A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews- they really made me smile! Here's
the second chapter, and the third should be along in a few days – that's
where things really start to get interesting. And thanks to J. L. Jordan
for the beta!
"This is so stellar!" Grabbing at Margie's hands, Zenon laughed at her friend's look of exasperation and, oddly, patience. "Come on, aren't you excited? This is an opportunity major! You'll get to see your friends, not to mention Bronley, and we get to get a break from the spay-stay!"
Zenon loved her spay-stay and everything, because it was her home, but sometimes she really wanted a break from everyone on it, especially her parents. They still refused to acknowledge she was an adult, and not a little toddler. Probably because of all her adventures - the sort of thing that seemed fun to her gave them gray hairs - but still.
"No, let's mention Bronley." Margie's voice was playfully sour, and she grinned over at Dasha. "After all, your baby cousin is trying to steal him from me." She made a quick face at them both, and then sighed. "He might not even be able to come, you guys. He's somewhere in Japan right now." It wasn't a happy topic for Margie - she had been hoping that his general personality of 'me', 'me' would turn into 'you', 'you' after they had started dating - so Zenon decided to change the subject. And quickly.
"Well, you could always see what sort of Earth guys are around. I'm sure there's a few cute ones." Zenon gave her friend a fast smile before turning her attention to the street they were wandering down. "Uh, how are we supposed to get to Aunt Judy's house?"
It was a reasonable question, especially since they were in the process of attempting to walk there. Which would have been stellar and everything - at least in Zenon's mind - except neither she or Marg were wearing walking shoes. In all of their planning, somebody had neglected to mention to her that instead of going to Aunt Judy's house with Commander Plank, they would be walking home with Dasha.
A very quiet Dasha. Looking over at her younger cousin, Zenon's eyes filled with concern. "Dasha, are you okay? You seem down." An understatement major in her mind, especially with the way the girl was scuffing her shoes along the sidewalk, looking almost mournful.
At her words Dasha looked up quickly, pulling on her ponytail. "I'm fine, Z. Just a little bummed about how I'm doing in school." She made a face at the words, and then grinned slightly. "But I'll deal - it's a disappointment minor. And Margie-" she spun towards the other girl, a wicked smile on her face, "I'm sure there's loads of guys Mom could introduce you to from class. Some of them might be just your type."
She grinned again, her dimples showing, as Margie laughed softly. "So you can have Bronley? Sweetie, he's a bit too old for you." She looked more amused than she had been in a while, and Zenon grinned.
Dasha shrugged. "Does that mean I can't think he's cute? What about when you two both had crushes major on Proto-Zoa?" She smiled smugly in triumph as Margie and Zenon just made faces at her. "See? I know he's too old for me and I know it's just a crush. Big deal."
Zenon laughed, looking at Margie. "She does have a po- Vega Omega! What's going on?" Looking at the giant parade of - Ceedus Lepedisus, were those penguins?!- she blinked and waited for them to disappear. After a moment she opened her eyes again and frowned as she still saw the procession walking down the street.
Either Earth had definitely gotten stranger in the six months she had been gone, or there was something majorly weird going on. Zenon was actually hoping for the latter, but had a sneaking suspicion it would definitely end up being the former.
Which was too bad, really. Penguins marching in a nice long line down a public street seemed unusually interesting, and Zenon would absolutely love for it to be normal enough that she could just follow them down the paved street one day. Like following the yellow road in that old movie but following the pretend penguins instead.
"I don't know." Looking over at the parade with wide eyes, Margie shrugged and then turned her attention back to Dasha. "The difference between those two is that I had every chance in the world with Proto-Zoa. I just chose not to date him." She flipped her brown hair behind her back with a haughty look.
Zenon grinned, her eyes still watching the penguins until they left her sight. "Right, Margie. Which is why you couldn't even say a single word to him when we went to find him." She smiled at the memory. That was way before she and Margie had started to get along, so they had been at each other's necks the entire trip.
Which wasn't too different than now, actually.
Margie sniffed, dragging her three-inch heels down the sidewalk as she made a face at the road. "Our love didn't need words. I knew what was in his heart and he knew - hey!" She burst into laughter as Zenon tried to grab her arm. "It's true!"
"No it isn't!" Zenon made another grab for Margie's arm, and when that didn't work settled for throwing a small rock at her. "She's lying, Dasha." She grinned at her cousin, who beamed back cheerfully, and asked, "How much more do we have to go before we get there?"
Dasha scanned the road and the hovercars for a minute before frowning. "A lot. I think we're being mega slow today. If we go as quickly as I usually do, we'll be there in the next hour." She put a lot of stress on if, and Margie groaned.
