Past, Present and Future - The Devereaux Case Files Book 6

Chapter 11

While everyone separated after lunch to do their own thing, Dicken decided that to start thinking about his future properly, he had better start by talking to the most serious person he knew: Olivia. If anyone had their head screwed on straight about their career and academic choices, then it was her. Faith and Ayah had returned to the funfair with the younger kids, while Clare was relegated to staying inside the apartment, as part of her punishment for trying to sleep around. Reyes and Reed had gone off to Gregory's compound to interview the possible traitors in the team. Dicken could have gone back to the apartment and sat himself down at his computer to do some internet searches but he figured he was less likely to get distracted if he joined Olivia at the local library. She had some homework to finish up, and needed to add some references. He wouldn't lose interest and wander off, or lose track of time and get into trouble by getting back to the apartment late, if he was with her.

"So, I just search local colleges and see what they've got to offer?" Dicken asked Olivia as they stepped over to the computers inside the library and each took separate seats next to each other. Olivia was using the internal catalog to find the books she wanted for her essay. He didn't know how to find out what he wanted to do and what he didn't want to do with his life. To make it worse he couldn't even search the agency to see if that was the kind of thing he wanted to do with himself. All he really knew about the agency were the few stories Reed and Reyes had told him over the last few days and things he had heard by accident that he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to.

"Yeah. If you want to study something in particular, then search that and a list of schools in our area should come up. Then you need to read the entry requirements for each course to make sure you've got the right qualifications and then you need to check if the courses are singular or part of a package deal, like a Bachelors or a Degree." Olivia explained the usual search process only to smile when she noticed the less than pleased, and slightly confused look Dicken gave her in return. That was an awful lot of work to do for a simple search about whether he wanted to go to college.

"Alright. I can do that." He lied, and let her get back to her own search. When he turned back to the keyboard, he stalled for a few moments, with his fingers hovering over the keys, staring blankly at the Google search page. He had no idea what he was doing.

After half an hour of finding nothing he wanted and a lot of information that was completely useless, Dicken gave up and left the computers to browse the 'Information' section of the library instead. He hoped there might be some college prospectuses he could read, to just get an idea of what courses were on offer that he might be interested in. But even in French, which he could read well enough, nothing seemed to inspire him. He decided that once Reyes got back from his business, he would ask him to sit down with him and talk about the agency and what it did in more detail.

"Excuse me...can I just get in behind you?" A female voice asked in thick French, snapping Dicken out of his thoughts. He turned round and was immediately struck dumb by the utter beauty of the girl standing in front of him. He understood enough of what she had said to move out of the way of the bookcase he was blocking, but he couldn't get up the guts to speak. He just stood there, staring at the vision of beauty before him, taking in the long blonde hair, the sweet smile and the short stature. Whoever the mystery girl was, she was shorter than him but not by too much, she looked younger by a year or two, maybe, and she had a warm, gentle smile that made him feel funny.

"Dicken, everything alright?" Another voice made its way through Dicken's thoughts, making him look up to find Olivia making her way over to him. He waved her off, letting her know that he was fine. He waited until she walked away before taking a deep breath and screwing up all his nerves into nothing. He wasn't going to make a mistake with this.