The Two Worst People to Find a Lost Dog

[Friday Morning]

Friday sat on the bench, staring at the fall day and enjoying herself. Her hands remained tucked inside a loose peasant parka/sweatshirt that had become a regular wear for her (previous owner: her father, slight tendency toward wanting to hug people). People-watching had
been fun for her even before she started keeping most people at arm's length. Now it was almost a guilty pleasure.

A friendly sounding bark caught Friday's attention. She nearly jumped, before looking down to see a medium sized dog standing a few feet in front of her, wagging its tail. She smiled at it, wiggling a few fingers in its direction. It barked again, spun, and moved forward, nearly jumping into Friday's lap. She squealed, barely managing to get her arms up in time. This meant she wound up hugging the dog awkwardly, staring out into the park.

"Okay, um, boy?" she guessed, not really wanting to check. "You've got to have an owner, right?" she craned her neck, but she couldn't see anyone in the immediate vicinity. Frowning, Friday shifted to try and get a better look at the dog. "Do you have---ah, tags,' she said, reaching for the dog's tags. As her fingers curled around the tag, however, Friday felt her muscles twitching. Before she realized what she was doing, her hands were traveling over the dog, pinching at things and massaging. She managed to just jerk them away before her hands got to its butt.

"Right, so, that's not an option," she said, licking her lips. Friday scooted a little, before managing to get up. "So, uh, we just need to find someone who looks nice..." Friday trailed off, before finding someone who, well: "Um, excuse me," she said, approaching the other girl, the dog right behind her, "hi, I know this is weird, but, ah, I think this dog is lost? He's got a tag but I can't check it because--- allergies, and, well, you have a nice face, "there it was, "and so..." she smiled and shrugged, while the dog let out a bark and started wagging its tail more furiously than ever.

[Luxanna Cross]

Luxanna enjoyed the park; it was the closest thing she felt she could get to freedom, save for the forest and mountain areas surrounding the school. Though, there she could transform and let herself run wild like her inner self had always wanted. In her human form, she felt a lot more out of place. Weak, even. Her power gave her something she couldn't quite obtain any other way.

The meek brunette lifted her head at the unfamiliar voice, blinking in confusion as she pressed her lips together. Her green eyes stared from the girl, to the dog and back at the girl once more before opening her mouth to speak. A nice face? "Uhm," Luxanna began, a slight flush forming against her cheeks before she nodded. "Okay," she continued as she stepped forward to kneel in front of the dog.

Reaching her hand out, she fished the tag from underneath the obviously excited dog's head. "Let's see who's your owner then..." Flipping the tag over, Lux pursed her lips. "There's an address and it's not far, but there's also a phone number?" she looked at the other girl over her shoulder, questioning.

[Friday Morning]

Friday almost cheered: her awkwardness had not resulted in her accidentally insulting someone and may actually get a lost dog back to their owner. That was definitely something that could be chalked up in the win column, and she was already smiling. "See? We'll definitely find your owner now," she said, before scratching the dog behind the ears. The animal continued to quite clearly enjoy Friday's affections and attentions, tilting their head in her direction. This actually made it slightly easier for Lux to get the tag out, not that the girl seemed to have a whole lot of trouble with it, at least, not while the dog was distracted.

The dog did start sniffing after a bit, and seemed slightly confused with Lux for some reason. Friday didn't quite catch it herself; she was more focused on what Lux was saying ."A phone number?" she said, already reaching into her pocket for a phone (previous owner: another teenage girl). Her fingers were flying across the numbers even before she could control it, nearly texting her mother. Friday knew she could fight it though.

"So," she said, nodding and trying to look more confident than she felt, "what's the number? Maybe we can call or text or--" the dog was stretching their neck out to Lux now, sniffing more eagerly. Without thinking, Friday dove to grab the collar, and almost immediately started poking the dog again, confusing them even more thoroughly.

[Luxanna Cross]

Furrowing her brows slightly as the girl dove forward, Luxanna furrowed her brows. She hadn't caught on the dog's interest one way or another, but for someone claiming to be allergic, the girl surely was very forward with the dog. Then again, it wasn't as if it was Luxanna's business to begin with.

Looking down at the collar again, Luxanna focused her attention on the number as she started reading it out loud. Once she finished, she looked up at the girl. "Calling would probably be the best option. It's quicker," she explained with a simple shrug.

