You all have my sincerest apologies for taking so long; finals plus a months-long bout of Writer's Block left me with no inspiration for this story whatsoever. I'm still not happy with the chapter, but it's the best I can do at the moment. If you're still with me, you're the real MVP. I still have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this story... oh well. You guys get to come along for the ride with me! Suggestions always welcome. Anyways, I'm glad that you actually liked Shane ripping Karma; it was really fun to write. As always, I don't own a damn thing, which is great; I evidently don't have the creative capacity to keep writing on a set schedule.
When she decided to come to Calgary, Amy hadn't considered the fact that these people would milk their "Western culture" to the fullest extent possible. And as Kate gave her a tour of the city before they went out on the town later, Amy made a mental checklist:
Their city slogan is "Heart of the New West".
Their city flag has a cowboy hat on it.
Their most popular clubs – incidentally, where the girls and some of Kate's friends were headed later – were called Cowboys and Ranchman's (But according to Kate, the only people that actually dress anything like Western are stupid douchebag guys and barely legal white girls).
Their major arena is called the Saddledome.
The Saddledome is in the middle of Stampede Park, which comes complete with the Corral and everything.
And apparently the Stampede brings in millions in tourism revenue every single summer from people who love the idea of the "New West". Seriously.
These Calgarians know what's up.
Kate had insisted that they ride the C-Train through downtown and, in her words, "Go walkabout". Who the hell even says that? But Jessie agreed, and found herself enjoying walking through the city in the mid-May weather. Unlike Austin, it was quite nice and warm, without being outrageously hot. The two girls walked slowly, exploring what the core of Calgary had to offer. Jessie openly declared that she loved the artwork throughout downtown Calgary, and Kate enthusiastically explained the reasoning behind it all.
The older brunette was halfway through explaining the significance of the Famous Five statue went she went silent and started dragging Jessie to another apparently really popular coffee shop.
And that was how Jessie Owens, formerly Amy Raudenfeld, spawned an addiction to the Canadian national staple; Tim Horton's doughnuts. (Dough-nuts. Why the fuck do they spell everything so weird and with an extra "u"?) Kate was ecstatic that Jessie was enjoying "Timmie's", as she called it, and kept pestering her about how the Americans really needed it down there.
Jessie happily agreed.
The girls continued their sauntering, up until Kate suddenly stopped in the midst of what seemed to be the busiest downtown street.
"Take a look around. You see all these tall buildings?" She spun around to prove her point.
"...uh, yeah? We ARE in downtown, Kate..." The university student smirked.
"Yeah, but this single block of buildings makes up a HUGE chunk of our economy. See that one?" She pointed to a building that looked the exact same as all the others. "That's the ConocoPhillips building. They're one of the biggest energy producers throughout the continent." Kate turned back to Jessie with a big grin. "They've offered me a job once I graduate. That building will be my life for the next 30 years."
Jessie immediately enveloped her new roommate in a crushing hug. "I'm so proud of you! And you still have another year to go, right?" Kate nodded. "That's amazing, Kate. Way to go."
As the girls continued to walk on and discuss Kate's ever-so-bright (and rich) future, Jessie thought of how she had just thrown herself at her roommate without a care; that's something Amy never would have done back in Texas, except for Karma. Amy was never one for physical affection – perhaps Jessie was different. In a good way.
She didn't miss Texas at all. Not a bit. She didn't miss all the drama with her family, her relationships, her friends... she didn't miss any of it.
She didn't miss Karma. And for that, Jessie was thrilled.
Upon first meeting Kate's group of friends, Jessie decided that any restraints she might have had back in Texas went out the window. There was no way that she was going to let her fear of judgement from others (namely a certain red-haired individual from the States) hold her back.
Not that she needed to worry.
Kate hadn't given an exact number of other humans that she would have to learn to functionally interact with, but after arriving late (traffic in this city is absolute shit – who THE FUCK drives at playground speed with a mattress on their roof ON THE FUCKING HIGHWAY?) Jessie immediately determined she'd have no trouble at all with this group.
Considering one of them introduced themselves as "the drunken loser table", Jessie felt they could at least bond over their mutual love of drunken shamelessness – except she wouldn't sleep with any of them this time. That's a no-no.
Ranchman's was overall a nice club. Although Jessie hadn't realized before now that country music could be grinded to. Then again, most of the women in the club were wearing tight shirts and shorts without looking overly slutty (political correctness was also not a major issue in Calgary, apparently)and hot damn, cowboy hats never looked so good!
There were two guys and a girl sitting at a booth against the wall in Ranchman's, and they were caught up in some animated conversation as the two roommates approached. It actually looked like the woman was about to hit one of the guys over his head when she noticed Kate and Jessie approaching.
"Kate! Could you please explain to this uncultured swine WHY Freddie Mercury was arguably the best singer and performer of all time?"
Kate smirked and immediately prepared for her tangent. "Well, he was an adopted Indian bisexual – don't roll your eyes at me, Dave, we both know he was into girls, too – who was an excellent piano and guitar player, though he was unhappy with his string abilities. He wrote over 90% of Queen's songs, most of them by himself, and he had a four-octave vocal range, and..."
The guy sitting across from the smug woman (who was also really hot – seriously, is there something in the water in Canada?) buried his face in his hands and muttered something about surrender while Kate high-fived the other girl. As they all levelled their eyes to get a good look at her, Jessie knew what was coming:
The introductions. Lord have mercy on us all.
Kate introduced her friends as Michelle –she who had excellent taste in music, Jessie decided -, Nick (who, for the most part, just sat there watching the show) and Dave, henceforth dubbed the "uncultured swine". Dave was the first one to extend his hand and introduce them as "the drunken loser table". She happily shook it and introduced herself as the new roommate from the States. Although by the way he looked the runaway up and down, Jessie knew at some point she'd have to let him down gently.
Turns out she didn't have to. Michelle did.
Okay, maybe not gently.
"Dave, lay off. Can't you tell she's riding the rainbow?"
WAIT, WHAT?