like the bird

“I can handle a few measly scratches, but you’re right.” Jenny nodded towards the young woman. “It’d probably be best to avoid potential rabies. Not that you’ll get rabies!” she tacked on nervously at the end, not wanting her to abandon mission. The woman didn’t seem like she’d be scared easily, though.

When the stranger crouched and opened her backpack beside the bush, Jenny piped up again, still hovering over the entrance she was blocking. “Your backpack? Smart. I hope there’s nothing too important in it.” And with that, Jenny leaned in, getting closer to the entrance than she even had before and reached both hands in. This time she had the specific goal of shifting it towards the other exit rather than pulling it towards her and no surprise, it was a lot easier.

A lithe and fluffy black form launched itself into the young woman’s backpack, adjusting itself and flashing its blue eyes at the whitelighter. “A cat, I think.” It seemed unnaturally calm, but she couldn’t speak to an animals behavior. “Does it look hurt?” Jenny stood, offering a hand to the woman to help her up so they could investigate. “So, what’s my mission partners name?” she asked, her other hand hovering over the backpack.

Phoenix laughed at the woman’s frantic addition. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Damn, those shots hurt.” Raccoons apparently did not want to be friends, and they also had a high rates of rabies. Eventually, Phoenix settled for a rock as a pet, but she still hopes to get Brock a furry friend one day.

“Oh shit, my laptop,” she whispered, but the mission was already a start and something was rustling louder. Hopefully her cheap sleeve and binder would protect it. A black fuzzball shot out of the bush and she quickly snatched it up, barely getting a look at it. She zipped the bag quickly to enclose the animal. It started moving a bit, but thankfully was nowhere near as freaked out as she had expected for a trapped animal. Phoenix took Jenny’s hand and stood up, her other arm through the straps of the backpack. “She’s a quick little one, but she looked fine, though her fur was a bit a matted. We should be slow and careful when opening, though. I bet she’s gonna bolt.” She could just imagine the cat popping out like a jack-in-the-box, but with claws.  “Phoenix Castillo at your service.”

“Oh! Excuse you, I’m thirty-two!” Monica protested, but there was a grin shining through her mock outrage, and her words were followed by laughter; she wasn’t actually insulted. She knew her humor wasn’t very in touch with even just what her little brother, on a few years younger than her, found funny, especially when it came to internet culture. Phoenix’s explanation of the exclamation was only further baffling, and though Monica nodded along and took the words into stride, she didn’t really understand. Ah, well.

She nodded with mock seriousness at Phoenix’s instruction, turning to face the lake. She’d seen people throw rocks on television before, and what came to mind was a sideways toss reliant on the motion of her wrist, so that was what she tried to replicate… and the rock sank into the lake with a splash upon contact.

Phoenix sucked in air between her teeth. “Oof, it’s worse than I thought,” she continued to pester. She had trouble imagining being any older than she was, the years always hitting her hard as she realized she was getting older. Of course she knew that she wasn’t old at all, but she hardly felt like an adult and hated that she was considered one for years at this point. 

While Monica played along, Phoenix could tell in her eyes that she was still quite confused. Well, now it was her mission to teach her friend about slang and internet culture. “You didn’t say yeet,” she whined in disappointment. “It’s like karate: you gotta yell.” Good rock skipping wasn’t quite yeeting, as it required finesse, but there was a point to be made. “But you actually got the general idea down. Clearly you’ve at least seen it done. First let’s work on how to hold it.” She picked up a rock and grasped it between her bent middle finger and thumb, then wrapped her pointer finger around the edge. “See?” She held her hand out in front of Monica and twisted her wrist.

Maggie followed Phoenix’s feed, looking down at her own shirt, a kitten in a flower crown on a pastel rainbow background. “Probably. But I mean… maybe it will work in our favor?” Were her shoes good for running? Of course. Maggie always picked shoes that were functional over fashionable. Besides, you didn’t spend years being an award winning track athlete to wear shoes that weren’t good for running, especially when you spent as much time as she did running away from ghosts. “You know it. What about you, are you up for running?” She really hoped that they wouldn’t be running. She’d gotten lax recently, she’d have to start jogging more regularly. “Free food is the best motivator,” Maggie agreed, waiting until Phoenix was done to grab her own handful.

