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 Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:35 pm
"You know, I honestly don't know why I ask you to come to work with me. Here I am, thinking you might learn something important, but no. You are absolutely useless. Please, at least try to lift the boxes."
Tony and Nathan were in the back of the library, near a newly place rack of bookshelves. They were expanding this section a bit, and it required a lot of physical labor as well as book sorting. Tony was working hard to drag boxes from the storage room over to the shelves, which were conveniently located the entire length of the library away. While they could use carts and dollies for the trips, they still had to load and unload the boxes once they arrived.
And boxes of books were, without surprise, very heavy.
Nathan was doing as little work as possible. When his father prodded him for not being useful, actually noticing his tactic, he opted to give up on it all together. He released the box on 'accident', making it look like his fingers slipped off, and both it and Tony spilled to the floor.
"Oops, sorry Tony," he said with a nonchalant eye roll. Tony couldn't see it, anyway. He was too busy grumbling and pretending he wasn't pissed, just in case anyone was around to see them. And there were patrons in the library, though only those who got lost would day trip to the back area, as far as Nate knew.
Really, this whole endeavor seemed pointless. Who would come to this corner looking for whatever these books were? If they were important, they'd be in the front.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:59 pm
Castille ran from building cover to building cover, her jacket keeping most of the rain off of her. It's pink fabric was nice and soft and slightly waterproof. She stopped underneath the awning of a convenience store, panting and pulling her pale yellow hat farther down her head and grimacing. April showers bring May flowers they said. Well then the flowers better be eye popping gorgeous this year! Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out, answering with a quick "Helloooo?" a few minutes of conversation, and a study date at the library with her friends Shea, Adam and Melissa was decided. Granted, not for another hour...
She decided that now was as good a time as any to get there. Maybe she could even get a headstart! She dashed down a few more streets, dodging raindrops and finally making it up the steps to the library. She went inside after shaking off the water, and was immediately engulfed in warm silence. The library was a wonderful place. Everyone was as so quiet, and as she walked in, no one bothered to look up. Plus all of the shelves...it was the perfect place to play hide and seek! She smiled and placed her plaid bag on one of the tables, pulling out her homework and laying it on the table. She took off her jacket, shaking out the sleeves of the striped black long sleeve she wore underneath.
Ten minutes into studying, Castille was looking off into the distance, tapping her pencil impatiently on the table.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:57 am
Tony sighed as he pushed himself up. His horrifyingly ill behaved son had already vanished from the scene of the crime, however. Lecture left unspoken and bouncing around Tony's mind, the librarian had no choice but to get up and collect the spilled books himself. The box had broken, and he was feeling a bit winded from the fall, but it wasn't anything he was unused to.
It was surprising how used to small bumps and bruises he was now.
Nathan, having darted down a nearby aisle, had his hands in his pockets and was humming to himself contentedly. He seemed quite proud of himself, and his ploy to get himself out of all that manual labor and 'work'. He wasn't sure how he had been convinced to do it in the first place, but he wasn't going to make that mistake again.
Never let it be said that he didn't learn when he needed to.
He noticed someone he recognized at a table nearby, and moved over to talk to her. If he looked like he was busy, Tony wouldn't have the heart to get him to come back. Probably. Tony was fairly easy to push over, after all.
"Working hard, or hardly working?" He asked, not bothering to drop his voice to anything close to a 'library appropriate' tone.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:18 am
Castille was day dreaming, there was no doubting that. The young girl was prone to daydreaming when anything involving homework that wasn't art or English came about. And this was math, most abhorrent subject that high-school could have come up with. So Castille ignored it, choosing to think about more entertaining things, like music videos, how she would have concluded the manga series she just finished reading... And while she was completely lost in thinking about how she could sell her photography online, Nate came over.
"working hard, or hardly working?"
She jumped, dropping the pencil, and her heart seemed to stop beating for a second. She looked quickly up at him, wanting to glare, but at the same time laughing. He had scared her all right! She leaned over in the chair to pick up her pencil with trembling hands and then came back topside to the table saying "You scared the hell outta me! Didn't anyone ever teach you that libraries are supposed to be quiet?" While her tone was supposed to show disapproval, she couldn't help but smile.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 1:39 pm
Nate tilted his head in mock wonder. He was not actually interested in how her work was going, or what she was doing at all. He just wanted to escape Tony, and that meant striking up a conversation. Not that he had to be subtle about it.
Anyway, at least it was funny that she had jumped.
