xp_logs | Catseye and Callie: Bike Talk

Callie hears Catseye falling off her bike and comes up with a way to help her friend to learn how to ride.

Even though Scott had shown her the basics, Catseye wasn't making much progress with riding a bicycle. There wasn't much Scott could do for her in terms of giving her balance, after all. But with her new found determination to try harder at being human, she pursued the task with vigour. Determination just wasn't much of a salve for her skinned knees and palms. Her roar of frustration when she fell off for the umpteenth time would have made BigCat quake.

Callie had been working in one of the beds closer to the mansion when a sound of distress reached her ears. She quickly dropped her spade and made a beeline toward the sound. "Catseye are you okay," she asked as she rushed to help her fallen friend. The first order of business was to lift the bike off of her classmate's body and relocate it to somewhere less obtrusive.

"Are you all right," Callie knelt beside the purple haired girl, "do you need me to get one of the doctors? Do you think you broke anything?"

Catseye shook her head. "No, Catseye is okay. Catseye does not need a doctor," she assured her friend as Callie pulled the bike off of her. "Catseye is just upset that she cannot make the bike go!"

"Is it broken?" Callie glanced back at the bike propped up on its kickstand a few feet away. She hadn't felt the wheels giving her any resistance, but she could have easily overlooked this as her mind was primarily on making sure Catseye was not injured. "I mean are the pedals working okay and everything?" As her focus returned to her friend, Callie noticed the scratches on Catseye's hands and knees.

"Catseye!"

The catgirl followed Callie's gaze to her skinned knees and palms. "What? Catseye is okay, not hurt too much. Does Callie think the bike is hurt? It is not working because it is hurt?" She had no idea if the bike was working okay or not.

"Just make sure you get those cleaned okay? They can get infected and that wouldn't be good." The pink girl pulled herself up from the ground, making sure to brush the dirt off her jeans before heading toward the bike. "Give me a minute and I'll take a look."

Slowly, Callie circled the bike, looking for any obvious problems, such as the chain have coming loose, and found none. Maybe it was something that could only be pinpointed when riding, so she kicked up the kickstand and swung her leg over the frame. The seat was a little higher, due to Catseye's height. No matter, she would just stand. It would only be a quick ride after all. Seamlessly, Callie pushed off and pedaled the bike around in a small circle before stopping. This was confusing. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the bike.

"It works fine for me," she declared as she rolled the bike by its handles back to where Catseye was. She shrugged. "I don't know."

"No fair! No fair no fair!" Catseye cried out. She wasn't angry, but the fact that Callie could ride her bike when she couldn't was a little frustrating. "How did Callie do that? How? Callie can teach Catseye yes? Please please?" She was nearly jumping up and down.

"You don't know how to ride a bike," asked Callie a little confused. It wasn't surprising that Catseye didn't know how to ride, it was more that she was trying to ride without the proper safety apparatus. She could fall and crack her head open, or something. Maybe she was just a Nervous Nellie, but she had seen far more experienced riders get nasty injuries.

"Catseye knows how," she informed her friend, "Mister Scott told Catseye how to do it. But Catseye can't do it! It does not work for Catseye!"

"Riding a bike is something that you have to learn by doing," Callie explained. "I mean you can know how but your body may not always take direction. It has to learn too. How to balance and stuff. Or else you fall. A lot."

"Yes, balance," the catgirl agreed. "That is what Catseye does not know. Catseye has a tail that is supposed to help balance but it does not! Catseye does not like falling!"

"I don't have a tail...." Callie thought this over for a few minutes. "I mean you should be able to balance without a tail on the bike, because I don't really see how you could use it while riding." She studied the bike then looked back at Catseye before returning to gaze to the machine. "You don't have training wheels."

“No Callie does not have a tail but Callie can do it and so can lots of other people," she mused. "What is a training wheel?” the purple haired young woman asked, cocking her head in confusion. “Catseye does not understand.”

"Training wheels are these wheels that you put by the rear wheel to help you keep your balance when you're first learning how to ride. You can take them off your bike later when you think you're ready to just ride normally."

"Catseye thinks this is a verygood idea!" she answered excitedly. "Does Callie know where to get these wheels and how to put them on?"

"They should be pretty easy to find," Callie thought out loud. "I mean anywhere that sells bikes should have some. And they should be pretty easy to put on. I mean if not we have a ton of people here who are good with tools. And we should probably get you at least a helmet too."

"We could find someone to go in the car with Callie and Catseye and Callie and Catseye can drive to find some?" she suggested. "But no helmet." She wrinkled her nose. "Catseye thinks a helmet will feel ickybad on her head! Catseye does not like to wear clothes at all!"

"That's a great idea. One of us can drive there and the other back," agreed Callie. "And a helmet isn't like clothes, it helps protect you. Like if you fall you can break your head open and need stitches or get a concussion. And then you'll end up in the medlab, if you're lucky." Okay, so she was being maybe a bit harsh with the scare tactics, but she had seen people get hurt by not wearing a helmet. "No one really likes wearing a helmet, but they have some not so bad ones out there. I promise."

The purple-haired girl frowned skeptically at Callie. "Catseye does not want to break her head open, and Catseye does fall a lot... Catseye does not think she wants to fall and hurt her brain like Mister Nathan is always doing. Maybe Catseye will buy a helmet after all."

Callie nodded. She was glad she didn't have to break out the YouTube videos or pictures of what happens when you don't wear your helmet. It was a really brutal sight. "Good idea. Now how about we put your bike away and find someone to take us to the store? Then when we get back we can go for a ride together."