Phoenix let a cheese ball sit in her mouth until it was nearly dissolved, savoring the cheese powder as long as she could. At the end though, she had to choke down the rest and gulp some water since it had dried her mouth out. Okay, maybe not the best idea. Following a little cough, she replied, “At least we will look cute while doing it. And I love your shirt.” She nodded. “I’m always prepared, in case I gotta run from monsters.” Phoenix said it jokingly, but that truly was why she generally wore sneakers or at least converse instead of sandals. “So our first step has to be identifying a target.” She glanced around, not being subtle at all, looking for any children.

“As long as the parents don’t see us giving their children cheese puffs. I don’t think they would take too kindly to a couple of strange young women giving their children food, never mind that it’s cheese puffs that are going to turn everything orange.” Sure, she and Phoenix were probably rather recognizable around town, but it was a pretty general rule that parents didn’t like strangers giving food to their children. Which, she supposed that she didn’t blame them, but she was not going to let Trevor win this one, which meant that the cheese puffs had to go. “I really appreciate you taking this mission with me.” Maggie said, picking up her water bottle and taking a sip before scooping up another handful.

Phoenix nodded rapidly. “So this must be a stealth mission, then.” She looked down at her bright yellow shirt with strawberries on it. “So our camouflage could use some work, but we can adapt our tactics. The real question about wardrobe is, are you wearing shoes good enough to run away when we inevitably get caught by angry mother?” Yes, Phoenix understood why parents generally didn’t like random people giving their kids food, but she saw this as truly harmless fun that could be a laugh for everyone. Phoenix saluted. “Of course, I’m always happy to help a friend--especially when there’s free food involved.” With a maniacal grin, she reached into the jar for another cheesy handful.

“Excellent!” Monica grinned over to Phoenix, pleased that she had evidently made the right choice in messaging the younger woman to be her rock skipping teacher; her enthusiasm was unparalleled. She liked the injection of humor into the teaching process, and if her grin could have gotten any wider at the instruction to bond with her rock of choice, it would have. Diligently, Monica stooped to lift a rock from her pile, nodding along as Phoenix spoke.

The exclamation drew a bubble of laughter from her, even as her brow began to furrow in confusion. “Yeet?”

Phoenix burst out laughing at Monica’s confusion. “Do you really not know yeet? You must be older than I thought!” When she thought about it, she seemed to mostly have older friends, and Maggie was one the few ones who could meme at her level. After a good minute of laughter at her ancient friend, she composed herself enough to teach this valuable lesson. “I’m sorry,” she said, still amused, “yeet was just such a big deal a few years ago among us kids. It’s just something you yell. I don’t think it really means anything, but it’s yelled a lot when throwing stuff, like in that vine. Which you obviously haven’t seen, tragically.” Gesturing to the rock in Monica’s hand, she ordered, “Here, you give it a try and show me what you got.”

The smile that lit up Jenny’s face when the young woman was so eager to help was immediate. Most would pass her on by instead of lean down beside her to actually help and she already held a silent appreciation for the young woman. “I’m not sure what it is,” Jenny said lowly, matching the tone of her voice to meet the strangers and leaning over conspiratorially. There was rustling from the bush. “I just know it’s hurt because I saw blood and the sounds I heard initially were not comforting.”

“There’s two places it could get in or out. Can you cover the other exit? I’m going for it.” Jenny had made up her mind about her game plan and it was a bad one. “It’s small, but if I stick my head in maybe it will run towards you.” Her face was going to get all scratched up, but at this point she didn’t care. Besides, now that she had a helper, this would be a lot easier than it would have been. Jenny paused, “And thank you. For helping.” The smile reappeared on the whitelighter, wide enough the corners of her eyes crinkled.

