Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4--Chapter 3 Rebecca Walton

 Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4

I am going to serialize my next book here first before it is available anywhere else.  It is still in the formatting stage at the moment.  I have serialized the other three books here on Steemit in the past year.  Here are the first chapters from where I serialized each book.

Dolbin School for the Extraordinary

The Dark Cloud Rises

The Return of the Professor

You can click here to see them on Amazon.

Hope you follow along!  

Click here for Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Chapter 3 Rebecca Walton

The sun shined as a bright beam onto the table, in the late afternoon.  Jake spread his books, papers, and tablets on the table in front of him.  Cal, Henry, and Mark had their homework on the table.  They were working silently and intensely.   

Jake put his pencil down, and took the head phones attached to his tablet off.  “I wish I could have had this at my old school when I was learning how to add fractions.”  He brushed his hair from where the headphones messed it up.  “I need to get up and walk a bit.”

The other boys at the table just waved a hand at him.  They were still listening to their lessons on their tablets.

Jake stood up and walked toward the shelves of books.  Jake walked down an aisle.  The shelves rose several feet above his head.  Each of the shelves were mini-conveyor belts.  When a specific book was need but it was out of reach, a librarian would hold a button on the shelf until the book appeared.  Only librarians and librarian bots had access to the button.

A librarian bot walked past Jake and he waved his hand at the bot.  “Um, excuse me?  I am looking for research done by other students.  Where can I find them?”

The robot stopped and turned to face Jake.  The silver face smiled.  “Follow me, Mr. Cooper.”  Jake followed the robot to a wall.  High on  the wall above a shelf of books, a sign read “Student Projects.”  The robot waved his hand, “This is where you can find research papers and projects that were done by other students.  They are listed by last name of the student, of course, but when needed you can also search by topic, year written, grade level and so on.”

Jake asked, “Why are some of these written on paper?  I’ve turned in most of my work electronically, why are there paper essays here?”  

“Papers are also scanned as well, and searchable on the database that way.  Some of these are decades old, written before even Dolbin students had access to computer printers, then once printers became the norm, it was still expected that students turn in a paper copy.  That way we can still keep people’s work if the power ever goes out.  But this is where you find the original works.  If you please, come with me.”

The bot turned and led Jake to a computer terminal.  Several other students were sitting nearby, doing their own searches.  The bot motioned, “Please, sit.”  Jake sat down.  The chair was plush and comfortable.  “This is the students’ work database, we can find different project submitted to their professors, that the professors turned into the library if they thought the work was presentable.  So what is it you are looking for today, Mr. Cooper?”

Jake put his hands on the keyboard, “Professor Powers told me to look up a project by a Rebecca Walton.”  Jake spoke as he typed her name in.

“Oh, yes.  Mrs. Walton.  She is a twelfth grader.  She has several projects here in the database.  Is there one in particular you are looking for?”  The bot stood over Jake’s shoulder.

“She did one last year on The Dark Cloud, that’s one I am looking for.”

The bot leaned over Jake’s shoulder and swiped the screen.  “Here it is.  I will send it to your tablet.  I can also print up a copy for you if you like.”

Jake looked at the printer, “Sure, that way I can make some notes on the paper.”

The project appeared on a printer that sat next to the computer, the bot handed it to Jake.  “There you go.  Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, that’s it for now.”  Jake looked the paper over, cleared his search from the database, and headed back to the table where the boys were.

The boys still had their noses in their books and notes.  “Did you guys know that once we finish our projects that our professors may want to keep them on file for other students to reference and see?”

Mark looked up.  “Huh.  That’s interesting.  I’m used to classwork being taped to the hallway for awhile and then handed back to us so we can throw it away at home.”

Jake rolled his eyes and made a face at Mark.  “Well, I guess if Professor Guinness likes your independent project enough he could file it away here in the library.”  Jake held up Rebecca’s paper.

“What’s that?” Cal pointed at the paper. 

“This is a paper done on The Dark Cloud.  It was done by a twelfth grader.  I mean, she was in the eleventh grade when this was written.  But she is a twelfth grader now.”

Cal pointed at Jake’s seat.  “Go ahead, sit down, and read your paper.  I have work to do.”

Jake sat down and read.  He turned each page slowly and deliberately.  He grunted as he read items that caught his attention.

“There are other people in the Dark Cloud here,” Jake said.

“What do you mean?” Mark replied.

“Rebecca doesn’t name names in her report, but listen to this,” Jake cleared his throat, and began to read, “There are students here at Dolbin that openly mention that Extras should not be worried about what Basics think of them.   Some of these students congregate with-and then there is a blackout mark- here at Dolbin.  This cannot be a coincidence.  There are faculty members here that are a part of the Extras in the Open group.  They are doing a good job of keeping themselves hidden.  Students that are wishing to show their Extra skills are constituently meeting with the same faculty members.”

Henry raised his hand, “Why doesn’t she mention who it is?  What did you mean it was blocked out?”

Jake raised the paper up, “I mean someone blacked it out, they put a black marker over the names.  I guess she wasn’t supposed to do this.” Jake replied.

“Is the whole paper about who may or may not be in the Dark Cloud?” Mark asked.

Jake flipped through the paper, “No, it talks about the history of Extras in the Open and how they became the Dark Cloud.   A lot of stuff that I have already read.”

“She’s still here at school.  Maybe you should meet her.” Henry suggested.

Jake thought for a moment, “Why would I do that?”

“You are clearly into this.  And if you met her she may tell you the names of the people she wouldn’t mention in the paper.  Maybe she will tell you who is a part of The Dark Cloud here at school.”

“She’s a twelveth grader, I’m a fourth grader.  She won’t talk to me,” said Jake.

“Why do you automatically think she will be a jerk?” Cal asked.

Jake sat silent.  He didn’t have a response.

Cal continued, “It’s easy to find a student here, go ask Mrs. Brisby, and she will point you in the right direction.  Or you could just look her up in the student database.  But go ahead and make excuses for not trying to find her.”  Cal turned back to his homework.

Jake took a deep breath, and he stood up.  “Okay, you’re right.”  He picked his tablet and papers up, and he left the library.