So, like, I know you’re a frog and all, and you probably can’t understand me, and I should probably go back to my dorms to study before Andel and Cowbell come over, but I gotta get something off my chest and you’re the only one I can talk to. So, I have this friend who’s called Cowbell, which is a neat name.
On the first day of my lectures I was a bit lost and turned around, and I found Cowbell and asked how to get to the Religious Studies lecture hall. She kinda, scoffed at me? and walked away. I followed her after a bit because I figured I couldn’t do any better, and if she wasn’t going to Religious Studies I could just ask another student or the professor. I lost her after a bit, my attention was caught by something shiny on the ground and by the time I looked up she was gone.
I spent another 20 minutes circling campus before ending up where I had been before and figuring out my lecture hall was right next to the shiny thing. I was super annoyed! And Cowbell was right there, messing with her pages of notes! She couldn’t even bother to lead me to the class she was already going to!
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I know right! Anyways, we ended up sitting next to each other, and of course because I had the worst luck at the time, this professor was one who assigned groups that you use for the rest of the year. We got paired together along with a stranger called Wren and another classmate named Andel, and Cowbell didn’t even give us a name to call her! Wren didn’t attend class after the first day, she probably dropped it or something. Ugh, Cowbell was the worst the first week, completely unbearable. We all just ended up calling her Gator, because she was so snappy and hard to get along with. Our first project, she refused to even do anything, and disappeared once the project was supposed to be turned in! I mean, who does that? You get it right?
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Sigh, yeah. Me and Andel just trooped through it and managed to get out with an A- somehow. The next day, Cowbell didn’t even try to make an excuse for herself! On friday that week I offered to buy pizza for the group, but Cowbell just said that she had something better to do and walked off. Me and Andel figured it was for the best and there would be more pepperoni for us. But like, the next week comes and Cowbell isn’t there at all? Me and Andel thought she might’ve dropped the class like Wren might’ve done, but we got kinda annoyed. We did that weeks project and got an A, which was real nice, and did our solo essays easily enough. She wasn’t there for the next week either, and me and Andel started worrying. We did worry about her, y’see! Don’t look at me like that! We aren’t monsters!
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I mean, we put up missing posters and everything! They kept on disappearing or being replaced which was annoying, but we spent so much change at the library just to print out all the posters we pasted up. I’m pretty sure the library started to like us after the end of the two weeks Cowbell was gone.
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Yeah, yeah, it’s hard to believe, but I felt safer in the library. Whatever, anyways. Cowbell came back and I was wary at first, but she seemed less quiet and disgruntled and more curious and silent? I don’t know how to explain it. So by friday, I had decided she would come to our, by now routine, pizza meeting. This time she said yes and looked hopeful? It was really strange. We ended up having a good time, and that’s when Cowbell introduced herself properly.
I feel like Cowbell isn’t the same, there’s something inherently wrong about comparing her attitude before and after she went missing. Like the missing puzzle piece was Gator shaped, and Cowbell was the same shape as Gator, but the image was just slightly different. It still fit perfectly and completed the picture, but it was just, different.
Cowbell and Gator are two different people in my mind, but it doesn’t make sense that they’re actually two different people. I like Cowbell better, I think Gator, where ever she is, is happier away from us, and we’re happier to fit Cowbell in her place.
Cowbell sometimes has these moments, though, that make me feel like her and Gator aren’t even the same entity. She stumbles over memories, when we mention Wren she kinda, cocks her head like she’s asking “Who?”. It’s weird, but like, I like Cowbell! And I really don’t think that she’s a bad person. I don’t think she’s weird either! She has her moments, but she’s a really kind and considerate person. I feel like maybe, Gator isn’t… Gator doesn’t… exist? anymore? but she does because Cowbell is her to a certain extent.
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You’re right, it doesn’t sound real. Cowbell has her moments though. I swear to god I saw her eating a real goldfish, hidden inside a bag of the goldfish cheese crackers. On monday, for a single millisecond when she smiled she had razor sharp teeth!! I only saw them for a moment though, so it was probably my imagination. One time she blinked and I saw those clear film eyelids that a lizard has, but she might’ve just been blinking real fast.
Honestly I don’t particularly care if she’s not Gator, and I don’t think I really need to say anything about what I've been seeing. I mean, she hasn’t hurt anyone, and she’s honestly really dedicated to learning. I’m not gonna ruin that just cause of what I may or may not have seen. Ugh, I probably sound crazy to you little lad. What do you think?
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Yeah, I’m totally insane. How could someone just be replace by someone exactly like them? That’s just weird. I’m happy with Cowbell, but the itch to tell someone about my weird thoughts was getting to me. I’m just imagining things. God, i’m talking to a frog, i must really be going cuckoo!
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Oh shit, look at the time, I gotta go back to the dorms right now! Thanks for easing my thoughts, little bud, don’t get eaten by anything, good luck, safe travels and all that, It’s friday today! i’ll say hello to Cowbell for you!
