Bitten by the Ladylovebug (Caroline)

[Olivia James]

It was still kind of a shock that Ollie was within a room she hadn't been expecting to be in. She wasn't sure why, she had played over at plenty of her friend's houses over the years, and it was a dorm room at the school, for a project. Yet there she was, in Caroline Mason's room, feeling her nerves eat away at her enough to make her fiddle with her hands and seem a little jittery. All Ollie knew was that this time felt nothing like all the other times.

It wasn't more than ten minutes ago that Ollie and Caroline had been paired up for a science project in their biology class. It had been the last class of the day, which left them plenty of time to talk about what they needed to do. Ollie suggested that they could go to her room to talk instead of staying in the classroom, and Caroline seemed to be okay with that.

So there Ollie was, standing in the room that was making her nervous, with a girl that she was at least somewhat less talkative with than normal, absolutely unsure of what she should say. She kept thinking over what their project was, but when she would open her mouth to say something nothing would be there. It normally worked all the other times she did that! So she had to admit it was a bit harder to actually think about stuff to say.

"So... um... " was about as far as Ollie got before her stomach interrupted her with a loud grumble of its own. Olivia attempted to cover her stomach with her hand in between her open jacket and against her light blue tee, but it didn't exactly muffle the quick noise. She looked back up at Caroline with a weary smile. "I get hungry really easily... sorry."

Ollie knelt down and swung her satchel backpack to her front and flipped the top open to reveal her books and instant pink camera. This caused Bill, her lizard to come zooming out from the front jacket pocket he had been resting in, and rested at the end of her shoulder. This was something that happened with Ollie so often now that she hardly noticed Bill moving about her. Instead she focused on sifting through her camera, utensils and binders to find the snacks she kept on her for when she needed a little something extra. She pulled out an energy bar, even though she had told her father many times that she thought energy bars tasted nasty, he said they were the perfect thing for her.

A low sigh slipped from Ollie as she pushed back her bangs with her free hand and looked back at Caroline. "Oh... um... do you want one? I have like... granola bars and stuff too? I kinda have to keep snacks on me. Its not good when I get hungry, I get really faint and I'd make people worry and stuff. It's not very cool at all."

[Caroline Mason]

The pink back pack had been tossed onto the bed, books, notebooks, and various bits of paper she'd stuffed inside pulled out as Caroline had removed the biology book and opened it to the page on cells. A large, colorful diagram of a cell. They were supposed to turn the classroom into a plant cell, each group being assigned a different part of the cell. Caroline and Ollie, had been given the nucleus and it's various pieces.

"That's okay. I have some goldfish around here somewhere if you want some of those though." Her favorite snack, and Father Boe had sent her a box along with cards from her classmates back in Omaha. They missed her, and the area that was supposed to be her work desk, was covered with the construction paper and hand made cards. Father Boe's letter was right on top and a brand new book of saints with an inscription from the Jesuite Priest. "Do you want some soda? We have some Doctor Thunder in the little fridge in the common room." It wasn't fancy, but it was what it was.

"Um...." Caroline stared at the spot the lizard had paused in. "Isn't... isn't it cold?" There was still a great deal of snow on the ground outside, and even though the heat was way up in the dorm, she hadn't ever seen a lizard in any time other than summer. Caroline didn't mention that getting hungry was odd, as far as she was concerned it was pretty normal. There were plenty of kids at the school who always had to keep food on hand because of how their ability affected their bodies. That was something she really hoped they would go over in Biology at some point. Maybe if she asked... or maybe it would be covered in the later, older classes.

"So... nucleus." Caroline was completely unaware of how shy Ollie had gotten all of a sudden. And even less aware of why. "I don't know how we could do this and show all the parts. Papermache? Maybe? I don't know." Chewing on the side of her tongue Caroline pulled her legs into a tailor's seat and leaned forward so that her elbows were on the floor and her chin rested in the cup of her hand.

"What do you think?"

[Olivia James]

"Oh, okay. Goldfish are pretty yummy. The chocolate ones are my favorite." Ollie mentioned before nodding her head that she didn't want a drink right now. She had been so distracted about what she could say that she completely had forgotten her manners, like saying thank you for asking me if I was thirsty. Once she had her snack out though she closed up her bag since they already had a biology book.

