Kenny's Offered A Tour

Kenny and Gavin made their way through the neighborhoods and up the connecting sidewalks of Azure Rocks until they started to reach the town center. While Kenny did want to ask Gavin if they were passing anything of interest, he could tell how tense the geeky teen was. At first, Gavin didn't have much to say to him, and any questions he tried to ask were only rewarded with one-word answers. Kenny knew he wasn't going to get anywhere like this; it was similar to when he first started hanging out with his friend Avery back home. So, Kenny tried the same tactic he did back then, look for a few similar hobbies and make him open up. Thankfully it didn't take long, nor was it all that hard to get Gavin talking once he brought up a few games he and Mindy played all the time back home. Gavin was an avid gamer, as it turned out, and that was something that could finally get this tall, quiet kid talking.

By the time they actually got to the library, Gavin was much more relaxed; he was actually looking at Kenny, relaying a very quick and short personal story here and there, and overall just being more open. The two checked in at the front desk, and Gavin led Kenny over to the back corner of the building; it was indeed a small section, to be sure, most of the books were quite old and looked like they were rarely checked out, but Gavin seemed to know the best ones to give Kenny a head start. With a stack of books in hand, Kenny then followed Gavin up the library to a table just by an available computer, "Okay, so this is the way you can check out the old newspapers. You just pick a date, and as long as that newspaper was scanned, you'll be able to pull it up and read all about it. If it's way old, don't get your hopes up, though, it's just a computer, not a miracle worker," Gavin lightly joked as Kenny set his books down on the nearby table,

"Cool," Kenny gave his brow a quick wipe, "This is an awesome start, Gavin; thanks, man. I would have been pretty lost here without you. Probably wouldn't have even found this book section,"

"Well, Zack told me to try and lend a hand when you came here...Chloe too...I'm not really good with talking with strangers, but you're pretty cool. Thankfully not some jock or something like that," Gavin replied as he slid around and let himself into a seat, "Do you think you'll need help maybe? I can help you skim through some of the better passages?"

"Oh, thanks, dude, but you don't have to do that. I'll probably be here awhile, I don't want to hold you up all day with my research," Kenny denied but to his surprise Gavin shrugged and flipped open a book,

Gavin didn't even look up as he started to read, "Believe me; I really have nothing better to do. Besides, now that we're here, I have to admit, I guess I am a little curious what histories of our town I don't know,"

Kenny tilted his head and gave Gavin a curious look. Huh, well, I guess that about settles it. Maybe without that other guy around -- Zack -- He's a bit lonelier than I know? Well, what harm could it be to let him hang out with me? I could use the extra eyes if he's offering. Kenny slid down into a seat as well, "Thanks, Gavin, I appreciate it; you and Chloe are both like crazy nice for people just bumping into some random new kid."

"Doesn't pay to be mean," Gavin murmured back as he almost immediately started to get lost in the book. Kenny followed his lead, taking out his pen and notepad, and started to take notes from the other book he opened and began to read.

A few hours later Gavin and Kenny had six books all open at different areas, and the two were studiously taking notes; Gavin having gotten a pen and paper of his own. "Huh, that actually makes a ton of sense." Gavin murmured to himself,

"Whatcha got?" Kenny looked up from his book,

"The liquor industry of Azure Rocks," Gavin spun his book around for Kenny to see, pointing at a set of paragraphs, "It says during the days of prohibition, the town economy actually got better instead of worse. Crime didn't increase marking it as one of the very rare cases of it being a technical success for us." Kenny quickly wrote down a few notes while Gavin pondered, "I wonder if that's why we barely have any liquor in this town even now..."

"It'd make sense, around the same time," Kenny wet a finger and flicked back a few pages in his notes, "The harbor industry that fished the great lakes was growing even further, now branching into some tourism. It seemed the town pivoted its direction as to not fall victim to the effects of The Great Depression," Kenny explained, giving a glance over to Gavin who was blankly staring off. Kenny flipped another page, "Not to mention this," He tapped the page, "Azure Rocks apparently was a near pioneer when it came to early industry pornography. Marking the highest number of photo shoots for adult magazines during the thirties. They definitely made sure to use what sold,"

Kenny joked as he flipped back to his new note page, he then let out a small sigh, "Still, though, as helpful as these books are, I'm not learning much about the town start. I keep seeing the name Ravers in so many of the passages but I can't find anything about where they came from or how they started. Newspapers don't even go back far enough, but that name is always featured. Any ideas what I could do, Gavin?" Kenny looked to the geeky teen who still was staring off, his eyes holding a look of longing even.

Kenny turned his head, following Gavin's eyes until they landed on a beautiful Latina sitting at a far off table reading through a book. "Oh, who is she? A friend of yours?" Kenny plainly asked and Gavin nearly jumped out of his skin,

"H-Huh? What? Who's who? N-No one!" Gavin babbled off as he buried his head back into his book, "I was just lost in thought!"

Kenny arched his brow and scooted a little closer to the geek, "She's cute, do you know her?" He continued to press,

Gavin flicked his eyes up to Kenny's for a moment before quickly standing his book up, using it as a barrier, "Her name is Lisa Rivera, she's....my best friends ex-girlfriend, okay?"

"Ooh, okay, I gotcha...a sticky situation then?" Kenny nodded understandingly,

Gavin sighed, "Not exactly, when she broke up with Zack, they agreed it was a mutual thing. I've talked to Zack about it a lot, and he even said that he just wasn't the guy for her. So no, it's not a problem that I like her, it's just -- it's dumb, let's just forget it,"

Kenny glanced back at the girl then back to Gavin, "Have you tried talking to her?"

