Adeline Montgomery (sh0ck_th3m) wrote in spindlesend, @ 2010-03-22 23:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | adeline montgomery, noah peltzer, samuel page |
Who: Shock, Gizmo, and late appearence by Sam
What: Adventures and mysteries
Where: Shock's room, common room, library
When: Afternoon
Rating: PG-13 for some mild language
It was just after lunch and Shock was busily scribbling away in her journal, the extra private one that even Jack couldn’t see. It was her movie idea. Kind of a knock off of Blair Witch, but she didn’t care. She was in a looney bin, might as well do something with it. She’d actually been getting along fairly well in this semi controlled environment. Surprising even herself. Usually she was creating terror and mayhem by then if she were in school, but when she was forced into consequences, it kind of made her rethink things. Not that she stopped planning, no. She just had to be more stealthy about it. So in black jeans, green ad black fitted hoodie and fingerless gloves she had her hair pulled into two spiky buns on the back of her head.
Gizmo had come back to his room and seen the note on his bed. At first he'd thought maybe it was from Dean since his roomie had a habit of writing instead of talking to him, but when he saw the girly handwriting he couldn't help an excited smile. Shock was really fun to hang out with, and he had needed something to do anyway. The nurses had forced him to bathe on Saturday morning, so he was still very clean by his standards. His long hair wasn't oily or greasy, and Rhys had brushed the tangles out. He wore his baggy black cargo shorts and a black Gremlins t-shirt, and hurried toward Shock's room (having to pause a few times to remember how to get there, but he managed!).
Looking up from her writing when she heard someone walk in, her face split into a grin. “Hey there dude, what’s up?” She said as she closed her journal and tossed it on the nightstand next to her bed. It’d been getting a bit boring and writer’s block had started to set in so it was good timing when Gizmo showed up. “Have a seat, don’t have a roomie so feel free to sit anywhere you like,” she said gesturing to the room with her arms spread wide.
Gizmo eyed the room with the critical gaze of somebody whose very life might depend on where he sat, and then lowered himself onto the foot of her own bed like a puppy making itself at home. "Hi," he said, beaming at her with a wide, toothy grin. "Thanks for your note."
“Hey no problemo,” she said. It was a good day, no letter and not phone call from home. Things were very nice indeed. That and she was cooking up some things to do in her extra extra secret journal. She wasn’t one to just follow orders to a ‘T’ nope! She was gonna find a way around it if it killed her, figuratively of course. “What have you been up to? Haven’t seen you in a few days, thought you might have forgotten about me.”
"I didn't forget about you!" he protested seriously, making a little 'offended' face and shaking his head vehemently. "No, I was meeting lots of people. And they made me wash my hair," he added, grimacing and holding a strand of clean black hair at its full length to indicate how repulsive the idea was to him. "But then I saw your note and I was glad 'cause I didn't want to bother you if you didn't want people over but I really wanted to come see you."
“Uck man! It looked so cool too!” Shock said in genuine dismay. “The nurses around here suck anyways. ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ It’s a wonder anyone ever leaves here,” she rolled her eyes. “Naw man, anytime you want to see me just stop by my room and if I’m not here just leave a note saying you stopped by and when I get it I’ll come see you.”
"This guy Rhys was really really nice, he told me about some stuff called dry shampoo where I don't have to use water to make it be clean," he said excitedly. "I'm gonna ask my doctor to get me some maybe because that would be so cool, and I wouldn't have to get wet anymore." He grinned at the very idea, pulling his legs up to his chest and hugging his shins. "What've you been doing, Addy?"
“Rhys. . .” Shock said in thought the name ringing a bell. “Oh! Love Bug! Yeah I know the dude,” she nodded. “Yeah he’s alright. Kind of hung up on Love, but other than that he’s ok,” she said thinking about it. “I met him the other day,” she explained a bit. The same day she got the letter saying she’d be getting phone calls from her dad as well, good day turned bad. “Haven’t really been doing a whole lot really. Planning, writing, meeting new people like you’ve been doing.”
"What's wrong with love?" he asked, tipping his head to the side and looking at her curiously with big gray eyes. "Love's nice, it's a lot better than not being loved." He scratched idly at his unshaven jawline, which was dark with stubble. "Planning what?"
“It’s. . .” Shock paused to really think about how to go about it with Gizmo. She knew he wasn’t like anyone else and didn’t really know about her before Cheshire so it wouldn’t make sense. “Me and love just don’t get along,” she said after a moment. Simply put that was it. “Oh just some pranks is all. Something to show them that just because I’m not being trouble out in plain sight doesn’t mean I’m not being trouble else where,” she grinned.
