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 Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:44 pm
Barnaby Price was at school.
Hold the applause, please, hold the applause. It gets better. Barnaby Price, Barnaby-I-Got-Held-Back-In-The-First-Grade-Price was not only at school, he was also in the library. Will the wonders never cease?
The redhead was currently wandering down the aisles of books, looking over the titles with the air of someone who really had no idea what they were searching for. Knowing Barnaby, it was incredibly likely that he wasn't searching for anything, besides perhaps a way in which to pass his time. No doubt, whatever he had scheduled in for today had been canceled, leaving him stuck here with Free Time. As much as he was itching to just go home, his mother wasn't expecting him until later, which meant he had to find something to do.
He paused when a book caught his eye, pulling it from the shelf and flipping it open. As he started reading he slid one of his headphones off of his ears, the beats of the music made audible by the sheer lack of sound in the library. The redhead made a soft "hrming" noise as he flipped through several of the pages, momentarily pacified.
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:58 pm
Portia approached the upperclassman with some hesitation. Her eyes on the spine of the book in Barnaby's hands. She pursed her lips, running her hand through her hair and tugging at the layered ends with her fingertips.
"'Scuse me," she began, at a volume that was, shockingly, library-appropriate, "Could I see the title of your book?"
Obviously not looking for permission, Portia extended her hand out and tilted the top edge of the book up so she could better read the title. "Uhm," Her gaze flicked up to Barnaby's face, "You wanna share the book? I was hoping to use it for a paper..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:01 pm
The redhead was in the middle of skimming a paragraph when he became aware of someone's eyes on him. There was a moment's hesitation, almost though if he pretended he didn't see her she'd leave, but Portia's tone and volume seemed to convince him that she meant him no harm. He reached up to slide the other headphone off his ear so he could focus, and turned his head to look at the girl who wanted to see his book. As she flipped the book to check the title he allowed the bock to go lax in his hands, using the opportunity to study her.
He didn't recognize her or her hair immediately, which probably meant that she wasn't in his classes. But that was no reason not to be helpful, and Barnaby put on his best smile. "Naw, you can have it if you want it. I was just looking for something to do." He closed the book and offered it to her. "What paper are you doing?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:52 pm
She took it in her hands, offering a smile in exchange. "It's for history. Really generic, write a paper about someone famous kind of stuff. I picked Henry Ford off the list." She glanced down at the book's front cover. "We need, like, a million different sources, so I'm trying to find anything that's remotely relevant." Portia caught the volume of her voice rising before she had become too loud and cleared her throat.
"So," she tilted her head to the side, smile broadening into a grin with embarrassment, "if you're not working on a history paper, what brings you to the library? I haven't seen you here, before."
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:48 pm
Good old Henry Ford. It was a pity he didn't make good motorcycles, but Barnaby could appreciate a man who made cars serious business. "Well, there shouldn't be any shortage of info on this guy. You make nice wheels, everybody's interested in you." An interesting topic choice, though. He was already intrigued. "You need help getting stuff, or d'you got it all under control?"
He couldn't help but chuckle at the mention of him being a stranger to the library. "That's because I'm not here that often. Not a big fan of books, to be completely honest. Rather like to live the stuff, you know?" It was about as close as the redhead was going to get to admitting that he only liked picture books to a girl. "Don't think the librarian likes me much either." Barnaby gave an apologetic shrug of his shoulders, fiddling with the cord to his MP3 player as he spoke.
"You seem to know your way around pretty well."
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 9:50 pm
“Yeah…” Portia laughed, it came out sounding a bit awkward and she couldn’t help but grimace slightly. “I spend a LOT of time studying – I need to do well. So I practically live in the ‘brary.”
Glancing sidelong at Barnaby, she hugged the book in her hands to her chest. “Anyway,” Portia cleared her throat, “do you know much about Mr. Ford? I mean, if you do, I can always use help. Maybe it’d count as a secondary source or something.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:29 am
Barnaby made a noise that may have been approving, though it sounded suspiciously noncommittal. Study habits weren't something he liked to openly discuss, mainly because he didn't have any but also because he just didn't believe in studying. Why put in the effort when it would only marginally improve his grade? But Portia seemed to think that it was important, and if she wanted to live in the library then that was entirely up to her.
"I don't know much about him personally, but I could probably help you find books or something." Two sets of hands were better than one, after all. Besides, it wasn't like the redhead had actually come to the library to do something. "If you've got a book list on you I could look for half. Whatever you want." Now that he offered his help, Barnaby wasn't going to be picky about how Portia used that help. Anything was more interesting than standing around in the library at this point.
Realizing that he hadn't introduced himself, he said, "It's Barnaby, by the way. Barnaby Price."
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:28 pm
“Portia Hathaway.” She told him as she reached into the front pocket of her messenger bag. She couldn’t help but smile broadly.
After a moment of fussing, she pulled out a crumpled piece of line paper. Her eyes darted back and forth as she quickly skimmed the scrap’s contents. She glanced up at Barnaby, and, in earnest, said, “That would be awesome of you. Wow!”
As quietly as she could manage, she tore the piece of paper in half and handed Barnaby the shorter portion. “If you can find any of these – they should all be in this area. That would be coolbeans.”
((I apologize for the delay in reply on this. There was a death in the family on the 23rd and I was without computer until Christmas.))
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 2:39 pm
Portia huh? Interesting name. That, combined with her interesting hair, would make sure that he remembered her for sure.
He gave her time to find what she was looking for, using the pause to turn down the volume on his MP3 player. No doubt if he started wandering the near-silent aisles on a book hunt with his music playing from around his neck he was liable to get his fair share of dirty looks. Now that he was helping someone else out he couldn't afford to get kicked out, which meant he had to behave.
Barnaby took the offered piece of paper and gave it a once over. Not too many. It would certainly keep him occupied. "Not a problem. I'll see what I can do for you. You wanna meet… let's say, at that back table over there-" he pointed towards the table in question, which was currently unoccupied, "- in about twenty minutes and we can see how far we get?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:22 pm
"Twenty minutes. Sure thing!" She clicked her tongue and gave him a thumbs up. "See you then."
She turned abruptly - almost giddily - and headed off to search through another aisle of books.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:20 pm
Twenty minutes later, Barnaby had managed to find three out of the four books on the list, though he'd had to snipe one out of the hands of a shorter student before she realized he was there. Some sacrifices just had to be made in the line of duty, after all. Upon returning to their designated table, he had been rather peeved to find that somebody had taken up one seat. When insistent staring at the boy in question had proved ineffective – probably because he had given up too early – Barnaby settled for sitting in the chair across from him and turning up the volume on his headset. If anything, that would get him out of the seat.
He pretended not to see any of the dirty looks the other boy was giving him by opening one of the books and flipping through the pages. Ooh pretty cars! How the hell had that one even run? Momentarily distracted, he forgot about his meeting with Portia and started reading.
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