"We're never going to get there, are we? We'll have to camp out here and beg for food until someone takes pity on us and saves us from a lifetime of stress and early wrinkles." She sounded horrified major, and both of the other girls laughed. Trust Margie to be more concerned about wrinkles than living on the street.
"I can call Dad, if you want." Dasha reached for her backpack, which held her communicator among other important things, but stopped as Margie shook her head quickly. There was an almost guilty look on her face, and she looked down at her shoes - lime green to match her dress and now complete with scuff marks- and sighed.
"That's okay, I can walk. I didn't like these shoes much anyway." A contradiction major from what she had been chattering about yesterday, when they were still up on the spay-stay, and Zenon had to grin. Margie would have turned out just fine with a little brother or sister.
Okay, maybe still spoiled. But easier to get along with overall.
Probably.
Zenon laughed and nodded as Margie stared at her shoes. "It's fine, we can walk. Sweat minor." And it was true. She was actually enjoying walking along and seeing everything - penguins, stands selling stuff, all the people hustling along. It was something they didn't have at the spay-stay much, since everything kinda moved at a slower pace.
"Okay." Dasha swung her arms from side to side, smiling a nothing in particular. After a couple minutes of doing that, she inclined her head to a road sign that said 'Acorn'. "This is the way we should go - it's quicker this way." She smiled to herself as she peered down the road, humming Cosmic Blush's new song quietly.
Which reminded Zenon: she really did need to pick up their new holodisc eventually. She loved their new song, and their duet with Proto-Zoa was on there too.
Proto-Zoa...
Wincing to herself, the teenager tried to shove him out of her mind. She had been watching the news every day – something she didn't usually do – but there had been no mention of the rock star since the initial report three days ago. The entire thing struck her as too inky, but she couldn't do anything until Thursday.
Tomorrow.
How completely stellar was that?
Thinking to herself, Zenon just agreeably followed Dasha, turning when she did. Without even looking at her surroundings – hellooo, thoughts major here – she continued along the smooth street. Trusting people was something that came easily to her, and what sort of person would she have been if she didn't trust her cousin?
"Zenon." Poking her in the arm and making her yelp, Margie rolled her eyes. "Whatever you're doing in la-la land, snap out of it and entertain me. Do you want me to die of boredom?" Her face looked horrified at even the idea, and Zenon laughed.
"Of course not – who would there be to make fun of my clothes, hair, and oh, existence?" She laughed again and swung her blonde hair back behind her shoulders. "Stop being so panicked major, Marg. I do love you."
Margie frowned and gave her a suspicious look. "What do you want?" Her brown eyes went into slits as Zenon simply gave her an angelic smile and skipped over to where Dasha was standing a few feet ahead. "Hold on, I'm coming too!"
Dasha looked toward the sky. "We know that. But we're here." She gestured towards a house several yards in front of them, where Commander Plank was sitting on the porch talking to Aunt Judy. Funny – Why didn't it seem to take as long as Dasha had said it would?
Zenon looked at Margie in confusion, but the other girl was nodding. "Good. It took us long enough." Before either Dasha or Zenon could comment, she bounded through the yard with the sort of smile she always had on her face when she was talking to adults.
"Why did you bring her with you, again?" Dasha gave her a pointed look and wandered up the yard as well, pausing to hug Commander Plank and then Aunt Judy. Her almost-frown faded away into a smile when she picked up her puppy, cuddling her. "And how are you?" Zenon heard her coo in a sweet voice. "Did you miss me?"
Dasha was talking to puppies now as if they were babies. Freaky major.
Zenon just stood there for a moment, watching her family – and friends, if Margie could be counted as a friend and not Margie – and smiling to herself. Dasha would be thirteen soon, she would get to see her little cousin's face when she saw Bronley at her birthday party, and Margie was being somewhat pleasant.
Plus, she would be seeing Proto-Zoa soon! A giant grin crossed her face at that thought, and this time she didn't ignore it so much as wonder what it meant. Not that she didn't have an idea – the giant neon sign in her head screaming 'crush, crush' and tap-dancing in her head gave her a few clues – but it was still weird major.
"Z! Come here!" Her Aunt Judy grabbed her by the waist and gave her a giant hug after that, and her thoughts wandered away. She'd have time to ponder it all tomorrow, when she actually went to see him. Providing there wasn't something inky going on. The entire situation was giving her a gaseous feeling major, so she was feeling a little suspicious.
But there wasn't. And even if there were, she'd fix it, because it was what she did.
With another grin, she leaned into Aunt Judy's embrace. "Aunt Judy! I'm so glad to see you – it's been months!" She smiled at Commander Plank over her shoulder, cheerfully amused. He was standing there with a wry look on his face and his hands behind his back.
