Nebula Senshi Arc
Episode Two
Written by: Kchan

Disclamer: I have not created SailorMoon or any other characters from the show. The animated television series SailorMoon is produced by Toei Animation Co. Ltd, and is based on the manga series by Naoko Takeuchi, first published in Japan by Kodansha Ltd.  I have made this fanfic to express how much I really like the show Sailor Moon!!

Episode Two:  The girl across the ocean.  The messenger receives a name!

  “Yes, I am available.  Of course.  I completely understand, and so sorry about your turtle.  That was rather embarrassing, wasn’t it?  Well goodbye then.”  She shakes her cell phone and turns it off and looks at the faceless man standing beside her.  

“Now what were you saying about me saving the world?”  The man speaks, but no words leave his mouth.  Instead he stands there, fixated on her.  

“For crying out loud, don’t be mad at me talking on the phone.  It was an important call.  Come on, Be…” she pauses as the man places his hand on her shoulder.  She blushes and gives him a confused look.  

“Umm…”  The words die in her mouth as he gets closer to her.  

“BRRRRRIIINGGGGGG!” 

“Oh, no…not now.  It was getting good.”  She smacks her alarm clock and looks at it.  It reads 9:15am.  

“Ack!  I hit snooze too many times!  I’m going to be late!”  She bolts up out of her bed and falls out of it on the floor.  

“Oww…”  She rubs her face and pulls her self up and grabs her clothes that she had set out from the night previously.  She dresses quickly, trips over her own shoes, puts one on while opening the door to her room, hops on one foot in the hall, hits the wall once, puts on the other shoe and tumbles into the bathroom.  

“Summer, you sound like an elephant up there!”  a female voice yells from down below.  

“Sorry mom!”  she tries to yell back as she brushes her teeth, getting toothpaste all over her vanity mirror.  

“Today is going to such a great day….” She thinks as she grabs a washrag to wipe the mirror clean.  She stares at the wavy reflection, seeing two tired red eyes staring back at her, underneath extremely messy green hair, that was defying gravity at the moment.  

“Pigtails it is then.”  She brushed her hair quickly and put her hair into pigtails, short ones, barely touching her shoulders.  She parted her bangs so they are in the middle and smiled at her reflection.  

“Much better.  I’m now human again.  She looks over on her shelf and grabs her small red ruby earrings and a thin green wired bracelet with a small silver amulet in the center.  She looks at the symbol of the amulet and remembers what her grandfather told her about it.  

“It’s cursed object, Summer!  Why the heck would you pick that out of your grandmother’s jewelry?   Just throw it away.”  Summer started to smirk as she thought of how animate the old man was as he said this in his usual superstitious cranky voice.  

“No such thing as curses.” She said to herself as she closed the clasp and stared at the familiar yet strange green N with a red fireball through it.  “I think it’s cool.”  She untangled the green ribbons that drooped on each side of the amulet and shook her hand. It always had such a pretty green shine to it in the light.  

“Summer!  Are you alive up there?”  

Summer snapped out of looking at her bracelet and took one last look at her self in the mirror before replying.  “Yea mom!”  She then left the bathroom and ran down the stairs, skipping two steps at a time.  

“You and your big feet, dear, you’re going to fall one of these days.” Her mom said as she moved out of Summer’s way.  

“Meh.  I’m fine.  I gotta go now…” Summer said as she picked up her backpack and stuffed the familiar mess of papers at her desk into it.  

“Without breakfast?  Don’t you have a test today?  You’ll need to eat you know…”  Summer rolled her eyes and gave her mom a quick grin.  

“No test and no time.  I have finals next week, and if I didn’t have to close every night this week, I wouldn’t have slept late.”  Summer grabbed her purse as she said this and rummaged through it looking for her keys.  

“Is it a day off for you?”  She asked as she finally found the silver keychain.  

“Yes..it’s Friday...”  Summer laughed and gave her mom a hug.  “I forgot what day it is!  Everyday seems to mesh together.  Well I’m off!”  Her mom smiled and hugged her back.  

“Have a good day dear.  I expect you’ll be home late then.”  Summer was walking out the door, when she turned to look at her mother before leaving.  She saw a happy 40 something year old shaking her head as her daughter was about to run into the door.  

