Day 3: (Ab)normal Days

Eloise raised her hand as if in a classroom. "Hey, me! You can chose me!" She was eager for a distraction, and this was the perfect chance. Even though she wasn't strong. She doubted David was any stronger than she was. They were not exactly the dream team.

Asher walked over to the rope and scaled it quickly. He then hung by his legs in order to face Marci.
"Well, I feel the other way around. This is like breathing to me, and reading feels near impossible."

So there were two. Herbert shrugged. "I can use all ta help I can get." He echoed.

"Sure thang. Three's better'n two or one." He scratched his stubble. The real challenge, though, would be getting the fish and water in the tank. "Ah suppose if onea ya can't lif, ya can look for a tank filter."

She looked up at him in amazement. How did he even do that? It took him, what, maybe ten seconds? On the other hand, she could write a haiku in maybe ten seconds, if she had an idea planned. Maybe it wasn't that odd.

"That's the beauty of it, I suppose," she said loud enough for him too hear after a second. "We're surrounded by people so different from ourselves...maybe the whole point of this...this horrible thing is to see if we can all find a way to get along." She looked away from him, laughing sadly. "We're not doing a very good job of it, are we?"

Oscar saw Adda walk in and was instantly relieved. "Adda!" He exclaimed, waving to her nervously as though he was being held hostage in the kitchen.

And Laura was making the demands.
"I...er..." Hang out where? His grave? He didn't have the guts to say no, but he didn't want to say yes either.
He stammered and looked to Adda again, "A-Adda and I will come!" he blurted out, not quite aware of what he was dragging her into. "A-And my hand is okay!"

Adda was a bit confused, but stumbled in next to Oscar and smiled.
"Sure thing!" She wasn't too sure what was going on, but she wasn't leaving one of her only friends with a psycho like Laura.

Asher nodded.
"We all live in completely different worlds... thinking about it like that, it's not so surprising that people could wind up doing terrible things to each other." He slid down the rope to be eye-level with Marci, though he still hung from the rope.
"But then again, it's because of that that we can also do wonderful things if we work together, right? It's like the circus, in a way. Everyone's talents are so different, but we come together and make a wonderful and unique show."

"Where's the tank? I'll help you lift it, 'cause I'm not the best at finding stuff, to be honest." He kind of wanted to talk to Herbert - he felt the need to apologize for thinking he was a homicidal maniac during their first day here. It was silly, but it would help his current mental situation a lot.

If they were free, Laura would have clasped her hands together. "Fantastic!" she said with a smile, looking back and forth at Oscar and Adda. "They say three is a crowd, but hey, what do they know!" Laura was glad that she'd be spending time with people she didn't know too well. She wanted to get to know everyone.

"So where do you guys like to hang out? The storage room? Auditorium? Morgue?"

"The library is FANTASTIC," Adda exclaimed, "It's full of so many other worlds to explore and get lost in!" While she wanted to be somewhere familiar, her enthusiasm was genuine.

"I worked out at the gym the other day," Eloise grinned, jokingly flexing one of her arms.
"Or I'll find whatever, really." She was very well-acquainted with the storage room by now. And she'll get to learn more about Herbert, it wasn't a bad situation at all.

"Oh, et's in tha storage room." Herbert said. "I found it two days ago wit Alex. We were...gonna carry it up but there was somethin' goin on so I guess we never did it. We both wanted ta place stuff in our rooms, sos that."

He began to turn around. He could walk and talk easily. But he held his left hand in his right, running his fingers against the bandages. He'd be doing that for a while. He did the same with his hat.

Laura gave Adda a perplexed look, her usual enthusiasm replaced with genuine curiosity. "Other worlds? Get lost in? Doesn't that sound dangerous?" she asked. She hadn't pegged Adda as a brave explorer of worlds, and was interested to see exactly what the library had to offer her. Why hadn't any of the students mentioned something so interesting before?

"About that..." Oscar almost began to say.
He had visited the library that night and may or may not have ransacked the place a bit. Kind of like what he did to the kitchen. He wished he had enough warning to have cleaned up a bit first. It was only a table or two though.