"You don't look like trouble," he said thoughtfully, giving her a doubtful glance. "Who do you do pranks on?" He remembered things like throwing flour on sleeping bandmates (what had Quinn called it? 'antiquing'?) and putting salt in the sugar shaker, but that was about his range of practical joke knowledge.
“Oh I’m always trouble,” Shock said putting on her infamous smirk that always lead to said trouble. “Just got a way of hiding it is all,” she snickered. “Oh I prank whoever I feel deserves it. Like this guy I met on like my second day here. Real big and muscular, pretty much an underwear model probably with a little troll friend. Well he was a real ass to me and another friend of mine, Tank. She’s real cool you should meet her later. So when he was an ass I made out to get him. Made a big ol’ card and rigged the inside to launch glue and glitter on him when he opened it. Got him real good, even found out it got all over him and on his other clothes as well. It was great. Well then he told on me to my doctor and I got grounded.”
"You got grounded?" he asked in shock, his jaw dropping a little bit. "They can do that here? I thought only parents could ground you." He looked a little worried by the prospect; he did his best to be good and behave himself, and had never been in serious trouble, but the idea of being grounded wasn't a pleasant one. "Why was he mean to you?"
“Yeah,” Shock nodded. “My Doc’s been the first one to ground me, so I guess they can,” she shrugged. “I don’t know, I knocked into him and he didn’t take it too well,” she said. That was kind of the truth, but in Shock’s little world she was in the right. She was always in the right, but that didn’t matter. “Called me some names so I pulled a prank on him.”
Gizmo wrinkled his nose. "That wasn't nice of him," he said referring to the name-calling, shaking his head a little. "I'm glad you glittered him then." This was said a little huffily, but content, as if justice had been served in his eyes.
“Unfortunately my doctor didn’t like it. So I got grounded,” Shock said giving a long sigh as if it were a large burden to bare for her. “But. . . He’s going to get it later, I’ve got plans cookin’ up that’ll make him wish he wasn’t such an ass,” she smirked.
Gizmo widened his eyes but decided maybe he shouldn't ask. He didn't want to get into trouble by association! "So what else are you doing today?" he asked, changing the subject and shifting a little on the mattress.
“I don’t know whatever I feel like pretty much, kind of,” she shrugged. “Just been writing some of a movie I want to work on, but I kind of hit writer’s block right as you got here. So pretty much whatever now. You wanna do something?” She asked him.
"Yeah," he admitted, picking at the hem of his cargo shorts. "I dunno what though. There isn't too much to do, I mean, I watch a lot of TV but it gets boring," he said with a shake of his head.
“Yeah,” Shock said screwing her face up in thought. “Maybe walk around?” She said shrugging a bit. “Beats sitting around and it gives us something to do instead of just staring at each other like a couple of goobs.”
"They have video games in the common room too," he informed her in case she didn't know. "Maybe we could play sometime, if they have any good ones." He unfolded himself from her bed, standing up to his full height and stretching. It made the front of his t-shirt ride up a little, revealing flat too-skinny hips and belly, the thin trail of hair on his navel before he hastily smoothed his clothes down.
Oh you have got to be kidding!? That same little feeling she got when she watched Jack leave while staring at his ass was right back and with Gizmo of all people! Not that he was ugly or stupid or anything like that, but. . . It was odd enough just having that little inkling in her belly now it was with one of her few friends! “I didn’t know they had video games,” she said easily hiding that small swoon.
"Yeah but you have to ask the nurses if you can play them, and it's only 'yes' if nobody is watching TV," he supplied, stuffing his hands into the pockets of those huge, ill-fitted shorts. "I don't even know if they have any good games."
“Yeah they probably only the crappy puzzle games. No fighting or crashing cars,” Shock nodded standing as well. “We can go look I guess. No harm in that right?”
He nodded, amiable and agreeable enough. He would've followed her like a puppy if she'd suggested they go cliff-diving. It was just how he was. He opened her door wider and held it, being polite, shifting his weight in his black skater-issue sneakers.
“Thanks,” she said with a half smile up at him before walking out. She had on her trusty converse herself. Black with silver painted stars on them. Boredom in art class left all sorts of possibilities for her. Waiting for Gizmo, Shock started to lead the way to the common room having it memorized already.
He tagged along behind, hands still in his pockets, head sort of bobbing like a great big bird. His eyes took in everything even though later it'd slip his mind and he'd be back at square one. It was just how such things worked.
