Lone Digger

[KamiKaze]

So, homecoming.

Hm, was there anything to celebrate here since they lost so easily? Ty didn’t think so? She guessed it was tradition. Whoo, yeah, they lost! But like, there was more to homecoming than how badly they’d lost or how awesomely they won, of course. Like, the cheer team had been busy doing their routine, obvs. And she was sure this was the first time in a while they got a big celebration like this.

But Ty was in her element right now. Know why? The other day she came across a flier asking for volunteers to help set up for the dance after school, and of fucking course she sent out an email pretty much saying ‘hell yes.’

See, one thing that Ty was proud of was that she was big and strong. She could punch a jerk straight in the face, she could protect people. And, most importantly for this situation, she could lift.

And lift she did.

Ty pushed the gym door open with her food while carrying a big box of decorations. She set the box down on a plastic table. There were a few other students milling about, as well as a few teachers and parents. In the corner of her eye she saw someone on a ladder, hanging up a large banner.

1920s, huh? What was so special about the 1920s? Like, a lot of important things happened, of course. But let’s face it, it was less to educate people about that time period and more about the vibe. Unless… there was going to be a speakeasy at the event that no one told her about? Ty laughed internally at her own joke.

Anyways, Ty pulled out a tablecloth and set it to the side.

Time to get to work.

[Yonagoda]

Isaiah did nothing particularly noticable in the background.

[Gundham]

Rebekah was finding it difficult to maintain her balance on the ladder. She had volunteered to help hang banners for the celebration for two reasons. The first was that she had enough experience climbing trees to be comfortable with heights, and thought it'd be a nice way to be useful. But it turned out that the school's ladders were a bit rickety, and trying to climb them while holding big clunky banners was a bit more challenging than it first appeared. She wobbled a bit, trying to find the sweet spot where the ladder would hold perfectly still while she started tacking up the unwieldy decoration.

The second reason was because she thought a bird's-eye view of the preparations might help her figure out an optimal place to put the raccoon cage. Ideally, she'd want it to be situated somewhere where the raccoons could easily be dramatically unveiled to the student body, but where they could pass the time until the vote unbothered by all of the lights and music. Sure, she'd take the precautions to minimize their stress and they'd be suitably compensated with dog kibble and fresh shrimp (the best options to feed wild raccoons, as everyone knew) for their trouble, but they were still living beings and she wanted to treat them with respect.

Also, she would need to put it somewhere where the teachers weren't likely to find it. There was no specific rule against bringing wild and possibly diseased animals to the homecoming dance, but Rebekah felt quite certain that that knowledge wouldn't mollify the chaperones. Humans, particularly in later life stages, tended to have irrationally negative reactions to other animal species encroaching on their habitats. Rebekah's mother was a prime example, which is why Rebekah couldn't just keep raccoons at home until she needed them.

The ladder clunked and thunked against the gym floor as she finally reached the correct height. And only then did she realize that she'd forgotten to bring the zip ties that she was supposed to anchor it with.

"Shoot... could someone hand me those?"

[Dr Adjective]

Of the two Homecoming-related activities - helping set up, and actually attending - that Evie had let herself get talked into by overzealous parents insisting she’d regret it forever if she didn’t make the most of her youth and experience everything high school had on offer, the setting up part was the one she didn’t actively dread. Terminally clueless at romance even after she’d realised half of the problem was that she didn’t even like boys to begin with, in addition to her general compulsive need to be liked and seen to fit in, the prospect of coming both dateless and in period costume to an event where everyone would be talking about having lost a basketball game and listening to music she didn’t like… suffice it to say, it wasn’t an appealing one.

Not nearly as appealing as getting to be helpful and put her physical gifts to a non-competitive use that people would be thankful for, either. So there she found herself in between tasks, peering around for something to do next. The teacher she’d been helping move tables for seemed to have vanished from sight, but conveniently that was about the same time that a familiar voice called out for assistance. Rebekah, someone Evie was casually aware of, but as far as she knew didn’t have much in common with to be more than just acquaintances. She always seemed nice though, and her campaign promise to bring raccoons if elected queen had been an instant vote-winner for Evie.

“Got ‘em!” she called back in response, hustling over to assist. Cable ties: check. Rickety-ass ladder that didn’t look like it enjoyed supporting one person, let alone two? Also check. So first Evie attempted to stretch herself to her maximum span, tiptoes and outstretched fingers, and after that failed, plan B.

