the gauntlet discussion

The library seemed like a safe enough place, without anything tat would really scare Lucretia off. She was hopeful, at least, that she'd be able to stick herself in some secluded corner and read. But maybe not a corner, because they could have spider webs. And spider webs meant spiders lurking close by and spiders were terrifying. The average person, at most, swallowed around eight spiders, per year. Or was it lifetime? And wasn't in sleep? Lucretia liked to think that she would notice an arachnid crawling into her mouth while reading but anything was possible and now she was freaking herself out. Great.

She pressed on, peering into each aisle, trying to figure out the best spot to be ignored and what she actually wanted to read. She didn't think she could stomach anything history based because history was full of terrifying things and she wasn't here to be scared shitless any further than she was doing herself. She really just wanted to avoid everyone and everything, but this was as close as she could get. Her dorm was off limits, though, because someone left the window open and there was a bee. She wasn't risking her life by staying in that room. She could have an allergic reaction to the insect — not that she knew if she was actually allergic or anything.

It wasn't like this library had anything that the VanKent family history didn't already show, but he figured it would be easier to pass his time here reading than doing anything else. Everywhere he seemed to go, there was someone hell bent on irritating him short to follow. In the back of his mind, he sometimes wondered how many of them would make it out of the Gauntlet alive, or Ainsley, to be honest, but then he just started to think it could be him and changed his inner monologue.

That's basically the gist of why Pierce found himself walking around the library, heading towards the history area instead of the bibliographies of guardians sections. He was following a small little girl, not on purpose, it just so happened they were heading in the same direction. It was one of those irritating scenarios where she was walking to slow for him to stay behind her, but not fast enough for him to pass her -- and periodically, she was stop in the middle of a walkway and look around. He had almost run into her twice. "Can you move?" he asked, finally getting irritated enough to voice his annoyance.

Lucretia hadn't heard anyone coming up behind her. She was too busy worrying about everything that could potentially go wrong with this little excursion through the aisles. Paper cuts, sneezing too hard from potential bits of dust where she sneezed too hard and gave herself a hemorrhage. But that was nothing in comparison to her heart nearly stopping at the sound of someone behind her.

By the time she'd whipped around to face the speaker, she'd already let loose a string of incoherent words that might have been an apology. Or maybe it was her cursing him out; she didn't even know for sure. "Jesus. Maybe just go around me?"

"Well maybe I would if you would move your ass!" he threw back at her, like he hadn't thought of that already? It was like she was a magnet that just hovered directly in front of him -- if she hadn't acted so surprised when she turned around to face him, he would have thought she was doing so well at blocking him that it was on purpose. But from the look on her face, she was very surprised, if not just as annoyed.

"Excuse me." he exaggerated, turning the what would have been semi-polite words into attitude with a roll of his eyes as he said them. He couldn't even remember where he was going now, this girl's irritating little quirks had taken over his entire thought process. Why was every single female at this damned school so entitled and obnoxious? Who knows. The history section, that's where he had been going!

She really should have thought of this possibility. It made sense, considering. It wasn't likely that the library would be empty of people. Others would need the knowledge stored her or a reprieve from something just like she did. She should have at least thought of her pace not being fast enough for someone else. "I'm so sorry." That wasn't good enough. This guy could turn into a homicidal maniac within the next second if she really pissed him. "Uhm, I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound as rude as it did."

Was she hyperventilating? She couldn't really tell.

Having already moved on from this entire conversation (was it even a conversation?), Pierce glanced back at her with a look of confusion. Was she actually still talking to him? He wasn't sure if she didn't know who he was, or if like she couldn't figure it out from the first few seconds of being around him. Even if his reputation hadn't proceeded him, it didn't take much longer than a few minutes in Pierce's presence to know he was a dick. So why was she wasting her time... or was she just that stupid?

"I do not care." he said, stringing the words out slowly she maybe then she would understand.

"Really?" That was calming, somewhat. He could just be saying it to get a move on, and be really irritated with her later. It was possible that if she made it out of her room in time next time, he would shove her like what happened with that other girl. Or make her run into something. Which she also thought was kind of unlikely considering he kind of looked like he was carved out of the finest material and placed on earth to grace the lesser species. Totally irrational, but when was Lucretia ever rational?

"Oh, well, I'm Lucretia. You probably don't know me because I barely leave my dorm. Uhm, watch out for spiders; the average person swallows eight in a year. Oh, watch out for dust because if you sneeze too hard you can cause a blood vessel to burst and start hemorrhaging. And if you get any paper cuts, just like, spit on it? Or something? I don't know, but just sanitize and cover it with something or it could get infected by whatever else people hand on their hands when they were reading whatever you cut yourself on." She thought that covered everything.

Pierce kind of felt like he wanted to throw his hands up in the air -- a motion of girl-are-you-crazy-I-do-not-care-as-in-get-away-from-me... not feel-free-to-sit-down-and-lets-talk? But he didn't, he just stared at her with a deadpanned expression that seemed to ask if she was truly being serious right now. Like honestly, Pierce had to refrain from himself from reaching out and smacking her with a book, or better yet, shoving her into a shelf with the hope that it fell on top of her. Anything to get her to shut up would honestly work for him.

He tilted his head as he looked at her, with an expression on his face that could only be described as pain. She was stupid. Why did the academy keep letting stupid people in? Why? "I do not care. About anything you have to say." he rephrased, staring at her in hopes he could see the light of knowledge brighten her face.

He'd said that before. Why was he saying it again? She was leaving, after all. Or was this confirmation of what she had said before. Maybe she should have risked the bee; it would have been a lot better than the heat creeping up in her cheeks and she nodded. "Sorry, again." It'd been less than three minutes and she could feel the usual crushing blow of humiliation that tended to accompany human interaction. One of the very things she feared. The bee was looking like a much better companion than this kid.

Almost mechanically, she turned around and walked in the opposite direction.