Shock was all confidence in her walk. Head up and shoulders back and even a slight swagger in her small hips. That was just how she was though. She had to show that she was big and bad in high school to keep from getting the pulp beat out of her. Yeah, there was no mercy shown to girls, they got in fights just like the boys did. “So what kind of games do you like?” She asked over her shoulder before slowing down and moving to walk next to him.
"Racing ones," he admitted, grinning. "And sometimes the zombie-fighting ones but not in the dark. I was playing one one time in a hotel room and the zombie popped out and everybody made fun of me 'cause I jumped," he said with a sheepish grin.
“Those were the best, especially in an arcade,” Shock grinned. She loved competitive games like that. “It’s ok I use to jump all the time when I first got into those games. The only time I would play them too was in the dark, but that’s just me. Not a lot scares me.”
"Yeah, you seem really brave," he said with a nod, still traipsing along and keeping in pace. "I'm kind of brave but not as much as I wish. I dunno. I guess there isn't too much to be afraid of sometimes."
“It’s ok to be scared sometimes,” Shock said looking up at him. “Not a lot scares me, but some things still do. Besides being brave is what gets all the heroes killed in the horror movies. Maybe it’s good to not be so brave and get the hell out before you get eaten,” she snickered.
"But you don't think that's really gonna happen ever, right?" he asked a little worriedly, glancing over at her with those storm-colored eyes. "'Cause, um, I mean, people say it isn't real but what if someday it was and nobody believed in it?"
“Naw,” Shock shook her head. “Every movie shows a bumbling idiot in the military or science lab doing that, but there’s no way they would let that happen. I mean in reality things are way low key and kept under super lock and key. Besides if it were real we’d already be zombies or something like that. The bumbling idiot would have been just someone wanting to make money and accidentally exposed everyone to it by now.”
He nodded a little, and then folded his arms across his chest. "I was real worried when they were talking about that flu," he admitted, shaking his head. "'Cause my mom made me get a shot for it and stuff, and she kept saying that it was mutating. I don't wanna be a mutant."
“Oh,” Shock nodded. “Naw man, it’s not like that. It’s just saying that the virus for the flu was changing, growing up I guess you could say. You’re not gonna mutate or turn into a creepy crawly dude, that stuff is just in the movies and won’t happen for real.”
"But the virus was changing so that your body couldn't fight it off, my mom said," he pointed out, looking a little uneasy. "That's so weird. 'Cause that happens in the movies and then people die and come back as zombies."
“I don’t think that would happen,” Shock said in thought. “Cause I mean we’d already be zombies by now if that were the case wouldn’t it? I don’t think this was the first time that the virus itself changed. It probably has before a lot. It’s just like finding a new kind of cold really. Nothing to worry about.”
He eyed her, not totally convinced that that was true, and then shook his head. Noah was about as gullible as they came; if you had a bridge to sell, Noah would be pooling his pocket change to place a bid.
Coming to the common room it was fairly empty a few people lazing around reading or talking and no one watching TV. “Looks like we’re in the clear,” Shock grinned up at Gizmo as she walked over and asked a nurse if they could play the video games. Since no one was watching TV it was a yes. “So. . . Which game do you want to play?” She asked looking at the cases that she was handed.
"...look," he said excitedly, touching one of the cases. The game was a Scooby Doo mystery game, the kind of thing usually reserved for middle-school-aged kids or younger, but the graphics on it actually looked decent and apparently you just went around collecting clues to solve mysteries. "This one? Can I be Fred?"
“Sure,” Shock shrugged. It had some kind of monsters in it at least. “I’ll. . . Be the girl in purple I guess,” she said putting the game in the console and picked up a controller, giving Gizmo the other. It seemed like a kind of interesting game to play so maybe it’d hold her mind still for a bit.
"Daphne? She's the really pretty one, Fred has a crush on her," he said as he fiddled with the controller, studying the buttons like perhaps it was rocket science. He had a thing for Saturday morning cartoons, and Scooby Doo had always been a staple in his life.
Shock’s own Saturday mornings were spent passed out in a basement usually so cartoons weren’t high up on his list of things she knew a lot about. But the irony of the character choices wasn’t lost on Shock. The controls weren’t hard to figure out after a few tries. Sitting on the couch next to Gizmo, she started to really get into the game with him as they finished the first task.
"I think it's the gardener," he said with pointed concentration. He had been focused intently on the game, eyes slightly narrowed, fingers pushing the buttons rapidly as soon as he figured out what each one did.
“I think you might be right Fred,” Shock said giggling a bit as she kept up with the puzzles, her quick mind working them out right along side the other next to her.
