Shh! This is a library! - [babs-char-sel]

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Barbara sighed impatiently as she leaned over the brunette’s shoulder with her thick-rimmed glasses on the tip of her nose. “It’s been twenty minutes and you haven’t even started your paper? Char- wait, are you on Facebook?” Shaking her head, the librarian leaned over the young man and clicked him out of whatever programs he had engaged in. “Now, work! And do not try to start the sentence with ‘I think’. That’s how you have started the last three sentences; let’s try to switch it up a bit.” Pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, she leaned up. “Now, I have another student coming in for a session in a matter of moments. I know your session ends in five minutes, but you are not leaving that seat until you have at least two paragraphs.”

Ignoring his protests, she turned to walk away but was only several steps before she turned around. “Quiet down, this is a library…goodness” Forcing a sympatric smile, Barbara glanced at the clock and tried her best to be patient, sitting down quietly at her wooden desk as she hungrily eyed the door. Unable to deny the request of a dear friend and Gotham icon, Barbara had taken on the task of tutoring another student, though this one was simply to impress Selina.

It wasn’t that the girl was smart either, in fact, some of the things mentioned during their phone conversation lead Babs to believe that this Charlotte was a very intelligent girl. However, the girl missed enough school to the point where Babs assumed the truant officers knew her by name and face. Still on the clock, she left her desk momentarily to help an oafish football player find a list of books he required, continuing to eye the clock above the large double doors of the building, waiting for her to arrive.

outfit: clickkkk

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After getting dropped off by Selina, Charlotte makes her way into the library. If you ask her, it isn't her fault that she's behind in school, really. She's never had anything against school - she just had a few things against a couple of foster families. And the last thing that she'd had on her mind when she was living on the streets was how it would affect her education. Some things are just more important than school.

Though she has her suspicions that the girl she's supposed to be meeting with here won't agree. The police commissioner's daughter - probably a goody two-shoes. Hopefully she at least has a pleasant personality. Adjusting her backpack on her shoulder, she opens the door and tries to locate the girl from the picture that Selina showed her. Though that isn't hard - there's only one redhead in sight that's anywhere near the right age and such.

Approaching the girl, Charlotte gives a somewhat hesitant smile as she says, "Um, hi! You're Barbara, right? I'm Charlotte." She shifts slightly as she talks, definitely not in her element. She's not really into libraries, talking to complete strangers she already knows just a bit about, or feeling stupid because she doesn't know as much as teens are supposed to at her age. But some things you just have to endure.

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Barbara continued to glance toward the entrance, excited to meet the young girl that Selina had taken under her wing. Pulling her cardigan closer together so that she could button it up, the redhead tried to find something to occupy her time and move the minutes a bit faster. When she looked up, there was a brunette making a beeline for her desk - that had to be Charlotte. With a warm smile, Barbara got to her feet and smoothed her skirt before offering her hand to the girl. “Yes, I am! Hello! It’s nice to meet you Charlotte, let’s go over here to this table. It will give us a bit of privacy and it will be easier to spread your books out.”

Leading the way to the dark-wooded table, Barbara pulled the chair out and sat down across from Charlotte. “So how old are you again? Sorry, I know Selina told me but I can’t remember.” It was funny considered her photographic memory could remember nearly everything that was thrown at her, yet a simple age seemed to slip her mind. “Right, so what do you want to start on first? Selina said something about a psychology test tomorrow. Do you know what chapters it is going to cover?”

The redhead waited patiently for the girl to get everything settled. It was exciting to feel needed at times when she wasn’t wearing a mask. After being away from the library after the ruthless murder of her close friend, it was necessary for her to find things to distract herself constantly from thinking about it, otherwise she felt she would burst into uncontrollable tears. Thankfully, this tutoring session provided her with the proper distraction that she needed. Barbara could focus on textbooks and test tips for the next hour or so before she had to go home and be left to deal with her thoughts.

outfit: clickkkk

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Shaking the older teen's hand, Charlotte nods and tries to let herself relax. It's just homework with someone helping, after all. "Okay," she says as she lets Barbara lead the way over to the table. Putting her backpack on the table, she sits and starts to pull out her books, laptop, and other things that she'll need.