Yep. Stellar.
"This is so stellar!" Grabbing at Margie's hands, Zenon laughed at her friend's look of exasperation and, oddly, patience. "Come on, aren't you excited? This is an opportunity major! You'll get to see your friends, not to mention Bronley, and we get to get a break from the spay-stay!"
Zenon loved her spay-stay and everything, because it was her home, but sometimes she really wanted a break from everyone on it, especially her parents. They still refused to acknowledge she was an adult, and not a little toddler. Probably because of all her adventures - the sort of thing that seemed fun to her gave them gray hairs - but still.
"No, let's mention Bronley." Margie's voice was playfully sour, and she grinned over at Dasha. "After all, your baby cousin is trying to steal him from me." She made a quick face at them both, and then sighed. "He might not even be able to come, you guys. He's somewhere in Japan right now." It wasn't a happy topic for Margie - she had been hoping that his general personality of 'me', 'me' would turn into 'you', 'you' after they had started dating - so Zenon decided to change the subject. And quickly.
"Well, you could always see what sort of Earth guys are around. I'm sure there's a few cute ones." Zenon gave her friend a fast smile before turning her attention to the street they were wandering down. "Uh, how are we supposed to get to Aunt Judy's house?"
It was a reasonable question, especially since they were in the process of attempting to walk there. Which would have been stellar and everything - at least in Zenon's mind - except neither she or Marg were wearing walking shoes. In all of their planning, somebody had neglected to mention to her that instead of going to Aunt Judy's house with Commander Plank, they would be walking home with Dasha.
A very quiet Dasha. Looking over at her younger cousin, Zenon's eyes filled with concern. "Dasha, are you okay? You seem down." An understatement major in her mind, especially with the way the girl was scuffing her shoes along the sidewalk, looking almost mournful.
At her words Dasha looked up quickly, pulling on her ponytail. "I'm fine, Z. Just a little bummed about how I'm doing in school." She made a face at the words, and then grinned slightly. "But I'll deal - it's a disappointment minor. And Margie-" she spun towards the other girl, a wicked smile on her face, "I'm sure there's loads of guys Mom could introduce you to from class. Some of them might be just your type."
She grinned again, her dimples showing, as Margie laughed softly. "So you can have Bronley? Sweetie, he's a bit too old for you." She looked more amused than she had been in a while, and Zenon grinned.
Dasha shrugged. "Does that mean I can't think he's cute? What about when you two both had crushes major on Proto-Zoa?" She smiled smugly in triumph as Margie and Zenon just made faces at her. "See? I know he's too old for me and I know it's just a crush. Big deal."
Zenon laughed, looking at Margie. "She does have a po- Vega Omega! What's going on?" Looking at the giant parade of - Ceedus Lepedisus, were those penguins?!- she blinked and waited for them to disappear. After a moment she opened her eyes again and frowned as she still saw the procession walking down the street.
Either Earth had definitely gotten stranger in the six months she had been gone, or there was something majorly weird going on. Zenon was actually hoping for the latter, but had a sneaking suspicion it would definitely end up being the former.
Which was too bad, really. Penguins marching in a nice long line down a public street seemed unusually interesting, and Zenon would absolutely love for it to be normal enough that she could just follow them down the paved street one day. Like following the yellow road in that old movie but following the pretend penguins instead.
"I don't know." Looking over at the parade with wide eyes, Margie shrugged and then turned her attention back to Dasha. "The difference between those two is that I had every chance in the world with Proto-Zoa. I just chose not to date him." She flipped her brown hair behind her back with a haughty look.
Zenon grinned, her eyes still watching the penguins until they left her sight. "Right, Margie. Which is why you couldn't even say a single word to him when we went to find him." She smiled at the memory. That was way before she and Margie had started to get along, so they had been at each other's necks the entire trip.
Which wasn't too different than now, actually.
Margie sniffed, dragging her three-inch heels down the sidewalk as she made a face at the road. "Our love didn't need words. I knew what was in his heart and he knew - hey!" She burst into laughter as Zenon tried to grab her arm. "It's true!"
"No it isn't!" Zenon made another grab for Margie's arm, and when that didn't work settled for throwing a small rock at her. "She's lying, Dasha." She grinned at her cousin, who beamed back cheerfully, and asked, "How much more do we have to go before we get there?"
Dasha scanned the road and the hovercars for a minute before frowning. "A lot. I think we're being mega slow today. If we go as quickly as I usually do, we'll be there in the next hour." She put a lot of stress on if, and Margie groaned.