A few more tasks into the game, Gizmo crowed in triumph as his little avatar stumbled into a box that tipped over, spilling a gold coin and a piece of paper they'd been looking for for two levels. "Yes!" he yelled excitedly, drawing alarmed stares from half of the people in the common room and a distracted little smile from the nurse at the desk.
Laughing a bit Shock patted Gizmo on the shoulder. “Might want to turn it down a notch or two dude. Don’t want the other people around here getting too excited,” she grinned at him, his excitedness catchy. She herself was getting into the game even letting out a few ‘yes!’s though they were quieter than Gizmo’s.
"But we got the clue!" he said, his excitement not dampened in the least as he grinned at her, beaming sunnily. His fingers kept tapping the buttons on the controller, hunched over a little with focus.
“I know I was right there with you see,” she pointed to Daphne standing next to Fred. “Ah forget it, be as loud as you want. Shake this place up a bit. If they don’t like it they can leave,” she grinned, something that seemed plastered to her face when she was around him. “Ready to get that gardener?” She asked as they set off again.
"Totally," he agreed, grinning as he made Fred run across the screen and hop into the Mystery Machine. "Aw, c'mon," he whined a little bit, shaking his head a little as the game moved into a montage of the van driving back toward the haunted castle.
Leaning back against the couch, Shock drummed her fingers impatiently on her leg as she waited for the stupid movie o be over. Right as they entered the castle and started to run around and get clues Daphne was suddenly captured. “Are you serious?” Shock groaned. Now Gizmo had to find clues and help rescue Shock.
"Oh man!" he groaned again, smacking his cheek in dismay before he began pointedly tapping the controller, trying to track down where Daphne had been taken. "I don't know which book to pull!" he whined, trying to make Fred yank on the various bookshelves to open a secret passageway.
“Try the green one that looks kind of like it’s glowing on the fourth shelf on the very left end there,” Shock said pointing to it. She herself had no idea where she was and had to depend on Gizmo to rescue her so they could solve the mystery.
Gizmo moved over to the book and tapped the X. Fred reached forward and yanked its spine. The wall opened with a rumbling and a secret hallway was revealed, lit by torches. "Yay!" Giz cheered again, grinning as he made Fred run down the hallway.
“Yes! Go Giz!” Shock grinned as she watched him collect several more clues before her own character was discovered. “Finally!” She laughed. “My hero,” she cooed and smiled at him before going back to the game.
"They're always in the secret passageway," he said with a triumphant grin, but he looked quite pleased with himself that he'd figured it out. "Wouldn't it be cool if there really were secret passages in here?" he asked thoughtfully as Fred and Daphne ran through the hallways trying to find the final clue to solve the puzzle.
“That would be cool,” Shock nodded. “Just wander around them all day solving puzzles and mysteries. See if the culprit was the orderly with a grudge against a certain doctor or if it was the creepy old librarian who had it in for the whole hospital,” she grinned at the thought as she worked Daphne with Fred to get the puzzle pieces all together to finally solve the level’s last big puzzle.
When the puzzle came together and the victory music played, Gizmo laughed and set his controller down on his lap, reaching over to high-five her. Yes, high-fives were for high school kids, and thus perfect for them. "We did it!" he cheered, grinning at her.
“Alright!” Shock grinned high fiving Gizmo. “Best team ever,” she laughed as they moved onto the next level. Turns out it was the gardener. Now they were off to a creepy old hotel to figure out who was scaring everyone away and to help save it from being torn down.
"Yeah, we are totally good at this," he agreed, laughing as they resumed pushing buttons and collecting clues. The game was fairly repetitive but it was still childishly challenging, and Gizmo was intently focused on it.
“We kick ass at this and no one is better than us,” she grinned as they continued the game like they were actually living the events. They played with gusto and focus that it was an amazing speed that they were working things out at.
"You're a really good Daphne," Noah said with a grin, shaking his head as Shaggy and Scooby were taken hostage by the hotel proprietor and Fred, Daphne and Velma had to go sneaking around in the abandoned storage shed outside.
“Thanks,” Shock said looking at Gizmo with a smile. “You’re a really good Fred too,” she nodded as they worked to get their video games friends back from the giant bat creature that had captured them.
"I bet it's not even really a bat," he mused after a moment, shaking his head decisively. "I bet it's a man in a rubber mask. And he would've gotten away with it if we weren't so meddling."
“Well that’s what we do, we meddle,” Shock nodded. “We show them they can’t get away with just trying to get what they want by being mean!” Though that was exactly what she did, only she was different. Shock thought so at least.
