by Cara Malone
She gave Max a quick nod of recognition – they had just seen each other a few hours ago in the café just off campus, but Max gave her an appreciative smile. It was hard being in this room full of strangers, even without the guilt of knowing that Mira fully expected her to be making friends when all she could manage to do was work on her notebook.
As people filled the chairs all around her, Max kept her eyes down and flipped to a fresh page, dating it and labeling it exactly as she had done to the first, but adding a small notation to indicate that this was page two for the session.
“Hi,” a honey-smooth voice whispered close to her ear, sending a shiver down Max’s spine as she turned to see the goddess herself sliding into the seat beside her.
Max didn’t reciprocate the greeting. She just kept her eyes on her notebook and her pen poised to transcribe the pertinent events of the meeting. Her fingers itched to jot down the anomaly of this girl’s seating choice – queen bees like her didn’t sit one chair from the end – but Max restrained herself in deference to Mira’s request that she try to be a little more approachable and, Max’s least favorite word, normal.
“Okay, everybody,” Mira started, raising her voice to address the group. She was now the only one still standing up. “This is a meeting of the Granville Library Science Student Organization, so if you’re here for fight club, you’re in the wrong place.”
There were a few chuckles around the table and Max rolled her eyes – she’d heard Mira tell that joke so many times in undergrad, she had every possible reaction to it memorized and cycled through them in order. Eye roll. Groan. Confusion. Polite laugh. Guffaw.
“For those of you who aren’t aware,” Mira went on, “GLiSS is a student professional organization, which means we participate in and organize professional and social events for library students. In previous years we’ve done everything from attending the state library conference, to participating in campus-wide events, to going downtown and getting a round of drinks after finals.”
Another little rumble of laughter rippled through the room, and Max noticed that the girl beside her had elected for ‘polite laugh’ both times, which is what the majority of the room was doing. Max wanted to watch her because this was a prime opportunity to observe the way that a stunningly beautiful and patently ‘popular’ girl reacted to the world, but unfortunately she was sitting on the wrong side of Max. She would have had to turn her head conspicuously toward the back of the room to do it, while everyone else was looking straight ahead at Mira.
“Because of the short duration of the library program – two years or a year and a summer semester for those of us on the advanced track – the way we handle elected office at GLiSS is by having people serve a one-year term that begins in the middle of the academic year,” Mira explained. “For example, I took office as the president at the beginning of the winter semester last year, and that’s when my term will end this year. I know you all just met, but I want you to start thinking about who you want to be the leadership for this organization next year. Three months sounds like a long time, but it will be here before you know it.”
Mira then went over to a white board along one wall and listed out all of the positions that would be opening up come winter, leaving space beneath each to write down names. She called out each position in turn, and anyone wishing to run for that office raised their hand. A few – professional events chair and treasurer – were running unopposed, but most had at least a pair of names, if not more. Social chair was the most contentious, with four people all vying for the position, and when Mira asked for candidates for the president’s position, Max looked around the room and then put her hand in the air.
Only one other hand rose with hers – the goddess’s slender arm pointing skyward.
“Maxine Saddler,” Mira announced as she wrote down Max’s full name on the board, and then she turned to address Max’s competitor. “And your name?”
“Ruby Satterwhite,” the girl said, her name sending another shiver through Max. Those T’s, those glottal stops, the way her lips moved and her tongue danced just barely behind her teeth as she said it… Max watched while Mira wrote it beneath her own name on the board.
“Anyone else for president?” Mira asked, pausing for a moment as the room fell into a hushed quiet. “Nope? Alright, well I think it’s time to get to know a bit about each other so we’re going to do one of those dreaded team building exercises with the rest of today’s meeting.”
A few little chuckles spread through the room again, along with quite a few more groans – which is what Max elected for – and then Mira had them all go around the room introducing themselves, including their field of study prior to grad school, why they want to be a librarian, and the book they would want if stranded on a desert island. This last item, while perfectly logical for a group of future librarians, was a nod to Max’s penchant for identifying people by their favorite books.
Most of them gave perfectly run of the mill answers, like the fact that about seventy-five percent of them came from liberal arts backgrounds, or that the majority chose the Bible as their desert island book. Max was, however, intensely interested in Ruby’s answers, and Max found herself begging the universe that Ruby’s answers weren’t as unimaginative as the rest of the group.
“I’m Ruby,” she told the group, making eye contact with everyone around the table as most of them nodded and smiled amiably as if they were old friends, “and I just moved here from Illinois. I have my Bachelor’s degree in gender studies and I hope that when I’m a librarian I can use that background to bring more diversity to the children’s and teens’ collections at an underserved public library. Oh, and my favorite book is The Color Purple.”
Ruby Satterwhite. Favorite book: The Color Purple. Max committed the words to memory, and then it was her turn.
“Maxine Saddler,” she said, nodding at the board where Mira had written out her full name for some unspeakable reason. Shooting a quick, disparaging look to the head of the table, she added, “Though I much prefer to go by Max. I studied sociology here at GSU and now I’m getting dual degrees in library science and user experience design so that I can be a systems librarian.”
