FicWad

The library was almost silent when Frank pulled his work shirt over his black flag band tee. The only actual noises you could hear was the old woman at the desk tapping on her keyboard loudly and the small thuds of a college students low heels. Frank realized that the silence was going to drive him mad. Especially now that his brain cells were throwing an abnormally large party in his head. But then again, brain cells throwing parties is pretty abnormal too.

He looked around and the few privet school kids quietly studying at a table while he pinned his name tag on his chest. He envied the privet school kids. They got a proper education where they attend and are actually given interesting homework and enough homework. The only thing he hated was the uniform and the fact most of the kids there are stuck up and fifty times more homophobic than the horrible public school he attended. But then again, his school had no uniform and got to go on field trips to the Historic Center.

"Okay, so what you'll be doing is helping people find books, and re-shelving. To reach the higher shelves, do not climb on the lower ones. You go and get the ladder, no matter how far away it is" a ginger haired woman said as she blinked her eyes hard for the millionth time since he had been in conversation. "Understand?"

He nodded quickly, unsure of how many times she had actually asked him and tucked his hair behind his ear. "Sure, ladder, no shelf stepping. I think I got it" he gave her a small, forced smile.

"I'll be watching you" she said creepily, narrowing her icy blue eyes. "So don't think about slacking off because I'll see it"

Nodding slowly, he watched the woman start towards a child that had become louder in the past few seconds of the conversation. He feared for the kids life. His boss was creepy, and, in Franks mind, acted like that weird teacher from Invader Zim.

Sighing and pushing away all thoughts about creepy Invader Zim lady, he started down one of the quiet aisles, thinking 'If I just walk around, someone will eventually come and ask me for help'

Instead, another worker shoved a trolley full of books in front of him and told him to shelve them, and if it wasn't done properly, it was nice knowing him. Apparently his boss was worse than he had imagined. Zim's teacher times one thousand and one. He took the trolley and looked down at the first few books. Geography. Nodding to himself, he started wheeling the trolley down the aisle, knowing exactly where those books rested. He had read almost all of them.

Unfortunately, when he got there, they had rearranged that area and the geography books where higher then he expected. He contemplated standing on the other shelves anyway, but then he had the sudden, scary thought that the creepy boss from earlier was going to slid out like a shadow from beneath the amateur geography books and fire me on the spot as loudly as she could. He didn't like that thought and decided to go get the ladder, like he had been told to do. He even dropped a book onto the floor on purpose just to check she wasn't under there.

His boss had watched him push the ladder as silently as he could with the old, slightly squeaky wheels across the library. She had almost watched him with a snarl, almost like she was waiting for a reason to turn into Satan and damn him to hell. Then fire him. He wasn't sure which one was worse really. They both probably started with "You're soul shall never find peace!"

Finally, though, he was out of the glare of Satan and was climbing the ladder with a couple of book in hand. He had shelved things before in the library, by his own will of course, so he had this in the bag. He hated it when people put books in the wrong place. How hard was it to put it back where they found it? It angered him to the point where he wanted to find the person and slam all their fingers between the hard cover and pages of an encyclopedia and laugh manically. All of which would never happen. Not if he wanted to use the library again.

He was just placing a book in its rightful place when someone spoke and scared him, making him drop the books he had in his hands and wobble, almost falling of the ladder. "Oh, woah, wow. I'm sorry!" they almost exclaimed. Frank knew that voice... slowly, and carefully, he turned around on the ladders step and found Gerard the Historic Guide standing there, wide eyed with his hands up ready to catch Frank. His face softened into a smile when he recognized the small boy on the ladder. "Hey, Frank, right?" he asked, lowering his hands now that he knew Frank wasn't going to plummet to his death.

Frank nodded, still not fully recovered from his scare or the discovery he and his brain had made and squeaked a small "Yes"

"Cool, I didn't know you worked here. I haven't seen you around before, do you usually work out back or something? You know, labeling and ordering books?" he pushed his dark hair from his face and smiled up at Frank, awaiting his answer.

"It's my... uh... first day" Frank replied sort of awkwardly. Not that he was never awkward around Gerard. "I just started a few minutes ago"

Nodding in approval, Gerard glanced around at the silent, reading people and said "It's a cool job. Not as cool as mine, of course, but... it's close" he smiled amusedly and looked back at Frank. "So yesterday, you couldn't help me and, well, it wasn't that hard but today we have a truck coming and I'm really going to need some help because, well, I'm no Thor" he chuckled. "Do you want to maybe help? If you're not busy?"

Frank almost smiled, but the half of homophobic brain cells refused to let him. "What time? I have school tomorrow" he said with a small 'please be after school' look.

"The delivery is at around four, so, I guess if you can make it, cool. If not I'll become Thor. Or the Hulk. Or you know, find someone else" he gave a small, happy shrug.

Frank nodded and glanced down the aisle, almost choking on the air he was breathing when he saw his boss step out from behind some shelves. Yep. Just like Zim's teacher.

"Was there something you needed help with?" he asked quickly, his eyes widening as she got closer and closer. "Like, for a book or... something?!" he was almost panicking. He was totally becoming hell hound chowder.

"Oh! Yeah, right! I totally forgot. I was looking for the history books" he said with a small nod. "Wanted to check if there were some I hadn't read yet, or, you know, heard of"

Frank carefully climbed down the ladder and said. "Well, the history books are just here" he said, leading Gerard to the three shelves beside the ladder and Geography books. "There's the older ones further back here, and the newer ones over here, closest to Geography" Frank explained as he tensed up. His boss was walking right behind him. "We also have the encyclopedias further down, which-which we have a few different versions of" He watched the lady disappear behind some more shelves and let out his breath. "Sorry, that was a load of crap you didn't need to know I just-that woman creeps me out and she's like Satan and I don't want to be fired on my first day and-" he took a deep breath. "Did I mention she's creepy?"

Laughing, he nodded. "Yeah, you did" he ran his fingers through his hair. "So, these are the old ones you said?" he asked, pointing to the other end where the battered and slightly broken books were. I nodded. "Cool, I'll start my search there then. I've read most of the new ones and they just don't capture it in the way the old ones do" he shook his head. "And you can literally smell the age of them. Although sometimes it's not too pleasant" he smiled.

"Well, I'd imagine some wouldn't smell nice. I mean, so many hands have touched the pages..."

The two stood quietly in thought before shuddering, then laughing. "That is creepy"

"Frank" he heard the creepy ginger lady say. He peered around Gerard and frowned as she waved him over with a skinny, skeletal hand. He was in the shit for sure.

"I've got to go" he said slowly, nibbling his lip as he stared at the impatient woman. "The devil calls"

"No, yeah, it's cool. I'll see you tomorrow if you can make it then" he said with a small nod. "I have some cool things in my office you should see. I have a gopher" he grinned. Frank, confused, looked back at his boss. It seemed he longer he took, the more she resembled Satan.

"Cool, um, I really have to go, but tomorrow, yeah. See you!" he whisper shouted as he dashed off to the aid of his satanic boss.

Turned out she just wanted him to clean up someones spilled water and left him to it with mop. At least Gerard was nice enough to come and give a small, quiet and hidden goodbye. Neither of them wanted Frank to be fired for 'slacking off'.