here.

"We're here." He stopped walking and I saw him look straight ahead. I turned my head and saw what he was looking at. It's the Daniel Hardman library according to the classic nameplate displayed at the door. Just from the outside I could tell that I'm going to be shocked with what's waiting for me inside. The entrance just looked so mysterious.

Harvey probably sensed me standing there, frozen. "Donna?"

"Yeah?" I said as I still looked dazed at the name etched on the doors of the library.

"Uh- let's go inside?" I looked at him and saw him holding the doors open for me.

"Oh right! Sorry I was a little stunned with th-"

"Wait 'til you see the inside." He winked at me.

I walked in the room and was even more astonished with the massive shelves made of old dark wood and the strong, delightful smell of old books. The place is fucking HUGE. There are several students hanging out in the reading area and some students doing their research in the room with lots of Mac PCs. The librarian was just sitting in the corner stamping on books. The sound of pages being turned and mouse buttons being clicked is music to my ears. It's like one of those places in the Harry Potter movies except there are computers and there are no moving pictures hanging in the room. There is no magic here for sure, but the place looks magical to me.

I knew it. This is gonna be my new sanctuary in this school.

"Amazing, isn't it?" He whispered, looking at me.

"Oh, I love it!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"Ssshhh!" Harvey raised his finger to his lips to shush me. "Keep it down, Donna! The librarian is really strict here."

"I'm sorry!" I whispered harshly as I continued walking and saw a huge painting of Mr. Daniel Hardman, which is according to the label on the painting, is the first president of the school. The painting reminds me of my grandparents' in our house in Canada. Oh I miss our house there.

I kept walking while gawking at Mr. Hardman's magnificent painting until I collided with a reading table. "Argggh!" I cried out. The noise that I made was so loud that some of the students glared at me.

"Donna! Will you just focus on walking straight and not making any more noise?! You're gonna get us kicked out of here before we even start our assignment."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Come on, let's go to the computer area." Harvey led the way and I kept following him.

"There. There's a free PC in there." He said, pointing to the vacant PC in the corner of the room. We walked towards the PC and he turned it on. There was only one chair per PC unit so he took the chair from the other unit and offered it to me.

"Thanks." I said as I sat.

"Okay, so we need the basic camera angles, right?" He opened the browser and typed the words.

"Yup."

"Well this is easy. Bird's-eye view, Worm's-eye view, Neutral…" He said, scrolling through the google results.

"What would be the perfect place here in school where we could capture things with those angles?"

"There are a lot of places-"

"Let's think of the most unique place. I want our picture to stand out in class."

"Oh, a little competitive, huh?" He smiled.

"I just wanna impress Ms. Pearson." I shrugged.

"I actually understand that, I feel the same way." He paused, thinking. "How about, the school parking lot?"

"Hmm, I don't think so."

"School entrance?"

"Too easy?"

"Cafeteria?"

"Bad lights."

"Library?"

"Maybe. Yeah, that could be. This place is pretty awesome."

"Oh!" He snapped his fingers. "I just thought of a perfect place."

"What?" I said, wide-eyed.

"The rooftop." He paused for effect. "Donna, that place is beautiful we should take the pictures there."

"But- are you sure we're allowed to-"

"No need to worry about that, I'm friends with the guard there." He smirked.

I paused as I debated in my head if that was really a great idea. Oh, but I really want to see the rooftop! That would be a great opportunity to explore this school. And I'm sure we'll be able to present a unique photo in class because my classmates won't even think of going to there. Besides, if he says it's okay, then it's most probably okay that we go there.

"Come on, Donna. It will be great." He nagged at me.

"Okay, then. Rooftop it is." I smiled.

"Rooftop it is." He smiled.

Oh, this will be fun.


A/N: Thank you so much guys (AJ, MIA, lafantomette, housemaniac21, AnonymousW) for the reviews! Seriously, your reviews fuel me. I'm so overjoyed! Keep them coming. Chapter 3 was just a filler chapter and I'm glad you still enjoyed it.

AJ, yep you're right! It was Mike. Glad you got that reference. And thank you for your wonderful review. I smiled like an idiot after reading it.

I originally planned to have Louis as Donna's bodyguard because I really loved the Donna/Louis friendship, but I realized Louis is not "fit" for the role. LOL! So I chose Jeff instead. What do you think?

Also, I've started writing Chapter 5. And I gotta say, that's my favorite chapter so far. So stay tuned!