chapter 1

Joseph sat quietly at the back of the library. He enjoyed coming here as it was the best place to get away from bullies. Those savages hated libraries. Here he was safe. Libraries had always been his place of comfort growing up, through high school and now at university. He hoped that when he entered the halls of higher education, he would be free of the ruthless barbarians that plagued him through life.
However, even in these hallowed halls, fraternities, sororities, ROTC, and massive sports complexes were each filled with ignorant fools that needed to be punished.
Joseph thumped his head against the bookshelf he had been leaning against when he thought this. WHAM! A large book thudded down beside him.
"Shh" Several people turned and glared at him for apparently breaking the silence.
"Of course, I drop a book by accident and everyone hates me. Meanwhile, those two are practically having sex and no one cares." In one of the reference rows, two students were making out with ruthless abandon. Joseph couldn't help but notice. Sure, he would love to be the guy touching that girl, kissing her so passionately, grabbing her ass...
Joseph looked away and realized his hand was on the book that fell, opening the cover. It was old and leathery, covered in a mixture of Latin and old English phrases. The title seemed faded from years of exposure, but the pages seemed well intact. He picked the book up and moved to a research table but quickly gave up trying to decipher the book.
"It has been too long," Joseph said to himself as he tried to pour over the Latin. "I could use some help with this."
He walked around to the reference desk and froze in his tracks. Of course, they both had to be working today. There were two women in Josephs life that could not be more different. The first was Samantha. She was short, about 5'3" and a little overweight. Well, more than a little but that didn't bother Joseph. She was cute with soft cheeks, a meek smile and long red hair that was usually pulled tight in a pony. When she let it down, her curls bounced and framed her face so well. Joseph liked to try and talk to her at times but always fumbled over his words whenever it seemed to be going anywhere.
The other woman was the venomous Patricia. She worked the reference desk as well, if you could call what she did work. Usually she would just point you to the reference computer or pretend to types something in and tell you its been checked out or on hold. She hated to be interrupted while she performed what must be a constant maintenance job on her appearance. Joseph new that by traditional standards, Patricia was hot. He believed the colloquial term to be, a smoke show. She was taller 5'7", but her heels added so much more to that. She had an olive complexion and a body like an hour glass. Her voice was beautiful when not used to berate, and he presence always intimidating.
As he looked at the desk Samantha smiled and Patricia scowled. Joseph gulped and moved forward.
"What do you want, nerd?" Patricia asked as Joseph reached the desk.
"La.. La... Latin." Joseph answered stuttering.
Samantha, who shied away when Patricia "greeted" Joseph first, now perked up. "Latin, I love Latin."
Joseph smiled for only a moment before...