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Staring at the sun kissed skinned teen standing at the end of the hallway, Camila never once thought she'd be in this predicament.
Camila had seen the other girl around from time to time. Pacing the corridors with a huge black painted plastic gun that Camila would have thought was real if not for the bright orange nuzzle on the front. Camila had been terrified of her at first. The tall Polynesian girl whose name she would soon come to love, Dinah, towered over everyone in the summer program. She had a permanent scowl on her face that would scare off any would be tormentor. Not that anyone would have dared to mess with her due to her even larger and far more frightening older cousins. They didn't attend the program, but a group of them would arrive every afternoon at exactly 4:00pm to walk Dinah home.
She was one of the few kids who weren't picked up by their parents. Camila always wondered why. Wondered if maybe she didn't have parents and lived with the giant older boys. Looking back on it, it was a silly thought but Camila didn't understand too much about extended family dynamics. Her family consisted of simply her mother, father and younger sister, Sofia. Both of her parents were only children and both sets of her grandparents had either passed when she was a young girl or lived overseas.
That's why it came to such a shock to her today, far after the usual time most of the program kids had gone home, that she spotted Dinah standing at the end of the hallway. She was leaning over a water fountain, her nerf gun tucked into the string of her thin Nike backpack.
As Camila drew closer she could see that the other girl wasn't drinking. Instead she was staring intently at the drain. Feeling a heavy weight in the bottom of her belly, Camila started to back up and run away. The hallway was empty sans the two young girls and something told Camila she didn't want to know what the taller girl was doing.
She had barely made it a step in the opposite direction when she heard a soft voice behind her.
"Is Dr. Radcliffe still in his room?"
It was then the cuban girl realized she had never heard Dinah speak before. She had always pictured the girl having a deep bellowing voice, but instead her ears were met with a sound so airy Camila almost didn't even hear it.
"Huh?" The Cuban girl played dumb. She had heard the question, but her response fell from her lips before she was aware her mouth had opened.
"Dr. Radcliffe. Is he still in his room? I saw you guys in there earlier." Dinah repeated her question, this time clarifying it for the shorter girl.
Camila looked at the wall, struggling to come up with a reply. It was a simple question. With a simple answer. Yes. So why wasn't her voice coming out? It had no problem doing so a few moments ago without her permission.
Was this a bad time to mention that Camila had the biggest crush on the teen in front of her?
"Oh. Umm." Camila flickered her eyes back to the larger girl standing before her. The girl was no longer looking at her, her attention back on the water fountain's drain.
"I only had her for a minute. I was going to take her back." Dinah said absentmindedly as she tilted her head to the side peering closer at the tiny thin bars of the drain.
Camila stared blankly at Dinah. If she couldn't even respond to a simple question she understood, she certainly didn't know how to response to that. Who was she?
"Huh?" She managed to squawk out again.
"Reptar."
Oh! Reptar was the program's tiny crested gecko. Camila had been ordered to feed him once earlier in the summer. Well her apparently. At least according to Dinah. What had Dinah been doing with her out of her cage?
"I wanted to scare my cousins. Those dummies called me 20 minutes after they were supposed to pick me up to tell me they're with some hoes. They said I was cockblockeding them when I told them to get their asses here now or I'll tell my mom to give them a beatdown."
Camila furrowed her eyebrows. Did the Polynesian girl just read her mind?
For the first time during the conversation Dinah stood up at her full height, effectively drawfing the smaller girl and turned her body towards Camila. She smiled slightly at the confused look on Camila's face.
"You said that out loud."
Camila felt her cheeks burn. Oh. Stupid voice. She swore it was conspiring against her. A light giggle broke her out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw a wide smile and dimples meeting her gaze.
"I like your pin." The Polynesian girl said as she pointed at the green biology button on Camila's shirt. "That means you're Dr. Radcliffe's assistant right?" She finished as she kneeled in front of the drinking fountain. Camila made note of it only barely coming up to her shoulders even on her knees. She nodded, despite knowing the girl couldn't see her for her attention had already been redirected to the fountain.
Dinah continued speaking anyway. "So you know stuff about lizards right?"
Camila shook her head before rolling her eyes at herself. Words stupid. Use your Words.
"No." She started, clearing her throat with a cough. "Well kinda. I've read about them, but Dr. Radcliffe teaches us more about cells. You know neutrons, protons. How many of them make up a nucleus."
Dinah hummed in acknowledgment still staring at the drain. A loud bang caused Camila to nearly jump out of her skin. The Polynesian girl had raised her, rather large, hand and slammed it against the side of the fountain. The sound echoed down the empty hallway.
"Fuck." Dinah whispered as she looked down the corridor both ways making sure none of the teachers or workers heard the sound.
"What are you doing?"
Dinah leaned back on her heels and looked at the Cuban girl in defeat.
"I was texting my cousin telling him to bring his stupid ass here and I put her down there." She pointed to the tiny white ledge above the water fountain. "I looked back and she was gone! She must have crawled inside it. If she ends up in the sewers Mr. Heathlick is going to tell my mom and she's going to kill me. I'll be babysitting every Friday night until I'm 90."
Camila inched closer to the girl as she listened to her story. She examined the drain. " I don't think the holes are big enough. It can't fit."
Dinah made a face. "Can't they, like, bend their bones or something and get through."
Camila held back a chuckle. "Not that I've heard. Maybe. He would have looked for somewhere to hide. You probably scared him taking him out of his tank."
