The First Day of Christmas Break

I finally finished all my homework for the Christmas break after five hours of hard studying in the library.  Sighing triumphantly, I gathered up my belongings with a smile on my face.

All the work was out of the way.  Time to enjoy my well-deserved, two week vacation from school!

I decided to check out a novel from the fiction section of the library.  If I had two weeks all to myself, reading was definitely there on my bucket list.

I grabbed a book that caught my eye and examined the back.  Ha, another typical teenage girl melodrama.  This was going to be something good to make fun of with Hana.

Hana and I loved reading sappy, cliched books together.  We actually became best friends over one.  She had overheard me complaining to the teacher how dumb the main female character was for trusting a vampire, and she joined in on the complaint.  The teacher had called us strange for making fun of something that was "popular" with "kids our age". 

I guess we're just a unique sub-group of the people in our high school. 

I went to the front of the library to check out the book that I had just found.  I typed my pin on the screen, but an error message popped up.

Ugh, dang it.  I have to go get assistance.

Reaching the Information Desk, I politely called out to one of the workers behind the desk. 

"Excuse me," I said.

A male worker, wearing a black tee-shirt with the number "88" on it, turned around to face me.  "How may I help you?"  His eyes turned into crescents as he smiled.

Wow, he was good looking. 

I quickly shook my head to clear away my thoughts.  That was so random.

I cleared my throat and said, "Can you, um, help me with something?  The thing- I mean, the machine out there isn't working properly."  Aish, I sounded so dumb.

He smiled and nodded. "Sure."  He circled around the desk and strolled towards the check-out posts. 

I followed behind awkwardly.  How come I was acting so strange all of a sudden?  It must be the girly books rubbing off on me.

"Is this one yours?"

His question snapped me out of my thoughts.  He was now standing in front of the machine that I had a problem with.

I nodded.  "Yeah, that's the one."

He took a look at the screen and squinted a bit as he did.

Aw, he looked so cute.  He probably wore glasses at times.  I caught myself thinking about him again and mentally chastised myself.  I cringed and looked away embarrassedly. 
 

He chuckled and  asked, "Are you ok?"

I stammered.  "Uh... yeah.  I'm totally fine.  Psh, yeah.  Of course I am."  Totally smooth.

He laughed again as he turned back to the screen and typed in some codes.  After a few seconds of scrutinizing the screen, he turned back to me.  "I manually checked out your book for you, but just to let you know, the error was because you have too many books already borrowed at the moment.  It won't allow you to check out any more until you return the ones you already have," he explained.

"Oh, is that so?"  I shrunk back a bit, ashamed.  "Sorry, I hope they're not overdue.  I'll return them as soon as possible."  I thought of the fact that I would have to pay if I was late in returning them.  "Omo!  What if they're all overdue?!  I better go home and get them!"  I rushed towards the door.

He called me back quickly.  "Hey, you don't have to do that."

I walked back, confused.  "What do you mean by that?  Isn't it the more days books are overdue, the more fees pile up?  I can't afford to pay any extra for unnecessary things like that."

He looked around to check if anyone was listening; as if he was afraid that someone might overhear what he's about to say.  When he was sure, he whispered,  "I'm not supposed to do this, but I think I can clear the fees for you."

My eyes bulged out of their sockets.  "Huh?!  Really?"

He put a finger to his mouth, indic