The Problem With Pigs
3. Unseen Talent
Kristen prided herself in being an animal person for most of her life. She'd had dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, parakeets, and even scorpions as pets in her lifetime. But for some reason, she'd never taken a liking to pigs. In her world, they didn't belong. She was clean and organized and they were, well, livestock. Of no use except to eat. So, when Andi brought home Brownie and proudly announced that the little swine would be their new housemate, Kristen had to restrain herself from slapping her best friend in the universe.
But now was not the time to think about pigs. Now, she absolutely must find the copy of A Tale of Two Cities that Zartan'd handed her and told her to read before May was over. The dhampir was nearly finished—only two chapters to go—and had packed the book with her other clothes when she came to Chicago, but alas, Charles Dickens's classic tale was nowhere to be found. She resolved that someone had taken it, but who?
Bryan and Mitch were out. They had their own reading assignments that, she was certain, they were behind on. Regan wasn't a fan of Dickens. She much preferred those cheesy dimestore romance novels with questionable titles. Neal was still behind on his English language vocabulary, and Virus and Steve didn't have reading assignments, so that left the resident bookworm: Andi.
"Better go ask where she hid it." The onyx-haired vamp muttered, pushing herself off of her bed and walking outside.
Brownie, contrary to popular belief, was not a stupid pig. In fact, Andi had already taught her to roll over, play dead, and was currently teaching the little swine to balance a rubber ball on her snout. But that wasn't all of Brownie's talents. Not by a longshot.
Fun fact: pigs, like most animals, can sense human emotion. And from her conversations with Laredo the dog, little Brownie knew exactly who disliked her and why. This bothered her, so she decided to do something about it.
She plodded softly into Kristen's bedroom and sniffed around. Clean and organized, as she'd expected. Kristen seemed like a very organized person. And from her waiting outside the door, Brownie also learned that Kristen had misplaced a book. So, she thought, why not find it and return it as a present? Maybe the strange fanged girl would like her then.
Unlike Kristen, Brownie was tiny enough to fit under the bed. And, after some rooting around, she found the square object that the humans called a "book". Using her little mouth, she bit the corner of the hard-bound object and dragged it out into the middle of the room. Then, she vanished.
She waited around for the pale girl with fangs to return. Eventually, the strange one returned, and Brownie watched from behind the door to see the human's reaction.
"I can't believe she didn't know where it was!" The dark haired female grumbled. "She knows where every other book on the base is! Why didn't she know where… hey!" Kristen exclaimed, nearly tripping over the book. Brownie forced herself to remain quiet. "It's my book! I've been looking all over the place for it! I wonder how it got out here?"
It was then that Brownie squirmed back out from under the bed. Kristen shot her a distainful look. "What are you doing in here? You live in Andi's room."
Brownie tried to tell the human what she did, but then realized that very few humans understood swine. Instead, she sat down and stared up at the girl thoughtfully.
"Did you find it for me?" Kristen asked. Brownie oinked. "I guess you must have found it under the bed, huh?" Brownie snorted and squealed with excitement. "What a good little pig you are! I didn't know Andi was teaching you to fetch."
Andi wasn't. But there was no need for the human to know. Not yet, anyway. Not until the rest of the house stopped hating her. So, Brownie allowed the human to think that it was her new 'mother' Andi's acts that lead to the finding of her book. But soon enough, she would let them know.
Brownie left the room of the strange gray-skinned girl, well aware that someone had been watching. And that someone wasn't her mother or Kristen.
Virus seethed as he watched Andi's new pet play retirever for Kristen. From his place in the girl's clock radio, he saw everything. Why was he in the radio? Well, he had been on his way to Andi's room, and something about the dhampire's dormitory called to him. That was how he arrived and why he watched the curious display of intelligence from the pig.
"That's no ordinary pig." He thought to himself. "She can't be. Not in a million years. That little thing is different. She is my rival. She will be in a nice pot roast tomorrow night."
