The candidates at High Reaches are set to counting and organizing the items in storage. Jule and Sorrin are paired up together and stumble on a great find, some computer equipment that hasn't even been used and seems forgotten.
Characters: Greidon, Jule, Sorrin, Hassaleah, Jeriah
Jule nods agreeably "Very. But, at least you won't have to...as long as you avoid future strikes." A little grin given to her older friend.
Greidon laughs "I try not to. No more thunderstorms for me. " she promises "At least up here we're ABOVE The storms."
Jule grins a bit more and finishes the roll before digging back in the box, puling out a wherry sandwich. She sits at table, a basket of half finished mending beside her as she eats the lunch Greidon brought. There is another on teh table, one for Sorrin when the other candidate returns from her morning duties.
"What's this about thunderstorms?" Wherever Sorrin had gotten herself off to, she steps into the barracks with a bit more bounce in her step than usual. Perhaps she'd caught a nap somewhere while no one was looking. In any case, she doesn't stink of runner, so that confirms that she hasn't been out to see Dursley yet today. Whatever task she had already today, it probably wasn't a smelly one.
Greidon waves over "Just my chances of being struck TWICE. here. Food! eat!" she points to the box left for Sorrin. "Its your favourite."
Jule tilts her head towards Sorrin, waving to her friend as the other comes bouncing into the barracks "Hi Sorrin, Griedon brought us lunch. Come on before yours get's much colder."
"You were struck by lightning?" Sorrin asks, raising an eyebrow. Oh, she's probably repeating things already covered in the conversation, but she wasn't here so no hard feelings, right? "To be struck by lightning and searched at High Reaches. You must have some sort of horrid luck." When Greidon points at the table, Sorrin faints at seeing the mending. At first, she seems to think that -that- is her so-called favorite. "No, no more." She holds her hands up and hisses like a cat trying to ward off something evil. Then, she seems to realize that Jule is the one doing the mending. "Oh, food, right. Thanks, Greidon." Happy-go-lucky as usual, the girl plops down into a chair and starts inspecting the lunch.
Greidon wells "The lightning happened at Ista technically. A rumor started I could hear all dragons after that too." she watches as Sorrin talks and giggles a bit, plucking out some mending to help "Are you guys helping in the big Inventory Crunch?"
Jule chuckles at Sorrin as she eyes the mending basket, then starts into her lunch. "Greidon was just saying that when dragons have tried talking to her before, she couldn't hear them. And that it's probably an ill effect from when she was struck by lightening." She takes another bite from her sandwich and tilts her gaze up to Greidon "Oh? Was that today?"
Greidon hmms "Well I couldn't hear them BEFORE either." She points out "Yes its today. I may get out of having to watch weyrbrats after all."
"It's still a nasty string of bad luck if you ask me." Sorrin replies before she begins eating. Never one for the greatest of table manners, she talks with her mouth full, "You've actually had dragons -try- to talk to you? I thought they only talked to their riders." Of course, Sorrin's education on dragon-kind has quite a few holes in it. She swallows and rushes to get more food down before someone pulls her off to some other duty or they get dragged into working on the inventories. "If they need us to help out, I suppose I'll go. Anything is better than being stuck with -that-." She motions a hand towards Jule's basket of mending.
Jule smirks to Sorrin "Ohhh. Ya mean, you won't help me with my mending?" she gives a mock tsking sound. "And after all the times I've helped you with your duties." Le grins a little and finishes off her meal "I Can work on them a bit later. The inventory shouldn't take all that long."
"You wouldn't dare torture me that way, would you, Jule?" Sorrin puts on her best puppy-dog face with big watery eyes 'n all. "I'll help you with any other task in the weyr, even if it's scrubbing the bathrooms after a meal of bean stew. Just please, for the love of Faranth and all that is sacred, don't ask me to do any more mending." She tilts herself forward, placing her head in her hands and giving a few mock sobs before bolting upright and seeming right as rain. What an actress our Sorrin has become. "Anyways, If you -really- need help with it, I will, but you know how terrible I am at it. I always end up poking myself more than I end up stitching." It's another exaggeration, but everyone is entitled to have one task they dislike.
