"Long-Winded" by Lavender Li

Note: This piece is based on Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. Writers were given a very basic plot and then asked to tell a story in a certain style. Lavender Lee has chosen to write a "long-winded" story.

Today started out the same as most days in that I got up, got dressed, and walked about a half a mile to my school, but on this particular day, I had completely forgotten to do my homework for History, which happens from time to time, but is not that big of a deal because I can just go over to the school library and complete it there, either on the tables or at one of the many computers sitting against up against a wall along the back of the room instead of reading quietly like I normally do everyday during my lunch time.  

When I got into the library, the nice librarians asked me to check in, which I, of course, completed because it is protocol whenever someone enters the library before they are able to pick out a book and  I was no exception to this rigid rule. Walking over to the first computer in the row to get started on the review chart, which is due next period, I notice a very particular sight located in the back corner of the library, where the various fiction books are normally are stored on the many rows of shelves. Every single one of the fiction books have been removed and stored elsewhere; in a location I did not know, even though I am practically a librarian myself with the amount of time I spend in the library day after day. The absence of the books worried me because libraries are typically full of books, but today, which is turing out to be a very unusual day indeed, it is not, therefore defeating the very idea behind a library, concerning both me and others around me, I determine as I watch the bustling activity of staff and students around me trying to figure out where the books have mysteriously disappeared off too. This situation worried me because fiction is normally popular, but not popular for all the books to be checked out at the same time, so the only possibility to the disappearance has to be a theft. Behind the checkout desk, the librarian and an administer are conversing about the outrageous situation, trying desperately to figure out who could have done the task and where the books went, as they are no where to be found, not even in boxes or anything, adding to the mystery and leaving everyone in disbelief. After asking one of the staff members, who also has little idea of the book mystery as well, I leave the library with my History homework in hand and a head full of questions left unanswered and the book mystery remained unsolved. 

Later that day, in History class, after I turned in my freshly printed homework, the teacher stood before us and started lecturing, but, much to the teachers dismay, a frantic student bursted through the door exclaiming there is a fire the size of an elephant on the football field and begs for help with the problem in which my teacher quickly springs into action, calling people on her telephone as the rest of her students, including me, dart out of the classroom and straight to the field to see what was happening outside.

Once outside, the student that burst into my History room was right, there is a massive fire in the middle of the field, and a strong smell of smoke filled the air accompanied by a billowing pillar of smoke flying up to the sky from the flames. The students from my History class and I stand on the bleachers, carefully observing the fire, which continues to grow because there are people, who I assume started the fire, standing around the it, throwing something, that looked like blocks or bricks into the flames. It suddenly occurred to me that the fire was being fueled by the missing books from the library and the people throwing the books into the flames have something against the fiction section, maybe something along the lines of they do not like the plots or characters, though that is not a reason to destroy the books, especially when other people would like to be enjoying the literature. As I stare into the flames, my mind starts to wander on how the fire might be put out, the first of which is a firefighter coming to the rescue, but at the rate the fire is growing, it will engulf the entire school before they are able to get to the there, or another end to the fire could be by if it started to suddenly rain, or even the students could run on to the field with fire extinguishers, also stopping the fire. I hope the fire stops.