Animal Volunteering's Supposed to be Fun, Right?

[Charity Croft]

Feeling that it was part of her duty as faculty sponsor of the Helping Hands, Bellefonte Academy's volunteer organization, Charity had volunteered to work at the local animal shelter. Chances were she would have volunteered anyway, as she felt she should give back and she pretty well enjoyed doing so. Still, she figured that she should set an example, and she had even managed to talk a few students into joining her.

She did wish that her setting an example hadn't resulted in her spending time cleaning out animal cages. The teacher had twisted her hair up into a sloppy tail, but it still ended up falling down onto her face. Gloves stretched just past her elbows, but Charity could swear she could still feel stuff getting under her nails. Worst of all, the smell. The smell of animal filth just sort of wafted up with every movement.

Charity ducked out of the room and took several deep breaths, looking around for a moment. She saw someone watching her, and she smiled. "Animals, huh?" she said, letting out a light laugh. She looked back at the cage, which happened to belong to a particularly odious pair of dogs that were currently being held for bathing. "So, like," she looked back at the other person, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to help...?"

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi visited the shelter at least once a week. They had been the one’s who helped him get Axel and Luna. That was a long and unnecessarily drawn out process and if it wasn’t for them, he probably wouldn’t have them right now. He felt he owed them. So, he would, when he could, come down and help out around the place. Normally, they would have him do paperwork and such. Sometimes he would get in contact with other shelters, and on rare times would tend to the books. He was always good with numbers. On occasion they would have him do some manual labor, they needed his strength, and he was glad to provide it. At least he was good for something. He just wanted to be of much help as he possible could.

As always, he was sent to grab the dog food that weighed about thirty pounds each bag. On his second trip back from the supply room, he couldn’t help but notice a woman, who seemed to be struggling with the smell of the place. He stopped and watched her for a moment, adjusting the two bags that were stacked on his right shoulder. Levi was taken aback when she spoke to him. He hadn’t meant to disturb her. “Yeah, What are ya gonna do?” He said with a kind smile and shrug.

He pondered her question, not really wanting to help, but at the same time he felt as though she could use the assistance. Besides, he wasn’t doing much else. “Yeah, I suppose I can lend a hand.” Levi lifted both bags simultaneously from his shoulder and dropped them on the floor next to him, which made a thunderous noise that traveled throughout the room. He walked over to the cage the woman was working in, and peered in. “So, what would you like me to do?”

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Oh hey, a cute guy... who wasn't ticking off Charity's fun little mutant sense. She actually had to stop and give him a few weird looks to make sure that it wasn't just her imagination playing tricks on her. Too much time dealing with other mutants had pretty well left Charity suspecting that everyone she encountered had a secret mutant power. At least the looking let her confirm that the guy was pretty good looking, and hey: he was actually sympathetic.

"Heh, yeah," Charity managed. She reached up to tuck some flyaways back into her hair, more or less succeeding. Somehow this was seeming less like a chore and almost as soon as that thought entered Charity's mind she wanted to berate herself for acting like a little kid again. instead she just kept focused on the guy, who was... well, he was actually coming forth to help her.

"Right, ah," Charity looked around, "we need to, like, move some of the stuff so we can clean around?" she said, moving and pointing. "If you could do that, well, get what I haven't already, then I can do the sweeping and mopping? then it's the fun part," Charity tilted her head slightly toward where the still dirty dogs sat awaiting their baths.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi looked back at the food. Perhaps he should have dropped those off first before stopping to help. Meh. He shifted his attention back to the girl and watched as she attempted to fix her hair. He couldn’t help but let a small smirk creep its way onto the corner of his mouth. It was obvious she wanted to help, yet at the same time felt it was more of a chore than anything. The gloves made it look like she was going to do the dishes. It was cute.

He wiped his hands on his white t-shirt, which was slowly become less white as the day went on. It didn’t phase him. It was his dirty work shirt, he expected it get ruined. Levi’s gaze went from the woman’s face, to her hands as she began pointing around the cage. “Move stuff. Got it.” He said casually. That wasn’t new.