“And your favorite book?” Mira asked.
“You didn’t say favorite book. You said the book I would want if I was stranded,” Max said, pulling out her phone and quickly bringing up Amazon. “That would have to be the SAS Survival Handbook, third edition, by John Wiseman, because it has five hundred and twenty-four reviews, a four-and-a-half-star rating, and I bet Amazon could deliver it to the island by drone, so maybe I could use its camera to signal for help, or tie a note to it asking to be rescued.”
This drew a few laughs from people around the table, and Max looked at them skeptically. It was the most thorough and practical answer by far.
“Wow, I want to be on her island,” someone at the other end of the table said. “She’s clearly thought it through.”
“It’s just common sense,” Max replied. “Do you think your Bible is going to help you get off the isl-”
“Okay, let’s wrap this meeting up,” Mira interrupted, checking the time. “Our hour is almost up, so we’ll reconvene in two weeks – same time, same place. Oh, and if the candidates for the various positions would like to prepare a small speech for the next meeting to help us decide how to vote, that would be fantastic. Nothing over five minutes.”
CHAPTER 4
The meeting ended and most of the attendees gathered up their things and left – either to head to evening classes or, in the case of a lot of the older students, to go home, make dinner, and tend to their families. A few lingered in the room, picking up conversations that had been interrupted when Mira spun into the room like a Tasmanian devil, and Ruby was among those who remained.
She didn’t have any conversations that needed to be concluded, or any business at all, really. She just wanted to introduce herself to the only person in the room she hadn’t gotten to before the m
eeting – her new political opponent, Max.
As soon as Mira released everyone, Max had jumped out of her chair, shoving her notebook back into her bag and pushing her way up to the front of the room before Ruby had the chance to so much as extend her hand. She figured that Max had further questions about the speech they’d be giving, so Ruby stayed in her seat and waited while everyone else filed out, bumping into her chair in the narrow space behind the conference table.
“Bye,” Ruby said to a few of them as they passed. “See you next time. Have a good night!”
“Bye, Ruby,” the girl with the top knot said. Lydia, she thought to herself as she waved. Lydia didn’t seem quite so anxious now – most people felt better once they could identify a friendly face in the crowd.
What Ruby really wanted, though, was to go size up – err, meet – her competition.
The room had emptied out by now, and there were only about ten minutes before Ruby’s first class began. The lecture room was only down the hall though, so Ruby had time for a quick introduction.
She got up and slung her messenger bag around her back, walking to the front of the room. Max seemed completely embroiled in whatever she was talking to Mira about – Ruby found herself listening a little harder than was polite as she approached, trying to catch the subject of their conversation.
“-understand that it’s a matter of faith,” Ruby Max saying as she drew nearer. “All I’m saying is that most people who have been Christian for any reasonable length of time have the important parts of the book memorized, so I don’t understand why you would waste your choice on something that you already know cover to cover.”
Mira was giving Max a slightly glazed look – the kind you give someone when they’re making the same argument for the hundredth time – and Max seemed completely oblivious to this disinterest. She also didn’t notice as Ruby approached and waited patiently for a chance to enter the conversation.
Mira, on the other hand, shot Ruby a look over Max’s shoulder that was just shy of mirthful. It implied a certain amount of familiarity and, if Ruby was reading the expression correctly, just a little bit of protectiveness as well. It was a look that seemed to say, I know she’s a weirdo, but she’s my weirdo. Ruby wondered how well the two of them knew each other.
Mira was petite, dressed in a pretty summer dress with a cardigan over it, and she’d tried to brush her hair back into place with her hands but her bun was still messy in a not-quite-intentional way. She had icy blue eyes, and Ruby wondered if Max and Mira were an item. She’d certainly jumped to put Max’s name down on the white board during the meeting, and Max was speaking so unreservedly to her – something Ruby hadn’t seen her do at all for the last hour. It had looked positively painful for her to address the group earlier, but now all of that inhibition was gone.
That would certainly make winning the presidency a harder task if it were true.
“I guess it’s a pretty big book,” Max went on. “So at the very least you could burn the pages to start a fire or signal for help. But if that’s your goal then you’re better off with War and Peace, or a copy of the U.S. tax code.”
“I guess that means you wouldn’t be too happy about my choice either,” Ruby said, smiling and stepping into the conversation.
She was just about to remind them of the book she’d picked when Max looked over her shoulder at Ruby and said, “Yeah, I don’t know how many times you could read The Color Purple while trapped on an island without deciding it wasn’t worth it and just walking into the ocean.”
Ruby caught a split second of strain on Mira’s face that said she was nervous about how Ruby would react to this brusque comment, and then Ruby laughed, cracking a smile at Max.
“You’re right, maybe it is a grim choice for that particular situation,” Ruby said. “Your selection was far more pragmatic.”
“Feel free to borrow my answer in the future,” Max said. “It’s the only smart choice if you actually want to survive long enough to be rescued.”
“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I take a three-hour tour from a tropic port,” Ruby said, grinning and waiting, but neither of them picked up her Gilligan’s Island reference. She shrugged and added, “Anyway, I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation. I just wanted to come over and introduce myself.”
