Doreen & Inez

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Doreen gets lost on the way to a class and ends up running into Inez... who may not be the best influence...

Doreen was lost again. This place was huge, and smelled so different and whenever she tried to follow her nose to get to where she was going she ended up at the kitchen. (Stupid granola, smelling so good.) Monkey Joe rode on head right now, he was feeling weird, but not sick, just weird. And Doreen was staring into the kitchen.

“I’m never going to be able to get to classes here,” she said, frowning. How was she going to explain when she finally arrived that she had side tracked to the very tasty smelling kitchen? Monkey Joe walked to the very edge of her head and looked down at her face and started clicking and squeaking. Doreen listened and then clicked and squeaked back [Fine. We’ll get a snack and then try to find the people-room.]

She set her books on the counter, pulled a chair so she could reach some of the higher stuff and then went in search of that granola she smelled.

Inez couldn't figure out what the weird squeaking and clicking was. At first she thought her hearing aids were on the fritz, but when she took one out, she could still kind of hear the noise. So being the curious blonde she was, she went on the hunt until she reached the source of the funny noises in the kitchen.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw the shorter girl - new girl, right - with the gigantic bushy tail and the squirrel on her head. "Um, yo..." she said carefully. "Got the munchies or something?"

Doreen had smelled Inez first so this time she wasn’t too jumpy, she turned around and started clicking and squeaking at the other girl before she stopped. She could’ve slapped herself for that. She shook her head and started in English this time, “Um… Kinda? Monkey Joe was hungry,” she said, as the squirrel crawled down to the counter and Doreen slowly opened a Granola bar. Wrappers were tricky things when your fingernails were almost two inches of hard claw.

She managed it though and crunched some up and put it in front of her friend who started eating. “I’m also kind of lost… but I’ll find my class. I’m sure!” she said happily and then, “Oh, I’m Doreen,” she looked at the other girl and smiled, “Or you can call me Dori. What’s your name? I’m new…wait, that’s kinda obvious, isn’t it?” she said the last sheepishly.

Inez found herself giggling at the newcomer's enthusiasm. Maybe the happy-go-lucky feeling was contagious. "I'm Inez. Ness for short...er, I guess. Yeah, I saw your post on the journals. I've been kind of laying low lately but hey, welcome and stuff. So that..." she looked quizzically at the squirrel atop Dori's head. "He, I mean, would be Monkey Joe?"

“Hi Ness,” Doreen said with a smile, “And yeah. He’s Monkey Joe. He’s my best friend,” Doreen said with shrug and a fond glance over at the squirrel who was happily munching on the food that Doreen had given him. “He’s really friendly; do you want to hold him?”

Inez let out a surprised noise halfway between a gasp and a 'meep', but nodded and held her arm out. "I never had a pet before - oh, wait, he's not going to get mad if I call him a pet, is he?" Yes, I'm suddenly worried about a squirrel being mad at me. It's official, I've gone insane, she thought to herself.

“No, not really,” Doreen said, and picked up the squirrel who was mostly done with his treat and handed it to Inez, “Now be nice,” she said to Monkey Joe who gave Doreen a look that could have said ‘am I ever anything else’ and slowly walked on and up Inez’s arm to her shoulder, then started to sniff her ear.

“See? He’s really nice,” Doreen said proudly.

Inez giggled again. "He tickles!" she squealed as the squirrel climbed up into her hair, proudly nibbling on his treat. Clearing her throat slightly, Inez tried to regain her composure and leaned against the fridge, trying to convey "knowledgeable upper classmate" as much as one could while wearing a woodland creature as an animated hat.

"So you talk to squirrels in general, or just Joe here?" she asked, then noticed Doreen's hands. "Whoa, wicked. Claws seem to be the popular thing here these days, I hear."

“Oh, I can talk to a lot of them if they feel like talking,” Doreen said, glad that her squirrel was behaving so well, “and they are?” she looked at her hands, “They really weren’t popular back home.”

"First thing you'll learn?" Inez said, "you're not back home anymore. For example..." She looked around, then grinned widely as she reached down to grab the chair Doreen was standing on with one hand, and lift it up to waist level seemingly effortlessly. She held the chair and the younger girl out at arm's length, then slowly flexed her arm like she was curling a barbell. "We're a lot awesomer here."

Doreen’s balance didn’t so much as waver, her tail compensating for the motion easily, “Whoa! That’s so awesome!” she said, laughing, “I wish I could do that. I’m not THAT strong. I’m pretty strong, I suppose. But I can really only do what I really like outside,” she said. Unless she wanted to cause a lot of damage, she supposed, but that wouldn’t be nice at all.