Fun part? Levi’s hazel eyes followed the moment of her head and saw the dogs patiently awaiting their next move. “We have to bathe them?” Levi questioned, unsure of what she meant. To him, fun would be playing with them. But by the looks of them, they were in desperate need of some shampoo and a good long bath. Levi let out a small sigh and crossed his arms over themselves, resting them on his torso. His own dogs loved bath time, a little too much perhaps. It was odd, Axel loved when the shower head hit his face, and Luna , she loved laying down. Levi learned throughout the years that he would have to keep the water low enough so she could lay comfortably in the tub without drowning herself. They were a piece of work, but well behaved nonetheless. These however, he was unsure on how they would behave.

Ignoring the dogs for now, he focused his attention back on the woman standing in the cage. He walked over to her, “I’m Levi by the way.” He said cooly, stopping in front of her to catch her gaze. “I’d shake your hand, but...” He looked down at the filth covered gloves. He let out a soft chuckle and smiled, making his way around her to start moving things around.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Charity nodded and flashed a smile as the guy repeated what she'd said. Good, so at least he'd gotten that, which meant that they should be able to manage this. She was already readying her broom again, pausing for a moment while Levi repeated the other bit.

"Well, yeah," she said, looking over. "I mean, sure, it's not quite as much fun as like, playing with them or something, but it's a lot more fun than a lot of things I've done for volunteer work," Charity let out a little laugh then jerked her head back behind her, "like this, for example. Or anything else involving poop, which is a surprisingly high amount of jobs."

Charity was then shifting around so that the guy would walk over. Charity had been expecting him to enter or something, but he seemed to pause for a bit. oh, yeah, introductions. "Charity," she offered, adding another laugh, "for real, and yeah," she gestured, "don't worry about the whole hand-shaking thing. We're both kinda dirty right now," she bobbed her head again before giving the floor a few more sweeps. She kept doing it as she shifted around to let him back into the cage. At least they both had enough room that they shouldn't be bumping into each other... that much.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

He couldn’t help but smile. Levi listened intently and waited for her to finish before speaking, “True, but is volunteering really all that fun to begin with?” He said rather matter-of-factly. It wasn't that he didn't like volunteering and helping out best that he could. It was just that usually volunteer work was stuff that the people who actually worked there didn't want to do. It was like being an intern. "What other volunteer work have you done? You’re around poop often?” He said playfully with his eyebrows raised, eager to hear her response to that question. It was surprising that a girl would be willing to get down and dirty, especially around poop. Perhaps that might be a bit of a stereotype, but nonetheless, Levi has had more girls fit into that then prove him otherwise. He wiped his hands on his shirt once again before lifting something else up. His elbow barely missing her. He watched her as she continued to sweep.

“How often do you volunteer here?” He’s been coming here for quite sometime and doesn’t recall seeing her here before. Then again, the amount of people in and out of this place is high up there, and when he’s focused on a task it’s hard to get him to focus on anything else. But then again, he's sure he'd remember her.

“Yeah, well dirt is a reality of some good ol’ fashioned hard work.” He said with a hint of an accent as he swung his right arm up in front of him. What are you doing? Where was this coming from? As he moved around, he was cautious as to not bump into her, but it was easier said than done. "A bit tight in here huh?" He said as his foot collided with her broom.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

"It can be," Charity replied, almost sliding into the standard selling it spiel that she had to use so often around her students. "We are doing something to benefit someone else at no real benefit to ourselves. Plus, you can, like, sing or make a game of it or whatever."

yeah, that so sounded like something that a grade school teacher would say. Maybe at some point Charity would get rid of that type of thinking, but something told her that she'd be sticking to those routines for a while now. The guy had followed with yet more questions, and Charity was again laughing and shrugging. "I lead the volunteer organization at one of the local schools. Soooo, a lot," she gave him another smile before reaching up to swipe at her hand with her arm. She'd started sweeping again, and that was kicking up some pet dander and who else knew what.

at least she could move around him while he worked, albeit with some close calls. "I'm usually here a couple of times a month," she offered. "Sometimes with the students, sometimes by myself." Another shrug and she worked around. The conversation was making this a bit easier, even if she did have to keep dodging around his moving feet.

