like o like h [caitlyn]

Caitlyn felt bad that they'd been pushing this back... and pushing it back... and pushing it back so very much, but hang-out sessions with Nell were always pretty rare. It wasn't that they didn't want to get together or anything, because Cait would never complain about Nell's company... but ugh, if there was anymore to do, she was pretty sure she'd have just collapsed. Even in the summer, which was a break from school and therefore probably the best time to really see her, they hadn't really had time. There had always been something that'd come up, and so after discussing it in class the one day, it was literal months later that they were finally able to settle on a day. It wasn't until the first week or so of the next semester that they could for sure decide on this day, but that was okay by Caitlyn -- she really just felt bad about pushing it back so many times. Every time, something had come up -- work, a student's piano recital, a volleyball game, once an impromptu visit back home because her younger brother had wound up in the hospital after breaking his arm (but luckily he would be okay).

Now, she was finally able to drive out to where Nell and Josh lived, and it was nice, even though she had a steadily growing pile of homework already in just the first week of classes. It was the weekend, though, and this meant that she had free time, so the afternoon and possibly a little more, depending on what they wanted to do, was all for Nell. Caitlyn could be considered flighty, but she would try, especially for friends as close as Nell. Her inability to put this first was probably the reason it had taken so long for them to get together, though. She drove up the long driveway to the huge mansion -- wow, she'd known Josh's family had money but she'd never been here and seen it before -- and parked, walking up to the pretty impressive front door, where she was greeted by a butler who showed her in. "Thank you!" she said happily, settling for waiting in the foyer as the man left to get Nell, and it wasn't long after that (though she wouldn't have been surprised if it had considering how huge this place had to be) that her friend came hurrying in with a towel. She waved back.

"You were washing the pig?" Cait asked with an amused grin, shaking her head a little. She was pretty sure Nell realized how strange that sounded, too. "Ooh, sure, I can do that! Lots of cute pig loving, got it." She didn't have any animals, but she did love them, even though admittedly she didn't think she would get a pig herself. Still, unless Nell and Josh were planning to butcher Winston for bacon -- which she hoped they weren't, oh gosh -- she thought that this was definitely quite cute. Never having been here and obviously not knowing the way, she followed along all the way to the (also huge) backyard. "Oh, I'm good! I have so much to do already. But it's kind of good to be back... just kind of." Caitlyn smiled and shook her head. She liked keeping busy actually, truth be told, so any complaining she did was just something that happened once in a while, nothing people should ever take seriously. "How about you, how've you been?" Once Nell had finished drying off the pig, Caitlyn plopped herself down next to the two of them. She didn't exactly know if there was some kind of specific way to hold a pig while its hooves were being trimmed or anything, but he was definitely really adorable. "He's so cute! Can I cuddle with him? Can I pignap him?"

Farms were lovely and all, she was sure, but Caitlyn wasn't too sure that all of them gave tours or let people in all the time like zoos did, so she had to admit that if it was a farm she'd feel very special. That said, farms also tended to raise the animals for slaughter (a sad but ever present fact of life), so she was pretty sure this was more like a zoo in that sense. Really though, it was just a big ol' house with Nell as the crazy cat lady, only there were also dogs, birds, and a piggy involved. There were probably more, too, but she didn't know what they were off the top of her head. "Let's go with a zoo. Or a zoo-farm. Like a petting zoo on a farm," she said, because she was pretty sure those existed. She had visited a couple as a kid, with her parents! "Awww, what a hunk," she said with a small laugh as she thought of what Winston must look like. She had yet to ever see him, after all. "It's okay, I'm sure I'll understand his feelings just fine." How heartbreaking it'd be if she never noticed and reciprocated the poor little piggy's love.

She understood that it was a joke and so Caitlyn just laughed, shaking her head. It was sweet of her friends to worry but really, she was just fine and she didn't think there should be much of a problem. She wasn't severely lacking in sleep, at least not to the point that she wouldn't be able to go on with her day given a little bit of caffeine, and she was here and happy to be. "Well I hope that if that happened, you'd bring me a pillow or something," she joked back, amused at the idea of really just curling up and staying there after collapsing on their porch. Tired as she might have been sometimes, Cait had her limits, and anyway she did just fine in staying awake because she had things to do. "That would be nice though! Like... the Caitmobile. But it has to stay between us, you know... if I am a superhero after all." She tried to sound mysterious but it probably didn't work as well as she hoped. She was not, after all, really Bruce Wayne.

