Kieran

Working at Hildegard Books with Jackson and Chad proved to be rather enjoyable, between Chad's sense of humour and the antics of frequent visitor Heath, not to mention Cecelia's laid-back attitude about the whole thing. There were less pleasant aspects, such as having to deal with angry customers sometimes, but that was only natural.

On the other hand, we also had several regular customers that were delightful to do business with. Some of them even gave lists of book recommendations from time to time – though those mostly went to the other staff, apart from when Willow would stop by. Friendly 'Book vs movie' debates were also common occurrences, which I personally found a lot of enjoyment in watching unfold.

Jackson, Chad, and I weren't the only ones working for Milana and Cecelia, of course, but I didn't meet the other two employees until my second day on the job. They were both women, one of which had a highly detailed tattoo of a bat on her right shoulder blade and a strong tendency to have at least one earbud in at all times so she could listen to music while she worked. Since she kept it low enough that it didn't keep her or anyone else from doing their work, Cecelia nor Milana called her out on it.

The other, Neve, was the older sister of one of Cheryl's friends and, unlike the tattooed girl, was not always very pleasant to the customers. In fact, there were many times when she was downright rude to them, and this behaviour made me wonder how she had managed to keep her job this long.

Speaking of which, for how much she adored the place, why had Willow never applied for a position here?

The day of Anita and Alannah's concert, we had fewer customers than we normally did, which meant we had plenty of time to focus on other tasks and, in the case of Chad and Cecelia, have an in-depth discussion about creative writing. Although, right around the time Chad was preparing to send Cecelia a link to a helpful Youtube video he'd recently discovered, I noticed Jackson was staring at his phone intently as though trying to work something out. My curiosity got the best me of me as I asked him what he was doing.

"Oh, uh – nothing important," he quickly responded. He moved to put his phone away, but then he paused. "Actually, you know what? I could use a second opinion on this..."

The photo he showed me a second later seemed to be of some type of glittery dust, clearly sitting at the back of one of the store's shelves. "What is that?" I asked.

"I don't know. I was kind of hoping you would," admitted Jackson, "And it's what I've been trying to figure out this whole time. I found it the day you first started working here."

"Hmm. Do you think it's still where you found it? Maybe if I could look at it in person, I could get a better idea of what it might be," I suggested.

"Maybe," replied Jackson, tucking his phone into his pocket, "Let's find out."

He beckoned for me to follow him as he made his way to the shelf in question, removing some of the books from it. But when he took a closer look, he could only give a disappointed shake of his head. "No, it's gone. Someone must have cleaned it up."

"Ah, well. We can always ask the others if they know anything about it," I suggested.

"That's alright. I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"Well, if at any point you find yourself stuck, I'm here to help," I offered.

Jackson smiled. "Thanks."

Around 2:30 in the afternoon was when Cecelia made an announcement. "Alright, guys, we're closing early. And by the way, I just found out Chad has this awesome game called 'Shit Happens', and I'm thinking maybe we could try it out together sometime."

"Would Milana be joining us?" asked Jackson.

"Nah, these kinds of games aren't really her thing. You guys should've seen her when I tried introducing her to Cards Against Humanity. So, you guys up for playing this one?"

"As someone who probably loves Cards Against Humanity just as much as you do, I am definitely in," I said.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," agreed Jackson, "How many players is it?"

"Three, minimum. So even if Neve and Bree don't want to play, we'd still be good to go."

"Perfect," said Jackson, "I can't do it today, though. I have some stuff to get done at home before Cheryl's meeting."

"The same goes for me. Willow asked me to help her with some things for her YouTube channel," I added.

"Ooh, is she going to be posting her first video soon?" Cecelia's eyes lit up. She'd been ecstatic ever since Willow had first brought the channel up to her, mainly because she loved book reviews, but also because the fact that Willow was a regular at this shop meant lots of room for word-of-mouth marketing.

I chuckled. "Not quite yet, since the channel itself isn't up, but if you'd like, I can let you know when she creates it so you can subscribe."

