fandomhigh | Library; Monday [ 03/16 ].

Cal had consider just skipping out on the whole going in and opening the library thing today. He'd also considered, once he got there, just hiding under the desk, so he could at least say he was there, but he'd be safe from having to deal with anything from the weekend. It was a library; it wasn't hard to figure out. People could manage without him.

He decided that maybe he could pretend it didn't exist, to a certain degree, with left him just sitting at the desk, face buried in his hands. The thing was that he couldn't completely dismiss the whole thing as a really bad dream because there was freaking evidence. A ton of candy, some socks and ribbons, and, of all things, a jar. Socks and ribbons and candy could easily be explained away, but it was kind of hard to rationalize having stolen someone else's jar with a paper heart in it.

Which in itself would be fascinating if it wasn't stolen property from him running around all weekend.

As a little girl.

A princess, no less.

Cal let out a groan. Just shoot him now.

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Cal blinked, sitting up a little more. "Is that where you really wanted to go?"

"It was the only application I actually got in," Claire said. "They want me to go to community college for a year and try again."

She sounded thrilled by that. Really.

"Why?" Cal asked, now sitting upright and then leaning back into the chair a little. "I mean, although college's college, right?"

"Mmmm, except the community colleges around L.A. blow," Claire said. "And like everyone I know is going to a real school. This girl Parker? She was kind of my best friend at home, and she's not smart at all, and she got into Yale."

"Money?" Cal guessed.

"Probably," Claire said, perking up incrementally. "Maybe her dad paid for new mattresses for the dorms."

In truth, Parker had cheated on her SATs, but Claire had no way of knowing that from Maryland.

Cal nodded a little. "If you parents can pay for stuff, you can get away with almost anything."

"Yeah, my dad left me money for college but not enough to buy my way in," Claire reported. "Too bad, so sad. I don't know, maybe I just won't go to college at all."

"Community collages can't be that bad in California," said Cal, forehead frowning a little. "I mean, just take some art classes or something."

"The one closest to my house is going to have an art center," Claire said. "In ... three years."

She fiddled with a bit of hair. "Maybe I should take some business classes. It's not like I need art school to teach me how to use a camera, right?"

"Business classes?" Cal asked it like it was something to make your stomach turn and give you diarrhea.

Which was about how Claire felt about the idea, too, so she wrinkled her nose. "I bet they'd make me wear pantyhose and learn how to type."

"Hey, what's wrong with typing?"

He wasn't going to touch the pantyhose.

"Nothing! I just don't wanna go to college to learn to do it!" She leaned forward, resting her cheek on the desk. "I don't know what to do."

Cal leaned forward a little, too, meeting hers. "Parents going to give you hell if you just skip the whole college thing?"

"My mom didn't get to go 'cause of Nate," Claire said miserably. "If I don't at least try she'll skin me and eat me."

"It can't be that bad, then," Cal said again, twisting his face a little, and thinking that that was the nicer way to go. A lot better than suck it up, I guess, anyway.

"I could just be grateful I get to go to college," Claire tried. "That's kind of what Penelope said."

Cal looked a little torn for a moment. "Weeell," he said, carefully, "there's probably a little truth in that, too. I mean, that's probably what your mom would say."

There was a slight pause, with a bit of a grin.

"Penelope sounds like your mom."

"Okay, whenever I complain, my mom starts telling me how she had to take care of her legless grandmother and blah blah blah, uphill, both ways, in the fucking blizzards," Claire said, looking stricken. "I'm going to die if Pen has one of those. Seriously."

"Your mom and my mom should get together and complain about immovable grandmas," Cal decided, grinning slightly. "Mine's not legless, but I don't think she's left her bed since my papau died."

Claire actually smiled at that, a tiny one. "And then when they get bored of that, like, sometime next year, they can talk about how they don't understand why we have to be so negative about everything. Unless that's just my mom."

Cal thought about it. "No," he said, carefully. "That's not just your mom. Although, my mom had to deal with a fourteen year old me, and that was even before...you know...so I can't hold it against her."

"How bad were you at 14?" Claire asked. "And no, I don't blame mine. It's just kind of annoying, in a sweet way."

[OOC: Niiiiiiiight!]

Library; Monday [ 03/16 ].

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