Walking in Tandem (Jayna)

[Marie Ennis]

Fizz was an awesome dog. Obedient as anything, and more than enough home-child for Marie. It was the main reason why she made sure she walked her for long enough everyday. And hey, if her dwarf cat wasn't so lazy and she could walk her, she'd probably do that too. But nevertheless, after a while walking the dog on her own got kinda quiet and almost too simple for her tastes.

The only bad thing about the beautiful golden Labrador was her tendency to run off on a tangent; not unlike her owner. The differences was was that she actually ran off. Marie tentatively held onto the lead and drew the dog inwards, holding her snout up with her hand. "Promise me. No running away." They shared eye contact for a while and when she felt like she'd gotten some kind of approval, she slowly let the lead out of her hand.

And woosh! Off like a rocket.

"Fizz, what?" She called out, throwing her hands back as she started running after the dog. He had caught sight of a person with three dogs and decided it was totally time to play!

[Jayna Gray]

Jayna walked down the beach of the lake, her three dogs on their leaches. She was glad all of her dogs were well behaved on a leach, or else walking time would be horrible for her. Her Rottweiler, Dino behaved extremely well on a leach, he was always by her side and stayed there. The Yorkshire, Jazz was the oldest dog she had and she did well other than her liking to stop and sniff everything. The youngest, Hunter who was still a puppy was a puggle and he was the hard to walk because he liked to pull on the leach. But she loved all of them and wouldn’t want any other pets. She had to admit it was easier taking care of them when she had been married but she was making due on her own.

Jayna jumped at the dog who had appeared out of nowhere. She bent down to pet the dog, which was a little harder to do with her three dogs taking up the new one’s attention. “Hello there, where did you come from and who’s your owner?” She asked like the dog was going to answer back.

Jayna smiled and stood up as she saw a woman come running over. Hunter now took up barking at the new dog. “Hey! Hunter be nice!” Dino was hunched down in a playing position and Jazz didn’t seem like she was too impressed with the new dog since she was now sniffing at rocks.

[Marie Ennis]

Fizz absolutely adored attention, from people she knew or from strangers. The reach of another hand made her start to furiously lick the skin, before turning her attention to the other dogs. Meanwhile, Marie was trying her best to close the distance and not lose the damn dog. She knew she shouldn't have let her off, but she was trying to give the animal the benefit of the doubt. Which is something she should have learned not to do from the last ten times this happened.

"Wow, I'm so sorry!" The blonde woman called out when she finally caught up, stamping her foot down on the blonde dog's lead and picking it straight back up again. "Never again, seriously." She scolded.

Then she looked up at the person who owned the three dogs. "Wow," She repeated, a wonderful smile appearing on her mouth, "Three dogs? Talk about a handful." It was then that she realised she recognised the face she was talking to. For a second she searched her mind, before snapping her fingers and pointing over. "Oh, Jayna? It's Marie!"

[Jayna Gray]

Jayna giggled as Fizz started liking her hand. She loved dogs; they were so affectionate and they had no reason to be either at least when it came to strangers. They were just amazing creatures, who loved you when you didn’t give them a reason to. Hunter kept barking at the new dog and then flopped on his back and started to paw at Fizz’s face saying ‘look at me, play with me’ while Dino just started whining as he wagged his tail.

Jay smiled at the new comer “It’s totally fine, is this your dog then? She’s so nice.” The dog was beautiful to say the least. She chuckled “She’s not so good off the leach then, huh?” Jayna never let her dogs off their leaches for fear of them running away, like this dog had just got done doing. “Though, I’m glad to get a chance to met her.” She said everything with a light voice not meaning to offend the woman.

Jayna laughed “Yeah, they are a handful.. Sometimes I don’t know how I do it by myself.” She smiled at she recognized the girl also “Hi Marie, it’s so great to see you; especially out of the dare care. How are you doing?”

[Marie Ennis]

Fizz was ridiculously glad to have another dog to play with. It wasn't often considering Marie only owned one dog. And her cat was tiiiiny! People who saw her two pets wondered how Fizz hadn't squashed the poor dwarf cat yet. She was pretty quick to pay around with the big dog; as far as she could go while still being held onto by her owner.

"Yeeaah. This is Fizz. Now she's a handful." Coming from someone who's life revolved around looking after children, that was saying something. "Well, see she always gives me this look with those big brown eyes that says 'I promise this time I won't run'. And I always fall for it."

So she was right! Marie had always been good with faces, but not so much names. She was glad that she got it right to say the least. "I'm good. It's not often that I get a lot of time off, but when I do the place is still in good hands." She explained. She had good co-workers to thank for that. "Are you out on your own today?"

[Jayna Gray]

Jayna also had two cats, the one was just a kitten, and the other was a full grown cat so the cats got along with the dogs well. Dino was a sweet heart even though he was huge so she wasn’t worried about that. Besides all her pets would have to be sweet hearts for her to keep them with her daughters; she wasn’t going to keep dangerous pets around her children. Even though her dogs had each other to play with they still loved making new friends.