Greidon ohs "i'll help!" she states, picking out a needle and such "I've wnated to learn it."
Jule smirks to Sorrin, shaking her head in amusement at the dramatics from her stablehand friend. Peering To Greidin, she smiles "You don't have to, even though the help is greatly appreciated." No, Jule doesn't seem inclined to make the older candidate put down the mending at all. In fact, she pulls out a thimble, hide thimble and offers it to Greidon "Here, slip this on one of your figners, will help you push the needle through the material 3ithout damaging your fingers." Glancing between her two friends, she grins to Sorrin "Oh, guess who got searched thsi morning."
Hassaleah has arrived.
Greidon hmms and takes the thimble and slips it on carefully, eyeing it before she nods and goes to work helping stitch the fabric "Its not all that hard. Like sewing leather only softer and without the hammer.
"It still hurts when you prod your finger, though." Sorrin points out, still trying to get her lunch finished with some speed. "Anyways, I'll give you a hand when I'm done eating. It wouldn't be very good to drip food all over the mending." Well, at least this is a more likely excuse than her previous display of humorous dramatics. "Hrm?" With the last bite in her mouth, she's forced to swallow before asking, "Who?" Patting herself on the chest, she coughs once and then looks towards Jule, expectantly.
Jule nods agreeably to Greidon "Yea. This basket full really isn't all that bad. Just a few tears along the knees of pants, or rehemming of seams." She fnishes her late lunch, the three candidates sitting around one of the tables, taking a breather from duties, and chat in teh common area of the barracks. Leaning forward a bit, she grins "Josef wa making a delivery this morning, and ended up being asked to be a candidate." she gestures to the other side of the partition "He's over there now writing a letter to mom and dad, probably asking them to send a few of his things."
Greidon starts stitching up "This person needs bigger pants or a smaller butt then." she comments as she stitches the strategically placed seam. "I saw one guy, he had a hole ahh, right between his legs, and he had a pink heart sewn over it." she giggles.
At some point, the Headwoman, a rather sizeable woman, has come to occupy the doorway out to the corridor, arms folded as she regards the Candidates in the barracks. "As you've all been no doubt informed," she says, practically shouting, "today, you are all going to be assisting with the inventory in the storage caverns." There's more than a little muttering, some of it bewildered. "Well, even if you haven't been told," she informs a young man near the entrance, "it's still the case. In return for this, we're giving you all a free day tomorrow, so look lively! Get yourselves presentable--in work clothes, please--and line up at the door. Consider it practice."
"Josef as in your brother Josef?" Pushing the reminants of food to the side, Sorrin glances over at Jule with one eyebrow raised curiously. "He was a ... smithcrafter, right?" Sometimes it's tough to keep track of everyone's extended relations, especially those she hasn't met as of yet. Without asking for permission, she reaches over to pull another ripped pair of pants out of the basket of mending, eyeing the little holes at the knee dubeously. Greidon's pair, though, causes her to laugh. "Sometimes they get tears in the funniest plac--" The voice of the arriving headwoman cuts off Sorrin's train of thought. "I guess that answers your question about the inventories, journeyman." The girl dusts the last few crumbs off her pants and pushes herself to her feet.
Greidon looks up and over at that, and nods as she puts the sewing down "If I may ask, practice for what, Headwoman?" she asks curiously as she strips her shirt and pants off, once more getting tangled in the pants and ends up on her back on her cot as she puts the hardy work clothes on. Then she grins at the other two "looks like our hopes for a freeday together came true though!"
Jule nods quickly to Sorrin. "Yea. He's the younger one of my brothers." She looks around and chuckles to Greidon, shaking her head in amusement "I wonder what he was doing to get such a tear in his pants...there." She shrugs with a too innocent expression and glances around as the Headwoman speaks up from the door. After she speaks, Jule rises with a little sigh, lowering her vioce to ehr firends as she moves to her press "Did either of you know she was standing there? We should put a bell around her neck or something."
"The hatching, obviously," is the Headwoman's dismissive response to the question asked. "Come on, you lot! Get in line! I don't care what order you're in... no pushing!" Some of the younger boys have to be herded into place, which she does with a large number of complex hand gestures. "Okay, are we all ready to go?"
