Pride is my Prejudice [Shane]

[madisonsaunders]

  It was a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon, one of those early fall days that has everyone outside to enjoy the last bits of summer before the weather changed for the worse.  Madison would normally be one of those people, giant sunglasses on her eyes, refusing to wear anything but what she would pull out of her summer wardrobe,  as she tried to suck as much sun in as she could before the days started getting shorter.  Instead, she was closeted away in the library.  The musty space was quiet, and except for the old librarian, virtually empty.
 
Madison was at a table in the back, sitting on one of the hard plastic chairs, her knees curled up to her chest and one arm looped around her legs and her chin resting on top of her knees. She held a book up to her face in the other hand, and her dark eyes scanned the page hungrily, the words as familiar to her as the Prada fall line.  The book in her hand, an old battered hardcover copy of Pride and Prejudice, wasn’t one belonging to the library.  Like some kids have a ratty old stuffed animal they couldn’t part with, Madison had carried this like a security blanket from home.  She knew the story front to back, every Chapter was like an old friend, every escapade by Elizabeth Bennett or advance from Mr. Darcy felt like it was happening to her. 
 
She could have sat in her dorm and read.  With her roommates out it would have been quiet, and doubtless, sitting on her bed would have been more comfortable.  But the library was part of the experience for her.  Back in New York, before she was shipped off to BAD, the library had been her one sanctuary, the one place she could go and not have to be perfect.  When she used to step through the large doors, flanked by stone lions at the Manhattan branch, she was stepping out of herself.  She didn’t need to be a bitch, she didn’t need to be the top of the heap, she didn’t need to try so damn hard to be what everyone expected.  Madison knew it didn’t go with her carefully crafted image, so like her artwork, it was something she kept hidden, lest in topple everything she had carefully built up.  Books may be one thing, but in real life, no one really wanted the princess to have layers.
 
And so it remained her secret place.  No one who’d ever met her would suspect that she was a closeted book worm, devouring the classics like she was a fat kid with a bag of Smarties.  And she liked it that way.  It was her shameful secret, but she never missed an opportunity to break from her public and hectic social life back home to disappear into the stacks of books,  breathing in the dusty smell of old paper, and spending the afternoon with no one but fictional heroines to keep her company.
 
The Library at Blackwood was a long way from the giant gothic building in New York  But it would still do the  trick, even if the décor wasn’t quite as grand as she’d come to expect.  Old habits died hard though, and despite the fact that here, she had no reputation whatsoever to uphold, that the little criminals that shared the school with her didn’t seem to care one way or other about her, she still was inclined to keep it hidden. Maybe she wasn’t the top banana here, and maybe no one cared about social standings, or image, but Madison still did.  She’d already had to give up so much when she walked through the gates, she couldn’t afford to lose more.  So she bitterly clung onto whatever parts she could.  This was one of the few she clasp on to.  So while everyone else was outside, enjoying a beautiful day, Madison snuck off to be alone with her books, enjoying a few hours to just be.[/size]

[shanecharlestone]

A low mutter accompanied the unusually tall young man as he walked down the hall, ignoring the stares he got while loosening the God forsaken tie wrapped around his neck. He hated how restricting the school's uniform was, absolutely hated it. And we're not talking the plain type of hate either, we're talking 'burning intensity of a thousand desert suns' coupled with all the fires of Hell he wished the thing could be banished to. Was he bitter? Only a little.

Okay, so he didn't hate the whole uniform; the shirt, pants and shoes he could deal with. The vest was tolerable, to an extent, but honestly, it served no purpose. The jacket and tie though? Not only was the tie in a pattern that would make a blind gay man shudder in fashion disaster agony, but the jacket only acted as a highlighter to say "I'm HERE! LOOK AT ME! " He had enough problems not getting stared at while wearing regular clothing, let alone a jacket in a glaring shade of red that the previously mentioned blind, gay man could see rather clearly. Shane didn't know what the creators of the school were on, but really, they could have chosen something a lot less stand-out for their students to wear.

