Closed Head's Not Screwed On

[Andi Hart]

Craaaaaaaap, Andi thought as the store owner's eyes locked on hers. Look, the girl needed a necklace okay, and Matron didn't seem to think so. Of course, there were some gorgeous earrings as well, but Andi didn't have her ears pierced, so the sparkly necklace was the next best thing. Andi tried to subtly walk towards the door of the street store, the necklace not so subtly shoved in her pocket, but upon hearing the "excuse me", Andi let out a bark of laughter and started racing away, hearing shouts of "stop!" as she reached the door.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya watched her do it. She had some serious guts, stuffing a necklace in her pocket in the middle of a crowded store. The short-haired Russian edged around a rail of clothing to see if she would make it to the doors. She was rooting for her - but it wasn't enough. Crap. What could she do? The store clerk was moving towards the door. Doroteya reached out and grabbed her arm. "Help," she said. "A man is following me. I don't know him." The clerk looked conflicted, but then turned fully to her and began asking questions. When she was sufficiently distracted, Doroteya glanced out of the window and said, "Oh - I see my mum. I am good now. Thank you, goodbye!" And with that she legged it out of the store, wondering if she might catch up with the girl.

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi turned around to see if anyone was following her, in time to see another girl grab the clerk and ask for help. With glee, Andi kept running until she rounded a corner and she was sure she was out of sight. The young girl stopped to catch her breath, giggling as she took the necklace out of her pocket and held it against herself; she couldn't wait to properly try it on. Andi poked her head around the corner, and saw someone running in her direction, so she quickly pulled back and pushed herself against the wall, pretending to be invisible.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya had plenty of experience finding good hiding places. It didn't take her long to spot the girl's head pop out from behind a wall. Glancing over her shoulder to be sure the clerk hadn't followed, Doroteya broke into a sprint and skidded around the corner. "You - are stupid!" she exploded. "You wait for no-one is looking. Everyone is looking, you don't steal, or polices take you to prison!" Doroteya triple checked nobody was coming after them, then finally took a good look at the jewellery. "You steal cheap necklace? Why?"

 

[Andi Hart]

As the girl skidded around the corner, Andi threw up her hands, pretending that she knew karate, ready to poke the girl in the eyes and run away again. Luckily, the girl didn't seem to be there to arrest her, though she did seem angry. "Look, I haven't been arrested yet." Andi stated, matter of factly. "It's not that cheap. And it looks good, doesn't it?!" Andi asked, holding it up to her neck, showing it off.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Well, that wasn't going to protect anybody. "You will, if you will be obvious!" Doroteya said. If the girl had stolen more than once, and she was always this careless, then it was quite frankly a miracle she'd never been caught. "Don't... wave it. Put it-" Doroteya snatched the necklace and stuffed it into the girl's pocket- "there. Now, I help you, because of this, I am for trouble, when polices come. Run - run, run, run, please."

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi snorted at the girl's comments. "Alright alright grumpy, I'll show you a sweet hiding spot." She said, grabbing the girl's hand and running down the alley and out onto another street. On the corner of that street, there was a McDonalds. "Come on." Andi said, racing there and straight into the bathroom where she stopped to catch her breath.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Weaving her fingers into the stranger's, Doroteya ran. She would have preferred to put at least a few streets between herself and the store they'd fled, but it seemed unlikely anybody would come looking for them in a McDonald's bathroom. She went to the sink and splashed some water on her face. Her hair looked greasier than usual and desperately needed cutting - not that it ever did much good, as it always seemed to grow back the next day, often with an even stronger opinion about how it wished to arrange itself. All of a sudden she began to laugh and struck an exaggerated karate pose. "You," she said. "You are funny. What is your name?"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi leaned against the wall of the bathroom, breathing heavily, trying to catch her breath. She laughed loudly when the girl copied her karate pose. "I'm freakin' hilarious." Andi said in agreement. Pushing herself off the wall, Andi took out the necklace and moved to stand next to the girl. "I'm Andi. What's your name?" She asked, putting the necklace up against her neck again, looking at what it looked like in the mirror with a grin.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Andi didn't seem to have noticed that Doroteya was laughing at her - or if she had, she didn't show that she cared. Doroteya didn't mean it unkindly, anyway. Not entirely. The girl was a loose cannon, a little bit thick, perhaps, but she had the kind of boldness Doroteya dreamt of. She hesitated before offering her name. "I am Doroteya," she said. The mirror above the sink seemed to throw reflections from two completely different worlds. What was it like to steal plastic trinkets for fun? What was the point? If you were going to risk getting a criminal record, you might as well steal something worthwhile. Something necessary. "You steal cheap necklace often?"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi muttered the girl's name under her breath a couple of times, trying to cement it in her head. It was a bit tricky to remember. Andi laughed at her new friend's question. "Usually I just 'borrow' things, but I think I want to keep this one." She stated. "I thought about grabbing the matching earrings too, but I don't have my ears pierced! Now, do you - do you know how to do this?" Andi asked, still holding it up to her neck but moving her hair in hopes that Doroteya would put it on for her.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