"I'm 16 - a sophomore," she answers as she spreads her things out on the table so that she'll be able to reach it all easily and puts her backpack on the floor where it will be out of the way. At the mention of her upcoming test, she locates her social science textbook and nudges it in Barbara's direction. "Um, actually, it's the psychology chapter - chapter 7. It's more of an intro course, I guess," she explains.

The private school she goes to is interesting that way - they teach all the required subjects, but some are emphasized while others are considered less important and get less attention. Psychology and related topics are one of the latter, but in a way that makes those classes even harder since they're trying to cram as much material as possible into the class so that the students are as well-rounded as they're supposed to be but make it take up less time than usual so that they can spend more time on other things. And it's especially hard for Charlotte, since she's missed a lot of school so she's shaky on a lot of things that she's supposed to know by now.

"Oh, and I also need to work on my algebra homework. I... don't get it," she admits. That's one of those subjects that she's really struggling with because it seems like every math concept is built upon the one before it, so if you're missing quite a few of them...

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Sitting down across from the girl, she was excited to finally meet the young girl that Selina had raved about. She sat patiently as she began to pull her things from her book bag, cleaning her glasses while the girl did so. “I thought so! I was actually sixteen with a graduated, thank god. From why I have been told I am the only one to do so, so you are in good hand, girl. I’m glad I got out of there when I did. High school can be killer, are you a part of any clubs or organizations?” Having been a huge part of a majority of Gotham High’s extra-curricular activities back in her day, she was eager to see if the dark-haired girl engaged in any herself.

Babs face lit up when she mentioned Algebra. Other than her technology class, that was one of her favorite subjects – and continued to be to this day. “Oh, I love Algebra! Okay, let’s get started.” She grabbed the psychology book from the girl and flipped toward Chapter seven, her eyes widening as she saw the chapter on the title. “Sexual disorders? Oh my….are you sure that’s the right chapter?” A blush appeared on her freckled cheeks as a nervous giggle fell from her lips. This was surely going to be interesting.

Even so, Babs would be able to provide her with a great method of different approaches when it came to her studies that could be easily applied to her future courses and assignments. Having excelled in school herself and only continuing to do so, the redhead was literally the perfect candidate for Selina to recommend Charlotte too. “So how do you know Selina exactly?” The assistant librarian attempted lightly, as she skimmed through the overview of the chapter in order to grasp the key points that were going to be discussed before she helped the girl with the assignment.

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Oh, she was 16 when she graduated? Does she want an award? Scratch that - Charlotte's willing to bet that if she graduated early then she probably also got some crappy award for something. Geek. But hopefully that means that she knows her stuff and how to explain it because there's some things that she's just lost on. "Um, not really - but I'm still getting settled," she explains, "I'm in the gymnastics class, though." Which has become her standard answer whenever someone tries to fish for 'what do you do?' style information. It's better than most of the other options. Most of her other skills aren't something to brag about, even though she's quite good at them.

Suppressing the threatening eyeroll when Barbara mentions her love of Algebra - figures, but she'll take it as a sign that she'll be able to help with that - she watches as the redhead turns to the correct chapter of the social science textbook. And immediately seems to freeze like a deer in the headlights at the title. She wishes she could just giggle nervously at it - instead she loses her ability to look at Barbara and grapples with a very strong desire to flee from that topic as quickly as possible. "Um... we can skip that section," she says quietly when she unfreezes. If anything, she's far more flustered by it than Barbara - instead of blushing she goes a little pale.

So she's naturally quick to latch onto the question that Barbara asks next, even though it causes her to hesitate for a moment. Because the answer to it isn't exactly flattering, at least not when she's talking to someone like Barbara instead of someone who's likely to know what it's like to have an 'interesting' past at her age, but then again there's not really way to spin it into a positive. And since Selia knows Barbara, she probably shouldn't lie either. "Um, I was caught shoplifting again and Selina offered to help me so that I wouldn't have to go back to juvie," she explains, but though she hesitates to say that she doesn't really sound embarrassed about it. After all, it wasn't her fault that she'd ended up in that situation.

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Slightly disappointed when she realized she had very little in common with the girl – other than the fact that they were both mutual friends of Selina and mutually taken under her wing from time to time, Babs still tried to remain optimistic. The outgoing redhead attempted to befriend everyone that came across her path and typically succeeded, though Charlotte seemed almost unwilling to open up as much. Then again, this wasn’t a slumber party – it was a tutoring session. Selina had selected her to help Char, not chat. “Well I am sure you will find other things once you get settled. The school has a very good selection.” She smiled, her eyes lifting up at the news of her gymnastics. “Oh! What instructor do you go too? How long have you been in? I took gymnastics for several years – but I am so tall it wasn’t like I got very far. I learned a lot of the basics though.”

