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Jack and Eugene found the note when they came in on Monday morning. If it had been on the desk it would have been lost in the layers of whatever-the-hell-was-that-I-hope-it-wasn't-important that covered the surface (nowhere could you, in fact, see the actual desk). However, whoever had placed it had done so on the recording equipment, so they would have to move it to start broadcasting. It was addressed in neat, bubbly handwriting:
The piece of paper, which had some scribbled notes in a different hand on one side, was folded into thirds, and there was a letter in the same neat, bubbly handwriting. Eugene read it, Jack peering over his shoulder. Jack's only contribution was to laugh from the second word until the fourth line, when he stopped laughing abruptly and said, "What does she mean, 'Jack's funny but you're smart and funny'? I am perfectly intelligent, thank you!". (He huffed indignantly and Eugene just rolled his eyes.) The letter was signed “From Anonymus”, mistake and all.Mr. Eugene
Comms Shack
Abel Township
"'Gene, you've got an admirer. A secret one! Oh, this is fantastic." Jack cackled (there was no other word for it), and Eugene tried to hit him with a crutch but missed. He wasn't trying very hard anyway.
"But what do I do?" Eugene looked genuinely concerned, which Jack didn’t really think was called for.
Jack shrugged, grinning. “Nothing? I mean, it’s not as if she’s actually approaching you and asking for a snog. Mind you, if she thinks you’re straight, I’m clearly doing something wrong. I mean, I could even take it as a challenge." His grin got wider, and Eugene put his face in his hands, mainly to hide own smile. He would not -- could not -- condone that. No matter how entertaining it would be.
Finally getting his expression under control, he said, "Let's just get to broadcasting. Our eager fans await. Or, you know, have we confirmed there are people other than Sam listening?" (They hadn't.) Perhaps the letter was just a very flattering one-off. Despite the occasional spelling mistake, it was very flattering -- Eugene had never had a secret admirer before, and sure, this one was a small girl, but everyone had to start somewhere.
________
Jack was much quicker than Eugene to get to the sheet of stickers that had fallen to the floor -- mainly because Eugene and the floor rarely met except by accident. The stickers looked like they had definitely been Simon's work -- there were three rows of rainbows and another two of unicorns with glitter.Dear Mr. Eugene,
I was really worried when you got sick on the radio! Jack was really worried too, I don't know if you heard. I could cook you meals -- I am a really good cook, even Francesca says so. (Sometimes I help her out when Molly is sorting cans, and she gives me sweets.) I wanted to make you a card, but we were out of paper at the time, so I made you a I'm Happy You Got Well card. Also stickers. Simon found them and gave them to us last week. I was saving them for something special, and you are special so I am giving them to you.
Sam said you liked superheroes, so I drew you the Batman symbol (I tried to draw Batman but it didn't go very well). I hope you are feeling better.
From Anonymus
"These are brilliant!" he said, grinning as he peeled off the first rainbow and stuck it on a spare corner of the soundboard. Soon, he'd decorated most of their equipment -- unicorns on the left ear of each headset, rainbows on the right; their recording equipment was much, much sparklier (and looked much more like it belonged to a pre-pubescent girl); and Jack still had stickers left. "It makes it more like home," he said in response to Eugene's look. "You know, how you have to put up pictures and stuff to make an apartment yours, and we can't do that but we can put stickers everywhere. Don't tell me it doesn't improve the place."
"I wouldn't have chosen this particular colour scheme," Eugene admitted. However, it did make the place feel a bit more...well, 'home' was the wrong word, and it already looked too lived in (they weren't the best at cleaning up), but it looked...friendlier. Better, even though he wouldn't say that to Jack. It would just encourage him, and Eugene wasn't sure he even wanted to know where Jack's interior decorating skills went from here.
When he woke up the next day to discover a rainbow stuck firmly on his cheek, however, he decided the stickers were no longer a good idea. He grabbed the few remaining when Jack was getting tea and gave them to Amber, safe in the knowledge that they weren't a common item and there wouldn't be any more.
(Amber, for her part, decided not to mention the sticker that was firmly stuck in his hair -- he would notice it in time.)
________
"This wouldn't have happened had you not decided I also needed decorating," Eugene pointed out, leaning back in his chair. "You can't go around putting adhesives on people's faces without their permission."
"You were asleep, though!"
"Exactly."
Jack mumbled something about Eugene not getting into the spirit of things, and Eugene put on a song.
________
"The admirer -- she's lovely, and all, but I'll need to do something about it. I can't let it keep going. But--" he ran a hand through his hair, making it even more ridiculous than it was naturally before continuing, "--how can I let her down without stomping all over her feelings? Bloody hell, she sounds so adorable."
Jack frowned, feigning concern as he said, "Should I be worried for myself? Is she the new Jack?"
"Don't be an idiot, this is a real problem. Besides, she actually brushes her teeth. So no, she's not the new Jack."
At this, Jack sat up a little straighter and leant forward. "Have you seen her, then? You've been close enough to her to inspect her teeth and you haven't told me?"
Eugene shook his head. "No, I still don't know who she is, but come on, look at that handwriting! Someone who puts that much effort into a letter wouldn't let her dental hygiene fall by the wayside."
Jack was sure there was a slight to his character in there somewhere, but the song ended, and he didn't have time to find it. He quickly said something about Radio Abel being there for you in the apocalypse (it was code for 'we're too busy to actually say something proper') and put on the next song. If Eugene was so concerned about this, then it needed to be dealt with.
"Well, Sam could probably tell you who she is," he said. "He's the one leaving them on our desk, isn't he? And then you could...hmm." What they would do once they knew who she was wasn't clear. "You could write her a letter?"