It kind of threw Ollie off being nervous when she was asked if it was cold. She looked to Caroline for a moment, nearly tipping her head to the side in confusion before she noticed the lizard on her shoulder out of the corner of her eye. "Oh! You mean bill? I have a spot for him in my bag when I go outside that seems to keep him warm. He like never lets me leave without him. Though I have gotten him to stay home sometimes. Um..."

"...Sorry, if I'm talking a lot. My sister says I talk too much." Ollie added before falling silent, while she opened her energy bar and took a bite. She used a free hand then to pull her lizard off from her shoulder while the silence was finally broken by that oh so dreaded word 'so'.

Although Ollie completely had paid attention to Caroline explain about what they could probably do for their project, for some reason she also spaced out watching Caroline get comfortable in front of her book, with chin in hand and elbows on the floor. Unfortunately, that meant when her blue eyed friend finally asked her what she thought she spaced for a moment stuck on an, "Um..."

"The project! Right... umm..." Ollie continued with an exclamation that made her pop up. She wasn't even really sure what made her blank out like that, she just started watching Caroline and time passed almost instantly! Stupid time! Once she was up she opened her bag again to slip Bill just barely inside before she pulled it off and set it down next to her. Once that was done she plopped into a seat in front of Caroline and leaned over the book as well, while her umm turned more into a hum.

"Clay maybe? That might take too much. I don't know. I guess if I was gonna do it I do something like a mural with pictures. Take shots of different objects with different colors and when you put them all together they make the shape and look of That." Ollie explained while pointing her unused hand down at the picture of the nucleus in the book. "But that's a silly idea. I guess our only option is like..." Ollie continued as she looked back up from the book to Caroline's gleaming blue eyes with a dumb founded smile. "... paper mache."

[Caroline Mason]

As doubtful as Caroline was about Bill being warm, the lizard seemed content enough. And as long as it didn't try to eat her when she shrank down, got red, and her freckles darkened into black spots... then they'd be cool. If not, she might have to ask Ollie to leave the lizard behind.

"No! I really like the collage idea... OH!" Caroline sat bolt up right, her head nearly knocking into Ollie's as she did so, but she was so giddy with the idea. "There's a way people do paper mache without messing up the colors. Decor Page or something like that. We could combine the two ideas. Get lots of pictures, like you said. Put them around on the outside to show the nuclear envelope, and then more pictures for the chromatin, and then the nucleolus itself! I mean we'd need to cut a wedge out of whatever we paper mache over, I think a balloon. Maybe a big balloon or a beach ball or something. But I don't know where we'd get a beach ball now..."

Her face fell as the idea seemed to fall apart. She didn't have money for supplies like that, and if they were going to pull the project off the way she pictured it in her head then they would need to be able to get the stuff for it. She really didn't want to have to go to the teacher and explain that she couldn't participate because that would dock her participation grade down, but she just didn't have the money. And it wasn't fair to expect Ollie and her parents to foot the whole of the bill.

"Maybe just poster board and markers." She wasn't convinced and everything about her said as much. The way her shoulders curved forward in a kind of defeated slump, the way her voice fell from the excited babble to a lesser tone. Caroline wasn't happy about the idea, but it would be fair. She had poster board and markers. It wouldn't cost either of them anything.

[Olivia James]

Maybe it was the excitement from Caroline bleeding over into Ollie, or maybe it was just all that energy Ollie generally had, but she was almost bouncing herself, when her friend jumped in exclamation at combining their ideas. Ollie was hanging on every breath and word as Caroline explained her idea, and it was making her nod with excitement. It sounded like the most awesomest idea ever ever! And she loved how happy it was making Caroline too!

And then all at once that disappeared. And Ollie didn't quite understand why. It was suddenly her blue eyed friend was ecstatic and explaining everything and all chipper, and then she was sad and slumped and quiet. And Ollie didn't like it one bit!

So she stood up. One hand still clasped to her energy bar with a bite from it and the other in a fist. She looked sturdy and strong as she stood there. She was also rather demanding in her words as she spoke, "No! I love the picture-mache idea! It is perfect and we are sooo going to do it! We are not going to settle for just poster board and markers!"

