fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [9/28]

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Library, Wednesday [9/28]

With Parents' Weekend coming up, Gabrielle was more than a little eager at the prospect of having Xena here again, although she was resigned to the prospect of Xena possibly intimidating her friends and teachers. (It was Xena. That much was more or less inevitable.) She still wasn't quite back to her old levels of cheerfulness, but today, as she went about her tasks, she was pretty close.

And humming -- which was a good sign, unless you were looking for her to be in tune.

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Luckily Gabrielle hadn't met anyone yet who was literally allergic to it, unless allergies occasionally took the form of certain warrior princesses trying to distract her with food or cover her mouth or something.

"I think the library specializes in odd topics," she answered (talking was a good way to distract her from the humming too), "slightly or a lot more than slightly. I'm happy to help, though."

She tilted her head one way, then the other, sort of an odd little bobbing motion. "What kind of book is it, and please don't tell me you only know it has a yellow cover . . ."

"Well, it could have a yellow cover," Dave said. "But that's not a dealbreaker. No, I'm looking for something that might help me out with the Parents' Weekend Recital on Saturday. I have a knife throwing act, and I was hoping to find something that might have some ideas for tricks."

Dave thought about this a little harder. "Just in case a school library might carry something like that."

Some school libraries likely wouldn't. This one?

"You're going to be in the recital?" asked Gabrielle, and what did it say that she didn't even blink at how he was going to throw knives? "I think we can give it a try, sure. Come on."

She headed toward a section of the stacks, gesturing for him to follow her. "I don't think that's the kind of thing that should be in Special Collections, anyway."

"I'm in Student Council, so I felt kind of obligated," Dave said, following along. Also, he really wanted to show off his knife-throwing ability. Just in case it might be useful for people to know that he could throw knives. "Have you signed up for it?"

"No," Gabrielle admitted; she ran a finger along the edge of one of the shelves. Who knew there were this many books on the circus? She hadn't. "I was thinking about it, but I wasn't sure -- congratulations on Student Council, by the way. And good luck."

"It's not like I had to do anything but sign up, but still, thanks," Dave said, a little sheepishly. "What were you thinking about for your talent if you did sign up?"

"Still, it takes a lot of initiative to decide to sign up, so well done," Gabrielle insisted. "And I was thinking of telling a story."

She was Greek, and from thousands of years ago. It'd be about a billion hours long. "I'm not sure, though. It's not a lot of time to really go through all my material, and besides, what would I pick?"

"That's still easier than my problem," Dave said. "You just have to pick a good story. I still have to find someone to be my assistant."

And by that he meant 'someone who let him throw knives at them.'

"But there's so many good stories, how am I ever going to pick?" Yes. Yes, Gabrielle's voice went up a notch in genuine panic, but she latched onto something less panic-inducing instead. "If you need an assistant, I could volunteer."

Someone needing help: her proverbial carrot on a stick.

"Really?" Dave asked, perking up. "I promise, just because I'm looking for a book doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. I'm really good with throwing knives."

"I wouldn't assume that anyway," Gabrielle promised. "There's always room to learn more tricks, isn't there? Have to keep things interesting. The life of a performer -- it's not that easy." Cue the melodramatic sigh.

"I've learned that the hard way," Dave said. "Oh, hey. This may sound crazy, but what if you put some stories on paper, threw them in the air, and I picked one by throwing a knife through one at random? I mean, obviously there would be copies so you don't have to read around a big cut."

Dave Nelson: IDEA MACHINE.

Gabrielle stared at him. Just stared.

Then:

"You . . . are brilliant."

The staring made him uncomfortable at first. The compliment made him much less nervous. "I wouldn't go that far," Dave said. "But I do think it'll be fun for the parents to watch and listen to."

Gabrielle bounced on her toes a little bit, then tapped her lips with one finger, completely forgetting that they were actually in the relevant section of the stacks for the books Dave wanted. "There's nothing like a little dramatic flair to make the experience extra memorable," she declared. "Why not make a splash?"

"You don't have any stories that would be made better by having knives hitting things, do you?" Dave asked. "Because that would probably be the place to start looking for stories."

Gabrielle laughed. "Well, I do know a lot of stories that involve flying knives. Most of them from very personal experience."

"Oh, really?" Dave asked. "I think I lucked into the perfect assistant, then. How personal are we talking?"

"I travel with a warrior who probably has three hundred bounties on her head from every warlord in Greece," Gabrielle explained, matter-of-factly (and with a tiny sigh, it had to be admitted). "Do you have any idea when the last time was that we were on the road, just trying to get to the next village, and made it without at least one group of petty bandits leaping out of the bushes?"

"Well, just from context I'd guess it's been a long time," Dave said.

Gabrielle grinned sheepishly. "To be fair I haven't been home in a while, but basically."

"At least you don't have to worry about too many bandits around here," Dave said. "Unless there were more bandits before I started here. I know I'm missing some information."

"None after me, anyway," Gabrielle replied. "So that's something -- ah!"

She tapped a row of books on the shelf. "These ought to do the trick for what you want. Ha. Trick. Very clever, me."

"Not bad," Dave said, chuckling a little as he started to look at book titles. "Wow. I can't believe we actually have something useful for knife throwing tricks. I'm pretty sure that makes this the best and worst school library possible."

"I wouldn't know. It's the only school library I've ever known," Gabrielle answered, peering at the title on the spine of a book across the aisle. Really? There was that much to know about pie-throwing? "But I get the impression most high schools don't have to fend off large hungry creatures every so often, either."

Library, Wednesday [9/28]

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