Okie, here's the next chapter. n.n Tones things down quite a bit now that
the whole J owl/S tension's gone for the time being. n.n; But there's
original Nintendo! Feel the retro-y goodness! 3 *cough* Anyway...
Disc: . o O (Why do I still bother with this thing? o.o)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah's parents had been reluctant to let Jareth stay, to put it mildly. Karen had stated vehemently that he was unsafe, messy, wild and far too unpredictable. Sarah insisted that most pets were messy, he wasn't unsafe at the moment, everything was unpredictable at times, and couldn't she see that he was obviously not as wild as they'd thought? The two of them had argued about it for hours, with Sarah's father sitting on the fence for the most part and occasionally agreeing with something one or the other had said.
In the end, Sarah won. Despite all of Karen's objections, it was difficult to just dismiss the evidence in front of them, especially when the subject of their dispute was sitting calmly in Sarah's lap and allowing her to pet him. Karen was forced to back down, but she made her stepdaughter promise to give the owl up without question if there was so much as one more incident. Sarah was loath to agree, but she really had little choice. It was that, or give him up immediately.
One thing they both agreed on was that Jareth was to stay in Sarah's room. Sarah was feeling possessive and wanted to keep him with her, and Karen positively forbade her to let him wander her nice clean house and put the rest of the family at risk. After all, forming an attachment with Sarah did not mean he was willing to get along with the rest of them, and Toby especially would not be endangered because of a pet. And Sarah would have to accept full responsibility for the owl, including keeping him fed and cleaning up after him. Sarah was more than willing to agree to this particular term. She'd seen first-hand how well her father and stepmother had 'cared for' Jareth, and she wasn't about to let them try that again. Besides, it would give them the right to claim partial ownership, and Sarah didn't trust Karen to live up to her end of the bargain and leave her stepdaughter's owl alone. She wasn't about to give the older woman any leeway if she could help it.
That had been three days ago. One of the first things Sarah had done, once she'd agreed to look after Jareth entirely on her own, was to call the librarian and inquire about the job she had been offered. Mrs. Jenkinson had been happy to give her a position, and today was her first day of work.
Jareth sat in his box, preening his wings carefully. Karen and Robert were studiously avoiding Sarah's room now that they were relieved of all responsibility towards him, so he wasn't bothered by them anymore. The box was more comfortable than the carry case by far, and the house was reasonably quiet, allowing him time to think and catch up on his sleep. He had more or less fallen into a regular sleeping pattern as of late, and fortunately, Sarah's place of employment was close enough to her home so that he suffered no discomfort in that area.
All told, he was considerably better off now that he was back in Sarah's good graces. He really should have tried acting tame sooner. Sarah was thrilled to have him behaving civilly, and by the way she practically gushed over him (now that he was willing to let her), it seemed as though she didn't hate him as much as he had thought, at least not anymore. It was still embarrassing, being thought of as a pet, but he'd get back at her for that soon enough. For now, he was considering how to use this newfound trust to his advantage. The other family members wouldn't come near him, so as long as he didn't attack Sarah again, he was in a good position to plan out his next move. And he would -never- attack Sarah again. Revenge was one thing, but physically harming her was another entirely.
Besides, it would be a hindrance to his scheming to do so. He needed his powers back, first and foremost. Sarah wasn't aware that she was in possession of them, and she was proving to be far too fickle as of late to be trusted with maintaining them without that knowledge. Since he couldn't just enlighten her, Jareth needed to retrieve them before she unwittingly did something irreversible. Anything else was secondary, revenge included, and thus he wasn't about to endanger his new position until he had milked it for all it was worth. All he had to do was bide his time. If he played his cards right, she'd wish his powers back to him all on her own.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah was really enjoying her new job. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, most of her co-workers were just as fond of a good story as she was, and the work was fairly easy. It took her a little while to familiarize herself with the shelving system (they used the Dewey Decimal system, which was completely numerical and took some getting used to), but she got the hang of it fairly quickly.
Mrs. J (as Sarah had taken to calling her when she started working there) was a fairly good employer, as bosses went. She was very understanding when it came to homework and other commitments, and Sarah was given very flexible hours. The library wasn't terribly busy, but being one of the only branches in town, they got a good chunk of the local business and so the pay wasn't bad.
There were, of course, the few bad apples who came in and always managed to give the staff a hard time. Sarah really liked the job too much to let it get to her for the most part, but this afternoon in particular was shaping out to be one of those days where she was beginning to wish she'd just decided to call in sick.
She went to shelve some books on the cart with a sigh. It was pouring rain outside, and almost half the people who had come so far had been muddy and irritable. She'd already had to help several grouchy people who obviously thought she had nothing better to do than spend hours helping them find the right book. Granted that it was her job, but she was still new here, and no one had really had a specific book in mind. Saying 'I'll know it when I see it' was all fine and good for them, but it didn't help Sarah in the least.