"Right on," he laughed, moving Fred across the screen to punch a ghost in the face. He scrunched up his nose in thought. "You couldn't really punch a ghost," he mumbled. "That's how you know it's really the bellhop or somebody."
“Yeah, because other wise you’d just go right on through it,” Shock nodded as she made Daphne run right behind Fred as they found Scooby and Shaggy. “Alright we got the gang back!” She grinned as they found another big puzzle piece.
"We're so going to beat this puzzle too!" Gizmo laughed delightedly, leaning in to bump their shoulders since they couldn't take their hands off the controllers to make a high-five. One of the nurses watching them was smiling, shaking her head. Next she'd have to introduce Gizmo to Lego Batman.
“Oh yeah! We are the puzzle crackers!” Shock laughed bumping his shoulder back as they continued to play. The orderlies were just happy she wasn’t reeking havoc.
When they beat this level, the victory montage playing on-screen, Noah dropped the controller onto his lap and flexed his fingers, cracking his inked knuckles. "This is fun," he said, looking over at her with a grin.
“Damn straight. I’m surprised they haven’t kicked us off yet because we’re having so much fun,” Shock snickered a bit. She was being a bit dorky and dweeby about it, but it was fine around Gizmo, he didn’t seem to care.
"Well I think it's cause we're being good," he said seriously, nodding his head. "And nobody wants to watch the TV so they haven't made us stop yet. Maybe two levels is enough though, my hand kind of hurts from the X button." Since it was the only one that did anything important in this particular game.
“Yeah, if you play games for too long you’ll get like carpel tunnel which totally sucks. A buddy of mine got it from playing video games too much. He had to wear like these splints on his hands and everything. Totally sucks,” Shock nodded.
He glanced suspiciously at his hands, then inched the controller off to rest on the couch. "Maybe we should take a break, then," he said with a little shrug.
“Yeah, don’t want the splints,” Shock said as she saved the game and took Gizmo’s controller along with her own and set them back up on the console and put the TV on a channel.
Gizmo returned the game dutifully to the nurse, who thanked him as he handed it over. Then he walked back over to Shock's side, his hands shoving down into his pockets again. "What should we do?"
“I don’t know go to the library?” Shock shrugged. She hadn’t been there yet and was kind of wanting something to read. “They have comic books and stuff too I think. I don’t know. Maybe they got big books of photos for you to look at.”
"Okay," he said, nodding. "Yeah, that might be fun. I bet there's cool picture books in there." He was a little embarrassed about his almost-illiteracy, but he always gave it his all and did his best to sound out the words.
“Cool,” Shock smiled as she once again took the reigns and led the way to the library. She hadn’t been there yet herself, but that was about to change.
He tagged obediently behind her and walked along, waving at the people they passed along the way. His whole mission seemed to be pretty much to befriend the majority of the hospital, and he was well on his way after just a short while.
Finding the library with ease, Shock eased the door open and stepped in holding it open for Gizmo. It was quiet. A creepy quiet, like on the Scooby Doo game. “This place looks kind of cool,” she mused with a grin stepping in.
Gizmo nodded and walked in, sort of absorbing himself into the stacks pretty quickly. "Wow... do you think any of these do anything cool if I pull them out?" he asked with a playful grin, tugging on a spine experimentally.
“I don’t know, only one way to find out,” Shock said looking up from a book on how to make jeans into paper with a grin. Coming up behind Gizmo she watched the spine move away and in it’s empty place a bright round brown eye. “What the hell!?” She cried not expecting to see that and jumped holding onto Gizmo with the book raised high like it would be a great weapon.
“Shhh!” The eye hissed before a man that the eye belonged to swung around with pursed lips and a finger over them. “You have to be quiet in the library,” he said fixing his gray hat a bit and straightening his polka dotted tie.
"There's a person in the books," Gizmo half-squeaked, but he stared with enormous eyes when the man came around the stacks to face them. "Were you in the passageway?" he asked, jaw dropped.
Shock made no move to let go of Gizmo or put the book down. For all she knew this guy was a nut bag hiding in the books scaring the shit out of people.
“Passage way?” The man blinked. “Not that I know of,” he said thoughtfully. “Unless you mean the aisle of the bookshelves,” he said looking back down the one he’d just come from.
"No, like the one that people get kidnapped into," Gizmo said guardedly, and one arm moved in front of Shock protectively, sort of scooting her behind himself a bit.
It was definitely a Scooby Doo moment. Shock kept her arm cocked back with the book as she scooted behind Gizmo, her head poking out from behind the taller man.
“Oh I don’t think so,” the man said shaking his head. “I’m the librarian Sam. I haven’t had anyone kidnapped here before, so I think it’d be safe,” he said standing back a bit. “Take a look if you’d like just to make sure.”
