There is no plausible convincing when dealing with a D1 athlete. Confident smiles are bundled with their generous egos, in classic handle-with-care fashion. Even if one introduces facsimile of the subject of debate, unless "the real deal" is awaiting as the next piece of evidence, a D1 athlete will shrug their shoulders and tell you that you are making everything up, and that the discussion should be resumed through a field study. "That way," Sam disarmed my arguments, "I'll get my girlfriend to show me that book she always talks about." And so together with my roommate Sam and her girlfriend Katie, I went to my first day of training at the library, to see Evangeline in the flesh, with Sam's "own eyes".

And in spite of every arrangement made for the field study, we three forgot that nothing prepared the human species to deal with cypresses. At some point, someone, somewhere, must have punched a cypress' trunk with all their ancient might, leading to a crushing reality that made repeated "CRACK" sounds, or whatever broken bones sound like. The next person probably kicked it and hurt themselves a little less. The subsequent contestant maybe just screamed at the tree. Honestly, who knows? All certainty I have on the matter is that Sam does not have the answer either, as he froze mouth agape at the sight of my boss. Katie at least waved a "Good morning" with her eyes closed. This was my second time in front a cypress.

As Katie dragged Sam towards the fiction section (her eyes likely still shut), I thanked again Evangeline for the job opportunity. She laughed while noting that Sam's girlfriend seemed very eager to bring her boyfriend to the library. "Yeah, Katie's been obsessed with catching him up on the Starving Games, before the new movie comes out." Half a truth, accompanied by an upfront attitude, can easily morph into the absolute truth. "Oh, you're right! It's releasing soon." This time, I laughed, but at my past self for ever doubting Katie's ability to save both Sam and I from embarrassing dilemmas.

After handing me an employee badge, Evangeline pulled up a quiz I needed to pass on the help desk computer. "It just goes over the basics. Remember on my e-mail I told you about our classification system? Well, this game summarizes it pretty well." She spoke quickly, holding a wrapped sandwich with her non-pointing hand. "Alright, it shouldn't be that bad." I smiled in lieu of asking where was the microwave.

Halfway through my sort-them-books-out simulation, a student approached the front desk to ask me, and not Evangeline because she was definitely having lunch on the staff room, how could she find sources for her paper on a topic that is beyond me. Her laptop in hand, I guided her to the database page my quiz corrected me is not called "OneSearch" but "OnSearch". Then, akin to a parent breaking into their child's child-size fortress, Evangeline came out of the staff room.

"What did they need help with?" my boss asked with a grin on her face, as if this was part of her planned training. "She was writing a physiology paper and was looking for sources." My eyes and hands were operating under different tempos, as I wanted to hide the 'Please try again' message on the game screen. "And you guided them to OnSearch?" I nodded. "Great! No mistakes so far on your first day." Maybe she did hire that student to test me. "You want a sandwich?" Evangeline B. would never do such a thing.

I wondered out loud if I could eat on the desk, to which she responded by carrying a table and a couple chairs to the front. Carrying as in the table is held under one arm and the pair of chairs is upside down with a leg each hidden by Evangeline's grip. "On the Summer, we usually bring this one out. But with only me these first four weeks, it's not as if I really use it, you know?" I held back on my suggestion for her to use the table as a chair. "Sweet! I didn't know it was just you in charge."

"This is the last week. Next Monday, you'll meet the rest. Rocio included, she's our other assistant." An image of a girl named Rocio asking Evangeline how tall she was, started forming on my mind. "Well, boss, then, during this week, I got you. Just sit back and relax." The sandwich my boss gave me was good to the point of making me say things. "What, you're doing the full six-hours shift?" Evangeline looms over the table, smirking at me and her vast field of vision. Do taller people see more from the corner of their eyes? "Honestly, I don't mind. You said on the e-mail, I can choose schedules this week." I recalled.

"If you don't mind the quiet atmosphere, you are very welcomed" Evangeline offered. I aimlessly tried to identify Sam and Katie through the shelves, as I considered what on this world could I chat about alongside my boss for six hours. "I'll stay, but don't complain when I beat you in Scrabble" I blurted out, linking a librarian's duty to read, with that of me when I was seven and I swore revenge over my older sister's Scrabble-ness bonanza. "You know, I haven't played that one in a long time. Sounds fun!"

