WAIT UP!! (Lucy/shadow mission)

"Why... did I... think... this was... a good... idea?!" Alex said to himself while panting, painstakingly trying to catch his breath as he ran across the grounds of Syne academy, trying to desperately try to catch up to a young female student that was leaving rather deep footprints in the freshly fallen snow. The student he was following was Lucy, and what he had told her a few moments ago had made her go nuts! The day before while he was in the library looking through a catalog for different types of plant seeds that he could use for making an obstacle course for his survival class when the librarian mentioned that she was going to be offering shadow missions to the students. Thinking that Lucy might like it, he suggested it to her this morning... and before he could even schedule the shadow mission the android girl had shot out of their home with a joyful look on her face.

Now Alex was trying to catch up to her, but to no avail. "Lucy! You're going the wrong direction! Turn left! No your other left!" he called out as he tried to catch up to her. How the heck was she so fast and why was she able to run towards the library like this when she was normally timid? Either she was having a glitch or she just really loved books. He repeatably told her to slow down only for his words to go in one ear and out the other. The only thing she seemed to listen to was his directions on how to get to the library.

"Dang nab-bit Lucy! SLOW DOWN!!" he bellowed, before throwing a seed on the ground in front of him. When he step down on where the seed had landed a tree stump shot out of the ground at a 65 degree angle. It launched Alex through the air and he landed in front of Lucy, but he was forced to tuck and roll because his legs were so tired from running. With a groan he got up and turned to face Lucy. "Can you hear me now Lucy?" He said, hoping that seeing him would help her focus on him.

In the back of her head Lucy knew she wasn't doing the right thing, but it was so far in the back of her head that she didn't really notice because what was overtaking her entire thoughts was one thing: BOOKS!

Lucy was rushing herself through the beautiful snowy grounds of the academy, and she had been running all the way from Mr. Davis's house with no sign of tiring. She was just SO EXCITED to go read some BOOKS that she couldn't contain all her welled-up energy, as evidence by the dark blue-ish indigo hue of Mr. Floppsies's hat that was not only highly complimentary but also very ambiguous and mysterious in nature. It was almost as if any gentlerabbit wearing a hat of that color had many a secret stored behind him, but there was no secrets for Lucy: it was rather well established that she loved reading books. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography, Autobiography, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, History, Horror, Romance, Mystery, Thriller...heck, she even loves reading dictionaries and thesauruses! What most people didn't know is that she loved words in general: how they looked, how they were pronounced, their origins, their meanings...and the best place to find words strung together to make a story was in a book!

While this would normally have her very happy indeed, Mr. Davis informed her that the librarian was conducting shadow missions. This meant that the librarian was giving librarian lessons, and to be able to work in a place full of books never crossed little Lucy's mind before, but it sounded like paradise and she wanted to learn how to be a librarian very badly. That's why she ran out of the house so fast, thinking she remembered the way to the library, but in reality she didn't quite remember.

She stopped for a moment and looked around to try and remember her way when Mr. Davis suddenly appeared in front of her, making her jump and let out a little yelp. "Interjection: Eep! Explanation: Mr. Davis, you startled me. Urgency: Mr. Davis we need to hurry! Explanation: If we don't get there soon, there will be a HUGE line, and then everyone else will get to be a librarian and she won't have any time left for us!" while the odds of this were rather low and unrealistic, in Lucy's mind it was a major chance of travesty, evident by her flailing arms and scrunched up face. Backing up this line of evidence was Mr. Floppsies's dark-green hat that was rather intriguing, as not many a gentlerabbit could make such a colored hat look as fashionable as he did.

Lucy looked around again and then saw a building that reminded her that the library was just beyond it. She then took off towards the library, shouting something about 'please hurry Mr. Davis I want to help the books' or something like that as she flew off.

