The life of a newspaper hunter

As I said earlier, my room is littered with newspapers. That's because I collect them on a daily basis more or less. And they sure do accumulate.

And that's just the stash of papers I decided to keep!
My paper of choice is the Metro - a free commuter newspaper. I like because a) it's free (and I'm broke), b) it's the one that is easiest for me to get and c) it has some quite funny articles. The only problem is that, you get the paper on the train. I don't get the train. So slight logistic issue there.
Luckily for me, however, my friend DOES get the train and gets the paper. The downside is that there are about 5 other people who also want that same paper. One paper, six readers. So things get a little frantic.

Every day, I get in really early. I spend the time loitering in the other room, waiting for my friend to arrive in between doing other things. My friend often gets in quite late though, so I often have to go. That means I have to sneak out of my room into hers. Unfortunately, the other paper-readers are in that room as well. I find my friend and start up a conversation, whilst quickly scanning the room for the paper. If it's being read or I can't find it, I curse my luck, but if not, I subtly wander over and acquire the paper. Whether or not I have the paper, I still stay for a bit and talk. That's the dangerous par really because if one of the other readers see me with the Metro, they will ask for it back and I, being slightly meek, will just hand it back to them. If I do get it and make it out, I will escape back to my room, or my reading spot. If not, I try again at break, or during a free period.

I have gone to some slightly extreme methods to acquire the paper. Snatch and grabs work if the reader moves away for a few moments. I have shoved the Metro up my shirt before to avoid detection (despite the odd bulge). A little selfish to steal the paper for myself, but if asked I will return it (and I'm quite a fast reader). I like getting to the paper first because a) I'm selfish/impatient at times, b) they can take ages to read it and c) I'm protecting the paper from vandalism. There is little worse than reading through a swiss-cheese like paper because someone decided to cut out all the articles that they could use to prove they have an interest in a subject.

But the weekday paper is important to me. It's the only way I catch up on news (since TV channels only ever have sports, or one story on repeat), the suduko puzzles are a good brain starter (and quite entertaining if I'm doing it with my other friends) and the texts section is a good source of thought-provoking, hilarious or bizare writing prompts. So, now, I'm off to search for today's one!