Dog Meet Dog World (Nora!)

[Jesse Adams]

Time spent out of the house was becoming more and more important to one Kenneth Lee.

Kenneth Maxwell Lee.

Gag.

Already, he’d been hit with several bombshells. The newest was that, come September, Kenneth would be joining the hoards of filthy human teenagers at the local high school. If he was going to stay in Pilot Ridge long enough to work off the damned couch, Nate was expecting him to attend school.

Yeah. He was sulking. Just a little bit. He didn’t want to go to school. He wanted to go back to the old way of doing things. Studying under his comrades at the compound. He kicked a rock, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets. Stupid Max. … Nate. … Whatever.

Beside him, Gambit was trotting along quite merrily, his tail wagging. He was enjoying the time he was spending with his master, and away from the one that yelled at him all the time. He’d learned that the more the other one yelled, the more his master took him out.

It was actually nice.

As the Mastiff cross paused to sniff a patch of moss near a tree, Kenneth looked out at the water, his gaze only slightly skipping over the massive building that was Hammel. He was never going back there. Not if he could help it. It was part of the reason why he was going along with Nate’s ridiculous charade.

A sudden lunge at the end of the leash had the teenager stumbling on the worn path around the lake. “Hey! Gambit!” Yeah, that wasn’t going to help anything. The dog was intent on his target:

… Another dog.

Wagging in a way that Kenny decided was way too enthusiastic for just meeting another canine, he leaned back and tried not to roll his eyes as the two sniffed and twisted and –

Tangled leashes.

And it was then he realized that there was actually someone attached to the other end of the other dog’s leash.

Well, shit. Now he had to put all those hours of learning into practice. Well, time to slip into his filthy human persona.

“Uh… sorry. He’s friendly.” Smile, tuck hair behind ear, smile, look sincere.

Forget criminal. He should have been an actor.

[Noralei Harris]

It was already feeling like a long day for Nora. She had been up until the wee hours of the morning texting Ethan and watching Annie, like the dork she was, and had to get up early that morning to get to the shelter. She had spent her morning organizing for their next ‘Adopt-a-thon’ that was going on next month. She had people to call, papers to fax, and dogs to feed on top of that. The shelter had been going through a rough time lately- one of their biggest anonymous donors had mysteriously stopped sending money. While this upset Nora, she still was thankful for all the money they did receive.

Once the girl got home, she had crashed on the couch- for all of ten minutes. It was at that point that she awoke to Lola barking in her face. The Australian Shepherd was very adamant about getting walked, and whether it was seven in the morning or nine at night, she refused to give up when she decided it was her turn. It wasn’t as bad as it sounded, considering she was getting old enough that she didn’t want a walk every day, only about once or twice a week. Still Nora tried to ignore her. A stream of barking was issued by the dog, and, with a sigh, Nora rose, collected the leash, and took Lola out.

Normally her dog was well-behaved enough to walk without a leash on, but Lola was straying farther away than usual, so Nora called her back and clipped it back on. They made their way to the lake, and Nora decided that a nice dip wouldn’t be too bad for her or the dog, so they took the path leading to the water. Nora found herself looking out over the lake, toward the school on the hill, and sighed wistfully. She wished she could go to private school, like the twins and Ethan’s siblings.

With a loud bark, Lola yanked on the leash, all but tearing Nora’s arm out of the socket. “Lola, no!” Nora yelled, but it was too late. In a flash, Lola was nose to nose with another dog and was busy exploring, successfully tangling her leash in his. “Lola, you silly thing. I’m so sorry.” She looked up and smiled, expecting some old man on the other end of the leash of the bigger dog. Instead, she came face to face with someone her age.

A boy her age.

He was cute.

A blush that would rival a tomato’s skin came to Nora’s face as she realized how stupid she must’ve looked, and she turned her attention back down at her dog. Lola was still sniffing and now wagging her tail at the large brown dog that she had set her sights on. Nora could tell that he was a mastiff, if only because the shelter had one or two. (Normally the bigger dogs went somewhere else, she put in a lot of transfer requests for mastiffs and pit bulls.)

Managing to finally find the end of Lola’s leash, she unclipped it from the dog and began to untangle it. “No, it’s fine. She’s just a bit of a drama queen. Loves being the center of attention and all that.” She smiled and tucked some hair behind her ear before straightening back up, leash in hand. Lola barely even noticed her leash was off.

“Uh, I’m Nora. Hi. God, that sounded awful. She was pitiful. At least she didn’t try for a handshake; that was creepy.

[Jesse Adams]

Long days for Kenneth involved spending far too much time cooped up in Nate’s house, killing time by watching bad daytime television until he was allowed outside. Even then, there wasn’t much to do. He didn’t have much at Nate’s place. Just the clothes he’d been given, and Gambit. It made for long days of nothing but tossing a ball around for the dog, watching with a tiny bit of perverse pleasure as the dark fur fell on the floor and attached to the new couch.

At least now he was allowed outside. Kenneth was slowly trying to rebuild his lost stamina. Before MSAD’s fall, he’d been active, and his endurance from running track back in L.A., as well as at Hammel, had been at its’ peak. Since he’d been shot, and had spent a ridiculous amount of time (in his opinion) recovering, all of that had vanished. Even the walk to the pet store the other day had tired him out in a frustrating manner.