“I’ll be home around 2 to 3 something…” Summer turned and ran into the front door.  

“Not a good day…” she muttered as she rubbed her nose and opened it.  Her mother sighed and pulled her blonde hair back.  

“Crazy girl…it’s a wonder she can get up at all….”  Summer dashed out of her home of 20 years and leaped over the plush green grass, almost skidding into the driveway where her old ugly clunky car was parked.  She quickly unlocked the door and tossed her backpack in the passenger seat as she got in the drivers.  

“Ok, it’s…” she looked at her watch in the car.  “It’s…crap!  9:45am!  I got class in 15min!”  She backed out of the driveway and left.    Summer started to drive a little faster, than she normally would, out of the suburban Seattle neighborhood and turned on the radio.  

“I forgot to grab a CD…” she frowned as she was now forced to listen to the endless blabber of news and gossip from the radio station.  

“Yes, and another strange thing happened in Tokyo , as a nasty dark storm ripped through the area, left quite a bit of damage there in the popular shopping district.”  Summer stared blankly ahead as she wished she wasn’t in traffic listening to news about a country that was across the ocean.  She yawned and turned left, right and left again.  

“Almost there….”  She thought as she was about the switch the station, but something made her stopped as she heard the annoying laughter ended…”and yes, perhaps the next big underground singer is going to be playing to twelve lucky winners.  He just announced the contest last night, saying that in order to be one of these twelve, you got to buy his CD, and next week, he’ll read the secret codes on the back and they have 12 minutes to text message their code back.”  Summer listen intently, wondering who this new rock artist was as she reached her community college.  

“I may want to enter…if I’ve heard of this guy…” she thought as she was skimming the parking lot for a place to park.  

“So lucky listeners out there, if you want to be in a private concert, featuring Alpha Darkman, buy his new CD “Twisted Space…” and perhaps you’ll win.  Some promotion gimmick, huh Jessica?”  Summer found a parking spot and turned the radio off.  

“Alpha Darkman?  Who the heck is that?  Oh well..sounds lame.  I’ll ask the guys.”  She looked at her clock briefly as she grabbed her backpack.  

“Aww…I’m ten minutes late.  Oh well, least the teacher won’t notice me if I sneak in quietly.  It’s a big lecture hall…”  Summer got out and locked the door and raced across the parking lot, almost running into a group of students discussing art forms.  

“Excuse me!” she said as she ran past. 

 “Argh…everything is getting in my way…not a good day!”  She thought as she ran through the double doors.  

“Ok, left, left, right…and another left.  Here we are…” she thought as she tried her best to open the door quietly.  The door creaked slightly, and as she entered, she spotted a seat near the back.  Summer walked quickly and snuck in the seat without making too much noise.  She rummaged through her bag as she heard her teacher tell the class about their final the next week.  

“Phew…she didn’t notice, or didn’t care to say anything.  Anyway I’m here…”  She found her notebook and began to take notes.  “Least this is my easiest class, I’ll just have to get the notes from…” her eyes scanned the hall and spotted a familiar ash blonde ponytail, sitting next to girl with long wavy white blonde hair.  “Sara, and Colleen….” Summer thought and grinned.  “Colleen always takes excellent notes and Sara has a photographic memory.  I’m lucky to have such good friends…”  Summer breathed a sigh of relief and started to focus on statistics.

--------------

“So how was work last night?”  Sara asked Summer as the two hour class ended.  

“What do you think?  Boring, annoying, irritating, and just bleh…” Summer replied as she smiled at the two girls walked towards her.  

“I figured you slept late today…” Colleen said as she gave Summer her notebook.  

“Thanks Colleen!  I’ll give this back to you tomorrow.”  Colleen nodded and looked at the now empty hall.  

“No problem, I knew this was going to happen.”  Summer felt a slight pang of guilt and gave her a nervous smile.  

“I’ve been doing this quite a lot haven’t I?”  

Sara laughed and pointed her finger to her temple.  “Lemme see, since the beginning of the semester when you got your job.  You just don’t know how to schedule things…” 

Summer started to laugh nervously as they left the lecture hall and wandered into the campus main commons.  “Well I need the money and it pays well…” Summer started as she felt Sara pat her back.  

