Chapter Text
Chapter Two
== > Be Roxy
Your name is now Roxy, and you’ve totally just met a cute girl at the yogurt store!
“I’m Roxy.” You say, smiling at her.
The girl smiles back. “Calliope.”
You walk over to the cash register, and Calliope follows you uncertainly. She doesn’t seem like she knows anything about the people here, and you’ve never seen her before. Perhaps she just moved.
Because of the street faire, Jade’s shop is bustling with people. There are a few people in line in front of you, but you barely pay them any attention. Jade’s quick when it comes to ringing people up, unless it’s someone she knows. You suppose she has to be; the shop is on one of the main roads, and who doesn’t love frozen yogurt? The lunch rush hasn’t even started yet. You hope Jade gets a lot of business today because she deserves the money, although you won’t be able to talk to her much if she’s barraged by customers.
“Roxy!” Jade exclaims. “How are you? You haven’t been here in forever!”
You smile. “Hey, Jade! I’ve been pretty busy. Ya’know, college and essays and stuff. How’ve you been?”
Jade nods, seeming like she’s considering things. “I’m okay. Jake sent me another letter last week. He’s in Scotland now.” She rings up your yogurt and gives you a ‘friends and family’ discount. You pay the full price anyway.
“He did? Jade, that’s wonderful? What did he say?”
Jade cranes her neck to see over your head. “I’ll tell you everything, as soon as the line dies down.” She says.
“I anxiously await your news.” You declare, moving over so Calliope can pay for her yogurt.
Jade greets Calliope as she would anyone else, a grin on her face and her voice as bubbly as ever. “What’s your name?” She asks.
“I’m Calliope.”
“Well, hi, Calliope! I hope you plan to come here often, there’s so few people to talk to around here!” Jade tells her.
She isn’t wrong, everyone here is a commuter that only wants to go to the city. As far as you know, Jade was the only other girl your age in the whole town aside from Calliope. There used to be more, but… You can’t afford to think about that. Especially not in public.
Calliope nods. “I definitely will, thanks! I, uh, don’t know many people here yet.”
There’s another reason supporting your idea that Calliope must be new to town. You’ll have to ask her after she pays. Maybe you’ll get the privilege of being the first person to get to know Calliope. You smile. You might be able to have an advantage when it comes to winning over the cute girl.
Calliope pays for her yogurt and you beckon her over to the breakfast bar. She sits on the green chair near the wall, and you take the spot next to her. You hand her a plastic spoon you had gotten from the counter. She thanks you happily.
“So, Calliope, I haven’t seen you around before. Did you just move here or something?” You ask.
Calliope nods. “This is my first full day here, actually! My twin brother dragged me outside. He’s over there, in the corner. The grumpy one. He isn’t very… copacetic.”
You laugh. It’s a strange sound, your laugh. You haven’t heard your real laugh in so long, but it rings around the room, bouncing off the walls and echoing back into your ears. What Calliope had said wasn’t even that funny, but you suppose you just needed a reason to laugh. Dirk will be pleased when you tell him. Heck, he may not even believe you.
“I know where you’re coming from there. I’ve got a very difficult cousin, though we used to be so close that he was just like my brother.” You admit.
Calliope raises her eyebrows inquisitively. “You said you used to be close. Do you still converse with him?”
“Oh, yeah, I still talk ta’ Dirk! But he moved back to Texas, where he was born, about a year ago. We still talk on the phone, of course! But, yanno, stuff gets in the way. School, work, the daily yogurt, life, they’re all things that get in the way!”
Calliope giggles at your comment about yogurt. “Is he as bad as Caliborn?”
You shrug. “Well, I dunno your Caliborn. But Dirk was so difficult in social situations! Jeez, I’d be trying to do something nice for him, like try to introduce him to some boy who would’ve been great for him, and he just waves the guy off! It was like he was untouchable! One-word answers, no eye contact, ugh. I don’t even know why I befriended him in the first place.”
Calliope laughs. “Oh, Caliborn is nothing like that. He’s very vocal. Too loud, actually. He acts like he despises everything in the world; it’s horrendous! Caliborn screams at everyone he meets. I’m genuinely surprised that he hasn’t cursed anybody in this place out yet. And the fistfights he used to get in! Don’t even get me started. I’m absolutely certain that he’s bled enough to die from blood loss about four times over. Not at once, though. That’d be terrible.”
Damn, her British accent is adorable. “Is he being quiet today?”
“Yes, thankfully.” Calliope sighs. “I suppose he’s trying to make me feel better about the whole moving thing. So far, this is the only part I’ve actually enjoyed.”
You smile. “You’ve been checking out the street faire, I take it?” You sound so formal, it’s surprising.
“Yes. So far I’ve blown nearly one hundred dollars on knickknacks. Caliborn may have actually been right, for once in his life. I did go a bit crazy.”
“’S happened to all of us, I think.” You say. “They have one of those darn things every spring, summer, and fall. I’m pretty sure that everyone here has made the mistake of going to their first one. Don’t worry, though. After that, you’ll just walk right by them, wondering what sucker is going to spend hundreds a’ dollars on useless stuff they don’t even need.”
“I trust you made the same mistake?”
You nod. “I did. There was a whole tent selling dumb cat stuff. No, I shouldn’t say that – cat stuff is never dumb, no matter how useless it may be – but there was a whole tent full of it! And I don’t even mean one of the jewelry ones, where only half the tent is full. It was bigger than the rock tent! Long story short, I spent hundreds of dollars on lame cat merchandise that I ended up throwing out.”
Calliope tries to stifle her laugh by shielding her mouth with her hand and fails. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes, “I really shouldn’t be laughing, that’s just kind of funny.”
You laugh again, and you can see Jade look up and smile in your peripheral vision. “Don’t apologize, it was a dumb thing to do, buying all those cat things.”
Calliope looks up at you. “I take it you enjoy cats?”
You look at her like she’s insane and nod furiously. “Cats are… cats are my life.”
She shakes her head, smiling. “Do you own any?”
You look into the distance, trying to look dramatic. “Once upon a time, I wanted a cat. And then a very, very, evil overlord told me that he will not allow any pets other than fish in his apartment building. So I cried and cried and I am still crying. Internally. I will continue crying forever.”
Calliope grins. “I take it that the evil overlord is your landlord.”
You nod grimly. “Unfortunately. And I checked, but none of the apartments here allow animals. Well, not including service dogs. But I don’t think purposely making myself blind just to be able to get a cat would be proficient.”
“Yes, I don’t really think so either.”
Calliope smiles at you, and it seems like everything is going well as far as flirting goes – you’ve practically got her in the palm of your hand.
And then several things go to hell at once.