At that point Ollie dropped her energy bar onto her bag, and she dipped down to take up both of Caroline's hands and pull her up as well. She smiled brightly, and looked almost triumphant. "No reason to be sad! I love your idea, and getting pictures will be easy, I have plenty of film saved up to use, and I'm pretty sure I have a ball of some kind somewhere that we can use, I might even have a beach ball. Or, we might find something else that would work. Anything round would work for it, that is big enough right?"

Her smile only grew as she looked on, and pursed her lips together. "I can already tell this project is going to be sooo much fun. We could even use something like a basketball? I know someone in town that has volleyballs and stuff that can't be inflated anymore because of holes and such, that could work?" Ollie concluded before squeezing Caroline's hands and looking into her eyes again with all the energy she was so absolutely full of. "Right?"

[Caroline Mason]

With Ollie picking up the excitement reigns, Caroline chewed the side of tongue as she was often wont to do when pondering something or simply being nervous. "We... don't have to destroy the ball. We can coat it with something so when we deflate it after the first few layers of paper mache are dry it can be blown back up again and used for it's real purpose..." if she already had the ball then that was one expense down. And maybe she could ask teachers for their used newspapers. Several of them, she knew, recycled. That would suffice for the base layers and then they could decoupage the pictures on.

"A basket ball might work. Then we could get someone to cut a fourth of a tennis ball off for us so we can glue that in the center and really make it three-dee!" Her excitement was returning, fueled by Ollie's enthusiasm.

The girls were feeding off of each others energy and Caroline gave Ollie's hands a return squeeze.

"I'm so glad we got paired, Ollie. This is going to be awesome! If you've already got the ball, and the film. I'll see about getting newspaper and I'll make the paste to do the paper mache. I don't know how to make the decor page stuff, but we can look it up. Kaytee has a laptop she might help me with that. Or I can use one of the library computers for an hour. We've got two weeks to get it done."

Letting go of Ollie's hands, Caroline wrapped her arms around her and gave a squeeze-hug. "Thank you for not being one of those people who expect their partner to carry the weight of the project." Letting go she began to chew on the side of her tongue again.

"What colors do we want to do? Like in the book, or our own kind of thing as long as it's labeled I don't think it matters."

[Olivia James]

Seeing other people gain their spark and happiness back was such a big thing for Ollie, especially when she could be the one to do it. Although she had been on the rollercoaster with Caroline, which wasn't her normal case. She felt sad with Caroline, but drove against it, and was happy with her now. It was certainly a different kind of experience.

Ollie's eyes scanned down to see Caroline squeeze her hands back, and her smile only bubbled up more. She nodded in response while her friend explained everything out more. That was easy, Ollie could handle the pictures and getting the ball, and then they could like do the paper-mache of the pictures together, while Caroline did the newspapers and such. It was like the perfect plan.

It had also gotten to the point where Ollie's head was starting to spin. Caroline was saying she was so glad they were paired together! Ollie had wanted to say that ever since they were paired together! But that wasn't even the icing of it all, within moments their hands came away and suddenly Caroline was squeezing Olivia into a hug, that surprised a squeak out of the little brunette.

"I'm really really glad we were paired together too." She whispered as Ollie's hands wrapped around to return the hug. After that though she kind of lost herself for a moment. She was overwhelmed all at once, almost like she hadn't eaten anything in days and was about to pass out. But she knew she wasn't it was just all intoxicating, she was even sure she could smell... flowers or maybe it was something else, off of Caroline. Whatever it was it was pretty.

Their hug broke though, and for the briefest of moments, Ollie had to force her smile to stay up. She hadn't wanted that hug to end, but as soon as she thought about it again her grin returned in full force. "We should use our favoritest colors. I can make sure to take pictures of those colors from different objects. My favorite color is red, but we will need a couple of colors, what other colors do you like?"

[Caroline Mason]

Happy that they were getting the ground work for the project laid out, Caroline felt loads better. She'd have to remember to write about it when she wrote back to Father Boe and everyone else at Boys Town.She was making friends, she was (mostly) fitting in.

"I love pink. But red an pink don't really go well together. And red is just a deeper pink so we'll do red. And...um..." what went well with red? Besides the flag colors of blue and white. Black went well, but that was making it too dark and she didn't think either of them wanted a gloomy nucleus.