She did in fact make it to the library, and believe it or not this was her first time stepping inside, because during her tour she didn't have the time to go in and look. She also didn't have her scroll with her, so there was no way for her to check out a book, but Mr. Davis had been nice enough to let her read some of the books he had at his home. As she stepped in, her eyes grew wide and were filled with wonder: there were rows upon rows of bookshelves packed tight with hundreds of books, asking to be read; there was an area with tables and chairs, students and faculty sitting at them, studying away in the near-silence; they had a couple tables setup with computers to use for research and free-time fun; and off in the corner there were a couple of beanbags with a sign that said 'The Quiet Corner', which seemed like the perfect place to sit and read a great book! As she turned to look at the other half of the room, she saw a rack that had magazines and newspapers galore, all up-to-date. Past that were some rooms surround in Plexiglas that Lucy assume were dedicated to special lessons or events as they seemed to be soundproof.

In the middle of this glorious place was a fancy, 'U'-shaped desk with a lady sitting there attending to her computer. Lucy did a little twirl and let out a gasp. "Astonishment: Wwwwwwoooowwww!" she wasn't very loud, as she knew to be quiet in a library, but she could still be a bit easily heard and it turned a couple heads, mainly that of the librarian herself.

"Oh, umm, m-may I help you?" she asked, a bit startled as she had been intensely focused on her current task, which was working on setting up access to some newer students to rent books.

It took her a moment to register that she was being spoken to, but when she did she turned to the librarian and spoke with her. Affirmation: Yes, i-if you don't mind. Explanation: I am here for librarian lessons! Earnest: Please tell me you are still offering them!" a bit of panic flooding her voice.

"O-oh, of course, I hadn't even taken any applicants yet..."

"Exclamation: Yay!" It was about this time that Mr. Davis had finally arrived, and Lucy did another little twirl, her pigtails swinging around with her before she stopped. "Justification: See, Mr. Davis? Continuation: Since we left right away, we don't have to wait in line!" she then stuck to skipping in place a bit, her pigtails bobbing up and down, looking adorable in her pink dress with matching bows, a very happy and cute smile on her face.

The librarian had a quizzical look on her face as she looked at the girl, which she then aimed at the professor. "I assume she's with you, Professor Davis?" The look on her face changed from quizzical to rather judgmental as she waited for the professor's response.

Dress N Bows:

Jumping in front of the girl seemed to have done it's job since Lucy had finally stopped running and came to a complete halt. The professor was panting and attempting to catch his breath. How the heck could someone with such short legs run so darn fast?! Considering that the sidewalk that she had stepped on now had slight cracks to it due to her high weight coming down on small points like her feet, Alex was wondering if the current season of snow and ice would make the repairmen think that the sidewalk simply gave in to the current weather, or will they realize that it was caused by a student's foot. In truth that didn't matter right now, what did matter was him getting Lucy to calm down enough for him to tell her that there wasn't an appointment yet.

However he never got the chance to say so. Lucy's motor mouth quickly started up, just not in high gear, as she quickly exclaimed that she didn't want to be late in helping with the books. "But Lucy we don't have an appointment-" Alex began, then reached forwards to grab Lucy before she could run off... and only had a fist full of empty air to show for his attempt. "... yet...." Alex finished with a half whimper as he let his arm fall down to his side. "Darn it kid... you've got to learn to look before you leap..." Alex groaned as he started to run after her.

He got into the library not long after Lucy had entered, and the Librarian had just told the kid that she hadn't even started to take applications yet, though that didn't seem to register in the girl's mind as she started to cheer. After Lucy talked to Alex even though he was panting hard, the professor looked over at the Librarian, and only nodded because he was to out of breath to talk. So much for having endurance! "Lucy..." he panted as he placed his hand on top of her head and gently turned her to face him, and kept his hand on her head to keep her looking at him. "There isn't... a line because... the shadow mission... hasn't started yet." Alex explained, having to pause mid sentence to take a breath.

He finally had his lungs full and working properly after a moment or two. "You ran off before I could explain this. Please Lucy, look before you leap. Now apologize to the Librarian for the misunderstanding, and maybe if she's willing she'll let you take the shadow mission early." He finished as he let go of Lucy. When he had finished he looked over at the Librarian and gave her a mild pleading look. If the answer was no and Lucy would have to wait like everyone else, she'd be down in the dumps till she could do the mission.

