It all started with a racoon || jegulus

Chapter 5

"Come on, Remus. If it was too much work I wouldn't have suggested it myself. You know it."

It's a little past 8 am and James is currently on the phone in a video call with Remus while he's getting ready to go to his first shift at the shelter. James had given his phone number right away but some days had eventually passed before Newt had called him to tell he would gladly have him working with him, and so James had time to tell his friends all about it. 

While Peter and Marlene were happy to hear the news (for two completely different reasons, but still), Remus was a little more skeptical. 

"Oh do I, now? Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you tried to manage way too much work at the same time?" 

At that, James shivers, trying to pick a shirt to wear from all the ones scattered across his room. The thoughts of his friends having to sit him down to review his schedule popping up in his mind. "You know that's a completely different situation. I learnt to control myself from saying too many yeses in a row. Besides, this time I'm actually interested in doing this."

There was a time in his first year of University where he couldn't simply not agree to everything he was suggested to. It all started with sharing his notes to one of his classmates and before he knew it, the situation had grown enormously. People from several school clubs would ask him to help them with their activities, professors of his major would occasionally ask him to do additional work "for more credits", classmates would ask him to help with studying, and he just agreed to everything. Soon enough, he had found himself overworking to try and make everyone happy. Only he forgot to actually keep himself happy. He had just wanted to lend a hand where he could, he didn't know that others would take advantage of that. 

It was in that situation he had met Remus. Weirdly enough he was the only one stranger that didn't want anything from him. They had met each other while James was helping set up some kind of literary club, they had started talking about different books they liked and their friendship had bloomed. More so when two worried Marlene and Peter had followed James to the literary club and begged him to stop overworking so much. Once Remus had discovered the extent of the situation, he had immediately sided with Marlene and Peter and they had talked James through his problem. He had felt kind of betrayed for this back then, he was convinced he could manage to satisfy everyone on his own, but now looking back he couldn't be more grateful. 

He ends up choosing his old red Beatles t-shirt, so that if it accidentally gets ruined he won't cry too much (as happened with the ABBA's one, but he has already mourned its death and forgiven Matisse). Plus, it fits well with his dark trousers, the ones that in Marlene's words give him a "marvellous butt". He shows the shirt to Remus with questioning airbrows, and his friend nods, sighing.

"Just promise me you'll take care of yourself and don't overwork yourself. Don't forget you also volunteer at the library most of your week."

James smiles at him and nods, fondly. He had started to work as a volunteer at the city's library almost by accident. One day he was walking between the bookshelves searching for something he could use in an essay, when he had seen a kid asking his father to read a book for him. The father, lost in an animated phone call, hadn't heard him and James had offered to read it out loud for him instead. Soon enough, he had found himself surrounded by children hanging from his lips.
Little did he know, the librarian was watching him and later on offered him to read to kids part-time. She even offered money, but James didn't need them. He had discovered he enjoyed being around children, so he had agreed wholeheartedly. He liked making different tones of voice, from the high pitched ones to the scary low tone ones. He liked how impressionable kids were at that time in their lives and for this he put his heart and soul into reading for them.
It did, however, take most of his week's time.