"Did I?" he said with mock innocence, grinning toothily. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, waving his hand and dismissing the idea that he might have done it on purpose. Or, rather, confirming that he had.
"Hey, this is my dad's library. I am exempt from the no talking loud rule. Seriously, though, just ask him." That was a lie, as well. He had never asked Tony, one way or the other, and was often getting shushed by the librarian. Which he, of course, ignored.
Tilting his head, he nodded toward the work she wasn't doing, asking, "what're you pretending to be working on?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:34 pm
She huffed at his amusement towards scaring here, and tapped the pencil a couple times in mild annoyance. The tapping stopped when he spoke. "Wait, your dad owns the library?" She said with a touch of awe in her voice "How does on own a library? I thought they were a government thing." She began eyeing him a little suspiciously, trying to judge whether he was kidding or not. Castille wasn't normally the suspicious type, but since he already got his kicks out of scaring her, she wouldn't put it past him to keep teasing her.
She looked down at her homework, all scribbles of numbers both clear and half erased and said simply "The worst subject to ever be introduced. Math." She glared at the innocent paper, wanting nothing more than to crumple it up and throw it away. Instead she looked back up at Nate.
"So what is it, take your child to work day?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:35 pm
Nate noted she seemed upset by him. He thought, by now, she would be used to the fact that her annoyance was amusing to him. Everyone's was. He grinned at her boyishly, offering a helpless shrug that seemed to say 'what can I do' about his own behavior.
It was just who he was, and he rather liked it.
"Well, he doesn't own it," Nate said thoughtfully. Did he? He realized he didn't even know, but if Tony owned it he imagined they would live in a much better place than where they had recently moved to. Even though the townhouse was quite nice, it was still 'common'. Not 'I own a library' fancy. He shook his head. "Don't be dumb, he just runs the place."
He had decided that was what it was, and would hear no more on the subject.
Sighing, he plopped down, uninvited, at the table. He also put his feet up, uninvited, onto the table. "Math? Meh. I guess for Tony it's always bring your kid to work day. He wants to drag me here and teach me the importance of work. But I left him back there somewhere, learning the importance of not trusting me." He grinned at that.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:34 pm
"Was calling me dumb necessary?"
She felt a twinge of real irritation, and sighed. This kid was something else. But what, she wasn't sure.
Castille started rounding up her papers and things and placing them in her backpack. She wasn't going to get anything done with Nate around. All the while, he told her about how he bailed on his dad somewhere in the back. She looked at him, a little shocked, and said "You just left him back there all by himself? Books are heavy..." She looked back the way she supposed Nate had come, a little worried for the man. What if he dropped the books on himself, or fell off that little ladder thingy they have to reach the high shelves?
"Does he need help with the books?"
She rose without waiting for his answer, choosing to walk down an aisle towards the back of the library, looking for a lot of boxes and one person buried by them.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:00 am
Nate looked at Castille pointedly. When was calling someone dumb not necessary?
He watched her as she started gathering her papers, frowning. Was she going to leave? That would leave him open to Tony coming and finding him again. Only now he would be in trouble, which would undoubtedly be even more annoying. He shook his head.
"I'm sure he does, but don't tell me you're going to go galloping to his rescue?" He rolled his eyes. "He's been working here for years, I'm sure he's used to it. Anyway. You're not a librarian, or related to one, so you probably can't help him anyway."
He meant skill wise, though there might have been policy in it too. He never read the handbook.
Grumbling, he followed after her, protesting as they went. Tony was where he had been left, or at least on his feet near the fallen box, trying to sort a pile he had placed on a shelf. There were still books from the box on the floor, but he was working in little sections to make sure they were all in the right order. He didn't hear them coming.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:20 am
Poor Nate. Just had to mention someone needing help.
Castille was raised on the treat others like you want to be treated, and took this saying very seriously. What would she want if she was all alone in the back of a library with boxes of books? Well, she certainly wouldn't want her only helper to jump ship!
Except if they brought back another helper.
"I'm not galloping." She said, imagining a horse. She looked back and said "It can't be that bad right? And it's easier if you have someone to talk to. Makes the time go by faster." She smiled and turned a corner, seeing boxes laying about in the aisle, and a man bent over a stack of books.
Castille waited until they were relatively close to Tony before saying "Hi, um excuse me?" She waved and said "Someone." She said, looking back at Nate with a little bit of mischief in her eyes." told me you have a lot of books to put away. Can I help?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:33 pm
Nate threw his hands up in exasperation.
