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The clouds were dark and loomed ominously over the sky of Destiny City. The weather forecast had called for 80% of rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon to last until the next morning. Did Tabitha listen? Nope! Her grandmother had tried to warn her to take a raincoat or an umbrella but she decided she'd rather not. A little rain never killed anyone! Now she was walking home from school and it still hadn't rained. Ha! Take that, mother nature!

Awwww, man! Dietrich wasn't answering his phone! Maybe he was busy. Tabitha pouted and stared down at the screen of her phone that was telling her she was sent to voicemail, sighing and hanging up to put the phone away. She looked up at the sky and nervously bit down on her lip, hiking up her bookbag a little more as she quickened her pace. Had to get home, had to get home. She heard thunder! Eep!

Before she could even so much as blink there was suddenly a torrential downpour of rain. It was as if the heavens had taken a knife and sliced a hole into the clouds themselves to empty them of all the water they were carrying. Oh no! She squealed and ran for the nearest covering she could find, which just so happened to be one of those bus stops that had a bench and roof and walls. That worked! She wasn't waiting for a bus but she could sit in there and wait for a pocket of sunshine, maybe? It..it couldn't really last all night...right?

Tabitha was dismayed by the fact that there didn't seem to be enough room for her at the bus stop, whining and hopping around in place as if that would keep her dry. Her hair was plastered to her face now, and her clothes were getting heavy. She really should've brought at least a coat! Dang! Suddenly she didn't feel the rain hitting her anymore and for the briefest second believed it to be over until she realized the rain was still falling heavily all around her. Oh! Someone had a huuuuge umbrella! A really, really huge umbrella! Tabitha didn't even realize umbrellas were made that large!

She smiled gratefully at the woman and nodded, giggling and wringing out her own hair. She was sooooaked! "I'm just fine! Why wouldn't I be on a beautiful warm day like this?" She laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder to work on wringing out as much of her skirt as she could without flashing anyone. "Thank you, though! I really appreciate this. I should've listened to my grandma when she told me to bring my umbrella! Haha! Good that you came along though. My name's Tabitha! What's yours?" Was she hyper? No...no she seemed to be at just the right amount of energy. But her words came out so quickly it was like she had just taken in so much sugar in a short amount of time. But she hadn't! The last thing she ate? A banana.

"It's crazy how quickly it can start raining, huh? It's like God picked up his steak knife before dinner and cut into the clouds, too bad he didn't warn us first, huh?" She was grinning as she spoke, shaking her head a bit to get out the last bits of water and standing as far under the umbrella as she could without pushing the older woman out from under it. That would be rude!

This umbrella was looking more and more amazing by the second. Tabitha was so glad this woman had suddenly happened to walk by when she did, especially considering there was no way she was fitting under that bus stop awning. Sigh. She laughed and grinned up at her as she played along with her joke, glad she had found someone with a sense of humor. Okay, so the woman found her but same difference! "It's unbelievable how beautiful it is! Obviously this umbrella is going to keep you from getting a terrible sunburn, yeah?" She giggled, gripping the straps of her backpack as she walked alongside the woman.

"Gently? That's a neat name! It's nice to meet you, Gently. And yeah, she tried to tell me 'Tabi! It's supposed to rain today! Don't forget your umbrella!' but I totally didn't think it would actually rain while I was walking home. I'm usually a lot luckier than that, y'know? I've had days where it doesn't start raining until I've closed the door when I get home. It's really fun! Guess I didn't get so lucky today. Oh well! Haha!" Okay, this behavior was definitely more than just hyper. This...this seemed to be her normal pace. Oh dear. Was Gently going to regret sharing her umbrella with Tabitha soon? She hoped not! Not that Tabitha was even thinking about that, why would she? Gently seemed nice! She looked up at the umbrella, trying to imagine who owned such a huge umbrella. "Did you know it really is possible to be allergic to water? I read about it! It's, like, really rare but totally possible. Some people actually have it! Not a lot, but enough that it's got its own name and stuff. I don't remember what the name of it is though. I'm sure 'aqua' is in it somewhere, but I don't remember the rest. Maybe your coworker has it!" What? It was plausible!

She looked toward the sky past the umbrella when Gently wondered what God was doing with a steak knife, humming as her face scrunched up. She was giving this serious thought. "...He has to eat something, doesn't He? Maybe he was just testing the sharpness of the knife on the clouds. That sounds reasonable, right?"

