Survival Of The Fittest

Ricky made a nice comment to Everett, which made him smile. Ricky wasn't a bad guy, just unmotivated when it came to schoolwork. Or maybe it wasn't even that. Maybe he just wasn't that talented in the academic arena. Everett could understand that. Excelling in school took a lot of work.

Everett followed Ricky to the table and began flipping through books, pointing out the most important parts. He worked quickly and relatively efficiently, as he had looked through most of the books before. As he read, he began to realize just how much of his information had come from the missing book. That left him with a really bad feeling: it meant that Ricky would have trouble with his project, and it meant that Everett's research hadn't been as thorough as it usually was.

He paged through a couple more books, and then came to a decision.

It's not cheating if it's justified. Ricky's putting forth an honest effort, and he's a good guy. It's not his fault the book's checked out. This'll have the same result as if he'd just read it himself.

"Hey, Ricky," Everett said quietly, hoping no one else would hear him, "The, uh, the book that I used the most isn't here today. Someone must have it out. If you want, I can send you my notes on it tonight by email or something. You should have enough with all of these ones to support things, but this one was really great. I've got all the quotes and citations and stuff.

"I know it'll be a bit last minute and you'll have to hurry a bit with it, but it beats nothing, right? I'll make sure all the important stuff's easy to access."

Everett wished he hadn't claimed to have left his notes at home. It really tied his hands. Still, he couldn't be caught in a lie. He should be able to help Ricky get a good grade, and he would just find some more sources for himself on the internet, so that what he shared with Ricky wouldn't overlap too much with his own presentation.

(UGH. I'm deadly sorry it took this long)

They'd been going through the notes for the last few minutes, with Everett pointing out the important stuff, and Ricky jotting it down. Some of it was the basic junk he'd already gotten off Wikipedia (and thank fuckin' God for THAT site), but it was the other stuff he'd come to the library for. And as Everett seemed to slow down, Ricky was starting to worry a bit. There was a lot of this crap, but it was all just so… messy. Like all the info didn't fit together as easily as he'd hoped, and now he and Aaron might be in a bit of trouble if they thought they'd just be able to type it all up tomorrow night and call it a day.

"If you want, I can send you my notes on it tonight by email or something"

Ba-zing. Hey man, things work out. Seemed it was the story of Ricky Fortino's life. Things work out, and everything goes back to the way it was before.

"Dude, that's great." Ricky said. "So I'll uh, keep the books here that got the good stuff in them, and then you can send me what you got and we can uh, put it all together."

He was grateful to Everett, of course. After all, the kid coulda just blew them off from the start like those stupid fuckin' loser smart kids that thought they were so much better than him. Fuckin' bozos. Everett was the good kind of smart kid. He was a guy who knew the score.

"Here's my address. An' I mean, don't worry ‘bout us copying your stuff straight out or anything." He scrawled his e-mail address on a sheet of notebook paper and passed it over, then gathered a couple of the books.

"I'm gonna check these ones out and take off. See ya around."

With a last nod to Everett, Ricky turned to see Aaron still engrossed in conversation with the chick. Fuckin' typical. Deciding to leave Aaron to his conquests, Ricky tapped Aaron on the shoulder.

"Hey man, got what we came for. I'm takin' off for now, so uh… you gonna be around after school?" He wasn't gonna just cockblock the guy, but they DID need this history thing done tomorrow for good.

Aaron nodded to the girl. "One sec," he said. Then he was smiling at Ricky. ‘Course he was, he wasn't the one who had to actually WORK Everett to get the stuff they needed. But hey, that's how things go.

"Yeah Ricky, I got baseball practice tonight so come on over to the field after school. Meet up with you then."

Getting the answer, Ricky decided it was high time to get the hell out of this library. He went off to the front counter as Aaron was calling off to Everett, and by the time he'd gone through the exit doors, the history project was already out of his mind.

(Ricky Fortino continued in High Gloss Highs)

[Geno, you can sort of take the Aaron/Mia conversation any way you want, because I did create Aaron as an NPC]

Aaron kept the grin up as she introduced herself. "Mia. Nice."

Then she was asking him about what his folks did? Whoa, what was this, the third degree? What, was the girl gonna be judgin' him to see if he was aristocratic enough to converse with? Well hell, might as well put his story-telling skills to the test.

"My family. Heh heh. Don't want to disappoint you, with one extreme or the other, but we're total middle-class stuff, Ms. Kuiper. Folks worked their way up through 3M over in Minny, had an only child so they wouldn't be confused with all those ghetto black folks out there breedin' too much, moved out to suburbia, and there ya go. Gave their kid a nice middle-class name like Aaron instead of Demarcus or anythin' scary like that, he went on to play football, hold up his end of the bargain, uh, academically, and get good enough to head down South for uni next year, and I mean DEEP Down South, ‘cause I don't know about you Mia, but I am NOT designed for these winters. So hey, that's my story. And yours?"

The convo went on and he was actually kinda diggin' the girl, or at least being able to talk with her. Some of them cheerleaders he'd gone with in the past were just as vacant and dumb as the stereotypes would suggest, and they all thought the same about him, and it was just fucking TIRING after a while. ‘Course, they had their upsides too, because let's face things, Aaron Hicks could be pretty damn stereotypical himself at times. And Mia… wasn't very likely to go for that side. Nah, he got the feeling that she wouldn't be much for pounding down shots at a party like Corrigan's upcoming one OR for lettin' his hands get busy after they'd had a few ounces in them. But just talking to her on the level was pretty damn good, as it was just proving to himself that Aaron Hicks could hang with anyone. He might not score her, but he'd impress her, and she'd tell others, and even if he never saw those people, they'd respect him, and THAT was what it was all about. It was what he deserved.

Then Ricky was tapping Aaron on the shoulder, letting him know that all was go with getting the stuff they needed from Everett. See, perfect example. He glanced up at Everett as Ricky was moving to the checkout counter.

"Hey Ev!" The librarian shot him a glance at that remark, but it got the kid's attention at least.

"Thanks a lot, buddy! Look, I'm plannin' a big party at my place once I get back from down South! You be there, k!" That done, he was turning back to Mia. What the hell, go for it.

"Sorry ‘bout that. If you're up to it, maybe another period we can meet up and you could help me improve my Shakespeare?"

((I'm breaking post order with Geno's permission.))

Ricky wandered out of the library, taking most of the books with him. That was good. It left Everett alone, though. Ricky's friend still seemed to be flirting with Mia in the corner, so Everett decided to give them a little space.

He picked up all the remaining books, and reshelved them in their proper places. Then he stretched, looked around, and, seeing nothing else he could really get done, left the library, heading in the direction of his next class. The period was almost over, and there was no harm being a little early.

He was already trying to figure out how to optimize his work time for the evening. He'd need to send Ricky those notes right away...

((Everett Taylor continued in A Walk to Forget))

((Thanks, but I think I'll just wrap up.))

"Sorry ‘bout that. If you're up to it, maybe another period we can meet up and you could help me improve my Shakespeare?"

"It'd be a pleasure, Mr. Hicks."

With that, Mia stood and the two walked leisurely out of the Library; chatting about nothing in particular.

(Mia Kuiper continued in some "light" reading)

((That was short. sorry : P))