[b][i] – Kathy[/i][/b] Kathy felt her arm pulled back with a slight jerk as Crash stumbled over his sentence, and something a lot more material jutting out of the ground. “Er, you alright there?” She asked, feeling more concerned from the fact she couldn’t see as well anymore. “We can slow down even more if you want. Or even stop for a moment. The stars aren’t going to run away anytime soon.” Worries aside, she couldn’t help but think, [i]‘How very Crash-like. He follows Murphy’s law so rigorously it seems like a part of him.’[/i] Hearing his question she admitted, “The latter. I’m ashamed to say that I probably couldn’t identify anything aside from the big dipper.” And in fact, she wasn’t entirely confident about identifying that one either. [i]‘It should be easy to tell the big and little dipper apart… Right?’[/i] She was about 75% sure that the one constellation she could actually point at was the big dipper. The rest of the 25%, she was worried she had been calling the little dipper the big dipper this entire time. Feeling more warm fingers close around her previously-free hand, Kathy turned to face Alex and give him a smile for holding hands with her. However, the first expression to cross her face was one of surprise. She had expected to be looking down at a pixie-sized boy, or perhaps someone who was only as tall as her hip-level. Instead, Alex was in his teenage form again and tall enough to look her directly into her eyes. She momentarily turned away from him, feeling a lot shyer than before at his change in appearance. [i]‘He’s still Alex.’[/i] She reminded herself, [i]‘He’s still the small boy that asked if you could be his mommy.’[/i] Turning back to face the blue-haired boy, she managed a convincing-enough smile through the bit of nervousness she now felt. She clasped her fingers around Alex’s hand to hold his hand back, but with her other hand she gave Crash’s hand a small squeeze. Almost as if to reaffirm that the shapeshifter was still there. She was beginning to think neither of these boys were very good for her heart. She had pretty much landed herself in the middle of a heart-attack sandwich. Kathy found herself falling into a sort of natural silence as they walked on. With her pulse finally beginning to even out a bit, the only sounds really reaching her ears were their soft footsteps against the grass and the occasional twig that snapped under their feet. [i]‘Should I say something?’[/i] She wondered. She actually didn’t mind the silence all too much, but she didn’t know how Crash or Alex felt about it. The last thing she wanted was for them to feel awkward just continuing on like this in silence. Luckily for her, someone else decided to take the initiative before she ended up in a round and round spiral of thoughts, wondering whether or not she should try to mediate some sort of conversation between them. “Plans? Let’s see…” Despite the usual light and friendly tone she used, Kathy was busy racking her brain for something to reply back with. The real answer to Crash’s question was: ‘Nothing. I didn’t plan anything out.’ Not only was this an incredibly boring answer, it also seemed like a rather awkward way to accidentally end the conversation off at a stand-still. “Oh!” Unable to hide her small delight upon thinking of a better answer she continued, “I’m going to go through some of my picture albums and get them organized. I’ll um… Let you know when you can come by and pick one for our trade.” She told Crash, smiling in the darkness. [i]‘After I hide all the embarrassing and bad photos.’[/i] She thought silently. Speaking of photos, she wondered if she could go to Maria and ask if they could all have a group photo on one of the beaches. Even for Athalia it didn’t seem like a common thing to have all the students gathered in a tropical paradise, and she thought it would be a good keepsake for the memories in the future. She gave Alex a chance to reply to Crash as well (both questions), then turned to the boy for a question of her own. “By the Alex… Just how old are you exactly?” Obviously unaware of the fact Crash had been avoiding this question, Kathy asked Alex this straight out of her own curiosity. She had seen him as a very young pixie, a fully grown adult even bigger than herself, and as this teenager close to her own age. In her mind she retained the image that he just an innocent and adorable little boy, but she began to worry that perhaps she was wrong. Alex’s hand, which she could tell was slightly bigger than her own, truly strengthened the small doubt she felt in her mind. --- [b][i] – Leroy[/i][/b] Leroy laughed. “To tell you the truth, I’d never heard of Bakeneko myself until I met my roommate.” He leaned against the table with one arm and the hand supporting his chin as he continued, “Apparently he’s not just a shapeshifter or cat, being a completely different species altogether but I haven’t heard enough detail about what a Bakeneko is yet to try to educate someone else about them.” “The beach?” He repeated, raising a brow in question with a highly intrigued look on his face. “How was that event anyway? I skipped out on it since it seemed like it required a lot of moving around but I was fairly curious to know what everyone was doing then.” And he wondered just what sort of activity they could have possibly done to involve a random kitten strolling around on the sandy surfaces of the beach. Or rather… What exactly was a small kitten doing on the island in the first place? Surely it couldn’t have been a feral kitten from the wild right? But in that case, it seemed even weirder that the domestic animal would just be wandering around the island without a proper owner. “No owner to claim Sunflower? He or…” Leroy would have guessed female from the name, but he’d known plenty of male AND female ‘Snowball’s, ‘Fluffy’s, and ‘Smokey’s. Shrugging he replied, “That’s what I would guess. Never met heard of a dorm that allows pets but… Who knows. With all the crazy things that go on in Athalia, a pet is probably the last thing the principal would be worried about. Maybe you can just keep him.” Funny enough, Garden ended up answering his question even without him having to really ask. ‘Little guy’ was a fairly obvious cue after all. He decided to answer Garden’s question before continuing on with a couple of his own. “I’m actually just planning to camp the night here, so I’ll still be around even after everyone else leaves.” He explained, purposely keeping out the exact reason why he intended to stay at the lounge overnight in the first place. Leroy was just stalling for time. If Garden didn’t inquire about it any further then that was that, but in case she decided to ask about it then he needed to prepare an answer to give her soon. “By the way, what did you mean by ‘dance a bit with the flora’?”