like the remix [penny]

[JOSEPHINE OLIVIA CAMPBELL]

Soon enough, a new school year was going to start. Joey was amazing at how quickly the summer had flown by, but she had a really good time. Her graphic novel was flourishing, she was meeting new people, she had a wonderful girlfriend, everything was good with her siblings back home in Boston. Joey felt like she was doing pretty well for herself in Manuka. The last year at school had been good, too, and she'd ended up maintaining a 4.0 GPA during the entire year, even though she'd had a few welcome distractions and other things adding to her already busy schedule. The redhead was still a bit of a shut-in, but she was starting to branch out and find things that made her happy other than sitting around in her dorm room, eating junk food, playing video games, and working on new panels for 'Bravo 18.' Jamie was really good about keeping her socially active, and had even helped introduce her to a few people that she could now say were 'mutual friends,' but really they were more Jamie's friends. Her girlfriend's band mates all really seemed to like her, which was apparently a pretty big deal, and Joey was... well, she was happy.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't completely looking forward to summer ending and having to go back to the daily grind of attending class and getting up early, being sleep-deprived, and not really having tons of time to be social or do whatever the hell she wanted with her days. She'd accomplished a lot during the time when she'd basically been functioning on 'down time.' Lots of video games were defeated, she had a kickass Skyrim file, and she was working toward a new campaign with her guild on her favorite MMORPG ever since the game creators released the latest expansion – so many new worlds, it was ridiculous. Also, she had recently gotten into the Assassin's Creed games, and started at the beginning like everyone told her to do... and she was basically in love with it. Luckily for her, her girlfriend's touring schedule and concerts took up just about as much of her time, so Joey never had to worry about ditching her or making Jamie feel like she didn't want them to spend time together – they spent lots of time together, and their relationship was... well, it was moving forward quickly. Joey wasn't ready for... well, for sex just yet, but Jamie had been patient enough, and she figured that eventually, that would all work out, too. Yeah, Joey was convinced that it was going to be a really good year, even though she wasn't looking forward to spending so much of her hard-earned money on a bunch of rental textbooks at the library, where the University sold off a bunch of formerly used books at a cheaper rate.

Joey made her way up to the counter with her book list in hand and saw a really pretty – and we're talking supermodel pretty woman sitting behind the counter, with her nose in a book. Appropriate, Joey guessed, for someone who probably worked in the library. The redhead must have made just enough noise, because she got the woman's attention, and as soon as the dark-haired woman's eyes met Joey's, the redhead instantly forget who she was, what her name was, why she was there... everything. Gone. Just... yeah, she'd never had that reaction to a woman before. Watch it, Joe – you have a girlfriend, remember? Violet eyes watched her, and for a moment, Joey was pretty sure they were contact lenses, but they were still so pretty, and she felt kind of like a fish out of water all of a sudden. Words. Words, she needed to say words.

”Um... I was told that I could just bring my textbook list up to the counter here, and someone who works here could tell me where to find them?” Joey said, kicking herself mentally because why would this woman be sitting behind the counter if she didn't work there? Seriously. ”But if you can't help me, I can... y'know, I can probably sniff them out for myself.” Ugh, what a failure. Apparently summer hadn't taken away the awkward. Joey was convinced there was no cure for that. Please let her not actually work here now that I've made a complete noob of myself.

[/color] Joey started to back away from the counter, hoping that it would just end up being a bad dream or something... but she had no such luck.

OUTFIT: Here![/blockquote][/justify]

[PENELOPE AMELIA MORELLI]

penelope loved working at the library. sure, it wasn't like it was much of a job, but her research paid for her expenses. that's right, she got paid to do what she loved, had the government pay for her to have pets, and really didn't even need the money. coming from the family that she did, penny didn't need any of the money from her job, not really; even the grant she was given by the government wasn't truly needed. her research could be paid for out of her own pocket, but where was the fun in that? why would she run down her own resources in order to do this? and that was why, when the little man pushed his glasses up and offered her a government - issued grant with no strings attached, she gladly accepted.

working at the library was a nice little escape from the lab and all the people that worked for her. well, by " all " it really means the cute little gay boy intern and the old man that was piggybacking off of her cover story for her research. on the surface, she was trying to find cures to various human and animal diseases . . . which she tended to not remember. why would she? her mind was filled with how to change the dna and get rid of the lycanthrope and vampirism viruses; she didn't have time to think of the fake stuff she'd made up in order to get access to the college lab. seriously, who would have let her use their lab if she said she was using it for curing werewolves and vampires?

