Day 3: (Ab)normal Days

He was cringing behind sweate-...Marci, that was her name, wasn't it. He was cringing behind Marci at the sight of the bear. "Guys, come on. We can just get the tank up there after the meeting, and put fish in it tonight or tomorrow or something. Let's go do something else." Not that there's much else to do, he thought.

Oscar didn't think putting an alchemy book in the fiction section was very funny at all.
He glared at her choice of book for a while before saying, "Alright..." Oscar liked the ones with the happy endings. Oscar also liked books with very little conflict. Oscar liked very boring books.

And the more he scanned the shelf for his favorites the more he didn't want to point them out. What he didn't pay attention to were the empty spaces in the shelves, usually around the ends of the series.

"What nickname was that?" Oscar asked innocently, but with her earlier scuffle with monobear fresh in his mind he caught his mistake, "Y-You don't have to tell us!"

Monobear had more important things to do than to chastise and make witty and despair-inducing comebacks to crass high school students. he turned away, walking off to his left. He still had things to do, despair to sow, and a meeting looming in a few hours.

Laura nodded at Adda, completely oblivious to whether or not it was respectful to ask for the nickname she was talking about when it was so personal being her dad's and all. Even if she did know, she probably wouldn't have cared. Then she heard Oscar pipe up. "What's the matter, Wheezy? It's just a nickname." And addressing Adda, she continued. "That'll work fine. I just need some kinda nickname for you. Or we could always go with ghost-girl if you like that!"

Adda paused a bit. "Well... he called me Addie a lot... otherwise it was just regular, generic nicknames a dad gives any kid," she scratched the back of her head a bit. "Though..." her eyes began to water a bit, "Though not even he's addressed me with that in quite some time, so..." She began to panic- if she didn't want just anyone to use that name, she shouldn't have mentioned it at all. She needed to come up with a nickname quick. However, she was not a quick thinker.
"Well, Oscar! What do you think! Any nickname ideas? It's kinda hard to give one to yourself!"

Eloise gave Marci an approving look, "Nice imitation," she chuckled.

And then she sighed, "Ah, we'll leave it for later." It had dawned on her that if only two people were to carry the fish tank up, actual work may be involved and she wasn't sure if she was up for it. She'd hate to be at fault for a broken fishtank or a broken ankle and unlike David, most certainly didn't want a broken nail.

Monobear walked off and the temptation returned, but she managed to fight it off.
"Well, what do we do now?"

She smiled and nodded. "You could do better, I'm sure. That's your job, after all!"

She watched the bear leave and shrugged, turning back to Eloise. "I was going to head to the library to keep writing," she gestured to her book, "I had a good idea, but the bear stole my inspiration, sadly."

Asher stopped for a minute.
"I should know what I want to make, shouldn't I? Cake? Cake." He nodded to himself, satisfied. He dug through cabinets until he found a sheet cake pan and mixing bowl, and began combining things as he saw fit.
"I mean, I saw Millie baking all the time. It shouldn't be that hard!" Despite his clear ignorance, his batter wasn't too far off the mark. He poured it into the pan, neglecting to take any non-stick measures, and stuck the pan in the oven.
"I think cakes take a while... but that's boring!" He adjusted the temperature to 500 degrees and closed the door, setting a timer for ten minutes. He moved into the cafeteria, sitting at a table near the kitchen, a proud smile on his face.

"Ah- me?!" Oscar wasn't expecting to be put on spot here. He was sensitive enough to pick up, though.
"I, well...Adda-... Addi- Add...Add....Add-" He began stammering, "Add! Well, Add!" He waited for approval, nervously.

Adda smiled. "I like it!" She turned to Laura. "Does that work? Granted, it only took one letter away." She stuck Laura's book into her backpack. "So, where to now? Anything else you want to know about the wonderful world of literature, Laura?"

Laura gave Oscar a cold stare. "That has got to be the worst nickname I've ever heard in my life, Ozzy." She was nearly dismayed when Adda said that she liked it. "No! God no! I'm adding an 's' on the end. You're Adds from now on."

At Adda's suggestion to look at something else in the library, Laura was thrown onto another train of thought, completely disregarding the nickname talk. "Hmmmm. I dunno that I want to start off with too many books. If I'm being honest, I doubt I'll be able to read more than one full book by the time we're all dead."

"You're right, I could!" Eloise snickered.

She tilted her head as well, "Library? Hmph, I haven't been there yet." She turned to face Herbert and David, "Hey! I'll be back later. Fish tank stuff."
Facing Marci again she straightened up, "Okay, show me where this library is."

"Well, now that that's settled," Adda-or Adds, as she had now been dubbed by Laura, crossed her arms. "What nickname do you want?"

She smiled. "It's right there." she pointed to the door directly across the hall from them. She didn't even have to look in to be sure at this point - that was something she could be proud of, at least. She turned around to face the two still standing by the tank. "You can come too, if you want. The more the merrier!" she called back as she walked in.