Phoenix pouted when she heard that the poor creature was hurt. She had started carrying around bandaids everywhere ever since her little incident with a vampire--it was better than nothing!--but would band aids even be helpful on something with fur?

Phoenix gave a salute and whispered, “Be careful. Maybe put your hand in rather than your face, though. It might scratch.” Scratches on the face would not be pretty, and would be more painful than the hand. She would know. Returning the broad smile, she said, “You’re welcome. Mission: start.” She started creeping around the bush, resisting the urge to hum a secret agent theme. When she found the exit, she knelt down slightly to the side so that it looked open. She pulled off her backpack and held it in front of her, ready to capture the creature under it.

“Yeah,” Monica drawled, turning to look over her shoulder at her rock pile. “My first attempts at skipping rocks may not been the greatest, so I figured more is better.” And, if she picked it up quickly, it meant they had more rocks to prolong the skipping time before they had to collect more.

“So!” She led the few paces back to the rocks, taking her place on one side of the pile. “I will admit, I haven’t watched any videos, and I’ve never done this before, so we have our work cut out for us. But I think this’ll be fun!”

Phoenix laughed as she followed Monica to the rock pile. With them standing on both sides of it, it felt like they were about to start some sort of sporting competition. But if Monica wasn’t an exceptionally fast learner, then Phoenix felt confident that she wouldn’t be much of a threat. “That’s my type of no preparation whatsoever,” she joked, giving an approving nod. “That leaves you a blank slate for me to mold into a perfect rock skipping machine.” She leaned down and picked up a rough rock, then cupped it in her hands. “Now, the first lesson is to pick your rock,” she started lecturing. “You must bond with your rock. For a few fleeting seconds, you and the rock will be as one ultimate pair.” She then scowled down at the rough rock in her hands and declared, “But not this lame rock. Yeet!” And she tossed it overhanded straight into the water, where it sunk like a, well, rock.

Maxine nodded in agreement. Pride had definitely expanded enormously since it first started in Edgewood. “It certainly hasn’t always been as extensive as it is today, but I am pleasantly surprised by how much it has grown and how receptive the rest of the town is to it. Plus, it’s always a great chance to promote the club.”

As the younger woman’s explanation trailed off, Max raised a suspicious brow. She knew of some telepaths that used to live in town, but not of any others currently in the area. “It does take years to only do so intentionally,” she nodded. “But, how this second guy know you were reading his mind? Again, generally non-telepaths shouldn’t be able to tell if you are reading their minds or not,” and hearing that made her more curious about just who was living in Edgewood. There were always suspicious figures, but she’d also felt that there were a few more people around with ill intentions than usual.

“It’s great how open Edgewood is,” Phoenix said, thinking of some of the less welcoming places she had lived.”Oh, I keep meaning to come check out the club in full swing!” It had been on her radar since Maxine brought her there to train, but she hadn’t made it out. She kinda felt like she was letting her friend down by not coming to support her business.

“But I have had this for years,” Phoenix whined. Then she forced herself to shape up, knowing that Maxine liked to be serious. She couldn’t be acting like a baby if she wanted Maxine to respect her. “Um, but your help recently has been good for making more progress.” She winced as she thought of the encounter. “I may not have been subtle about what I saw. But it was weird. I just touched him and then I couldn’t leave his head until the weird running through the forest part was over.”

“Trevor told me it’s not allowed to come back into the house unless it’s empty and I’m recycling it.” Maggie said, looking forlornly at the jug in front of them. She wasn’t going to admit defeat, she had a point to prove, which was that she was right. “I mean I guess we don’t have to eat all of them but I’d really rather not see it go to waste.”

“Ah,” Phoenix realized; this was proving a point to who she assumed was Maggie’s brother. That was a worthy mission and one she understood well.  “Then I will do my best to help you conquer this. Worst case scenario, cheese puffs for everyone?” She snickered at her next idea. “We could make some random kids’ day and destroy any hope their parents had at clean hands.” 

