[b][i] – Kathy[/i][/b]

Kathy failed to hide the surprise appear on her face when she heard Crash’s age. [i]‘He’s older? And by almost 2 years?’[/i] She was really glad she never actually admitted how old she thought he was. “I’m 17.” Then she asked, “In just 2 months? Tell me when your birthday is exactly so I can celebrate it with you. If… You’ll let me of course.” Hesitating a bit at the last part, she wondered if it was actually weirder to ask for permission. [i]‘Better slightly awkward than rude, right?’[/i]

[b]“You know why this happened right? You let go”[/b] For a moment she was a little confused, but then she understood his joke and broke out into laughter. Smiling she told Crash, “We should have a test run for a whole day then, and see how that works out.” Only joking, Kathy failed to see how that could be interpreted. Her smile grew even wider when he admitted that he would rather stay with her. “Really? You don’t mind?” She was obviously relieved and very happy that he wanted to stay with her. Too delighted to catch onto Crash’s embarrassment, she failed to capture the perfect time to get back at him for all the teasing he had done. Nodding to his question about the bar she told him, “Yup. Walking around on a warm island like this with tropical drinks makes the perfect vacation image right?”

Then seeing a purple-haired guy (Darwin) with the most colourful swimwear she had ever seen, Kathy held the mirror out to him. “No problem, here.” Before she got a chance to point out the large crack down the middle of the mirror, Crash beat her to it and said, [b]“It’s kind of broken now as well... Sorry about that.”[/b] She looked at the shapeshifter with an eyebrow raised. “Sorry for… Cushioning it with your head? It would’ve probably shattered into pieces if it just hit the floor first.” Turning back to the owner of the mirror (Darwin) she told him, “It’s really not his fault. This suddenly flew over and hit him on the head… I’m not sure why or how though.”

Hearing another voice call out to her by name, she turned to see the lady from before walk over to them. Nodding she said, “Yes, I’m Kathy.” She was going to add ‘nice to meet you Mercy’ at the end, but apparently Mercy was not yet done with her greeting so Kathy decided to wait and listen first. Tilting her head a little at the exchange between Crash and Mercy, she looked at them feeling rather confused and knowing there was something she was missing out on here. [i]‘Maybe he was telling her about how unresponsive I was over the 2 weeks?’[/i] Coming to a plausible, but completely wrong answer of her own she another pang of guilt. She quickly shook her head and refused to let another dark mood settle in. She had assumed Crash cutting Mercy off was because of the awkward mood that had been between them when they talked about it before. “Bye Mercy, hope you see you around later.” Smiling, she waved goodbye as Mercy left.

Oddly enough, Kathy didn’t feel the odd jealousy she had at the cafeteria with that other random girl. [i]‘Hmm… So there was something wrong with me that time after all?’[/i] She thought, confused but glad she wasn’t going to cause trouble again. “The two of you seem close.” She commented lightly, still in a good mood. “But did something happen? You were glaring at her the whole time.”