“Ah, the rottie is Dino, the pup is Hunter and the yorkie is Jazz. Fizz is a cute name. How did you come up with that?” Jay chuckled “Those puppy dog eyes. I can’t stand it when the kids do that, and I get it from the dogs and the kids. It’s so hard to be the tough mother when they’re giving you that look.”

Jayna was good with faces and names, though not so much putting the two together. So she was glad the blonde had said her name was Marie, she remembered the woman though she had to since she took care of her children during the week days. “that’s good, it’s always nice to have that time off and to have co-workers you trust.” She job was a little different but she still understood it. She nodded “yeah, figured it might be good for me to spend some time alone with my other babies.”

[Marie Ennis]

"Fizz here is a rescue pup. I got her when she was a baby and she already had the name. I decided not to change it because for some reason it suits her." Marie replied, reaching her hand down and petting the side of her neck a few times. It was a little difficult at first considering she was still playing but after a while she complied with the attention because, well, it was attention. "But those are some cute names. Any stories behind those?"

Marie chuckled slightly as she turned her bright blue eyes to watch them play; "Oh, tell me about it. It's hard to discipline her properly because I feel so bad afterwards, and I just want to hug her." It might have been an embarrassing statement, but she got the feeling that Jayna understood her.

"How do you end up walking the three of them at the same time? I struggle with one." She admitted, as an idea popped into her head. "Maybe we could walk together? I have a spare hand that could definitely take another lead."

[Jayna Gray]

“Aw, it does seem to suit her. It’s very cute either way.” Jay started patting Dino’s side as he leaned into her leg when Fizz started to pay more attention to her owner. She chuckled at the question “All of them are rescue dogs, we had gotten Jazz with her already having the name. We were able to name Dino because we had gotten him as a pup like six weeks old and they hadn’t named him, so my oldest Cayla, came up with the name Dino, because she was into Dinosaurs then for some reason.” She smiled at Dino remembering that day. “we had gotten Hunter from a friend who had taken in a pregnant dog from like the streets. We hadn’t named him till hours after we got him, I was playing with our one cat with the mouse thing and he started to play to and I noticed that he would stalk the mouse like he was hunting like how a cat would so I came up with the name hunter that way.”

Jay chuckled “yeah, you always feel bad afterwards but you become a better mother when you stand firm, kind of had to learn that the hard way…” Dogs and kids, you had to stand firm with when disciplining them or they became somewhat spoiled. “it kind of helped that Dino, had went to my parents house to be house trained…” She had cheated somewhat when it had came to him.


“Dino and Jazz are pretty good on leaches, Dino stays by my side and doesn’t wonder off unless he has to do his business. Jazz just likes to sniff things. It’s Hunter who causes problems because he likes to tug.” It was why Hunter ‘s leach was the only one in her hand and she held Jazz and Dino’s leaches in her other hand together. “I would love that! If you really don’t mind? It gives me a chance to get to know you better.” She smiled.

[Marie Ennis]

Marie listened intently to the stories of how Jayna got her pets. Rescue dogs as well? It positively made her heart leap at the thought; it was so much better to give a dog a home in that kind of way. And people who were willing to do that kind of thing automatically had Marie's respect. She was beginning to think she could grow to really like Jayna.

"Wait a minute, you have a cat too?" She asked, just wanting to make sure she heard that right. What a coincidence!

Marie chuckled slightly when she continued talking. "I definitely know what you mean. It's pretty easy for pets to just get a hold of you. Kinda like kids that way." She mused. The similarities were just piling up. Marie extended her hand at the thought of walking one of her dogs. "Sure thing, just give me whichever one you want and you can ask away."

[Jayna Gray]

All of Jayna’s pets through her life growing up had been rescue pets. Either from the shelter or a friend that found the animal on the streets; it felt right to give a home to an animal that really needs it. It gave them a second chance at a life worth living.

Jayna laughed a little “I have two, both also rescue cats.” Grace and Callie were both wonderful cats and both great with dogs and the children so she was pretty happy with her choice of pets. It was a bit of a handful but the cats were a bit easier to care for then the dogs but she wasn’t complaining.

Jayna nodded “yeah it’s a little weird how children and dogs just seem so alike.” She handed Dino’s leach over to Marie. Jay would keep the two tougher ones. “Shall we walk and talk?” She smiled and she took a few steps forward. “How’s your life outside of work?” She was curious as to what Marie’s life was like not concerning work and kids.

[Marie Ennis]

"Me too! Well, only one cat. But still, rescued. She was really young at the time and she grew up to be one of those Dwarf cats. The size difference between my two pets is hilarious." Marie found herself laughing about how it turned out pretty frequently, but it was amazing to watch them both interact with each other.

