Banjo sat at the Circulation desk of the Collegiate library, bored, half cut and wishing he'd fired down another coffee or two. He'd been assigned with re-shelving the returned books and the task had only taken him a few minutes.
He was noticing a worrying trend that didn't bode well for how these Community Contribution sessions would go in the future.
First there were a few young girls, standing off at a distance. Then joined by a few more. When he came in he hoped his time away in the Infirmary had rattled their interest in the library and would see him get left alone.
And it did.
Until they realised he was back.
And now it was far worse. They seemed to multiply. After the first half of the session there were as many as before. By three quarters of the way through, there was twice as many. And the giggling. Only worsened by the occasional whispering.
This was going to get old fast. He had to try
SOMETHING. He drummed his fingers on the desk considering his options. "Well, this is either going to go
VERY well or
VERY bad, with not much wiggleroom in the middle." He thought to himself.
"Yup. Sounds like a classic Banjo decision." His mind was made up. He slapped the desktop with his palms and got to his feet.
"So... girls?" He said approaching them, the first turned her head with an "Ohmygod!" expression on her face.
"How can we help you today? Do you need any help with borrowing books? Internet research? Or would some of you girls want to hear about why libraries are REALLY COOL places to be?" He spread an arm out, as if to show off the whole vista. Fake smile plastered firmly across his face.
The smile fell off of two or three of their faces, some noses crinkled in disgust at the lame marginally older guy. Not all, a few were only more spellbound that he was talking to them, others were so shy they peeled out as soon as he addressed them.
Two thirds to three quarters of the crowd peeled away for one reason or another. Banjo gave them a few seconds, before addressing the remainder.
"Well, if any of you DO need me for anything. I'll be right over there, and I'm only too willing to help. That's what I'm here for."One of the few remaining girls who could muster speech giggled and offered stuttered thanks.
His plastered fake smile gave way to a more comfortable genuine grin as he made his way back to the circulation desk.
Okay. Sure. The few who remained had only become more hardened. But he'd managed to peel off the vast majority in one fell swoop. Not too shabby.
"That was really cruel.""Hmm..?" He mumbled back. Someone was talking to him.
He looked down across the circulation desk to the shorter girl.
"What's that..?""What you did. It's cruel. All they wanted to do was admire you from afar, sure, maybe its a little silly. But they weren't hurting you, or meaning you any harm.""And what exactly did I do?" He rocked back and crossed his arms defensively.
"You know exactly what you did. You acknowledged them. Broke the fourth wall. Let them know you were aware of them this entire time.""THAT'S a crime? So let me get this straight... They are allowed to gawk at me, giggle, whisper... who knows what... amongst themselves, and I'm supposed to, what? Carry on like I'm in the Banjo exhibit at the zoo and not acknowledge anyone's there... pretty long thread.""I didn't say it's a crime and I didn't come to debate you, or get into some stupid mock trial or whatever. I said it's cruel. You knew exactly what you were doing and what the effect would be, and you still did it.""Who are you anyway? What do you want?""I'm Mary Tyler.""Mary Tyler, Mary Tyler..." that meant something, he was sure of it. He'd meant to remember something like this for an actual purpose. Not cast this name directly out of his mind like so many others.
"Oh Tyler! Rory's kid sister! Yeah, yeah, he mentioned you!""Well, that doesn't surprise me. Because my brother's a good guy, and we look out for one another.""What's that supposed to mean?" "Are you insinuating I'm not..? What the Hell..." He thought to himself.
"I came here, because one of those girls is a friend of mine, and I got included in an excited group text message saying you were back." Mary said.
"I don't really have any way of seeing most of Rory's team or classmates. But I AM able to see you. And he thinks-- Well... he thinks you're confusing, but he trusts that you're actually a compassionate, good and caring guy. That's not what I just saw then. And he is-- Well. He IS actually all of those things.""Yeah-- yeah, I know. I mean we're in the same bloody team. From what I can tell, yeah, that's him. Straight shooter." He was waffling. She didn't care for any of what he had to say. Only to deliver her own message.
"Look, just-- Just don't screw him over. Okay?" She walked away leaving him wondering if every day working in this place was going to be like this.
Banjo ambled slowly towards the Mess Hall without a care in the world for the time. He'd left the Collegiate library early under the auspices that it was his first class and he shouldn't be late, but at the pace he set that was still a possibility.
He walked through and saw a photo of Cassander's face still adorning the countertop by the serving counter.
"Well, shit... I'm gonna be graced with that every bloody time I want some grub, am I? I'm sure that'll help folks shrug off the bloody trauma, and we won't be unloading these memories the next time they try to gather us all 'round a fire..."
He pointed vaguely at some food item or another in the window. If it was bloody awful he could always just bin it, cut out of whatever this class was for five or ten, and go get juiced somewhere real quick on the sly.
Everyone seemed to already be there by the time he got back with his food and it looked like they were about to make a move to first class. Then Banjo finally copped an eyeful of Jim. The man looked even more half-cut than he did that morning. Unable to help himself, his mouth started running.
"Bloody Hell, Slot Machine. You look thoroughly rooted there, mate. Normally takes a teacher about a month, month and a half of my shit to get to that stage. Wearin' you down already, eh?"- - -
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