Whatever you want / Is fine by me

[paper_animals]

Who: Maggie, OPEN
What: Due to a grant received from the federal government, the library is being re-supplied with some new books.
Where: Clairbourn Library
When: Monday morning and onward
Warnings: None

Comments

[stone_asunder]

Reki, who was still paying for some art supplies out of pocket, was immensely jealous. That hadn't stopped her, however, from absconding with some Magical Realist and New Weird classics: Perdido Street Station, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, 100 years of solitude were prominent among them. She also balanced several large artbooks in a pile that threatened to tip at any moment.

Miraculously though, though it swayed sickeningly and appeared way too much for her not really athletic frame to carry, the pile did not topple and scatter.

"Thanks for doing this." She said to Maggie, all but her eyes hidden behind books like Killroy.

[paper_animals]

She half-sobbed, but it felt better knowing that the books Reki were holding would stay within the immediate area, and if she ever wanted to read any Haruki Murakami again, she knew who to ask. "Do you need help?" she asked, being significantly taller than the art teacher.

"This grant is nice, but I wish we could use part of it to make the library bigger so we could keep all these beautiful books," she added sorely. "Rules are no fair."

[stone_asunder]

"Rules suck." Reki agreed as the book at the top of the pile she was holding started to slide. "I think i've g-" Unable to catch it, she could only look on as Delany's Dhalgren slid off the edge...

[paper_animals]

With reflexes that did not quite match her body, Maggie stepped forward into a deep stance and caught the volume just before it hit the floor, stood up, and placed it back on top of the stack.

She blushed.

"Let me take them for you. Where are they going?" she asked sheepishly.

[stone_asunder]

"Ah, well I won't say no to a little help with this. I'm taking as much home as I can and 'accidentally' leaving out whatever I think Rakka should read." She grinned behind her pile and allowed Maggie to take no more than half of the books. "Except for the art books. Those are going to my classroom, for anyone who wants to borrow them.

[paper_animals]

Nodding, she slid about half the stack up to her own chest, and shyly grinned. "So you are leaving out this copy of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, right?" she asked, looking at the spine of one of the books a few volumes down. "It's a second edition, so you should not worry about it getting dirty or something," she added.

She started for the door, but then paused for a second. Turning, she looked over her shoulder. "Do you have a car, miss Reki?"

[stone_asunder]

"Second edition? He wrote this in the thirties...Well, Rakka's always way conscientous so i'm not worried." She said as she adjusted her stack and shoved the school doors open with her foot. "Actually I have a..." And understanding seemed to rapidly dawn, understanding that she had made a big miscalculation. "...scooter." The grey, beat up vespa didn't seem to have space for all the books.

[paper_animals]

Maggie's cheeks turned slightly pink. "What should we do with these, then, miss Reki?" The plan formed in her head that Reki could load five or six onto her scooter every day returning from school, but that could take a few weeks to get them all home, and Maggie herself did not have transportation either. Jushirou and Big Sis either, for that matter, since they all lived so close.

Briefly she mulled over the list of people who might have a car. "Kamina has a motorcycle, but I don't think that will be much help..." she said, only partially to Reki.

[stone_asunder]

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, comparing things. "Well a couple can go in the paniers...one or two in my bag...Ah. Wait here. You're about to see something to post on 'there, I fixed it'."

She disappeared into the school, coming back with several rolls of duct tape. "Alright. Let's kludge."

[paper_animals]

"Kludge?" said Maggie. Truth be told, she did not even have internet access most of the time. All she needed was in books. Reading from a screen was just not good enough anyway. Someone had offered to buy her a Nook, but there were no pages on that thing! How could she enjoy it?

She watched intently, rather interested in what the art teacher would pull together to make this work.

[stone_asunder]

"You know. Something you do to fix a problem in an unconventional way, even if it barely holds together." To tell the truth, she would have liked Kana to be here for her engineering expertise. Ah well.

In a move seemingly designed to horrify Maggie, Reki began securely duct taping the books to her scooter.