She glanced at the clock. Another 25 minutes, she reminded herself, and she could go home. Today had been insanely busy, a phenomenon which, according to her co-workers, wasn't unusual at all for a rainy Saturday. There were a lot of children especially, as parents tried to find something to occupy their little ones on such a cold, wet day.
In fact, here came some now, Sarah noted with an internal groan as an impatient-looking woman called for her attention, three preschool-aged children trailing behind her.
"Excuse me," the woman said. One of her tag-alongs tugged on her pant leg and she shushed him.
"Yes?" Sarah plastered on a helpful smile.
"I need help finding a certain book," the woman informed her, naming a title Sarah didn't recognize.
"Just a minute, I'll check for you," Sarah replied, heading over to the filing cards. "It doesn't seem to be here," she announced after a moment of searching the appropriate drawer without success.
"The lady I spoke with on the phone a few days ago told me you had it," the woman replied coolly.
"Did she put it on hold for you?" Sarah asked, while trying to remain polite.
"She offered, but I wasn't sure when I would be in to pick it up, so I told her not to bother." The woman shrugged. Sarah wanted to tell her that they could have held it for her anyway, but decided that it wasn't worth risking an argument.
"One moment while I check to see if we have it on file," Sarah told her, heading over towards the nearest terminal. The computers the library had were fairly new, and Sarah was still a little nervous about using them. She reassured herself that it wasn't that hard as she brought up the search key and typed in the information. She drummed her fingers on the countertop nervously while the computer crunched on the data.
"Here it is," she smiled when a list of titles and authors popped up onto the screen. "You wanted this one, right?" Sarah tapped the monitor and the woman nodded.
"That's the one," she agreed as Sarah grabbed a slip of paper and copied down the number of the book's location on the shelves.
"Okay, right this way," Sarah glanced at the code and headed down the appropriate aisle. She found the section she wanted and scanned the shelves while the woman hovered. After a moment, she pulled a book free and handed it to the other woman. "Here you are," she announced proudly.
The woman looked at the cover and frowned. "This isn't the book I wanted."
Sarah's smile fell. "Huh? It's not?" She read the title aloud. "'Harry's Home Improvement Handbook: A Guide For Do-It-Yourselfers'?"
Sure enough, a cursory glance at the other titles confirmed it. They were in the wrong section altogether.
"I don't understand," Sarah puzzled, looking at the slip of paper in her hand. Had she copied the code down wrong?
The other woman let out an annoyed sigh. "You're new here, aren't you?" She snapped on her way back to the terminal. Sarah followed behind meekly. "Had to get stuck with the new girl," the woman was muttering as she looked at the monitor. "See, you didn't scroll down." She pointed to a little flashing arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the orange and black screen.
Sarah felt like kicking herself. How could she have missed that?
"You copied down the wrong code," The woman continued in a patronizing tone. "That's for the branch downtown."
"Oh.." Sarah said sheepishly. "Oops."
"Yeah, 'oops'." The woman scribbled down the right code, muttering about incompetent staff. Sarah felt ashamed as the woman walked away. She crouched down to re-shelve some books that the woman's son had pulled out onto the floor, her hair hanging down to conceal her flaming cheeks. The lady had percieved that she was new. Did she have to have been so rude? Her embarrassment turned to anger as she headed back to the shelf where she had been putting books away. If the woman had known how to use the search engine, she should have just done it herself!
There was a man standing beside the almost-empty cart when she got back to it. He was picking some of them up and adding them to the pile on one arm. He looked up with a frown as she approached. "Excuse me... do you know what happened to the rest of the books in this pile?"
"What pile?" Sarah asked intelligently.
"There was a pile of books here on the Renaissance that I was going to take out," he responded in a tone that implied that she should know that already. Sarah sighed. Today just wasn't working for her.
"I'm sorry," she told him apologetically, "I thought they were going back on the shelf. I can help you find them again if you want."
"You re-shelved them!?" The young man exploded. "But it took me all afternoon to find them! I have a huge paper to write for Monday!"
"I'm sorry," Sarah repeated, "They were on the cart of books to be re- shelved. If you want me to help you find them all again, I will."
The man gave her a dirty look. "No, thank you, I'll find them on my own," he muttered angrily.
Sarah watched him stalk off and leaned over on the counter, dropping her head onto her arms. She'd never felt so incompetent in her life. Everyone was getting angry at her today. "I can't do anything right, can I," she sighed to no one in particular.
She checked her watch. Twelve more minutes. Close enough.
"Hey Sarah, you heading off for the day?" One of her co-workers, Jesse, asked as Sarah came into the staff room and reached for her coat.
"Yeah," Sarah nodded. "You know if it's still raining out?"
"Pouring," Jesse affirmed. "Hope you brought an umbrella."
Sarah sighed and made a face. "No, I didn't."