“True, and least it isn’t one of those coffee places that make the barista’s dress in skimpy outfits.”    

Summer gave her a disturbed look.  “They do that…?”  Colleen nodded and frowned.  “Yea, but the barista’s like it.  They get more sales….”  Summer pretended to puke as she heard this bit of news as the two girls laughed.  “Say do you guys want to go out for lunch and tell me what I missed?”  Summer said trying to change the subject.  She knew both of them as well as herself this was their only class of the day.  “I’ll pay of course.”  Summer added grinning at them as she started to walk out the double doors into the warm late spring air.  

Colleen shook her head and sighed.  “I would love to Summer, but I have to pick up Sammy from daycare.  Next time maybe.  Besides, statistics isn’t my best class and I really need to study.”  

Summer sighed and whipped out her statistics book and started to hug it.  “I understand Colleen, but stats is the easiest!  I love math….”  

Both girls stopped and gave each other distressed looks.  “Crazy girl.” Sara muttered to Colleen, as she simply nodded in reply.  

“Well if you get stuck on a problem,” Summer said as she turned around to face them and started to walk backwards, “Just call me.  I don’t have to work that late tonight..” 

“Thanks for the offer, Summer.  I will.  Well goodbye guys, and Summer watch out for that…” Colleen broke off as Summer ran into a bench.  

“Owwwwww…” Summer cried as she fell and ending up sitting on it.  

“Never mind, try to remember to watch where you are going.  Bye!”  Colleen said as she shook her head and walked towards the parking lot.  

“Are you ok?”  Sara asked Summer.  

“Yea…it’s just good old fashion pain.”  Summer winced as she rubbed the back of her knees.  

“Is your offer still good?”  Sara asked as she helped Summer up.  

She gave her friend a smile and nodded.  “Yep, and I still need to know what is going to be on the final.  Just because I love the class, it ain’t going to do me any good not knowing what’s going to be on the test.  Sara laughed, and the two girls walked into the parking lot.

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“Alpha Darkman?”  Sara paused and looked lost in thought.  The girls ended up going to Arbie’s, Summer’s favorite fast food restaurant and brought their lunch to the park to eat.  Sara told Summer of what she had missed while they ate, and while Summer wrote down the notes she missed from Colleen’s notebook.  Now they were done eating, and they ended up walking down a sidewalk, gazing at the lovely scenery.  “Yea…I’ve heard of him, from my boyfriend.  He seems to like him.”  

Summer rolled her eyes.  “ Kent likes anything underground.  What do you think of him…?” Summer asked as she stared at her friend’s perplexed blue eyes.  

“Lemme think…I need to remember what he sings…”  She stood there thinking as Summer shrugged and watched some cardinals fly by.  “Pretty little things…” she thought as Sara gasped.  “I remember him now!  He’s really good, he has a unique and eerie sound.  I’ll get you a copy of his CD from Kent .  I’m sure you’ll like him.”  

“Ok then….”  Sara looked at her watched and sighed.  “It’s  2:00 already.  I gotta be at work in an hour.  I’ll get you that CD tomorrow, ok?  Who knows you could win that concert thing.”  Sara laughed at Summer’s dead pan stare.  

“First I got to like the guy.  Well thanks for the notes and I’ll see ya tomorrow then.” Summer said as she watched her friend run off.  “I really should go home, and say hi to mom…” Summer thought as she watched a small robin take flight.  “I wanna fly.  High into the clouds…I wonder what that is like…” Summer stared as the tiny bird became a speck in the clear blue sky.  Summer stretched and walked back to her car.  “No use wishing..it ain’t going to happen.  Still…”  she took one last look at the birds and sighed.  “I really envy you guys.  Flying without a care in the world.  Now only if you didn’t eat bugs…”  She unlocked the door and left the park and started to drive home.

