Fifty Shades of Eavesdropping

Honestly, I don't eavesdrop on purpose. When you are in a library and people start chattering loud enough, and you are nearby, it just kind of happens.

There were four teenagers seated around a table in the back of the library; two boys and two girls. They all were giggling and making jokes as teenagers do, and making their best effort to have their fun without getting themselves booted from the premises or asked to tone it down, as they had in the past.

Then it happened: one of the girls dared the boys to go find that infamous novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

I mentally shook my head, then continued about my business, pushing along my cart and putting away books (and truth be told, I checked my cart just in case it housed the tale they were after). I overheard a brief bit of bantering from the table behind me, then watched as the boys meandered off on their mission.

It was not long before I heard the boys' hushed voices from a row over,
"Found it yet?"
"Nope"

"You should ask her", one boy said, casting a quick glance in my direction.

"No way!", replied his cohort, "You ask her!"




"Not a chance."

And with that, the boys began searching the shelves once more. 


Interested and rather amused at their plight, I kept a discreet eye on the two. They did indeed manage to find the book themselves. I grinned to myself, partially because of their previous little argument and partially because I was glad that there are still some high school kids out there who can find something in a library without help, even if the book had to be Fifty Shades of Grey.


Then an idea struck me. I should bring them a present. I wide grin spread across my face as I marched purposefully down the aisle toward the cookbook section. Yes, the cookbook section. Good ol' 641.665, for any of you who may speak Dewey Decimal. We had in the last few months acquired a book entitled Fifty Shades of Chicken: a parody in a cookbook. I quickly snatched it from the shelf and took it back to the very back table.

"I happened to overhear you guys," I said, with a sheepish grin, "so, I had to bring you the parody."

In the end, I found them reading more of the cookbook parody than the original. Considering the content of the original, I'm totally okay with that ending. Little did I know, it wasn't the end. Half an hour later I noticed the same foursome standing outside the library using some black goo to dye the hair of one of the guys. Oh the joys of teenage adventures!