Caitlyn tilted her head a little bit to the side. "Aw, where is the new job?" she asked, because she remembered Nell mentioning something before but she couldn't remember exactly. Cait had too many things to remember in a day for herself, and while she tried, it wasn't always easy to pull off. "Hm..." She considered what it would be like to have to take care of Winston for a second,t hen shook her head. "Okay, you're right. I'll just leave the pig to you as long as I get like... visitation rights and stuff." This had gone from pignapping to taking legal custody of a pig. Caitlyn knew that these things were very different, though. A little bit of knowledge of the law had helped her with that -- Forensic Science student and all, she had to know at least a bit. "But this is true. I just can't provide anything upper class for him..." She sighed as if saddened. Caitlyn was just in her one lonely apartment by herself, after all -- her parents were quite well off but they were further away and even then their home was nothing close to the Dale mansion. "Hm, can do!" she confirmed, taking the pig from Nell and turning his face towards her so that he wouldn't be able to see the... trimmers, or whatever it was they were called. "How often do you have to trim his hooves?"

It shouldn't have even surprised Caitlyn that people thought Nell and Josh were crazy though, now that she thought about it. Keeping around a whole mess of animals was definitely weird in more ways than one, but actually, she thought it was really cute, and she would have loved to keep pets if she could. She could afford neither the time nor the money for one, though. She'd just steal some affection from all of Nell's and Josh's animals for now."How many times has a neighbour gotten mad at you so far for all the pets?" she asked, smiling. Maybe their neighbours weren't like that, though -- that would definitely be nice if it were the case. She hadn't been here before and honestly wouldn't have been able to say. "Poor guy. I never meant to embarrass him," Cait said, pretending to mope for a second before smiling. "But, but... hopefully he'll forgive me. I'll give him food! Lots of food." She didn't know what pigs ate actually, but she would probably be able to come up with something. She liked to cook despite how infrequently she actually got to do so.

Sheesh, Nell would have been one pretty lousy friend if she hadn't actually brought Caitlyn a pillow as her one and only request, but luckily they were both joking -- she was pretty sure... -- and so there was nothing too heavy going along with this. "I'll even take a kind of uncomfortable one if you throw in an old newspaper or something for a blanket," she said, nudging her friend a little in the side. Fortunately for all present company, she had no intentions of falling asleep on anyone's porch. She felt fine, really! She did occasionally get stupidly sick when she overworked but those were just... things that came with it. Cait took as good care of her body as she could manage. "Boom, Caitman there to save the day," she said, then frowned a little. "Wait, I'm not a man. But other than that!" She thought on this, smiling in amusement at her own kind of stupid comment. Nell wouldn't judge her. Nah. "My Morgan Freeman, huh?" she asked with a grin. "Good choice!" That was one reference that she did get, luckily. She was sure people (namely Nell) would have strapped her to a chair and forcefed her movies otherwise.

Wondering just how long ago she'd learnt that Nell had a new job in the first place, Caitlyn nodded her comprehension. It must have been quite a while ago, actually. She couldn't remember it being in recent memory -- eh, she had no idea anymore. "As opposed to what kind of dealer -- oh." She started the question then stopped when she figured it out, shaking her head a little, but there was a smile on her face still. Cait generally was happy around Nell. "But that's good if you like it! What was wrong with the concert hall?" she asked, curious, unaware of any potentially deeper reasoning behind it all. She was expecting "too many crowds" or "annoying co-workers" or something, but that was just very typical things to complain about in a job.

She tapped her chin a second as if in contemplation, then nodded. "Fair enough! I'll be here every Saturday at ten then. And I'll take the piggy out for brunch." No, she knew that she could never reasonably do every single Saturday morning, and she was sure that Nell knew it too. They would have probably had this day for hanging out way earlier if her schedule were that flexible. "Or you can drop him by my apartment any time. Just sneak him in through the window and let him munch in the kitchen." This part was definitely anything but serious. She didn't want a pig, even one as cute as Winston's, running amok by itself through her apartment. She barely spent time there as it was! Who knew what he could get up to? "I'm sorry Nell," she said, sighing a little, but she could remember the days before Nell had moved in with Josh. She'd been there to visit a couple of times then, in the other girl's little downtown apartment. "I just don't have the money. But one day I will and then I'll come back for you if you wait for me." Actually, she didn't have much intention to make a fortune or anything, certainly not to the extent of the Dale family. She just liked what she did and hoped that she would in the future, but okay, having a good job would be nice. Cait was determined to get there.

