Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The young woman walked up the stairs of her local library, looking around all the while. She was wearing a tight black business suit with a ruffled white blouse, and her purple high heels clicked against the marble steps. Her dark curly hair was pulled up into a loose ponytail, and it bounced when she walked. As she passed the great stone statue of the lion, she reached up and rubbed his right paw, as she had done every time she had visited the library since she was little. It had lost its old charm, and it was now just a little habit that she barely even realized when she did it. Eventually, she reached the wide glass front doors and swung them open, entering the place that had become something like a second home for her.

Even for a Wednesday afternoon, the old library was bustling with people. There were little kids looking at picture books in the Discovery Corner, and teenagers who were just there to find a quiet place after school to relax and do homework. There were also a few people who were so engrossed in their books that they were completely oblivious to the sights and sounds around them. 

The woman took this all in, and then walked up to the reception desk. Her purple heels made a more hollow sound on the pine wood floor, unlike the clicking noise of the plastic heel against the stone steps outside. It was the sort of noise that stuck with you after the echo had faded away, and it seemed unnaturally loud inside the quiet library, where the only other sound was the rustling of pages and the soft whispers between friends.

“Hey, Mrs. Polly, come to check out some more books?” asked the lady behind the desk, a big friendly smile plastered across her make-up caked face. She was not what you would call a stereotypical librarian, looking more like the guinea pig of a fashion and makeup class gone horribly wrong. Her lips were a bright, disgusting shade of magenta, and large glossy hoop earrings dangled from her earlobes down to her shoulders. The bright green dress she was wearing reached the floor and farther, and her sleeves were in a bundle of folds on the desk. 

“I’ve told you a thousand times, you can call me Elizabeth.” 

“Ok, Mrs. Polly,” the woman said enthusiastically, the same smile still stuck on her face. Her shiny white teeth had a smudge of dark lipstick smeared across them, and Elizabeth tried not to stare. She just smiled politely and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The woman never got it. No matter how many times Elizabeth asked, she would always be known as Mrs. Polly when she was at the library.

Reviews

[Kayle Ann]

I want to know more, definitely. I just feel like it was very... choppy. Maybe add some more variety in your sentence structure, and less information overload. Instead of telling me all these things about how they look allatonce, make me s e e i t o v e r t i m e. Idk, though. But it is a good beginning!