Exploring my new home away from home. on Library

David Wilkes

September 06, 2010 7:48 PM

Exploring my new home away from home. by David Wilkes

When he was deciding things, or stressed, or even flat-out scared, David retreated to the nearest place full of books. Bookstores, libraries – even his older sister’s closet, which he’d turned into a strangely-shaped book room after she moved out, would, in a pinch, do. Being around books made him feel calmer, as if whatever was going on wasn’t quite so insurmountable after all.

By the beginning of his first weekend at Sonora, he was homesick, confused, kind of panicking because he was confused, and feeling more or less like his flight had misdirected to Iceland and the local shops didn’t have a single phrasebook. If he had ever needed a rest trip to the books, it was now. So, even though their titles and subject groupings and even the apparently non-Dewey-Decimal system by which they were arranged did nothing for his feelings of cultural alienation and inadequacy, he detoured off the now-familiar path between the library and common room doors and began to wander.

The shelves were taller than any he’d ever seen, towering – or at least seeming to tower; after this week, he was seriously reconsidering the validity of everything he’d ever assumed about basic physics – well over his head, and probably over that of just about anyone. He supposed it took ladders to get things from up there, or maybe just a talent for gymnastics. One thing he knew, he wasn’t going to climb those shelves. Not only could he damage something, which he would then be unable to pay for because of magic people having never socially evolved far enough to use paper money, or get in trouble with a teacher or librarian, but he could also break his neck. David liked his neck. It was in close proximity to his brain, which he liked even more, and breaking it could very well compromise that most useful of organs.

After about six turns, including one period where he sat down at a table and read a book about Renaissance history that could seem almost normal if he ignored all the words that appeared to be the names of spells and the fact that there were an awful lot of typos that made it look like all these arranged marriages were happening in the nineteen-seventies, he was completely lost, but feeling rather calm. The next time he sat down, he was going to read one of his own books – his mother had objected, since they took up so much room, but he thought he’d managed to bring all the regular re-reads with him, and some new things – and calm the rest of the way down before he re-read the first chapter of his ‘Transfiguration’ textbook for the third time and started trying to do his first assignment.

He thought about the problems on the sheet, and how they made no sense, and decided that he might put off finding that chair for another two rounds or so.

In the next round, David found himself in the music section and smiled faintly. He liked music. All kinds. He didn’t have quite as many CDs at home as he did books, but he still had more than most people he knew, just because there were very few genres he didn’t listen to at least a few artists from. It had never occurred to him that there would be magic music, but it made sense, he guessed; if people could be born magical, then they could have kids, some of whom would also be magical, and enough of those people would eventually start to do some of their own things based on their altered perception of physics and reality. He imagined country music would take a big direction change once the ability to force people to love each other – which that book had said was done to a few people in that mess – came into the getting together-cheating-breaking up formula.

A tall, wide book caught his eye, so he pulled it down. It seemed to be about how the ‘wireless’ – he was guessing that was some kind of radio, or other communication device, especially since the cover had a picture that showed a radio, among other things – had affected music, causing bands to become nationally famous. Opening it at random, he found himself looking at a page titled The Wandering Witches for about half a second before a trio of reedy womens’ voices began to emanate from what appeared to be paper.

Startled, he fumbled and nearly dropped it before he got his grip back and shut it before the noise could attract a librarian. Noise was unwelcome in libraries. Despite that, though, David couldn't help but smile. A little from shock, sure, but also just because that. Was. Cool.

There wasn't a plastic battery strip in sight, no place for a speaker no matter how he turned or looked at it. The sound had come from the pages. How had they pulled that one off?

"Magic is awesome," he said, then looked up and realized someone else had been close enough to hear him. He decided to just continue as though he'd meant to speak loud. "Really, really awesome. Even if I can't do much of it yet."

