Max Baker: Guardian of the Ninth Sector by Matthew Cronan

Kennedy. 
    There was a small group of kids playing in the children’s section.  A group of tired looking parents was also in the children’s section, chasing them around and trying to keep them quiet.  Max saw a couple of people wandering through the aisles of fiction.  In the corner of the room, an elderly man sat at one of the public computer stations playing solitaire. 
    The librarian, Mrs. Kane, sat behind a large mahogany desk observing the room.  She glanced over toward Max and Noah, scrunched up her face and then turned her attention back toward the unruly children.
    Kennedy sat at a table in the center of the library.  She had her black hair pulled back in a ponytail and was sporting her old black framed glasses that Max liked so much.  She was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and a pair of worn blue jeans that had holes in the knees.  Max wondered if she was dressing for comfort or so she wouldn’t be recognized.
    She sat surrounded by a large stack of books and a couple of spiral notebooks.  When they were younger, she had always been the studious type, but it wasn’t something Max really found synonymous with her personality these days.  Of course what did he know…she could have been an all ‘A’ student, and Max would have no idea.  
    “How long have you been here?” Max asked her as they approached the table.
    “About half an hour,” Kennedy said, looking up to make eye contact with Max.  She was wearing a half-smile that quickly faded when she saw Noah standing beside him.  She looked down toward her notebook, and Max could see her cheeks turning red.  “What is he doing here?”  She motioned to Noah with the tip of her pencil and then went back to writing in her notebook.
    “I felt like getting the band back together, Kenster,” Noah said, dropping down into the tall wooden chair beside her.
    “Do not call me that,” Kennedy said without looking up.
    Max hung his backpack on the chair opposite of her and then sat down.  He couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.  Butterflies were fluttering rapidly through his stomach.  His heart was skipping beats.  His pulse had quickened, and he felt jittery.  This was the first time the three of them had been together in years.  He had missed her so much.
    Kennedy looked up from her notebook and surveyed the two.  She bitterly sighed.  A few of Max’s butterflies withered and fell to the bottom of his stomach, but he was determined not to let it dissuade him.  Sure, it would take a few moments for everyone to re-adapt to one another, but they had been friends for years before.  Surely, there was still something left.
    “Look,” she said, directing her venom toward Max, “I want to get this over with as quickly as possible.  So, if he’s not here to help, then he needs to leave.  The last thing I want to do is waste my Saturday babysitting you and your mentally challenged friend.” Kennedy turned her glare toward Noah.  “Do you both understand?”
    “Who do you think you are?” Max snapped at her. He was livid.  He felt the rest of the fluttering butterflies in his stomach drop dead.  As much as he liked Kennedy, and as excited as he was about this opportunity, he would not sit here and let her treat his best friend like garbage.
    “I got this,” Noah said to Max. He turned toward Kennedy.  “Who the hell do you think you are?”
    She looked at Noah, an expression of being half shocked and half-appalled coated her face.
    “Who the hell do you think YOU are, Allman?” she hissed back at him.
    “I’m just here to make sure you two act civil,” Noah snapped at her.
    “Oh?” Kennedy said, throwing her pencil down and pointing at Noah. “Now you’re the mediator?  Correct me if I’m wrong, but last time we spoke you rambled on for a good 20 minutes, telling me how much of an awful person I was and that you wished you had never met me.”
    “Wait, what?” Max asked. 
    “And those sentiments haven’t changed a