"Sounds great, Drystan, thanks! I'll get Bree and Milana to subscribe too, they're both dying to see Willow's content. I'll bring it up to Neve, too, although I don't know if she'd actually do it or not."

Somehow, I doubted Neve would bother until Willow's channel reached significant popularity. To me, she seemed like the type to use others' popularity (or power, or whatever else was applicable) for her own personal gain. Still, I smiled. "My pleasure. And even if she doesn't, I'm sure Willow will greatly appreciate the support from the rest of you."

With that, I left the bookstore and drove the twenty minutes it took to get from there to Willow's place. The things she needed assistance with mainly had to do with planning out her recording space and picking out what books to review first, so even though it didn't take as long as either of us anticipated, we had a blast getting it done and she even managed to get a nice start on writing the script for her introduction video before the doorbell rang.

With a sigh, Willow got up from her seat at the kitchen table to answer it. "There goes the roll I was on." However, she cheered right back up upon seeing who was on the other side. "Oh, hi, Ali, what's up?"

"Hey, Willow, I managed to finish those pieces of artwork you wanted, so I thought I'd drop them off for you,' I heard Ali's voice float in from the front porch. Immediately, I went up to greet her, too.

"Ali, these are fantastic, thanks so much!" Willow happily told her, "But why bring them in person? Why not just email them? Not that I'm complaining, of course," she hurriedly added.

Ali shrugged. "Leena and I were driving by anyway and I had them on me so I figured I may as well stop."

"Ah, okay, that does sort of make sense. Where are you guys heading?"

"We're meeting with Cheryl and a few others about this big event she's trying to put together," responded Ali, "Do you guys want to come along? I imagine we can use all the help we can get, and I know she'll be glad to have you."

"Well, you've certainly piqued my interest. What's the event going to be?" I inquired curiously.

"Oh, we're still figuring out the details. The main thing is that it's meant to support New Salem's mental health services," she explained, "Everyone involved's really passionate about it."

"Well, yeah, mental health is a pretty big deal," said Willow, "Could you text one of us the address so we can follow you in Drystan's car?"

"Yeah, of course I can! See you guys soon!"

It turned out that Cheryl had opted to hold the meeting in a large room she'd rented out, situated at the back of the public library. She had originally wanted to have it at her house, but once she realized just how many people would be attending overall, she realized there wouldn't be enough room for everyone to squeeze into her living room. So, here we were.

Not too many people had arrived yet when we entered the meeting room. Cheryl and Celia were in the process of getting the projector up and running, since the former had prepared a PowerPoint presentation to share with everyone. I wasn't sure why, if there weren't too many set-in-stone details yet, but I supposed I would find out soon enough.

Heath and Dean, meanwhile, were having what appeared to be a very in-depth conversation about the Minecraft server they'd recently joined and, judging from how much laughter was involved, they had some interesting experiences to share. I was able to hear them more clearly once I sat down and my assumption was proven right at once.

"...three days later, I finally get back to my home base and find at least three creepers roaming around the – you know that wooden path I built on the water leading up to it? That thing. They were wandering back and forth on it. So, decision time. Do I run past them and risk not making it to the door in time? Or do I wait for them to leave and probably get killed anyway by a zombie or some shit?"

"Heath, you do know the server has a plugin that lets you teleport right to your base if you use the 'set home' command, right? And another plugin that automatically repairs damage caused by creeper explosions?"

Heath looked sheepish. "Nope. Guess I do now. And dude, I am so taking advantage of that next time we're on there!"

Over the next ten minutes or so, a steady stream of people flowed into the room, each taking one of the several empty seats at the large rectangular table or one of the extra chairs lining the walls. Sheldon, once he arrived, made a beeline for the seat on my right (Jackson had already claimed the one on my left). "Hey, Drystan, great to see you here! I wasn't sure if you'd heard about this whole thing or not. I actually meant to text you about it earlier today, but I completely forgot. Sorry about that, by the way."

