School stood on a pedestal above all who dwelt upon the earth, whip in one hand, textbook in the other, cackling crazily as it ordered the lost and tortured souls to do its bidding.
At least, that was the general religion of all Seniors at April's high school.
Especially three weeks before exam time.
There were only three rules to the School Hating religion: 1) Hate school, 2) Hate school, and 3) Loathe chemistry

The last of which April was practicing- well, religiously.
Damn the genius who decided elements had to be discovered. And the others who had to follow in his footsteps and invent all the little equations that helped you find out the atomic weight of hydro chloric acid, the molarity of vinegar, and other wonderfully useless things.
Yes, chemistry was most definately a thing to be loathed. Unfortunatly, it was also the one class he could absolutely NOT afford to fail. Colleges like to see 'chemistry' on your transcript; and they liked to see that you passed it.
'3.45 grams of potassium sulfate divided by its atomic mass, times three moles... wait... oh, crap!'
April groaned, leaned forward in his chair, and held his head in his hands. He HAD to learn this, but his brain felt fried.
'Hate chemistry, hate chemistry...' his mind mumbled to itself. 'Need break, want break...

What a wonderful place, thought Nafretiri wandering through the rows of shelves. Her pale fingers slid across the leather bound books, giving her a silent comfort. Had she known the library kept such a large ammount of old books, she would have been tempted to come in sooner. There were so many!

Her own book supply having been depleted earlier on, Nafretiri had finally donned some beige pants and a white sweater. After combing waist length black hair, she had headed to the library. Oh, she had been to a library before, but not one with so many old texts. Of course, she used the term old lightly, as most of them were hardly older than a hundred years old in this section. To her they were still new, but at least they were better than some of the new literature she had tried reading before now. Much better.

She rounded the corner and was assaulted by frustrated thoughts. The mental voice belonged to a mortal boy who was sitting not to far from her. She dove into his mind, picking through memories and facts until she came upon what he was doing. Chemistry, he called it.

Nafretiri was not ignorant. She kept up with the times and knew what chemistry was, but beyond that, she was lost. Had she known, she would have tried to offer him a helping hand. As it was, she was standing there, a tattered book beneath her arm, gazing at him. She shook her head, and started to turn around, hoping to leave the boy in peace.

Unfortunately, Fate had other plans. The book fell from her arms with a loud thud.

For a second, April wasn't sure if he was greatful or annoyed by the sudden inturruption. Either way, he jumped.
Spinning around in his chair, he scanned the many shelves for the source of the noise until he saw the glittering black hair that indicated he had company.
'Well, I wanted a break... I'll take what I get.'
"Hey!" he called out, softly, so the librarian at the front desk wouldn't come back and wring his neck for speaking in too-loud tones.
"Looking for anything in particular?"

She sighed as she picked up the book. Making sure that it was securely under her arm, she prepared to make haste. Too bad the boy sitting at the table called out to her first. For the love of Re! thought Nafretiri. She turned around, her face showing none of her annoyance.

"Looking for anything in particular?"

She looked at the boy, wondering if he could help her. Somehow, she didn't think so, but she supposed she could ask anyway. "I am looking for a book of poetry by William Wordsworth. Would you happen to know where I could locate it? It is my first time in this library, and I do not know my way around."

OOC| I've been beaten to it, .K.! No worries, another board.. |

(OOC: Whoopsies? Was I not supposed to? x_x' )

OOC| No! No, it's no big deal. I had posted here, but deleted it after I got all mad because .K. wasn't replying. Then I felt bad and offered to re-post. But I couldn't do it when I offered to because I had to go.. do something, and when I went to it the next day, you had already done so. :) It's nothing, really, don't feel bad or anything. Keep Rping, I insist! *bangs gravel* :) |

((guess I'll continue... ^-^))

April gave her a lopsided smile. "Sorry... I'm only ever in here for reference books, quiet study space and the occasional romance novel." He winked at the last one, to show that he was kidding.