"I'll have to tell her that I'm taken, obviously," said Eugene, putting the letters down to take a gulp of tea. "I don't want to disappoint her but, well, you are the jealous sort."
"Maybe we should set her up with someone else -- preferably someone her own age, and hopefully not one with a boyfriend."
Eugene's face lit up, and Jack took quite a lot of satisfaction from being the one to smooth the frown he had been sporting for the last five minutes. "Perfect!" Eugene continued, "I mean, it'd have to be after I'd told her...and we'd need to let an appropriate amount of time lapse, to be tasteful and all that. But I like it!" He grinned, and the rest of the song was spent planning how they would set her up with someone -- and exactly how much glitter they could use to do it. (The answer was 'a lot', and it kept them both in good spirits for the rest of the afternoon.)
________
Sam took the letter and examined it, not even getting past the address before going pink. "I can't tell you anything. I promised her!" Even that was too much information, clearly, and he flushed even more.
"So you helped this mystery girl send me love letters," Eugene said, double checking he had everything right. He did, of course, but it was only fair to give Sam an opportunity to deny everything.
"Well, yeah, I suppose..."
"What, and you didn't feel like mentioning I was gay?"
Sam looked at his shoes, biting his lip. "She's so cute, though. I just couldn't break that little heart!"
"No, you just left me to do it." Eugene sighed, leaning on his crutches as he fished his own letter out of his pocket. He had written it hidden away in a corner of the rec yard, and despite insistent badgering from Jack, hadn't told him what it said. "Can you at least give her this letter from me?"
"Yeah, sure." Sam took the letter, but froze as he saw something over Eugene's shoulder. Eugene turned to look -- and there was a girl who was humming a Regina Spektor song. If Sam's deer-in-the-headlights look hadn't done it, that did. Eugene made a mental note of her identifying features (brown hair, brown eyes, a pink t-shirt with a unicorn on it and jeans) and raised an eyebrow at Sam before going back inside the comms shack. Hopeless.
________
"Check." (It was hanging from the ceiling of the rec centre, a lucky find of Simon's.)
"The YMCA?"
"Check."
"The Macarena?"
"Check."
"A boy to set our dear letter-writer up with?"
"Check. I did decide on Andy, in the end -- Sam assures me he's a nice kid. Hope he's not too grubby for her or anything." (They had drawn up a list of suitable boys, based on their behaviour at dinner. Andy was a small boy who worshipped Sam Yao and devoured comics like they were chocolate on Easter morning, which satisfied them both.)
"My dear Eugene, I do believe we are in business. Let the Abel Disco commence!"
There was nothing like a good old disco full of small children dancing awkwardly with each other to ignite young love. It was a plan that really could not fail. They'd managed to convince Janine that it was a good idea to cheer all the kids up and lighten the mood a bit after a year of zombies eating their loved ones. Everyone else had got on board with varying levels of enthusiasm, from Maxine (who said she might pop in if she wasn't needed at the hospital) to Simon (who gave them a list of songs they had to play and had brought them back glitter and streamers and a disco ball to create the proper atmosphere).
The kids, of course, had needed no convincing at all. At six o'clock they all came rushing into the hall, running through the streamers and laughing as the opening of "Barbie Girl" came through the speakers.
Unfortunately, fifteen minutes in, it wasn't really going to plan. Everyone was having fun -- that part of the plan was fine -- but their letter girl was in a corner, doodling. She'd been staring wistfully at Eugene when she thought he wasn't looking (and often he hadn't been, but Jack had), and who even brought a pen and paper to a disco anyway?
So Jack took matters into his own hands. When Andy next came into view, he called him over, and pointed to the girl. "Andy! See that girl over there? I'm pretty sure she's drawing...hmm, looks like an elephant from here. Although it might be an octopus? It's hard to tell. Anyway, the point is, you should go talk to her. I happen to know she likes Batman." At this, Andy grinned, and Jack knew he'd got him sold. He elbowed Eugene to get his attention and they both watched as Andy sidled over, fiddling with the hem of his sleeves.
"Hello! What are you drawing?"
"An elephant." (Point one for Jack Holden!)
"Oooh. I like elephants. Whenever we went to the zoo they were always the first ones I went to, even though they were actually ages away from the gates. I wonder where all the elephants went after the zombies came. I wonder what happened to all the zoo animals, actually..."
"Maybe they escaped!" Jack was very pleased to note that the girl had put her pen and paper down, and was gesturing with her hands. "Maybe there are elephants just...wandering the moors. How cool would that be."
"Woah. And tigers! Oh that would be awesome." Andy glanced back at Jack and Eugene, who tried to look like they hadn't been following the conversation very carefully. As Eugene put on the YMCA, Andy looked back at the girl and said, "Hey, do you want to dance with me? The steps for this one are really easy, and if you don't, I'll have to dance with Max. Not, like, cool Doctor Max who didn't blame Felix when he broke his arm falling out of the conker tree, but that Max over there -- the one with the Hello Kitty bandaid from the time he fell over during a cricket match. And he's alright, but I'd much rather dance with you."
Jack felt inordinately proud of how very smooth the boy was. "Good choice," he said to Eugene as the girl followed him onto the dance floor, paper abandoned.
"I'm Andy, by the way," Andy said as they reached the edge of the crowd who were dancing in unison, using their arms to make the appropriate letters.
"I'm Beth," she said, and she didn't leave Andy's side for the rest of the night, even joining in when Simon was enthusiastically trying to teach everyone the steps to "Thriller".