chapter 3

Monica was walking along the corridor of Cathedral High School, carrying a pile of books to the library that Monday morning. But as they were many, she wasn’t able to hold onto them and ended up letting them fall down on the floor. It was at the exact moment that a tall blond teenage student was passing by: that was Brian Thompson, the boy that was near the cinema last Saturday and for whom Annie had special feelings:

“Oh, my goodness!”, exclaimed Monica. Brian stopped walking:

“Do you need some help, lady?”, he offered. The little angel smiled:

“Oh, yes, thank you. I shouldn’t be carrying all of them at the same time.”

“Where are you going?”, asked the boy. She was a bit surprised with that (unnecessary) question for a moment:

“To the library. I have to rearrange them back in case students need to make a research, you know.”

They shared the books and continued walking. Brian was almost turning on the wrong corridor, when Monica called him back:

“Hey... I’m afraid you’re going in the wrong direction... It’s this way...”, she said, once again surprised that he didn’t know the way to the library.

“Sorry. I don’t come here quite often, you see.”

“So you haven’t been working on your reading skills lately, have you?”

“Well, that kind of stuff was never a big deal to me. I’d much rather play basketball with the guys and have some real fun. Don’t like being stuck in a room with moth eaten old books.”

“Well, you never know how surprising a room full of books can be sometimes.”

They entered the library and settled the books on a trolley, in the back of the room. That was exactly moment when another teenage came near them:

“Annie, I’ve found the book you were looking for, here it is...”, said Monica, “It was upstairs, in an empty classroom. Somebody might have used it and didn’t deliver it back.” The girl was a little embarrassed by being so close to the teenage boy:

“Thanks, Monica...”, she replied, taking the book Monica handed her, “Hey Brian...”

“Hi.”, he said, but, before he left the library, the boy noticed that the book Annie was holding was about sports, mainly basketball:

“Hey, ‘Physics applied to the world of sports’? I didn’t know there was such thing like that!”

Monica realised his sudden interest and the shy but hopeful smile on Annie’s face:

“Your friend helped me out with all these books.”, she said, and turned to the boy: “Thank you, Brian, you’ve been very helpful.”

“Yeah, maybe coming to the library wasn’t such a bad idea after all!”

Seeing his smile, the angel also showed a content (but confuse) face:

“I think I’d better deliver these other books. Excuse me.”

The two teenagers stood alone:

“Listen, Annie, will you check this out now?”

“Yes, I was going to make a research for next Tuesday...”

“Do you mind if I stay with you, just to see it?”

She was almost lost for words in hearing that:

“N-no... of... of course not...”

“So let’s find some place to sit!”

Watching from a certain distance, Monica had the expression of somebody who had just had a surprise.

*

Some time later, in another part of the school, the History class was over and the students were leaving, when Edward came closer to Andrew and landed him a sheet of paper:

“I’m sorry for being late this morning, Andrew. I had to work until late yesterday, got home about 2 o’clock. But I promise this won’t happen again.”

“It’s OK, Edward.”

“Do you have the grades of the last test?”

“Yep, and I think I have good news for you, after all, an A+ isn’t something you can just ignore!”

The boy’s eyes lit up:

“A+?! Really?!”

“Check it up for yourself!”, said the angel, landing him the test.

“I didn’t think I would have such a good result!”

“You are very intelligent, Edward. You just have to stop being so down on yourself!”

“Well, I guess I cannot argue with the teacher.”, replied Edward, although rather melancholic.

All of a sudden, somebody knocked on the door, and Andrew was surprised to see that Margaret, the middle aged teacher that he had helped the week before, was back:

“Excuse me, teacher? May I come in?”, she interrupted, with a smile on her face.

“Margaret!”, he hugged her “I’m happy to see you here, but... weren’t you supposed to come back only in three weeks?”

“Yes, but my daughter and granddaughter wanted to come to New York with me and stay for some time. Elizabeth and Kate have never been to New York before, so they decided to visit the city with me as a tourist guide! So, don’t worry, I don’t plan to resume my post as a teacher so soon, you’ll keep on in command!”