“So claws are popular here? I know Kyle was saying that he doesn’t wear shoes much if that’s okay then I’m going to stop that too, because filing my toe claws takes forever,” Doreen said.

Inez set the chair down and looked at her own nails, usually bitten short - a nervous habit that she'd had even before she manifested. "Yeah, it's pretty cool here. No one's going to give you crap for looking different. Some of the townies are real assholes, but if you skip Salem Center and go off into New York? It's pretty cool. We do a kind of regular bus trip there on the weekends. You should totally come along next time."

“Really? That’d be awesome. I haven’t been out to New York since I was a kid,” Doreen said. Business trips had often been made into family vacations. She missed that. A lot more than she’d say out loud, “It’s kinda weird, because you think people would be okay about stuff in LA and a lot were but I’m from Beverly Hills and it’s really… not so good, I guess. But I mean, I suppose it’s kind of freaky,” Doreen reasoned, moving until she was sitting cross-legged on the chair, tail straight up. It was the only comfortable way for her to sit.

“But when I went into the city it was normally okay. So I wonder if that’s part of it,” she considered, puffing out her cheeks.

"Dude, not even," Inez replied, counting off on her fingers. "We've got a girl who turns into a purple cat, another little red girl who's all knifey-sharpy 24-7, one guy who's blue and has wings but they're all knifey-sharpy now too - no idea what's up with him there - our RA has bug wings, you met Kyle and he's all a-woo wolfman type, a purple girl who teleports - don't bother with her, total bimbo - and then there's Mr. Sefton. If someone appears in a cloud of stinky-ass smoke and looks like Carnival Satan but blue? That's him and he's cool. So yeah, you maybe ping like a four-point-three on the Weird-O-Meter here."

“I mean it was freaky at home,” Doreen admitted, “I met the girl with wings, she said her name was Jan. She and Kyle were great! They took me to a diner after I got off the bus and we had pie. Well, Jan and I had pie. Kyle didn’t have any,” Doreen said.

“Well, my little brother was the one who pointed out it was kind of freaky. But whenever I went downtown LA it was never that bad. As long as someone didn’t mistake me for one of the street actors,” Doreen said, “Outside the Mann Theater. I liked going there, they have a guy there who’s really nice who dresses up like Superman and he and I would talk. I haven’t met the purple girl yet. I’m sure she’s not that bad. I’d at least like to say hi since everyone lives here.”

"Most everyone," Inez added. "There's some graduates who live in the city and work for Snow Valley. It's kind of like a ... something something thinky tank and they pop up on the journals from time to time. Usually to tell us we're all being whiny emo kids or something. But some of them are pretty cool. Most people here are."

“Huh,” Doreen said. Well it couldn’t be as cool as some of the things she heard from Julian, she was sure. It occurred to her then she was still really lost. She sighed, “How long did it take you to get used to this place? It’s so big…”
Inez shook her head. "Still haven't."

“Oh,” Doreen managed. “I’m so lost. It’s not like a normal school,” she sighed and looked down cast, and when she did that it managed to look like a kicked kitten (or squirrel) even her tail got involved with showing her emotional state.

"Aw, come on, don't be like that," Inez replied, putting an arm around Doreen's shoulders. "It's rough for everyone the first few days. Look, if you want, I'll show you - and Monkey Joe - around until you get used to where everything is. If you're feeling homesick or anything, you can talk to the RA or even the Professor. It's always going to be a bit weird, but..." Instinctively, Inez reached up and ruffled Doreen's hair. "Weird can be pretty cool, yo."

Doreen smiled. The physical contact didn’t bother her at the least, “Yeah, great! Julian showed me a bit. I was so surprised when he was here, I couldn’t believe it.”

"Small world for you too, huh?" Inez replied. "I'll introduce you to Julio - I knew him when we were kids, our dads worked together. Running into him here kind of eased the shock, I think." She looked up at the clock and almost worried about being late, then realization set in. "Hey, I'm supposed to have a lit class now, but Mr. Beaubier's still up in Canada. Want to go explore around the woods?"

“I think I’m supposed to be in class too,” she said, unfolding her schedule. She was so late though it didn’t matter, “I like it outside. I can actually run here and jump without getting in trouble. And yeah, it was really nice that he was here. I mean, we all thought he had been sent to military school. We went to the same high school, I mean, Julian and me. I haven’t met Julio.”

Inez smiled wickedly. "Come on, there's a great trail out back that leads to some huge trees. Afternoon classes can wait, you've got more important orientation stuff to do!"

“Um… well… I mean…” she thought about it. And in the end, she’d really rather be outside than in class. “I really like it outside…” Monkey Joe squeaked and clicked in excited agreement. “Okay!”