Day 4 Part 1

She woke up the next morning to the incessant beeping of her cell phone, and her right eye felt like it was on fire. She had fallen asleep with her contact in. It was a good thing she had set her cell phone up to automatically go off every Monday through Friday, or she would have over slept.

Groggily moving from her sleeping position on the floor, she shut her cell phone up and scooped her underwear out of the dryer. Nothing melted, good sign.

She was thinking of naming her dryer something obscure, like Duchamp. Maybe Norton.

The shower in the apartment was about as dilapidated as the rest of the apartment, but the hot water lasted a lot longer than it did back at home.

She decided to wear light brown eye shadow today; she hardly ever wore makeup, and she was proud of herself. She thought it would match best with the purple blouse and the green nail polish- man that made her sound like such a girl, and she was pretty proud of herself for that, too.

Before leaving the apartment, she slipped on a pair of key earrings and the cute white heels that she had actually found comfortable when she tried them on the other day. Today was going to be a good day.

And then it started to rain.

OOO

Her blouse was pretty much soaked by the time she got into the Jeffersonian, despite her best efforts to remain dry (it included quite a bit of awkward body twists and using her bag as a pathetic umbrella). Fortunately, she had somehow, miraculously and unbelievably, arrived an hour before anyone was expecting her; and the women's restrooms had those hand dryer things.

"You look like a drowned cat," Jack announced from behind her, and she jumped slightly, which was a bad idea in her heels. She managed to stay standing, but just barely.

"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly have anything I could use to-" she stopped pathetically and groaned. "I am such a moron!" She announced as she remembered the hoodie she had purchased the day before. It wouldn't have left her dry or anything, but she at least wouldn't have to strip in the women's bathroom.

"Ok? Care to enlighten the class as to why?" He asked as he pushed her down the hall and towards the lab.

"Yeah, I forgot that I purchased a hoodie last night, so now I'm completely soaked for no good reason other than my own stupidity. I'm going to have to use those hand dryer machines in the bathroom to dry off," she whined to him, skipping over her own feet as he ushered her up the steps. "Slow down, I can't keep up with you and your vastly superior footwear!"

"I take it you were in the rain for a prolonged period of time?" Zach announced as her and Hodgins appeared before him.

"Yeah, and she won't stop complaining about it, either," Hodgins replied, ignoring the swat on his arm he received for his light ribbing.

"Ugh. Yeah, yeah. I get it, ok? I already told you I'm an idiot, there's no point in being mean about it; also, why am I here?" She looked around, for the first time noticing that she was in the lab. "Was I just kidnapped? Jack, I have work to do!" She was making a habit of whining, too, apparently.

"I didn't kidnap you, shut up already. You're soaking wet and were getting a lot of looks from those psychos in paleontology," he shooed her over into a corner while he rummaged around for an extra lab coat. When he looked back over at her, she had a mildly horrified expression on her face.

"Oh my God. The entire office probably thinks I'm a slut now," her voice carried quietly over to both the men, who didn't exactly know how to respond to that.

"Sweetie, the entire office doesn't think you're a slut. The entire office now thinks you're a complete babe," a feminine voice announced, and Shilloh was able to see an adorable bob of black hair before her entire vision was taken up with a blue lab coat.

"Here," was all she could hear Jack say, who had thrown the coat onto her head, "put that on before those paleo nerds figure out where I've stashed you." She gratefully slipped it on, buttoning up the jacket as far as it would go, and then clutched the front of it for good measure.

"Oh my, you'd think someone had told her she was being stalked or something. Calm down, it's just attention, no big deal," the woman from earlier was suddenly in Shilloh's vision. Also, the hair wasn't a bob; it was just a super cute up-do. "Hello. My name is Angela," the woman smiled down at her.

"Hi. Shilloh Phillips," her face was still a little pale, and her fingers clenched and unclenched the fabric of the jacket; she really hated attention, and she didn't want stories of her completely drenched self circulating around the place.

"I don't see how your present state would cause others to think of you as a slut," Zach looked right at her, at it made her smile a little. He was trying to be comforting, and his matter of fact way of stating it was actually making her feel better.

"Thanks Zachs; I was just over reacting," she smiled at him to let him know she really did appreciate him trying to comfort her. "I suppose I now have the arduous task of trying to dry this blouse off," she sighed, before addressing Angela, who was still standing in front of her. "Would you be able to tell me where the women's bathroom is?"

"Yeah, sure, but you know, I think I have a spare shirt you could just borrow for the day," Angela was usually nice, but she wasn't the type of person to hand out favors to people she'd just met. But she liked the way the girl in front of her was interacting with Zach, she felt it was good for the guy, and any excuse to get her into the lab more often was a good enough reason for Angela to act a little extra nice.

"Oh no, I couldn't impose like that. Besides, I'm terrified of my washing machine- I really do think one of the settings' only purpose is to destroy clothing. I wouldn't want to ruin anything loaned to me. I have an hour before anyone's expecting me; I'll just spend it drying off in the bathroom. Thank you very much, though," Angela twitched her nose slightly- this girl was too nice, she could tell already. Where was she from, anyway? There was no way a city girl would subtly say thank you so many times in one sentence.

"I am confused, who would make a washing machine with a setting that would destroy clothing?" Zach interrupted before Angela could forcibly insist on the girl borrowing a shirt.

"Oh, no, sorry Zach. I just meant that I haven't figured out my new washing machine yet- and it doesn't help that you can't read what the settings are anymore, since it's so old. So mostly, what I was trying to say, was that I was worried I would ruin her shirt with my general ineptitude and my horrendously old washer," that settled it. This girl was going to borrow a shirt, and she was most likely going to be kidnapped after work, as well.