"They train headwomen to be stealthy like that, didn't Jeriah ever tell you about that?" The stable-girl whispers under her breath before pulling herself up strait and making sure her clothes are at least somewhat tidy, for work clothes at least. "A freeday off together?" There isn't much time to question what the older two candidates have planned as she moves to join some of the boys who are already gathering at the doorway. Among these is Tal, the herder lad who makes a point to buddy up right next to Sorrin. "Come on, you two." She calls out behind her, cupping a hand near her mouth to carry the sound.
Greidon finishes dressing, lacing her boots patiently, not minding the yelling. It just rolls off her shoulders. Shrugging at Jules, she adjusts her hat and ahhs at the Headwoman "I see." she agrees, curiosity satisfied as she makes her way to line up briskly alongside her friends "I'm here Im here!"
Jule rufles through her press, looking for that pair of pants Jeriah gave her for just such an occasion as now. In a couple of minutes, she's changed and manages to come trudging up towards the end of the line, leaning to peek ahead, waving up to her friends. Le can't help but smirk when she notices Tal rather close to Sorrin and hides a snicker behind her hand. Peering up to Greidon "Why do you always wear that hat?" She whispers as she stands in line witht he rest of the candidates not off somewhere else.. "Hey, think we can get a rider to take us to the Xanadu bach tomorrow?" This to Greidon and Sorrin both.
Once the whole group has managed to form something approximating a line, the Headwoman steps aside and gestures towards the entrance. "Okay, now walk--no running!--out and down the corridor, please. Go out into the main caverns, take a left, and stop to wait at the first storage entrance, where one of the assistants will be to watch you. If anybody sneaks off, I'll have their hide. Go on!" The level of trust displayed here is not impressive.
Greidon looks to the other two but says nothing as she nods, walking along as she speaks to the other two, half turning to walk backwards finally, keeping her place easily "If not, we can always just hang out somewhere quiet. Maybe the diving cliff." she suggests
How exactly this rag-tag group all bunched together in a line near the door is practice for the hatching is somewhat beyond Sorrin's ability to figure out at the moment. "Tal, move over a bit, you're stepping on my foot." She squirms to the side, bumping into an older lad, "Excuse me." She mumbles politely and pulls herself back towards the group of girls. "They ought to train them how to walk properly." She looks down at her boots and then up again at Jule. "It's always Xanadu with you, isn't it?" Then, lowering her voice a bit so it doesn't carry, "We probably could get a riii--" Again, she gets cut off as orders get yelled. As the boys infront begin to move, Sorrin trails along behind them.
Jule cringes at the idea of jumping off the diving cliff Greidon speaks about "You can't mean purposely jumping into the lake ehre at High Reaches? Did you happen to notice that the snow is piling up out there?" A curious glances goes towards her brother near the front of the line before She gives a little shrug to Sorrin "Well, so? You would too if.." Le leaves it at that and turns a frown towards the headwoman. Teh chubby young woman merely shaking her head at something as she follows the group out.
Greidon pauses at that, looking at Jule curiously as she walks backards "who said anything about JUMPING off the cliff? I just said we should go up there sometime." she points out with a laugh, looking to Sorrin then and turns around to keep up the pace.
When they arrive at the storage entrance, it's not one of the assistant headwomen awaiting them, it's the Weyrwoman herself, leaning against the doorframe. "Well! You've managed to make it here, and still in line," she says, and there's no hint of irony to the words. "Good! We will be breaking you into small groups. Each group will be given one area to work in. You will count each item in your area, you will record the number, and then you will put things away in the designated places. Is that clear enough for you?"
