Sleepyhead (open)

[Alexandra Choi]

In a relatively secluded area of the library, where warm sunlight luckily blessed just the right amount of area, a girl was sleeping. Her head was on the table face down, while the rest of her body sat down on a chair. Her left hand was hanging down, but her right hand was holding something that looked like a soda can - except, it wasn't aluminum; it was made out of a crystal-clear glass. When observed at a closer distance, one would also see that her left hand was barely holding onto a stopwatch that informed no one that it had been 41 minutes, 25.943 seconds and counting.

Alexa was, in fact, in a middle of a very rigorous training to develop her powers. To be more precise, she was trying to lessen the side effect of using her powers. It seemed that every time she utilized her power, she almost instantly fell asleep for at least thirty minutes. Only, so far it had been quite more than 30 minutes when no one was there to wake her up. She blamed it all on her powers, but in reality she was just a lazy bum who has no will to wake up.

The stopwatch now read 42 minutes, 54.127 seconds and counting. Alexa began to shift around, while murmuring something that resembled no known human language. She suddenly woke up and raised her head in a quick succession, then grasped her stopwatch and stopped it. Her neck was quite sore, her messy hair was in her face, and her eyes were so unfocused she had to stare at the stopwatch for several seconds before learning that she failed to shorten the 'extraneous' time she spent on sleeping after using her powers. It took even more seconds for her to realize that someone was standing next to the same table. Her eyes were still not quite woken up yet, and she couldn't really see who was there.

"Oh..." She coughed a little. "Hello, there." She said, still groggy and quite not woken up.

[Summer Fox]

Summer was wandering through the aisles of the library aimlessly, not really headed for any particular place. Right after she had arrived at Hammel, she had made a beeline for this place, ignoring any other temptations the buildings might hold. There was absolutely nothing better than a gorgeous, well-stocked library. Breathing in, she could practically smell the books, even though she knew that technically, an airy library like this shouldn't really smell of anything at all. It didn't matter. Smell or no smell, this place was wonderful. She hadn't wanted to come to Hammel in the first place, not really (not that there was anything worth staying for at home, but she'd had enough change for a lifetime, thanks all the same), but the library almost made up for all of it, if she could spend time here every day. Some things in life--like libraries filled with wonderful books that she hadn't read before--were worth uprooting to some boarding school for. They were few and far between, but apparently, they existed.

Turning a corner, she came upon a little nook with a nice little table. It would have been the ideal place to stop with a good book to waste a little time reading, but unfortunately it was already occupied by a sleeping girl who had forgotten to turn off her stopwatch. Not wanting to disturb her, she made to tiptoe away when she caught sight of a book, way up on one of the top shelves, just next to the girl. Her breath caught in her throat, and she stared at it longingly. Summer wanted to learn everything, but if pressed, she would admit to some small prejudices in her about just what the most wonderful kinds of information were. Most of these had to do with physics, especially the freaky, really-ought-to-belong-in-a-science-fiction-novel kind. Special relativity. Quantum mechanics. It made almost no sense to her, and irrationally, she just loved it more.

She had read a review of that book a few weeks ago, and had wanted to read it ever since. Her school library didn't have it (of course), and it had been checked out from the city libraries she had gone to. Moving to a tiny town in Vermont, she had almost given up hope, but there it was, sitting on the shelf like a dream come true. Except for the bit where it was sitting just above the head of a girl Summer really didn't want to disturb. Biting her lip, she glanced at the girl, and then looked at the book again.

The temptation was too strong. She crossed over to the shelf as quietly as she could, and stood on her tiptoes, trying to tease the bottom of the book out from the shelf with her fingertips. It was difficult, and she almost stumbled several times before catching herself and casting worried looks on the sleeping girl. She was so engrossed in her task that she didn't notice the other girl stir.

"Oh... Hello, there."

Summer gasped, fumbling the book as it finally came off the shelf. Trying to catch it, she flailed wildly and fell and her back, the book falling heavily on her stomach. She groaned in pain, and then her eyes popped open, horrified.

She sprang back into a sitting position, full of apologies. "Oh my god, did I wake you up? I didn't mean to, I swear, I was trying to be quiet, I really didn't want to disturb you, I, um, I'm so, so sorry, that is, um, I, um..." She realized she babbling awfully and took a deep breath to steady herself. She was terrible at talking to strangers, which had been half the reason she had kept so quiet. She would much prefer to just curl up by herself with a book and not talk to anyone, ever, but clearly she had screwed that up. Calming herself, she said in a much more composed manner, "I apologize for my mistakes. Please forgive me."

[Alexandra Choi]

"Huh? There was a what?" Alexa said, still quite disoriented. The person in front of her spoke way too fast for her half-asleep brain, and it took another series of stretches and yawns before she could actually see that it was a girl who looked around her age... maybe a bit younger. She rubbed her eyes and tried to focus her sight. Yep, probably younger.

"I apologize for my mistakes. Please forgive me."

"H-huh?" Alexa said, now more or less woken up but still extremely confused. The girl's very formal and sincere tone made Alexa feel very out of place, and it threw her off completely... more so than she already was. "There was a mistake?" Did she accidentally change the soda can into something other than glass as she intended? Aluminum alloy and oxygen from carbonated drink to SiO₂ was pretty simple, but maybe she changed it into magnesium... and oxygen? Panicking, she looked over to the soda can that her hand was still holding. It was definitely glass, and not an exploding can of reacting magnesium. Right, otherwise my hand would really hurt right now. Relaxing slightly, she soon figured that the girl probably meant she had made a mistake and not Alexa. Feeling a bit stupid (and rightfully so), she awkwardly laughed while scratching her head.

"Um... It's okay. I guess." Alexa said uncertainly. "I mean, what happened? Sorry, I was trying to shorten the time that I have to spend sleeping after... Nah, that's not important. But I didn't catch what happened." She paused. "So, what happened exactly?" Alexa looked over to a book that fell on the floor. Is she talking about that? "That's not mine, so it's okay." She said, smiling friendly.

[Summer Fox]

Summer kept her head down, grabbing the book and pushing herself up from the floor. She ached a little, and she felt stupider than a bread box (though come to think of it, that didn't even make any kind of sense). She might not be gifted with grace or wit, but she was good at taking care of herself, and yet here she was, lying on the ground because she'd been startled by a girl waking up. If she could feel more ashamed of herself, she didn't know how.

Brushing herself off, she realized that the sleeping girl had no idea what had happened. She couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. On the one hand, she hadn't witnessed the truly spectacular failure that was Summer's attempt to get the book and her subsequent fright when someone said hello to her. On the other hand, that meant that Summer presumably had to explain, since she had already apologized, and he had no particular desire to live through the whole debacle again. Nevertheless, some things had to be done.

"Oh, um, I thought I'd woken you up. That is, um, I was trying to get a book that was over your head, and I was trying really hard not to wake you up, and then you woke up anyway, which is probably because I was making too much noise or bumped you or something--which I'm very sorry about, and then I fell over and it's possible I hit you then too." Certainly her elbow had hit something, though she wasn't sure if it had been a person or just a piece of furniture.

She paused, trying to think if there was anything else she had to say. Deciding there wasn't, she bent down to pick up the book, and then looked at the sleepy girl. "Like I said, I'm very sorry. I won't disturb you anymore. Please, get back to your rest. Obviously, you are very tired."