She offered something of a smile then. "If you wanna bail, that's totally fine. I mean, with your allergies and all," she continued.

[Friday Morning]

For a while, Friday didn't quite have full control over, well, Friday. She just kept poking and prodding and not really listening as the other girl said something about calling and how it would be faster or something; again: Friday was sort of only kind of half listening and all. It was only when she heard the 'you' that she pulled up to look.

"What? oh, yeah, allergies," Friday said. "They're, uh, weird? They, like, only happen when..." Friday tilted her head. "When it's... cloudy?" She looked skyward at the clear day. "When a dog has fleas? And this one... doesn't have a flea collar," Friday pursed her lips, nodding her head. She moved to cover the dog's ears before leaning forward to whisper:

"Have you, like, heard of mutant? You know, like, uh, X-men? But lame?"

What? There was a school and now that Friday was close to the girl she looked kinda familiar, and there was always a chance, more than a chance. Sometimes luck worked out for someone.

[Luxanna Cross]

At that, Luxanna actually had to make a face. It made her feel bad, but she couldn't help it. The girl was clearly lying off of her ass, which meant that there was something else going on. What, Luxanna didn't know, and she wasn't about to ask.

And it appeared that she didn't have to, either. Looking from the dog, to the girl and back at the dog again, Luxanna frowned. "Why are you covering-" stopping herself from continuing, Luxanna shook her head. "Yes," she replied. "Yes, I have."

She then made a motion to cover the dog's ears too, without actually touching the other girl's hands. "X-Men is a national treasure," she whispered.

[Friday Morning]

"Cool!" Friday said, taking a breath and ready to push on. Except that Lux had now leaned forward, now, causing the dog to tilt its head in complete and utter confusion (the only one who understood why canine ears were being covered was Friday). Friday made sure to keep her hands in place, leaning over.

"Is it?" Friday repeated, eyes going wide. "Wow, I mean, a friend of mine signed that petition that one time but, like, I hadn't thought that---" Friday paused. "Waaaait," she looked to Lux, "are you messing with me? You're totally messing with me!" Friday put her hands on her hips. "I was being serious!" she protested.

The dog took that moment to jump toward Lux, clearly enthusiastic to get a better smile. Yelping, Friday lurched forward, hoping to catch him in time to stop him from doing any damage. As for the conversation? Kind of forgotten in the scramble.

[Luxanna Cross]

"I am," she admitted, offering the other girl an apologetic smile. The girl was a little odd - that much was already obvious, though, Luxanna didn't mind at all. In fact, she actually enjoyed it. It was refreshing - and she didn't even come close to Jack. Which likely was the reason why it was refreshing in the first place.

Frowning at the other girl's sudden motion, Luxanna bucked backwards and got to her feet. She looked at the girl with a questionable expression. She wasn't entirely sure what the girl was doing, though, she didn't want to ask either. In a way, it felt incredibly rude to do so.

So, she was left in awkward silence instead. Which, in hindsight, didn't seem any better.

[Friday Morning]

Friday spent several seconds wrestling with the dog, who still seemed quite eager to go for Lux. Finally, she just gave up, sitting back, hands behind her, and panting while the dog circled Lux, smelling her intensely. "he really seems interested in you for some reason," Friday said, reaching up to brush back some hair. "Maybe you got some sort of scent or something. You don't have sausages in your pockets or something? I had this emergency beef jerky in this backpack this one time. Forgot all about it until a cat got into it. Very messy. That backpack no longer exists."

The dog was definitely interested in sniffing Lux out though, completely enraptured. "At least he seems kinda calm?" Offered Friday. "What were we talking about?" Friday paused, likely long enough for Lux to start before: "Right! Mutants! I think.... what does that have to do with dogs..."

Clearly Friday had completely lost the plot at this point. The dog, meanwhile, was at least enjoying himself, now starting to work his way up Lux's leg.

[Luxanna Cross]

Luxanna could make a good guess as to why the dog seemed so interested in her. She wasn't sure if she carried around a scent of "large cat", but then again, she knew exactly how much heightened animal senses were. She had, after all, experienced that first hand. Giving the dog most of her attention now that it was free, Luxanna scratched the dog's head before shrugging. "Maybe I do," she mused.

