Iguana! (Spencer)

[Samuel Rixon]

Of the many things Samuel Rixon was not, eloquent was at the top of that list. Along with mature, smart... the list goes on.

It was his general lack of intelligence that had prevented him from realizing that this was a Bad Idea.

But he was excited, and it seemed perfectly logical to him.

He’d just turned eighteen. And that meant, in his tiny little mind, party time. And he had partied. Vincent had taken charge of the party plans. Which had meant lots of booze, girls, and fireworks. He’d had a blast, getting so drunk he couldn’t walk straight, he was fairly certain he’d gotten laid at least once (and not by Vincent). But the best had been the presents.

Vincent was on his list of awesome people right now. Not only had he gotten a fuckawesome bong from his best friend, but the best present of all time.

Said present was currently being carried in his hand through the cafeteria. As much as he loved it, he’d found a fantastic use for it. Gently setting it on girls and seeing how long it took for them to freak out. So far, he’d gotten fifteen girls to scream, three to just freeze in sheer terror, and one who had told him to bug off.

So now he was trying the cafeteria. He wasn’t hungry – more hungover than anything else – so he avoided the lunch line and spied a familiar blonde girl. Grinning, he marched over and slid in beside her, setting Iguana on her shoulder. “Hey, babe!”

Sam, you are a jerk.

[Spencer Ellis]

Spencer was sitting quietly at a table with her chin resting in her hand. Her lunch tray, no longer in use, had been pushed aside in favor of the notebook that she was now doodling in. She still hadn't made any particularly notable friends since her stay at Hammel, so she wasn't bothered that no one had come to sit with her. Instead, she was indulging in one of her girly habits; writing Sam's name linked with hers, surrounded by hearts and stars.

She thought they looked good together.

So absorbed was she in her idle drawing that she didn't hear the footsteps come up behind her. The weight of someone else on the bench next to her was what made her start, her eyes going wide as she realized it was Sammy who had shown up. Frantically, she snapped her notebook short.

"S-sam! Hi." Her cheeks went a lovely shade of pink and she glanced towards the movement of her crush's hand. Spencer's eyebrows drew together when she noticed what he had just left on her shoulder, and tentatively she scooped the little lizard up into her hands. "Oh! What's this? Hi there little fella!"

Growing up with an older brother, Spencer had been subject to many "creepy crawlies" as a young girl. Geckos were hardly high up on the list of creepy or scary things, so she was actually rather excited to hold it. "Is he yours, Sammy?" She chewed on her lower lip, still a bit flustered from having almost been caught. She had her doubts at where or why Sam would get his hands on a little creature like this, but she was always going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam had no qualms about crashing other people’s lunch breaks. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact his stomach was GROWLING he would have never known it was actually lunch time in the first place. It wasn’t like wandering the halls during class time wasn’t foreign to him. Playing with his new pet was so much more important that learning about Attila the Nun or Hitler and World War I.

For Spencer’s sake, he’s neither observant nor smart enough to realize what she was doing. She was a smart girl, so the notebook automatically paired with ‘homework’ in his mind. Not something he was even remotely interested in peek at, no matter how fast she slammed it shut. Now, Vincent, on the other hand, he would have tackled to get to the book and its’ supposed secrets. It would be interesting no matter what. Spencer’s homework, on the other hand? Not appealing.

“Hey sexy!” Using names was overrated, apparently. He wasn’t sure if he was pulling for Spencer to scream, or pet the little creature. She was already a pretty wicked cool chick, so if she didn’t scream, she’d be even cooler. And that made the pyrokinetic happy.

“Yeah! Vin gave him t’ me for my birthday.” He was grinning proudly. “His name’s Iguana!” Ever the proud lizard daddy, he prodded the gecko with his finger. “He’s a gecko. We saw ‘em in the pet store a couple weeks ago. D’ you like him?” She hadn’t screamed, but the fact that she was interested was even better. It was his first chance to brag about his new pet ALL DAY. “He likes Doritos! Wanna feed him?” Oh Sam.