"Her." Dinah corrected.
Camila kneeled down next to the girl.
"Right." Camila stared at the scene in front of her. If I were a lizard, where would I hide? Wait!
She bent her head to peer under the fountain. "Did you check unde-" Before Camila could finish the sentence she saw a tiny green tail stick out in front of her face. "Found it!"
Using Dinah's phone light the two girls managed to coax the tiny lizard out of her hiding place and back into Dinah's hands.
Dinah held the lizard between her long fingers and raised it to her face, staring it directly in the eyes.
"You think this was a game huh? I wasn't playing with chu." She said as she wagged the index finger of her free hand in Reptar's face.
Back on her two feet, Camila dusted off her knees, looking at the two "arguing." "I'm glad you found him. Now you don't have to worry about babysitting."
"Her." Dinah reminded her as she stood on her feet as well. She looked down at the green and yellow lizard shaking her head. "Why does she keep forgetting, Reptar?" She asked the lizard as if expecting an answer.
"Who names a girl lizard Reptor?"
" A two year old." Dinah laughed. "Mr. Heathlick heard my little sister Regina calling her that on the first day when my dad brought her with us and it stuck."
"Oh." Camila diverted her gaze, feeling a little bad she indirectly insulted Dinah's little sister.
"It's cool shorty." Camila looked back in time to see the taller girl look her up and down. "You're Camila right?"
Camila's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Yeah!" Most people didn't know her name. Even some of the kids who had gone to her elementary school still called her Camilla. Sometimes even Jamilla.
"Dinah-Jane." The Polynesian girl repiled as she flashed another dimple filled smile. Camila was very quickly learning to love it. She had never seen anyone with dimples on the corners of their eyes before.
Music suddenly filled the hallway and Dinah's smile dropped as she glanced at the offending source in her hand. "Umm can you hold this real quick?" She asked, placing the lizard in Camila's smaller hands before the Cuban girl could even react.
"Nigga where the hell are you?" Dinah's soft spoken voice was gone and was replaced by a thicker accent that Camila couldn't place. "You gotta buy me hot cheetos for the rest of the month. Anytime I ask." Dinah paused. Camila guessed her cousin was yelling something back at her. "Boy bye." With a roll of her eyes, Dinah ended the phone call.
"That's my cousin. He's outside. Yelled at me saying I cost him pussy. His ass better get."
Camila shifted awkwardly. The sudden temperament change had thrown her off. Dinah seemed to take notice because she straightened her demeanor and lowered her voice. "I'll see you on Monday yeah? You're the line leader right?"
Camila perked back up. How did Dinah know that? The older kids in the summer program could volunteer to be the line leaders of the younger kids. Camila's mother had asked her to volunteer to make sure Sofi, who was only 8, was where she was supposed to be every morning. The young girl had a habit of running away if others weren't watching her. Dinah had also volunteered to help organize the children early in the morning. However, the line leader of Dinah's section was another girl named Normani. Camila's line was on the other side of the courtyard. Had dinah been watching her?
Camila nodded, a small smile forming on her face until she felt something crawling up her arm. The scream left her mouth almost immediately.
"What's going on out here?"
Camila whipped around to see Dr. Radcliffe standing by his room door. Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to reply.
"Nothing sir. Camila here tripped and luckily for her I was here to catch her." Dinah answered quickly, flashing a toothy grin at the older man.
The grey haired man sighed. "Be more careful next time Camila. If something happens to you who will come with me to the National Science Fellows competition next month?" He winked at her as he walked back into his class. This time leaving the door open.
Camila turned back to the taller girl, taking notice of how close they were. She seemed even taller from this angle.
"Ooooo Science fair huh?" Dinah teased wiggling her eyebrows. "You travel with him a lot?"
The Cuban girl gagged in digust. "Oh my god no. No no no." She repeated.
"That's why you don't have a boyfriend? Late night tutoring session with the doctor? Get your Greys anatomy on girl." Dinah continued, knocked her shoulder into the shorter girl almost knocking her over.
"Oh my god. N-"
A loud beeping from Dinah's phone interrupted them again. Dinah rolled her eyes as she checked the notification. "That's Masi again. He made me wait almost two hours. He can wait two minutes." Dinah shrugged her plastic gun from one side of her string to the other. She looked back at the lizard still clenched in Camila's fist. "I'm hungry." She said as she reached for Reptar. "I'll scare Masi next time."
Camila pulled her hand back slightly. "If you want I can put her back for you. You'll have to pass Dr.Radcliffe's if you put Reptar back and he might notice. He doesn't care where I go."
"Really?" Dinah asked, her face scrunching up into what Camila considered the most adorable face ever. "Thank you so much!" She pulled the tinier girl into a hug, making sure not to knock her out with the huge toy gun.
Pulling back Dinah ran her fingers briefly through the ends of Camila's long brown hair. "Line up starts at 7:30 right? I'll see you then?"
Camila gaped at the connotation behind the girl's words. "Umm yeah."
"Cool. See you then shorty." And with that the Polynesian girl dashed down the hallway and out the nearest exit.
Camila stood rooted to her spot for a few seconds before bringing her cupped hand to her face and staring at the lizard still in her hands. "Thanks girl." She said to her.
The lizard stuck it's tongue out in response as if to say you're welcome. Camila smiled. Dinah-Jane Hansen had just spoken to her. Dinah Jane Hansen had just made plans with her. It was going to be a long wait until Monday.