“Really??” Seth growled as he dug though the mound of clothes that inhabited the floor of his room. The fact that he got his own room after the shuffle had pleased the Cetus greatly, but it had the unhappy side effect of him making a total mess of it. With roommates he at least made an attempt at keeping his belongings in some sort of non-pigpen arraignment. Sharp blue eyes glared at the mess as Seth stood in one shoe. He could have sworn he’d taken them both off at the door, yet somehow the mess had eaten the other sole, laces and all. The seconds ticked loudly in his head, already late, and even if he found the darn thing he still had to run all the way to the reference center.

Cursing under his breath he kicked a slightly damp towel, and then yelped when his foot encountered something harder than terrycloth. Ah HA! There it was. Diving into the mess, Seth flopped over on his back and began trying to cram his foot into the shoe without untying it. After some rather undignified wiggling, and a few words that would surly earn him another detention if a teacher heard them, he finally got the shoe on. Slamming the door, Seth took off down the hall, dodging students as he went.

Just before he reached the door, Seth stopped and caught his breath. His fingers raked though his hair until it looked halfway decent seems he hadn’t had time to re-gel it into its customary spikes. Once composed, no need for the Librarian to think he’d been rushing to detention of all places, Seth sauntered into the room and looked around. Hopefully he wouldn’t be stuck dusting again, his nose itched just thinking about it.

The light in her eyes, and the smile were tell-tale signs that nearly made Seth snicker. There were times when his own code of ethics got in the way of a spot of good fun, but still he stuck to them. The pity that seemed to radiate off the woman was something Seth had often encountered, mostly at the beginning of a school year when a new teacher was involved, or when there was a substitute. People who hadn’t figured out what he was about yet. It would have been ridiculously easy to play off of that pity and get Milo into trouble, but to Seth that was just not done. He kept his fun between him and his targets. Dragging teachers into it was just not his style.

Ugh, more books. Seth gave a dramatic sigh before offering Madame Toladaeri a brilliant smile. “I’ll take the posters.” This was going to be so lame, but if he played it right, there was a chance he could walk the thin line between his code and getting the Librarian on his side. It would make future detentions less of a hassle if she liked and pitied him.