fandomhigh | Library (12/15/05)

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Library (12/15/05)

Janet opens up the library after the ~~omg, posted late, noes!~~ Criminal Justice final. She flips on the lights, goes behind the Collections Desk, and starts silently cursing the stupid little gray aliens that sent her back to high school, finals, the whole concept of papers and the grading system in place in the United States today.

She scrawls out a sign on a piece of paper and posts it on the door:

PLEASE TURN IN YOUR OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOKS
BEFORE THE END OF THE TERM

(OR WE'LL SEND ZERO AFTER YOU
WITH HER MALLET)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Morning, Janet," Sam said. "Sorry I missed you yesterday, but I was up most of Tuesday night working on the wormhole stuff and just crashed after that."

She checked to make sure Liz wasn't anywhere around, then took a bite of the banana she pulled out of her bookbag. "What'd I miss?"

"I managed to talk Aeryn into painting her nails," said Janet. "Vala brought cookies and chocolate cake, and Bridge stopped by to confuse Aeryn with the concept of Jell-O. You never know, you might get her liking the blue stuff if you bring her some." She frowned. "Angel was acting weird yesterday. Can he even be hypnotized by Crazy Squid Lady? Other than that, not much."

Sam blinked and stopped chewing mid-banana as she tried to wrap her brain around the first part of Janet's sentence. "I'm sorry...did you say you got Aeryn to paint her nails? Was she bitten by a gremlin or something?"

"Ooh." She mentally rubbed her hands together. "I hate being the jell-o minority. At least if I had Aeryn on my side, people wouldn't harass me about it as much, right?"

"Weird? How?" Sam frowned--she actually liked Angel now. It'd be a shame to have to stake him. "'I'm all evil again' weird, or 'I'm going to dance the pas de deux from Swan Lake with Anakin' weird? And is Crazy Squid Lady still around? Not that I want to see her," she said, making warding off hand gestures, "but it would be good to know where she is, if nothing else."

"She was in a bad mood," said Janet. "I was trying to cheer her up." She shrugged. "Not that I have a clue about how to do that. Or even what was wrong. You could see if she'll try Jell-O. It might work."

"No, Angel was trying to flirt with me. I think. But he wasn't acting evil, just weird, and kind of clueless ~~which, now that I think about it, isn't all that different from normal~~." Janet started checking in books while she talked. "I try not to think about Crazy Squid Lady. Didn't Parker tell us that Marty may have taken care of her?"

"You're a good friend, Janet. Did it work?"

Sam had to consider that for a minute as she watched Janet check in books. "Weird, clueless, and flirty vampire. Huh. Sorry I missed that, too." She grinned. "How'd you handle it?"

"Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten. Still, better to know for sure, I think. Especially around here."

"I really have no idea," said Janet. She shrugged. "But what else was I going to do?"

"It's kind of funny in retrospect," said Janet. "I tried being oblivious, in denial, then being enough of a geek to throw him off. Then I panicked, blurted out I had a boyfriend, and he said he thought we were talking about books." She shook her head. "I'm not asking any more. You know why? Because I just don't want to know."

"We do need to know for sure. Maybe we should bring that up for I-Club?"

"With Aeryn?" Sam thought. Aeryn was tough and very seldom girly. "Um, point her towards a target and get out of her way? Yeah, I got nothing," she shrugged.

Sam started laughing. "Yep. Suave and cool under pressure, that's you." She reached out to pat Janet's arm. "Hey, you okay?"

"Maybe we should. After the gremlins, though, so Zero's head doesn't explode. Or yours."

"Exactly," said Janet. "Oh, well."

"I can handle it better if they're evil," said Janet. "I know how to react then." She shrugged. "Homesick. What with it being nearly Christmas, I miss--people. Also, the continual asking if I'm going home for break is getting on my nerves."

"Are we having gremlin issues?" asked Janet. "I'm thinking about getting a tattoo. Just because. What do you think?"

"I know what you mean," Sam said, quietly, thinking of her Dad, Mark, her niece and nephew, Cassie, and Teal'c. "I miss--people, too."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it. Are they closing the school? Do we know yet? Because I don't really have anywhere else to go, and I don't think Daniel's going to want us staying with him for the whole break."

"I thought you and Zero were all gung ho to go mad scientist on a gremlin specimen. Is that no longer true?"

"What kind of tattoo? And where would you get one?" Sam asked. "I've been thinking about getting a henna one myself, but don't know if I can go through with it."

Janet sighed. "So what are we going to do about it?" she asked. "Because I don't want to go back there. Too many memories, and a hell of a lot of temptation."

"I don't have the faintest idea, but you know Daniel would put us up if we asked him. There's also the hotel Uncle George stayed at while he was in town." Janet stopped checking in books and glanced up at Sam. "We could put the bill on Uncle Jonathan's credit card. I'll send him an expense report. In triplicate. With a cheery little holiday greeting."