“Great, she’s not home.  Must be going out shopping or something…” Summer thought as she hung her backpack off her computer chair.  “Well I have an hour to kill, let’s see what my email has.  She sat at her desk, that was at the end of the kitchen.  Since her room was too small for the elaborate old antique roll top desk, her parents stuck in the kitchen, trying to spruce up the quaint room a bit.  Summer, really wished she could have moved her stuff into her brother’s room, but since her mom and dad wanted an office, they took it over and did preciously that.  Summer was a tad annoyed but since she had her own little desk, she didn’t care that much.  She logged in her email provider and saw that she had six new messages.  “Spam, ew, spam, eh online sell back books…I’ll be doing that in a week.  Email from brother, and two more spam.  Ugh…these are going to the trash.”  She deleted the mail and stared at the only one she hadn’t opened yet in her inbox.  “Let’s see what you have to say this time…” she sighed and clicked on the link. 

“hey squirt.  how’s life treating ya?  almost done with your sopmore semester i hear, soon you’ll be an accountant and i can get ya job done here.  it would funny if you worked for me huh?  how’s the folks.  dad still doing that car salesman thing.  tell him I’ll call sometime sunday.  haven’t had time to call, because of my job.  have you gotten a boyfriend yet?  if you have, i’ll beat him up.  noone can pick on my little sis….” 

Summer rolled her eyes as she read this and was still amused that he never capitalized any letters.   “Sounds like your still a big dork…” she thought as she read the rest of the email. 

“work here is busy, but hey i make the big bucks.  just got a new car.  tell the old man i got a great deal on it.  how’s mom.  still cracking at in the webdesigning.  amazing she still has a job, after the dot.com fall.  tell her hello.  oh and btw i’m mailing her birthday gift.  i got her a really, really nice necklace, the one you liked when i sent you the link.  thanks for helping out there summer.  i’m not so great at things like that.  well i’m running out of things to say.  why don’t you tell me what’s happening up there, and not give me two sentences.  geez, you’re great at condensing things in email, but at home you never shutup.  why is that?  anyways i'll call sunday and you’ll won’t shutup.  hope you do good on your finals.  –Jonathan

“I do not talk that much!” Summer muttered to the screen as she hit the reply button.  “I’m doing fine.  Thanks for asking…..”  Summer stared at the screen and realized she didn’t know what to say to him.  “He’s right…I hate typing emails.  I prefer talking on the phone…”  Summer stared at the screen and laid her head on the desk.  “I’m drawing a blank.  I guess I’ll email him later…”  She logged out of her account and glanced at the kitchen clock.  “Time flies fast…it’s time for me to get ready and go to work.”  She frowned and dragged her big feet upstairs to her room.  

“Least he has a job he loves, the dork, being a Civil Engineer in such a cool place.”  She sighed as she opened the door to her room.  It was small to her tastes with her little single bed against the wall parallel to the window.  Currently she had purple sheets on her bed that was in a heap at the foot of the bed, tangled in such a way that an outsider would think she was using them to escape a fortress.  “Hmmm, Seattle is a cool city though…” she continued to think as she went over to her dresser and opened a drawer.  Even though she was never quite messy, and certainly not the definition of neat, the one thing she did regularly was have a spot for her clothes.  Each drawer was for something particular and currently she opened the one for miscellaneous.  Inside the drawer she pushed an old Marnier shirt out of the way and pulled out a pair of khakis, a dark brown plain long sleeve shirt and promptly shut the dresser.  “We have lots of fun things to do here, a neat baseball team…and…”  she smirked for a moment as she was changing for work.  “I wonder if the San Francisco Giants are coming here to play the Mariners?  I’ll have to check it on the web, and perhaps I can get Jonathan to come here so we can go…that would be fun.  Perhaps he’s a Giant fan?  If he is I’ll have even more fun as I watch my team kick his team’s butt!”  She laughed at this thought, placing her hands on her hips, looking like a insane squirrel with green hair that got a taste of sugar.  “First I have to go to work, then I look that up…” she thought as she abruptly stopped laughing and put on her shoes.  She picked up a long blue apron that hung on the back of her door and draped it on her shoulder as she left the room.  

She walked downstairs and heard the front door open.  “Mom, are you back?”  Summer said as she started to jog down.  

“No pumpkin.  I’m home early, to see her.  I take she’s not here?”  “Dad!  I didn’t think they let you off early.”  She heard a deep laugh as she skipped the last stair and gave her father a hug.  

“I asked for the afternoon off and they told me to come in tomorrow.  Gotta love compromise.”  He said as he hugged her back and started to stare at her red eyes.  

