Issue 1 Downtime

Haley walked back towards the dorms with her bag slung over her shoulder, her mind racing a bit.

Cal looked up from where he was crouching and did a double take. "Haley!" he said, sounding somewhat surprised. He hurriedly picked up something he'd been doing... something with and stuffed it into his backpack. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled. "Killer headache, but got off pretty easy. Just an hour of yard work tomorrow as punishment,"

Cal looked suspicious at that, then stopped, taking a deep breath and trying to relax. Everything's ok. It's a school. Nothing bad's going to happen. "Good," he said. "And... you doing okay other than that?"

"Other than the headache, and not looking forward to all the rumors, sure," she smirked. "Only a matter of time before they start calling me Carrie or some shit though.”

"Eh, we'll deal with that when it happens. Don't think Kay's got much room to be tossing names around, though..."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Ohhhhh, I took a peek at her records. Y'know, it's just... funny to have a fish-mutant whose last name really is 'Haddock.' Little too much coincidence there, don't you think?"

Haley snorted and broke into a cackle.

"That's awesome," she grinned, and then looked like she had a great idea.

"I should see what sort of ammo we can get from her sketchbook...I grabbed it by accident a week or two ago, and totally forgot about it until last night."

Cal's eyes lit up (metaphorically). "Does she know you have it?"

"Nope," she grinned.

"So you have her sketchbook and I bet I can get into her e-mail... oooh the possibilities..."

Haley smirked. "I'm gonna go lay down. Once I feel less like someone is squeezing my head in a press, I'm gonna browse, take some pictures and text them to you, and we'll figure out something."

Cal nodded. "All right, I'll see what I can work up, then. And... ah..." he shifted uncomfortably. "I"m sorry," he said. Everything, after all, was his fault. Naturally.

"The fuck are you sorry for?" she smirked.

He shrugged. "You've got more shit to take for being the cripple's girlfriend."

"If you call yourself that again, I'll *make* you a cripple," she smirked.

"You're my friend, my boyfriend, and a great guy. And you're sexy."

Haley planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'll text you later, hottie."