Survival Of The Fittest

"Well, uh,"

Evie's face went somewhere between an awkward grin and an actual grimace. Hopefully it conveyed her meaning of not wanting to end the conversation, just also not wanting to disturb everyone else in the library either. Apologetic to both Willa, and to the broader room.

"We are being a bit loud, is all. I still wanna see more funny birds."

In the mean time, her hand was back on the growing lump on the back of her head, tenderly checking just how bad it was. Painful, but no wetness to suggest bleeding, at least.

"Uh..."

Oh, she didn't want to end the conversation? That's not...

Willa gave a shaky, uneasy laugh. Why was she so off today? Ah, there has to be a reason for it. Some sort of bug in their systems making everything worse. Is it just an off day? Something else going on? Maybe she should just stop thinking about it- it's probably just because it's been a while.

Yeah funny birds wo- oh. Right.

"I only have one more bird picture, actually."

Well you don't have to go and say it! Maybe should've held back on that... she repositioned her hairclips.

"I do have bug pictures from spring."

On a normal day, Evie probably would've picked up the weird vibes Willa was giving off. She may not have been the most socially adroit person in Salem, indeed she may not even have known a good response if she had noticed how out of sorts her friend seemed to be, but normally she had the empathy to pick up this sort of thing. Truth was, she was rather out of sorts herself. So all she picked up was a slightly odd laugh, maybe embarassed about making a ruckus in the library? Evie was pretty embarassed about it, she wouldn't normally do that, made sense to her that Wil would be too.

She looked a little dejected at first, hearing that there was only one more bird, but quickly perked back up on hearing about the bug alternative. She replied in the affirmative with a goofy smile, just a little less loudly.
"Bugs are good!"

She felt a bit more in-tune with the cicada's song when she was able to notice Evie's downed spirits. Hey! Getting better- insert the metaphorical clapping here.

"Yeah, not a lot of... uh... presentable... birds."

Or she didn't have her camera- surprisingly, usually the latter. Sometime back in summer, she had seen a group of sparrows had been hopping around near a park bench. She had searched through everything she had on her, her bag her pants her jacket- they had laughed at her. Bad luck fuels the operation? Or maybe she just doesn't see a lot of birds that aren't doing a funky walk down the sidewalk. On their own. Holding stolen goods. That last part may be exaggeration.

She flipped back open her camera case, and let the screen blink back on. She held down the pad, the camera rapidly going through the pictures she had already shown Evie. Seagulls, cousin, sky, park, ducks. She, of course, paused on the last one, before continuing. The next photo was of a bee clinging onto a common flowering weed- she wasn't entirely sure what the flower was. The flower was dipped down as if the bee was too heavy for it; in reality, the wind had been rough that day.

"Look how pretty she is," Willa cooed, not quite to Evie.

Bird picture time! A blue-colored bird sat in a small bare tree in a wide gray parking lot. Willa had taken the photo from a distance, so the bird was scarcely the size of a fly on the screen; she proceeded to zoom in a bit.

Apparently not leaving then, just quietening down. That worked too, truth be told. Evie wasn't really in any great hurry to be anywhere, she'd just gotten a bit awkward about the attention the two of them had been drawing. Then again, in classic fashion, it hadn't lasted long anyway, just a lot of individual quick checks to see what was up, acknowledgements that Evie and Willa knew they should shut up and they were doing so, and then back to business as usual. They'd probably all forget all about it by the day's end.

More importantly, there was a fuzzy bumblebee sat on a flower, a little bit too heavy for it by the looks of things. That made Evie smile and chuckle softly, funny chubby little guy, probably laden down with lots of good honey for the hive, or however that works. Mammals were her speciality after all, not insects, so mostly she understood the gist of go to flower, get the stuff, go back to hive, honey happens. The important detail was that it was very cute indeed. Willa's obvious affection was rather endearing too. Since her recent awakening, it had certainly occurred to Evie how much the two had in common, and how very sweet the little shutterbug was. Kind of attractive, too, come to think of it...

Evie's eyes were on the camera screen, but her focus was inward, her eyes ever-so-slightly glassy with that faraway look she typically reserved for deep, pointless thoughts about trivia.

Willa returned Evie's chuckle. What? It's adorable and infectious.

She went to move on from the lonely bird, landing on a picture of some butterflies. The butterflies were flapping around in the grass, and Willa had been rather proud of how the photo came out. Before she could comment on it though, the camera shut itself off. That's weird- she pressed the power button, to no avail. She then shook it, trying to turn it back on. Her troubleshooting ability didn't go beyond that.

"Uh- this shouldn't be- no, what?"

She rinsed and repeated her attempts to turn it on a few more times, and gave a sharp, exasperated breath out. Why didn't the indicator come on? Damnit, does she really have to get this repaired? She was planning to use it later! Take pictures of things! Stuff like that! Willa put the camera back in the case once more, before pulling her phone out of her backpack and texting her mom. She than looked back at Evie, and pushed back her hairclips.

"My camera's kinda dead, something like that. I'm going to go take care of that, yeah? It's been nice meeting up with you!"

She picked up the camera case, zipping it back up and putting it in her bag. She lingered though, if only to give Evie a moment to say something.

The sudden fumbling for an explanation roused Evie from her reverie, and she shook her head a little, no more than a twitch really, to clear the imaginary cobwebs from her mind. One moment her eyes were seeing, if not really registering, some butterflies in stasis, then nothing. Blackness. Huh. Well that evidently wasn't working as intended, Willa certainly hadn't turned it off on purpose. Unfortunately, Evie hadn't inherited her father's tech-savvy, her best and only suggestion would be to try turning it off and on again... and it was already off.

"Well, shoot."

No need for an actual profanity in the library, after all. Not over what looked to be a dead battery.

"Yeah, you too! I gotta,"

Evie paused to think. Did she have anywhere to be, actually? Usually there was something in her diary to say she had to go do, but, well, it was taking a while for that to pick up.

"... get going anyways." she finished, keeping it vague. Surely there was something. She adjusted the weight of her bag on her shoulder, patted down her pockets to make sure she had everything she'd come in with, and smiled.

"Don't be a stranger, yeah?"

[Evie McKown -> Canteenwards]

"Right back at you!"

Willa gave a wave, and thought a bit. After school she could probably leave the camera at home... Ah, it can't just be a dead battery, can it? She returned a text to her mother, before leaving the library herself. It's better to think about that later. She's not even out of school yet.

(Willa continued Elsewhere.)