"Yellow maybe? Or pale blues and white?" Grabbing a composition notebook from her bag, and a pencil, Caroline flipped to the nearest clean page and began to jot down their ideas for the brain storming session.

papermache with pictures
red outter
______ inner
______ nucleolous

"You'll have to come over every day for a while. Are you okay with that? Will your mom be?" She didn't want to get her friend in trouble, but it was just easier to make the thing in the dorm so there wasn't quite so much moving it around once it was done. And most of all she didn't want Ollie to get tired of her. Having someone to hang out with and play with who was basically the best person to be ones friend was an ideal that everyone should aim for.

"I don't know the rules, but maybe you could stay over the Sunday before we present on Monday so we can do all the final touch stuff?"

[Olivia James]

Pink! Her favorite color was pink! Of course! That was why she had her pink bag. Ollie was so excitedly lost in thought for a moment, that she lowered her head to look at her bag again, remembering her camera was pink too, and how much Caroline would probably love to see it. But that wasn't for now! Ollie had to focus, they still had more to figure out.

"Well umm..." She started, but not loud enough, because Caroline continued with saying how Ollie would have to come over every day while they did this, which made Ollie's eyes just light up and go wide. Her mouth even fell agape for a moment. When Caroline finished asking it fell pretty silent for a moment. Before Ollie crossed the floor almost instantly and seized Caroline up in another hug.

"I would love to come over every day! And stay the night when I can! I've never had a sleep over really. It will be soo much fun!" She exclaimed before even letting go of her blue-eyed friend. Once she realized she was probably holding on a little tight, she let go and turned her face away since it had warmed up a bit in the process and she felt a little embarrassed at how she just jumped like that all of a sudden. Even though it wasn't at all odd of behavior for Ollie to do.

Fiddling with her fingers, she turned her head back toward Caroline but kept looking down. "Um... sorry." She paused for a moment before finally looking up, and seeing Caroline's eyes jolted a thought she expressed almost immediately. "I like blue too! And pink goes with blue! We could do pink and blue and uh... I guess we could do yellow? Those all go together don't they?"

During all of this, Ollie had failed to notice that Bill, her lizard had escaped from her bag and was now currently crawling up Caroline's leg.

[Caroline Mason]

Thrill ran through Caroline as Ollie agreed to come over daily to help with the project. Not only would she not have to do all the work by herself, but she got to play with her friend too. They could split the work and the play equally. Or not so equally as the case might turn out. They had time to get it done, and each layer of paper mache would have to dry before they could add more so there would be plenty of time to goof off and have fun.

"I'll ask about you staying over," Caroline made the promise with great reverence and another return squeeze-hug. It was so exciting having a friend so soon. Maybe Ollie would even go to Mass with her that Sunday. Being in the choir meant that she couldn't sit with her friend, but it would be fun to have someone there for after. And no matter what one believed they could attend. They just couldn't take part of the Communion. But she could explain that to Ollie later, and maybe Ollie was Catholic too!

At least, she hadn't heard Ollie say anything against religion yet.

"Blue, pink, and yellow will be perfect!" Caroline squeed and gripping her friends fingers did a little hop. "This is going to be so much fun, Ollie! So much!"

It was then that she felt the odd pressure on her pants leg and looked down. The lizard, Bill, was making his way upward, and for half a moment, Caroline froze forgetting how big she was. Bigger than Bill at the moment. And Bill couldn't eat her. Wouldn't eat her, because Ollie wouldn't let him.

Frogs were more of a concern. Lizards... she didn't know what they ate, but she absolutely didn't want to find out of it was ladybugs.

"Um... Ollie? Bill got out again..."

[Olivia James]

Ollie nodded, beyond happily, simply agreeing with everything Caroline was saying at this point. Not because she wasn't listening but because of how much excitement was between them, and because there was nothing wrong with everything her new friend was saying.

"I can't wait!" Ollie exclaimed as she even hopped a little bit with Caroline when they both were ecstatic about getting their project done and spending time playing with each other. It was certainly more than Ollie had ever expected. She was going to get to see Caroline outside of class like every single day! She truly couldn't express how happy she was, and that is saying a lot considering how bouncy she tended to be.