"There are riders who jump into the lake during the winter sometimes. It's something about proving their manhood. I'd think it more likely they'd freeze their manhood -off- in the process, though." Sorrin chuckles, falling into an easy pace with the other girls as they walk along towards the main caverns. "Anyways, I'd prefer to spend our freeday someplace relatively warm." What is this? Sorrin is actually wanting to get away from the cold? Something must be wrong with the girl. Maybe she's running a fever. The chatter seems to settle down as they come into the storage area, though. Sorrin glances around, peeking over the heads of some of the taller boys but blisfully
Jule bahs to Sorrin "They can keep their supposed manhood. Idiiocy if ya ask me though." This about men jumping into the frozen lake. Turning her attention to Hassaleah when the woman is spoted, she listens to the instructions and nods slowly "Sorta like doing inventory in the infirmary." Pairing up with her friend, Le waves to Greidon as the woman heads off with another candidate. Peering around she nudges Sorrin's side and points towards a pair of male candidate "Isn't that Tal over paired up with Josef?" This asked in a whisper ebfore smirking a little and turning her attention to Hassaleah again. "What area should we start with La...Weyrwoman?"
The first few sets are split off into teams and sent on into the storage caverns before Hassaleah comes to Jule and Sorrin. She glances down at her always-attendant clipboard and then back up at them. "Storage crates," she announces, as though that were something slightly more exciting than it sounds. She gestures them through the entrance, points at a stack of wooden crates. "Should all be empty. Books say we ought to have twelve, but... looks like a few more than that, there." Several dozen, in fact.
"Well, I won't be the one they run to when it freezes off, at least." The stable-girl teases her friend, offering a little wink before putting on the mask of the diligent worker for at least a minute or so as they pass by the weyrwoman. "Mmm?" Another indistinguishable questioning grunt as she glances over towards the two young men. Unfortunately for Sorrin, Josef seems to be the lad she bumped into while avoiding Tal. Poor girl. "That's Josef?" She asks, looking mildly impressed. She lowers her voice, covering her mouth as she whispers, "So... how exactly did you and -him- come from the same set of parents?" Normally, this could be construed as an insult, but Sorrin seems so honestly awestruck that it's tough to take her too seriously. Even so, the assignment draws her attention away from the boys as she looks over towards the stack of crates. "Let's go?"
Jule looks over towards the indicated crates and tightens her lips to keep an unflattering comment about them from spurting out. "Alrighty then, let's get to it. Um, what do we do with the extra crates, ma'am?" She waits for the answer before peering around to Sorrin with an amused smirk "Why does everyone ask me that when they see my brothers?" She shakes her head "I take after my mom, my brothers take after my dad."
"Count them, then stack them over there," says Hassaleah, gesturing to a second location not far removed from the first. Another group seems to have the same question, so she goes on to say, "No, crates go there. Bed linens go on those shelves against that far wall! Yes, right there. Count the sheets separately!" She turns back to Jule and Sorrin, and smiles. "Make sure they're all empty, first!"
"Your mother has good taste." Sorrin responds quickly, almost without thinking. Realizing all too quickly that it probably isn't a good idea to be oogling her best friend's brother, the girl eases away from this conversation as she eyes the crates suspiciously. "So, it's going to be like opening gifts at turnover. It might be good, it might be bad, and if you're lucky you just get nothing." It's a wonder what kind of gifts Sorrin got at turnover to give her such a view of things. "Come on, Jule. Let's see which one of us finds reminants of tunnel-snake first."
Jule lifts a brow to Sorrin, before smirking "Gee, not the first time I heard that either." Shaking her head goodnaturedly at her friend, she heads over to the crates with her friend, "A tenth mak says I find the carcus first." Le winks to her freind and sets the little clipboard down, in case there may actually be something in the crate to inventory. Reaching for the first case,s he fumbles witht eh latch and pushes the top up while speaking to Sorrin "You get the next one."
"Well there's good reason that you've heard it before, you know..." Sorrin replies with a little pout playing on her lips. "I think he's even cuter than your dragonrider." With so many present, the girl takes care not to reveal anything more about Jule's crush than that little fact. "He's probably got girls all over him, I'm sure." She shrugs and steps forward, peering over her friend's shoulder. "How about we get ten points for each empty crate. If you actually find something salvageable from a crate you get fifteen. If you find some tunnel-snake sign, you get twenty." There's nothing wrong with a little friendly competition to pass the time.
The first of the crates seem to be empty or nearly so--dust and musty odors notwithstanding. The other groups move among the shelves and crates and stacks of items, shouting numbers off to their partners. "That's sixteen blue rugs, and twenty-eight red!" Here and there, a query. "There's only four double bedframes here--are you sure that's supposed to be nine?" Hassaleah, in the middle of it all, seems to be doing very little--standing, clipboard in hand, sometimes answering a question or two.