Lucy's eyes widened as Mr. Davis was speaking, and then they started getting misty...and before he could push out the word 'early', she was already in shambles again. The tears started running down her face and she dashed towards the main center desk that the librarian was behind and starting bowing over and over as she sobbed out an apology.

"Apologies: OhnononoI'msosorryMs.LibrarianLadyohpleasedon'tbemadI'msosorryIdidn'tmeantobesoearlythatIwastooearlyIwasjustsoexcitedtoworkwiththebooksandlearn
tobealibrarianthatIdidn'twanttobelatesotheminuteMr.DavissaidyouwhereofferingunderstudiesIwantedtogethereasfastasIcouldI'msosorrythatIinconviencedyoupleasedon't
bemadeImeIstillwanttobealibrarianpleasepleasepleasestilltrainmeandteachmeIpromisetobebetterIpromise!"

"Oh goodness, please calm down, it's okay! Of course I'll still teach you about being a librarian...wait, I recognize you. You were the one that was so desperate to come into the library on her first day, when we were closed for a little while. You...you really love books, don't you?"

"Confirmation: YesIreallylovebookssomuchthat'swhyIranherebecauseIlovebooksandIwanttohelpotherpeoplewholovebooksandhelpthebookstooandhelppeoplefindthemandreadthem
andputthemawayI'vealwayslovedbooksandthelibrarysopleasedon'thatemepleasepleaseteachmeI'msosorryMs.Librarian!"

"Oh dear, please calm down, I would love to teach you! I've never met anyone so excited about books or being a librarian. Here...would you like to see how we catalog all the new books?"

Lucy wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded gently, sniffling a bit but having a smile on her face. The librarian motioned for her to come over behind the desk, and Lucy quickly walked behind the desk, the librarian shooting a quick angry glare are the professor before turning her attention to Lucy. "See this page here? This is a list of all the new books we had gotten today, and I'm taking the names from here and adding them into this program, where I fill out all the information about the book and then I add it. When I'm done adding all the new books this way, I print a list of them, and the list tells me where they need to be placed on the shelves!"

"Exclamation: Wow! Observation: This seems really organized!" Lucy was completely in astonishment, and was studying every detail of the program and website to understand what was going on. Her eyes were wide with excitement, and she couldn't wait to learn more.

"Umm...yes, it actually is rather organized." she gave the professor a quizzical look, almost as if to say 'Is she sick, or does she just talk like that?' before turning her attention back to the eager-to-learn girl next to her. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Libra Airan, the school librarian." she said with a smile.

"Greetings: Hello, Ms. Airan. Introduction: My name is Lucille Annabelle Klug, but you can call me Lucy if you like." she curtsied, then looked at Ms. Airan with much expectation.

"How about I give you some examples? Okay, so first I select this, then I paste it here and then I..." she continued showing Lucy has she added each book into the database, and Lucy was very excited to learn how to use a librarian's computer.

And on the spot Alex found himself deeply regretting how he had told Lucy about the opportunity to shadow the librarian. He also regretted not being able to calm her down, and that he couldn't catch her, but most of all he regretted how he had tried to tell her to nicely ask the librarian for the chance to do a shadow mission early. He had missed all of it, and he was currently regretting making those decisions. Lucy had once again gone into a panicked state and was talking a mile a minute. He had to calm her down and fast. He was well aware that if she ever got too worked up then there was a possibility that her aura would reveal itself in the form of a red glow. If that grew too brightly then her semblance could activate next... in which case the guide he had been given about her indicated that getting her to turn back into her normal self would take forever... if he could do it at all!

"Lucy, wait a moment! That's not what I-" Alex began but the librarian had cut him off and was starting to calm Lucy down on her own. Seeing this made Alex cock an eyebrow, a little puzzled that this librarian would know how to calm Lucy down. Normally people that worked at a hunter academy didn't know how to handle students that were still basically children but this woman seemed to know. Either she was already a mother or she read a lot of books on child care. Lucy was still worried, but with some more soothing words from the librarian before Alex had a chance to speak, the young android was calm again. The glare that Alex had gotten made him flinch, but he nodded as if he had deserved it... which he did.