"Oh yeah, a bit," she said with another laugh, "but that just means that we'll be getting closer to each other," she almost winced at the joke, but then extended the broom, "can you move that? I'll sweep under it, and then that thing," she was already pointing at the next one too, wanting to get a good path for where they were headed.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi kept working, but kept his ears alert, listening to Charity answer his train of questions. He nodded his head slightly in agreement. She was right. It’s not that he didn’t like volunteering. He just didn’t appreciate some people (not all) who would rather bark orders at people then tell them what needs to be done and help out too. That vexes Levi to no end. “Sing? No thank you.” He chuckled. “But if you want to sing, I’m all ears!”

When Levi heard her mention school he couldn’t help but feel a bit dismayed. He paused for a moment, feeling a bit torn. He wanted to ask what school, but at the same time he really didn’t want to know, especially if the answer would be Bellefonte. Levi had long ago accepted this town and people for what it was a who they were. He didn’t have a problem with it whatsoever (maybe just a bit, but he’d never admit it). He just couldn’t help but feel a tinge of anger sweep across him when he thought of that school. It wasn’t fair to blame the institution, they had never done anything personally to him, but they had allowed his father to work there, and if they allowed a deranged man like the to work there, he could only imagine what else they would do.

Students? “So you’re a teacher?” Just as the last world left Levi’s mouth, his instantly regretted it. He shut his eyes momentarily, annoyed with himself. Great. That was suppose to remain in his head. He hadn’t meant to bombard her with a million and one questions, but he was curious, and well, she was interesting. Plus, it would have been awkward if the two of them just worked in this confined space in silence.

Levi smirked at her comment, but bit his tongue. He shifted over to the thing she was pointing at, and wiped his hands on his shirt yet again, before moving it. He crinkled his nose which was getting slightly irritated from the filth they were awakening.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

The mention of her singing had Charity laughing and then almost immediately blushing. "Maybe when I'm not inhaling dog bits," she informed him, gesturing at her mouth. She was pretty sure she could have sung anyway, but she really was worried about inhaling who knew what whenever she swept up something. There was a smallish cloud of stuff already, and Charity really didn't want any of that within her.

The woman was so wrapped up in her work that she really didn't notice Levi's moment of concern/thought regarding the school. Even if she had, she probably wouldn't have thought too much about it: there was dog stuff around and that was far more likely to cause a problem than her profession or anything like that. Besides, wasn't as if she hadn't been clear about the teacher thing.

Thus there was no problem with saying: "Yep," when Levi asked his question, adding a short nod of the head. "I work a lot with, uh, younger students, and troubled ones," Charity shrugged slightly before ducking down a little to get under the thing she'd pointed at, moving the broom around and knocking loose as much of the filth as possible. "Got it. now the other thing," she pointed at it with her broom, even giving it a few pokes. She thought she saw it move, but she really, really hoped she was wrong about that.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi had never sang, with perhaps the rare exception of in the shower. He recalled Aurora’s sultry voice when she used to sing during their many adventures in the forest. He was envious of talented people who were blessed with a good voice. “I may have to take you up on that offer.” Levi said, as he lifted the collar of his shirt to wipe his face. His nose was now stinging a bit, but his face remained unchanged. They would be done soon. His eyes shifted over briefly to the dogs patiently awaiting their bath.

Troubled students? Interesting. He feared his suspicions may have been confirmed. In an effort to avoid the topic Levi offered a simple comment of acknowledgement, “Oh, that’s nice.”

With his back toward Charity, he had his hazel eyes set on the next one she had been poking with the broom. He paused, and casually turned to face her instead. “Did that just move?” He questioned, in hopes that it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Charity flushed as the guy seemed to actually want to enjoy her singing. Not that it would make a difference for the immediate; they still had a pen to clean. They were making short work of it though. Soon it would just be a matter of swishing a mop around and getting some of the corners. In the meanwhile, they could keep chitchatting.

And the bit about working with troubled kids only got a that's nice. Charity was so tempted to defend herself, to maybe point out that her troubled kids could become giant wolves made of shadows or breathe fire or become the hulk but she knew how this worked. You didn't reveal things to civilians, even the ones in Kalispell who probably knew.