"You poor thing." Jesse looked sympathetic. "Do you want a ride home? I'm off in an hour if you don't mind waiting around for a bit."
"No, that's alright," Sarah smiled weakly at the other girl. "It's not far from here, I can walk."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I just wanna get home. Thanks for the offer, though." Sarah pulled the zipper tab up on her jacket and headed out the door. "I'll see you around."
"Later," Jesse called after her.
Sarah was soaked by the time she got home 20 minutes later. She fished around for her house key, only to discover that she didn't have it. "Great..." she grumbled. Sighing, she checked all the doors and windows, but they were all locked. Karen and her dad must have stepped out. They'd have taken Toby with them, so Sarah concluded that they wouldn't be gone for too long.
Alex was standing on his front porch with a lit cigarette when she came back around to wait by her front door. "Hey, Sar, you locked out?" He called.
"Yeah, forgot my key," she called back. "Gotta wait for Karen and Dad to get back."
"Wanna come wait in here? It's a hell of a lot better than sitting on the porch," Alex offered. "I was just gonna make some hot chocolate if you want some."
"Sounds good." Sarah smiled and walked over to join him.
"Just a sec while I finish my smoke," Alex told her. He inhaled a few more times and flicked the smouldering butt out into the lawn, and they both went inside.
"Alexander," Mrs. Andrews called from the kitchen. "You better not be throwing your cigarette butts on my lawn again!"
Alex smirked at Sarah. "No, Mother." Sarah stifled a laugh.
"Who's that with you?" Alex's mom came into the front hallway, drying her hands on a faded dishtowel. "Oh, hello, Sarah! I haven't seen you in a while!"
"Hello, Mrs. Andrews," Sarah smiled.
"We're just gonna make some hot chocolate and head down to the basement, Mom," Alex explained, grabbing Sarah and pulling her into the kitchen before his mother could initiate a conversation.
"Alright, well, I'm finished in there anyway." Mrs. Andrews called, taking the hint. "You two behave yourselves."
"Yes, Mother," Alex rolled his eyes and put some water into a tea kettle to boil. "So how's that new job going, anyway?" He asked Sarah while they waited.
"In general? It's fine, I love it. But don't even get me started on today." Sarah sighed.
"Why, what happened?" Alex picked an orange out of the fruit bowl and started tossing it absently.
Sarah shrugged. "Rude people who didn't want to cut the new employee some slack."
"Shitty," Alex commented.
"Well, most of the time it's not so bad. I can deal with one or two grouchy people. There were just a lot of them today," she said defensively. "Besides, it beats flipping burgers at McDonald's."
"Hey, don't bad-mouth flipping burgers!" Alex protested with a grin to show that he was joking.
"Right, your job, I forgot."
"Hey, it's extra cash," Alex shrugged. "I'm only in it for the experience, anyway, then I'll get a better job."
"What do you need the money for, anyway?" Sarah asked as Alex poured the cocoa powder into mugs and added the boiling water.
"Really, Sar, you need to ask?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Smokes ain't cheap, y'know."
"You could quit," Sarah pointed out.
"Easier said than done." He dropped a few squares of chocolate into the mugs, followed by some marshmallows and a mint each. He shook up a can of whipped cream and sprayed some into the top before handing a mug to Sarah.
"Wow," Sarah blinked. "Overkill much?"
"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it," Alex admonished as he led the way downstairs. His basement was almost exactly the way Sarah remembered it from years ago, with the addition of a Nintendo wired to the big old TV they used to watch movies on as kids.
"Hey, can we play?" She asked, glancing at the pile of games lying beside the little grey console.
"Sure," Alex picked up the tangle of cords that were the controllers and started to unwind them. "Which one did you wanna play?"
"Hmm, I don't know..." Sarah skimmed the titles. She picked up one game and looked at it. "How about this one?"
Alex flipped on the TV and glanced at the gold cartridge. "Zelda, huh? Figures that you'd go for that one."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing." Alex blinked innocently as he inserted the game and hit the power switch. The tv lit up with the title screen and tinny music came from the speakers. "So do you wanna play my file or start your own? I haven't beat this one yet, myself."
"Lemme start my own," Sarah told him, grabbing the controller and entering her name. "So what do I do?"
"Run around and kill things... wait, go into that cave first and get the sword from the old man."
"Okay," Sarah did so, "Now what?"
"Now just go kill things, you need to get money so you can buy some stuff before you hit the level 1 fortress." Alex leaned back with his hot chocolate to watch.
"This isn't so bad," Sarah was saying as she moved to the next screen. "It's.. aaiee! How do you kill those horse things?"
"You can't yet," Alex said quickly, "Just run away, and don't let them hit- " He stopped short as one of the little flying swords collided with Link. "- you."
"Eeep!" Sarah cried as Link spun around and fell over dead. She shot a glare at Alex, who was snickering quietly. "Oh, like you did any better when you played the first time!"