"I see," Zach thought for a second longer, and then, "so it was a joke, then," and when Shilloh smiled at him as a way of saying yes, Angela was pleased that he had paid attention to some of her pointers, and he smiled back.

"Well, be that as it may, you are borrowing a shirt. I don't want to have to try and socialize with you over the sound of those hand dryer machines," she grabbed a hold of Shilloh's wrist and drug her along to her office, ignoring the sounds of stumbling coming from the short woman.

"But- and- we just discussed this! I'll ruin your shirt!"

"So? Just return it to me after work, it's not like I can't wash it myself," Angela shrugged, pushing open the door to her office and tugging the girl in after her.

"Alright, since I'm going to lose this argument anyway. What would you like to socialize about?" Angela was positive that Shilloh was being sarcastic, but she said it with such a straight face that she couldn't be completely sure.

"Well for starters, how do you know Hodgins and Zach?" She asked as she shuffled through her things, looking for a shirt that would fit the smaller girl.

"I was pathetically lost on Tuesday, and luckily Jack was able to tell me how to get to the graphics department. I wound up eating lunch here later that day since I couldn't find the cafeteria, either- are those sequins?" Shilloh was going to continue about her work friends, it seemed like a natural segue into complaining about not having anything in common with them; but she interrupted herself when Angela held up a purple shirt that glittered under the soft lighting.

"You're right, this won't work with your skin tone at all. So you've only been working here for three days? Are you new to DC as well?" Angela was once again moving things about, finding a shirt was proving harder than she had initially thought.

"Yeah, I got in Monday night. It's been hectic trying to get everything together around work, especially with the airline losing my luggage," she made a face, thinking Angela wasn't looking and so it was safe to do so, and continued, "I've pretty much got the same blouse in three different colors right now; hopefully I'll get a yea or nay soon on if they've found my luggage."

"Well then it's probably a good thing it rained today, can't have you wearing the same clothing two days in a row, especially to a new job," Angela replied, holding up a soft gold tank top. She nodded in approval before tossing it over to Shilloh.

"It's really an internship and not technically a job- senior year of my degree in visual communication requires that you are an intern before you can graduate. Since I got the position here, I managed to make a couple special arrangements and had my last two classes waved; but my mentor, Cherryl, has to come up with a senior project for me," Shilloh eyed the tank top skeptically before slipping out of the coat and peeling off the blouse.

The tank top wasn't something she would have picked out for herself, but it wasn't flashy and it wasn't low-cut, so she would be alright in it for the day. She just really wished she had something to wear over it, since she hated not having sleeves; it made her feel very self-conscious. She shivered slightly in the cold air, and decided to slip the lab coat back on.

"Alright, I'll hang this up out in the lab so it can dry; just stop by before you head home so you can pick it up," Angela picked up the wet blouse and smiled over at Shilloh, who nodded shyly, not exactly knowing what else to say besides thank you. "Now, let's head back out, you've got another fourty-ish minutes before you're supposed to be anywhere, and I'm tired of being the only female the guys get to interact with."

Shilloh laughed- Angela didn't know yet what a guy she was at heart, so the idea that she would somehow 'tame the grotesque men' was wildly hilarious. Still, she liked socializing with Angela, and so she decided to try and keep that bit a secret for a while longer yet.

Unfortunately, being a girly-girl was something Angela very shortly discovered Shilloh was not; as she wobbled dangerously once they met up with the guys, titled to the left, and then collapsed.

"Inner ear, heels, you both need to get along. I know you don't like each other very much, but for the sake of my health, I need you to cooperate," she sighed. Picking herself up off the ground, she decided that heels probably weren't the best choice to wear in a lab filled with very expensive items, and kicked them into the same unused corner as the previous day.

"Are you ok?" Angela asked, looking her over and glaring at Hodgins who was laughing.

"Yeah, it's a very common occurrence. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I'm not really much of a girl," she confided- there went her hope at keeping it a secret for a while.

"Why were you speaking to your inner ear? I have heard people talk to inanimate objects before, which I do not understand, but never to a part of the body before," Zach asked once she was standing properly.

"Really? Not even their stomachs? Because that's common, you know," he shook his head, his eyebrows scrunched together, "Oh. Well, mostly it was just a way for me to humorously chastise myself for my lack of balance and grace by placing the blame on two inanimate things that were contributing factors, but ultimately not responsible for my little tumble."

She could practically see the wheels turning in his head, and was ready for the follow-up question she knew he was going to ask.

"But why would you place blame on two things that could not control whether you fell or not?"

She smiled up at him- God, he was so freaking tall, it made her feel like she was a toddler again- and replied, "well, some people do it because they're embarrassed that they made a mistake, and so they don't want to admit that they were wrong in some fashion or another. I did it because I think it's funny; don't worry yourself if you don't get the humor in it, not a lot of people think I'm all that funny either," still smiling, she turned to Hodgins, finger pointed at him, and announced, "and thanks for asking if I was alright, by the way!"

"Hey! You didn't get mad at Zach for not asking!"

"That's because Zach isn't being intentionally mean by not asking- he merely noticed that I was obviously fine. You, on the other hand, are just a big jerk."

"How can you tell what Zach is thinking? No one can tell what Zach is thinking!"

"Why am I a part of this argument?"

Angela could tell already that she was really going to like not being the only female the two guys interacted with. Brennan was a sweetheart, but she was too analytical to really count for much on the social scale, most days.