"I'd check the front desk or the card catalog, either one should point you in the right direction. You're into poetry?"


((so... short... ))

(OOC: Thanks Vanessa. ^^)

She blinked at him. What was a card catalogue? It was times like these that Nafretiri felt the oldest. Here was a mortal person, talking about things of which she had no idea like it was an everyday occurance, and she was stuck in the past. A look into things like this was in order.

Pondering his question, Nafretiri replied, "Not all poetry, just William Wordsworth's. He is my favourite poet. There is just something about his poems."

What she didn't say was that she had actually met him once. Considering the fact that he died long ago in mortal standards, and she looked barely in her twenties, it would not have been wise. He had been such a nice man.

It was strange how you saw bits of other people you knew in perfect strangers.

"Wordsworth... the name sounds familiar. I've never really been one for poetry, although I did know someone once who was quite passionate about it. Knew practically every poet in existance."
April smiled at the fond memory. That person's many books on poetry were what had been in some of the heavier boxes he'd moved into his new apartment. Although he really had no interest in them (he'd often take them out and read through them occasionally, just for the memories), he couldn't find it in his heart to get rid of them. They'd most likely be housing colonies of spiders and turning to dust before he'd decide to toss them out with the trash. If it ever came to that.
He doubted it would.
Sliding his chair back and standing up, he stretched to work the kinks out of his stiff neck and back.
"Come on; I'll help you find whatever it is you're looking for. My brain's due for a break, anyway."

((Sorry for the delay))

Waves of emotion pounded off of him. Even with her mental shields up as high as she would put them, she felt it. Not wanting to pry, Nafretiri gently tried to push the thoughts away so that he didn't feel her in his mind. Some did, some didn't. It was hard to say which he would be. Either way, the woman was sure he wouldn't want her delving into his memories. Most people didn't, and she tried to respect their wishes.

"Thank you for your kind offer," said Nafretiri with a sliver of a smile and a small nod of the head. "Do not trouble yourself if you wish to keep on studying though. You've been sitting there awhile. I'd imagine you'd be quite keen on learning it all."

April shook his head firmly. "As 'keen' as I am on learning it," he replied with a friendly smile, "my poor brain's not going to take much more before it explodes. Like I said, I'm way due for a break. So let's find that book you were after. Come on," he said, moving away from the table and walking down one of the aisles of bookshelves. "There's probably a computer around here somewhere we can look it up on." It was April's sure-fire way to find anything; when in doubt, turn to something electronic. Although he was still stubborn about trading in his precious collection of CDs for a midi player (it was a matter of sentimental attachment), it was quite doubtful he would survive a week without the internet.
Which was why he made sure any and all camping trips he went on lasted no longer than that.

((sorry for my delay as well! :lol: ))

"There's probably a computer around here somewhere we can look it up on."

Once again, Nafretiri was at a loss as to how a computer worked. She knew what they did, and how important they were to today's world, but beyond that, nothing. Tell her to turn one on, she'd be lost until she experimented a bit. Then again, this was a woman who had seen Cleopatra, witnessed the fall of Rome, heard the gossip of King Henry VIII's newest wife, and watched them behead Marie Antoinette. A woman can't be expected to know everything.

"Again, thank you for your help. I have not been here, or in any other library much as I usually buy my own books. Unfortunately, I could not find any that suited my taste, and having read all the ones I own, I decided to come here," Nafretiri, with a slight smile. "I think I shall leave the computer to you. I know nothing of them."

((No problem. :content: ))

April shrugged. "Sure thing." He lead the way down a few aisles before locating a computer. Seating himself in front of it and opening the library catalouge, he typed in the name of the poet and hit search. A list of hints popped up, and he scrolled down until he located one with a call number. With the aid of a convenient pencil, he scribbled the numbers onto a scrap of paper.
"There should be other books by the same author in the section besides just the one here," he said, indicating the paper.


((so... short... brain fried from Summer Vacation happiness.^-^))