“Off the work early today huh?”  She nodded her head and frown.  “Yep, another exciting day of being a clerk and barista all in one.”  she in a sarcastic voice.  

“Of course, I know you’ll quit school and do this for the rest of your life.” He replied back in the same voice.  They both looked at each other rather seriously, but as soon as Summer saw his dark red eyes twinkle, she broke down laughing.  

“Dad!  You did again! You won another stare down.  Well I gotta go, oh and Jonathan says he’ll call Sunday.”  

Her dad grinned and yawned.  “You have a good day at work then, and we’ll see if he calls.  He tends to forget a lot just as you tend to run into every object in world.”  

Summer pouted a bit, “I do not…” and almost tripped over her two feet.  Her dad gave her a look of “I’m right” and waved at her as he went deeper into the house.  “Just because I have giant feet and I forgot to tie my laces…”she tied her shoes and left the house after grabbing her purse from her desk.  “Of course I run into things…I don’t watch where I’m going, like Colleen said.  That’s all.  I’m not a klutz.”  She opened her car door, threw her apron in the back ontop of a matching hat and drove out of the driveway.  “Dang it, forgot a CD again.  Least it’s the afternoon and there isn’t all that lame chatting…” she muttered as she turned on the radio and drove off to work.

“Welcome to Star-smucks.  What can I get for you today?”  Summer said in a exuberant chipper voice.  She continued to smile as she adjusted her blue ball cap on her head with the familiar logo of a expresso on it and stared at her customer.  “Oh great, it’s just Carl, wanting to flirt with Amanda…” Summer thought as she felt her smile disappear.  The gangly teen across the counter was peering around Summer, fixing his mousy long brown hair out of his eyes, obviously looking for someone.  “Sir, do you need more time?”  Summer said, less chipper this time, forcing a fake smile on her face.  

“Uh..is Amanda here?”  The teen stammered out.  

Summer bit her tongue as she fought the urge to whip out a smart comment to that particularly stupid question.  “She is working today, I’ll go get her…” Summer said in a monotone voice as she left the counter and walked to the back of the store.  “Amanda…”  Summer started as she found her younger co-worker stooped over something on the floor.  

“Uh..yes?  The lavender hair girl replied quite nervously as she dropped a small broom to the floor.  

“What happened?”  Summer approached her and instantly knew the answer as she saw the mess of coffee grounds and glass on the floor.  “Are you ok…?” Summer started to ask as the teen started to cry.  

“I didn’t mean too!  It was an accident, I was trying to put away these coffee mugs when I ran into the counter and knocked this on the floor.”  The girl was sobbing now, and it took Summer a moment to translate the girl’s explanation.  

“Ok, ok.  Take a break, I’ll clean this up.  No harm done.”  Amanda gave Summer a look of gratitude as she wiped the tears away with her sleeve, covered with coffee.  “You aren’t hurt, are you…?” Summer repeated her previous question as she was about to point out the fact the she just made her face dirty.  

“I’m ok…thanks Summer!”  She then got up and started to walk towards the bathroom.  

“Hey, Amanda…”  The lavender hair teen turned around and looked over at Summer.  

“Yes?”  she inquired as her brown eyes looked confused.  

“Carl’s here.  I’ll have Jesse cover you while you take a 15 min break, ok?”  Amanda nodded and gave Summer a smile before leaving towards the restroom.  Summer sighed as she picked up the small broom Amanda had dropped and looked at the mess before her.  

“Better get the dustpan.” 

 “Here you go.”  Summer turned around and saw a dustpan before her face.  

“Thanks Jesse.”  She smiled at her manager and then proceeded to tell him of Amanda’s latest accident.  Summer had been working with her for three months out of her six months there and could instantly tell the now seventeen year old was extremely accident prone.  Summer always knew whenever Jesse gave Amanda the opportunity to do something besides being a cashier, something would break, and usually Summer ended up cleaning it up, for fear of Amanda getting hurt.  Jesse shook his head and looked at the mess.  

“Summer, I’ll clean this up, you can…”  Summer dreaded the thought of going back to the counter, and started sweep up the mess as she replied back to him.  

