Graduation Party

Over the next few weeks, I (Jenny Trevino, IVAN Library’s Librarian) will be posting a series of short stories I wrote for my former employer’s Writing Club. Last week, I posted a story in which I had the idea of making Andrew Carnegie answer for his sins. In the remaining stories, I was trying to imagine ways in which the concept of a library might evolve in a future that has moved on from even the non-traditional services that are currently being presented as constituting a library’s post-print portfolio. This story imagines a library that is keeping its doors open as an event space.

The prompt for this story was generated by drawing three slips of paper from which to create a character with one fear, one flaw, and one attribute. I received the slips for a character who fears “being weak,” has the flaw “does not value others,” and the attribute “fights religiously for their cause.”

Graduation Party

“Hi, Ken, how are you?” Phoebe murmured absently as she sighted the tux jacket with her custom crest over the heart, She pulled the hanger and lifted the plastic, evaluating the jacket’s condition.

“That’ll do, thanks!” she paid Ken and headed home. 

So far she was exactly on schedule. Like a well-oiled machine, she praised herself, pulling into her driveway. Technically, today is a perfect day. I’m going to cut it off at 7:00 and let it stand as perfect. She knew in her bones that tonight would be a disaster. Logan would find some way to guarantee it.

She got into the shower and lathered up to shave, brooding all the while. 

Logan was her best friend’s boyfriend, officially, although Phoebe didn’t see him as such. She knew Logan was using Madison, and had been since day one of their so-called relationship, when Madison joined Logan’s one-man sit-in outside the Principal's office. Principal Johnson. Madison’s dad. Logan believes their high school’s Earth Day Battle of the Bands competition was fixed by the Mr. Johnsons to ensure that a rival band, fronted by the football coach’s daughter, would win. Logan carries a local newspaper clipping in which the reporter mentioned that his band’s (Hail Mary Solution) applause had been by far the loudest. Madison was angry at her father for keeping her home over Spring Break, and Phoebe is sure that -- at least in the beginning-- Madison was using him as much as he was using her.

That was two months ago, though, and since then, Logan has done everything he can to keep her enthralled, and by now Madison fully believes they’re in love. Logan has made their romance into a whirlwind of courtship and protest, as they mounted action after action throughout the school and off-campus, as well. Tonight offered a huge audience. There was no way he was going to let that pass him by.

Phoebe had tried to dissuade Madison-- she had worked with Hail Mary Solution in the months leading up to Earth Day, running the band’s feed at their early shows and hosting behind-the-scenes vlogs of the recording of their demo. She actually been on their feed the night of the Battle, which is how she met Noah, Logan’s brother.

Noah was also in a band-- the Stannibals, who were booked for this evening. Tonight Phoebe would be running their feed. Madison was Logan’s media girl, now.

This was Principal Johnson’s party, celebrating Madison’s graduation. Logan was Madison’s boyfriend and Noah was Logan’s brother. Phoebe herself was mostly a bystander to this drama, and did not think she would typically be this stressed except for two concerns.

One: the winning girl, Jasmine, had formerly been a close friend of theirs, and has her own partisans. This has caused all of their other friends to abandon Madison, as Jasmine's allies include the speech and art teachers, who were on the judge’s panel and feel that Logan’s sour grapes are motivated by gender. Phoebe does not disagree, but someone has to take care of Madison.

Two: if Logan and Madison pull any stunts tonight, she feel it will reflect badly on the venue. Despite its prominence on her college applications and its feature role in her personal brand, Phoebe really did care about the library.  Her resume brags that she personally funded a full week of operations during her junior year, and she was determined to exceed that, this year.

Phoebe yanked the shower cap off of her head with a loud snap, then snapped it hard again, in the air. 

Shake it off! She ordered herself. Time to get into character.

By day, she is Phoebe Butterson, senior at Waltrip High School.

By night, she is @MissScarlettInThe_.

Miss Scarlett rocks a schoolgirl aesthetic, in stark black and white with large pops of red. Tonight is black tie, so she will be in her crested tailcoat with a tiny kilt and red satin vest. Her hair is straight up Manic Panic, and always worn in pigtails or plaits, which tonight will form a crown around her head.

She twirls in the mirror to settle her pleats, then steps into a her signature Fluevog Munsters, which she owns in five styles, although only the Electras will do for black tie.

There is a violin case standing by the door, and Phoebe opens it to reveal her signature accessory-- the candlestick, of course. Miss Scarlet in the library with a candlestick! For tonight she has fastened a wrist corsage an inch from the top. At a full twenty-six inches, the candlestick rests in the crook of her arm like a drum major’s baton. She closes the case and gets back in the car.

Phoebe picks up Kayla and Amber, who will wear the Teen Advisory Board’s owl and worm costumes, on the way to the library. The school mascot plus two out of five invited college mascots will also be there.

This library is built with a grand central hall, with six tiered balconies lined with print collections. The book cases are glass-fronted, as all books are shelved and pulled from behind, by robots hidden in the walls. The wings contain the everyday library, 21st century amenities, programs, meeting rooms, etc.

Phoebe takes Kayla and Amber through adult computer area to admin where they meet teen librarian, who signs them in. They take the freight elevator past local history, study room, and program floors to the attic, retrieve costumes and go back down to the central hall, currently configured as a ballroom. They will change backstage.

She goes back down to administration to program the institutional and personal beacons, then, goes to the lobby to check programs and step-and-repeat for beacons, goes to local history, realizes she forgot umbrella stand, goes back to attic, places stand, places candlestick, checks sashes on local history mannequins for spelling and beacons.

She retrieves her candlestick and gets into position just as the first guests begin to arrive.

Madison looks beautiful, her strawberry blond hair and simple, pink satin spaghetti strap gown calling to mind a pre-pig’s blood Carrie White.

Phoebe’s blood ran cold. Oh Hell, no! 

She rushed toward the stage, intent on stopping whatever Logan had planned, but then Logan himself stepped in front of her.

“Hey! Noah was looking for you. He wants you and the Waltrip Ram to post a selfie to the Stannibals’ feed, with the band in the background.”

She froze. They were dumping blood on her? What did she have to do with it? They must be going to the mascot, she realized. The living embodiment of the school. Do they think he’s Mr. Johnson’s patronus or something? Fine.

She walked toward the mascot, beckoning hi to a spot about ten feet from center stage. She stood her candlestick to one side and thumbed on her phone,  then switched from the Stannibals’ feed to her own.

She knew for a fact that Noah had no idea anything was about to happen. She held her phone out to her left, just above eye level, to flatter her too-strong jawbone. She put about eighteen inches between herself and the mascot, then went live-- grasping a vinyl hoof in her right hand and, raising it high in a triumphal gesture.

SPLASH. I new it, Phoebe thought, then arranged her face in a horrified expression and began to scream. Most of the blood had landed on the costume-- at least their aim had been good, whoever Logan’s helper had been. 

Tearfully, she explains to her phone what has happened, then denounces Logan in the strongest possible terms. She starts up a chant.

“Hail Mary Solution equals Library Pollution, Hail Mary Solution equals Library Pollution, Hail Mary Solution equals Library Pollution,” the chant takes off, echoing against the high ceiling, filling the space.

Logan goes berserk, lunging for the candlestick. He has raised it high over his head and is advancing on Phoebe when Noah roars into the mic.

“You little shit!” 

Phoebe turn her camera toward the stage just in time to catch Noah hurling the mic through the air. She whips back around just as the mics lands with a loud thump on Logan’s head.

Logan goes down.