âThank you.â Bridget felt her cheeks grow pink again. âThat means a lot to me.â Though she knew that, in the end, comparing herself to a fictional character was a futile task, but it didnât hurt to have Quail compare her to Kara â or Alex. âYes please, Iâd love to talk about it. It seems like such an important show â a very good one to have around at any point, but especially now. Gives a certain air of hope, which Iâm always a fan of.â She gave a quick shrug of her shoulders, relieved at how natural this all felt. She knew that she was able to socialize, that despite her occasional bouts of introversion or wariness, being social and talking with others had never been something of great difficulty for her.Â
That didnât mean that it wasnât nice when she was able to just slip into a conversation easily, and when her conversation partner seemed ready to talk about anything and everything. âWell, Iâve never really dealt with teenage boys, so I canât say anything about that for sure, but sounds about right.â She gave a shrug. âSports? I think some boys like that, but also I donât want to be all gender-specific and one of my frâ coworkersâ whoâs also my friend I think, and a girl, really likes video games, so who knows. But yes, Iâll talk about it with you.â She smiled at Quail.
âPerfect absolutely positively.â Bridget smiled again. âWe even shared a bed until we were about seven. We match up well, and all thatâŠâ Her voice trailed off. âOh, sheâs adopted. We donât look at all alike, but sheâs as good as my twin. Weâre matched up evenly and ââ She gave a small sigh. âI love her more than anything else in my whole life. If you donât make me shut up right now, I might give you a full soliloquy on why I adore her so much.â Bridget wrinkled up her nose before brushing a few of her fingers across the bridge.
You investigate a lot of different things, huh? You must be⊠really smart. Full of knowledge and all that.
âOh, a whole lot.â She bit her lip. âI guess Iâm smart? I mean, Iâve always gotten high marks-slash-grades, and I like to think â no, I do know that Iâm open to all sorts of ways of thinking, so I suppose so. But I do think most folks can be wicked smart if they try â and that intelligence comes in all different ways.â She gave a slow nod at Quailâs question. âYes, sort of. Though they also eat humans. Basically, even if you love The Little Mermaid, please do not try and find our mermaids, âcause you might end up as a snack. Which would be very much not good at all.â She ran her hands through her hair. âBaku are creatures who look vaguely tapir-like and who feed on nightmares, but not in the same way that mara do. They eat your bad dreams to make them go away. They are incredibly adorable and ââ Bridget grabbed her phone again, scrolling through her photos until she found one that her fathers had sent her. âHere. Adorable, right?! I never had one as a pet, but some folks do. Theyâre tough to get, but I think I heard of some that live around Ashkent.â She gave a shake of her head. âBeatrice. Thatâs my sisterâs name. She sometimes keeps to herself, but you mightâve met her.â Though Bridget knew that she too might know if Beatrice had met Quail, but perhaps the girl knew her sister. That would be lovely â she always thought that the whole world deserved to see how beautiful and wonderful her sister was.
âThose are all very good reasons.â Bridget gave Quail another smile. âFor a small town, itâs fairly open â both to those of us who arenât straight and also to those who are supernatural.â She quirked a smile. âThough thereâs still a hefty number of folks who donât believe it whatâs right under their noses. But someday Iâll help to prove that theyâre all wrong, and then they can be open to further education, which is never a bad thing.â
âOh- youâre welcome. Obviously. It was definitely intended as a compliment, obviously, since I like Kara so much, and I like you, because Iâm here with you, and youâre nice and.... Iâm rambling....â Quail admitted with a shy smile, tucking her hair behind her ears and pushing her glasses up on her nose. âI definitely agree with you, and the whole alien rights issue...itâs definitely relevant today. This show in this political climate. Kind of perfect without being in your face about it. Itâs such a feminist show, too, which I love.â She grinned as she thought about it, and how much this show meant to her. Quail usually had trouble in conversations and talking to people, so she was nervous but she thought this was going better than she anticipated.
âYeah, he likes sports, too, but I donât like them either... sometimes I think the only thing we have in common is weâre both adopted. But I do sometimes wonder what it would be like if he ended up being gay too. That would be pretty neat, at least it would give us something else in common. Or if he....â She trailed off, realizing she couldnât announce if he suddenly developed powers. âI guess if heâs not gay we have liking girls in common. Heâs not really expressed much interest romantically and I donât want to push him about that sorta stuff. Heâs shy.â She wasnât sure Quinn would appreciate her talking this much about him so she dropped the topic with a smile.
âWow....okay. I...canât... really imagine being that close to someone,â was all she said in response to her ranting about her sister, feeling a bit uncomfortable by the whole thing. It made her feel self conscious about her relationship with her brother and whether it was close enough. The fact that she didnât have a best friend to that degree and in fact, Bridget could be considered her closest friend right now.
âOh - I donât want to be eaten, so Iâll take your word for it....â As Bridget spoke about baku she was in disbelief. It was a lot to take in and she took the phone to look at the photo, smiling. âYeah, it is really cute. So people keep them as a pet and they take your nightmares? I donât have that many nightmares but I imagine for someone who has chronic ones that might help a lot.â When the redhead spoke her sisterâs name it didnât sound familiar but she nodded in understanding.
âI agree - people should be more open. Acting all hush hush and pretending all this isnât happening? It doesnât do anybody any good.â