“No, no, it’s ok.  I really don’t mind.”  She gave him a quick smile and hoped he would cover her while she cleaned up.  She saw his green eyes glance at the mess and back at her now cleaning it up and he shrugged. 

 “Ok then.  Be careful though, there is a lot of glass there…” he started as Summer vigorously nodded her head in agreement.  

“Don’t worry I will…”  she started as she heard the door open, indicating a customer came in.  “I better get that then, thanks for getting this Summer.”   He wandered off to the counter and Summer breathe a sigh of relief and continued to sweep.  “The past four days I’ve been at the counter, it’s nice just to take a break from it once in awhile.”  She thought as she empty the contents of her dustpan, into an empty aluminum coffee can.  She was lucky she had a nice manager and for the most part nice co-workers to work with.  She just couldn’t stand the customers themselves.  Caffeine, more specifically, coffee starved junkies that came in demanded for their special insert long ridiculously name for coffee, was not Summer’s thing.  She had a knack for making the most irate customer calm, which is why Jesse put her up there most of the time, but it was really draining Summer’s normal calm demeanor.  Many times she had to catch herself biting her tongue before she would say something sarcastic to the customer.  “This is for college, this is for my career…” she kept thinking as she looked for a trashbag and saw all the cans were overflowing.  “Gross.  I guess Mark didn’t empty this in awhile.”  She glared at a new mess she had to clean up as she was thinking unkind thoughts about her lazy co-worker, that had begged Summer to come in early last week, so he could visit his supposed sick little sister.  Summer walked slowly to the three cans and reluctantly pulled out the overstuff bags out of them.  

“Summer…?”  She heard Jesse’s voice and got distracted.  

“Yea…” she yelled as she suddenly got some of the trash on her.  

“Ugh…” she exclaimed as she succeeded of getting the bag out of the can and saw more coffee grounds on her apron now and on the floor.  “Great.  I knew this was going to be a bad day…”  

“Look if you want…” she heard Jesse started as she turned her head to give him a look that said, “I’m going to throttle you if you suggest helping me,” he gave her a sympathy look and walked briskly back to the front.  Summer turned back and glared down at the new mess and continued to fight with the bag and finally got it out of the trash can.  She had an eye twitch as she calmly wiped off the mess on her apron and quickly swept the grounds on the floor and put them in the trash bag.  After five minutes of fighting with the rest of the cans, being quickly spied on by both Amanda and Jesse who immediately dashed back to the front when she looked at their direction, Summer stared at five huge bags infront of her.  

“Maybe I’ll just call Jesse back her to help me with this now.  He seemed so anxious to help anyway…”  Summer thought as she slowly trudged back to the front, but stopped halfway after hearing Jesse and Amanda both handling the evening rush that started.  Summer sighed and went back to her dilemma, and rolled up her sleeves.  “Rawr, I am strong, I can do it!”  She grabbed one bag and thought better of picking up and dragged it across the cheap linoleum tile.  “Man what do we else do we toss in here besides old cans and milk containers?  This thing feels like a damn elephant is living in here…” Summer grunted and huffed as she picked it up and some how managed to get down the five stairs that lead to the store’s back end.  She then continued to drag it on the concrete of the alley the store was in back of and spotted the dumpster a few feet away.  “No way…” Summer frowned seeing how high she would have to have toss the bag in.  I feel like a wet noodle…and I have four more to bring out here.  Man I need to lift weights or something.”  She stared blankly for a moment and decided to drag the other bags out and maybe getting Jesse to toss them in.  As she was going back to the stairs she heard cats growling which caused her to look behind her.  

“Gwa?” She looked around but didn’t see anything and started again to the stairs, but heard the growling again, followed by hissing.  “I wonder..” Summer thought as she went towards the dumpster.  “Perhaps I shouldn’t mess, I mean several cats fighting, it could hurt if I separated it.” Summer had a mental image of her on the short clip on the news that featured interesting stories.  

“Today an employee was found mauled by several stray cats.  Her comment was she was just trying to separate them from fight.  Isn’t that ridiculous thing to do, and now she has to get 20 some odd shots for rabies…ha, funny thing…” Summer rolled her eyes and snorted at her over active imagination.  