The blush vanished as Barbara flipped to the next chapter, unable to suppress her true thoughts. “Oh thank god.” The next chapter the settled on was eating disorders and the redhead frowned slightly. “Alright. I remember this section vaguely. Basically what we need to do is study the two basic disorders, compare their similarities and differences and what methods of treatments are used. Do you have Morgan as a teacher? I know that he pretty much just teaches to the test and nothing more. His tests are easy. We are going to make sure you ace this.” She smiled reassuringly as she began to make sketch a diagram she planned to use to help create a visual for the brunette. After all, not everyone had a photographic memory like she did.

As she informed her that she was caught shoplifting, Barbara hardly looked phased at all. In fact, she didn’t even bother to look up from completing her rough sketch. There were a lot of young women and men that roamed around the town doing a similar thing – trying to survive. She couldn’t imagine how different her life would be if her adopted father hadn’t taken her in after her parents death or else she might have ended up going down a similar path as the young girl before her. “What is it you were trying to steal? I guess you are just lucky that Sel got to you before Batman did.” With a sly smirk she looked up from her diagram that was finally finished, waiting for a response.

outfit: clickkkk

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Given what her life has been like up until now, Charlotte simply has a hard time opening up too much to people she doesn't know very well yet. Though if Barbara thinks that she's being closed to her, she should see what Charlotte is like around people who are more of an authority figure - she's being wide open right now by comparison.

Her eyebrows lift in slight surprise when Barbara says that she took gymnastics too. That she finds somewhat surprising, though it's less so when Barbara says that she didn't get very far. Nodding, she says, "Booth and Mathews team-teach my class, but Selina teaches me more than they do. I've only done it since meeting Selina. I'm already level 3 though - almost level 4." Which means not very long at all, and she's not that good - girls who start young are regularly beyond level 3 when they're half Charlotte's age. On the other hand, even though the first five levels or so are very basic, being level 3 in such a short amount of time is actually pretty incredible - more so than Charlotte even realizes.

More than happy to move as far away as possible from that section of the book - especially since she already, um, knows the material well... - her expression lights up slightly at the topic. "Yeah. I keep getting confused about the difference," she admits. Which is understandable, since she's never had any problem like that. But boy do many of the girls at her school... Comes from it being a private school with so many dancers in it, probably. She's been thin because she wasn't eating much before, but that was at points where she didn't have much to eat - any other reason is stupid, in her opinion.

Though Barbara doesn't look up at her answer, Charlotte is watching her reaction quite carefully. That it doesn't seem to bother her at all is quite surprising. And Charlotte is not at all sure what to make of that, really. The question prompts a scoff and a laugh as she answers, "Just convenience store crap - I needed food to eat and trade for money. And I doubt Batman would have bothered, I never stole that much or hurt anyone." She shrugs at that, allowing for the fact that she's just guessing. But really, she can't picture the man taking time out from hunting down real criminals for someone like her - or someone like she'd been, to be more accurate. Her biggest 'heist' might have amounted to more than $100. Maybe. Of course, that was never because she couldn't have, but because the higher the value of what you take, the more dangerous of a game you're playing. And she was only trying to survive, not risk her neck in getting rich.

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Though she was also a teenager, Barbara was incredibly mature for her age. Graduating high school when most students are just learning how to drive and applying for college that following year forced her to grow up much quicker than most. Not to mention, the events she had undergone prior to doing so were nothing short of traumatic. While she wanted to relate to Charlotte, it was going to be somewhat difficult, regardless of the fact they were merely a few years apart. Still, under the tough exterior, Barbara knew that she liked the girl already.

“That’s awesome; you seem to be very progressive with it! You have the perfect build for it honestly. The pre-teen version of me would have been jealous. Do you plan on entering any upcoming competitions?” Babs would have loved to actually pursue the sport, though her height and frame didn’t exactly permit it. Besides, she found herself much fonder of her martial arts – and with limited time to fit all of her extra-curricular’s and her schooling it wasn’t entirely realistic.

