I walked around to the side of the house, where my bike was locked up, and took the black helmet off the handlebars.  I didn’t like the helmet hair I knew I was going to get, but I put it on anyway, clicking the buckle shut under my chin. I’d learned my lesson from the last time I prioritized my hair over my safety. It wasn’t fun. Besides, my hair would get messy either way, so it didn’t matter much.

I started off, biking down the road to the library. It was a nice sunny day, barely any clouds in the sky and I smiled as I rode, looking around a little but still making sure to pay attention to where I was going. After some time, I was there and went to lock my bike up on the stand in front. There was a white bike already in the place next to my own purple one, as usual. That meant that he was already inside too, so I headed in, fixing my hair and leaving the helmet with my bike.

The library was nice, not too small, but not gigantic either.  I walked through the door, heading to the front desk that was right inside to check in, as I did every day.  The librarian working the desk at that time was a sweet woman in her late 50s, named Mrs. Llarena.  She was a small lady from the Philippines, probably a little less than 5 feet tall.  She had a daughter that I had never met but had heard a lot about too, one that was about my mom's age.

"Good morning, Mayari."  Mrs. Llarena had a bit of accent, but it wasn't really noticeable unless you were paying attention to it.  I never knew what Mayari meant and any time I asked, she wouldn't tell me.  She always just said that I looked like a Mayari to her, and I didn't mind it since it sounded nice to me anyway.

"Morning." I smiled, grabbing a pen from the cup and taking the sign-in clipboard she held out for me. "Are all the kids here already?" I handed the clipboard back after writing in my name and the time.

"Almost. Ellie isn't here yet, but her mom called to say they were running a little late and on the way just a couple minutes ago."

"Oh, okay. I'll just wait out here for her then." I went over to sit in a chair near the door. A few minutes later, Ellie came through the door with her mother, who looked a little flustered. She saw me right away and ran over to give me a hug while her mom signed her in.

Ellie was a little black-haired girl, about five, and though I wouldn't say it out loud, kind of my favorite. She had big pretty green eyes and was always excited to do anything, no matter what it was. She had a lot of energy, especially in the morning, to say the least.

"Lin! Hi!" She looked up at me, smiling wide.

"Hi, Ellie." I laughed. "You ready to see what happens to Sumi today?" Sumi was the main character of the book we were reading. A warrior who went on adventures and saved people's lives. You know, the usual.

"Yeah! Sumi's so cool!!"

"Well, go say bye to Mommy first, and then we can go play, okay?" I put her down and she hurried back to her mom, who was watching at the front desk. I followed slowly. When she was finished with that, she came to hold my hand, and I waved to her mom and Mrs. Llarena as I led her to the kids' room.

The kids' room, or as the library had named it, The Dreamzone, was where a lot of the kid-oriented programs and events happened. It was used almost everyday during the week for an after-school program and a day-care kind of program in the summer, which is what we were here for. It was a medium-sized room, a little bigger than my living room. There were tables in the middle, two or three big ones, and a few more against the far wall with computers on them. In the corner to the right of the computers, there was a cart of Ipads that the kids occasionally got to use, on days that we didn't have anything else planned after whatever else is done. The other walls were covered in bookshelves, and in another corner, there was a storytime nook. It had beanbags and pillows for the kids to sit on while reading or when it was storytime.

"You're late." It came from the side of the room where the storytime nook was. The voice came from my childhood best friend, James, who I called Jay.

Jay had black hair that was down to his chin, usually in a half-up kind of hairstyle with his bangs out. He was taller than me, which annoyed me at times, but I didn't need height to be able to drop him in a fight, so whatever. His eyes were a dark blue, almost navy but not quite, and he wore glasses too, though it wasn't for his sight like mine were. They were the fashion kind.

"Had to wait for this little one." I replied, raising the hand that was intertwined with Ellie's. "And don't act like you're much better. I'm more punctual than you are most days."

He just shook his head with his hands on his hips, sighing. "That is no excuse." I knew he was joking, so I just waved a hand dismissively. 

The rest of the kids were spread around the room, keeping themselves occupied while they waited for us to start.  Seeing that I had arrived, a couple of them jumped up, running over to say hi.  Ellie let go of my hand while I talked to them, heading to a group of girls sitting at a table. 

After I got finished talking to the little ones who were with me and set up out of the way, we were ready for story time.

"Alright everyone."  I stood at near the door.  All of the kids turned towards me, though it did take a few minutes.  "Who's ready to finish our story?"