“Yea, not happening.  I just wanna look that’s all.”  The closer she got to the dumpster, the louder the cats became, causing Summer to jog a bit and then she saw it.  Behind the dumpster were about five skinny stray cats of colors of white, black, gray and orange, surrounding a terrified creature.  Summer at first thought it was a mouse, but as she got closer, she saw it was a hamster.  She also saw the cats looking at her apprehensively.  “Hi kitties.  You don’t want to eat that cute little hamster.  I can get you all some nice milk…” Summer said in a voice that reminded her of her Aunt Lucy when she talked to her baby cousin, which made Summer smirk a bit as she stepped over two of the cats.  She cautiously bent down and stared at the cats, now only three still their wagging their tails impatiently.  She saw the hamster had its eyes closed; causing a slight panic in Summer.  “Is it dead?”  her eyes widened and after struggling with the thought of picking up a dead creature, she heard the cats meowing at her, as if they were telling her to get away from their hard earned meal.  

“Oh, pretty kitties, you don’t want to eat this…” Summer gulped and pick the warm little thing up in her palm of her hand.  “I’ll get you some really yummy milk.”  The cats eyed her as she walked away from them and headed back into the store.  “I can’t believe I’m holding a dead hamster…” Summer thought when she got back to her pile of trash bags.  

“Summer?”  “Crap!  It’s Jesse again.”  Frantically, she looked for a place to put the little thing and ended up putting it in her apron pocket as she saw the tall, red head walking her way.  

“You ok…you look upset.” He said.  

“I do?” Summer squeaked as she started to laugh nervously.  “I’m fine, really.  I was just going to get some milk for some cats outside.”  She wandered over to the huge refrigerator as she said this, feeling his green eyes follow her.  

“Um, ok.  Are you sure you are alright?” He asked again as she poured the milk in a saucer she grabbed and nearly dropped when he asked this.  

“Yes, I’m just spiffy.” Nervously she spouted out as she put the milk away.  “I do need some help though.”  She really wanted to get him out of her hair, as well as some time to get the hamster out of her pocket.  She saw him look at the bags and back at her again.  

“I guess so, these things are overstuffed!  Mark must have forgotten to empty these again. “ He said as he easily grabbed one.  Summer, if she could at that moment wanted to cry, watching him lift the bag she had so much trouble with.  “I’m a cosmic joke, aren’t I?” she thought as she exited the store with Jesse following her.  “Here, kitte…ooofp.” Summer stopped and almost dropped the saucer when she felt her apron pocket wiggle.  “What the?  It’s alive?” She thought as she heard Jesse tossing the bag into the dumpster.  

“Are the cats still there?” he asked when he noticed she hadn’t put the milk down.  

“Huh?  Oh, the cats.  Heh, um…”  She nervously stammered as she was more focused on her moving pocket.  “This feels so weird..hee, it tickles!” Summer was trying not to grin when she looked behind the dumpster and saw the three cats were still their, now looking at her with hope in their little eyes.  

“See, I told you so.  Here.”  She place the dish down and muffled a giggle at the same time.  “Stop moving so much little hamster, I’ll get you out of there in a minute.” She whispered to her pocket.  She got up and walked back and saw Jesse had waited on her.  

“I never like alleys, you know I always think someone is going to sneak up.  I really should have gotten this Summer.  Sorry.”  He said as they went back inside.  Summer wasn’t listening, and was trying hard not to laugh as the little thing was moving again.  

“It’s ok…Jesse.” She had a hard time saying this with a straight face, and he looked concerned at her.  

“You didn’t hurt your back or something did you?” 

 “Geez, what’s with all these stupid concerned questions now.  Just leave me alone, take out the trash and little me deal with this hamster.” She thought as she gave him a polite smile.  “I’m a bit tired.  I think I’ll take my break now.”  He seemed ok with that answer and nodded.  

“Alright then.  Just tell Amanda.”  

“Sure thing.” Summer happily replied and started to walk towards the front, but paused when he said her name again.  “Crud.  What’s with him today?”  she thought as she turned to look at him.  He was smiling at her and for a moment Summer thought he looked cute.  

“Those cats are going to be lurking around now since you gave them that.  I think it’s nice what you did though.”  He said as he picked up another bag.  