"No need to worry. So, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good, thanks. Not too pleased with the new anti-witchcraft laws, though."

"Yo, when are we gonna get things cookin'?" an impatient Heath called out loudly.

"Just give it a few more minutes, impatient one," his elder sister Harmony told him, rolling her eyes, "The last few people should be getting here soon. Just relax."

"Besides, the only people we're even still waiting on are Clair and Nathan," added Cheryl with a brief glance at her phone, "and they both just texted me they're almost here."

Jackson, meanwhile, had not wasted any time in making sure he was ready for when the meeting did start. He had his laptop set on the large table before us, powered on and with a Microsoft document open.

"I figure taking notes will help us keep on track," he explained to me when he noticed me looking, "I can share them with you on OneDrive if you want. If you use it, that is."

I nodded. "I do, and that sounds perfect. Thank you."

"Anytime."

Five minutes later, Clair and Nathan made their appearance. "Hey, guys, sorry I'm late. Ran into this one out in the parking lot, though, so it's good to know I'm not the only one," said Clair, then she noticed Jackson. "Hey, dude, what's up?"

"Just waiting. Glad you could make it," replied Jackson as Clair came around to sit on the other side of him. Nathan, meanwhile, sat closer to the front of the room.

"Okay, so there are a few things we should go over before we get started on event talk," Cheryl began, speaking in a clear, loud tone, "Firstly, I figure we'll be here for two, two and a half hours at the very most, so that's how long I booked this conference room for – plus I didn't want anyone to miss tonight's concert. I mean, how often are we going to get to see Anita perform, am I right?"

"True that!" exclaimed Heath.

"Anyway," Cheryl continued, "Jackson and Julia, since you two plan to take notes, do you mind if, like Drystan, we all give you our emails so you can share them with us later?"

Again, Jackson nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. Just – if you can, it'll make things easier for me if they're all in one place."

"Same goes for me," added Julia.

"Perfect!" She then took a notebook from her bag and ripped a page out. "Okay, so, everyone, before you leave, I'm going to have you write your email down on this paper. And you two can each snap a photo of the page, cool? Only because I think I should keep the original paper in case I need to get ahold of anyone."

"What if we forget to write it?" asked Heath, rotating lazily in his chair.

"Don't worry, I'll remind everyone before we go. So, before I get into this PowerPoint here, does anyone else have a question?"

It honestly impressed me just how organized and professional Cheryl was going about this meeting, especially with it being the first one. It made it clear she'd done this before, though her event planning group in college had, according to Jackson, been smaller than this one. The way I saw it, working with a larger group could be both a blessing and a curse, but with the way Cheryl was handling things so far, she gave me the hope to believe things would continue to go just fine.

Celia raised her hand. "I have one. When it comes to delegating roles, I believe I should get to be a spokesperson for this event. Will that be a problem?"

Cheryl shook her head. "No, it won't. In fact, I think it's a good idea, but we'll talk about that more once we're at the point of delegating roles, okay?"

"If we must."

"Thank you. Anything else?"

A moment of silence. Then a familiar, accented voice came from the doorway. "Would you mind if I cut in?"

A somewhat hesitant Cheryl was the one to respond. "Er, of course, Mr. Van Hellscream. Please, take a seat." She gestured to the last empty seat close to the door. "You're actually here in the nick of time, I was just about to start my PowerPoint."

"Excellent, Miss Sun, thank you. Please proceed, I am very interested to hear your plans."

"Alright, then." Cheryl cleared her throat. "This PowerPoint will go over everything we've already determined about the event, just to make sure everyone's caught up."

True to her word, the slides gave me all the information I needed. The event would be in-person rather than virtual and, if Cheryl had her way, would take place in a public location. That particular slide contained a table of possible locations along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Another slide gave a list of possible event types to choose from – a concert or open mic, a trivia event like the one Cheryl had done for her class, etc. – and finally, there was a reminder of the specific cause we were supporting and a list of things we would need to determine by the end of today's meeting.

