B O O K S ? what's that?

[howie]

[W] to be safe
Tagged- Jenny O'donovan.
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Daniel Jones slowly entered the seemingly quiet but crowded bookstore for the first time.
Yes, It was his first time actually going into a place that contained books. Well, there was one time in tenth grade that he was forced to go to the National library on a school field trip, but that was it.
It was a bad habit of his. He had a very short attention span. He never managed to focus on one thing for 10 minutes. Reading books just made it harder.

Unfortunately for him, Uni had been very difficult for him to cope without reference and text books.
Electronics courses were harder than he thought it would be . He always had a thing for anything made of metal, or machinery, and he found out why when he first discovered his powers.
It was almost like his calling, just like music, when his late father bought him his first guitar, with, unknown to him, Sangelean symbols on it.

Danny went into the 'Education' section and flipped through the books. Nothing he wanted.
The bookstore's labeling of books were so confusing to the man, with the same categories spread out all over the place. His head was spinning, but everyone seem so calm, they knew what they were doing, unlike himself.
After twenty minutes of failing attempts to find the books he wanted, the musician decided to suck it up and decided to ask someone for help. The mean old lady at the counter wasn't much helpful, she only made things more complicated by revealing another whole section of the bookstores.

''Aww come on...'' he muttered as he kicked slightly at a small shelf nearby. He wasn't a major in Physics, he obviously didn't see it coming. The shelf started to tilt, and it smashed onto the gorund.Books were sprawled all over the floor. The old lady snarled at him angrily.
''Don't worry, I got it. I got it..'' he announced to everyone. Dan pushed the shelf back up and started to arrange the books. This was why he hated books.

[jenny]

Earlier that afternoon, towards the end f lunch time to be exact, Jenny had finished the book she had been reading – ‘Me & Emma’. As usually the book left her lost in a world of thought until the end of her final class which she could barely remember the subject never mind the topic of the lesson. It was always the way, for Jenny was a dreamer. It was why she escaped to her books when she had a few spare minutes, because if she read even a few pages she could dwell on them for hours. Her mind would pick apart meanings behind thoughts and she could compare them to her own life sometimes too. It allowed her to daydream and kept her mind focused when she returned to the real world. Unfortunately though, she had finished said book that day and she had to get another one. Maybe a goof thriller would keep her entertained next…

After her last class she took the liberty of being able to leave the school campus (being eighteen had its merits) and took a quick drive across the city to one of the larger shopping malls. She hated these places. How anyone could or would voluntarily spend hours here, being jostled and bumped about my other screaming, giggling, hollering teenagers she had no idea. It never appealed to her, and never seemed very productive in the end. If this was how these people had to relax then so be it, but she’d be more likely to be found away from the crowds and the noise that she avoided so well.

Truthfully, if she had a mission to get something she really wanted, she’d face the throngs to get it without a question, and today she had a mission; a new book. She could almost feel the temptation of curling up in her bed later that night with a bar of chocolate a new book. What more could she possibly want?

The bookshop wasn’t nearly as full as the mall outside and that much wasn’t surprising. It was as though the entirety of the teenage population of Marseille didn’t have the brain capacity to read a book for fun. Ok, so maybe that was a tad harsh – she did now some people who preferred a book to a beer. What really got to her though were the reactions people her own age gave her when she’d whip out a novel at any given moment. It was as thought they’d never herd anything as obscene as reading for fun. It was depressing really. But on the up-side it meant that the bookshop was never busy, no matter how many people swarmed the place outside. And it was always peaceful.

The bell over the door tinkled as she pushed her way inside, a small smile lighting her face at the smell of pressed paper and furniture polish filled her senses. She always felt at home in these places. This particular shop was her favourite. It was the largest she had found in Marseille so far and never failed t have a book to take her fancy. She knew the layout like the back of her hand, and she found the thriller section in seconds. There, she stopped and drew a long and settling breath. Her bright, toffee coloured eyes scanned the first couple of shelves for names and titles she may have heard of before, and she just started on the third shelf when a huge crash made her jump out of her skin.

She shrieked and slapped her hand over her mouth before she could stop it. The crash, whatever it was, was not to far away, maybe only two aisles. She paused, trying to decide whether she should go to have a look or to leave the commotion for someone else’s business, but curiosity always got the better of her. She grabbed the book her fingertip was resting on and went to have a look. When she rounded the corner she froze. And then tried her hardest not to laugh. People were staring already and the shopkeeper looked about ready to explode, and in the middle of the commotion was one Daniel Jones. She felt for him, really, and she couldn’t just leave him to tidy it all up by himself. She waited for a minute though until everyone stopped staring, and then bent down to help.