At least the lake was prettier than the town, and he had less of a chance of running into anyone he might know from Hammel. As it was, he hadn’t been expecting to see anyone else by the lake. It was later in the day, and he expected most people would be at home. He was sure Nate would be texting him eventually, telling him to get his butt home for supper. Not that that was any real reason to rush home. He was enjoying the solace of walking in the quiet, with only Gambit for company.

Of course, that couldn’t last long.

Watching in dismay as Gambit circled, wagging and sniffing, he was tempted to drop the leash. But, knowing the dog, and his woefully short attention span, he’d probably see a squirrel and take off.

“No, it’s fine. We weren’t expecting to see anyone else out here.” At least she had the wisdom to start de-tangling the leashes. As she was doing that, Kenny studied her. While he couldn’t tell if she was meta, he could tell they were close in age. And she was female. (Bravo, genius.)

… Maybe they’d end up at the same school.

Well, might as well at least pretend he was interested. Wouldn’t Nate be pleased with him? No arrests, no blown covers. Just another fake friend to add to his collection. What was it that non-human-hating guys did?

… Ew. Flirt. He’d had enough of that from Fifi hanging all over him at the compound. Maybe he wasn’t going to try that just yet.

“Yeah, he’s just as bad.” Gambit, now he was satisfied with the other dog, his attention had turned to her mistress. Sitting at Nora’s feet, he wagged his tail and cocked his head. Tucking his hair behind his ear, Kenny managed an awkward, almost shy smile. Everything he did now would affect who Kenneth would become. “Hey, Nora. Um, I’m Kenneth. I just moved here, to spend some time with my dad.” Yeah. His deadbeat dad. “… Your dog’s pretty. What’s its’ name?” That sounded normal, right?

[Noralei Harris]

If imagining all the awful scenarios that could possibly happen wasn’t enough, Nora also had to factor in the dogs, both his and hers. What if his dog bit her, or if Lola bit him? What if they started fighting? The Australian Shepherd had already finished sniffing down the mastiff and was now sitting in front of the boy with an expectant look, demanding she got to be petted. Nora worried her lip as he introduced himself and couldn’t help but smile a little. Kenneth? That was a nice name. His explanation that he was spending time with his Dad mad it clear that was probably why she never saw him around before. Maybe he would go to school with her? Oh God that would be awful- she was all but a leper at school, he would fit into a clique and then hate her like everyone else.

Looking to Lola, then back to Kenneth, Nora groped for word before everything spilled out of her mouth. “Lola, af-after the movie Damn Yankees. I really like musicals, so, uh, that’s why we named her... That. Um.” She realized she was rambling, but she couldn’t stop herself. “We got her from the shelter, when she was a puppy. She’s four years old now. I work over at the shelter now.” She pointed behind her, then realized that the shelter wasn’t in that direction, so she changed the course of her hand while it was still behind her and pointed to her left instead.

Hand motions were a definite no, so she decided to busy them by petting the dog in front of her after letting him smell her. Scratching the large animal behind the ears made her feel much more comfortable. “What’s your dog’s name? He looks really friendly.” She paid attention to the dog for a little while until Lola, noticing she was not the center of Nora’s attention, came back and jumped up, placing her front paws on Nora’s hip before whining. With a huff, Nora scratched both the dog’s head, wondering why her animal magnetism couldn’t work on humans too.

Turning her attention back to Kenneth, Nora smiled and decided that probing for answers would be a good idea. “So how long are you staying for? Are you going to go to Pilot Ridge High, or are you only around for the summer? School starts in about three weeks.” She couldn’t remember what day exactly, even though her class schedule had arrived in the mail with the calendar and was hung up on the refrigerator.

[Jesse Adams]

Kenneth honestly wasn’t thinking about the awful possible scenarios. As long as he didn’t blow cover, he’d be fine. And even if he did, they were all alone out here. It wouldn’t take much to alter Nora’s memories. Just a light brush. He was sure she wouldn’t mind, the way she was looking at him. Thankfully Gambit didn’t seem to have anything awful on his mind either, unless you counted his demanding for attention. As Gambit begged for pets, Kenny stooped to scratch Lola’s ears, only half listening to the girl.

“Lola’s a nice name.” He actually meant it. As far as feminine names for dogs went, it was okay. “And it’s good you adopted her. I think he was adopted too.” He wafted his hand at the mastiff cross. “He came from a family friend. I sort of… inherited him.” He didn’t want to get much into that, though. If he thought too much about it, he’d end up remembering things he didn’t want to. Better to stick to safer topics.

Kind of like talking about Gambit himself, not where he came from. “Gambit,” he managed to say with a smile. “He’s friendly, but kind of dumb.” Honestly, he wasn’t lying. The dog could be dumb as a bag of hammers sometimes. And sometimes, especially when food was involved, he was cunning. As Lola came back to her mistress, Kenneth stood up and jammed his hands back in his pockets. Gambit just shifted over, sniffing Lola and wagging his tail again.

Nora’s questions made him cock his head. Damn. Now he had to think. What had Max told him? If he was spending the summer, why was he going to school, too? What about when he finished paying off the damn couch and he was forced to leave? “Well…” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “My dad wants me to stick around for a while. So I’m supposed to be starting at the high school at the start of the semester.” Thrilled, he was, about that. “What about you? Do you go to the high school?” He might as well make the conversation go two ways. “… Do they have a track team?” His cheeks colored slightly. “I was on the team at my old school. I’d like to get back to it, if I could.”