16 David Wilkes Exploring my new home away from home. 169 David Wilkes 1 5

Jordan Adair

September 08, 2010 9:09 PM

Avoiding my new home away from home. by Jordan Adair

The library was not a place that Jordan normally visited. At least, she never went to the public library at home. Any book that she or her sisters needed was simply purchased so there was never a need to ‘rent’ a book. However, this did not mean that she intended to purchase every single book necessary to do research for a class. It was likely that if she did she would end up crowding her roommates out of their room and she very much doubted they would approve. Besides, it was hard enough making sure that they each had enough room for clothing and accessories. So, it was for this reason that she found herself in the library.

Besides, even though she didn’t show it, Jordan wanted to try to do well in her classes. She wasn’t as intelligent as someone in Aladren and had no hopes of getting a whole bunch of Os, but maybe she could try to get a couple of Es and mostly As, so long as she didn’t get anything lower. Even her mother, who claimed that school was only for a MRS degree, would be disappointed in her if she did. Mostly because no one respectable would ever take her seriously if they thought she were a complete dunderhead. She wasn’t really. She just didn’t like sitting still and having to learn book stuff when there were so many more interesting things to do.

That was another reason she had chosen the library over the dorm. If she tried to do her assignments in the dorm room, she was likely to end up talking to her roommates rather than actually doing the work, which would mean that come next class she would more than likely not have any homework to turn in, which could lead to a potential detention. That would just be horrific in more ways than one. She always thought Dani would be the one to get into trouble all the time and get things like detention. There was absolutely no way she could be the first to get detention. Plus, she was sure that she would end up with a howler and that would be all the more embarrassing. It was essential that she got her work done.

Dangling around her black and white book bag, Jordan searched for an out of the way seat. Sitting down she rummaged around in her bag and pulled out her book. Sighing, she began to flip through the pages. She had read the same sentence five times when she suddenly heard music coming from an aisle. Shrugging her thin shoulders since she wasn’t making much progress, she got up to where the sound had come from and heard a boy that she had seen in class, but didn’t know the name of talking about how awesome magic was. Venturing closer, she said, “It is awesome and just wait until you see what you’ll learn.” She winked at him. “I’m Jordan Adair. You’re a first year, too? I think I saw you in Transfiguration.”

0 Jordan Adair Avoiding my new home away from home. 173 Jordan Adair 0 5

David

September 17, 2010 9:33 PM

Good thing I like having guests, then. by David

The girl who'd happened to be in the same aisle as him was familiar-looking, enough so that, despite faces of perfect strangers he happened to pass in the hall having habits of sticking in his head, David was sure he'd seen her in most of his classes, but he wasn't sure of her name. That was a situation she quickly changed, though, so all was well.

Jordan Adair. Adair wasn't common, at least where he came from - he thought he'd seen it once in a short story, but not in real life - but Jordan was one more for his list of magical people with normal names. His main competition in third grade had been a girl named Jordan. "That was me," he confirmed when she said she'd seen him in, due to some kid getting attacked or something, the most memorable class he thought they'd had so far. "At least, I guess it was me. I remember seeing you around, too, and I am a first year. Or so they tell me. I'm David Wilkes."

That was something he was still sure of - that he was, in fact, David Wilkes. He had briefly become paranoid, after he found out he was a wizard, that he was actually adopted illegally and was actually someone else, but had then rationalized that his older sister Annabeth looking nothing like him was completely balanced out by his dad and little sister Selena both looking exactly like him. Then he'd even more briefly become paranoid that his parents were secretly wizards, too, but he'd then decided that was too elaborate to work. Having him and his sisters spend their entire lives lying about where they lived to get into a better school district did not mean they were living in a huge web of excess and schemes. They were not the Tudors.

"So, what kinds of things do you think I can count on learning?" he asked. He had the good fortune to not be completely socially inept, the way Selena sometimes was, and he was interpreting the wink as being an allusion to something beyond the simple explanations of what different spells and potions did in their textbooks. That much wasn't exactly a mystery.

OOC: *apologizes profusely for the wait*

16 David Good thing I like having guests, then. 169 David 0 5