in any case, penny couldn't decide if she liked back - to - school or not. on one hand, it meant people were actually coming to use the library and were reading . . . on the other hand, it meant she had to actually converse with people and stop her own reading to help them. it wasn't that she really minded, of course, but her research was necessary both so she could have her sister back . . . and it also took her mind off of the engagement her parents had set up. okay, so she's almost thirty and isn't married, but it isn't penny's fault that she hasn't even come out to her parents yet! okay, that is her fault, but she couldn't disappoint her parents. she had to marry this warlock, even if there was a super cute redhead walking up to her in the library.

penny looked up out of her book and looked at the girl, trying to smile in a welcoming way but it probably came out strained. one thing penny knew about herself was that she was not a people person. penny listened to what the girl said and nodded a bit. " i know this place inside and out; finding your books will be easy as pie. can i see your book list? " she asked, standing, her hand open as she waited for the girl to give her the list. after getting the list, penny scanned it, memorizing the titles, and moved to the front of the counter. " you're going to have fun this semester. follow me, " she headed towards where the closest book was. " some of these might take a while. tell me about yourself. " she was a better listener than most people thought, and as she grabbed the first book and it to the girl, she smiled warmly, hoping the girl would warm up to her enough to make this not awkward.

outfit

[JOSEPHINE OLIVIA CAMPBELL]

Even though she wasn't as big of a failure as she used to be where talking to people was involved, Joey still wasn't perfect at social interaction. Sometimes, she doubted that she ever would be – it was a fact that she had gotten used to, because she was just that awkward. Granted, the redhead definitely hoped that she would be able to do better since it was a new school year starting. She'd done well during the last year, made friends in a few different locations both on and off campus, even got herself a girlfriend. For Joey, that was a huge improvement from her usual behavior of holing up in her dorm room with her online guild, texting her family, or working on her graphic novel until insane hours of the night because her social life was basically non-existent. Joey had always wanted to get out there more, be more lively and social, but it just hadn't ever worked that way.

The reason for that was probably because as soon as somebody tried to talk to her, even about simple, important things that she needed, like her textbooks for the upcoming term, she became a babbling, word vomiting mess. Okay, so this situation was kind of a fluke because Joey's main kryptonite was an inability to talk to pretty women. She'd done that once, and only kind of because her first date with Jamie had been a lot of the other redhead reassuring her that she was awesome and doing the lion's share of the flirting, because Joey was basically completely oblivious and wouldn't know if someone was flirting with her unless they came right out and said 'hey, you're hot, and I'm flirting with you. This is what flirting looks like.' Basically, she needed simple, plain language and possibly a diagram to figure it all out, and Jamie was super confident and more than willing to provide all of that. Well, she hadn't drawn out a diagram, but she made it obvious enough that even Joey, who was dense like a brick where romance and flirting were concerned, could figure out what was going on.

She had expected (well, hoped for) the librarian who she had to talk to about books to be some crone-like woman, maybe with really giant spectacles and a smoker's cough, not some twenty-something, gorgeous brunette with eyes that she could get lost in. And a smile that... wow yeah, lit up the entire freaking room. Not to mention, since she worked in a library, Joey could only speculate that she was smart, or at least liked books, and that was one of the sexiest thing. Smart girls? Hot. Well, girls were just hot, but yeah. Just stop thinking about how she's really attractive and ask her the question, Joe.

[/color] And she was nice to boot. Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

”Um, sure. It's kinda a mess... might've forgotten to take it out of my pants' pocket before I did laundry last, but it's clean.” Wow, that was a lame joke. Fail, Campbell. Epic fail. The scan of the list was pretty fast, and Joey could have sworn that she was memorizing it or something, which was impressive because textbook titles were never anything simple, and there were six of them. Joey followed the brunette down one of the long aisles, and then caught her comment, and didn't know if it was sarcasm or actual fact. None of her classes seemed that interesting, but sarcasm could also be difficult to detect if someone knew what they were doing. ”Are you being serious, or? Have you taken some of these classes before, or just heard rumors and stuff?” The brunette looked young enough to be a student, but Joey got the sense that she was older – maybe a graduate student. But she wasn't going to ask because bad at interaction. But that idea went out the window, because suddenly, the librarian wanted Joey to tell her about herself. Um. Shit. That escalated quickly.[/color]

Joey gave a little panicked look that the other woman couldn't see, but then did her best. ”Um... well, what do you want to know? That might be easier. I mean, I could tell you stupid little details about my nerdy hobbies, but I'm sure you don't want to hear those...” Yeah, way to sound like an idiot, Joey. Bravo.[/blockquote][/justify]