"Okay, so now we're at the fun part," Cheryl grinned, "Planning! I think we may as well get the most pressing issue out of the way first – what will the event be? Festival? Concert? Let's hear your thoughts, guys!"

Claudine raised her hand. "I've got one. Remember at the salon when we were talking about this, and you mentioned something about an outdoor movie night. You still up for doing that?"

Cheryl practically bounced as she nodded enthusiastically. "I am! I can actually picture this thing in my head! We'd set up a projector or something in the park, have everyone bring blankets and stuff to relax on during the movies, people can set up booths to sell merch like Heath mentioned, it would be so much fun!"

"Yo, I can see if my work can contribute food. And maybe we can do a thing where all the proceeds from concession and merch contribute to our fundraiser goal," Dean suggested, "Seems like the definite way to go. Speaking of, would we be selling tickets to this thing, or would it be open to anyone?"

"Hmm...I'm not sure yet. Can we come back to that part?"

"Yeah, totally."

As they spoke, I noticed Van Hellscream was keeping an abnormally close eye on Jackson and me, while Sheldon had a distrustful eye trained on him. Did Sheldon know something we didn't? Or was he simply suspicious after seeing the same thing I had?

"Okay, dudes, hear me out, I have a killer idea," Heath chimed in, "So, I was at this rockin' karaoke bar the other night with Abi, Claude, and Manny—"

"Come on, Heath, not the time for a bar story." Harmony rolled her eyes.

"No, no, no, this is relevant! So, anyway, the lady running the karaoke was awesome, not to mention there were people with some fantastic voices! This guy and his girlfriend even got up there and did 'Love the Way You Lie—"

"Um, Heath? Your point?" Celia interjected.

"Alright, chill. Remembering that made me realize, what if we did something like that for a bit before starting the movies, that way if anyone comes early, they'll be entertained, but no one will miss whatever movies we put on!"

"Heath, that's actually a pretty good idea, I'm impressed," Cheryl complimented, "What if karaoke isn't an option, though? We should think of some alternatives."

Claudine seemed to consider something. "Maybe Willow could do some live book reviews?"

"Not a bad idea, and definitely something I can do," replied Willow, "As a bonus, it might even get some new eyes on my channel if I'm lucky."

"Hey, what if we did a little of each? Maybe have people go up and do something of their choice while waiting for the movie to start? That way there can be karaoke, a book review or two, and whatever else someone wants to do as long as it's reasonable. What do you think, Cheryl?" Jackson suggested.

"I love that plan!" agreed Cheryl, "And you're right, there would need to be some limitations. Ooh, and if we're going to have merch, we should figure out the specifics..."

And so, it went on, with everyone contributing their own thoughts and ideas. Jackson's idea had impressed me a great deal, I could not lie, and he managed to come up with several more as the discussion continued. Overall, things ended on a successful note, even with Van Hellscream's unnerving gaze lingering on the two of us.

As I was preparing to meet Sheldon and Willow at the door, Heath and Dean decided to approach me. "Hey, Drystan, it's good to see you outside the bookstore, bro," said Heath, "We were just thinking, do you play video games at all?"

"Once in awhile, sure, but not on a regular basis," I replied, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, would you maybe wanna join us on our Minecraft server sometime? The dude who made it plans on adding a few sick mods soon, so we're hoping to get a nice group of players going."

I shrugged. "I don't exactly own the game; I just play it with Sheldon sometimes on his PlayStation. I think he has it on computer too, though if you want to ask him. I'm sure he'd be delighted to join you."

"Aw, c'mon, bro, it's only, like, $30! It'll be fun. One of the mods he's adding in is the vampirism mod!"

Okay, that got my attention. "Really? What does it add? Besides vampires, of course."

"Oh, all kinds of stuff! I can send you the link to the description if you want to read about it. So, I take it you're in, then?"

"You know what? Sure. Now, I only have to pay for the game once, right? It's not a subscription?"

"Yep, that's right. And mods are free, which is good since you'll have to have those on your computer to play on the server once they're added to it," Dean answered.

