Log: Dori and Megan's bus adventure (backdated to Feb)

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Megan stared down at her new custom Vans (she had painted cupcakes on them) and waited impatiently for the bus to arrive. It was cold outside, really cold, and wet too. Her shoes were going to start soaking up water from the pavement if the bus didn't come soon. It was gross, but her spirits were high. She looked up when she heard the squeak of hydraulics at the end of the street, still out of sight. "I cannot wait to get out to the mall again," she said to Dori. "I didn't do any shopping in London... it's way expensive there."

"This will be cool, you'll see," Dori said, giving Monkey Joe a treat to calm him down. He was never the biggest fan of buses, "We'll go and get some clothes and stuff. I've actually grown a bit so I need new things."

"I need more tops and winter clothes, too. Um, I've kinda just been focusing on shoes and in London it started snowing right at the end of November." The bus pulled up and Megan headed for an open bench where they could sit together, after feeding a couple bills into the fare machine. The bus driver barely spared a glance between the two mutant girls and certainly didn't notice the bag containing Monkey Joe.

The joy of oversize bag purses (with Batman on them!) was that Monkey Joe could come with and know when to hide his head and everything would work out, "Yeah, we can get shirts and stuff. I have the hardest time trying on pants, you know?"

"Mmm. I can't decide if I like the skinny-leg trousers or not? It definitely helps to go shopping with a friend. Oh yeah and I want some halter tops that are too um, skanky? Something where my wings can be free but that still looks tidy." She was going to wear arm-warmers instead of covering up in baggy sweatshirts if possible. That was the goal, anyway.

A haggard-looking woman on the bench across the aisle, bone-thin with dark eye makeup, sweat pants and bad skin, looked over at Megan at "skanky". Megan hastily broke eye contact. I wasn't talking about you! Eeesh...

"Halter tops aren't skanky. You should see the way some of the people on Hollywood Blvd dress. OH! When I go home for a couple weeks this summer, you should totally go with me! We'll go swimming and I'll take you to Mann's Chinese Theater and we can go to the beach and have a great time!"

"Really? That would be so cool! Oh, I should get new bathers then. I mean swim-suit, if there's one on super-clearance at a sports store. A black one. Or purple," she decided. "I think I might dye my hair purple for the rest of the winter. What do you think?"

"Black would be neat, and purple hair would be awesome," Doreen said sagely, "Or maybe just purple streaks."

"Yeah, streaks would be cool. Is there a shop with hair color in the mall?" She used to have to order stuff like that online, but in NY they had stores for everything.

"There's lots of shops in the mall for everything," Doreen promised, "Don't worry, we'll check them all out."

"Nice." Megan was almost bouncing in her seat with excitement. Dori had an enthusiasm that was extremely infectious. Of course she was bouncing a little, but that was because there was construction everywhere, despite the season, and the bus was jouncing and bouncing along the torn up parts.

She looked around, trying to identify a metallic clipping sound. It turned out that the lady sitting on the left side of the bench was taking the opportunity to cut her toenails. She had popped off her crocks and CLIP-CLIP-CLIP was going at it with a pair of clippers, letting the bits fall to the floor.

"Um... is that normal?" she whispered to Doreen.

"Pretty much," Doreen said. Years of public transit in LA had hardened her to all but the most bizarre of the bizarre, "At least there's no winos on the bus right now. They get loud."

Megan shuddered. "Winos? The driver will let drunk people on the bus? I guess they really don't discriminate."

"Well, they pay the bus fare," Doreen pointed out, "So they can't really say no. If you don't pay then they'll kick you off."

The bus driver kept on going at the next stop, leaving some people behind at the curb waving furiously.

"Wonder what those people did to get on the driver's bad side...?" The bus driver had tattoos and piercings and didn't look like someone Megan'd want to cross, or even attempt to get by without paying the fare.

"Anyways, yeah, can't wait for summer, for L.A., and for it to be warm again," she said happily.

"Yeah, I know. Monkey Joe hates this time of year," Doreen said, her tail fluffing a bit, "But it could be worse."

"How was Christmas? Did you go to your family's farm again? That was so much fun, last year," Megan reminisced.

"Mom and Grandpa came to me," Doreen said, "Stuff sort of happened."

"Oh. Good stuff? Or..."

"Stuff stuff," Doreen said, "Julian can tell you about it. Anyway, what shops should we hit? We need to pick up stuff they can tailor for your wings, right?"

"Ooo..." She thought back to her recent conversation with Julian where he'd mentioned he'd gotten an unspecified friend into some serious trouble.

"Well, Hot Topic. They don't have to tailor--I can borrow some sewing stuff from Nico or maybe get her to help me. I don't know a lot of the shops in N.Y. so I'll follow you. Oh, if there's a NY Cupcake store I need to stop there, especially if I'm bribing Nico into helping me customize clothes."

“Alright, let’s start there,” Doreen said happily, “And we’ll see if we can’t find hair dye for you too, since you said you were thinking about it.” And at least at Hot Topic, people were less likely to throw a fit about two mutants.

“Yeah! Purple dye for me and pink dye for Molly.”

“New-girl-Molly, not my-sister-Molly,” she added, probably rather unnecessarily, but she had been thinking about her sister a lot so it seemed like she needed to clarify. “Hey, do you want to do color streaks with us? Maybe red?”

Doreen thought about it, “No, I think I’m okay. I already stick out plenty,” she said happily. She didn’t really feel the need to dye her hair. It wouldn’t stop people from staring at other parts of her.

“Hey, you don’t stick out. At least not in any of our classes. What makes you say that?” Megan could be pretty oblivious to things sometimes, and a bit of a space-case--she knew that better than anyone.

Dori shrugged, “Call it a hunch.”

Everyone on the bus was staring at them.

Megan looked around shiftily. Sure, her wings and Dori’s tail were visible, but it wasn’t that weird, was it?

“We probably just look like a couple of ‘alternative’ kids,” she said, her voice lowering unconsciously. “Except more hygienic,” she added. Which was probably the weird part to most people, in her opinion. The New York street kids who wore animal ears and tails had a matted appearance and distinctive reek.

“And no dread-locks. Okay, we don’t look right, do we?,” she admitted. “Well, we’re getting off soon anyway.”

“Yeah, just ignore them. I always do,” Doreen said, it was easier said than done a lot of times though.

Finally the bus was pulling into the station at the mall. Megan forgot all about the uncomfortable nature of the bus.

“Ooo... so Hot Topic first?” she asked happily. This mall wasn’t too upscale, which was good, but looked big enough to have a lot of specialty stores.

“Yeah, hot topic,” Doreen said, taking her friend’s hand and being careful for her claws, “Let’s go!”

Megan gripped Doreen’s hand a little tighter and headed into the mall with barely contained excitement.