"Well, no, but I didn't have anyone helping me, either." He stated smugly.
Sarah raised her chin, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh yeah? We'll just see if I can't do better than you did!"
"Hey, relax," he laughed. "It's just a game, just hit continue. No, no, go right first!"
"Stop telling me!" Sarah exclaimed, elbowing him in the arm.
She got so caught up in playing that it wasn't until a quarter to eleven that she realized how long she'd been there. She glanced at her watch and panicked.
"Crap, I don't believe it! I gotta go, Alex..." She told her host, running up the stairs and grabbing her coat. "Thanks for the hot chocolate, by the way."
"Hey, no problem," Alex said, giving Sarah a hug. "It was fun, hey? We should do it again sometime."
"Yeah," Sarah smiled, pulling on her runners. "Sounds fun. See you later!"
"Yeah, later!" He waved after her and closed the door.
Her front door swung in as she was reaching for the handle. Sarah looked up to see Karen standing there, looking.. angry didn't seem to cover it. More like livid. She was the perfect image of the archetypical Wicked Stepmother.
"Where have you been!?" Karen demanded.
"I-I was next door," Sarah stuttered.
"Next door? Next door!? Why didn't you leave a message? What did I buy that answering machine for? You just took off without telling anyone where you were going! Your father and I were both very worried about you! We called your work and they said you'd left hours ago, no one knew anything about where you were.. I swear, you can be so selfish sometimes!"
"I'm sorry!" Sarah wailed. "I forgot my key and I was locked out, and Alex invited me to wait over there for you guys to get home, and then we just sort of lost track of the time..."
"We were only gone for 15 minutes, Sarah. You scared everyone! We were about to call the police and file a report!" Karen folded her arms across her chest and glared at her stepdaughter.
"I said I was sorry! It's not like I meant to forget to call, I just did!"
"Regardless of whether you meant to or not, you're grounded."
"I'm already grounded," Sarah argued.
"Well, then you're just grounded for longer now. No going anywhere other than work and school for the next month. I swear, I don't know what's going through your head lately! This Alex boy seems to be a terrible influence!"
"What, just because he didn't want me to catch pneumonia waiting in the rain!?" Sarah snapped.
"Don't you talk back to me like that!" Karen's eyes flashed. "All these stunts you've been pulling lately show a lack of responsibility on your part! I don't know if we should let you keep that owl after all. You didn't even bother to feed it yet today!"
Sarah felt a stab of guilt at that. It was true, she should have been home to feed him hours ago. She felt the sting of tears forming in her eyes and forced them down stubbornly. She would not cry in front of Karen. She couldn't.
"Now, I want you to go to your room, and I want you to stay there. And feed that thing before it decides to go wandering around the house again!" Karen was saying.
"Fine!" Sarah spat, hurrying up the stairs.
"And don't snap at me, this is your own fault, Sarah." Karen yelled after her. "You've been nothing but a spoiled child lately!"
"Oh, -I've- been acting spoiled?" Sarah paused at the top of the stairs. "I'm not the one who wanted to kill off an innocent animal because I'm squeamish about my nice clean house getting a little dirty!"
"What did you just say to me!?" Karen demanded.
Jareth sat in Sarah's room, wide awake and listening. That stupid girl. She should have just let the comment slide. Now they'd be at it for a good half hour longer, if his guess was right. Sarah was too stubborn to back down, and Karen was aggravated enough to fight back.
Besides, the comment about not letting him stay worried him. If Karen decided he wasn't welcome anymore, then that was it. He had already done everything he could think of to convince them to keep him here. The domesticated act had been a last resort, something that, he was almost positive, shouldn't have worked at all. He was at his wit's end. Was the girl -trying- to get rid of him!?
He heard her shout "Fine!" and come flouncing into the room, slamming the door behind her. Karen shot something in reply, but she ignored it. "Hey, Jareth," she let out a frustrated sigh and sat down with a bowl of meat scraps to feed him. Jareth eyed her as he ate. She was obviously trying to hold back from crying, and it wasn't long before she gave up and let the tears fall.
Jareth crooned worriedly and nudged her hand. He knew an opportunity when he saw one. And besides, it wasn't right that she should be feeling sad. If she was going to cry, it should be because of him, not because of some petty mortal woman who had more control over his Sarah's life than she deserved.
"Oh, Jareth.." She picked him up and cuddled him against her chest, burying her face in his back, while Jareth rested his head on her arm. Her tears were wetting his feathers, which was irritating, but he dismissed it as a necessary annoyance. As long as she felt closer to him by the end of the night, it was worth the discomfort. He was starting to get an idea of how he could get his revenge, and it would fit in well with getting his powers back, once he figured out how to do that. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
He really wished she'd stop crying, though. His heart twisted at the sound, and he had to quash the urge to sympathize with her. It was absolutely vital that he stay focused on his objective. He couldn't allow himself to grow soft now.