Stuffing the useless tie in his bag, he worked on easing himself down from the severe irritation that was burning in his chest, teeth grinding as he fought the urge to embed his fist in one of the lockers as he passed them. As if it wasn't enough that he had the uniform on, but he also had to stay cooped up inside today, go to the library instead of one of the sports fields like he'd usually do, all because he had to find a novel that wouldn't totally bore him to death for his English class. There weren't a lot of books that could keep his attention, and it wasn't because he was stupid or had an attention wandering problem; Shane was actually rather smart, and when he applied himself, he actually got really good grades. It was the fact that he was smart, even if he'd deny it up and down, that books couldn't hold his attention, and the ones that could he'd read a long time ago.

Huffing a sigh, he pushed open the library door, humming Be My Escape quietly as he went into the long stacks of books, pulling things at random that sounded interesting, and put them back shortly after reading part of the summary on the back. Dull, dreary, plodding, too short, too long, too childish, based too much on real events... there was a whole myriad of reasons to not choose a book, and way too few things that sounded appealing.

You'd think there'd be something here, he muttered to himself before resuming his humming, a surprisingly soft sound for such a large individual with a reputation for violence. This is absolutely hopeless.

Leaving the stacks empty handed, he went back to the study area of the library, dropping his bag loudly on one of the tables, earning a glare from the aging librarian for his trouble, which he promptly ignored. It was warn in here, probably insulated by all the paper lining the walls, so he peeled off the gaudy jacket and lay it over his bag before collapsing into the chair, heaving another sigh. What the Hell was he going to do?

It was only then he noted he wasn't alone with the ill tempered and irritable librarian, and tilted his head slightly to look at her, clear blue eyes sweeping over her form once before tilting his head further, wondering what she was reading. It looked rather engaging, but shy as he was, he didn't speak up. Because yes, staring was much less awkward, right? Right.

[madisonsaunders]

Madison flipped the page of her book, captivated by one of her favourite chapters. A small smile curved on her lips as she read the familiar words, fighting a strong urge to recite them from memory out loud. It was a hard fight, though from a few experiences, she knew giving into the urge would ultimately result in people looking at her like she was a deranged freak. Granted, stuck here, that was hardly a rare occurrence. Students and staff alike seemed to draw back when they heard she was one of the dreaded level four students. Being stuck at the school was bad enough, with the psychotic students, damn itchy skirts and ugly shoes, but being made to feel like an outcast on top of that? It was enough to make even someone as sure of herself as Madison feel like maybe she actually was a deranged freak.

Her delicate nose scrunched in distaste at the thought, and she made herself concentrate on the book, leave behind the unpleasant ideas and retreat back into the space where everything still felt normal, and that place was printed in front of her face. She started reading again, though the smile was gone, instead her lips were pressed into a grim line, refusing to give in and mouth the words. She was not going to give anyone here, including the senile old lady behind the desk, more reason to think that she was crazed and was meant to be in this hell hole.

She vaguely heard someone moving around and sighing, though she didn't bother to look up. While part of her cringed at the thought that someone else had invaded her sanctuary, she didn't care enough about what the type of kids who hang out in libraries on Saturdays thought of her to be too annoyed. The irony of the statement wasn't lost on her, but irregardless, it was true.

Whoever had sat down finished settling in, and the library was once again blissfully quiet. She flipped another page, the crisp paper snapping loudly in the silence. Halfway down the page, her dark eyes stopped. She had the weird prickly feeling that someone was looking at her. Lifting her head from the book, she glanced around, her eyes settling on a boy sitting not far off, just staring at her. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, taking a quick look around. No there was definitely no one else there, so he was undoubtedly staring at her. She looked back at him, her head tilting to the side, on second glance, he definitely didn't look like a boy. A student to be sure, the red blazer draped over a backpack made that clear, but even sitting he looked, well, giant. Like some hulking man beast disguised as a student. Or, after taking his blonde hair, strong jaw and pale eyes, maybe a lost Norse god.

Her lips pursed slightly as she raised her eyebrows. Attractive or not, he was still staring. Not that she could really blame him, after all, there certainly wasn't much in the way of girls to look at here. Still it was rude, and bordering on creepy. “ You need help with something? Or are you just going to keep staring at me?” she said snappily.[/size]