Soon the librarian had Lucy cheered up and was learning how to work the computer. Now he had to join in so he leaned over the counter to see what was on the screen and saw Lucy's smile. When this was over he owed her a large ice cream sundae. "Impressive. So, how do you sort the books so they go into their proper place onto the shelves?"

Lucy was absolutely thrilled to learn how the computer program added all the new books on file, she had a huge smile on her face and she was giggling with excitement, which continued to baffle the librarian: she loved books herself, but this girl was something else. Maybe her attitude would change once she got to know more about the job?

The professor brought up a valid question, and while she still wasn't sure about his presence here, she decided to answer his question as it did pertain to the next part of the process. "Well, some things we still have to do the old-fashion way. For organizing the books, it's best done by hand, which is why I print off a list. Normally, it's a lot larger of an amount of books, but since we were closed up for a while all I could do was stock books and since we haven't been identified as active yet by our book provider...I only have about twenty more books left." She sighed, recalling the struggle she was going through just trying to get the place orderly again.

She then looked at Lucy, and she got an idea. "Hey, would you like to help me put the last of the new books in their places?" She knew that this was the part that turned away most understudies, but she saw Lucy's eyes get even wider than they were previously, and her mouth was about to open, but she put a finger to her lips before she burst with verbal excitement. "I'll take that as a yes. I have the box of books right here, do you mind carrying them while I navigate the shelves? After a few, books, I'll let you try!" she informed Lucy in a happy tone, and Lucy could only nod excitedly as she was afraid she would be too loud if she said anything. She picked up the box of twenty hard-cover books and handed it carefully to Lucy, and she was about to ask if she could handle it when she took it from her and carried it with what seemed like no effort. This girl was full of weird surprises, but her excitement over books pushed aside the librarian's doubts and she requested that the professor stay by the desk and tell anyone who approaches that she would be back momentarily.

She then lead the girl and showed her how they organized the books by genre and author, and is based using a fusion of the Dewy Decimal and Library of Congress systems. It was a bit harder to learn at first, but it made more sense and was much easier to navigate once understood, and Lucy picked up on it right away. After she placed five of the books away, she let Lucy do the rest, and she put them away correctly...even though she had questions and doubted herself.

Ms. Airan decided that since she learn so quickly, she deserved a proper tour of the library, and Lucy could barely contain her excitement. She got to see the study section, the computer room, then special study rooms, the quiet reading section, the comic book/manga section, and the other media section. It was the biggest library she had even been in, and she was so happy she stated multiple times that she hopes she can be a librarian so that she could live in the library, which made Ms. Airan chuckle but encouraged her to remind Lucy she didn't actually live here.

The tour only took about ten minutes, and with the stocking being done much quicker than expected, they returned in fifteen minutes just to see someone coming up to the front desk, and that's when Ms. Airan had an amazing idea...

Inwardly Alex let out a sigh of relief. Lucy had not only calmed down but was starting to become overjoyed in looking at all of the books and learning how to operate the computer program. Seeing this made him smile, for more then one reason. First of all Lucy wasn't in danger of using her semblance anymore, but more importantly she was getting a shadow mission that involved one of her favorite things; books. The librarian might be confused over why Lucy was sooo overjoyed on the topic and thought she'd calm down, but Alex knew otherwise. Lucy was only going to become more and more excited, and he was wondering if Lucy was going to ask the librarian if she could help work in the library. Alex would let her if she asked, but it was up to the librarian if she could or not.

When the two woman started to walk off, the librarian asked him to watch the desk for a moment. Alex nodded and gave Lucy a sweet smile before walking behind the desk. It was a relatively easy thing to do, and Lucy didn't need him to hang over her all the time... right? Once or twice a student walked over to the desk to check out a book... or a pile of books, and Alex said the same thing to them all. "The librarian is a little preoccupied with a shadow mission, though she'll be back in a moment or two. Stick around and your books will get checked out momentary." a few students decided to go back and start reading the book they wanted to check out, while others went to look for a different book.