'She did worse to you, don't forget that. She deserves what grief she gets,' he told himself. But somehow he couldn't make himself believe it.
Disc: . o O (Why do I still bother with this thing? o.o)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah's parents had been reluctant to let Jareth stay, to put it mildly. Karen had stated vehemently that he was unsafe, messy, wild and far too unpredictable. Sarah insisted that most pets were messy, he wasn't unsafe at the moment, everything was unpredictable at times, and couldn't she see that he was obviously not as wild as they'd thought? The two of them had argued about it for hours, with Sarah's father sitting on the fence for the most part and occasionally agreeing with something one or the other had said.
In the end, Sarah won. Despite all of Karen's objections, it was difficult to just dismiss the evidence in front of them, especially when the subject of their dispute was sitting calmly in Sarah's lap and allowing her to pet him. Karen was forced to back down, but she made her stepdaughter promise to give the owl up without question if there was so much as one more incident. Sarah was loath to agree, but she really had little choice. It was that, or give him up immediately.
One thing they both agreed on was that Jareth was to stay in Sarah's room. Sarah was feeling possessive and wanted to keep him with her, and Karen positively forbade her to let him wander her nice clean house and put the rest of the family at risk. After all, forming an attachment with Sarah did not mean he was willing to get along with the rest of them, and Toby especially would not be endangered because of a pet. And Sarah would have to accept full responsibility for the owl, including keeping him fed and cleaning up after him. Sarah was more than willing to agree to this particular term. She'd seen first-hand how well her father and stepmother had 'cared for' Jareth, and she wasn't about to let them try that again. Besides, it would give them the right to claim partial ownership, and Sarah didn't trust Karen to live up to her end of the bargain and leave her stepdaughter's owl alone. She wasn't about to give the older woman any leeway if she could help it.
That had been three days ago. One of the first things Sarah had done, once she'd agreed to look after Jareth entirely on her own, was to call the librarian and inquire about the job she had been offered. Mrs. Jenkinson had been happy to give her a position, and today was her first day of work.
Jareth sat in his box, preening his wings carefully. Karen and Robert were studiously avoiding Sarah's room now that they were relieved of all responsibility towards him, so he wasn't bothered by them anymore. The box was more comfortable than the carry case by far, and the house was reasonably quiet, allowing him time to think and catch up on his sleep. He had more or less fallen into a regular sleeping pattern as of late, and fortunately, Sarah's place of employment was close enough to her home so that he suffered no discomfort in that area.
All told, he was considerably better off now that he was back in Sarah's good graces. He really should have tried acting tame sooner. Sarah was thrilled to have him behaving civilly, and by the way she practically gushed over him (now that he was willing to let her), it seemed as though she didn't hate him as much as he had thought, at least not anymore. It was still embarrassing, being thought of as a pet, but he'd get back at her for that soon enough. For now, he was considering how to use this newfound trust to his advantage. The other family members wouldn't come near him, so as long as he didn't attack Sarah again, he was in a good position to plan out his next move. And he would -never- attack Sarah again. Revenge was one thing, but physically harming her was another entirely.
Besides, it would be a hindrance to his scheming to do so. He needed his powers back, first and foremost. Sarah wasn't aware that she was in possession of them, and she was proving to be far too fickle as of late to be trusted with maintaining them without that knowledge. Since he couldn't just enlighten her, Jareth needed to retrieve them before she unwittingly did something irreversible. Anything else was secondary, revenge included, and thus he wasn't about to endanger his new position until he had milked it for all it was worth. All he had to do was bide his time. If he played his cards right, she'd wish his powers back to him all on her own.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah was really enjoying her new job. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, most of her co-workers were just as fond of a good story as she was, and the work was fairly easy. It took her a little while to familiarize herself with the shelving system (they used the Dewey Decimal system, which was completely numerical and took some getting used to), but she got the hang of it fairly quickly.
Mrs. J (as Sarah had taken to calling her when she started working there) was a fairly good employer, as bosses went. She was very understanding when it came to homework and other commitments, and Sarah was given very flexible hours. The library wasn't terribly busy, but being one of the only branches in town, they got a good chunk of the local business and so the pay wasn't bad.
There were, of course, the few bad apples who came in and always managed to give the staff a hard time. Sarah really liked the job too much to let it get to her for the most part, but this afternoon in particular was shaping out to be one of those days where she was beginning to wish she'd just decided to call in sick.
She went to shelve some books on the cart with a sigh. It was pouring rain outside, and almost half the people who had come so far had been muddy and irritable. She'd already had to help several grouchy people who obviously thought she had nothing better to do than spend hours helping them find the right book. Granted that it was her job, but she was still new here, and no one had really had a specific book in mind. Saying 'I'll know it when I see it' was all fine and good for them, but it didn't help Sarah in the least.