Why did people always feel compelled to help Tony? Why did no one ever offer their time to Nate, without him forcing them into it? It probably had something to do with the fact that Tony was, in general, a nice guy, and probably looked the sort who needed help all the time. Pitiable, with his stupid cane and dumb face.
Nate was starting to get petulant. Crossing his arms over his chest, he shook his head and followed along.
Tony looked up when he heard a voice. He smiled at Castille, then saw Nate and wondered if this was some kind of a trap or set up. The look on his son's face, though, seemed to indicate that he wasn't there of his own free will. Often the case, when it came to the library.
"Hello there," Tony said on instinct, smiling warmly, "do you need some help? Oh. Oh, well, ah, no, that's alright. I appreciate the offer, but you've probably got work to do, or you wouldn't be in the library, would you? Uhm. I mean, I don't mean kids don't read or... uh. I think I can manage. My son was supposed to help me, not recruit others to do his job for him."
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:37 am
Castille smiled warmly, a severe contrast from Nate's sullen expression, and said "Oh he didn't recruit me, at least not on purpose. We were talking and he mentioned that you were back here all alone, and I thought I would come see if you needed help."
She shook her head, ignoring the thought of the math homework tossed carelessly into her backpack. "I have a study group with a few of my friends, but they aren't here yet, and I've given up on trying to do math without their help." she said brightly, peering into a half open box as her curiosity started revving up. She looked back at Nate and said "Why don't you wanna be back here? There's so many books!" She bent and opened a box, pulling out a book and flipping it over to read the back cover.
Castille loved to read. Much of her free time (when she had any) was taken up with finding and reading books. It was a love started by her father, when he brought home "The Hobbit" and told her it was one of his favorite books, and he wanted her to read it. Now she looked at all the book lovingly, putting the one she was holding down carefully.
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:36 pm
Tony smiled and chuckled, nodding his head. Nathan might do everything in his power to avoid being helpful or useless to absolutely everyone, but Castille seemed a different sort. Most people weren't, in fact, as terrible as the younger Darrow put so much effort into being.
At least that was a breath of fresh air.
"That's exactly why I don't want to be back here," Nathan moaned, shaking his head. What was it with people and books? They were old, they smelled, and they had no use that an internet, and its infinite games and websites and fun things, couldn't also perform. Besides being paper weights, but even then, people had notebooks.
"Oh, Nathan, we know. You hate everything, and the library the most. All right," Tony sighed, surprising Nate into silence. The librarian smiled. "Well, as long as you don't get yourself hurt, miss, I would be glad for your help. Perhaps you wouldn't mind handing me small stacks of books from those boxes when I ask? I'm just about done putting these back in order, so the rest should go up rather smoothly."
He liked people who appreciated books. No, he didn't read much himself, which he got a lot of crap for considering he was a librarian, but he did love the look, feel, and idea of books. And anyone else who cared about them was okay in his book.
"What math were you working on?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:35 pm
Castille nodded saying "Alright!" and, still smiling, moved next to the boxes Tony indicated, looking over these covers now. They were smaller and red, with an intricate cover flap that depicted a battle scene. She flipped through the first pages, feeling the slight breeze and new paper smell waft over to her face.
Castille used the internet, of coarse. What teenager didn't? But there was something about the weight of the book in her hands, the flap of th pages that just...belonged in her mind.
She looked up at Nate, who was quite silent now, and looked angry. She hoped Nate wouldn't leave. He wasn't quite a friend yet, but the thought of being alone in the back of the library with a stranger made her heart beat a little faster and her nerves twinge a bit. Feeling tension between father and son, Castille said to Nate quietly and with a little bit of awkwardness "Aren't you going to help?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:42 am
The books that had spilled were now in order, and Tony looked to Castille for the first stack of books. He smiled, noticing her admiring the book itself.
"Nice little volumes, don't you think? A shame they ended up sorted back here, but hopefully people will come in looking for them, and they'll get to see the light of day more often than not," he chuckle at that, as if feeling bad that the books would be left in the dark, gathering dust.
That wasn't what a book was made for.
Nate rolled his eyes.
"Why should I help? You look like you have it under control, right? You're the ones that look like you want to date the damn books. I'll be over here, not getting in on any of that, thank you very much."
He sat down on one of the boxes of books, still full and waiting to be shelved. He crossed his arms and shook his head, looking away. Figures two old souls would find each other and fawn over their precious out of date knowledge storage devices. Even if one of them was close to his own age, rather than a dinosaur.
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