Survival Of The Fittest

"Don't worry about the books. They'll be fine." Simon dismissed the notion with a flick of his hand. Even seeing the student's face closer, he didn't know him. For someone who had lived in St. Paul his entire life, he'd think that he would be more familiar with the kids in the school.

"You sure you're okay?" The boy had taken a rather large blow; Simon could tell now that he had gotten a better look. Still, it didn't seem to bother him, so it wasn't Simon's place to make judgements. Not waiting for an answer, he walked over to the small table with the box on it.

"Your total for these will be $9.98." Simon said, adjusting his glasses with his right hand. He reconized the books; two Sci Fi novels he remembered reading before. He thought about making a comment on that, but decided against it. The other guy already looked uncomfortable.

"Okay, here's ten bucks. Keep the change, two pennies aren't worth it," Robert said, handing the student attendee a pair of fives. Purchase successfully maneuvered, he put the books into his back pack and left, taking a breath of relief once he had made it out of the room. He continued on out of the library.

((Robert Lerger continued elsewhere.))

(Kevin Harding's introduction)

"Oh? Looks like you've got a nice selection here." Kevin entered the library with a big grin, staring intently at the bookshelves that had captured his interest. What did he want to buy? There were so many choices, and he just couldn't decide. He stopped at the end of the aisle closest to him, looking for anything that would be a good read. After a few minutes, he picked out a particular book he hadn't read before. Taking a look at the cover, he found out that it was the Art of War by Sun Tzu. That surprised him, as he didn't expect an item like this to be sold at a book fair. Well, no matter. He'd read it and take those lessons to heart. Kevin walked over to the student manning the cash register with the manual in hand.

"Excuse me, how much does this book cost?" He asked in a polite tone.

"Oh, hey Kevin."
Kevin Harding was one of the students that Simon knew, for whatever reason. It was probably because Simon had seen him carrying around The Song of Susannah. If he had problems remembering names, Simon had a fairly easier time remembering the books people carried. Besides, the other student seemed fairly open. At any rate, the two of them didn't talk much.

"That would be 7.99."
Simon responed. The Art of War was recommended to him by his old Chinese teacher, and when he had gotten a chance he put the novel on the book fair. Despite his love of books, Simon had never read it. He was saving that experience for when he could try to understand it in the original language. After 5 years of Chinese, he hoped to be there soon.

"Okay, just let me find my money first." He rifled through his pockets for a few seconds, eventually finding a rather crumpled ten dollar bill that he passed over to the student in front of him. That was the only money he had, so he reluctantly stopped looking for more books to buy. Ah, well. The chance to read the Art of War would make up for all of that.

Simon was a nice guy, but Kevin only talked to him a few times before. He was considering the option of sticking around for a while and starting a conversation, since there didn't seem to be much business. Then he wondered if the man who stood behind the table just wanted to get out of here. He decided to find out. "So..... how's the book fair going, Simon?"

Simon pressed the bill flat on the table before inserting it into the same small metal box he used for the other purchases. He then turned to Kevin.

"It's been pretty good so far. I put up some posters around the school, and the fair has definately got more business then the last two years." Really, why haven't he thought of posters before? He suppposed he had been too busy with other stuff to bother marketing. Now that it was his senior year, Simon decided to take a more relaxed stance then he usually did. All homework still had to be done, but he cut down on his studying time,

"The new books sold well. The sci fi, manga...that kind of stuff. Although..." He checked his watch. "The book fair ends pretty soon. You have good timing." Simon was less careful with his speaking here. If Kevin found his statements uninteresting he would just steer the conversation in another direction. Simon knew how to take cues; it was the people who walked away or hid their annoyance and tried to avoid him that caused problems for him.

"Well, it sounded interesting. I should've joined you in organizing the book fair...." Even though he had cut down his studying time recently, he had filled up the free time with junk. Helping out at school would have been a lot more productive. Maybe he could start now. Doing it later wouldn't amount to anything. Kevin sighed as he took the book into his hands.

"Is there a chance that I could help you out?" He asked. "It's almost done, but there must be something I can do."

Simon blinked from behind his glasses. This was not the usual response from someone he didn't know. Then again, at some point the people hew knew now were complete strangers. Besides, the other student looked earnest enough. He nodded and stood up.

