Coffee and a good book

[Richard Stone]

With order in hand; a large latte and a white chocolate and raspberry muffin, Richard made his way over to an empty table in the corner of the coffee shop. Sitting down, he pulled the latest book he was reading from his bag; Dan Brown's Inferno, and opening it to the page that was marked with a slip of coloured paper, he scanned the page to find where he was up to and began to read. Brown was a good author, his words weren't too flowery, yet they still painted a good picture... after all, they did turn the trilogy into movies.

[Adelaide Strauss]

Adelaide was no great devotee of coffee; she would drink it if it was there, but she would not otherwise. Tea was her personal preference, in all its infinite varieties except the fruit ones, but today, as she made her way into the coffee shop which Blue Ridge boasted, the blonde decided that she would break with the habit of a lifetime. She ordered an Americano, which she felt was really rather appropriate given her current location, and then glanced around the shop to find herself a seat. Spotting a man who she recognised as a colleague after a moment or two of thought, Adelaide walked across with a smile. "Do you mind if I join you?" she enquired.

[Richard Stone]

Richard looked up from his book at the sound of a voice, the bit of muffin he held part-way to his mouth. "Of course." He said as he gestured to the chair on the opposite side of the table.

Lifting the scrap of paper he had to mark his page in the book, he place it down on the table, because it would be bad manners to continue reading now that he had company. "How are you finding things?" He asked with a smile.

[Adelaide Strauss]

With a smile of thanks, the blonde took the chair indicated, crossing one leg over the other and examining the face of the man opposite with interest. She had not been in America long, and she had been in Blue Ridge for an even shorter period, so she was still struggling to learn names and faces. Of course she would get there in the end... the question was how long it would take her, and for now, she was concentrating on her students.

"So-so." was Adelaide's considered opinion after a moment or two of thought. "It is a great change for me, of course. I have no complaints to speak of."

[Richard Stone]

He nodded at her reply, a smile playing on his lips. "I find that as long as you don't have them right before lunch, the kids are pretty good." He offered with a smile. "Too close to lunch, and then they're getting to that point when their hunger pangs are becoming stronger than their ability to concentrate." At least, that's how things seemed to work on the English classroom.

[Adelaide Strauss]

Adelaide laughed as she took a sip of her coffee. "Oh, believe me, by the time we get to that point, my concentration is slipping too. Thankfully, I don't have as many classes as I'd imagine that you do, and not many of them fall before lunch." That was the upside of teaching electives, after all. God knew she wouldn't have coped with teaching a required subject- she was much happier with a roomful of students who actually wanted to be there.

[Richard Stone]

Richard grinned as he lifted his drink. "I keep a thermos of coffee and a bag of trail mix close at hand." He shrugged as he took a sip of his drink. "As long as I only pop a small amount of the mix in my mouth at any one time, I don't often get caught out with a full mouth... though there are the few that know and wait until that moment to ask a question." He shook his head in amusement. "And I encourage them all the bring a bottle of water with them." Only because he despised students leaving the class to loiter in the halls on the excuse they needed a drink.

[Adelaide Strauss]

The blonde raised an eyebrow with interest. "Now that's an idea." she conceded thoughtfully, making a mental note. Where she had gone to school, of course, it would have been an inconceivable suggestion- absolutely unthinkable- but these were different times and this was a different country. The world around her had changed, and Adelaide was going to have to change with them or else, apparently, die of starvation.

[Richard Stone]

Richard laughed and shook his head. "I wouldn't suggest doing it too much though, the kids are smart and all respect goes out the door if you're all do as I say, not as I do, on them." He advised, and he only ever needed the snack food on the days when he had classes back to back in the middle of the academic classes block - and as adults they should know better than to skip breakfast when there was a chance of getting nothing between that and lunch.

He glanced at the book he had put down when he gained company. "Are you a book or a movie person?" He asked, curious as there were so many people who tended to be on the side of the fence that if there were a movie made of the book, they'd rather see that over reading.

[Adelaide Strauss]

Adelaide raised an eyebrow but refrained from commenting on the fact that as she was neither stupid nor as young as she had once been, she had already managed to work this out for herself, thank you very much. She was, after all, going to be working with the man for some time to come, and although she didn't foresee a great deal of crossover occurring between their respective departments, one never knew. And besides, she was, she hoped, mature enough to cope with a little patronisation.

The blonde laughed. "Now really, that is an unfair question to put to a teacher of drama." she protested. "Since you ask, however, I would say that I always prefer a book. Far more portable, for one thing, and easier on the eyes for another. I needn't ask for your views, I suppose?" and she gestured to the book on the table.

[Richard Stone]

He pursed his lips and shrugged. "Depends on the book and the movie I guess." He replied. The movie adaption of The Lovely Bones, is slightly tamer than the book; though there were parts of the book that I thought were better than they were pulled off in the movie. There are so many versions of the movie of "Black Beauty, and I haven't seen one that I like yet. They destroyed The Horse Whisperer in the movie. Practical Magic, book and movie are both great, as they have the same characters yet the stories aren't exactly the same. Dan Brown's works, they did a good job with the movies. Lord of the Rings, they should never have tried to make the books into three movies." He shrugged with a smile. "But that's just my opinion on some of them."

He finished off his drink as he wondered if a lot of the script writers had even read the books in full, or had any idea of what they were reading as they wrote the scripts.

[Adelaide Strauss]

"True enough." she conceded with a slight smile, taking another sip of her cooling coffee and considering whether or not she might have been more sensible to have tea after all. She thought, on the whole, that she might. Still, it was too late now, and so she returned her attentions to her drink with a dutiful mindset. "And, of course, it depends on the casting. There are some actors who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a film set."