The last student that had he had told this to showed up just as the librarian and Lucy were starting to come back to the desk... though when the student had heard what Alex said he dropped all the the books in his arms onto the floor. "Hey! Be a bit more respectful to those books! They're not yours so you should make sure they don't get damaged!" The student didn't respond to that though. "The shadow mission? Some idiot took the stupid shadow mission for this stupid library? Who would be nuts enough to do that?" he said, and it was clear to Alex that this student had no intentions of taking care of the books he was going to check out, but was only interested in passing his classes so he could become a huntsman.

With a stern look on his face Alex walked around the desk and only stopped when he was nearly nose to nose with the student... whose choice of weapon, a shotgun, was slung over his shoulder. Several plants started to grow out of Alex's belt and began to pick up the dropped books. "A dedicated student with a strong sense of discipline and respect for everyone and everything around them. That's who would take the shadow mission. You have no right to talk down to people like that. You're training to become a guardian of our world. Lives are going to be depending on you. Act like it huntsman and fix your attitude." Alex stated in a stern tone while giving the young a look that some people had described as if the professor was looking right into their soul and could see every single one of their flaws. Alex had no idea that the librarian and Lucy were close enough to hear the conversation, but his attention was on the young man.

The smart-mouth student took a step back and gulped, clearly affected by Alex's gaze and words. So much for the tough guy act...

Lucy heard Mr. Davis address the man with a stern tone, and it made Lucy a bit scared: she had never heard Mr. Davis speak like that before, and his 'not happy' voice was very scary. Lucy shivered a bit, and was about to help the man pick up his books, but Ms. Airan guided her over to behind the desk again.

"Well Lucy, I've taught almost all of the basics to you, but...how would you like to learn how to check out books for students and faculty?"

Lucy let out a gasp, and it seemed like she might explode with excitement, so she stopped her before she started up again.

"Easy there, haha. Okay, let's go ahead and check someone out then. Professor Davis, if you don't mind referring over any students you may have told to wait?" She waited as he called on a couple of students, and they showed up in order. The first one was a male who was quite tall and slender with sandy-blonde hair, and he had three books.

"Okay, now watch what I do. Scroll, please!" Ms. Airan said to the man, and he provided his school device that Lucy recognized as the one all students at Syne Academy had, including herself. Then, Ms. Airan took it and placed it into a device that seemed connected to the computer, and after a couple of seconds something popped up on the computer monitor that had the man's picture on it.

"Manderin Hanson?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alrighty, everything looks in the clear here...I'll need to borrow these for just a second." she said with a smile as she grabbed the three books that Mr. Hanson wanted. She looked each one over briefly, then grabbed a device that looked like the red flashy things at grocery stores and used it to scan the special bar-code on each of the books. The scanner beeped on each one, and after it beeped it added the name of each book on the program with the man's face on it.

"A Good Day To Live: The Hunter's Tale, Dust 'Em Off: How To Keep Your Dust Weapons In Perfect Condition, and Crystalline Combat: How To Use Dust Efficiently In Combat?"

"Yes, ma'am."

At Mr. Hanson's response, Ms. Airan clicked a button on the screen with his picture that said 'Finish', and once she did his scroll beeped and flashed a red light three times, then had a steady green light. A machine also printed out a receipt, which Ms. Airan took and placed in one of the books. She then removed his scroll and handed it back to him and then handed him the books.

"All done, thank you very much for choosing to read here at the Syne Academy Library!" Ms. Airan smiled.

"Thank you, ma'am." Mr. Hanson said before he proceeded to leave the library.

"And that's it!" she stated finitely as she turned to Lucy. "Sometimes it's just a slight bit more difficult, but that's how it will go most times. Seem like fun? Oh, we have another student!" Ms. Airan turned back and acknowledged the student. He had five books, and she took his scroll and placed it in and verified that his name was Aarin Fendersin, which he confirmed, but Lucy pointed out that he had red words on his page that read 'Outstanding Balance'.