She glanced at the clock. Another 25 minutes, she reminded herself, and she could go home. Today had been insanely busy, a phenomenon which, according to her co-workers, wasn't unusual at all for a rainy Saturday. There were a lot of children especially, as parents tried to find something to occupy their little ones on such a cold, wet day.
In fact, here came some now, Sarah noted with an internal groan as an impatient-looking woman called for her attention, three preschool-aged children trailing behind her.
"Excuse me," the woman said. One of her tag-alongs tugged on her pant leg and she shushed him.
"Yes?" Sarah plastered on a helpful smile.
"I need help finding a certain book," the woman informed her, naming a title Sarah didn't recognize.
"Just a minute, I'll check for you," Sarah replied, heading over to the filing cards. "It doesn't seem to be here," she announced after a moment of searching the appropriate drawer without success.
"The lady I spoke with on the phone a few days ago told me you had it," the woman replied coolly.
"Did she put it on hold for you?" Sarah asked, while trying to remain polite.
"She offered, but I wasn't sure when I would be in to pick it up, so I told her not to bother." The woman shrugged. Sarah wanted to tell her that they could have held it for her anyway, but decided that it wasn't worth risking an argument.
"One moment while I check to see if we have it on file," Sarah told her, heading over towards the nearest terminal. The computers the library had were fairly new, and Sarah was still a little nervous about using them. She reassured herself that it wasn't that hard as she brought up the search key and typed in the information. She drummed her fingers on the countertop nervously while the computer crunched on the data.
"Here it is," she smiled when a list of titles and authors popped up onto the screen. "You wanted this one, right?" Sarah tapped the monitor and the woman nodded.
"That's the one," she agreed as Sarah grabbed a slip of paper and copied down the number of the book's location on the shelves.
"Okay, right this way," Sarah glanced at the code and headed down the appropriate aisle. She found the section she wanted and scanned the shelves while the woman hovered. After a moment, she pulled a book free and handed it to the other woman. "Here you are," she announced proudly.
The woman looked at the cover and frowned. "This isn't the book I wanted."
Sarah's smile fell. "Huh? It's not?" She read the title aloud. "'Harry's Home Improvement Handbook: A Guide For Do-It-Yourselfers'?"
Sure enough, a cursory glance at the other titles confirmed it. They were in the wrong section altogether.
"I don't understand," Sarah puzzled, looking at the slip of paper in her hand. Had she copied the code down wrong?
The other woman let out an annoyed sigh. "You're new here, aren't you?" She snapped on her way back to the terminal. Sarah followed behind meekly. "Had to get stuck with the new girl," the woman was muttering as she looked at the monitor. "See, you didn't scroll down." She pointed to a little flashing arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the orange and black screen.
Sarah felt like kicking herself. How could she have missed that?
"You copied down the wrong code," The woman continued in a patronizing tone. "That's for the branch downtown."
"Oh.." Sarah said sheepishly. "Oops."
"Yeah, 'oops'." The woman scribbled down the right code, muttering about incompetent staff. Sarah felt ashamed as the woman walked away. She crouched down to re-shelve some books that the woman's son had pulled out onto the floor, her hair hanging down to conceal her flaming cheeks. The lady had percieved that she was new. Did she have to have been so rude? Her embarrassment turned to anger as she headed back to the shelf where she had been putting books away. If the woman had known how to use the search engine, she should have just done it herself!
There was a man standing beside the almost-empty cart when she got back to it. He was picking some of them up and adding them to the pile on one arm. He looked up with a frown as she approached. "Excuse me... do you know what happened to the rest of the books in this pile?"
"What pile?" Sarah asked intelligently.
"There was a pile of books here on the Renaissance that I was going to take out," he responded in a tone that implied that she should know that already. Sarah sighed. Today just wasn't working for her.
"I'm sorry," she told him apologetically, "I thought they were going back on the shelf. I can help you find them again if you want."
"You re-shelved them!?" The young man exploded. "But it took me all afternoon to find them! I have a huge paper to write for Monday!"
"I'm sorry," Sarah repeated, "They were on the cart of books to be re- shelved. If you want me to help you find them all again, I will."
The man gave her a dirty look. "No, thank you, I'll find them on my own," he muttered angrily.
Sarah watched him stalk off and leaned over on the counter, dropping her head onto her arms. She'd never felt so incompetent in her life. Everyone was getting angry at her today. "I can't do anything right, can I," she sighed to no one in particular.
She checked her watch. Twelve more minutes. Close enough.
"Hey Sarah, you heading off for the day?" One of her co-workers, Jesse, asked as Sarah came into the staff room and reached for her coat.
"Yeah," Sarah nodded. "You know if it's still raining out?"
"Pouring," Jesse affirmed. "Hope you brought an umbrella."
Sarah sighed and made a face. "No, I didn't."
"You poor thing." Jesse looked sympathetic. "Do you want a ride home? I'm off in an hour if you don't mind waiting around for a bit."