"We dissected one," said Janet. "I just figured you wouldn't want to hear about it." She raised an eyebrow at Sam. "Or do you want details?"

"Sometimes I can't believe you, Sam," said Janet. "There's that place in town. I've never been in there, but I was thinking about stopping by later today to check it out." She slid a color printout over to Sam. "That picture, but without the border. What do you think? And you do realize that settles it, don't you? We're stopping by today. I can check out the shop while you get your henna tattoo."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sam said, "We'll just have to come up with something else to do." She bit her lip, remembering that Janet might have plans, if Daniel ever got his act together.

Which reminded her that she should probably call and poke him, in case he forgot. She'd hate being alone for the holiday, but it was for a good cause. "I'd pay big money to see the luck on his face," she grinned. Even in conversation, she couldn't call him Uncle anything.

Sam made a face and stuck out her tongue. "No, no details are necessary, thanks. Learn anything interesting or useful, though?"

"What? It's a big thing!" Sam protested, then studied the picture. "Exotic," she said, tracing the outline with her finger, "but aren't all those different colors going to hurt? And where are you thinking about putting it?"

Re: After Shop Class

janet_fraiser - 2005-12-15 20:44 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After Shop Class

carter-i-am.livejournal.com - 2005-12-15 20:53 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After Shop Class

janet_fraiser - 2005-12-15 22:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After Shop Class

carter-i-am.livejournal.com - 2005-12-16 00:01 (UTC) - Expand

From his usual position, Marty makes note of Sam and Janet talking. From a casual position, he tries to make note of any tell-tale signs of people who have stolen jewelry for a living or have made a habit of shoplifiting toys."

Sam looked over her shoulder and noticed Marty industriously making notes. She wished she could be as driven about studying for finals.

Marty continues to write notes:

"Carter constantly looks around at the people around her. Could be a skill garnered from shoplifting or being the look out for the jewel theives."

Janet waved at Marty from where she was talking to Sam.

Parker waved to Sam on her way over to the counter.

"Hey, Parker," Sam called. "I'm ignoring finals. How're you?"

"Finally got the Spanish paper under control. And received early Christmas presents, so better than usual," Parker replied. "Also trying to work up something resembling an agenda for Investigator's Club tomorrow. Aside from gremlins, have you got any suggestions?"

"Ooh, what'd you get?" Sam asked, eagerly. "And, um, I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to find out what happened to Crazy Squid Lady. Just to be on the safe side."

"This necklace," Parker showed off Tinkerbell, "Cat slippers, a T-shirt, and pajamas that say 'Tough Cookie' on them. Gavin's way of thanking me for posing for his art project. Yay presents!"

"That's not a bad idea," Parker said slowly, "although, we'd have to be very careful. She's got a boyfriend in town, and we wouldn't want him to hear about it. He told me about Belthazor looking for a witch to put a spell on Angel, so I'd like to not *actively* antagonize him."

"Wow!" Sam leaned forward a little closer to see the necklace. "Pretty. And good for Jake."

"I'm not saying we should go knock on her door and invite ourselves in," Sam said, dryly, "All I want to know is whether or not she's dead and actively trying to kill anybody."

"Put a spell on Angel? Like...one that would make him excessively flirty with a ~~short~~ redheaded librarian's assistant?"

"Nice of him, wasn't it? I'm looking forward to his art showing. He's talented, too."

"Fair enough. I don't think Spike can object too much if we just confirm where she is, and maybe figure out worst-case scenarios for dealing with her."

"And yes, exactly like that. Belthazor was trying to trip the perfect happiness clause in the curse, only it went a little... wacky." Parker grinned suddenly. "He hit on Janet? Oh, god. Why do I miss all the good stuff?"

"Um, Parker, I don't mean to sound morbid and overly militaristic," Sam made a face, "but isn't the worst case scenario to stake her and be done with it?"

"Sounds like one of Jack's master plans," Sam laughed. "I haven't gotten all the details, but I'm still very sorry I missed it. Poor Angel."

"Yeah, it is, which is another reason to avoid it. Too much collateral damage possible. Although getting the word out to make sure everyone knows to avoid her might be a step in the right direction."

Parker chortled. "At least I got to see him hit on Marty. Poor Blank. Although I wish I'd gotten to see him hit Wings with a cricket bat."

"An ounce of prevention, right?" She began fiddling with a paperclip on the counter. "Okay, so that's a dumb phrase. Even if you could weigh it out, you'd always want more than an ounce of it, right? Wouldn't it make more sense to say 'a lot of prevention'? And," She looked up and shrugged. "And I'm...feeling a little literal today. Sorry."

"He hit on Marty?" Sam started giggling. "And Marty hit him with a cricket bat? That's it, I'm never sleeping through the whole day ever again. I miss too much."