fandomhighdorms | Second Floor Common Room; Sunday Morning [06/12].

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Second Floor Common Room; Sunday Morning [06/12].

Libby's grandmother had been sending her a small weekly allowance, knowing that a little spending money could make living away from home a little easier, and she was mostly saving up that money for an emergency (or, if she was honest with herself, to maybe buy a new dress for the next school dance) or using it to buy stuff to make breakfasts and other meals in the common room. That morning, though, seeing as the nice little windfall was growing, she was a little tempted to head into town, into the pastry shop, and maybe treat herself to something that she might otherwise never splurge on.

But even as soon as she thought about it, she felt guilty about it. It was kind of selfish, wasn't it? Especially on a Sunday. Not to mention just sort of careless, not a very useful use of her funds at all.

There was, thankfully, a good solution to handling her sudden sweet tooth and her worry about being waste and self-serving, and that was obviously to just head to the store to pick up what she needed and make something, which would not only be more cost effective, but that she could share with everyone else, too.

And she had no doubt that the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the common room would get at least a few people's attention.

She just hoped she didn't end up burning them, and had to remind herself to let them cool first before adding the icing.

[[ will work eat me? Probably! Will I let that stop me? Heck no! Open common room is open! ]]

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"Of course not! That doesn't sound like you." From what Belle knew of Libby at least. Perhaps she was secretly villainous but that seemed unlikely.

"If we overindulge we've only ourselves to blame." Unless the island made them do it but it didn't seem inclined towards inspiring gluttony at this time.

Ah, but that would make it all the more villainous! No one would expect it!

"I'll remember that," Libby decided, "if anyone tries to complain after the fact.

"But how've you been, Belle? Did you have a nice week?"

That level of villainy would be impressive.

"It was a good week, yes. The library was quite chilly on Thursday but otherwise fine." If a bit quiet without any grumpy old men coming to argue with her. "And you? Have you been enjoying your classes this summer?"

"I have," Libby confirmed with a nod and a pleased smile for that fact. "Sometimes they're so fun they don't even really feel like classes, but the courses I'm doing at the clinic make up for that. Or maybe I'm just more used to them now, some of the strangeness of going to an actual school has maybe worn off..."

"Some are quite fun, aren't they? I do like the adventure class." It was storytelling, mostly, with props. What's not to love?

"Do the other classes for the clinic keep you very busy?"

"Only while I'm at the clinic, really," said Libby, "but I do take a lot of it home to work on. Workbooks and things like that. That's all just optional extra work."

And she was just a nerd and liked doing homework for fun.

"Adventure class is definitely my favourite, too, though," she agreed softly. "I've always enjoyed just wondering what it would be like to be someone else in a different time and place, but...that was always something supposed to be just for children..."

That was fine. Belle was also a nerd.

"I've always loved stories," Belle said. "Especially ones with heroes going on grand adventures. My mother used to read them to me when I was small but I still love them now. I don't think they're for children at all."

"I don't think so, either," Libby admitted, leaning forward a little to lower her voice, as if half-afraid someone would overhead and pass it on to her father and she'd be spending the rest of the day copying down Scripture. "And some of those stories in literature class last semester? Definitely proved that! But Daddy says it's not good to spend too much time in stories, especially not when there's so much to take care of in the here and now."

There was a small pause as she added, "The ones with heroes and grand adventures are my favorites, too. I always loved the ~~meta for~~ Narnia books....they had magic, but they were Christian in their allegories, so they were considered okay, but my friend back home also lent me her King of the Bracelet books, and I think I like them even more."

"Oh, I quite liked the King of the Bracelets! I don't think I've come across the others yet. Should I look for them?"

"Oh, you should," Libby insisted, emphatically. "There's seven different books, and they were my favorites growing up, you should see my copies back home, the covers are more duct tape than anything else at this point! It's about these four siblings who find a magical land inside an armoire ~~probably or maybe a cupboard. Steamer trunk?~~ and they have to save it from an evil witch, and the lion has to--"

But she hastily realized she was about to ramble off the whole story and stopped herself abruptly.

"Oh! I almost gave away the best part! I should just zip my lip so you can find out for yourself!"