"No, that's alright," Sarah smiled weakly at the other girl. "It's not far from here, I can walk."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I just wanna get home. Thanks for the offer, though." Sarah pulled the zipper tab up on her jacket and headed out the door. "I'll see you around."
"Later," Jesse called after her.
Sarah was soaked by the time she got home 20 minutes later. She fished around for her house key, only to discover that she didn't have it. "Great..." she grumbled. Sighing, she checked all the doors and windows, but they were all locked. Karen and her dad must have stepped out. They'd have taken Toby with them, so Sarah concluded that they wouldn't be gone for too long.
Alex was standing on his front porch with a lit cigarette when she came back around to wait by her front door. "Hey, Sar, you locked out?" He called.
"Yeah, forgot my key," she called back. "Gotta wait for Karen and Dad to get back."
"Wanna come wait in here? It's a hell of a lot better than sitting on the porch," Alex offered. "I was just gonna make some hot chocolate if you want some."
"Sounds good." Sarah smiled and walked over to join him.
"Just a sec while I finish my smoke," Alex told her. He inhaled a few more times and flicked the smouldering butt out into the lawn, and they both went inside.
"Alexander," Mrs. Andrews called from the kitchen. "You better not be throwing your cigarette butts on my lawn again!"
Alex smirked at Sarah. "No, Mother." Sarah stifled a laugh.
"Who's that with you?" Alex's mom came into the front hallway, drying her hands on a faded dishtowel. "Oh, hello, Sarah! I haven't seen you in a while!"
"Hello, Mrs. Andrews," Sarah smiled.
"We're just gonna make some hot chocolate and head down to the basement, Mom," Alex explained, grabbing Sarah and pulling her into the kitchen before his mother could initiate a conversation.
"Alright, well, I'm finished in there anyway." Mrs. Andrews called, taking the hint. "You two behave yourselves."
"Yes, Mother," Alex rolled his eyes and put some water into a tea kettle to boil. "So how's that new job going, anyway?" He asked Sarah while they waited.
"In general? It's fine, I love it. But don't even get me started on today." Sarah sighed.
"Why, what happened?" Alex picked an orange out of the fruit bowl and started tossing it absently.
Sarah shrugged. "Rude people who didn't want to cut the new employee some slack."
"Shitty," Alex commented.
"Well, most of the time it's not so bad. I can deal with one or two grouchy people. There were just a lot of them today," she said defensively. "Besides, it beats flipping burgers at McDonald's."
"Hey, don't bad-mouth flipping burgers!" Alex protested with a grin to show that he was joking.
"Right, your job, I forgot."
"Hey, it's extra cash," Alex shrugged. "I'm only in it for the experience, anyway, then I'll get a better job."
"What do you need the money for, anyway?" Sarah asked as Alex poured the cocoa powder into mugs and added the boiling water.
"Really, Sar, you need to ask?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Smokes ain't cheap, y'know."
"You could quit," Sarah pointed out.
"Easier said than done." He dropped a few squares of chocolate into the mugs, followed by some marshmallows and a mint each. He shook up a can of whipped cream and sprayed some into the top before handing a mug to Sarah.
"Wow," Sarah blinked. "Overkill much?"
"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it," Alex admonished as he led the way downstairs. His basement was almost exactly the way Sarah remembered it from years ago, with the addition of a Nintendo wired to the big old TV they used to watch movies on as kids.
"Hey, can we play?" She asked, glancing at the pile of games lying beside the little grey console.
"Sure," Alex picked up the tangle of cords that were the controllers and started to unwind them. "Which one did you wanna play?"
"Hmm, I don't know..." Sarah skimmed the titles. She picked up one game and looked at it. "How about this one?"
Alex flipped on the TV and glanced at the gold cartridge. "Zelda, huh? Figures that you'd go for that one."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing." Alex blinked innocently as he inserted the game and hit the power switch. The tv lit up with the title screen and tinny music came from the speakers. "So do you wanna play my file or start your own? I haven't beat this one yet, myself."
"Lemme start my own," Sarah told him, grabbing the controller and entering her name. "So what do I do?"
"Run around and kill things... wait, go into that cave first and get the sword from the old man."
"Okay," Sarah did so, "Now what?"
"Now just go kill things, you need to get money so you can buy some stuff before you hit the level 1 fortress." Alex leaned back with his hot chocolate to watch.
"This isn't so bad," Sarah was saying as she moved to the next screen. "It's.. aaiee! How do you kill those horse things?"
"You can't yet," Alex said quickly, "Just run away, and don't let them hit- " He stopped short as one of the little flying swords collided with Link. "- you."
"Eeep!" Sarah cried as Link spun around and fell over dead. She shot a glare at Alex, who was snickering quietly. "Oh, like you did any better when you played the first time!"
"Well, no, but I didn't have anyone helping me, either." He stated smugly.
Sarah raised her chin, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh yeah? We'll just see if I can't do better than you did!"
