School grounds, Thursday afternoon

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Willow was sitting outside on the school grounds. A determined look was on her face.

Beside her? A seven-inch wood turtle with a small, lightweight basket tied to its shell with wrapping paper ribbon. In the basket was a piece of coal.

"Okay, Shelby," Willow said, trying to be encouraging. "I know this is a whole new world for you and not the sort of thing you'd normally do in the average wood turtle day, but if you'd just give it a try you may just like it. Please? For me?"

Shelby the wood turtle simply blinked at her.

Willow realized this might take a while.

At least she'd gotten her form approved.

[ooc: open!]

Comments

[chasingangela]

Angela blinked, rather like Shelby, when she came across the girl while taking a walk after her shift at the library. "That's a turtle," she said, winning the Stating the Obvious trophy for the day.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"A wood turtle," Willow confirmed, sitting up. She smiled when she saw somebody she didn't know. "Hi. New student? I'm Willow."

[chasingangela]

"Old student," Angela corrected. "Elderly, even. I was just on vacation the first half of summer term."

"I'm Angela." She squinted. "You're Xander's friend, right? I think I've heard your name."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"That would be me," Willow said. She quickly caught the piece of coal before it fell out of Shelby's basket. "Angela - you work the library, right? I've caught your name on the radio. Though they failed to mention that you were a fellow redhead, which I think just goes to show that they often neglect to include highly important information."

[chasingangela]

"I'm an aide," Angela confirmed, fingering her hair. "The hair is kind of what people remember about me. Even though it comes in a box."

She nodded to the turtle. "So are you training the turtle ffor something?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Must be fun," Willow said, a little wistfully. "And yep. I'm trying to help Shelby here have a fulfilling, highly employable lifestyle that will hopefully encourage people not to kill him or his family."

[chasingangela]

"It's okay," Angela said. "We're supposed to hire some people when we actually have a librarian again." She continued, in a lower voice, "We've lost two in the last four months. And they both had fur. It's kind of weird."

She watched the turtle. "And good for Shelby? So you're thinking, like, a turtle courier service?"

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter had been thinking about walking down to town to see if Susan was home. Instead he stopped short at the site of Willow doing something odd with a turtle.

"Is the turtle doing penance or something?" he asked. He was, strangely, wearing Narnian clothes today.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I'm trying to help him have a career," Willow said. She sat up to look at Peter, then immediately looked worried. "Are you going home?"

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"A career doing what?" Peter asked. "And not that I know of." He looked down at his clothes. "Oh, yeah. We had to make clothes today in Wilderness workshop. All my other modern clothes are dirty."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Okay. Good." Willow said. Not that she'd been about to have a panic attack or anything. "Come join me? I'm teaching Shelby how to carry coal."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter knelt down beside her giving her a half-hug as he did. "Didn't mean to worry you. I just wanted to get out of the clothes I made as quickly as possible." He looked at the turtle who he assumed was Shelby. "Huh. How is he doing at it?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"It's been slow going, no specisist puns intended," Willow said, hugging him back. "The coal keeps falling out, though I think that's more a fault of my basket than Shelby's desire to put forth the work effort."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Maybe, err, Shelby would be more comfortable pulling a load rather than carrying it?" Peter suggested. "If there was another turtle, they could be a team like draft horses."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin walked past Willow with a small smile, then paused, turned around, and stared.

"Um," he said, pointing to the turtle, "huh?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I'm trying to help him get a job," Willow said.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Turtles need jobs?" Anakin frowned. "Mine's been unemployed since Christmas. Is that going to be a problem?'

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Is your turtle endangered?" Willow asked.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I've never asked him," Anakin replied. "But he's pretty surly. He's probably made some enemies."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Wood turtles are endangered," Willow explained. "I'm hoping that if I teach Shelby how to work in the coal industry, he can teach his friends and then people will get behind the idea of not killing them."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

On her way to town, Isabel stopped when she saw Anakin. "Anakin, I was just looking for you."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin blushed. "It wasn't my fault."

No, he had no idea what Isabel might be looking for. That was just his default answer.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"What?" Isabel asked, confused. "No, I have something for you. I tried to drop it at your room but you weren't there." Reaching into her backpack she pulled out a tin, filled with brownies.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin's eyes got big. "I'm not going all weird if I eat these, right?" he asked.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I promise, no singing, no dancing, no odd fashion choices and definitely no hair gel or grease. I made these myself and vouch for all the ingredients in them," she promised. "I just wanted to say thank you."