Gizmo tilted his head, and grabbed Shock's wrist to get her to lower the book before she accidentally lost hold of it and hit somebody. Somebody being Sam, which would get them into trouble. "So this library doesn't have secret hallways if you pull a book? You've tried them?" he asked suspiciously.
Shock let Gizmo pull her wrist down and disarm her from flinging the book. She held onto it though, just in case. You never knew around here.
“I haven’t tried them all no, but I don’t think there’s one here. You’d hear noises of people walking wouldn’t you?” Sam said calmly, always one to somehow know how to handle a situation like this.
Gray eyes narrowed a little, thoughtfully. "Maybe," he allowed, pursing his lips. "I've never seen one so I'm not sure."
Even though Shock knew it was just a game and TV show, it couldn’t help but raise her suspicions of the man. He looked just like a nice, charming guy you’d see in the movies who would then hold you prisoner and keep you for lunch later. Okay that was a bit much, but still. . . Being around Gizmo her imagination got the better of her sometimes.
“You can check if you’d like, just don’t tear the books off the shelves,” Sam said giving the two younger people their space a bit. “It gets hard to put them back up after a while.”
"...can we knock on the walls?" Gizmo asked hopefully. "Sometimes there's kind of a weird noise in the walls and when you knock, somebody's will is hidden in there or something. There could be millions of dollars hidden in the walls of this place! You should look."
“Sure,” Sam nodded. “Not too loudly though as there’s other patients rooms on the other side in some spots and don’t try to tear into the walls either,” he said. It couldn’t hurt to let them have a little adventure of sorts. “Uh, who’re your doctors?” He asked, wondering if he should make a note to let the ones in charge of helping them get better know they were treasure hunting.
“I have Dr. Jack Skellington,” Shock said keeping her eyes on Sam, a bit uneasy as she stayed close to Gizmo. Easier to get taken down if they split up.
"...Dr. Hotchner and Dr. Reid," he said reluctantly, not wanting to get in trouble. He and Shock were just playing, and he didn't know if Dr. Hotchner would be okay with it or not. Probably not since the man seemed pretty serious sometimes.
“Just curious in case I’m asked. You two are fine. If you need anything just let me know,” Sam said with a smile and left to go put more books up.
“He’s hiding something,” Shock said slowly letting go of Gizmo and narrowing her eyes at Sam as he left. “Just like the gardener and the bellboy.”
He nodded, keeping his hand on Shock's shoulder for security purposes. "It's sometimes the librarian," he whispered thoughtfully, narrowing his eyes at Sam's retreating back.
“He just gives off those vibes you know, like in the movies and shows. It all points to him right off the bat then something comes up and proves his innocence only to be fake,” Shock said. “I wonder what he’s hiding.”
"You could be the real Daphne, and I could be Fred," he offered, looking over at her with an interested expression. "We could solve the mystery and be like, heroes."
“That would be cool,” Shock grinned. “I mean like we pretty much just got handed a mystery, so why not?” She said.
"What's the mystery though? To see if there's anything going on in the library?" he asked curiously.
“Yeah,” Shock nodded. “I mean the librarian is obviously hiding something. He just said that we were allowed to knock on walls. He probably thinks that what he’s got hidden is hidden so well that we would never find it.”
"Then maybe it isn't in the walls," he said thoughtfully, pursing his lips together and making a little 'hmmmm' sound of consideration.
“Then were could it be?” Shock mused as she turned to look around again trying to think of where something the librarian would want to hide would put it.
"I don't know, we'll have to think about it more," Gizmo suggested, then made a little excited noise and pulled a book down from the shelf. It was a pictorial history of rock music and he opened it, gazing at a huge full-color picture of Iggy Pop.
Laughing a bit at the noise, Shock looked over at the book. “Oh cool. It’s the Iggster,” she smirked a bit. The mystery forgotten for now, but would be thought of later while rock music took center stage.
"Yeah... I really like 'Raw Power'," he said thoughtfully, dropping into the nearest chair and pulling the book onto his lap to flip through. He studied each picture as if committing it to memory.
Shock watched Gizmo with a smile before she went to put her book back up then search for one herself. Wandering away a bit she looked at a few books before finding nothing that interested her. Seemed anything too violent, too erotic, too anything was gone.
When Sam passed by again, his arm full of books, Noah lifted his head. He hated asking the potential villain of the situation a question, because it broke the unspoken rules of the game he and Shock were playing, but he needed to. "These books, we can take them back to our rooms?" he asked hopefully.