Jule smirks to Sorrin and shrugs "I guess, don't really know. And is not...ick." That's her broether afterall Sorrin is talkin about. Le nods though at the betting specifics "Sure, deal." Peering into her crate, she sneezes at the musty dust that swirls out after opening. "That's ten points for me." she sneezes again and closes the crate, lugging it up and shuffling over to start a stack where Hassaleah indicated. Every so often, she glances over towards the Weyrwoman to make sure she doesn't have any other instructions.
Sorrin snorts, luckily not snorting the dust in the process. "Ten points, and one empty crate." The girl leans over and makes a notation for the crate onto the clipboard which rests ontop of yet another crate. "Let's see..." She points to a couple of the box and then mumbles. "My mum said don't be a bum so open up this one." On each word, she points to a different crate until at last her finger points to the chosen one. "Wish me luck. If I die, make sure to mourn me properly." Stepping up to the crate, she pulls open the top, hinges creeking from forced movement after so long.
Still resolutely empty, whether for good or ill. Hassaleah, with a healthy curiosity and little enough to do, steps off to check on each of the pairings as they work. Some seem to be making very good progress, with a whole shelf full of stacked books, while others are having more trouble, as a set of rather small girls try to haul a wooden bureau across to a set of similar ones. The cries of numbers have become strangely rhythmic: "Seventy-four!" "One hundred forty!" "Six... and a half?" That last one provokes a minor arguement about whether or not the insect-eaten piece of carpeting in question can actually count as a half of a rug.
Jule returns from depositing her empty crate, chuclking at Sorrin's method of chossing which to open. Peering over her friend's shoulder "Looks like ten points for you too." A wink si given as she reaches to open the crate right next to Sorrin, glancing over her shoulder towards the arguement over accurate counts. Lowering her vioce a bit "Did you hear that a minute ago? They got real beds instead of the cots we been sleeping on. I can see why ya prefer sleeping in the hay in the stable loft." Le smirks at that and pries up the lid, rusty hinges protesting slightly.
"Empty." Sorrin notes, screwing her nose up to avoid sneezing. "Unn." She clamps a hand over her nose as she lets the lid back down onto the crate and begins the process of dragging it over towards the others. Luckily, the empty boxes aren't all that heavy. It isn't as bad as the poor girls and their bureau. "They have bed -frames-." Sorrin corrects, clapping dust off her hands as she returns to mark down the second empty crate on the sheet. "That's not the same has having full beds, you know. You'd be surprised how good sleeping on hay is for the back, though. Of course, you have to be able to stand runners making sounds at all hours of the day and night." Not to mention the smell of sleeping in the stables. Rather than waiting, Sorrin lifts up the clipboard and pulls open the top of the crate beneath. This one moves a bit more freely than some of the others, shifting upwards without so much as a squeek.
The Candidates have all been paired off to work today, each given a different set of items to count and record and put away. The Weyrwoman is supervising--nominally. Hassaleah is actually doing much more wandering and hovering than actual managing of the teams, which might explain why some are performing much better than others. Meanwhile, Sorrin's fortune this time is much better. In her most recent crate, packed carefully away where it was safe and secure and promptly forgotten, is a large and heavy object nestled in layers of foam padding.
Jule 's second crates appears to be empty, aside from dust. "Ten more points." Le calls ouot and lets the top fall with a thump. Reaching over to make a note on the clipboard she and sorrin are working from, the chubby candidate then graps the dusty crate and goes to stack it with the ones already checked. Coming back, she chooses the first one she get's too. Peering to sorrin "Oh? Looks like you get more than ten points this time. What's that?"
As the lid is lifted and the object comes into view, Sorrin peers. "Fifteen." Well, at least it wasn't tunnel snakes, right? "I don't know if I can get this out myself, can you grab one end while I get the other?" She suggests, scootching around to the side of the box before reaching down to find a grip along the foam padding. "It looks heavy." One attempt at moving it even an inch confirms that it -is- heavy. "Erf. I wonder what it is. Well, we'd better get it out of the crate and find out."
