Just A Dayjob (for Cat)

[Yumi Murakami]

"I hate Mondays," mumbled Yumi.

That was Garfield's line, wasn't it? Stupid comic. Peanuts was better. Charlie Brown's existential sadness was far sadder and funnier than any of Garfield's pranks on dumb, lovable Odie. And Snoopy's a huge baller.

She picked up a worn, red book, code 831.47 from the wheeled book-carrier and placed it beside a book on...something. Academic jargon smashed blandly against the walls of Yumi's brain. Booooooring. The few professional essays that Yumi had deigned to read over the course of her academic career had told her all she needed to know about the world of professional academia and its pretentious idiocies.

She reached a hand for one of the rings circling her lower lip, jiggled it. Her snake fangs were the newest piercings she'd added to her collection, and even two months down the line she still wasn't quite used to them.

"Next is...842.24." Easy enough. She pushed the trolley down exactly one aisle. Between the aisles she spotted one of her fellow co-workers passing down the row.

"Hey there," Yumi said to the younger girl. Quietly, of course. "What's up?"

(Super short will do better PROMISE)

[Catherine Novella]

It was a Monday and Cat was working at her job. She was happy with what she was doing and it was easiest to lose herself in the shelves of stories.

Cat was happy enough wandering around then actually working, though she had grabbed some of the books that had needed to be shelved as she walked in she wasn't actually officially on duty yet. Her shift started later and she was just killing time until then.

That meant shelving books and helping people off the records.

She was sure Eli had noticed, but since he hadn't commented on it she continued. Until he did she would be the one who came in and just worked.

Sometimes she would sit and read, others she would fix the books. Most often she was helping people find places where their books were located.It was then that she was able to help others enjoy reading.

She had just helped a patron and was scanning the books when she heard a voice. She had been absorbed in the story and was surprised that someone was talking to her. She quickly looked to see who it was and almost immediately shrank back. The coworker was talking to her.

In general Cat avoided most of the other coworkers. They tended to not understand her and she was happier to be by herself. This one in particular was always loud around Cat. she shifted her gaze so it was looking at the floor and mumbled talking back to Yumi.

"Nothing much... I just helped a patron find a book on Eisenstein."

Hopefully she would get out of this without too much trouble.

[Yumi Murakami]

"Ah," said Yumi knowingly. "Eisenstein."

Of course, she had no idea who that was. Even after working at the library for two years, now, it was difficult for her to keep track of the various authors and scholars that made up Hammel's collection. You could only memorize so many foreign names before your brain shut down, Yumi's boss notwithstanding. (Especially the Germans...Yumi wondered what on Earth could cause them to need so many syllables?) Eli remained one of the few people Yumi felt even faintly cowed by--it was a private desire of hers to ask a question he didn't actually know the answer to, but she was no closer to this dream now than she was two years before.

The girl's gaze had fallen to the floor. Was she...yes, she was honestly nervous. Yumi almost laughed out loud. It was far from the first time that her appearance had perturbed another, but something about the girl's forlorn, downcast expression struck her as unbearably...well, cute.

Like a little bird, she thought. Slender. Delicate. Flighty. Pretty. She couldn't have been any more than...what, fifteen, sixteen?

This wasn't the first time she'd run into the other girl, of course. But the younger woman tended to shy away from conversing with Yumi, for whatever reason.

Yumi bent down, spoke. "You think you could help me shelve these?" She gestured to the cart, which was still overflowing with books. Was she old enough to call a teenager “kid?” She was older, sure, but only by a few years. It hadn’t been that long ago that Yumi herself had wandered down Hammel’s halls, yet another student making up a cog in the tremendous machine that was the school.

A treacherous voice whispered in the back of her mind. And it’s not like you’re going anywhere, are you? What are you doing with your life? You’re not nearly as capable as you’d like...

Yumi ignored it. Not a flicker crossed her face, only the faintly sassy smile of a confident young woman.

[Yumi Murakami]

((Yo dude, you there? Or is it game over?))

[Catherine Novella]

Cat nodded as her words were repeated. Could she go now?

The particular student was into Russian films. Esienstien just happened to be a playwright. Somehow Hammel had a few of his works. How Hammel had such an extensive library she wouldn't know. She still didn't know how it managed to have so many after the year shes been here. It wasn't a good thing that she didn't know what was the system and how it worked. She did know that she was going to figure it out by the time she graduated though. That was the good thing. Cat was determined that she would figure it out.

Cat kept her gaze low. She didn't want to talk to this loud person and she was defiantly out of her element when talking to her. She didn't want to offend Yumi but she also didn't want to get swept up in the being that was Yumi. after all Yumi was a very loud person in the library and Cat liked quiet.

She hoped she would be released from this meeting soon. That would be a good thing. Then she could go back to doing her job, well undercover of course.

Every meeting with her co-worker proved a bit.. well a bit scary. It was obvious that Cat would try to avoid Yumi and the conversations that would tend to ensue.

Cat eyed the overflowing cart of books. they really needed to be put away and it was sort of bugging her that they had been left to accumulate and escalate into the amount that was sitting there. "All right, where do you want me to start?" It would mean less for her to do once her shift started.

That would be a welcome change, even though Cat liked shelving the books that she could.Most of the time she was kept busy, but it was the rare days when she had the library all to herself that cat was truly happy.

A happy Cat was always a good thing.

[Yumi Murakami]

"Where should you start?" A faint smirk crossed Yumi's face. "I dunno. I've been working from the top, so...I guess start at the bottom and we'll meet up in the middle, okay?"

She directed another quick, confident smile at the girl before bending to her task. Now that she'd asked the girl for assistance, she felt just the tiniest bit guilty. It was clear that the younger girl wanted nothing to do with Yumi--her nervous posture and the completely unenthusiastic response gave her away. Geez, dude, I was just trying to be nice. You're not always going to be able to withdraw like that, you know? Some day we're going to have to join the real world.

In response to these thoughts, Yumi gave a firm couple of shakes of her head. Chill out, dude, she chided herself. She's not that old. Play nice. Time to try a different tactic.

"You got any plans for the weekend?" Yumi asked as she withdrew another book. She opened it, quickly flipped through a couple of pages and sniffed; the book's aroma washed upwards into her nostrils. A pleased smile appeared on her face. "Got a date with a cute boy?" she went on, grinning.

Ooh, she's not going to like that one, thought Yumi.