[Spencer Ellis]

Spencer would have been thankful had she known her notebook held no interest to Sammy. (Unless it contained the answers to his math homework, I'm sure.) But as she doesn't know this and her was still racing from the close call, she made sure to keep one arm over the notebook lest Sam get nosy.

Fortunately, his attention was focused on the cute little green creature now crawling over the back of her hand. She was relieved when Sammy announced that the lizard did indeed belong to him and wasn't a poor unsuspecting critter he'd ripped away from its home. "He's a gecko, but you named him Iguana?" She muffled a laugh behind her hand. "Don't you think that will confuse him?" Not that geckos can suffer from identity crises, but she was trying to make a joke. Bless her, she's not very good at it.

She lifted Sam's new pet up to her eye level and smiled at him. "Aren't you a cute little guy? Is Samsam taking good care of you?" As if on cue, the pyro dropped the Dorito bomb. Suddenly, Spencer looked concerned. "Umm... I'm not sure you should be feeding him Doritos, Sammy. It's probably not healthy." As much as Spencer liked Sammy and though she knew his heart was in the right place often enough, he still wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Now, Spence would willingly admit that she didn't know all the specifics of caring for geckos, but a couple minutes with Google could fix that. She was fairly certain, however, that their diets should not contain unhealthy snack foods.

[Samuel Rixon]

No, notebooks meant homework, and Sam was not interested in homework. Spencer was a smart chick, and smart chicks did homework. Like Ember. She did homework all the time. Ergo, Spencer was likely doing homework, and terrorizing his fellow students with his new pet was a much better idea.

“Yeah! Iggy for short!” Sam bounced in his seat as he watched the little lizard move. “Because... it’s a bitching name!” Vincent had approved, and because Vincent was unfailingly cool, it was only logical that Iguana was indeed a bitching name. “Uh... no? He knows his name! Watch! Igggggy!” Of course, the lizard didn’t know his name, given that he’d only had it a few days. Ignoring his owner, Iguana chose instead to creep up and investigate Spencer’s fingernails. “... Stupid lizard.”

He leaned on the table, his chin in his palm as he watched Spencer talk to the gecko. She really was kind of cute. And she seemed to like Iggy. And she was smart. And pretty. And nice. Iguana seemed to like her talking to him, too. His little head was cocked as she spoke. Sam was so lost in the fact that it was actually pretty cool that a girl was talking to his creepy crawly pet that when she told him Doritos weren’t a good food source, he blinked. So far the little critter seemed okay with them. “But... what are you supposed to feed them?”

Leave it to Vincent to give his friend a pet with no instructions on how to actually care for the thing. At least he had a tank and a heat lamp. Food wasn’t that important, right?

[Spencer Ellis]

Vincent is not cool, he's a moron, but apparently those two words were interchangeable in Samuel's vocabulary. Unfortunately, it looks like the pyro was set on the awkward name and Spencer knew there was really no changing his mind. "Well, Iggy is a cute nickname." At least this way she could indirectly compliment Sammy and out of all the things that he could have called the little gecko, Iggy was hardly the worst.

She could only shake her head when Sam tried to call him like a dog, gently running her fingers over the back of the little creature. "He's not stupid." She said in his defense, because it wasn't the gecko's fault that Sammy was expecting too much of him. "He's a good little boy."

Sam's obliviousness was entirely too endearing, but Spencer wasn't about to let a living creature be poorly cared for. "I'm not sure, probably bugs." She reached down to pull her purse off of the floor, rummaging around in it for her phone. "But I know how to find out!" All it took was a little searching before she found a credible website detailing the type of diet that Day geckos should have. Scooting just that little bit closer to Sam, she turned her phone so he could see the screen as well.

"See, here it says that insects should be their main diet. Oh, some will even eat fruit and you should also get them a vitamin supplement." Looking back up at Sammy, she smiled. "There's a pet store in the mall, if you want I could go with you to get the right food for him?" She fidgeted nervously with her fingers for a moment, obviously shy about asking to spend more time with Sam, but hoping that he would let her come along. Not only did she want to be closer to the boy, but she also wanted to make sure he'd get the right kind of insects and vitamins. We all know Sam isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, he's probably going to need Spencer's help.