The excitement however had to take a nose dive when suddenly Caroline seemed to freeze stiff. Which Ollie didn't really notice until she heard her blue-eyed friend sound worried. Ollie instantly looked down to see Bill crawling slowly up Caroline's pants. Of course because of it, Ollie dropped down to her knees in a flustered kind of mess.

Within moments she was scooping Bill off from Caroline's pants, her face rosy with the slightest level of blush as she held the lizard in her hands and stood back up. "I'm sooooo sorry! He normally isn't like that unless he likes you. I hope he didn't scare you, he's really a sweetheart. I like to think if he could talk it would be with a funny british accent and he would apologize personally."

[Caroline Mason]

Caroline relaxed visibly when Bill was removed from her pant leg. It wasn't that she had a thing against the lizard personally, but she just didn't want to get eaten. The idea of him speaking in a funny British accent made her giggle though. "That would be too cute. But, Ollie..." she paused shuffling her feet a little. "What does Bill eat?" As long as it wasn't bugs, or as long as he didn't eat ladybugs she could be more comfortable around him.

Most things didn't eat ladybugs, but she really, really didn't like frogs which would eat anything. Or ants. Which didn't care either. There were lots of other bugs that would happily nom on her tiny other-form, and Caroline was distinctly uncomfortable and aware of it. She really hoped Bill wasn't something she had to worry about over much because she didn't want to hurt Ollie's feelings. Bill was a pet, and he was a good pet. It wouldn't do for her to exclude him simply because she was afraid.

Fear was the mind killer.

At what time I am afraid, I will put my trust in thee o'Lord. The silent prayer went up, and Caroline reached a hand out to pat Bill atop his head. She could overcome that fear. She absolutely could. It wasn't like Ollie liked spiders or anything.

[Olivia James]

The heat on Ollie's cheeks was familiar but odd at the same time. It wasn't like how she had felt earlier when thinking of getting to spend more time with Caroline. It was more like how embarrassed she had gotten the first time she tried to talk to the girl and ended up having the entire class staring at her and some laughing. It didn't make sense to her, but either way, she didn't like when her face got hot, even during the cold season.

Luckily Caroline's giggle and quick question managed to diffuse her embarrassment immensely. She was able to regain herself as she held Bill, though she looked at her blue-eyed friend briefly like she was confused before responding. "He really likes to eat salads. And sometimes my granola bars and stuff, though my brother told me not to feed him those."

Once Ollie had explained she watched rather carefully as Caroline reached out to pet Bill's head. It made her kind of happy to see that Bill hadn't completely frightened Caroline away with his over zealous attempt to say hello. But once her new friend had made amends with the lizard, Ollie couldn't help but also ask almost accusingly, "Why do you want to know what he eats?"

Of course this was quickly replaced with Ollie finding a boom of happiness as she perked up and grinned from ear to ear. "Is it because you wanted to get him some food to have when I come over here? Food keeps him busy for a long time! Kinda like me!"

It hadn't really occurred to Ollie that some people weren't really used to a Lizard roaming around with someone. Especially during the cold season. Not that she was not thinking about other people's feelings, but simply because she never thought that anyone would not like Bill if they met him. But she also kept him hidden from most people unless she was directly talking to them.

[Caroline Mason]

The tiny head beneath her finger bobbed as she petted it with great care. Relieved to discover that Bill did not eat ladybugs, Caroline exhaled a great breath of relief. But, before she could answer her friend's question Ollie had gone off on a whim about how she had wanted to get food for Bill to eat and a pang of guilt sucked her gut in.

"I... wanted to make sure he didn't eat bugs. But I can save lettuce from my sandwiches at lunch, or bits of apple for him! Does he like apple?" It made her happy to know that Ollie wasn't mad at her for a moment of fear. Sometimes people got weird when someone showed discomfort. It was a sad thing, but Caroline prayed for them to have more patience with people outside of themselves.

It still excited Caroline to know that she had a friend. A maybe BESTfriend. It was a great feeling, and if that best friend came with a lizard then that was okay. Bill could be an extension of Ollie. He already was to some degree.

The project forgotten, for the moment, Caroline held her hand out and asked, "Can I hold him? I promise I won't drop him, Ollie. I just," need to get over the fear that he's going to eat my face, "want to see if he'll let me."