"Ahh, looks like we'll get an example. This means that he has a fine he needs to pay before he can check out the books. It's only three Lien, seems like a late fee."

"Oh shoot, I forgot about that! Can you charge my account?"

"Of course, no problem!" That's when Ms. Airan clicked the button that read 'Payment' and then the button that said 'Confirm.' There was a loading screen, then the the monitor said that it went through successfully. After that, Ms. Airan did the same thing: she took Mr. Fendersin's books he wanted, scanned them, read the titles to him to ensure they were correct, and then clicked 'Finish' and waited for the scroll's light to turn green, then grabbed the receipt and placed it one of the books and handed back Mr. Fenderson's scroll and the book before telling him to have a nice day.

"See? Even when it's a little more difficult, it's pretty easy." That when Ms. Airan noticed one last customer: it was a boy and girl, a couple, an they were headed towards the checkout desk. "Alrighty, Lucy, this is your time to shine. Don't fret about it too much, try and stay calm, and if you need help I'm right here for you." she told her with a smile, then patted her shoulder and moved out of the way so she had access to all the hardware.

Good advice and helpful and all, but Lucy had already frozen solid. She was so afraid of failing and not being able to be a librarian that she couldn't even move, or apparently talk, evident when she stood still and said nothing when the girl greeted her with a very sweet toned "Hello!". The girl seemed nice, but the boy she was with didn't seem too enthused to be here. Frozen in place, Lucy couldn't speak or move a muscle until Ms. Airan patted her on the back and pushed her a bit closer to the couple.

"Interjection: Oh! Greetings: Y-Yes, h-hello! Apologies: I-I'm s-so sorry! Inquiry: A-Are you r-ready to ch-check out?"

"No duh, why else would we be here?" the boy said matter-of-fact moments before the girl slapped his arm.

"Be nice, can't you see she's new? Yes, Miss, we are ready to check out!" she said with a smile on her face, which made it a bit easier for Lucy even though she was afraid of the boy.

"Inquiry: O-oh, o-ok, c-can I see your boo-I m-mean, c-can I b-borrow y-your sc-scroll, p-please?"

"Aww, of course! Here you go!" the girl cooed as she handed her scroll to Lucy, who then very slowly and carefully placed it in the special receiver. It beeped, and the girl's picture come up on the screen with her name.

"Confirmation: M-Miss V-Victoria F-Free?"

"Yep, that's me!"

"Assurance: O-okay, everything is o-okay w-with y-your account. Inquiry: C-Can I s-see y-your books f-for a m-minute, please?"

"Of course!" Ms. Free responded with a smile, and began to offer her books to Lucy when the boy next to her sighed impatiently, and Lucy panicked. "Apologies: I-I'm s-sorry, I-I-I d-don't m-mean to b-be slow! Explanation: I-I j-just d-don't w-want to d-do anything w-wrong!" she stuttered out, her arms flailing a small bit and Mr. Floppsies hat rocking his rather common (and yet still so dapper) yellow hue.

"Oh no no, it's fine! We aren't in any rush, so take your time." Ms. Free assured her, and then handed her books over before giving a stern and unhappy look at the boy and slapping his arm again.

Lucy quickly set the books down on the desk behind her and then grabbed the scanner and slowly moved it over to the books. She then hovered it over the first bar-code and pressed the button, and it scanned it and beeped, then the title appeared on the screen. Lucy then performed the same action with her second book, so focused on not messing up that she didn't even notice the books themselves until she read the titles off the monitor.

"Confirmation: The C-Catcher In The R-Rye, and..." Lucy gasped suddenly, and then she looked up at Ms. Free. "Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery?! Inquiry: You like Bunnicula too?!"

"Yep-err, well I hope so. I've never read it before, but it seemed too cute to pass up, with the cat and dog and little bunny rabbit on the front."