"Oh that does sound exciting," Belle said. "I'll have to look for them on Thursday."

The library being what it was the books would quite probably be waiting for her at the desk. Or leaping off the shelves at her.

"Perhaps we could talk about them after I finish?"

"Oh," Libby's eyes brightened, "I'd love that! Even if you end up hating it, it would be nice to hear what you thought of it. I miss having someone to talk about books with...

"Do you have any recommendations for me?" she wondered. "I'm always looking for something new, but half the time, I'm just so overwhelmed by how much there is out there!"

"My favorite book from home is called Her Handsome Hero," Belle said. "And I'm sure I could find a few other adventures you'd enjoy. There are so many in the library here! So many of every thing."

"Her Handsome Hero," Libby repeated, trying very hard not to sound too doubtful about that title; it sounded like it could have been one of Patience's teen romance novels, and those were honestly some of the worst books Libby had ever read.

She still read them, of course, because there wasn't much else to read. And if Belle liked King of the Bracelets, too, then Libby felt she could trust her on this, so she nodded.

"I'll definitely keep an eye out for it. ...and, yeah," she laughed a little, "probably find about a dozen more along the way!"

"It's about a hero named Gideon," Belle said. Someday she'd name a kid after him! "He fights a giant spider, and an evil sorcerer, and he's terribly brave."

"He'd have to be," Libby noted, "to take on those things! And Gideon is a good name for a hero, too. There's a prophet named Gideon in the Bible, actually. There's no spiders in any of his stories that I've heard, but he did have to deal with an evil priest named Aud who made the sun shine at midnight to convince the Israelites to worship his dieties over God."

"Oh, I didn't know that!" Belle was not terribly familiar with any bible stories.
"An evil priest who could control the sun does sound at least a bit like an evil sorcerer. Perhaps I ought to look up that Gideon as well."

Libby hesitated, just a moment, with that trepidation of not knowing how a person might react if she started to get a little religious on them, but it hadn't happened in a while. So she smiled eagerly.

"You should," she said. "The Bible has all sorts of really interesting stories in it, if you can manage to get through the way it's written. Some of it can be a little..."

How did one go about critique the writing style of God's own Word without blaspheming?

"Challenging. And if you do, and have any questions, I know it very well, so I could hopefully help answer them! Gideon's story is in the Book of Judges, Chapters..." She squinted a little, a stark reminder that she was getting a little rusty, Patience would never let her hear the end of it, "six through eight. I...think. No. Yes, that's right, six through eight."

Edited 2022-06-12 22:58 (UTC)

"I certainly don't mind a reading challenge," Belle said stoutly. "I'll look for your Gdeon this week, and the other books you mentioned. It will give me something to do on Thursday if the library hasn't got other plans for me."

That that last part, Libby couldn't help grinning. "Have you ever," she had ask, "had the books turn into fruit on you? There was one time I went in and they'd all turned into oranges."

"I heard about the oranges. I haven't had the books turn into fruit but there were flying apples the other day. And one day there was popcorn everywhere."

"I actually did check out one of the oranges," Libby admitted, "just to see what would happen. It did turn back into a book, though, so I'm glad I never had the guts to bold enough to try and eat it...

"Popcorn in the library sounds like it would have been very difficult to clean up, though," she added, with a good deal of empathy because someone had definitely had to clean up after several little siblings with popcorn on far too many occasions.

"The popcorn was easy enough to clean off the shelves but it was inside some of the books." Belle shook her head and gave a little sigh.

"I'm glad it was only the one day. And that you didn't eat the book even if it was an orange at the time."

"It would have definitely led to an interesting new file at the clinic, probably," Libby noted, now wondering if she was going to be spending her own Thursday searching through the files for any 'eating books while they're food' incidents. "And at least it gives you something to look forward to, if you never know what's going to be waiting for you when you show up to work."

There was almost certainly someone who had eaten a book regardless of whether or not the book was food at the time. There might very well be record of someone being bitten by books as well.

"It is something new every week," Belle agreed. "Days when nothing seems to be happening are rather disconcerting. I hope the clinic doesn't offer quite so many surprises."

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