The day AFTER getting a face-full of cow butt…
Elise's POV
A secret organization? With ANIMALS? Can you believe that?! Either Mavis has a screw loose or she's from so far in the future that animals have somehow become practically human!
Still…
I pause brushing my hair in front of my room's vanity. The photo she showed me of my plant, and that's one thing, but the statue of the P-Horse is the SAME EXACT design I've made and am about to send off for commission. That gives me pause for thought. This Mavis—and her organisation's apparent intern—are acting so serious about this that maybe something really IS going on and for whatever reason, I'm now involved in it.
Glancing at the two framed photos on my vanity makes me more unsure. Looking at the one on the right is particularly uncomfortable because it's of my mother in the front of the then-autumn trees about a month or two before my birth. In both pictures she's wearing the same necklace that currently sits on a stand right next to them. I've worn it for important milestones in my life. From what I know about Mother, I know she wouldn't hesitate to help someone. I put it on and hide it under my shirt before heading out.
"Feeling alright back there? Oh, don't sit on the farthest seat – there's a stain there." I say before Mavis can put her hand there. She's moving slower than I kinda would like but she's probably stiff from sleeping under the backseats in my grandfather's old Ford. I'm actually thankful she's being slow because I don't really wanna have to answer questions as to who she is and all.
*Twenty minutes later, on the mountain road overlooking town…*
"Ugh, move it! You're killin' us back here, ugly…" I complain to the back of the semi-truck that the two of us have been behind for nearly the past half-hour.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to be shouting like that?" Mavis asks anxiously, holding tight to the back of my seat.
I shrug. "It keeps me off the streets!" Judging by the look on her face, I don't think that was the answer she was looking for. I know, maybe music will help! I flip on the radio just in time to hear:
Humidity's raising, barometer's getting low…
"Aw, dang it, I LOVE this song!" I exclaim, partly in annoyance that I got it at the end but I still sing along anyway.
"Hey, I know there's a radio version and all, but that doesn't sound like it," Mavis says.
"It isn't," I say, turning off the radio. "It's a 'rewritten' version my school did. We were celebrating what was going to be our first ever male 'students'. The school is private, girls only, and it has all grades K to 12. The nickname you'll most commonly hear for it is Le jardin de filles – The Girl's Garden. We were very similar to our brother school until a few decades ago…but we still have to take those lessons on keeping your posture correct-."
"Oh, no, is it the ones where you have to balance a stack of books on your head?"
I nod.
"Ugh, I would SO fail that… So you invited the guys over to do that?"
"That, and about every other class we had! Both of us are performing arts schools so there's always something going on."
"Fan-cy. I went to a public school, and it had both guys and girls."
"Lucky! If you hear anyone say a girls-only or a boys-only school is best, don't believe 'em. If you ask any girl who goes there, nine out of ten times they'll say the lack of guys drives them bonkers at times. The only 'guys' at our school is our mascot and some of the plants. That's one reason I was looking to it, because my child-"
Something starts beeping. Mavis moves her arm back, and winces because that was a dead giveaway. She twists her watch and up springs this image of a teal blue…PLATYPUS?
"Mavis, THERE you are! I've been trying to get through for the past ten minutes! We got some Intel from-"
Mavis starts indicating I'm right behind the two. The platypus immediately stops talking.
"Er, hi…." I say, a little awkwardly. How exactly do you talk to an animal that can talk back?
"Ummm, this is Agent P, or Perry the Platypus. He works with me, sometimes." Mavis says.
"The line's moving." Perry says.
Eek, it is! And it's moving fast! I quickly turn and start driving. Mavis and Perry promptly start talking between themselves, and they're keeping it as quiet as they can so I can't really hear what they're saying. Although I do manage to catch a few things like 'Kirk', 'archangel', and something about 'reputation'.
I gather this Perry platypus is higher in this OWCA organization by the way he talks to Mavis. I also have this weird feeling that this guy, platypus, whatever, isn't much of a social butterfly. Eventually, they stop talking because Perry is going to get this other guy called Kane – whom I'm sincerely hoping is either a human or a more sociable animal! – to come on the line and discuss things with Mavis. So she has a few minutes, which actually works out great because we're coming up on a bumpy road on the last road into Danville.
"No offense, but your platypus friend sounds like he isn't much of a social butterfly!" I holler as the two of bounce in time with the bumps on the road.
"Oh, he's always been like that! For as long as I've known him!" Despite the fact that she's buckled in, we hit one bump that sends her into the middle seat. She lands sitting normally in a perfectly cartoony way.
"I gather he doesn't get out much!"
"Well, he's not really allowed; he's also someone's pet. But he still manages to be on top!"
We reach the other side of the road, now much smoother.
"While I get stuck with the cheap stuff," she grumbles.
I grip the steering wheel a little tighter. I know EXACTLY how she feels.