"Oh," Doroteya said, as if Andi had made any sense to her whatsoever. She thought she knew what most the words meant, and she could use context to fill in the gaps, but either something had gone wrong in her translation, or Andi was being cryptic. Quite possibly it was the latter. People here loved to take a serpentine route to the point - if they ever made it at all.

Doroteya took the two ends of the necklace and examined the clasp. It didn't look too complicated, and it wasn't, though it was incredibly fiddly. Finally she secured the thing and stepped back. "Hmm. You look pretty," she conceded. A lot prettier than her. "Do you feel scary? I stole once some moneys, from old man. I think he could not run, but he run fast! Like, uh... big cat? I was very scary. So, I never steal again."

 

[Andi Hart]

Although it took a few moments for Doro to get her necklace on, Andi didn't mind as she looked at how it sparkled against the light reflection in the mirror. Andi definitely loved sparkley things, but never had a sparkley thing of her own. Now she did. Once Doroteya was done, Andi turned around, beaming at the girl's compliment. She definitely felt pretty. She felt like a million bucks. Andi tilted her head in confusion when Doro asked if she felt scary; she wasn't sure why a necklace would make her look scary, but eventually Andi understood what she was saying. Scared! "Oh, big cat, yeah a tiger." Andi said, matter of factly though she had no idea what she was talking about. "And oh, you mean scared? I don't think I was scared." Andi said, thinking for a moment. "It was just exciting. But this - hella worth it, right?" The girl asked, spinning back around to look at it in the mirror again.

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

"Scared," Doroteya repeated. Scary made more sense. English was so complicated. She looked sceptically at Andi as she admired her stolen goods again. "No, it was twenty dollars. And - not real. Cheap! And now they will know your face. You are stupid." Doroteya knew a far better - and completely legal - way of getting free stuff, but she wasn't about to share it with someone she'd just met. All of a sudden her stomach growled. "Are you hungry? You want food?"

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi scoffed at Doroteya's comment about the necklace being cheap. Twenty dollars was not cheap. And she definitely was not stupid. "It's not like I'm going back there anytime soon." Andi muttered, not letting the other girl deter her spirits. And then, her new friend brought up the topic of food, and Andi was instantly distracted. "Hell yes. But, McDonalds makes you pay before you get the food." Andi said, putting her necklace in her pocket, having managed to unclasp the it (which she loved, by the way. hella worth it).

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

"I have moneys," Doroteya said, though she was careful not to sound as though she was bragging. In her experience, there really was honour among thieves, but blindly trusting somebody with no reason to be loyal to you was a good way to get robbed. "I will pay yours - come, and be normal, OK."

The restaurant was busy. Doroteya joined the queue and glanced discreetly around the room, relieved to see nobody official-looking. If anybody was searching for them, they were searching in the wrong place. Doroteya only hoped they had time to eat the enormous portions of food she ordered for herself and Andi - burgers, chips, chicken nuggets, and Cokes to wash it all down. It made quite a dent in Doroteya's change, but she had spent too long without enough to eat to be stingy about food. Besides, she got the impression Andi didn't often eat at McDonald's. Her excitement was amusing.

After they had eaten, Andi offered to walk Doroteya home. They chatted - or rather, Andi chatted, and Doroteya listened - all the way, until they came to the shop above which Doroteya lived. "I am here," she said, gesturing to the bleak building. "Inside, it is better than outside."

Godmodding approved

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi would be eternally grateful for Doroteya for getting her McDonald's. Occasionally she would be able to grab some left over fries from people who were 'too hungry' and didn't finish their food. Andi never understood that. She had never tried their chicken nuggets before, they were incredible.
Andi loved getting to know her new friend and was eager to hang out with her more. By the time they had walked to Doroteya's house, Andi had made up her mind. She had to show this girl the floating tree. "Next weekend. I'll come pick you up. There's somewhere I want to show you."

 

[Doroteya Melnik]

Doroteya was taken aback. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had friends in Russia, but... those friendships had been made of necessity. In school, she had been mostly avoided. “OK,” she said. “On Saturday, I see you. Goodbye.” Once she was inside the shop, she allowed herself to smile. She’d really made a friend. And she wanted to show her something! If today had been anything to go by, it was bound to be exciting. The weekend couldn’t come quickly enough.