"You wanted to know if I'd ever heard of them," Luxanna said, looking up at the girl. She found herself enjoying the company of this odd creature. She was spastic, but cute. It also did wonders to make Luxanna feel a lot less awkward, which honestly, was quite the feat.

Sitting down, Luxanna moved the dog to sit in her lap as she ran both her hands up and down the dog's back, rubbing and massaging its skin. 

[Friday Morning]

"Right!" Friday nearly yelped, nodding. "That's totally what--because i am one!" It took Friday a few seconds to realize that she'd just blurt that out, and she slapped her hands over her mouth. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought to soften the blow, so the next thing that came out was a severely muffled "ow." she winced and lowered her hands, massaging her lip slightly.

The dog seemed to have settled into Lux's lap now, and still maintained its interest in smelling nearly every part of her. At least it didn't seem to want to attack, so Friday supposed they had that going for them. 'That hurt," she mumbled, massaging her lips a few more times, thus proving, yet again, that she was perfectly capable of distracting herself from a conversation with her random flailing.

Go her.

[Luxanna Cross]

Luxanna's brows furrowed slightly at the easy admission that passed through the girl's lips. In many ways, Luxanna actually admired her for it. Though, she supposed, Kalispell wasn't exactly the most dangerous place to tell a stranger something like that. Still, the young brunette remained silent, watching the girl as she clumsily tried gathering herself.

Then came the just as easy admittance from her own lips, "We probably have a few classes together then," she said, figuring the girl was about her own age. It didn't really matter, though, because Luxanna figured the girl could put two and two together without her having to be too frank.

Turning her attention back at the dog, Luxanna smiled at it. "You're such a cutie," she cooed.

[Friday Morning]

"oooh, so you're a--- well, that works out for me then," Friday said, shrugging, then smiling, and then putting her hands behind her back. "And we probably do. Or maybe we do. You do look kind of familiar, but I'd like to think we would've talked before now if we'd been in classes together since you look super cool and nice and all."

At this point, Friday would've likely started rambling, which seemed to be near enough to her default setting. Except the other girl had knelt down to the dog, which reminded Friday that yes, it was there, and they were doing something with it, and at some point she'd hurt her face in that process. At least she didn't accidentally mistake Lux's comment to be, like, directed toward her (though part of Friday was tempted to make a lame joke about it; this was the girl who's parents regularly called her "their girl Friday" after all).

"Right, him!" Friday said. "We were... doing something... his owner!" Friday snapped her fingers. "We had a number or something, right? That--- we were tracking? Gah, I feel like a total ditz now."

[Luxanna Cross]

Luxanna couldn't quite help the smile that formed on her lips. Once again, she was reminded of how much less awkward this girl made her feel. With her spaced out nature, Luxanna almost felt normal, which was quite the feat. "Yeah, you're probably right," she replied with a shrug. A faint flush formed on her cheeks then; she'd never considered herself to be one that looked even remotely approachable.

"It's alright," Luxanna reassured the girl. "He doesn't look unhappy with the situation at all," she continued as she gave the dog another scratch behind the ear. In fact, the dog seemed happy about the attention he was receiving. Though, that didn't change the fact that his owner was likely looking for him, and well...

It was unfair for them to keep him around. Pulling up her own phone, Luxanna typed in the number and held the phone up to her ear before she could realize that calling strangers made her feel all kinds of angsty.

[Friday Morning]

Friday shrugged. "There are only so many classes and so many people and all. We probably at least know somebody who knows somebody who maybe knows somebody," which made Friday chuckle a little. She refocused on the dog soon enough, and not long after that was agreeing with Lux on the whole fact that said dog did not look too unhappy with the situation they found themself in.

Friday watched as Lux pulled out the phone, waiting patiently. When a few seconds passed without Lux actually dialing a number, Friday tilted her head. "Were you gonna call or did you want me to? I can totally handle phones and all. Sometimes I just start texting or whatever and it goes," she made a sliding motion with her hand, "but I can usually do the talking. If you wanted to keep the doggo busy?"

Friday shrugged. They really should have a better handle on this, shouldn't they? Maybe they should be looking for last dog posters or something? No ,wait, the calling should work. Or maybe the dog was just out for his walkies...?