Uh oh.

Who: Arden and open
Where: Library
When: Afternoon

Arden, having got out of school, was currently in the library fighting with the upset butterflies fluttering through her stomach at the words she had heard earlier this morning:

Parent.
Teacher.
Conference.

She really would have preferred a detention. In fact she would have preferred to be raked over hot coals and force-fed Mrs. Baird's casserole before having to endure the repercussions of what would be the incredibly bad situation of her father and homeroom teacher talking about her 'attitude', 'performance', and -- worst of all -- 'attendance'. Her teacher had given her a sealed envelop that was supposed to be given to her father, signed by him, and then returned. Arden of course had wasted no time in unsealing the envelope, reading its contents, and then wondering about what the library had on forgery and seriously considering the possibility of her accomplishing it. She also wondered if the home telephone would break if she accidentally knocked it over -- just in case the school tried to call.

But her reaction was equal parts anxiety and defiance. Because for all the grievances listed in the teacher's letter, Arden didn't actually feel guilty about any of them: skipping school, poor grades, 'impermissible language used against another of her peers'... every nerve in her body was on fire with the declaration that she would have done it all again. She disliked her classmates and even hated some (the feelings there were mutual); and she didn't really care that she had botched a bunch of dates relating to medieval England, and the language? Considering Margaret Haysworth had used some 'impermissible' language of her own, Arden had no remorse. Things like school just didn't seem important after everything else in her life: the death of Pepper, her father's lies, the overwhelming confusion about her mother's letters... the only reason she was worrying at all was that she absolutly could not anger her dad -- or, at least, she needed to prolong that for as long as possible.

So she had gone to the library, which probably had more people using it as shelter from the storm than for book-purposes. She camped out at a table, partly doodling, plotting, worrying, and looking up whatever sudden thought caught her fancy. This resulted in an odd assortment of books and magazines around her -- including a National Geographic with a shrunken head on the cover and a tome that had quite a bit on the misdeeds and misfortunes of some criminals (with a particular section on counterfeiters and con-artists). But, interesting as those two were, they weren't what she needed. So Arden got up, looked around the area, and walked toward a cart to dump the book on. Only there was somebody standing there, blocking her path. "Excuse me." For once her voice sounded rather civil, probably because she was more concerned about not dropping the heavy book or the National Geographic onto the ground.