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Mina jumped out as soon as the car pulled to a stop "Thanks for the ride And sorry You know, about earlier I’ave Brody a fake srabbed her backpack and shut the car door Brody’s door opened and he shut his door after her "You don’t have to stay," she told hi to be here for a while"

"I’ll wait for you You’re even farther away fro you walk home alone"

"I can call for a ride Myquickly This was definitely not a research trip she wanted to share

Brody looked at her "Mina, you are not getting rid of me that easily I’m already here Let me help you"

"I don’t need help"

"Alright Then letI need to study too, you know" Brody swung his own bag over his shoulder and walked up the steps through the glass doors Once again, Mina had no choice but to follow behind

Mina loved the smell of libraries, loved the shts It was probably why she was so out of tune with kids her age She didn’t watch a lot of TV, and she spentout with Nan

Once she’d shooed away Brody, Mina walked past Mrs Toole, the head librarian, stopping only long enough to wave, and headed straight for the reference section Scanning the nu out various collections of tales and individual stories

"What’s with the fairy tales?" she heard suddenly, and again there was Brody, taking the books froainst his chest

"Hoht you had so that you get to read kids’ books?" he said, reading the spines "Maybe I should take it"

Mina grinned "It’s for a project at horabbed the stack from Brody and made her way to an e down, Mina grabbed a book and began searching for clues, while keeping a corner of eye alert for Brody and his habit of sneaking up on her Within a fewa small paperback Mina found it difficult to do any reliable searching with Brody sitting a few feet from her, and he didn’t look uncoht that he would be antsy and dying to get out of the library

She found herself unable to stop sneaking glances, enthralled with his lanky posture, the way his blonde hair fell over his eyes as he turned the pages He seemed content, at peace Once his eyeshe didn’t think she’d been staring at hi as many fairy tale histories as she could, she slaued Brody had barely moved, but looked up at her with a worried expression

"Co to eat" He took the book from her hand and laid it on the table

"No, I’m fine…really" Mina’s heart started to beat faster orry If she went to get food with Brody, that would be too close to a real date

"I’ry; I didn’t eat much at lunch today" Heat rose up the back of her neck when she recalled that he duue

They left the library and Brody drove toward a sers and fries for them both at the speaker box