I'm sorry. And Caro sounded it. I didn't know you held it so close. I'll be sure not to listen in next time.
There was hurt behind the apology, and a gentle sadness - and she just couldn't rage at either. Not coming from the woman who lived next door and felt like home. Lizard swallowed her need to puke and tried to grow up. It's mostly about you guys anyway, not about me. Freddie was right - she needed to give her freaking poems some clothes.
Well, we'll see if it's about you, said Caro, hurt subsiding, and something else in its place. Helga's coming.
Lizard turned - and quaked. Helga carried purple. And smocked. And some seriously smoking black leather pants. Frack.
Jennie turned her camera away from Lauren's laughing face, catching the sudden tension radiating from her student-in-hiding. Something was up - and whatever it was, Caro had caught a piece of it. What's up with Lizard?
Helga's picked her an outfit.
Jennie snorted. No way that was the whole story - unless it involved turquoise pom-poms, and she was pretty sure the flapper dress was still running around on Jodi. And what else?
She leaked, and she'd rather not have. Caro's mind was uncharacteristically ruffled. I listened a little too closely and caught a bit of her poetry. I should know better.
Being a mind witch was sometimes a minefield of ethics, but Caro respected lines as well as anyone Jennie knew. You okay?
Of course. Caro brushed off the concern. I got swept up. She's an artist, that one, and it called to me. No excuses, though, even if she's painting pictures with her words.
Jennie finally understood. Caro was a marvel with a paintbrush, a vivid and evocative artist. If Lizard had tapped into that with her words, Caro would have wanted to connect, artist to artist and witch to witch. And one delinquent blonde fairy probably wasn't ready for that. It was too damn bad - Caro was a hell of an artist, and one of the most decent human beings on the planet.
The small shriek from behind the clothing bunker suggested that Helga had found her target. And if that hadn't caught the attention of everyone in the room, the cursing would have.
"I don't wear frilly crap. Or stuff that isn't black."
"Of course you don't." Helga's voice was motherly, calm, and utterly determined. "Do you want the boots or the sandals?"
"I'm not wearing this stuff." Lizard sounded like Leo ramping up for a monster toddler tantrum.
"Personally I like the boots best, even if it's summer." Helga sounded smooth as glass. "They're better for stomping around in. We small women need to make the earth shake when we walk - it's more fun that way."
"I don't stomp!"
"Well, you should try it then." Helga chuckled. "Give a little booty swing while you do it. That'll make all the cute boys look." Jennie managed not to inhale her soda. A couple of other people in the room weren't so lucky.
Lauren leaned over. "Should we be rescuing Lizard?"
"I don't think so." Jennie sent out a cautious mindprobe. "It isn't all temper tantrum. Something going on back there is scaring her at a different level than her fashion sense." And sucking her in. Whatever Helga had carried behind the mountain was calling to Lizard.
And making her denial really loud.
Jennie winced. Maybe someone really should ride to the rescue. She moved to get up - and then sat down in a rush, hands diving for her camera, as Helga pushed Lizard out of hiding.
Killer black leather boots - the fierce, stomping kind with heels. Leather pants that moved like a second skin. The sexiest purple smocked top Jennie had ever seen. And a black beret that should have been way over the top - and wasn't.
Lizard looked like a poet. A bombshell rebel poet.
Oh, Helga - what have you done? thought Jennie ruefully, and snapped the picture her fingers were itching to take. A Doubtful Poet. Perhaps not as good a title as Nat's, but she could hardly call it anything else with the angst shining out of Lizard's eyes.
Then Jennie felt the reverb of Lizard's mind slamming shut - and the directed flare coming from Caro. The kind that signaled a mindsend with some serious force behind it.
Lizard scowled. Caro mindsent again - with enough power to make Jennie wince, even though she couldn't hear the words.
The words are none of your business, sent Caro tautly. Just mine and hers.