Casey Barnes Eponymous - By E.A. Rigg Page 0,2

the school’s public address system and announced that Shakira was in the library and would be signing autographs after school. She got grounded for a month, during which time she did what she always did in the aftermath of a bad girl incident, i.e. bottle it all up and act perfect.

The summer prior to sophomore year, something had happened again.

Leigh approached the library desk. She visited once a week. They told Mr. Cole it was because Leigh’s teacher sent her. Casey slid a paperback biography of Janis Joplin over to her. Mr. Cole folded his arms over his chest. “I find it suspicious that your teacher sends you here every week.”

Leigh’s face turned red. She found Mr. Cole scary and weird. Casey did too, but she did not let it break her stride. “Her teacher needs the Janis J tome, Mr. D. They’re studying the sixties.”

“Yeah right,” Mr. Cole snapped.

Out of the corner of her eye, Casey noticed the target looking around the library. She had not yet come up with an apt way to describe the third and last song. Its purpose was more abstract than those of the others. Once she labeled it A college song. The songs she chose for the third slot were more moody and cerebral than the others, the kind of music she imagined college students played while talking about Russian philosophers. But then it occurred to her that not everyone’s vision of college was the same. What if some people read ‘college song’ and thought about frat houses and televised football games? The third song was, thusly and simply, the third song.

3. A third song - “Maybe Not” by Cat Power. Cat Power, aka Chan (pronounced Shawn) Marshall had a voice like salted caramel. The lyrics of “Maybe Not” were about freeing your mind. The album was called You Are Free. The target’s eyes came to rest on Casey. She looked away. Leigh, who knew about her playlists, raised an eyebrow.

“I want you out of here when I get back,” Mr. Cole said to Leigh. He stalked to the other side of the library, where he spotted a kid attempting to hide a contraband iPod in his jacket flap.

“My ticket’s gone missing,” Leigh hissed.

Casey frowned. She knew right away what Leigh was talking about. It had to do with her act of rebellion the summer before. “What do you mean?”

“It was in my duffel,” Leigh began, “I threw it in there when I packed on the last night. But now I can’t find it.”

“Don’t sweat it. No one ever finds anything when they’re bugging.”

“I wasn’t bugging!”

Mr. Cole started to walk back. “You better go--” Casey began to say, but she did not get any further with her sentence because he entered the library. She froze.

Leigh turned. As soon as she saw what caught Casey’s eyes, she looked at her. “Pretend you didn’t see him. Look the other way, grab a book, and don’t make eye contact.”

Casey did not budge. “Case,” Leigh said.

The blond girl approached the desk. This was usually the part where the targets asked Casey if she slipped the list into their books, she said yes, they asked why, and she told them to just listen to the songs. But as the girl got closer and began to say, “Did you put…,” Casey walked away from the desk.

“Don’t,” Leigh pleaded.

She was already halfway to him. He paused inside the library door to check out the magazine rack. She reached his side. And for the first time since the school year began, they spoke.

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“You like magazines?” she asked.

“No,” he said, “Not at all.” She looked down. A moment passed. “How ya been?” he asked.

“Great,” she mumbled.

He looked around. “You working here?” There was not much of a question mark in his voice. Casey wondered if he already knew the answer.

Mr. Cole came over. “Your friend’s still here.” She turned to look at Leigh, which was unfortunate because he and Mr. Cole did too, which turned out to be doubly unfortunate because Leigh chose that moment to look at Casey and make a cutting motion with her hand across her neck. Leigh stopped as soon as all three pairs of eyes spotted her. She bolted from the library.

He turned to Mr. Cole. “What’s the fine for a book I checked out last year that I lost over the summer?”

Mr. Cole did not respond at first. Mr. Cole was waiting for an explanation as to how or why said book had been lost. But