I gave a nod of understanding. "That makes sense. Care to send me the list so I know which ones to search for?"

"For sure. Really looking forward to this, man, it's gonna be rad!" Heath grinned, then the two turned to leave.

Sheldon, Willow and I didn't run into Cheryl and Jackson again until we were inside the room Alannah and Anita's performance was taking place in. Thanks to the long line, it took us awhile to get in and we both wanted drinks, which extended the wait time even more. But once we found our seats, we realized that, fortunately, the two of them had been seated right beside us.

"Hey, guys," greeted Cheryl as Willow and I sat down, "Did you have fun in that line?"

"It was delightful. Thrilling, even," I replied smoothly, then added, "How are you?"

"I'm doing pretty good," Cheryl responded, "I had planned on introducing you to Jackson, but since you two have already met, I guess that'd be kind of redundant, huh?'

"Pleased to meet you," I said jokingly to Jackson, "Again."

"Yeah, you too," he replied with a laugh, holding out his hand for me to shake.

"Hey, by the way, guys, thanks again for coming to the meeting earlier, it seriously means a lot that so many people are offering their support."

Anita and Alannah hadn't come onstage yet, but there was pop music playing at a reasonable volume through the speakers to keep the crowd entertained until they did, the current song being 'Barcelona' by Andra, Dony and Matteo. Whether someone else would be opening for the two performers, I had no idea, but either way it was the sound of the audience talking to each other that could be heard the most.

"So, Cheryl, how did you and Jackson meet?" I asked her.

"We went to high school together," Cheryl smiled, "For a minute there it looked like we might go to the same university until his career interests shifted. What about you and Willow?"

"Hey, I've already told you that story," Willow reminded her, playfully swatting her arm. "Besides, it's not like we're together."

"I know, but I want to hear the story from Drystan's point of view," explained Cheryl, "And neither are Jackson and I, for the record. You know that."

So, I proceeded to tell Cheryl the story as I knew it: How Willow and I had encountered each other at the beach one day - purely by chance - and since she'd been traveling around a lot at the time, our friendship had developed mostly online. It wasn't until recently that she'd found herself back here in New Salem and we began meeting up in person more.

"And then, of course, we met Sheldon," Willow added. "You met him at the meeting, too, didn't you, Cheryl? He was the black-haired guy sitting next to Drystan."

"Well, I didn't really get a chance to talk to him directly, no, but he seems like a chill guy," replied Cheryl.

"He is," I nodded, "Trust me, I've known him since we were in high school. He'll actually be here any minute, he just had to use the bathroom first."

"I'm excited for him to join us, then. I'd love to get to meet him for real."

At that moment, Sheldon made his appearance. "Sorry, place is really crowded. Pleasure to meet you, Cheryl," he held out his hand for her to shake.

"Yeah, you, too!"

Before the conversation could go much further, though, the lights in the room began to dim and people murmured with anticipation, the rush of excitement surging through the whole room as the stage began to light up and music began to play. When Anita and Alannah finally appeared onstage, they were greeted by enthusiastic cheers and applause from the audience. I didn't recognize the song, being unfamiliar with their music until now, but that didn't matter.

I recognized which singer was which easily enough. Anita had platinum blonde hair streaked with black and pink, and her eyes were a vivid purple.

Alannah, on the other hand, had dark blue eyes that could only be described as starry and ethereal. Her hair was a mix of black, blue and purple that also had silver highlights in places. Her guitar was designed in such a way that it looked like it was made of hundreds of shining purple-blue crystals, its strings a brilliant silver in colour.

And I had to admit, they were both incredibly talented, with Anita's strong, melodic vocals and Alannah's skill on guitar. However, they hadn't gotten very far into the first song when something rather unexpected happened beside me.

Jackson, who had been facing the stage like the rest of us, was now glancing around the room as though confused about how he'd gotten here.

Then, after a second, his eyes fell on me. "Kieran?" I thought I heard him ask.

I raised my eyebrows. "Who?"