Read Online Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen - Free Book Online Page A

And when I tried to finally talk to her about it, she went totally nuts. She won’t even talk to me now.”
    “That is kind of weird for Annie,” Diane allows. “She never stays mad like that.”
    Leticia pulls out her phone. “Here. Let me text her and see if she wants to meet up after school today. Maybe we can try to talk to her together.”
    She sends her text and we wait, watching her phone. When it finally chimes, she picks it up and reads it. Her mouth twists to the side, and then she reads aloud, “Can’t. Library. And tell Cyn to mind her own fucking business.”
    There’s an awkward pause, and then Diane touches my arm. “She’ll calm down again, Cyn. You’ll see.”
    “Yeah,” Leticia says, pocketing her phone. “She probably only got so mad because deep down, she knows you’re right to be worried. She just needs a little time to realize it.”
    I nod, trying to hope that this might be true. Maybe Annie’s insanity is only temporary. Maybe she’ll come to her senses once she has a chance to think about things. Maybe we’ll be okay again by the end of the day.
    But the honest part of me inside my brain knows all of that is crap.
    Something has changed in her, and she’s not going to suddenly snap back to herself. I know that nothing has really happened that I can point to. I know that I have nothing other than my own creeped-out feelings about Mr. Gabriel to go on. But I also know, I
know,
that there is something wrong about him. And that he’s doing something to my friend.
    I look for Annie in the halls between each class for the rest of the day, but it’s not until after eighth that I see her, standing by her locker with Leticia. I steel myself and decide to go over; maybe she won’t flip out at me with Leticia standing right there. I wonder if Leticia tried to talk to her about the Mr. Gabriel thing herself. I hope so. Maybe it will carry more weight coming from someone else.
    I walk down the hall, pushing past the occasional slow-moving or not-moving student standing in my way. I’m still maybe twenty feet away when I see Annie reach out to touch Leticia’s hand. I stop, something inside me going small and cold and terrified. After one further agonized moment of paralysis, I throw myself forward, calling Leticia’s name, trying to run toward them, but now it seems like every student in the school is suddenly standing in that hallway, blocking my progress and obscuring my view of Annie and Leticia. It feels like forever before I shove the last person out of my way and stumble out of the throng toward Annie’s locker. Annie turns to look at me. Her eyes are cold and hard, and her mouth turns up in a tiny smile that is not a smile at all.
    Leticia is leaning back against the locker, staring blankly at nothing.
    I grab Annie, digging my fingertips into her arms. “What did you do?” I shout at her.
    Her expression goes cloudy and then clears to reveal shock and anger. “Get off, you freak!” she shouts back, pulling at my hands.
    “What did you do?” I shout again, slamming her back against the lockers behind her. Her hands drop away and she stares defiantly back at me. I search her eyes, trying to see if she’s really there. “Do you even know?”
    “What are you
talking
about?”
    “Look!” I let go with one hand and point at Leticia. Annie shifts her eyes to where I’m pointing, and I can
see
her making herself not understand me. She knows, but she won’t let herself know. She looks back at me and then pushes me so hard that I stumble backward, tripping over my own feet and landing hard on my ass on the floor.
    “Stay away from me!”
She spits the words and then takes off down the hall, the students parting before her like the Red Sea and closing up again behind her.
    I stay on the floor for a few minutes, not really letting myself think about anything. Then I look up to where Leticia is still standing there, oblivious to what just happened. I swallow and climb back to my