what happened

Rosco thought he'd take his chances. Maybe see Charlotte in passing at the library after school. He never saw her. It was frustrating. He wished he'd gotten her cell number. Maybe. There was a little apprehension since she was Rachel's friend. He guessed. He wasn't sure of anything. Really. But there he was walking around like a lost puppy, and he found himself in the Young Adult area and there was Rachel who didn't look anything like the girl he knew.

She was all so grownup. In a gray pant suit. Heels. She looked like Lois Lane in those heavy duty black rimmed glasses she was wearing. He hoped she didn't notice him because he felt pretty pitiful in his ratty jeans and Academy is T-shirt. He was wearing his skully too with the big fat Anarchy A on it. He felt about a decade younger than her.

"Well, this is a surprise," Rachel came up from behind him when he turned around to look as if he was looking for a book when in fact he wasn't. Just Charlotte and he didn't see her anywhere. Rachel was all smiles. There was just something peculiar about her, and Rosco wasn't sure what that was. His eyes opened wide just looking at her.

"What?" She looked on her jacket, her pants as if something was spilled on her, and she didn't know it.

"Nothing." He quickly made up a story about working on his term paper. "You know, I don't want to wait til the last minute to do it." But he kind of was. It was due before winter break. "Its the last one I'll ever have to do."

"Lucky." She smiled more. And suddenly he thought maybe she had to be on antidepressants because there were times he'd wondered if she needed them. Naturally, she went out of her way to help him find everything he'd possibly need to write a term paper, and she even decided for him how he should do this on the Victorian age instead of Shakespeare times because everyone did it about Shakespeare, according to her. Before he knew it she had him checked out with ten books. He'd never had that many in his life on his library card at one time.

He kept looking around, scratched the back of his neck.

"Anything else?" She looked at him seriously except she was smiling. That smile. What had changed? Rosco wondered.

"Its nothing, really." He shook his head.

"You're looking for Charlotte, aren't you?" There was laughter in her voice.

"Um, I-"

"She's in the breakroom," Rachel told him. "Did you want to say hello?"

"Uh."

"You know you want to." She walked him back to where the breakroom was. Rosco followed wondering what had happened to Rachel.