"E-C-K-L-E-I! Ecklie is the worst CSI!"
"That's not even how you spell his name," my fellow friend Claire reminded me as we walked down the busy sidewalks of Las Vegas.
"Well he has a bad last name for rhyming," I defended, turning a corner.
"Uh huh. Yeah. I'm just sure," she rolled her eyes at me.
"Okay, so back to the more important things: G-R-I-S-S-O-M! Grissom is the best!"
"That's all you could come up with?"
"Well...oh no wait! I have an even better idea!"
Claire smiled saracastically, "Please enlighten me Ana."
"G! Grissom is the best entomologist in the world!"
".......Is that a fact?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact it is. No one can beat GRISSOM!"
I pumped my arm in the air and stuck out my tongue.
"Well geez! No need to yell! Just...proceed!"
"R! Really cool glasses are what he uses!"
"You know this, too?"
"Well I kind of looked him up on the internet and didn't see him with glasses, but I know because there was a little ridge mark on his nose that he wears some. And since he is so superiorly smart he must have cool glasses."
Claire looked at me weirdly as I pressed a button to cross a street. "You were using that new forensic software program again, weren't you?"
"Hello?! Let me weigh my options, here. Analyze a person's face from a horrible paparazzi photo or watch a soap opera. Hmm......I'LL TAKE THE PHOTO!"
"Are you sure you were number one in the forensic science major?"
"Yes. I! Is Grissom smarter than Ecklie? Ha! Yes. Ecklie is as stupid as OH MY GOSH A SHINY PENNY!"
"As stupid as what again," she laughed.
"As stupid as you when you couldn't figure out the directional spatter for that chainsaw blood for two days," I countered.
"HEY! THAT WAS HARD!"
"Um...sure? S! So cool that we had to be demoted and be on Ecklie's team."
"Ecklie doesn't have a team."
"You're damn right he doesn't! Not when I'm through with him!"
"Well I bet all the people there hate him anyway."
"He tried to fail me! But I won against his evil plots. MUAHAHAHAHA!"
I smiled as some of the people on the streets jumped back.
"Dude, he just asked you if you could get a DNA sample from that dirty gym sock."
"And he thought I couldn't! But HA! I showed him!"
"You tore up the whole sock."
"Well actually that was what I made him think. I pretty much isolated that sweat by performing an experiment of my own and sweating like a pig then examining my own socks."
"You're gross."
"I'm a scientist," I sighed blissfully as Claire pulled me along the sidewalk.
"And gross."
"S! Sticks up for my honor by dissing Ecklie!"
"You know what? I have no comment."
"O! Obviously wishes we were on his team but couldn't have us."
"Ana, he doesn't know us."
"NOT YET! BUT I WILL MAKE A POINT TO HAVE HIM KNOW MY TRUE COLORS!"
"Which are?"
"Gold and all the pretty prismic colors."
"Weirdo."
"Correction: scientific weirdo."
"I hate you."
"You love me. M! Makes evidence collecting and analyzing look easy and it is. So he is my hero."
"He has been your hero ever since you learned about him in the second grade."
".EXACTLY!"
"Yeah...."
A faint, yet familiar click was heard in the background.
"You just taped the whole cheer conversation, didn't you?"
"Yes. I thought it might be hilarious to look back on."
"Well toast my butter and call me Elmo."
"And even more confusing was that comment."
"I don't think it was."
"So where is the lab again?"
"Don't know. I've been following the pretty lights."
"You're going to get mugged."
"Well I know how to evaluate a crime scene so it will be no problem."
"......you're clueless."
"You're ah-mazing."
"Why thank you."
"Sooooooo...we should give that tape to Grissom."
"WHAT?!?!"
"Yeah....WITH DONUTS!!!"
"Why?!"
"Because there's a donut shop over there and it would be nice."
"Yes but why the tape?!?!"
"Because I think a welcoming gift is in order to my hopeful supervisor someday."
"Yes, but that's the thing. He's not your supervisor."
"Not yet."
"You never give up."
"No I never do."
Skipping over to the brightly lit sign labeled 'Peter's Donuts', I pulled open the door.
"Wait up for me, then," Claire yelled.
Scowling playfully, I held open the door until she was just near enough....then slammed it closed.
"HA!"
We glared at each other, and after a few minutes I finally let her into the donut shop.
"We're going to be late because of you."
"Really? You're the one who got locked out of a donut shop."
"BY YOU," Claire mock-choked me.
"Can't....breathe..."
"Shut up," she laughed and let me go to make the donut order.