“You just had to make a point of being in here, didn’t you,” she said quietly, her brown eyes alight with the laughter that lifted her tones. She knew as well as Danny did that he hated reading, which made the whole situation even more laughable. She started picking up books and putting them back on on their respective shelves, automatically staking them back in alphabetical order.

[howie]

That day couldn't be worse. It was already bad enough that he had to enter the 'maze' of books, and now everyone was staring at him, watching him as he rushed to rearrange the books . Dan thanked god that everyone stopped watching and returned to whatever they were doing.

Most of them, anyway. The grumpy old lady at the counter was still glaring at him, as if she was waiting to spit out fire.
''I said I got it, okay? just..chill out, ma'am'' he replied, but it only made her even more mad. Danny decided to just shut up and picked up the rest of the books.
The truth was he hadn't got it, he didn't know in what order the books were arranged in. 'this is just like Algebra ' he thought,reminiscing back to his tough high school years.


After a few minutes of figuring out where to put the books, Daniel gave up. ''That's it..'' he muttered as he simply stuffed the books in the shelf. He couldn't care less. Out of the blue, came these smooth ,feminine hands, reaching down on one of the books on the floor. The hands were followed by a familiar voice. The surprised musician looked up.
It was Jenny O'donovan. Of all the girls he'd dated, she was the smartest one . She was more of a nerd the all the others, but that was what attracted Daniel in the first place. She has the brains, and the looks. Standing up to face his ex, Dan gave her a huge grin, revealing his perfectly white teeth.

''Well Jenny, you know me. I always make a scene. '' he teased. ''Even when I don't want to, in this case.'' he added. It was a relief to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place, but he wasn't surprised to see Jenny there.
''So, what brings you here? Oh wait. Nevermind.'' he joked. He was a very sarcastic person, he just couldn't help it.
''Thanks for the help.'' he said in appreciation.
''This place is ..crazy I tell ya.''
he said.

[jenny]

Soooooo sorry for taking so long! <3

---

With a scolding sideways glance Jenny pulled all of the books Danny had put back off the shelf again. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand it was things being out of order. Especially when everything had its own order in the first place. So she pulled them all back to the floor, to another glare from the grouchy old woman behind the counter, and started stacking them back in alphabetical order. It was simple really. She bent down and picked up another bundle to put back on the shelves and when she straightened it was to find Danny standing upright and looking straight at her with a huge grin on his handsome face.

The shock of seeing him suddenly facing her had her coughing slightly, and a faint blush rising to her cheeks, so she turned back to the shelf and put the books back on them as she listened to his talk. She almost felt sorry for his little scene. Almost. Probably if she could stop the laugh from escaping her lungs she would have showed some pity, but it was just too hysterical to see a serious side in it. Right up until his sarcastic remark about why she was there. Then her laugh was silenced and she narrowed her eyes at him before gathering more books.

“You’re welcome… I think,” she answered with a trace of sombreness in her voice. “It’s obvious why I’m here… I mean, I can read… but you…?” She raised a wicked eyebrow at him, pure revenge for his comment before. But she couldn’t hold it against him. It wasn’t in her nature to be as sarcastic as Daniel was. In a strange way it was their opposites that had them friends (and dating) in the first place. Danny showed Jenny things that she would never have discovered on her own, and she liked to think she did the same for him. Or at least tried to. He was in a bookshop after all.

No, Jenny and Danny made an extremely diverse couple when they dated those months ago. He was her first friend from moving from England, and her first boyfriend to boot, but even people that barely knew her knew that she and Danny were nothing alike. People like her room mate and her brother told her that people like Danny Jones ate people like Jenny O’Donovan for breakfast. They told her she should be intimidated, scared or wary. But she didn’t listen. Danny never hurt her and was faithful (as far as she could tell) and while his wild side was a lot larger than hers no harm came from it.

“Its not crazy…” she answered, her mind immediately comparing his idea of crazy to hers, and realising that they were each other’s ‘normal’. She smiled. “Do you need a hand? Was there something in particular you were looking for, or did you just get lost? This is a book shop after all….”