After she finished drawing her diagram, she nodded, fully understanding. “I know, there are very few honestly. Here, let’s skin through the chapter and when we find one I will jot it down. Then you can just look over this before the quiz and I am sure you will be fine. Alright, so the biggest difference would probably be that those with Bulimia Nervosa are more concerned about pleasing others and being considered attractive to others. Basically, they trying to drop all that weight to please someone else. Oh really quick- what do you feel the best method you personally learn is?”

She honestly began to feel bad for the girl once more of her situation surfaced. She sympathized with her, but she could tell by how demeanor that she didn’t want to be patronized. “I was only teasing about the Batman thing. But I mean, everyone has to eat, right? You are much better off living with Selina. She’s such a generous woman, I honestly don’t understand why she isn’t married with children of her own already.”



outfit: clickkkk

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Shrugging a little at the question, Charlotte says, "Oh, probably not until I have to. But that could be soon, so..." While there's competitions at her level, they're optional and all of those competing would be... young. Very young. Young enough that she'd feel silly even being there. There is a point where you have to compete to advance though, and she'll do that even though most of the others would still be rather young, if less so. She'll probably shoot right up in the levels, though the beginning ones are easier than the later ones so she'll probably slow down at some point. And she'll probably never catch up to the girls her own age - in the gymnastics world she's ancient to just be starting, and even with her talents she's way too behind to consider it a possibility.

Looking over the diagram that Barbara drew, Charlotte nods. "Okay," she says as she starts looking over the section, though she's interrupted by Barbara's question. "Oh, um, by doing things, I guess - I mean, I don't think I have a hard time learning things, like, in general, but if I do something..." she responds, but then shrugs again. She's heard that some people have trouble learning things one way or another, but she's never had that problem personally even though there's one that's easiest.

The last thing that Barbara says prompts a surprised laugh. While she can picture Selina having a husband and kids, it's actually a bit of an effort - perhaps it's just because she's had the opportunity to see Selina on such a close and personal level, but she while she's seen and been on the receiving end of Selina's generosity, the woman never struck her as being that motherly. "Oh, I totally understand why," she responds, but intends to leave it at that. Because to explain that would be getting into Selina's... well, not so much faults but personality traits that aren't exactly favorable for someone to be a wife and mother. Then again, the ones you'd need to have instead are just... she'd hate it if Selina were more like that.

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Barbara smiled, at their discussion. While it may not be a field that she particularly thrived in, it was still interesting to her to say the least. “Well, it’s good to have something you are passionate about, right?” Despite the fact that she wanted to continue to engage in the subject, they still had stuff to do. Looking up the clock, the redhead noticed how much time had passed and they had only completed a little of the progress that she wanted to achieve by the time this study session was over. “Oh my gosh, is that really what time it is? Sorry Charlotte, let’s get to business.”

Proceeding to help the teenager with helpful tips in regards to the subjects at hand, Barbara was fairly confident that she could take the girls tests over the next few weeks and excel in them. Then again, she was only nineteen and a junior in college. Her brilliant mind only rivaled her looks and abilities, though she was convinced that her brain was her true gift in life with everything else aside.

After getting a little too excited about algebra, she looked up the clock to see it was five minutes until the library closed. Stretching, she stood up and closed the book before her. “Oh, Selina should be here any time and I need to start closing up. But if you have any questions while I do so feel free to fire away!” As she went through her closing checklist, organized and made sure that the library was completely vacant she gave the young girl the opportunity to ask her anything she needed. Though, after a bit of time had passed she couldn’t help but ask her own. “Charlotte, what did you mean earlier when we were discussing Selina?”


notes: I sped it up a bit so Sel can come in <3
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It may or may not have occurred to Charlotte that the longer they sit around talking about nothing, the less time she'll have to spend on what she's actually here to do. Granted, she really does want to understand her schoolwork so that she can graduate with the class that she's supposed to graduate with, but the temptation to sneakily avoid doing real work is too much to resist. Which is why she frowns in a slightly disappointed way when Barbara notices the time, but she doesn't try to raise a fuss about getting down to business.

Which goes surprisingly smoothly, actually. Okay, so maybe it's not so bad being tutored. Even if Barbara is still definitely a geek, and comes across as more than a little bit arrogant. Whatever - as long as this means that she passes her classes. But she's still relieved when the time indicates that the session is over. Is it possible to get a headache by learning too much too fast? She's sure that she'll find out...