“You okay to catch if I throw ‘em?”

[Yonagoda]

He double tapped on the instagram post of a celeberty with some huge tits and then self consciously realized that he was in a school.

[Gundham]

Rebekah nodded encouragingly at Evie, and cupped her hands to catch the zip ties. Her lower body did a sort of gyroscopic wobble along with the ladder, adjusting to keep her top half mostly still. Like most tasks, this one would have been much easier if she was an orangutan. Or if she'd just climbed down the ladder and gotten them herself, but some small competitive part of her felt like that would be admitting defeat.

"Go ahead and toss 'em!"

[Dr Adjective]

For a moment, Evie was worried she was about to be breaking a slightly embarassing fall, but the moment passed rather swiftly. With perhaps some sort of ancestral simian recall Rebekah regained her balance with some artful undercarriage-adjustment, then gave the word.

"Kobe!"

In retrospect, an open plastic bag of zip-ties was nothing like a basketball. And the way the senior tossed them gently upwards into Rebekah's cupped palms only resembled a shot from close to the hoop in the absolute broadest sense, if at all. But, as Evie herself would often explain, the girl had "brain worms" when it came to memetic mutation, and calling out Kobe's name when throwing things was at least as much a reflex by that point in her life as it was a conscious choice, probably more so. At least she was being helpful, to even it out.

[Gundham]

Rebekah caught the zip ties, blinking in confusion.

"...No?" she said hesitantly, before pointing to herself. "...Rebekah."

A beat passed.

"...Anyway, thanks!" Rebekah shimmied back up the ladder and used her shiny new zip ties to secure it to the anchor points. She tilted her head this way and that, then nodded. The banner certainly looked quite bannery. Mission accomplished!

She clambered back down and took a look at the new adornment. She put her hands on her hips and scrutinized it for a second before nodded approvingly. "Yup, that's not going anywhere," she said, in the tone of voice her dad used every time he used ratchet straps to secure something in his pickup truck.

"Thanks again for the help!" she said to the other human.

[Dr Adjective]

"N-no, it..."

Evie's confounded stammer was quiet enough already, but competing with the creak and rattle of a metal ladder made it altogether inaudible. Realising how much of a weirdo she'd come across by actually trying to explain why randomly exclaiming a basketballer's name when throwing things was difficult to not do. Not really worth it. Instead she crossed her arms in a way she imagined to look serious and thoughtful, and regarded the now-secured banner alongside Rebekah, whom she immediately decided pulled off the paternal DIY-doer look much better. By their powers combined, perhaps the two of them could build a deck some day.

Chuckling at her own odd little imagining, Evie nodded and gave Rebekah a thumbs-up. "Any time!"

...so now what?

[Gundham]

...Now Rebekah understood. Kobe was her name. It was kind of weird that Kobe had chosen to shout her own name while throwing some zip ties, but Rebekah had long since grown accustomed to the unusual behavior of the humans who attended her school.

Her phone chirped. Rebekah pulled it out and looked at it, then tapped out a quick reply.

"Ah, looks like we're running low on some stuff. I'm gonna run down to the art room and see if we've got some stuff there. Back in a bit!"

She waved to Kobe and sped out the gym doors, a girl on a mission.

((Rebekah Hayes continued elsewhere))

[Dr Adjective]

After Rebekah ran off at the behest of her phone, Evie found herself at even more of a loose end. She'd been banking on bringing up the raccoon thing to carry a conversation going forward, but without the procyonid candidate herself on hand, who would she say it to? There were a couple of other people around, big lass carrying stuff, some guy staring at his phone, nobody she really knew though.

So in the end, after an exaggerated show of looking around to be sure nobody else needed an extra pair of hands, she made herself scarce as well. She, at least, would go stare and her phone and be unhelpful somewhere out of sight for a bit. Then maybe come back and find more tasks to complete.

[Spider-McKown: Far From Homecoming will return in the sequel.]

[KamiKaze]

Ty had been watching Rebekah and Evie do their thing. Lobbing fucking zip ties at each other, and on a ladder, too? Kinda not safe, in her humble opinion. And the whole... 'Kobe! No, I'm Rebekah' thing was awkward. Kinda funny, actually.

But she realized she was staring.

So she turned around and went back to unpacking.

((Ty Hartley continued elsewhere))