“Yeah, sure,” Sam nodded with a smile. “I just need your name and room number. You’re allowed to keep them for three days, if you want them long just come let me know so I know their not lost,” he said setting the books down on the counter. “Is there one you want to check out?”
Shock was still wandering the aisles trying to find a book, but it seemed hopeless.
He hesitated, then put the book down on the counter to show Sam. "Um, do you have any that have smaller words, too?" he asked quietly, sort of ducking his head, that blush on his cheeks. It was always hard telling people about not being good at reading. "I want this one for the pictures, but... I can't read the stuff it says on the other pages."
“Yeah,” Sam said smiling still. It didn’t bother him in the least. He’d been illiterate for years himself. He knew how the other felt to say the least. “What kind of books were you looking for?”
"I don't know, just... good stories, I guess," he said, shifting from foot to foot and wrapping his arms across his chest like hugging himself. He was hoping that Shock wouldn't overhear, since he didn't want her to think he was dumb. He was doing his best to act normal around her so that she'd keep wanting to hang out with him. "I want to learn how to read better. But it might take me more than three days," he said earnestly.
“Ok, um. . .” Sam frowned in thought. “I think I might have a few for you, just follow me,” he smiled as he grabbed the books from the counter and put them on the book cart and started to lead Gizmo to some books he’d like. It was one of the larger carts too, came up to about his chest. Shock as crouched down at the end of one row looking at some R.L. Stine books that looked kind of interesting. All in black with a flickering light kind of became a camouflage for her as Sam accidentally let the cart right in front of her row blocking her in. Kicking the brakes on Sam led Gizmo to the young adult section where there was larger print and not so many big words. It was the same ones that he had learned on himself. “How about these?” He asked. “They’re fairly simple and they words are even bigger.”
"Do you know any that're good?" he asked curiously, studying the spines of the books with interest and tipping his head to the side to read them in the correct angle. At home, humiliatingly enough, he possessed mainly picture books, and even those his mother had sometimes had to step in and help him when he got frustrated.
“Uh yeah, I’ve read most of them,” Sam said nodding as he pulled one out. “Nancy Drew is pretty good. There’s even the Hardy Boys. They go around solving mysteries for people,” he said with smile as he pulled down tow books to show Gizmo.
"Like me and Addy," he said pointedly, then studied the covers. "I wonder how come it's always like, one girl, or two boys. Boys and girls never work together to solve mysteries. They should though."
“I don’t know,” Sam said thoughtfully. “But they team up in a few books. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys do that is. I think we even have a few of them as well,” he said looking before grabbing one and showing it to Gizmo.
He looked at them, flipping them over to peek at the back (and okay, maybe cracking the cover open to make sure the words weren't too big-looking) but then he nodded, a little shyly. "Can I take these then? If you think they're good," he said.
“Sure,” Sam said with a smile. “I can even have it to where you can have them for a week if you’d like,” he said leading Gizmo back to the counter, leaving the cart were it was.
"That'd be cool," Giz said, nodding a little. From the pocket of his cargo shorts he tugged a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses, sliding them into place over his eyes. The library wasn't blindingly bright, but it was well-lit to help the readers, and it was beginning to cause a little headache behind his eyes.
Sam took the books from Gizmo and wrote down which ones they were and which room he was in before putting it on the board behind him. “Alright, you’re all set,” he smiled sliding the books to the other man.
Shock having head the voices start to leave looked up setting the books down where she found them and went to leave. Only she couldn’t. Low and behold she was in a secret passageway and the door had closed. Kind of. At her height the cart pretty much had. Rushing over and trying to move the cart didn’t work as it was weighed down with books and the wheels locked. “Noah!” She cried a bit freaked out that she had actually been captured to a degree.
Noah lifted his head when he heard Shock yelp his name, and he turned away from the counter in confusion. "Shock?" he replied uncertainly, looking and not seeing her down any of the aisles immediately visible. "Shock, where are you?"
“I don’t know!” She said not even daring to climb the shelves as they looked about as stable as a piece of paper in a rain storm. “I think I found a secret passageway and now I’m captured or something,” she said hopping up to just peek over the top of the cart.
The last thing Sam needed was to have a patient suddenly get lost in his library. “Just calm down and keep talking so we can find you,” he said.
"We'll find you," he echoed, then looked a little worriedly at Sam. "I told you there was secret passageways!" he hissed accusingly, but with no meanness behind it. "Now she fell in one!"
“You’re the one that probably tripped it so you could capture me!” Shock cried accusingly at Sam. At least she kept talking. “You didn’t want us to find whatever it was that you were hiding.”