"Lisa and I have talked a few times, yeah," He said with a small smile, "She's really nice, actually,"

"Then, maybe go talk to her again, then do it again," Kenny suggested with a friendly chuckle,

"No way, I'm not like you," Kenny let out a confused breathy laugh, "What? I can't just show up in a town and start flirting with the neighborhood girl and have it work out. That's just not who I am. If I try to seriously talk to Lisa, it's just going to blow up in my face,"

Kenny blinked a few quick times and shook his head, "I...wasn't flirting with Chloe...was I?"

"Uh, kinda," Gavin affirmed, "You two were going back and forth,"

"It wasn't intentional," Kenny honestly replied as he sat back in his chair. I mean, yeah, I thought she was beautiful but I wasn't actually flirting was I? Wait, did he say that she was flirting back with me?!

"There he is!" A suddenly voice exclaimed from the front of the library. Kenny and Gavin both looked up finding a pair of strikingly beautiful girls standing by the front desk. To the left was a slim, amazingly filled out brunette with electric-blue eyes and to the right was an extremely cute and petite blonde with less sharp, but equally mesmerizingly crystal blue eyes.

"Whoa, who are they?" Kenny asked only for Gavin to jump up in a flash,

"Oh crap, no way dude, I can't handle this, I gotta go," Gavin slid his notes and books over to Kenny who looked at him bewildered, "Dude, I struggle with Lisa and I know her, no way am I getting into something with Heather Ravers and Ashley Woodsen on my own. Sorry,"

Before Kenny could even ask, Gavin turned and all but ran from the table, swinging around the library and circling towards the front door while the two girls were approaching, "What? Wait, Gavin, Gavin!" Kenny hissed out in vain before quickly sitting up as the girls got ever closer to his table,

"Perfect! I knew we'd find you eventually, you're Kenny, right?" The brunette warmly asked as she and the blonde reached the table and took a seat across from him,

"Uh, y-yeah, hello? I'm not sure we've met..." Kenny awkwardly shifted in his seat as both girls stared at him with all smiles,

"We haven't, I just made sure to learn who our new out of town guest was going to be," The brunette gave her head a small shake, letting her long black hair work behind her shoulder, giving Kenny an even better view of her overly impressive large bust, "I'm Heather Ravers,"

"And I'm Ashley Woodsen," The blonde girl sweetly added, "We wanted to come welcome you to the town and offer some help if you needed it! Apparently we were a little slow on the draw, Chloe told us, Gavin brought you down here a few hours ago, huh,"

Kenny's eyes snapped between the two, they were squinted with curiosity, "Yeah, he showed me some town history books -- I'm sorry, did you say Woodsen and Ravers?"

"Yep, Woodsen," Heather pointed to Ashley and then back to herself, "Ravers,"

"Like, the Woodsen and Ravers I've been reading about in these books all day?" Kenny looked to Ashley, "You're apart of the same family that prevented that land grab back in the twenties that would have destroyed the town?" Ashley smirked and gave a nod, "And you," Kenny awed at Heather, "You're part of the Ravers family I've been reading about all day? I can't go two paragraphs without your family name getting mentioned!"

"That's no surprise, my family all but founded this town," Heather proudly replied, glancing down at Kenny's notes, "Hmm, looks like you've hit the ground running immediately, huh?"

"Doing what I can," Kenny shrugged, "I am taking this pretty seriously, I don't want to make a crappy report about your town. Only problem is, these books have been great for the town's history after the turn of the nineteenth century, but everything before that...it's pretty scarce."

"Ah, that's something that certainly needs to be rectified about this section of the library in the future," Heather reached into her pocket, pulling out a pen and grabbing Kenny's hand, "Tell you what. Here is my number. I don't have time today, but tomorrow I can take you on a little tour of the town. I know all the historic sites, and I can even bring your back to my manor, and give you a rundown on my family history,"

Kenny felt pins and needles through his whole body as he watched Heather write her number down on his wrist, "S-Sure, Heather, that would be -- I don't know what to say,"

"Just say thanks, sweetie," Heather murmured back with a wink,

"Thanks..." Kenny nervously echoed.

"Aw, you're cute," Heather teased as she got up, "I'm sorry this was so short, but I really do have to run. I will be seeing you tomorrow though?" Kenny rapidly nodded, "Okay. Bye, Kenny," Heather gave a small wave and turned away, heading out of the library.

Kenny relaxed for half a second only to snap back over to Ashley who remained at the table with a friendly smile on her face, "Oh, you're not --" Kenny motioned to Heather,

Ashley shook her head and slid over to the seat directly across from Kenny, "Oh no, I don't have anywhere to be. Plus, I wanted to give you a hand with your report, it actually sounded pretty fun,"

"Wow, seriously? Zack's parents were right, you guys are all really freaking friendly around here," Ashley let out a pleased giggle, "I'm serious, Gavin helped me earlier, you're helping now, Heather's giving me a grand tour, and Chloe immediately came over to talk with me and set it up. Everyone has been great so far,"

"Yeah," Ashley rolled in her lips, casually looking down at one of the open books, "Chloe certainly was happy to tell us about how nice you were when we stopped by looking," Kenny let out a breathy laugh and shrugged, "You...like her too? I mean, she's really sweet, right?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah Chloe's great...really friendly!" Kenny nodded back as he too quickly returned to his attention back to his book, "Yep...everyone's really friendly..." He added with a slightly awkward inflection in his voice while Ashley grinned almost too eagerly at his response.