Overdue || Wren & Pete
"Excuse me!" Wren called apologetically as she sprinted toward the university's library. She weaved in and out of hallway traffic, very carefully avoiding collisions. Wren didn't often run on campus, even when she was in a hurry, because it gave a wrong impression. Today, however, conventions be damned. As Wren arrived at the dreaded second floor stairwell, one notorious for being so narrow that people could only go by in a single file line, she was forced to come to a stop. She descended the stair case agonizingly slowly, mentally begging the person ahead of her to please hurry up, because she had to get to the library before she got home. She was furious with herself, and couldn't believe she'd been so forgetful.
Two days before, the theatre troupe at the university decided to partner with the primary school to promote literacy and the arts in children. It was a small, un-funded, and almost completely student run program, but it was important to the troupe, and to Wren. The idea was to make adaptations of children's stories, and to perform them for the children. It was to be done in an effort to show children how interesting reading and storytelling can be. Wren fell in love with the concept, and immediately volunteered to do the adapting. It brought her back to the long nights she used to spend in the nursery with her little brothers, telling them stories of pirates, adventurers, and heroes who never, never gave up. It brought her to her great love of theatre. Wren believed that doing this project would be the perfect tribute to her past, and to the art she loved.
That is, until her Chemistry teacher assigned a ten page essay on a subject she knew nothing about. Wren, who never really loved the sciences, slaved away over that paper for a night and a day, and finally turned it in on that afternoon. It was only then that she remembered: She had forgotten to pick up from the library the book she was supposed to adapt. And the adaptations were due tomorrow. Wren felt the anger at herself rise anew as she finally got free of the stairwell.
After a final sprint, she made it through the library doors and dashed to the desk. "E-excuse m-me please...!" Wren had to take a few moment to compose herself and catch her breath. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, please. I'd like to check out 'Collected Children's Stories,' please?"
The librarian shrugged. "I'm sorry, Miss. I can't check that book out to you."
Wren furrowed her brow. "I don't understand."
"That young man's just checked it out."