As word gets around about this find, a number of the other Candidates gather about, waiting for a look. Hassaleah, meanwhile, is noting down the numbers on the crate, and then glancing at the others nearest it with furrowed brow. Two of the older boys offer assistance in extracting the item from its crate, and once removed, it turns out to be a video monitor--and one that looks nearly new.
Jule nods to Sorrin, still peering inside and tryin to help lift the heavy burden out. Shaking her head, she steps back to let the stronger candidates give their hand at it. Peering towards the item when it's revelaed, the chubby apprentice nudges Sorrin in the side and snorts softly "Too bad that didn't turn up before things turned up missing huh? I think that should get ya more than fifteen points though." The two candidates have a running game with their crates it seems. Looking on for another minute or so, she pries the lid off the next crate and peers inside.
Sorrin lets out a low, appreciative whistle as the packaging is moved away to reveal the video monitor. "Not a bad find, though." She rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, nodding to the two lads as they take care of making sure it gets placed with the other electronics and tech gear. "Fair is fair. We said fifteen points, so it's fifteen." With the crate now emptied of it's contents, she makes another notation on the clipboard before hauling it off to join it's counterparts. "It's your turn to find something next." She chuckles over her shoulder, stacking the crate before breaking into a little fit of sneezes. Dust.
The next crate yields not deceased vermin but yet another piece of equipment, this one a large rectangular server case. "How old *are* these?" asks one girl, but the question is brushed aside as Hassaleah pushes in among them for a better look. "Step back, step *back*," she tells a few of the onlookers. "Aren't you supposed to be counting towels or something?" There's a small frown, but it's hard to keep the pleased smile from escaping again. "Well, now. Well, well, well. These don't even look *used*." Her fingers run over the edge of the case, almost a caress. "Not recent, by any means, but I wonder!"
Jule peeks into the case and blinks in surprise "Oh, not a tunnelsnake at all. Look." she moves aside to let others see into the case, grinning to Sorrin and Hassaleah. With a quizzical expression "How many points is this Sor?" Le giggles at that and peers back to Hassaleah "Should we leave this one in the crate where it's protected from damage til it's ready to be used ma'am?"
Jeriah drifts over after the whispers and whotnot get over to her group of candidates, who have naturally taken off to go see what all the buzz is about. She's been strapped with two pair of the younger candidates and she's of the mind to reign them in. Not that it's going to work, as two of the four start 'geeking out' over the monitor and the components that should or could go with it, extolling their merits and decrying their faults. Shouders drop at the unlikely prospect of dragging them away from the moment. For a time anyway. "Hullo Jule, Sorrrrin. Weyrrwoman." Le sigh.
"Let me through." Sorrin grumbles as she has to push aside a couple of other candidates so she can rejoin her friend. "Not a tunnel snake?" She stands on tip-toes to look over one boy's shoulder and then ducks underneath his arm to come back up in the front. "Looks like you found one of those gadgets too, huh?" She folds her arms over her chest, trying not to look impressed. "We're even on points, now." She doesn't even have to check the clipboard to know that much. "Do you think there might be more of this type of gear in the extra crates?" The stable-girl asks, peering closely at the Weyrwoman, at least until another voice distracts her. "Oh, 'ello there Jeriah. Come to see what all the fuss is about?"
"Yes... yes," Hassaleah finally decides, nodding to Jule. "We'll keep them in here. Check the others," she directs, gesturing to a few of the others with similar numbers. "They must have been ordered at some point, and never recorded as arrived..." She stops mid-thought to nod to the assistant headwoman. "We've made quite a find here, Jeriah. Upgrades for the computer system." Forget that Hassaleah has refused to use said system since stepping up, even when her habit of taking notes by hand has been completely impractical; penny-pinching beats Luddism any day. Gesturing to two of the boys, she says, "Here. You and you... let's get these moved over to that corner, there, can you do that?"
Jule nods to Hassaleah, moving aside so the boys can seperate the crates with electronics in them. "Well, these are certainly handy, but I wish we could find something that will keep us warm at night. Or maybe something to wear that isn't in a awful pukey color." Le grins a bit and looks towards the next crate, "Wanna make odds on finding a pouch of lost marks?" The chubby one winks and peers over to Jeriah when she pushes through the group "Hi Jeriah."