“I’m not hiding anything,” Sam said a bit confused as he and Gizmo kept working their way to the aisle that Shock had been trapped in.
"Are you only helping me find her so that you can lock us both in there?" he asked Sam, stopping mid-step and giving him a worried look. "'Cause I don't want to be trapped in the library..."
Sighing a bit, seeing as he had to rethink, Sam took a step back. “How about you go find her and I’ll stay out front that way you know I’m not going to try to trap you both?” He said offering a solution of sorts. “Is that ok?”
“Noah?” Shock said actually worried that she’d never be found.
"Okay but if I call for help you have to come," Noah informed him solemnly, then took off in the direction of her voice. He was a very loyal friend and would never leave her to perish in the stacks. "Addy? Addy say something so I can hear you," he said, very close to her aisle now.
“Of course,” Sam nodded and turned to go back to the desk. Oh this was a story to tell Jack that was for sure.
“I‘m over here,” she said before shooting up a hand to wave over the cart as Noah was actually taller than the cart. “I have my arm waving over the door thing,” she said holding onto the cart for balance as she stood on her tip toes.
"I see you!" Noah said excitedly, making his way over to her and then pausing. Slowly, intently, he reached for one of the books on the cart and tugged to see if it would make the cart move.
The cart stayed planted in front of the aisle. “Do you know how to get me out?” She asked wondering what was going on now.
"..I'm working on it," he told her seriously, tugging the books out one at a time and setting them neatly on the floor.
Bouncing on her heels she played with a little black braided necklace around her neck, eagerly waiting her rescue.
When he managed to get one shelf clear, he peeked through the hole he'd made. He could see her there. Oh good, he'd picked the right spot to start excavating. "Okay, wait... there has to be a way to move this," he said, pushing on the cart to no avail. Then he noticed the lever where the wheel brakes were enabled.
Looking through the part where Gizmo had cleared the books, she got on her knees to keep him in eyesight kind of. “Did you figure it out?” She asked hearing him trying to push the cart.
"Yeah, I think I just did," he admitted, yanking on the brake lever. The wheels unlocked with a popping sound and he pushed the cart experimentally. It slid easily across the floor. "Okay, I got it," Giz said happily, moving the cart out of the way to 'free' her.
Shock was off the floor with her arms around Gizmo’s neck in a big hug. “Oh God I thought I was gonna be stuck forever!” She cried. It was a bit over exaggerated, but it was their game whether she was consciously playing it or not. She was Daphne and he was Fred. Fred always saved Daphne.
He grinned, hugging her back, his arms around her shoulders. She was so little, it felt like he could've just picked her up and carried her. "I wasn't gonna let you stay there forever," he assured her.
“I know,” she said smiling up at him as she let go of Gizmo. “Thanks for rescuing me Fred,” she giggled beaming a bit. It was a look that suited her. Not the evil, conniving, devious, or sour looks that were on her face usually.
It took him a sec to catch on, and then he let go of her, letting her step back. "You're welcome, Daphne," he said honestly, grinning and bending down to replace Sam's books on the cart.
Helping Gizmo put the books back on the cart, it didn’t take very long. “Ok, I think we’re in the clear now,” she said standing up and straightening her clothes a bit. “Think we can give him the slip?” She asked, semi serious as she knew Sam probably didn’t mean to block her in the aisle
"Yeah, I have to get my books though," he said a little proudly. He had books, ones that were actually coming to live in the room he shared with Dean for a little while. He planned to work his way through at least one of them so that he could tell Sam.
“Ok,” Shock nodded. She could tell he was happy that he had found some books to read and was happy for him. Walking back out to the front with Gizmo she gave Sam a suspicious look.
“I’m glad you managed to get her out alright,” Sam said smiling none the less. “Here’re your books. Out of curiosity so I can keep others from falling into the hidden passageway, where was she?”
"Behind the cart. Which was locked," Gizmo said in that 'I can't believe you're playing innocent' voice, tilting his head to study Sam before taking the books and lifting one brow. "But I got her out."
“Well that’s good then,” Sam nodded wondering if the two were going to jump him for questioning or just leave. He wouldn’t be surprised by either, but he was calm through out the whole situation. It was the best thing to be. “I’ll be more careful about where I put the cart from now on. Promise.”
“We’ll be keeping an eye on you,” Shock said giving him a look. Without thinking she took Gizmo’s hand that wasn’t holding the books and started to lead the other out of the library.
Gizmo followed her, gripping her hand in case any ghosts sick of their meddling decided to swoop in and try to pull her through a wall or something, the books held protectively in his other hand.