"That's good," she said softly, playing around with Winston's free limbs as Nell worked on the other hooves. This pig really was such a cute little thing, and Caitlyn would have probably pignapped him if she were... well first of all capable of taking care of a pig, and second of all awful enough to steal someone else's pet. She released Winston once Nell seemed to be done, patting him on the head a little bit before getting up to follow her friend. Pigs were cute but friends were cuter... or something! "A proposition?" she repeated with a frown, understanding the word but unsure of what this might be. It didn't seem to carry any negative connotation in this context, though, so she just shrugged and followed Nell inside. "So what kind of proposition is it?" she asked finally once the curiosity was a little bit more overwhelming.

Caitlyn wondered what she'd think of her neighbours had a ton of animals. Then again, she lived in an apartment building so she would be very concerned if any of her neighbours managed to fit this entire petting zoo in there. As for back at her parents'... well, houses were probably better for that, but even so it would probably still be weird. She supposed that as long as Josh and Nell didn't have their pets running around on their neighbours' expensive properties, which they seemed to have avoided thus far, then it would be fine. "Oh, yeah! I do know Knox," she confirmed nodding. The Earth was a year younger than her (and Nell), and Caitlyn... didn't know much about him except that he was very shy and now apparently that he lived near here. "He's so quiet," she said as a random observation, because this was most of what she knew about him. "Adorable though." This proposed movie scene made her laugh. "Pigs need to be in every romantic movie. It's not a romance without some cute little piggies thrown in!" Winston was indeed very cute.

At the prospect of having to sleep on a cold, hard porch with nothing but an uncomfortable and probably lumpy couch cushion, Caitlyn wrinkled her nose. "So mean," she said, sighing. "I guess I'll have to deal with that, though. I probably wouldn't even notice if I was really that tired." Well, of course she couldn't. She'd be asleep! Cait wasn't too heavy a sleeper but then again she had also never passed out like that before. "No, it doesn't. Supercait?" she suggested, frowning a little and trying to think of any other superheroes who could maybe fit the role. "Um, Wonder Cait!" That was as far as she got, though, before she wound up just giggling softly, unable to continue. Caitlyn really wasn't a superhero by any means, she was just a girl with a schedule that was too busy for her own good. "But I'm sure you'll make a great Morgan Freeman!" Then again, he had the voice of God, so she was pretty sure nobody would ever be able to compare. He was kind of a boss.

Cait pouted a little when she was laughed at, but then she laughed too, not actually offended. At least she had realized it afterward. There were other people who would have done the same but not figured it out... right? She couldn't think of any off the top of her head, but then again Cait didn't have a wide circle of people that she knew very well. She had a huge group of acquaintances and people she got along with more than anything. "You're not that sorry," she teased, shaking her head. "But I see! That's good. Is it fun dealing?" she asked with emphasis on the word "dealing", bringing to mind her own slip-up from just seconds earlier and cracking a grin as she did so. Caitlyn wasn't totally beyond laughing at herself, at least not with things like this

Unlike Nell, she had a fairly good understanding of the law but she also had no criminal record, and so she would have had no real qualms about seeing a judge. "I'll call one up. We're booked for next Friday." Of course getting to see a judge wasn't actually that easy, but she would pretend that it was. It was just Winston after all -- maybe if they'd been married (or not) and had a real child then this would be a little different. "Is he really that heavy?" she asked, unsure of how big pigs actually normally got. They were actually pretty large, actually, if she remembered correctly, but Caitlyn was not an expert on farm animals. "Indoor pool and infomercial product closet. Got it," she said, pretending to make mental note of this. She probably could remember if it were serious, but as it wasn't, she was sure she'd forget in a matter of minutes. Caitlyn probably wouldn't deny an indoor pool either, though -- but the whole bit about infomercial purchases was a little more shaky.

