Too Small For School PV David Howard Finished

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Oh boy. This was embarrassing.
Now, in a normal situation, he probably would have just given up on all hope of retrieving the book and just went on with his day. But today he was feeling awfully confident and figured that he could grab it without anybody noticing and just leave. Clearly that wasn't the case now- he was now resorting to asking someone else for help. Which Simon vowed to never do. He could usually handle things on his own. But not today, apparently. He never was scared of heights, so this was unusual and out of character for him to be so afraid.
But he was.
When the boy was called over, he asked Simon how he was supposed to help him. “If you fall I'll be too weak to catch you, so do you just want me to push your back while you climb down so you won't fall?"
Simon rolled his eyes at the boy's question. He obviously did not want him to try and catch Simon- he didn’t trust the boy to actually succeed. Even if he was bigger than him. “Just catch my book. I need to make sure it’s intact. Besides, it’s super heavy.” Without waiting for a response, he tossed the book towards him. “And yeah, do that too. Whatever. Just make sure I don’t crack my skull open.” he said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. It was weird how afraid he was- it wasn't even that high up! "Pull yourself together," he whispered to himself. "It's not a big deal."
When his hands were securely placed on his back, Simon began to climb down, one foot at a time. When he reached the bottom, he dusted himself off and picked up his books. “Uh, thanks. I’m just going to go now. If we meet again, never mention this.” Simon said, like he had committed some kind of atrocious sin just by climbing on the shelves. It sounded ridiculous even to him, and he laughed a little through the humiliation.

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While Simon was climbing down, he noticed the boy struggling to hold the book. That boy was weaker than he was! He didn't think it was that heavy. Ah well- at least there was someone out there weaker than he was that wasn't also four years younger than him. That was comforting.

Simon rubbed his eyes in exasperation when the boy referred to his situation as fun. Fun? How about embarrassing? Dangerous? What was this dude on? And David? He knew around twenty Davids. What a basic name. He also had an uncle David who was fairly rude about his height- one of those annoying Davids he knew.
"Hi, uh, Howard. I'm Simon Corbin." Simon said. He considered shaking David's hand, but questioned it. Some people didn't wash their hands after using the bathroom- he had no idea if this boy was one of them. "And fun? I wouldn't say that." he said, with an edge to his voice. He cleared his throat. Even though he wasn't a fan of this David person, he figured that being a jerk right off the bat might be a little too harsh. "So, what brings you to the library?" he said sweetly, putting his books in his bag. "I've just been trying to find a good read. Slow day today. Oh, wait- lemme just-"
Simon grabbed David's wrist and squirted hand sanitizer in his hand. "Just in case- there are diseases going around." He squirted some in his own hands. "Are you sick in any way?" He couldn't afford to get sick either. Simon was kind of a germaphobe.

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“Then why- oh, nevermind.” Simon mumbled. This was confusing, and he didn’t want to drag the conversation out any longer. He squirted some more hand sanitizer into his hands and rubbed them some more. His hands were getting dry because of the amount of hand sanitizer he was using. He'd have to ask his mum for more.

When the boy told him what he was doing, Simon groaned loudly. “That sounds booooring. I can think of much better ways to spend your time.” Simon tapped his chin. “Like stuffing snow down other people’s backs. That’s way more fun than History of Magic. Bleh!” Simon felt his fingers reach for the hand sanitizer in his pocket again, but he didn’t take it out. He didn’t want to seem obsessed.
On the other hand, why should he care? This was Howard- he wasn’t cool enough for Simon to be embarrassed about doing stuff around. He should be embarrassed for being around someone who was as lame as him.

When Simon asked him if he was sick, David began to gasp, which weirded Simon out until he realized that he was going to sneeze RIGHT ON HIM. What the heck?? Did this dude not know a little something called hygiene??? He was going to kill him with disease! Simon grabbed his hand sanitizer and got ready to squirt it at his face when he said “Kidding. I'm not sick in any way for your information. But the question is, are you?"
“Not funny!” Simon screeched angrily. “And I'm not sick, obviously. Or else I wouldn't be here infecting people.” He took several deep breaths to calm himself down. “You know what?”
He grabbed his bag and picked around for a moment before finding some pink glitter hand sanitizer. “Here, have it. You need it way more than I do.”
“Also, don't tell the librarian. I don’t want something as lame as climbing on shelves to be on my permanent record. I’d rather get in trouble for something better.” He stuffed his books in his bag, still annoyed with him about the sneezing thing.

“That sounds boring.” Simon said, stretching’s the ‘o’ in ‘boring’ after I told him what I was doing in the library. “I can think of much better ways to spend your time.” Simon said as he tapped his chin. “Like stuffing snow down other people’s backs. That’s way more fun than History of Magic. Bleh!” “Well of course it’s boring, I don’t like it either. But I don’t want to get a bad grade, you know?” I replied.

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#fff79e