Pale, huh? "Yup. He's a vampire." Tabitha said as if she was some kind of expert on this subject. She totally was, don't deny it. She gave a firm nod with closed eyes, a very serious frown set on her face. "It's unfortunate, but one in every five people is a vampire or a werewolf. But as long as they're not brooding, stalkers who watch you in your sleep, or sparkle in the sun? You're okay. Those are the vampires you need to watch out for. They're dangerous." She continued to speak with all the seriousness of an expert, finally looking up at Gently again with a grave look on her face. "I think you should be careful, Miss Gently. Your friend sounds like bad news." She fell quiet after that, allowing the only sounds to be the pitter patter of rain, people speaking and cars driving by. Tabitha knew what she was talking about, clearly. This was not a book, this was not a movie.

This was real life.

Eventually she grinned and bounced back to their next topic with ease, shaking out her boots every now and then. They were soaked and starting to squish as she walked. Her toes were coooooooold! "I prefer to beat it too. But there're some days I actually don't mind just walking around in the rain..it's...really peaceful even with all the noise. It's like, you close your eyes and just listen to the rain and the world around you doesn't even matter." She smiled and stared up at the sky, her face softening for a moment. She felt at home when she was walking around in the rain, or when she was relaxing in a tub, or when she was just in water. It relaxed her a lot. Eventually she giggled and folded her arms behind her head, grinning as she had been. Oh! So Gently knew what she was talking about! That was great, people tended to say she was making it up.

"Whoooooa! You work for the paper? That sounds so cool! What's it like? Do you get to meet cool people? Celebrities? Stuff like that? And yeah, wikipedia is pretty awful sometimes." She laughed. "This one time I wondered what would happen if I went onto the octopus page and changed all the facts. I didn't do it, but I considered it. I was kind of bored...and yes! I was walking home, actually! I just wanted to get out of the rain for a moment to maybe call one of my grandparents to come pick me up. But this is better! I'd love to walk with you!" Tabitha chirped, playing with a bit of her hair.

Tabitha hummed with serious consideration as she looked Gently up and down, holding her chin between her thumb and index finger. She definitely wasn't a vampire, but she was a werewolf? Maybe she was something else! Like, a fairy! Or an elf with hidden ears! "I don't think you're a werewolf. I think you might be something else. Something more awesome than vampires and werewolves." Tabitha finally decided, grinning at the woman beside her. When Gently brought her attention to the people back at the bus stop Tabitha nodded in agreement, counting the people there. So many! She definitely wouldn't have made it under there! Good thing Gently had come along, then! So ten people. That was two groups of five. "Two people in there...are werewolves!" You could just hear the 'DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN!' and the surprised chipmunk that was going through her head. Two of them were definitely werewolves! They were out during the day and not biting everyone in sight!

Gently would have been alright closing her eyes! Tabitha wouldn't have let her fall, or walk into anything or anyone. She would have been a good guide dog! She gripped the straps of her backpack as they walked, a huge smile on her face while she listened to Gently explain what her job was a bit. Even if these people weren't famous it still sounded fun! "That sounds neat! So you like working for the paper? What do you do? Do you write stuff? Are you an editor? Ohoh, their boss?" It didn't matter what Gently was, Tabitha was already thoroughly impressed.

When asked what she wanted to do Tabitha grinned with pride, giving a nod and looking up at the rain again. "I going to be a marine biologist. It just fascinates me. There're just..so many things undiscovered! And what has been? It's incredible! It's so beautiful, it's mysterious, it's fun, it's an adventure..it's even romantic!" She didn't think she was getting carried away, she never did, but it was clear Tabitha was very excited about this. She was walking now, trying to stay slow enough that Gently could follow along with her but not so slow that they were just dragging on and on. "And every creature is just so unique! They can try and look like each other all they want, but if you look at them just right the differences are like so glaringly obvious! And swimming is so fun, and so good for you. And it's so beautiful and there's so much to do and so many places to go and there's more water than land anyway! Did you know that? There's way more water in the world than land. Like, seventy percent of the Earth is ocean! And that's not even including the lakes, glaciers, rivers, ponds, steams..." Somebody stop her before she continues! Oh no!

"It should! And since you work for the paper you can start doing just that, right? The people of Destiny City are in danger!" She said this as if she knew it to be fact. Was it really in danger? Kind of...there were monster attacks on a near regular basis! And then everyone was always going on about the strangely dressed terrorists running rampant throughout Destiny City...she didn't want to believe they were terrorists; terrorists were out to cause terror and kill people, and she had yet to actually see them kill anyone. Had there been casualties to these monster attacks? Most certainly! But she'd never seen one of the so-called terrorists kill or hurt anyone...

But back to more fun things! This was not the time for sad thoughts. "More stories? What kind of stories do you do?" She'd have to start reading the paper more! Her grandfather still read the paper; he was old fashioned and he and her grandmother weren't big fans of the internet unless they absolutely had to use it. It'd become a morning routine, he would read the paper while they enjoyed breakfast...it was like something out of a television show, and Tabitha quite enjoyed it. "Getting coffee is a huge responsibility." Tabitha said with a nod, though not in a mocking tone. It wasn't her intention to make fun of Gently for being someone's go-to for coffee.

