Susan decided to grab a book and just study for an hour. What could go wrong there.
She quickly realised that despite her hopes, she didn’t have her reading glasses. She usually wore contact lenses, but she woke up so late that she totally forgot them,
“Great,” she said to herself. Looking at the fuzzy wording on the pages, unable to decipher exactly what it said.
Then, Susan noticed something. The words looked… clearer. They were gradually getting clearer.
‘That’s odd’ she thought. She examined the page closer. All the words were becoming readable.
“How…” she started, unable to put together some excuse as to why this was happening. She knew in her mind that her eyesight couldn’t ‘just get better’ in a few seconds, “I’m just tired,” she said, justifying the strange occurrence to her late night, “y’know what,” she said to herself. She lifted herself up from the library seat, grabbed her coat and went to return the book.
“Oh…” she said to herself, realising that she had completely forgotten where the book came from. She didn’t really look at what she was reading, she knew it was vaguely related. She worried for a moment, not wanting to just leave a random book. She knew the elderly librarian would have to organise it herself. She didn’t want her to do that!
If only she knew where the book went.
Like a truck, she was hit with the knowledge of exactly where the book went. She looked over to a shelf, seeing the exact gap between two books where she knew it once sat. She let out a deep breath, assuring herself that she just remembered where she picked it up from. She slipped the book back into its position carefully.
She looked at the rest of the shelf, seeing that a few other books had been removed,
‘Strange Occurances in Modern Ages, by Steven T. Cillian’
She shook her head wildly, “How did it know that!” She loudly said to herself, freaked out.
She couldn’t explain anything that was going on… still, how could she guarantee that was the exact book that sat there. It’s not like she just knew stuff all of a sudden.
“Excuse me…” a voice said from behind. Susan snapped her head towards her. It was a girl she had never seen in her life. She had long, golden blonde hair, a comfortable pink sweater, and a book bag over shoulder. She wondered who she was. Maybe she went to the University?
‘Noel Miranda, Second Year Student studying Fashion. Born in Utah. Aged 20.’
“Uhm…” Susan panicked. She didn’t known what to say. She had just been bombarded by all this information. But it couldn’t possibly be true,
“A-are you okay?” The woman asked, looked a little concerned for Susan,
“O-oh… yeah. I’m okay,” Susan said, wanting to not look like she’d seen a ghost. But despite everything… she had to ask, “i-is your…” she hesitated, worried to not look crazy, “is your name… is it…” she couldn’t get the sentence out,
“Sorry, I probably should’ve introduced myself,” the woman replied, giggling cutely, blushing a little, “I’m Noel,”
Susan’s whole world collapsed. Everything she ever believed was suddenly shattered. How the hell did Susan work out her name!?
“You’re studying Fashion…” Susan stated, figuring out how accurate she was,
“Y-yeah… it’s my second year actually,” she scratched the back of her head, “have you seen me around?” She asked, wonderingly,
“Never,” Susan replied bluntly. Realising her immediate mistake, acting so rude, she corrected herself, “I mean, I’ve seen you around. But I’ve never spoken to you before,” she lied. She truly had never seen this woman in her life… but somehow she knew everything about her. She knew that her family dog was named Owen, she was an only child, she had tattoo she had hidden from her parents since she was 17. Every piece of information about this girl, it was all inside Susan’s mind,
“Wow, and you knew I was a Fashion student?” Noel asked,
“Sure,” Susan lied again. She wasn’t a particularly good lier, but clearly this girl believed her. She didn’t look all too bright… but definitely didn’t look stupid. After all, she was in University.
“W-well…” Noel said, “I was about to leave when I heard you yelling,” Noel said, causing Susan to look embarrassed for making such a scene, “so I wanted to make sure you were alright,” she stated, “i-is everything alright?” Noel asked, realising that she hadn’t really asked,
“Yeah, sure,” Susan said, “I just bumped my head on something… I guess,” she knew it was a terrible lie, but didn’t do much about it. This girl seemed to take everything she said pretty openly,
“Oh, well I’m glad to hear it!” Noel said. She scratched her forehead, not sure what else to say. Susan was the same, she just didn’t have anything else to say. She just wanted out of this library!
“I usually like to read over there,” Noel said, pointing to an empty table near the back of the library, “i-if you ever wanted to come over and talk… I’ll be there!” Noel said, cheerfully. Susan forced a smile,
“Yeah… sure, I’ll come say hi if I’m back here again,”
“Great!” Noel said, “I have to go, goodbye!”she said cheerfully, as she walked out of the aisle they were in. She looked a little hasty. Awkwardly.
‘Why the hell was that girl acting so weird…’ Susan wondered, then it was immediately clear to her.
‘Noel’s deepest secret is that she is a lesbian. As a Christian, she believed that her parents would not love her if she told them the truth. She had never been with a woman, only ever ‘dating’ one boy in High School, who she refused to have sex with. She was still a virgin.’
“She was hitting on me!?” Susan whispered to herself, “there’s no way anyone would hit on me… that’s literally never happened before!” Then a new wave of information struck her. Every time she’d ever been hit on. She’d been hit on by girls and guys alike consistently over the course of her life, especially in High School.
“What!?” She whispered to herself again, “people find me hot!?”
She found out every single person who found her hot. Not only was found attractive, but she was envied by many people too! She had always had a relatively slim figure, not too curvy or anything. The defenition of average… but apparently not!
For Susan, this was a truckload of information suddenly poured onto her, she could literally find out anything. She was yet to even consider not needing to worry about studying.
All she wanted now was to get back to her apartment. She wrapped her coat around herself, and quickly made for the library’s exit.