“I was born in 1805.” She said to Phoenix. “Here, actually. In this town.” Juliet didn’t share much about her to anyone but Phoenix knew what she was and therefore, she wasn’t hesitant on telling the young girl anything. Well, mostly anything. She still wasn’t sure if she should reveal her real last name, or the fact that she had connections in this town. Maybe Phoenix knew them? 

“I suppose you’re right. He likes keeping things secret, doesn’t he?” She smirked as she glanced over her shoulder, as if Leon was going to show up any minute. “I don’t, unfortunately. He’s a closed book. I only know what it was like after he turned me, when I was with him.”

  Phoenix’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Wait, you’re from Edgewood? That’s so cool!” For some reason Phoenix had been sure that Juliet was from far away. “But I thought you were new in town? But I guess you could have left sometime in the last 200 years. Damn, that sounds old but I really thought you were older.” In her head, it seemed that all vampires were ancient.

Phoenix snickered, enjoying talking about her great uncle with someone other than Griffin. She followed Juliet’s gaze and narrowed her eyes. “I think we’re clear.” Leaning back she said, “Aw, that’s disappointing. Do you know his age? We at least have a younger bound with yours.”

Maggie was glad that she didn’t have anything on her face, cheese puffs could be rather messy and she didn’t want to embarrass herself. “Oh! Well, help yourself!” Maggie said, holding the container out towards Phoenix. What was the point of having so many cheese puffs if you didn’t share them? Maggie wasn’t a heathen, after all. That title was reserved for her brother. “Please.” She added, not wanting Phoenix to turn the offer down. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to finish all of them.

"If you insist,” Phoenix joked as a smile covered her face and she reached out for the cheese puff jug. Eyeing the ample remaining cheese puffs, she laughed. “Please don’t. I will help, but let’s not feel pressured to finish this.” At this, she plopped a couple puffs ball in her mouth. Even from just one grab, her hand was already covered in orange.

“I mean, any time you have questions, I’m here to talk and answer them.” Juliet said with a smile. She wasn’t necessarily an open book but talking about her values and how she was raised wasn’t exactly something she hid from certain people. Phoenix being one of those that she was comfortable telling, considering that she knew who she was. “Have you ever talked to Leon about his former life?”

“Well I’m glad I could help in any way I could.” Juliet chuckled as she watched the young girl write something else down on the paper. 

At the open invitation, Phoenix suddenly wasn’t so sure what she wanted to know about Juliet. Well, she could get the basics at least. “Can we start with how old you are? Like around what time are you from? And maybe where.” She usually had few qualms with digging into people’s stuff, but she knew how much it irked some most, so she was cautious with those whose opinion she cared about. 

Phoenix chuckled. “Have you met him? I can tell you about all of his weird habits, but his past? That’s a complete mystery.” She leaned forward with a mischievous smirk, all thoughts of her homework gone from her head. “Do you have any insights into the origins of my great and mysterious uncle?”

The woman shrugged at the question. “Busy as ever - I love the summer and Pride, but it quickly eats all of my time.” Before she could forget, she saved all of her notes about what she had seen so far and closed down a few unnecessary tabs.

“Impulse control is important. Reading minds too often can get you into trouble, which it sounds like you have. Are you reading people who know of your ability? Or bringing up the things from your reading?” Now a days, Maxine rarely had a problem with others knowing she was reading them - if they didn’t know her powers that was. 

“Me too!” Phoenix exclaimed, maybe a bit too excited to find something in common with the older telepath. The summer was when she and Griffin got to come to Edgewood growing up, and Pride was fun too. “It’s super cool how much they do at Pride here.”

Phoenix bit the inside of her cheek. “I wouldn’t say it’s my fault completely...” she trailed off as she collected her thoughts. “It’s just, harder to keep from accidentally reading minds sometimes. Especially when I meet other psychics. Did you know there is another mind reader in town? He wasn’t too happy to meet another telepath though. And then I got caught in some other guy’s vision. Well, I’m pretty sure that that’s what it was. He was too busy yelling at me to confirm that.”