When Katie and Sam returned from wherever they were, Evangeline had left me to face the conundrum of words that start with X and contain the letter W. Sam asked if I was going to do the full shift, and I nodded in silence. Katie questioned how long was I taking in picking a word, and recommended Evangeline to put a time limit and to watch out for me using my phone or something. Evangeline laughed and highlighted my silliness in trying to find a word that started with X and contained the letter W.

"And he's actually trying... Katie, you gotta give him a hand." Sam's voice was filled with fake concern. His hand resting on Katie's shoulder, his voice was somehow also filled with the sweetest of loves. Only my roommate can break the mocking proclivities of Katie. It is no easy task by any means, if my memory of Sam's recountings are accurate. Once you synchronize her name with the gentle squeeze of her shoulder, and you look at her with your head tilted, "she's all game", per the annals of Sam Nicholson's longest-ever relationship.

"So long as Miss doesn't mind..." Katie was vanquished, sure, but a cypress the size of Evangeline remains a cypress nonetheless. "You guys try" Evangeline conceded incredulously, keeping her eyes fixed on my frowning-while-focused expression. "What letters do you have, Max?" I showed my letters to Katie, as I roamed through words where I could replace 'cross-' with 'X'. "Hmm. That's an easy one. Don't you think, Sammy?" Katie looked at her boyfriend with expectation; no different than when she's about to jump onto his arms.

"Katie, what do you mean?" Sam asked as his coursing through the Manual of Katie was progressively becoming futile. "Oh, c'mon, Sam. Remember when you visited my grandparents back in Xian?" His name had been reverted from its diminutive, I absentmindedly noted with my attention now shifting to the thousands of villages and cities across the country of Xian. "You mean, like, your hometown? Yeah, I remember." The concept of mildly angered Katie is scary on its own. Compounded by the absence of a class schedule to occupy her time with, this concept was rewriting itself. For the worse.

"Xuanwei! Gosh, of course, your grandparents are from there." Sam gave me the answer, and I smiled at awestruck Evangeline, and he smiled at appeased Katie. "We agreed that towns do count, unless you wanna take it with Katie..." I said with a grin. "I would've never thought of that." Evangeline was covering her mouth, and the silhouette of victory came back into view.

I let Sam and Katie know that I was not going to join tennis that evening because I wanted to try out the full shift, but at least I could grab something to eat, if so they wanted. Sam and Katie left, merrier than ever. "You play tennis?" Evangeline asked me. "Yeah, I've been helping Katie with practice as she recovers from her injury." My boss needed elaboration, and I talked about Katie's ankle sprain midway through last season, and how Sam is basketball-savvy not tennis-savvy. "That's so sweet of you. Those injuries are the worst."

"You also play tennis?" To whoever rules the world: thank you, for having allowed mankind to devise board games, and for having brought Katie into existence. All my fears of awkwardly sitting next to Evangeline for six hours were gone and dusted. "Uhum. But on the Summer there's only the team that plays, so I have to drive to the courts by West Side. And those are an hour away. Also my husband doesn't really like to play." I could have passionately kissed the ground we step on for hours, without losing my smile. No students beside the physiology researcher from earlier were on sight. Board games abounded in the staff room, from what Evangeline had said. One hour and a half had already passed since the start of my shift. What a life is that of peaceful inactivity.

"You should join us then. We usually go at four, but with my shifts now ending at five... I guess we'll do six." Later into the day Sam called me a weirdo for proposing such a thing to my superior. However, at the very moment my idea came out, with the prospect of a higher-than-average salary requiring me simply shelving and answering questions, I really thought Evangeline B. should play tennis with us.

"Ehm... I mean, if you guys don't mind. I could drop by." Katie analyzed this very sentence by Evangeline the night of. The 'ehm' was a reflection of my boss' hidden but real shy nature. The 'I mean' signified a questioning of societal norms that impede a manager and their employees from having healthy camaraderie. The 'do not mind' originated from her own insecurities regarding her age when compared against that of Max (me) and friends (Katie and Sam). The 'I could drop by' implied she would definitely show up; fifteen minutes earlier, in fact. Sam called this analysis "stupid". Katie got angry at Sam. I silently agreed with Sam. Why on Earth did I suggest that?