“You introduced yourself earlier,” Max said bluntly. “You’re Ruby Satterwhite, you’re from Illinois, you have a degree in gender studies, and as we already mentioned, your desert island book is The Color Purple. Did I miss anything?”
“Oh,” Ruby said, taken aback. She forced a little laugh and tried to lighten the mood. “Well, no, I don’t think so. Your memory is even better than mine, and I never forget a name, Maxine Saddler.”
“It’s Max. And I make it a point to remember salient details about the people I meet,” Max said.
Ruby shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other at this unexpected antagonism. It was pretty rare that someone could best Ruby in a conversation, but it was pretty hard to come back from such a blunt delivery of rudeness. It was clear that she wasn’t wanted here, so she did the only thing left to do – bow out gracefully.
“Well, I have to be getting to class,” she said, taking a few steps away from the two of them. “It was nice to meet you, Mira. Max, I look forward to hearing your speech at the next meeting.”
She wasn’t quite sure, but Ruby thought she saw Max’s lip turn up into a snarl as she answered, “May the best woman win.”
And then Ruby turned and hustled out of the room before she could suffer any further humiliation at the hands of Max. It was clear that this was not going to be a friendly race, and if Max was dating the current president then there was a good chance Ruby wouldn’t win no matter how many library science students she befriended.
Ruby sighed as she entered the hall, out of view of the two of them. This was not how she’d pictured her first night of grad school, and she was starting to feel the ache of loneliness that had plagued her all summer. She didn’t have time to dwell on it just now, though – her first class was about to begin and she had to hustle down the hall rather than wallowing in those feelings. As she ducked into the lecture room, Ruby hoped that tonight’s class would be mentally challenging enough to keep her mind off of her new adversary as well as her ex, Megan, for at least the next hour.
With the kind of luck she was having tonight, though, her first class would be a syllabus-reading session like most of her undergrad classes on the first day.
CHAPTER 5
“You really need to work on how you talk to people,” Mira scolded Max as soon as Ruby disappeared out of the conference room. “Especially when you first meet them.”
“What was wrong with that?” Max asked, a little annoyed. She thought they’d had a perfectly reasonable conversation about the merits and flaws of The Color Purple as a desert island book, and she might have even persuaded Ruby to change her answer in the future. Max considered that a win, particularly considering the fact that she typically found herself tongue-tied around women as gorgeous as Ruby.
“It was very brusque,” Mira said. “And I’m pretty sure she thought you were being snarky when you rattled off all her answers to my icebreaker.”
“I was proving that I paid attention,” Max objected.
“Yeah, but it was the way you said it,” Mira said. “Didn’t we agree that you were going to try a little harder to be nice and make new friends in library school?”
“Yes, mother,” Max said, rolling her eyes and hoping that Mira caught this deployment of sarcasm. Then she checked the time on her phone and her pulse rate shot up. “Shit, I’m almost late for class.”
She rushed out of the room, leaving Mira behind to gather up her things, and darted into the hall. Information Theory was just a few doors down, so she knew that it wouldn’t take her long to get there after the meeting, but she hadn’t taken into account the fact that she might stay behind to talk to Mira, or that Ruby might come
over and derail the whole conversation.
What on earth did the goddess want to talk to Max for, anyway? There was no reason someone like that would have any need to interact with her, verbal taunts about the impending election notwithstanding.
Ruby had been even more stunning up close, her deep brown eyes swimming with little flecks of gold and her full lips glossed like she’d painted them in melted sugar. But, Max thought as she rushed into the classroom and saw that the professor was already handing out the syllabus, if Ruby couldn’t take a joke without getting offended, then she just might be too fragile for Max.
She entered the room, scanning the rows for an empty seat. There were about twenty-five other students already sitting with their notebooks and laptops unpacked, settled in like they’d been there for ages. The room was full and the instructor was giving Max an irritated look – maybe because she was late for his very first class, or maybe because she’d allowed the door to swing shut loudly behind her.
In any case, there was only one seat left and she hustled over to it – front row, second from the end. She sat down, putting her backpack on her lap so she could dig out her notebook and pen, and then someone was shoving a couple of syllabi at her, trying to pass them down the row.
“Here,” the guy sitting next to her whispered a little impatiently as Max tucked her bag under her seat and finally took the papers. She set one copy on her desk, then turned to hand the other one to the person sitting in the last seat in the row.
It was Ruby.
She glared at Max for a second – Mira must have been right about the snark factor after all – and then Ruby snatched the syllabus out of her hand. She turned her attention back to the front of the room as the instructor returned to a tabletop podium and picked up his own copy of the handout.
“Hello, everyone,” he said, his voice booming out of proportion to the size of the room. “I’m Professor Wilson McDermott and this is Information Theory. I just passed around the syllabus, and the reason that I provided it to you in print is so that you’ll have absolutely no excuse not to read it. Assignments, exam schedules, and the readings are all outlined there, and you can feel free to peruse it at your leisure.”