"Okay," she replies as Barbara gets up and starts to close the library. But as she finishes the last sentence she was writing, she can't really think of anything. She may not be a redheaded super-genius, but she's not behind in school because she's stupid either. The required information will be retained at least until she's done taking the test. Perhaps even longer, but that's always hit or miss. So instead of asking questions, she begins to gather up all of her stuff back into her backpack.

As she's doing so, she pauses when Barbara suddenly asks her a question. "Huh?" she asks at first, but only because the last time they mentioned Selina was a lot of homework ago so it takes her a moment to remember what they'd been talking about. "Oh yeah..." she says when she manages to do so, but she has to pause to consider how to answer the question. But then she shrugs and comments, "Just... she doesn't seem like the type that, you know, does that." Shrugging again, she goes back to gathering the last of her things.

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So it's not but a few hours later after she's been able to get a few things done and she's back at the library. While it's almost time to close, she's aware if she can get in before they lock the doors, all the better. She hasn't seen Barbara in a while. But Jim was quite keen on the whole idea of introducing the two teens, even if they may be a bit...drastically different.

And considering she's received no texts, phonecalls, or heard a peep from the PD, she's let out a sigh of relief as she spots the two just..sort of hanging around. And while she's not the sort to push plowing through homework, and certainly isn't expecting it on their first meeting, she does hope it went well.

Approaching the two, she smiles brightly and calls to them both. "I was thinking we could grab dinner. Perhaps a few pizzas and head to the station? Barbara, if you want, you can ride with me. I have to drop off a few reports, so ...it's part social, part work?" She normally wouldn't force something like this, but it would nice to see Jim, and whoever's at the station. And if she's going by the latest goings on, Harvey will probably be there with Leo.

All the better.

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Simply shrugging off the girl's comment, prehaps Babs didn't know the woman quite as well as she assumed. It didn't really matter to her regardless. There might become a time where the woman settled down and started a family of her own, but Gotham wasn't exactly a place for families and the redhead didn't blame her if she didn't. Even at the age of eighteen she was already convinced that she didn't want a family. Creating one only gave you more reasons to be vulnerable and that was the last thing she needed. Even know she sought drastic measures to insure the safety of her beloved father as long as she selfishly held on to her Batgirl persona.

Closnig the library wasn't exactly a very time consuming process, but she left one of the doors unlocked so that Selina could enter despite the fact that only a handful of dim lights remained on in the massive building. "It's a bit eerie when it's closed down, isn't it?" She asked the brunette in attempt for some kind of conversation

The moment the familair green-eyed beauty walked through the door, Barbara's face lit up. "Selina! How have you been?" She asked, eager to hear the woman's reply. At the suggestion of going with her along to the police station, the redhead nodded and shrugged. "Sure, sounds good to me. I haven't eaten much today - so pizza sounds great!"


notes: coding is hell - posting from ipad. love you <3
outfit: clickkkk

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When Charlotte's finished gathering her things into her backpack, she idly sits on the table that they'd been using to study at and half watches Barbara finish closing, half lets her mind wander. Starting with a thought about how she really needs to get her driver's license so that she can just leave places when she wants to and doesn't have to lamely wait for her ride...

Though she's certainly not invested enough her mental wanderings to care in the least when Barbara finishes and asks her a question. Though it causes her to take a quick glance around herself and laugh lightly. "You've never walked through Park Row in the middle of the night, have you?" she asks rhetorically, certain that the Commissioner would never allow his daughter to do any such thing regardless of how independent she is. Charlotte herself had wisely avoided doing anything like that as much as possible when she'd lived on the streets, but sometimes it was not possible and by comparison, "This isn't even on the creepy scale for me." In fact, she thinks that she likes it better now than she did when there were other people around.

When Selina appears, Charlotte hops off the table and scoops up her backpack, allowing Barbara and Selina to greet each other. Hearing Selina's ideas for the evening, her answer is a shrug. Sounds like an evening full of both things she'd like to do but not in that context, and things that she wouldn't like to do but not enough to protest. The mixed feelings work out to be rather neutral, especially since her brain is a bit fried from all the studying and she'd welcome almost activity that doesn't require any deep thinking, so a wordless shrug it is - if she had any solid desire to not do it though, she wouldn't be shy about saying so to Selina.