Marie followed along when Jayna started walking, holding a leash in each hand as she moved. She was probably a little grateful that she got one of the calmer dogs of the three. "Different." Marie paused for a moment to think about how to elaborate on the statement; "I mean, I don't have any kids of my own so once I leave Lightwater for the day it's really just me. And y'know, the animals. It's... Quiet." Despite how sad it could have been, she sounded content with the news.

"What about you? You work at Hammel, right?" She asked. She was an alumni after all.

[Jayna Gray]

Jayna smiled “You should bring them both over at my house or something, so they can all play together.” She wouldn’t mind the company of a peer, it sometimes got lonely not being able to hang out with anyone her age. She loved her two kids but sometimes she just wanted to talk about random things like she had been able to do when she was younger. “One of my cats is a kitten and the other is full grown. Lots of fur but still. That is a really cute image though; It always makes me smile when my youngest daughter tries to play with Dino…” The image of the three year old and Rottweiler was already making her smile.

Jay nodded “yeah, I’m sure it is. But it must be nice to be able to just escape from the kids. I mean I love mine, but sometimes it’s hard you know?” She never was able to get that break, she got up dropped the kids off, got coffee went to work and then went home after picking up her kids. She never really got the time to just be herself. But that came with having kids she guessed, sometimes it just got a little hectic.

Jayna nodded “yeah I work at Hammel. Did you go there?” Jayna shrugged “working with teenagers is a lot harder than one would first think… Especially my job… But you know I go home and hang out with the kids the rest of the night. I don’t get a lot of time to myself but that’s what I get for having kids as young as I did. I mean I love my daughters just sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t become a teenage mom.”

[Marie Ennis]

"Wow, really?" Marie was a little surprised in a good way that she was offering such a thing. "I bet they'd love that. And I'd love to take you up on the offer sometime." She replied. Sometimes she felt bad for her pets; they had each other but they didn't really have any of the same kind of animals to play with. Huh. She really was thinking like they were her children. That tended to happen often and she couldn't help it.

"You're right, it is nice to get a break from that kind of thing." Marie replied thoughtfully, "But at the same time, I guess I also like that I can do that for other people. I know how stressful kids can get." It was one of the reasons she was so unsure about children of her own in her future.

Marie nodded along to the question. "Yeah, I did." And she listened attentively as Jayna went on to talk about what it was like there. Marie couldn't imagine working with teenagers; it was a whole different kind of game with them. "But then I bet you can't imagine your life without them." She offered, knowing that Jayna looked young for the age of her children.

"I've never had to worry about that." Marie started again, leaving the statement open to interpretation. But she had figured out pretty suddenly that she wasn't interested in guys. "I mean, as soon as I graduated I went straight to the University of Vermont for my degree. As soon as I got my ability I knew it was what I was supposed to do with my life."

[Jayna Gray]

Jay nodded “Yeah, I would love the company too.” She knew her pets would like the new comers just as much as Marie’s pets would. “You can come over anytime you want to.” It wasn’t like she was seeing anyone that would make the woman be in an awkward situation.

Jay nodded “yeah, kids can be stressful at times but they can be angel’s also.” Her kids were amazing when it came to behavior. But they were kids and did have their times “I guess it also helps when you have an ability like mine that makes it a bit easier…” Her power helped a lot when it came to cleaning the kids messes and her own. It was wonders when it came down to being a single mother of two.

Jayna nodded “No, I can’t image them not being in my life. I love them to death don’t get me wrong. Just sometimes I wish I could have moments to myself where I’m not completely drained out from the day. Because the only me time I get is when their sleeping and you know it’s hard being a single mother…” She felt like she was complaining “I’m sorry.. I don’t mean to complain.”

Jay looked at the sky for a moment “It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do in my life. But I just had this need to work with teenagers, and help them with the thing I had trouble with in my teenage years.” She was trying to be vague about her being a trainer, because they were in public with prying ears. She just hoped Marie got what she was talking about. “So You always wanted to open a daycare? Or am I reading that wrong?”

[Marie Ennis]

"I know what you mean." Marie replied. Her ability was absolutely perfect for when it came to dealing with children. She wasn't sure what Jayna could do, but at the same time she knew how useful abilities could be in all types of situations. They must have both just been lucky to get given what they were given.

Marie raised a hand idly and waved it, "Oh, don't worry about the complaining." She heard that kind of thing a lot, and it was always from parents who were in the same kind of mindset. "It's nice to have someone who'll listen when you need to vent."

She nodded along to what Jayna was saying, aware of how the public setting made these kind of conversations hard. Just because it looked like they were clear of other people, didn't mean they always were. "I always liked working with younger kids. I can uhh," She paused, trying to think of the vaguest way to explain it while still making it sound normal, "They say I have a magic voice. Something about it soothes them and can even makes them tired." She raised her eyebrows and grinned.

"Magic. That's what they believe it is." The imaginations of young children made it a lot easier to bypass the conversation if it ever came up with normal parents.