"We're never going to get there, are we? We'll have to camp out here and beg for food until someone takes pity on us and saves us from a lifetime of stress and early wrinkles." She sounded horrified major, and both of the other girls laughed. Trust Margie to be more concerned about wrinkles than living on the street.
"I can call Dad, if you want." Dasha reached for her backpack, which held her communicator among other important things, but stopped as Margie shook her head quickly. There was an almost guilty look on her face, and she looked down at her shoes - lime green to match her dress and now complete with scuff marks- and sighed.
"That's okay, I can walk. I didn't like these shoes much anyway." A contradiction major from what she had been chattering about yesterday, when they were still up on the spay-stay, and Zenon had to grin. Margie would have turned out just fine with a little brother or sister.
Okay, maybe still spoiled. But easier to get along with overall.
Probably.
Zenon laughed and nodded as Margie stared at her shoes. "It's fine, we can walk. Sweat minor." And it was true. She was actually enjoying walking along and seeing everything - penguins, stands selling stuff, all the people hustling along. It was something they didn't have at the spay-stay much, since everything kinda moved at a slower pace.
"Okay." Dasha swung her arms from side to side, smiling a nothing in particular. After a couple minutes of doing that, she inclined her head to a road sign that said 'Acorn'. "This is the way we should go - it's quicker this way." She smiled to herself as she peered down the road, humming Cosmic Blush's new song quietly.
Which reminded Zenon: she really did need to pick up their new holodisc eventually. She loved their new song, and their duet with Proto-Zoa was on there too.
Proto-Zoa...
Wincing to herself, the teenager tried to shove him out of her mind. She had been watching the news every day – something she didn't usually do – but there had been no mention of the rock star since the initial report three days ago. The entire thing struck her as too inky, but she couldn't do anything until Thursday.
Tomorrow.
How completely stellar was that?
Thinking to herself, Zenon just agreeably followed Dasha, turning when she did. Without even looking at her surroundings – hellooo, thoughts major here – she continued along the smooth street. Trusting people was something that came easily to her, and what sort of person would she have been if she didn't trust her cousin?
"Zenon." Poking her in the arm and making her yelp, Margie rolled her eyes. "Whatever you're doing in la-la land, snap out of it and entertain me. Do you want me to die of boredom?" Her face looked horrified at even the idea, and Zenon laughed.
"Of course not – who would there be to make fun of my clothes, hair, and oh, existence?" She laughed again and swung her blonde hair back behind her shoulders. "Stop being so panicked major, Marg. I do love you."
Margie frowned and gave her a suspicious look. "What do you want?" Her brown eyes went into slits as Zenon simply gave her an angelic smile and skipped over to where Dasha was standing a few feet ahead. "Hold on, I'm coming too!"
Dasha looked toward the sky. "We know that. But we're here." She gestured towards a house several yards in front of them, where Commander Plank was sitting on the porch talking to Aunt Judy. Funny – Why didn't it seem to take as long as Dasha had said it would?
Zenon looked at Margie in confusion, but the other girl was nodding. "Good. It took us long enough." Before either Dasha or Zenon could comment, she bounded through the yard with the sort of smile she always had on her face when she was talking to adults.
"Why did you bring her with you, again?" Dasha gave her a pointed look and wandered up the yard as well, pausing to hug Commander Plank and then Aunt Judy. Her almost-frown faded away into a smile when she picked up her puppy, cuddling her. "And how are you?" Zenon heard her coo in a sweet voice. "Did you miss me?"
Dasha was talking to puppies now as if they were babies. Freaky major.
Zenon just stood there for a moment, watching her family – and friends, if Margie could be counted as a friend and not Margie – and smiling to herself. Dasha would be thirteen soon, she would get to see her little cousin's face when she saw Bronley at her birthday party, and Margie was being somewhat pleasant.
Plus, she would be seeing Proto-Zoa soon! A giant grin crossed her face at that thought, and this time she didn't ignore it so much as wonder what it meant. Not that she didn't have an idea – the giant neon sign in her head screaming 'crush, crush' and tap-dancing in her head gave her a few clues – but it was still weird major.
"Z! Come here!" Her Aunt Judy grabbed her by the waist and gave her a giant hug after that, and her thoughts wandered away. She'd have time to ponder it all tomorrow, when she actually went to see him. Providing there wasn't something inky going on. The entire situation was giving her a gaseous feeling major, so she was feeling a little suspicious.
But there wasn't. And even if there were, she'd fix it, because it was what she did.
With another grin, she leaned into Aunt Judy's embrace. "Aunt Judy! I'm so glad to see you – it's been months!" She smiled at Commander Plank over her shoulder, cheerfully amused. He was standing there with a wry look on his face and his hands behind his back.
Yep. Stellar.