"Hey, relax," he laughed. "It's just a game, just hit continue. No, no, go right first!"
"Stop telling me!" Sarah exclaimed, elbowing him in the arm.
She got so caught up in playing that it wasn't until a quarter to eleven that she realized how long she'd been there. She glanced at her watch and panicked.
"Crap, I don't believe it! I gotta go, Alex..." She told her host, running up the stairs and grabbing her coat. "Thanks for the hot chocolate, by the way."
"Hey, no problem," Alex said, giving Sarah a hug. "It was fun, hey? We should do it again sometime."
"Yeah," Sarah smiled, pulling on her runners. "Sounds fun. See you later!"
"Yeah, later!" He waved after her and closed the door.
Her front door swung in as she was reaching for the handle. Sarah looked up to see Karen standing there, looking.. angry didn't seem to cover it. More like livid. She was the perfect image of the archetypical Wicked Stepmother.
"Where have you been!?" Karen demanded.
"I-I was next door," Sarah stuttered.
"Next door? Next door!? Why didn't you leave a message? What did I buy that answering machine for? You just took off without telling anyone where you were going! Your father and I were both very worried about you! We called your work and they said you'd left hours ago, no one knew anything about where you were.. I swear, you can be so selfish sometimes!"
"I'm sorry!" Sarah wailed. "I forgot my key and I was locked out, and Alex invited me to wait over there for you guys to get home, and then we just sort of lost track of the time..."
"We were only gone for 15 minutes, Sarah. You scared everyone! We were about to call the police and file a report!" Karen folded her arms across her chest and glared at her stepdaughter.
"I said I was sorry! It's not like I meant to forget to call, I just did!"
"Regardless of whether you meant to or not, you're grounded."
"I'm already grounded," Sarah argued.
"Well, then you're just grounded for longer now. No going anywhere other than work and school for the next month. I swear, I don't know what's going through your head lately! This Alex boy seems to be a terrible influence!"
"What, just because he didn't want me to catch pneumonia waiting in the rain!?" Sarah snapped.
"Don't you talk back to me like that!" Karen's eyes flashed. "All these stunts you've been pulling lately show a lack of responsibility on your part! I don't know if we should let you keep that owl after all. You didn't even bother to feed it yet today!"
Sarah felt a stab of guilt at that. It was true, she should have been home to feed him hours ago. She felt the sting of tears forming in her eyes and forced them down stubbornly. She would not cry in front of Karen. She couldn't.
"Now, I want you to go to your room, and I want you to stay there. And feed that thing before it decides to go wandering around the house again!" Karen was saying.
"Fine!" Sarah spat, hurrying up the stairs.
"And don't snap at me, this is your own fault, Sarah." Karen yelled after her. "You've been nothing but a spoiled child lately!"
"Oh, -I've- been acting spoiled?" Sarah paused at the top of the stairs. "I'm not the one who wanted to kill off an innocent animal because I'm squeamish about my nice clean house getting a little dirty!"
"What did you just say to me!?" Karen demanded.
Jareth sat in Sarah's room, wide awake and listening. That stupid girl. She should have just let the comment slide. Now they'd be at it for a good half hour longer, if his guess was right. Sarah was too stubborn to back down, and Karen was aggravated enough to fight back.
Besides, the comment about not letting him stay worried him. If Karen decided he wasn't welcome anymore, then that was it. He had already done everything he could think of to convince them to keep him here. The domesticated act had been a last resort, something that, he was almost positive, shouldn't have worked at all. He was at his wit's end. Was the girl -trying- to get rid of him!?
He heard her shout "Fine!" and come flouncing into the room, slamming the door behind her. Karen shot something in reply, but she ignored it. "Hey, Jareth," she let out a frustrated sigh and sat down with a bowl of meat scraps to feed him. Jareth eyed her as he ate. She was obviously trying to hold back from crying, and it wasn't long before she gave up and let the tears fall.
Jareth crooned worriedly and nudged her hand. He knew an opportunity when he saw one. And besides, it wasn't right that she should be feeling sad. If she was going to cry, it should be because of him, not because of some petty mortal woman who had more control over his Sarah's life than she deserved.
"Oh, Jareth.." She picked him up and cuddled him against her chest, burying her face in his back, while Jareth rested his head on her arm. Her tears were wetting his feathers, which was irritating, but he dismissed it as a necessary annoyance. As long as she felt closer to him by the end of the night, it was worth the discomfort. He was starting to get an idea of how he could get his revenge, and it would fit in well with getting his powers back, once he figured out how to do that. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
He really wished she'd stop crying, though. His heart twisted at the sound, and he had to quash the urge to sympathize with her. It was absolutely vital that he stay focused on his objective. He couldn't allow himself to grow soft now.
'She did worse to you, don't forget that. She deserves what grief she gets,' he told himself. But somehow he couldn't make himself believe it.