Let's Step Away For a While || Bali and Keb
Bali Odinson pulled his 1969 Karmann Ghia up to the curb of Storybrooke Middle School and parked it, pulling out the key and getting out of the car. The top was down, and Carnagar was in the back, sleeping. Bali grinned and moved to the front of the car, leaning on the hood. It was three fifty-one, nine minutes before school was out. Keb would be out any minute. Today he was going to take her to his estate on the town line and show her his gardens.
Fiddling with the camera around his neck, Bali leaned down against the car and took a photo of the sleeping teenage lion. He was large on the back seat, and his paws and tail were lapped over the edge. His ears twitched slightly. Bali thought he must have been dreaming of something. Turning around, he walked up to a tree and took a couple of pictures of the leaves and small spring flowers.
"Words are filling up like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away, across the universe," he sang in a murmur, pulling his cavern bass guitar out of the convertible. He started hitting random notes, then began practicing the song he had been writing for Keb. At the soft, grungy noise, Carnagar woke up and climbed into the front, leaping gracefully over the windshield. "Hey, bud," Bali said, quietly slipping the animal's leash onto his collar. Carnagar didn't usually like it when he was restrained on the rope.
Finally the school bell rang. It seemed as though there was a jailbreak surging through the school. Waves of students flowed out in groups. First, the preppy ones, then the creepy goths or whatever you wanted to call them, then the nerds, and finally the old-time rockers. Arienh was in that group, Bali noticed with a smile. Luckily she didn't realize he was there, or else she would have asked him to take her home.
When Keb came out, she was wearing the dress he had given her. The same one she wore on their first date about a week ago. Her hair was caught in the breeze as she stopped to talk to another teacher. When she said goodbye and headed toward her car, Bali leaned over his own car and beeped the horn, trading his bass guitar for a single white lily that lay in the passenger seat. He held the flower in front of himself and smiled down at Carnagar.