"Assurance: I've read it, and it's very very good, but I won't spoil any of it for you...but if you love animals interacting with each other and mystery, then you will really like it!" Lucy was very sure of herself for some reason, her stutters completely absent all of a sudden, and it almost looked as if she was swearing she would enjoy the book on her life.

"Wow, if you like it so much, then it must be a very good book! I have to read The Catcher In The Rye for homework, but I may have to read Bunnicula first if it's that good." Ms. Free said with a smile.

"Assurance: It is good, very good, I promise!" Lucy swore up and down. She then quickly made sure to click 'Finish' on the computer program, and after some flashing lights and beeps, she took the receipt that printed and carefully put it in the Bunnicula book and handed the books back to Ms. Free.

"That settles it then: I'm going to start reading Bunnicula as soon as I get back to my dorm!" Ms. Free said excitedly. As her and the boy turned to leave, Lucy waved goodbye to them.

"Gratitude: Thank you for reading! Reminder: Oh, and make sure to treat the books nicely! Explanation: Books always treat readers nicely, so if you treat them nicely, they stay healthy and can treat the readers after you nicely too!" Lucy said with a very happy smile on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of these books!" Ms. Free promised as her and the boy left the library.

"See, that wasn't too hard, was it? You did a very good job!" Ms. Airan patted Lucy on the back. Lucy was very happy she was able to help someone check out the books she wanted and she looked over at Mr. Davis to see if he approved of the job that she did.

Alex finally glanced over at the two returning women as his vines set the dropped books down onto the desk in front of the young man he had just scolded. Seeing Lucy's face made him realize that this was the first time she had ever seen him angry. True, it wasn't a pretty sight, though every now and then a little discipline was required so people that broke the rules would learn that they shouldn't break the rules or so they learn they have to respect those around them. It was a hard lesson since at time there were people that didn't deserve respect, but the only way you'll know if they don't deserve respect is if you first give it to them to see how they react to it.

Alex quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head when he realized that the librarian has asked him to get all the students that were waiting to get their books checked out, he nodded, then turned to the boy that he had scolded see he wasn't there, nor were the books. Instead he saw the young man carrying the books to a counter in the back of the library labeled damaged books go here, pay for the damages. The spines of some of the books had broken when they had been dropped, and the young man seemed to be inclined to pay for the damages. Good, Alex's words got to him. With that though Alex walked away and made his way through the library and started to find some of the students and professors that had wanted to check out some books. They quickly started to head back to the check out desk... save for one student that was so engrossed in the book he was reading that he didn't even hear Alex.

While waiting for Lucy to finish Alex stated to wonder how he could apologize to Lucy. After a moment of thinking he realized what he should do, took out his scroll, headed over to a console labeled book purchase. He couldn't buy the library's books, but he could order some and pick them up at the library, which is what he did. Once the order was complete and a recipient was printed, he headed back to the front desk to see that Lucy was doing great. "You're doing amazing Lucy. Better then I did today, that's for sure." Alex responded then glanced at the librarian, making it clear that he knew the reason for her glaring at him. He then turned back to Lucy. "I'm sorry for not properly telling you about the shadow mission. As a peace offering..." Alex held up the recipient and held it out. "... the full Bunnicula collection, just for you."

((Professor, over and out.))

Lucy felt very proud of herself, and she ran over to tell Mr. Davis what a good job she did, and that's when he told her he was rewarding her with...

"Astonishment: The entire Bunnicula series! Inquiry: A-All of them, for me?!" she had gotten pretty loud for a moment, but she quieted herself down and gave Mr. Davis a big happy hug. "Gratitude: Oh thank you so much Mr. Davis! Ecstatic: You are the best Professor-Friend ever!" she squealed as she hugged him even tighter.

Ms. Airan was happy to see that the professor cared about her so much, and she was smiling until she sat down and noticed that she had forgotten to put one of the books away. "Oops, I must have forgotten one! I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your-"

"Offer: Here, let me do that for you, Ms. Airan. Assurance: I've learned the system, so I can find where it goes!"