That last comment made him feel more relaxed about his and Monica’s plans for the next weeks. Margaret turned to the door and called a 15-year-old girl that was reading the student’s research works placed on the walls of the corridor. She was a bit tall, had shoulder length blond hair and green eyes:

“Hey, Kate, come here sweetie. There’s someone I would like you to meet!”. Smiling, the girl entered the classroom and the old lady introduced her:

“This is my granddaughter Kate. Kate, this is my friend Andrew, who is also a teacher here and who helped me to make my decision about coming back to you and to your mother.”

“Hi Kate!”, greeted the blond angel.

“Hi Andrew. It’s really nice to meet you! You have no idea how much you’ve helped my mom, my grandma and me too. Thank you.”

“That’s what friends are for, Kate.”, he replied, “And talking about friends, I want you two to meet Edward, one of my best students!”

“Hello, Edward. You must be really good, because I know Andrew would never lie!”, joked Margaret. The boy was a bit shy by his teacher’s comment:

“Well... I’m not that good. It’s just that I like History...”

“You are Edward Davis?”, asked Kate.

“Yes...”

“So it was you who did that research that’s on the wall, about the costumes and traditions over the centuries?!”

“Yes... that was me...”, he said, shier than before.

“It’s really cool the way you did it using computer graphics! I liked seeing the way people dressed 800 years ago. You must’ve had a big trouble finding this kind of stuff and after transferring them to the computer and creating the scenarios!”

Andrew put his hands on both the teenagers’ shoulders:

“Well, Edward, it seems that Kate and I share the same opinion about your work, although you don’t agree with us.”

Margaret had an idea:

“So, as you got along well,  why don’t you show her the school during the lunch time?”, suggested her. More than immediately, the two agreed with that, and left the classroom, leaving a satisfied looking grandma and a puzzled looking angel.

*

Some time later, Andrew came along the corridor of the school. It was empty, as the students were on their break. The blond angel turned left and bumped into his best friend, who was coming in the opposite direction:

“Oh Andrew, thank God I’ve met you, you don’t know what happened!”, she said, with a worried look.

“Well I was looking for you too, Angel Girl. It seems that our ‘free time assignment’ will need some changes!”

“But that’s exactly what I was going to tell you!”, she replied. Andrew took her hand in his:

“Come with me, sweetie, we can talk in my classroom, the students aren’t there now.”

They headed to his classroom to talk about the events of the morning for some minutes and discuss what to do next:

“... this is totally unexpected, Andrew, totally unexpected. Now we are dealing with two more people!”, said the Irish angel, pacing from one side to the other.

“Don’t worry Monica, somehow I get the impression that we both will be able to help Annie and Edward anyway! We’ll just have to adapt to the new situation.”

“But how, Andrew?”

“Well, Kate and Brian seem to be two good people and what if they are exactly where they were supposed to be? What if Annie and Edward were meant to meet them in the first place?”

“Do you think that could be possible?”

“Of course it could! Just look at the way they got along so well almost immediately. And, besides this, Kate and Brian started admiring our two teen friends for great qualities they both have.”

“I know that. It’s just that I was so worried when I saw such an unexpected meeting between Annie and Brian... it was as if things were going out of the control, you know. And now you’re saying the same happened with Edward...”

He smiled and stroked her auburn hair:

“Trust me, everything will be OK.”

She became pensive for some time, and finally let go of her worries, and smiled too:

“Yes, you’re right, Andy. And we have to think that we’ll help four people instead of two!”

“And Tess will be twice as pleased!... ‘after’ we’ve finished, of course!”, he joked. The Irish angel looked to her best friend lovingly:

“It’s amazing how you can ease my heart in just a blink of an eye...”

“The pleasure is all mine, Angel Girl...”

She glanced at her watch:

“I’m afraid I have to go now. The students will be back in two minutes.”

Andrew looked around them, and, realising there was nobody in the corridor, he cupped her chin with his right hand and planted a tiny loving kiss on her forehead:

“See you later, sweetie.”, he whispered into her ear: “I love you.”

“See you later, Andy. And I love you, too.”