(Untitled)

[reallyaduck]

Duck's been snoring slightly on a table in the middle of the room, head pillowed on a piece of paper, when -

do you have the resolve, little duck?- she wakes up with a start, shaking her head to get the last wisps of weird half-memory out of her head

Comments

[ever_noteful]

"Duck? Are you okay?"

[reallyaduck]

"- huh?" Duck says, staring rather despairingly at the paper, and then brightens, her face immediately breaking into a tremendous smile.

"Meg! Wow, it's been a really long time!"

[ever_noteful]

"Too long," Meg agrees, with a smile of her own.

"How have you been?"

[reallyaduck]

"Oh, uh, I'm good! Except -"

Except it feels kinda weird, like time's going slow or something. Like the story's waiting for something . . .

But Duck doesn't know about how stories work really. "Except I gotta write this essay," she says, glum, "and last time I had to write an essay it was so bad I had to stay after school . . . uh, but how are you, Meg-chan?"

[ever_noteful]

"I'm good, thank you," Meg says. "It's kind of a quiet, restful week at home.

"What's your essay about, and can I help at all?"

Meg is pretty good at school work.

Maybe even really pretty good.

[reallyaduck]

"I'm supposed to write about Swan Lake and . . . . I think say something about whether we think the swans should be dancing like happy or sad at the end," Duck says, doubtfully.

"Because um, because it's a big chorus part being a swan and if we're really lucky we might get to dance it some day, so . . ."

She still doesn't understand why they have to write about it, but maybe that's because she wasn't actually listening in class when the assignment was given out. Because she was busy worrying about Mytho. Oops?

[ever_noteful]

"Hmmmmm," Meg says.

"Well, it's probably good to think about how characters should be, if you might be dancing them one day.

"Do you think the swans are happy or sad at the end?"

[reallyaduck]

"Well . . . they get to be people again," Duck says, frowning, "so that's happy, but . . . their friends had to vanish, so that's really sad, so . . ."

Duck heaves an enormous sigh, and concludes, "It's hard!"

[ever_noteful]

Meg nods.

"Sometimes, you're happy and sad at the same time," she says.

"Maybe the swans are both."

[reallyaduck]

"It's hard enough to dance like you're really happy or like you're really sad," Duck complains. "I don't know if anyone's good enough to dance both ways at once!"

[ever_noteful]

"I'm not much of a dancer," Meg admits.

"But I can see where that would be a challenge."

[reallyaduck]

"Even the best dancers in the class have a hard time with feelings like that . . ."

- this sounds suspiciously like disloyalty, so Duck hastens to add, "Uh, but they're still really good! I mean Mytho's getting way better with feelings and stuff, and Rue's dancing is always really pretty, so . . ."

[ever_noteful]

"Plus, they're both students, too, aren't they?

"So they're still learning."

[reallyaduck]

"They are, but they're still really amazing . . . I bet Rue could be a prima ballerina now if she wanted!" Duck says loyally.

"Mytho too! I don't think Fakir could even though he's good, but that's 'cause he's not really good at partnering yet, Mr. Cat says."

[ever_noteful]

"Hmmmmm," Meg says.

"I met him, the other day."

She wasn't impressed.

[reallyaduck]

". . . who, Mr. Cat?"

Duck jumps, whipping her head nervously from side to side. "Here? Where? Oh man if he sees me here and he knows I'm not practicing I'll really be in -"