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Chemistry

Summary: In which a librarian and a dorky student come together through Shakespeare plays and pizza.

Perrie was sitting behind the information counter, working on one of her Advanced Fiction Writing assignments when someone cleared their throat. Perrie looked up expectantly. "Yes?"
"Um, I kinda lost my Chemistry textbook and I was wondering if you have it here." Perrie would say that the girl who spoke was quite gorgeous in a girl-next-door sort of way with those long-lashed brown eyes, shy smile and wavy ombre hair. Perrie flashed the girl a friendly smile and stood up.
"Sure, what's the title?"
The girl looked slightly embarrassed as she shuffled on her feet. A red color rose in her sun-kissed cheeks. "See, I don't actually remember the name of the textbook. Only that it's about chemistry."
Perrie frowned slightly. "There are at least four shelves of chemistry textbooks in this library."
"If it helps, the book has a black cover. And there's the word 'Chemistry' on it." Perrie almost rolled her eyes at the other girl's response. No shit.
"Four shelves of chemistry books," Perrie repeated. "And about a third of them have black covers."
"Well, if it's such an inconvenience for you I can-"
"No, it's fine. I'll help ya." Perrie poked her head into the office, whisper-shouting for the substitute reference librarian Leigh-Anne to take her place.
She had a feeling that this was going to take a long time.

An hour and two shelves of books later, their search turned out fruitless. The girl had shook her head at each black chemistry book Perrie had pulled out for her, and Perrie's frustration and impatience was steadily growing. "How about you ask your chemistry professor or one of your friends for the title of the book so I can find it for you."
The brunette blushed. "Oh, right."
Perrie shoved the last book in the shelf and leaned against it, trying to catch her breath and not yell at the scatterbrained girl next to her. "So just go back to the reference counter and ask the librarian to help you if you have the title of the book, okay?"
"Okay." The brunette took a sudden interest in her shoes, not looking up until the blonde girl had disappeared from her sight. Sighing out, she put her hands in her pockets and wrapped her parka around herself before exiting the library with one last glance behind her.
Perrie was watching her absently, with a slight smile on her face. Their eyes met, and the brunette quickly blushed and hurried away, embarrassed of herself.

"Blondie, someone's in Section D watching some videos without headphones on, you better tell them off."
Perrie swiveled around in her chair and grimaced at Harry, who was a senior and technically her boss and liked to call her "Blondie" because she hated that nickname. "Stop calling me that," she snapped and did a double take when she looked at the monitor.
Although the screen was small and quite blurry, Perrie could tell that it was that girl again, that girl who was looking for her chemistry book a few days ago. Perrie had assumed that the brunette had probably asked another reference librarian to find the book out of embarrassment, and it made her feel a bit sad to think that somebody was intimidated by her.
"Blondieeeee," Harry repeated again playfully. Perrie rolled her eyes and took one last look at the monitor before heading off to Section D - the study area. It was mostly empty as it was a Saturday night and everybody was off partying, but since Perrie didn't really have an active social life and needed money, she worked as a reference librarian in the university library every night.
She recognised a few regulars who were shooting the girl dirty looks as the sound blared loudly from the the brunette's laptop speakers. Perrie stood there for a moment, watching two bunnies snuggle against each other from behind the brunette's shoulder.
"I should probably yell at you or make you get out of here, but they're really cute baby animals," Perrie said with a smile as the brunette whirled around, an expression of pure shock on her face. When she realised it was just Perrie, heat rose to her cheeks and she glanced away, quickly slamming the lid down on the laptop. Perrie's smile turned amused as she watched the flustered brunette take a deep breath and offer a shaky smile in return.
"I'm sorry."
The regulars at the library breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to whatever they were doing.
"It's fine, just don't do that again....have you found your textbook yet?" For some reason, Perrie wanted to be friends with this girl. Although the brunette was kind of weird, Perrie didn't see any harm in befriending her.
And she had to admit that something was drawing her to the brunette like the moon is drawn to the earth.
"Ye-Yeah," the brunette stammered. "The curly-haired guy helped me with that. Thank you."
Perrie rolled her eyes as she thought of Harry. He had to be up to no good. The curly-haired boy always teased her about firing her, and although Perrie knew he was just joking, she was always on her guard around him.
"Yeah, you're welcome...." Perrie trailed off, looking at the other girl expectantly.
"...Jade. Jade Thirlwall." She had a hand placed on the lid of her laptop, like she was afraid that Perrie might steal it.
"I'm Perrie." Perrie rocked back and forth on her feet awkwardly and cleared her throat when Jade didn't say anything. "I should probably get back to work."
"What time do you normally work here?" Just as Perrie turned to leave, Jade spoke up, her big brown eyes riveted on Perrie.
"Nights on weekdays, whole day on Saturday." Perrie gave her a tight, awkward smile and walked off.