A/N: Thank you all for the well wishes, I did have fun on my trip!
Chapter Twelve: The Forest
Steve shut the encyclopedia he was flipping through and followed Jimmy and Elli across the library. Jimmy's notice of Mr. Braxon's shoe was the only clue they currently had. Steve had tried to do a bit more research on podzol, but whoever wrote the encyclopedia was somehow less knowledgeable than Jimmy on the block, and had written maybe two sentences on it. There wasn't even a drawing.
There wasn't a librarian, but there was a small group of girls near the front, all lower class, surrounded by the entire fantasy section and a ridiculous amount of book'n'quills, drawing and laughing together.
Elli walked past them, grabbing a rolled-up map from a barrel full of them and ushering Steve and Jimmy to a table near the girls and spreading it out. She stabbed a forest with her finger. "There. That's the closest source of podzol in our immediate vicinity."
Jimmy tugged at his itchy collared shirt and glanced at the map. "There? I thought it was over here?" He tapped the other side of the map.
"You're looking at it upside down," Elli frowned. "It's obviously over here."
"It can't be over there, that's the mountains!"
"No, THAT's the mountains!"
"Okay, be wrong if you want," Jimmy folded his arms.
"Can't you READ?!" Elli snapped back, glaring at her friend. "It's HERE!"
"NO, IT'S HERE, YOU JUST LIKE BEING RIGHT!"
"I LIKE BEING RIGHT?! GET A MIRROR!"
"GET A MIRROR YOURSELF!"
"SHUT UP!"
"YOU SHUT UP!"
"YOU SHUT UP FIRST!"
"SHUT UP YOU LOW-CLASS-" Jimmy stopped suddenly, horrified at what he was about to say. "UM! I meant-"
"What?" Elli placed her hands on the table, her eyes filled with poison. "What were you gonna say?"
"Elli, that's not-"
"Oh, is this about me being 'lower-class'," Elli asked, stepping towards Jimmy. She emphasized certain words, making little mouth gestures with her hands. "Well, why don't you take your filthy, high-class buttocks back to your ridiculous mansion and cry to your Daddy, because, I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN!"
Jimmy flinched, stumbling backwards, before his face hardened. "WELL, FINE! I DON"T EVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"
"FINE!" Elli shouted.
"FINE!" Jimmy screamed, slamming the library door so hard the building shook.
Everyone stared in shock for a few minutes at what just happened, before one of the girls at the other table piped up. "I'm glad he's gone. I thought you two were gonna start throwing things."
Elli turned away from the door and immediately burst into tears. She stumbled into a chair and covered her face, flopping down on the table, very nearly missing the map.
Steve sighed hard. He hated watching people fight, but he never had any idea of how to safely break it up. He grabbed a chair and sat down next to Elli.
"Hey," He tapped her arm, and Elli glanced up at him, her eyes red with tears.
"What?"
"It's gonna be okay, y'know?"
"No," Elli sniffled. "I hurt his feelings. I… shouldn't've brought up his dad." She whimpered and let out another small sob. "Gosh, I'm so stupid."
"Kind of," Steve answered, leaning back.
"Gee, thanks for the encouragement," Elli covered her head again, ignoring him.
"I'm serious," Steve tapped the table in front of Elli. "You refused to look at it from Jimmy's perspective. That was pretty stupid of you. But you have to remember that he didn't do that either. You both suck."
Elli let out a chuckle poorly disguised as a sneeze. "Well, you suck too."
"Me?!" Steve exclaimed. "How come I suck?!"
"You could've looked at the map and also formed an opinion."
"I did, Elli."
"Well, you didn't say anything about it," Elli glanced behind her at the group of girls who were all obviously trying to hide their eavesdropping. "Was I right or was it Jimmy?"
"You were both wrong," Steve grinned. Your finger was in a field, and Jimmy's was in a desert."
Elli laughed, Steve laughed, and the girls at the other table joined in with their laughter.
Finally, Steve looked out the windows. "We still have to go out. Jimmy or not."
Elli rubbed her arms. "I, I should go apologize to him, he's got to be hurting so much now, not to mention I should-"
"Give him a bit to calm down," Steve answered. "He's gotta get his bearing before you barge in with apologies. Let's go investigate the woods. You can apologise when we get back."
Elli grabbed another map from the barrel. "Well, we'll need this. It's a map of the tunnels." She handed it to Steve. "Can you navigate?"
"Yes," Steve took the map and flipped it open, looking over the marked red line across the page, before folding it up and placing it inside his jacket. "Where do we start?"
"Well, how about the tunnel entrance?"
"Sounds like a plan."
Review Replies:
Moatazabou4: Oh, I could tell ;)
JimmyPenguin421: Thanks!
ScarOfHerobrine: Exactly!