She was met by the usual crowd, plus one. She waved too her two friends and looked oddly at Laura, then shrugged. Never too late to get into reading, she mused, even in the face of death, I suppose.

"Adds..." It wasn't the most efficient nicknaming, considering they had as many letters as they started with, but if Laura thought it was better than his, he wouldn't complain.

Trying to ignore her last comment he made a suggestion, "Th-then maybe you could start with a short one. Let's see if there are any short stories or something..."
He heard someone walk in and saw Marci. Oscar waved back.

The small alarm Asher had brought with him began to go off, though he took his time working towards the kitchen. Baking usually had a window, and he wanted to fall comfortably within it. He took some potholders from another drawer, and withdrew the cake. It must have been a chocolate cake, because it was a rich, dark color. Smoke, which he either failed to see or acknowledge, wafted through the doorway. He placed it on the counter, and went to retrieve some frosting and food die. When he found the tub of frosting, he began pouring a rainbow of colors into it, though the more he added and stirred, to his dismay, the more disgusting a color it turned. He shrugged. No one would care what it looked like once they got a taste of it. He gobbed the sugary mess atop the "cake", and it began to melt and spread about. He decided to leave it in the fridge for a bit. That would fix the frosting.

Totally.

He looked over at Herbert. Obviously, this tank wasn't being moved anytime soon, so they had a few hours to waste.

"So, what do you wanna do?" He didn't know why he was asking him, but he figured hanging out with someone was better than hanging out alone.

Laura stood rigid as Adda asked what her own nickname would be. "I don't want one. I'd rather you just call me Laura," she said in a deadpan, sort of weary voice.

She was grateful when Marci walked inside the room, giving her a reason to divert her attention from nicknames. "Mar-mar!" she exclaimed, and quickly meandered towards her fellow student. "You guys have been holding out on me with this library place! Who knew there were so many books in here, am I right!"

Herbert doubted if the library would be the best place to go. He had a feeling that there might be too many people. And groups larger than three were not his specialty. He stuck his hands into his vest pockets. He was rather conflicted... but perhaps they had a reference section? Maybe he could read about types of guns or the development of knives over the years... or maybe read an adventure novel about people living in the wilderness.

"Ah, oi moight be goin' in." he said, uncertain before he stepped forward and began to walk forward. "Yhea."

Adda nodded to Oscar. Quickly, she leaned in towards Oscar and whispered to him.
"Don't worry, you can call me whatever you want- Laura isn't my mom or anything, she doesn't give my set in stone name." She smiled as she returned to where she had been. At the sound of other people entering, she turned and waved.
"This is fantastic! The book club is growing, just like we wanted!" She smiled again, this time directing it to the newcomers.

Eloise meandered into the library behind Marci and was surprised to find Laura there.
"Hey Laura! Oh, and Oscar again! Ah, Adda is it?" She walked right up to them now, "A book club, huh? You can count me in." and with that she was already digging through a shelf, the blanket still draped over her shoulders.

"Mar-Mar?" she said with a small frown. When had she decided a nickname for her? Why were people in their library? When had this even happened?

She looked at all the new people flooding in and blinked. Oh. "Libraries are nice, I can agree with that," she said, and after a moment added, "they're quiet most of the time, though." She headed off to a table in the corner with her notebook to finish writing, a small smile dawning on her face once she was out of sight.

Upon being addressed, Herbert quickly turned into a corridor, trying to make heads and tails of the shelves.
Maybe something he liked would be at the end? He looked around, scanning the names. Nothing or nobody he knew- but then again, he really didn't know anyone. Though "Thomas Gray" sounded familiar... Didn't Janice read poems by him? He scanned the shelves, his eyes finally resting on "Galsworthy." Funny name. He picked the book out, along with the Gray one and put them under his arm. Best to read something he was familiar with, of course, he thought as he went back to the main section.
Social interaction. Ugh.

Laura nearly jumped up and down at the people walking in. "Ellyyyy! Now this is a party!" she said gleefully. She had no idea why Marci would want the library to be quiet. It was so much more fun with lots of people around.

Noticing Herbert sneaking by, Laura wondered whether to follow him or not. She decided against it. Talking to the other girls, and Oscar, was much more interesting. Aaaand then he decided to come back anyway. Laura shrugged. She was entirely tired of trying to figure out how the older boy's mind worked. "Where have you guys been, anyway? Did Herbert end up making you do some kinda chore for him?"

Oh god. Where did they come from.

Suddenly people seemed to crawl in from every nook and cranny. He edged towards Adda again, "Adds- Add..." He didn't know what to say and so he just ran over to his table to gather up the last of his papers before someone chanced across them. His breakfast waffles were still there, he forgot that he brought those. He hesitantly took a bite of one before opening his book again. Maybe he could work.