No mouse ears. :(

[a_mouse_duh]

Since Halloween, Karen wasn't so sure she liked this place any more. When scary goth guys with fangs and hippies with long tangled hair and crazy eyes started chasing you through the jungle, you knew you were in trouble. She'd hidden under her bed the rest of the day and had vowed never to go flower-picking again, not even a little ways from the

Comments

[purplensparkly]

Trance let out a soft noise when a figure bumped into her. "I'm sorry," she said immediately. "I must not have been paying attention to where I was going." She felt a little stupid, because she normally paid attention to everything that was going on.

[a_mouse_duh]

"Oh my God!" Karen exclaimed, staring as she stumbled back.

"Are you okay? YOU'RE TURNING PURPLE!" Actually, it was more of a fuschia color.

[purplensparkly]

Trance was confused and she shook her head. "I'm not turning purple. I am purple. I've always been purple." Well, not always, but for the entire time she'd had this body. Barring the few days with the wands."

[a_mouse_duh]

"Oh." Karen stared at her some more.

"Are you sure?"

[drown_love]

"Whoa," Dennys said, reaching out to place his hand on the girl's shoulder to steady her. He blinked and shook his head. He was generally pretty coordinated; he couldn't remember the last time he had actually run into someone. "Sorry, I must not have been looking. Are you okay?"

[a_mouse_duh]

"Oh my God, I am sooo sorry!" Karen said, but she wasn't sorry really. This boy was cute, and he had to be somewhere around her age. Suddenly she wished she was wearing a shorter skirt.

"I'm fine! Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?" She gave him a dazzling smile.

[drown_love]

Dennys laughed softly, not at her but her reaction was kind of cute in a way, and the idea that she hurt him was amusing. Just over 6 feet tall, he practically towered over her, and there wasn't really anything other than lean muscle on him.

"Of course not," he said, still smiling. "I'm completely fine, really. I used to play hockey, so I'm used to harder hits than that."

[a_mouse_duh]

He was so cute.

"Ooh," she said. "You must have muscles on your...muscles!" She beamed up at him. "I'm Karen. Karen Smith. You can call me Karen," she said, holding out her hand almost shyly. Except not, because Karen didn't do shy all that well.

Okay, so she did, at least up until the point she took her top off.

[alwaysaclue]

What was more interesting was that Grissom had been carrying a jar of dirt. In that jar of dirt were several earthworms that he'd wanted to use in experiments-- nothing Sara would object to, more about making them larger, more efficient in gardens.

The jar dropped to the floor, shattering and sending dirt and worms everywhere. Grissom cursed, but the moon-eyed look on the perpetrator's face was enough to keep him from really yelling at her.

[a_mouse_duh]

"Ewwwwwwwww!" Karen shrieked, jumping back. Why was there a guy carrying a jar of dirt and worms around? Maybe he was going to eat them. Maybe it was his breakfast crawling around on the floor right now. Maybe the dirt was just to keep them fresh or something really disgusting like that.

She just hoped the worms weren't poisonous.

Backing up against the wall, Karen stared at the man. He was old enough to be her grandfather. No wonder he ate worms.

"Um...sorry?" She hoped he hadn't broken his hip or something.

[alwaysaclue]

"You spilled my worms," said Grissom, taking in the specifics of the situation. Teenage girl, appeared to be well-off and possibly from the West Coast. Not very bright.

He supposed that meant he should explain.

"They're for the lab. I'm trying to induce them to process more soil at a time."

[a_mouse_duh]

"Oh," Karen said, relieved. "I thought you were going to eat them." But he was just, like, a science teacher or something. That made sense. He looked kind of science teacher-y.

"I could help you pick them up," she volunteered. And by 'pick them up', she meant 'stand there and stare at the worms hoping they would go away'.

[hurtstolook]

Angela was carrying a cup of water when she was bumped into, so the look on her face after it all ended up on the front of her shirt was like, expected or something. People should really learn to watch where they were going, especially in a place where so many people lived anyway.

"Hey, watch it!" She said, as the cup clattered to the floor.

[a_mouse_duh]

Karen shrieked as the water splashed all over her shirt, stumbling back and waving her hands about wildly, jumping from foot to foot. "You got my shirt wet, you b-" then she saw who it was. "Oh, hey, Angela! How are you?" She went from wet panic to nonchalant cheerfulness in an instant, beaming at the other girl.

She didn't know many - or, come to think about it, any - other people her own age, so she thought it was a good idea to be nice to the one person who was. Even if she was kind of a nerd and had a really bad haircut and wore bad clothes and spilled water all over Karen's cool new shirt.

[hurtstolook]

Angela was not, by any means, a nerd. In fact, she was the type of person who usually talked about other people as being nerds. She agreed with Rayanne whenever she did it anyway.

"Wet, actually." Angela said, because it was kind of obvious that she wasn't going to say that she was okay right then.

[a_mouse_duh]

Angela wore 90s style clothes and read books. To Karen, that made her pretty much a nerd. At first sight, anyway. And Karen wasn't a person who looked much past first sight.

"I'm so sorry," Karen apologized. "C'mon, let's go to the bathroom and get a towel and then I can let you borrow one of my shirts. I have this really nice pink one I think would suit you."

[jemaine]

Just because Jemaine didn't smile a lot didn't mean that he wasn't happy, and he was bordering on thrilled ever since Bret had shown up on the island. Not that he would ever tell Bret that. Wouldn't do for him to get a big head.

He'd actually just been outside playing his guitar and working on writing a new song, and was on his way back to the new room that he and Bret shared, when a girl ran smack into him as he rounded a corner.

"Hi," he said awkwardly, pushing his guitar out of the way.

[a_mouse_duh]

"Oh, no! Did I break your banjo?" Karen asked breathlessly, trying to regain her balance, stumbling, bumping shoulders with the wall and righting herself again.

Watching her was like watching a blonde, bubbly, drunken sailor. Or a baby deer. On crack.

[jemaine]

Jemaine actually took a second to look around for a banjo, then realized that she must mean his guitar. Or maybe by "broken" she meant "nonexistent". Probably not though.

"What," he said. "Uh. No, I'm fine."

She made him think of those paintings with the dots. Very very pretty from far away but up close it was kind of a mess.

[a_mouse_duh]

"Okay, good. Sorry! I was just hoping something interesting would happen. Are you in a band?" It would be cool if he was in a band. Band people were interesting, even if most of them were on drugs. This guy sounded like he was, too.