Of course she was set on this! It was her passion! Tabitha grinned and nodded at Gently's first question. "Uh huh! I want to study it all! I want to make my own discoveries, maybe even work with the creatures of the sea myself~. I mean, I know it's not all fun and games but if you're doing something you love then you're always going to enjoy it no matter the situation, right? And there's just so much you can do with marine biology!" She was practically buzzing with excitement now. Tabitha loved talking about this stuff. What did she have to take? Well...it was kind of hard. "Well there's a lot...most of it I don't have to worry about until I actually get in to college. I need biology, chemistry, physics, lots of science. I will be becoming a scientist, after all...just not one that studies, like, bombs or the human body. Oh, and math. I'll need to take lots of math classes." They weren't exactly the most fun classes but if it meant she could work toward her dream career? She'd take one for the team. "When I get into college I'll still be taking all that, but I'll need to do stuff like...intern at a lab, or an aquarium, or a museum, get a certification to scuba dive..I might even spend some time at sea! That's gonna be so cool!" Tabitha giggled and clapped her hands, bouncing a bit on her toes as they walked down the sidewalk. She didn't get to talk about this in depth as much as she'd like! This was fun!

Oooh! Entertainment sounded so fun! "So, like, movies and stuff? And music? And celebrities? Ohohoh! That sounds so fun! If I find any stories I will definitely come find you!" Tabitha was beaming proudly, excited to help her new friend with her job. Oh yes, that was definitely what this would be. Gently was now her friend. No escaping it. None. None at all. She was forever chained to Tabitha by the..chains of...friendship...

...Don't judge her.

But now Tabitha was on a tangent, stuck in the neverending loop that was her dreams of the future. She couldn't help it! She was just so excited she wished she could just go off and do it right this second. She did pause to check where they were every now and then, not wanting to get lost and then get them stuck in the rain. It wasn't that she was in a hurry to get away from Gently, just she didn't want to keep the both of them stuck out here in this weather regardless of the amazing umbrella she had been graced with.

"Mm. It's going to be very difficult...but if I study hard enough, make good grades, and prepare myself? I know I can do it. You can do anything you set your mind to, right? If your heart is really in it then you'll have no problems at all~!" Tabitha sounded very sure of herself. She had all the confidence in the world that she'd be able to get into the career she had been dreaming since her first trip to the beach. One that she could remember, anyway. But hey! Maybe this was a lifelong dream and she'd only recently become conscious of it. That was a perfectly logical answer to her unspoken questions. She giggled and clapped her hands excitedly, even bouncing a bit and splashing a bit of water collected into a puddle on her socks and inside her sneakers. She squeaked and shuddered, shaking one of her feet like that would get the cold water out of it. Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold! She squeaked out, hopping on one foot for a few seconds. Of course she still heard Gently's words somehow, gasping with delight and putting her foot back down. "Really? Okay! You'll be the first person I call if I discover something really cool!" And she meant it, too. If she found the colossal squid? Gently would be the first she told.

Tabitha shrugged a little at the idea of being on a boat for long periods of time. "I haven't been on many boats, but it can't be that hard, right?" She'd get used to it! She had to! She rubbed her chin a bit at the inquiry of what kind of boat it'd be, humming thoughtfully. To be honest she'd never thought about what kind of vessel they'd be on if she was out at sea for six months like the website had said. Surely not like the one in Jaws, that was not suitable for long periods of time.. "I don't..know, actually. I never took the time to wonder about it. Maybe I should..but I've got so much time for that already. I should focus on getting in to college, right?" Then she could worry about what happened during school after she was already in it.

Did she have natural seasickness? She sure hoped not! She loved to swim, and she loved floating along on small rafts and the like, and if that didn't give her seasickness then she was okay, right? Tabitha would like to hope so! It was unfortunate to hear that Gently didn't fare well on boats, and it made her a smidgen worried of her own reaction to being on a boat. She could do this. She'd be okay. Besides, she had plenty of time to prepare herself! It definitely wasn't going to be 'Deadliest Catch' style.

That sounded terrifying.

Tabitha was beaming with pride and excitement as Gently encouraged her, giving her a nod. "Yeah, I can't expect it to just happen. I need to work for it and take things in stride. I could try and get on a boat! But I don't know what kind of boat..should I try and get on as many as I can?" Tabitha wondered aloud as she walked along the curb like it was a balance beam, her arms outstretched at either side of her even if one of them was getting a little wet. They were near her house now, she knew where they were. About two more blocks and around the corner and they were there.

"Did you have a dream when you were my age? Or has it always been to write stories?" She gave Gently a curious look, still smiling. She was very interested!