"I was going to start repacking the books." Simon pointed to a small pile of boxes at one of the room's corners.
"We keep one of each book that we dont already have in the library. The others go in there. Uh, you could help with that if you don't mind." He added.

Kevin smiled confidently. "Alright, then. I'll get started right away." He put The Art of War into his backpack, rolled up the sleeves of his sweater, and got to work packing the books again. It felt good to help others out. Sure, he wasn't a saint or anything. But even the simplest acts of kindness improved his mood.

Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't prone to fighting and hurting others. So, he had to keep things under wraps and not go out of control. By the time he started to think about the task at hand, one of the boxes was already filled.

"Come on, Simon. Are you going to start packing it up or not?" He teased the student.

"Eh? I'm doing it, I'm doing it." Simon responed, slightly grinning. He had a rather unnerving smile; even years of braces had failed to fixed it. The orthodonist had said that this was because Simon's teeth hadn't settled in yet. He planned to try braces again when he went into college. Of course, that had always been a long time away. Now...it seemed almost unnervingly close. To be honset, though, Simon was more excited about heading off to college then nervous.

He picked up a group of books and put them into aan open box, humming one of the songs for Les Mes. That had been the musical their school had closen to perform last year. Simon could still remeber Tech Week (so repected and feared by drama kids and techies that he even thought about it in capitals), spending the entire day trying to figure out how to make a bridge fly offscreen.

By this time the silence was suprising unconfortable. Simon was used to quiet, so that fact that it bothered him was odd. He decided to strike of a conversation. "Thanks for the help, Kevin." He wrinkled his nose trying to come with something to say. Simon didn't think the other student was in any of his classes. "So...where are you headed after Senior year?"

He thought for a brief moment. "You know, I'm not really sure." Kevin admitted. "My marks aren't great, but they aren't exactly crappy, either. I'm pretty sure I could get into college, but I don't have any solid plans for the future." With a decisive motion, he finished packing the box that he held in his arms. Then he got to thinking. While he wasn't certain of his own educational future, he wondered if his fellow student was. He asked that question without even blinking.

"What about you, Simon? Where are you planning to go, and what are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to the University of Pittsburgh. I have family out there, and it has good programs for foreign languages; Mandarian for me." It wasn't one of the nation's top-ranked colleges, but Simon had liked the school when he went there and It had accepted him wholeheartedly. There was another thing too: it would be out of St. Paul. Simon had never lived anywhere else and was lookig forward to a new environment.

"Other then that...I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with my degree when I get it. Two steps at a time. I guess." The expression came from Simon's sister, Jessica, who had at one point cheerfully states that he did things carefully but faster and with more serious planning then the people who did things 'one step at a time'.

"Anyway, I don't think you should worry about getting into a college. As long as you've decent grades and a good essay, you'll be fine..."

He nodded. "Thanks for the reassurance. As for your future dreams, well.... I can only wish you good luck." Kevin didn't think a cheesy speech would work here, so he settled for an even cheesier phrase to cap off their conversation. He cleared his throat, and prepared himself so he could say it with as much conviction and power he could muster. This was going to be very odd, he thought. But it wouldn't hurt to say it now.

"As long as you work hard and never, ever give up, you will be able to achieve success." He looked absolutely serious. "It works. If it didn't, then I wouldn't be standing here. I'd probably be a year or two behind." The end of their talk had come. Now, it was time to part.

"Well, it's been really pleasant talking to you again, Simon." He smiled earnestly. "But I think I might've overstayed my welcome here."

Simon Nodded solumnly. "Work...is the important part." The other's student's speech hadn't bothered him or sounded weird. Simon was used to the speech used in writing, and somehow it seemed like Kevin could have been one of the characters. Maybe it was less of what he said then the conviction in his voice. Simon could remeber reading, once, that if you believed in something enough it was a simple task to make other people belief in it.

"You haven't overstayed anything, but you're free to go at your leave." Simon said, closing the top of the last box. "That went fairly quickly this year; I normaly don't have some help. Thank you again. And I wish you the best too."

"Alright. Take care, Simon. And see you again soon." He waved to Simon before he left the library.

((Kevin Harding continued in Wrestling with the clock))