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"Hey you!" Someone shouts, "Rusty!"
Rusty turns around, looking for whoever called him. He's been doing the morning chores for the past few hours and he hasn't seen much of anyone save for Poppa and some of the freight. It's too early for pretty much anyone else in the yard to be up, and there were no overnight runs that would have arrived this morning anyway.
Dinah's standing off to the side, standing on her stops. She's waving at him, attempting to get his attention.
Rusty tilts his head at her, pointing at himself. It's not often the one of the coaches are up this early, let alone trying to get his attention.
"Yes, you!" Despite the distance apart they are, he can see her exasperation in the way she gets off her stops and crosses her arms.
"Hey, Dinah," He speaks when he's close enough to her to speak without yelling. He rolls to a stop right in front of her, where she's waiting for him.
"Hi, Rusty," She replies, smiling slightly.
He looks around, "What are you doing up this early?"
"I'm up early often," She shrugs, "Worried about Greaseball, though."
The race was a few days ago, resulting in the crash that took out both their best engine, Greaseball, the shiny newcomer, Electra, and CB, their resident caboose. Rusty had pulled through and won.
"Makes sense," Rusty nods, about to ask her what she needs.
"Control wants you to pull a passenger train today," She blurts, grinning. "He was going to tell you, but I wanted to? Besides, it's more fun this way!"
"Today?" Rusty echoes, "Already?"
"Yes!" She grabs his hands, "It's me, you and Pearl- I think Buffy might be on as well. I'd bet there's more but that's all I'm sure on." She lets go of his hands, looking over at the sheds. "I have to let Greaseball know, before I leave, but I wanted to be the first to tell you."
"Thank you, Dinah."
"You're welcome!" She's practically beaming as she begins to skate away.
Rusty matches that smile, moving away to go find Pearl and let her know.
His first passenger train!