So instead she could focus on the moving pile. "I hope not," Charity said. She lowered and swished at her broom. the pile shifted and what appeared to be nearly a dog's worth of hair slid out. Charity jerked back with a squeal, throwing her broom at it in what was surely a gesture of assault and totally not surprise.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi was lost in his thoughts for the moment. He wondered if the girl actually had a good voice. It’s fascinating how many people think they can sing but as soon as they open their mouth nothing but glass shattering sound escape from the depths of their lungs. He couldn’t help but think of his very own little sister. He laughed inwardly at the thought of her trying to sing. It’s been awhile since her saw or heard from her. Perhaps a phone call was in order, but that was for later. Back to the situation at hand. They had made significant progress, and although subtle the pen was looking cleaner by every time Charity swished the broom around.

He was greatly relieved when Charity accepted his poor attempt at avoiding the topic. He felt a bit guilty for not praising her for what she did. It must be tough having to deal with the “troubled” kids of Kalispell. Unfortunately, Levi knew all too well what that was like, not from the teaching aspect of it, but living with four children who were learning to control themselves all the while Levi was picked on for being the odd one out. He was the black sheep of his family, and it wasn’t even his fault.

Levi was snapped back to the present when he heard Charity answer his question. What could possible be there? It couldn't be anything alive or the dogs would probably had gotten to it before they had. He turned back to face it, and watched intently as Charity attempted to move it with the broom. Levi watched with the expression of pure amusement plastered across his face. There was no point in hiding it. It was an adorable attempt to attack the vicious hair pile. He bent down slowly and picked up the broom, poking the pile with it, “I think you killed it.” He jested as he looked back at Charity with smirk.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Charity stood still for several seconds, breathing hard. She stared at the pile, her brain slowly starting to process that it was, in fact, entirely made of hair. Apparently Levi had already realized this, as he picked up the pile and gave it a few pokes. Charity let out a nervous laugh at his comment.

"Well, I wanted to make sure you were safe," she managed, her voice a little startled. She coughed slightly and gestured at him. "You're clearly perfectly fine, so mission accomplished," she licked her lips and patted her legs. "I'm... I'm just gonna go get the mop," she said, pulling her head to the side, "for... mopping. So you can finish up here. Because you've already got the broom, obviously."

Charity waited another moment before pointing in the direction she wanted to go and soon following the point, heading the short distance to where she'd left the mop and bucket. Just had to fill up with some water and cleaning solution... which did mean heading back in front of Levi but hey, she could manage, right?

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi’s hazel eyes remained locked on Charity. She was breathing hard, and seemed to be frozen in place. Levi took the opportunity to admire her for a brief moment. His eyes ran up and down admiring her form. She was so...picturesque, even in her moment of unease. His eyes returned to her gaze, which still seemed lost. He was relieved when she laughed. She wasn’t dead. Good.

He let out a chuckle as he left the pile on the floor. He stood and faced her. Adjusting his weight, he folded his arms across his chest. He raised an eyebrow and smirked at her attempt to play off what just transpired. “Oh, yes. Why of course. Thank you so very much. I am forever grateful.” He said with a hint of sarcasm in each word that left his mouth. He bowed his head slightly in a poor attempt to hide his smirk.

His head remained down for a moment. As she spoke again, he raised it and watched her fetch the mop. He nodded in response to her instruction and readjusted the broom in his hands. He bit his tongue, not wanting to cross the line with his sarcasm. The various things he could say were floating about in his mind. He restrained himself, and tried to brush them out of his head. Content with his decision for now. He began sweeping the little area that was left, until she returned with the mop.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Good, he was at least going to pretend to go along with Charity's thing. She could handle that. She could totally handle that. She was handling it right now: just watch her walk around and handle things. Like the mop that she'd managed to find. it even had a bucket more or less attached. Charity started wheeling both toward the faucet, listening as it squeaked every once in a while.

"That's the bucket, not me!" she called, turning slightly over her shoulder to make sure it carried. "Totally the bucket," Charity then mumbled to herself, telling herself to just calm down and definitely stop embarrassing herself in front of yet another handsome adult.

Then she got the water and started wheeling the bucket and mop over. "So, everything all ready for the mopping?" Charity asked cheerily, smiling and looking around at the cell, hoping that at least the pile and most of it were gone. She'd already done a decent enough job even before Levi got there, and he had been really helpful so far.