The boys just about fall all over themselves to help move the equipment as they continue to chatter on in what might as well be a foreign language. Jeri, for her part nods and smiles, "So it would seem. I might check laterr to see how long it's been herre. Surrely therre'rre notes somewherre in the arrchives." Least Jeri's insomnia's hoping anyway. She's been largely without much of a project, and something new like this will help tire her out for weeks likely.
"There's nothing wrong with pukey colored clothing." Of course, Sorrin may only be saying this because she's been alternating through trousers and shirts which came from that lot of ill-colored cloth. "All that matters is that it keeps you warm." She somehow manages to fish out the clipboard and mark a notation for each of the boxes in which electronics were found. "Lost marks?" The stable-girl looks momentarily confused and then shakes her head from side to side. "If you do..." She probably would have said 'you have to share half with me', but she isn't about to say that infront of the Weyrwoman. "You'd best turn it in." Riiight.
Nodding to Jeriah, Hassaleah adds, "We'll take down the numbers and look it up. How very, very interesting." Her eyes return to the crates, lingering. Finally, she claps her hands. "That's enough dawdling! Let's get back to work, people!" The other Candidates gradually filter off back towards their own tasks, murmuring about what they might find hidden among the bedspreads or old silverware. Magnanimous, the Weyrwoman tells Jule and Sorrin, "With our gratitude for this discovery, you can have the rest of the afternoon off." Sometimes luck does come through, apparently.
Jule wrinkles her nose to Sorrin and smirks "I'll wouldn't want to deprive you of the horrid orange and green colors my friend. You can have them." A wink is given Sorrin as she tilts her head back to Hassaleah, hands lowering from the next crate without much of an argument. Offering a quick curtsey "Why, thank you ma'am. Will give me time to finish up my morning mending that I got behind on." Her gaze peers over to the cause of that delay, her newly searched brother, briefly before moving to Sorrin and Jeriah's sides, though her gaze takes in all three woman "Um, ar we allowed to read the books?" She gestures towards the shelves of books being inventoried and added to the shelves.
Jeriah grins and mouths a 'well done' to her two friends. Though when Hassaleah orders everyone back to work, Jeri rounds up her four, the two techie kids whining because they have to leave the new equipment, and the two non-geeks wenging because now they have to get back to work, but Jule and Sorrin don't have to. "Enough alrready, else we'll be playing the who gets to serrve drrinks at dinnerr game."
"I'm going to make sure you get puke green sheets next time I draw bedding duty." Sorrin gives a little smirk towards her friend, not really seeming to mind the jibe about her clothes. Fully expecting to be put back to work with the others, she starts to pry up the top on another crate but pauses halfway and lets it drop again. "Afternoon off?" She couldn't have heard the Weyrwoman correctly, could she? Well, it's best not to question such a gift. She bows her thanks, "Thank you, ma'am." She echos Jule's own response, almost at the same time, too. "Don't you ever think of anything other than books?" Sorrin mumbles, creeping up by Jule's shoulder. "I'm thinking that I'll go get Dursley's brushing done early. Maybe I'll catch a good night's sleep before the freeday. Take care Jeriah, work 'em hard." She chuckles, the giddiness of getting out of extra work begining to sink in. "I'll meet you at dinner, Jule. We can discuss 'plans'." And she leaves it at that. Sorrin ducks between a pair of boys moving rugs about and makes her exit from the storage area.
Deciding that it's probably best not to ask what this game entails, Hassaleah just waves after Jeriah, and then looks over at the books Jule mentions. "Write down the title and author, and then sign, on one of the inventory logs. So we know where it's gone," she finally decides. But this is the extent of her patience; she waves Jule off, and then heads off to make sure the rest of the Candidates are doing their duties properly.
Jule cuts an amused gaze towards Sorrin "Don't you ever think of anything but runners?" She retorts quickly to her frend and waves as she slips off to tend to Dursley. Turning back to Hassaleah, she nods at the instructions "Yes ma'am." since Jeriah is herding her group off, Le makes her way over to the said books and starts scanning the ends curiously.