"Well...okay. Let's consider this your final test!" Ms. Airan said as she booped Lucy on the nose.

"Assurance: Don't worry, Ms. Airan, I won't fail you!" Lucy promised with a beaming smile on her face, then took off towards the bookshelves. It didn't take her long to find the right one, and she had put it away and was back on her way to Mr. Davis and Ms. Airan when she noticed a guy pacing around the bookshelves. It looked like maybe he was lost, and since she just learned where everything was, she decided she would help him...ever though the idea made her nervous.

She briskly walked up to the man, then looked at her and spoke up. "Inquiry: Umm, M-Mister, are you looking for a p-particular book? Offer: I can help you l-locate it if you'd like." she extended her offer politely, yet nervously.

"Why would I need your help? Who do you think you are to help me?" he seemed frustrated, but Lucy figured that was because he was lost.

"Matter-Of-Fact: W-Well, I just l-learned under Ms. Airan h-how the l-library's organizing s-system w-works, s-so if y-you need anything I c-could help you-"

"Oh, so YOUR the loser who took that stupid Shadow Mission. Wow, how pathetic! And why do you talk like that? Are you some sort of nerdy freak, trying to through in my face how much smarter you are?" the man was invading Lucy's personal space, and it made her very uncomfortable, so she backed away from him.

"Rebuttal: N-No, I'm not, I swear! Explanation: I j-just r-really l-like b-books a-a-and I w-wanted to h-help o-others who l-love b-books and p-put th-them on th-the shelves a-and I-"

"God, you're such a freaky nerd, get away from me!" and that's when the guy pushed her...and she fell into a bookcase...and then the bookcase followed suit and proceeded to fall over. All the books, easily hundreds, fell out onto the ground...and the bookcase itself hit the ground with a thundering crack! Lucy, panicking, immediately tried to catch some books and tried to put them back even though the bookcase was on the ground. "Panicking: Oh no oh no oh no, please Mr. and Mrs. Books, please don't be hurt...please be okay!" she begged as the books wouldn't stay because the shelf was not only on the ground, but had parts of it broken apart.

"Pleading: Oh Mr. Bookshelf, it's going to be okay, I'll fix you so please don't worry I promise I'll get you back together again!" Lucy didn't understand anything about carpentry, but she was hoping that by pushing the parts together and putting a rubber-band on them from the ones she had in her pocket, that everything would be okay and it would hold the bookshelf together...but that obviously didn't work. This caused her to panic even more, and she kept trying and kept failing until she looked up to fix a piece of the bookshelf...and saw eyes.

Eyes, fingers, all on her. Staring, pointing, all at her. Everyone in the library was focused on her, and they were...laughing...laughing at her. Laughing at her failure, her mistake, even though it wasn't her fault. None of them helped her, they just laughed...and laughed...and laughed. Suddenly, everything was shrouded in darkness, everything moving so slowly. She turned her head to see Ms. Airan looking embarrased and in a position that seemed like she was asking 'How did that happen, you were doing so well?' She then turned her head around and looked behind her, trying to find traces of the boy who pushed her, but he was long gone. she turned her head one last time, and saw...Mr. Davis. She wanted to shout at him, to swear it wasn't her fault, but her lungs and body were paralyzed by the laughing diaphragms of the masses. She looked at his face and he looked at her, his face covered in something terrible, something dreadful...

...Disappointment...

It flooded his face, and Lucy's heart sank. She not only failed the boy, but she failed Ms. Airan, and above all...she failed Mr Davis...and it wasn't even her fault. How could she tell them, she couldn't even muster a whisper...how could she prove to them, she couldn't emit a singular sound...

Shrouded in darkness, laughing faces, Ms. Airan's shock, Mr. Davis's disappointment...it was too much...she had to do something, and she couldn't fix it...she couldn't stay here any longer, she had to leave...had to run, to escape...

Tears flooded down her face and Lucy ran around the pile of books and out the library doors, up and down the hallways, and out into the glistening white snow...

[Aspergerbot, out...T_T]