"Well, youdon'thave to be rude aboutit,"

He raised his eyebrows. “You want to discuss ‘rude’?” he asked, somewhat incredulous. “How about poking someone incessantly and trying to read their private papers?” That was a lot more rude than snapping at someone who was being annoying. Actually, her rudeness justified his, really. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been provoked. Nigel scowled at her. “Is there something you want?”

Apparently, all she wanted was to harass him about his homework. “It’s not a love note!” he repeated. “It’s homework, and I’m hiding it because it’s really none of your business, is it?” Seriously. He needed his privacy, and people looking over his shoulder at his writing really irritated him. If he had wanted her to see his parchment, he would have said, ‘Hey, Amber. I really want to show you this. Have a look.’ As he clearly said no such thing, he did not want her sticking her nose over his shoulder.

“Are you deaf?” he asked her. “There is no love note. And even if I was writing a love note, I wouldn’t do it right down here in the Commons.” He was definitely more intelligent than that. It seemed that she was not… as his words were clearly not reaching her. “Look,” he said. “You want me to write you something? Okay, I’ll write you something.” He pulled out a fresh scrap of parchment and scribbled something on it before passing it to her.

The parchment read ‘Go Away!!!’ in large letters. “Oh, wait,” he said, mock laughing a little. “What am I thinking? I forgot part of it.” Pulling it back towards himself, he added ‘And mind your own bloody business’ at the bottom. “There you go. Enjoy.” Rolling his eyes, he turned back to his homework and rolled it up. Clearly, he wasn’t going to be working on it now. Not while he was sitting next to the Human Mouth, anyway. And the Human Finger, apparently, as she had yet to cease poking him. “If you want to keep that finger,” he said calmly, “I suggest you pull it back.”