"S-Sure...! The library's pretty great." He began to gather up his materials until he realized that there was no way he was going to bring them unless he had Herbert's stuff-moving team with him. "I'll be back..." He mumbled, whether telling them he'd return to the kitchen or talking to the water bottles, it was not clear.

She nodded. "It's kind of eye-opening in a way. I'd never considered that some of the people here could even exist. It's nice to confront people you don't understand face to face."

Asher slid down the rope and she looked in confusion, wondering how he didn't get a friction burn or something, but quickly realized it was his daily job to do stuff like that and he probably learned to avoid it. "We all have our tragic flaws and they stop us on our own - probably, at least - but together as a whole, we'd be able to do nearly anything, I'd bet." She smiled. "You're not half bad to talk to, clown."

Adda tilted her head. "You make it sound like you've never read a book before!" As much as she wanted to laugh, there was an honest confusion in Laura's words that baffled Adda.
"Oscar...?" her voice trailed off. He was a funny kid. In a cute way.
"Should we wait for him?" She turned to Laura.

"Let's head over there, then! Only so many hours in a day, and we already have meeting to attend to later!" He was wondering what on Earth the bear could want to tell them, but had quickly dismissed the topic after briefly thinking about their first meeting. He decided he didn't want to know. He walked into the storage room, assuming that the other would follow.

Asher smiled. " 'S all in a day's work. Charm's important in the carnival business."
He jumped off the rope, landing squarely on his feet, and shifted his stance a bit.
"Well then, what were you up to coming down here? Never thought this was up your alley."

"Books... Oh! Oh, books, of course!" Laura exclaimed. "That's what's in a library? Good to know!" she continued. "I mean, I hardly see how books can be portals to other worlds, but you don't know until you try, right?"

Noticing Oscar's strange behavior, she moved over to him and prodded him lightly with one of her crutches. "Hey Wheezy, you coming? Keeping one lady waiting is bad enough, but two?"

At the reminder of the meeting, Eloise grew cold again. "Let's go, quickly."

She walked briskly, and found herself following David this time. She made a bit effort to catch up with him, though. Eloise loved to be the line leader more than anything else. Once they reach the room, Eloise tip-toes straight in, knowing exactly where to put her feet without tripping.

"Jeese, s'messier than I remember." Herbert muttered, poking his head into the storage room.
Though he knew where the tank was. He kicked some boxes out of the way before he knelt to look at a bottom shelf. "Roight 'ere." He said, pulling the corner of the tank free. It was easily two feet tall and four feet wide. And heavy, to boot.
"Ah dunno if there's a filter, but it moight be close by."

"You could teach a thing about charm to Oscar. If he didn't faint at you approaching, that is," she said wryly.

She looked around. "I was watching everyone arguing back in the cafeteria, but then they all left and I didn't want to follow. So I figured I should explore the parts of the school I hadn't been to yet, and this is the biggest one."

She sighed. "It's so empty compared to the library. I've been in a gym before, of course, but it's just so different. There's no stories to get lost in."

"Well, if he's got something to do there's no helping it. Why don't we go on ahead?" Adda inquired. Frankly, she wouldn't mind having some time to talk to Laura one-on-one.

Asher chuckled. "Again, I'm the opposite. Everything in the library feels overwhelming-makes me feel like I'm just as, well...dumb? Dumb's a good word. Just as dumb as all the other kids would say I am. Here, it's a space to do anything and everything in! I mean, I guess you could even read here, though there aren't any chairs," he paused. "There are chairs in libraries, right?"

David walked into the storage room. Within 10 seconds, he had already nearly tripped 3 times. "J-jeez!" He stammered. "How am I supposed to drive if I can't even walk?!"

After a few seconds of struggling, he met Herbert over by the tank. "That thing is...bigger than I expected. You're not raising goldfish in it, are you?" Wait, where would he even get goldfish? That wasn't remotely intelligent.