“Thanks, Jesse.  I hate it when strays get the short end of the stick.” Summer said to him as she saw him nod in agreement and walked out of her sight.  Summer walked to the counter and spotted Amanda who, looked just as tired as she felt.  

“Bad crowd?” Summer asked her.  

“Yes, they kept coming.  Are you back up here?”  Amanda asked hopefully.  “Not yet, I’m going on my break."  

“Oh.” She said with some disappointment but smiled at her.  “Thanks again for cleaning up Summer.” She added and turned to stare at another customer that was coming their way.  

Summer on the other hand walked towards the small broom closet that was called an employee break room.  Inside was a few lockers, two chairs and a small fridge.  Summer shut the door behind her and peered into her pocket.  She saw a mess of little black hair and some orange that was in there and Summer pulled the little thing out and gently placed it on the employee chair.  “Come, on little thing.  I know you are alive.  I felt you moving in my pocket.”  She poked it gently with her finger and stared at its hair.  “Weird, I didn’t know hamsters had hair.  You’re cute, you know that.”  The hamster twitched, causing Summer to gasp.  

“Oh!  You are alive!  Great.”  She saw the hamster open it’s small little eyes and watched it peer up at her.  “Hello!” Summer said enthusiastically.  The hamster’s brown eyes widened and as it try to get to it’s feet, it flopped on the chair instead.  “Eek.  You’re probably hurt.  Why don’t you rest for awhile.  Then after work I’ll take you home…” Summer looked at the clock on the wall and smiled.  “That will be in about 2 hrs.  I hope you can make it.” She said as she thought the little thing looked liked it fainted.  “Must be totally tuckered out.  Well where can you go, certainly, not back in my pocket.”  She looked around in the small room and stopped at her locker.  

“Aha! In here you go.  I don’t think Jesse or Amanda will see you here.”  She picked him up gingerly, and got the lock off the small locker where her purse was currently residing.  “It’s cramped, but it’s only for two more hours.  Just sleep, ok?”  She put him in and closed it up.  Just as she did so, Amanda opened the door.  

“Summer…” the girl cried frantically at her.  “Please help, there’s this old guy that keeps yelling at me!”  Summer sighed and nodded.  

“Short break.” She thought as she followed the lavender hair girl out.

---------

“Welcome home, little guy. ” She said as she stroked its hair.  She noticed it was waking up again.  “Hmmm, I just can’t keep calling you little guy or hamster…you need a name.” The hamster was slowly opening its eyes again as Summer thought of what she was going to call him.  “I know, how about Beatle?  You kinda have a Beatle hairstyle.” She smirked at the thought of the band that had the same name, becoming little hamsters with instruments.  She quickly snapped out of her strange thought when she saw Beatle stir.  “Hey, you’re awake.  I hope you are feel better, Beatle.”  She said as she watched his brown eyes focus on her.  She smiled when he sat up.  She laughed a bit when she saw him mess with his hair.  She found it odd he had something on his tiny paw. She thought it weird but neat when she saw him poke at the thing on his paw.  She was stunned when he replied back to her.  

“Thank you for rescuing me.”  He said as he smiled at her.  Summer just stared.  

“You’re welco….” She stopped at the automatic response she was going to give him.  “Wha…?  You just didn’t…” Summer’s voice dropped to a whisper as she brought her hands to clasp over her mouth.  

“…didn’t what?  Speak?  Yes, I just did.”  Summer who had been standing at the time, dropped to her knees, then flat on her rear end.  

“Bad..this is bad.  I’m dreaming or I’ve gone insane.”  Summer looked up at her dresser and saw the tiny hamster that just spoke peer over and looked down at her.  

“Summer?  Are you ok…?”  He asked her, the same question that must have been asked of her at least 20 times that day.  

Yet this time, it was a legitimate question as Summer felt dizzy.  Perhaps it was from the klutzy bumping into the doors all day, or the heavy lifting at work, but as she felt herself start to pass out, Summer knew it wasn’t any of those things.  She knew it was the hamster, the one she saved from cats, named and brought home, it was the fact it was now talking to her that did it.  

The last thing Summer thought as she saw strange black swirls appear in front of her eyes, was the strangest thing of all.  “Beatle, knows my name…?”

END Episode Two.