2 Living Encyclopedia

"Nao wake up, Nao!" an angry woman started shouting. That woke Nao up. While still half asleep she sat up and looked up. She started rubbing her eyes, it was too bright now.

"mmm, mom" Nao looked at that angry woman, she had anger in her eyes but not only it, but there was also worry in them. Looking at her mom, she yet again saw no resemblance. Her mom was tall, had medium length blond hair always in a ponytail, her eyes bright blue. She was all was smiling even when angry she had a slight smile.

Comparing to Nao that was average height, had very long brown hair, grey eyes and was almost expressionless. Her mother always says that she takes after her father, but she never saw him. They have no pictures of him at all. What she knows is that he died when she was very young.

"You didn't eat and started reading, right?" She already knew but still asked for confirmation. She knew her daughter long enough to know her habits.

Nao didn't say anything, she just nodded in agreement. Her mother gave out a sight and waved at her. "Come to eat with me now and then go to bed, it's late"

Nao nodded again and followed her mom to the kitchen. After ten minutes dinner was heated up and both of them started eating.

"How was school today?"

"It was okay"

"Then, did you make some friends?" her mom is worried about that the most.

Nao become silent and didn't say anything, she didn't even nod, she just ate her dinner in silence. Her mom gave out another sight like she knew that would happen.

"Did you borrow these books from school library?"

"Mm, it's enormous compared to my old one"

"Well is the book good, I saw you already finished one."

"It is, I never did read that genre, so I was curious, and it was interesting"

"Okay, but don't spend every break in the library reading books, okay? You need to talk to others too"

Nao didn't say anything she just nodded. Anyway, she would do like she wanted, talking to others or not it was her decision.

The dinner was finished, and Nao walked to bed as her mom told her to. Nao didn't fell asleep immediately, she started thinking about that big library and just like that she eventually fell asleep.

…

In the morning, a clock woke her up. Her hair was all over her face and she started rubbing her eyes. She ate her sandwich with her mom prepared before going to work. Her mom comes home late and

goes to work again early in the morning, sometimes she even sleeps in her office. There are even emergency calls and she needs to go to work even on her days off.

Then the same routine from yesterday, going onto the bus, many students from the same and different school, and then standing before the school gate. This time a teacher stopped her before entering.

"What do you think coming to school looking like that?!" a man, in his late thirties shouted at her, he was in a gym uniform, so he was Psychical Education teacher, maybe. And she wasn't wearing different from yesterday, she had the same hoodie and jeans on her.

Nao was just looking at him in silence, not answering and not giving a reaction at all. She just thought that she wants to go. The teacher was annoyed by that behavior.

After some silence, Nao said, "I'm not breaking any rules, teacher." That was said in an emotionless voice that was not loud but it neither was a whisper.

The teacher was speechless. He cleared his throat and said, "W-well that is true, but still you should wear skirt if you are a girl!"

"I already got permission from school in that aspect"

The teacher couldn't win an argument with her and waved his hand, gesturing that she can go and that she did win. And just like that Nao made her way to the classroom.

Inside the classroom, Nao could hear gossip from both girls and boys, both discussed different matters, but it was still loud. No one noticed that she come in and she didn't really care about it. She just sat in her seat and took out her book, started reading and didn't really notice that lessons began.

The third lesson started and now it was history, the teacher was a woman in her late fifties, she was strict with her students and had always a frown on her face. In the middle of the lesson, she noticed that Nao didn't pay attention to the class.

"Miss Lee, please answer question number four!" she said it in a very loud voice.

Nao got up from her seat, looked at the teacher and then on the boards, there were eight questions, and the fourth question was 'With clan dominated the Japanese politics of Heian Period (794-1185)'. That was the question that she needed to answer.

Nao took a minute to remember and just when the teacher started to be impatient, she answered, "It was the Fujiwara clan, they dominated it through the monopoly of regent positions"

After answering she sat down and started reading her book again.

That old strict woman was stunned, it was correct, but, we didn't even start discussing it and she already knew the answer. Not only the teacher was stunned but the class too. Who would have thought that she was the live version of encyclopedia, although she only answered one question?

The rest of the day continued like that, Nao did read her books on every lesson, some teachers were irritated by that and made her answer the questions and she answered each of them correctly.

End of the school day. Nao walked to the library and stopped with the receptionist desk. Placed the four big, thick books on the table and looked at the old woman. "I finished them" she said in a little quieter voice than in class.

The woman looked at the girl, it was the girl from yesterday, did she finish them already? But it's too fast! She took the books and placed them on a shelf.

Nao made her way through the bookshelves and stopped at the series she did read in class, there were still three books she didn't read. She took them and sat in a corner.

She started reading and the time stopped to her. She finished them in four hours and started looking for other books.

This time at the receptionist desk were five books, as thick as the previous ones but this time each of them was in English. The old woman didn't believe her eyes, almost no one ever borrowed English books if it was a student. It was late, so she didn't ask any questions and just cheeked her books.

Nao took a walk home this time, too many people were on the bus, and she disliked busy hours when everyone made their ways home from work.

She was home twenty minutes later than usual and the first thing she did was take a shower, then she rested in bed and started reading her books. And just like that, she fell asleep, with a book in her hands.