Winston seemed to be pretty relaxed, just laying there in her lap sort of, and Caitlyn giggled a little as she poked him. If it weren't so weird, she would probably want a pig too -- not that there was anything wrong with being weird, but while cats and dogs and such were allowed in her apartment building, they might have second thoughts about a pig. Once they got inside, she was forced to stand still for a moment as Winston scurried about around her, but then she followed Nell into the kitchen, leaning on the counter as she waited. The news brought an excited smile to her face. "No way! I mean, it's been a while, but --" She wrung out her hands a little too before she stopped, realizing what Nell was actually asking. "Aw, Nell, I'd love to be a bridesmaid! Or something! Or anything. Whatever you need! Are you going dress shopping? Can I come?" Caitlyn was no expert on wedding dresses, though. "Oh, what day is the wedding, anyway, have you decided yet?" Though she'd never consider skipping one of her closest friends' weddings -- definitely not -- it would be easy if she could block out the entire day in advance. Plus, she'd just like to know -- this was exciting! She adored both Josh and Nell.

(i am so sorry this is so bad, i'm like... ridiculously sick. x__x but i started this a while ago and i wanted to finish this and post. ANYWAY YEAH I'M SORRY.)

Caitlyn made an almost appalled face. "I am not a house cleaner!" she said, pouting a little. It wasn't like cleaning was a bad thing to do or anything, whether out of a real desire to be neat or as an actual profession, but Cait did not in fact clean people's houses... Really, she rarely cleaned her own apartment, but she spent so little time there that it remained in relatively good order anyway. It wasn't like the girl lived in filth! Then she realized, courtesy of the hand motion that was made, that Nell had meant house cleaner as in a cleaning product and she stopped, giggling at herself a little. "Oh, wait, you mean... house cleaner. Like Mr. Clean. Because then I'm okay with that. Do I get a Magic Eraser, too?" She couldn't be either a superhero nor Mr. Clean, however, so she wasn't sure this would be the wisest idea. "Would Morgan Freeman really smite anyone, though?" The man had the voice of God, after all.

People had to be a very nice part of it, and Cait had to admit that this was one of the better parts about teaching piano all on her own, no one to help or anything of the sort. As a result most of her students were quite young kids, and she really did like children. "Are there a lot of people who get mad?" she asked, because she'd never really been in (let alone worked in) a casino before. Still, if it was good for Nell then Caitlyn was happy for the girl, and it did seem that she enjoyed it more than she had the concert hall -- though Cait would have loved a concert hall job, but of course she did prefer teaching piano. It was nice having slightly more flexible hours, because she was able to work lessons around her classes and vice versa. "How big does a pot-belly pig get?" she asked, frowning. That would help her with figuring this all out. Again, farm animals were really not an area of expertise. "But, but... you wouldn't really turn him out onto the street, right? He still gets to stay in the house." She was sure that Nell and Josh would never do such a thing, so this was mostly a joke.

Caitlyn made a kind of "meep" sound when she was tackled and hugged, but without hesitation she wrapped her arms back around her friend and hugged her too. It was a weird position to be in, in some really fierce hug rocking back and forth (and back and forth...) in the middle of the kitchen, nearly managing to knock their glasses over, but luckily there was no lemonade spill crisis on the counter. "Nooo, I mean -- thank you for asking in the first place! Of course I'd be happy to!" was all she managed to squeeze in at first before Nell kept on rambling and rambling, and Cait just had to giggle and shake her head. "Um, thanks! But you're going to be the prettiest lady in the whole wide world, you know. Awww, getting married! My baby is growing up," she said, pretending to wipe away a tear like a proud mother -- she wasn't of course Nell's mother and in fact she was younger than the other girl, but when she thought back to when Nell and Josh had first gotten together... Wow, that had been a long time ago, and she was all smiles now and excited for her friend.

"I'd love to help you pick out all the dresses you want. Even if you want to be one of those brides who changes her dress like, ten times." Cait had always thought that was overstated, honestly speaking, but if this was what her friend wanted then it was what she'd get -- finances allowing and all, but that didn't seem a problem for the young couple. "Oh! Do you have any other bridesmaids yet? Or like... I don't know, the things you need for a wedding," she said, forgetting what any of these things might be in her flurry of excitement -- things like a flower girl and the like. She figured that Josh would also have his own entire side of things to deal with, and she made a mental note to ask him about this later. "Okay! I'll clear out the whole day. Whole week if you want. I don't know! If you need help getting anything ready and stuff... And I guess if you're going to want to have a party," she said, giggling. Oh, a bachelorette party. She wasn't sure she'd ever be any good at planning one but, naturally, she just hoped Nell enjoyed every part of this.

(SORRY WE CAN KEEP CUTTING LENGTH GRADUALLY IF YOU WANT but caitlyn had a lot of excited feels. XDDD)

Though Cait wasn't a gambler, that made sense to her. Even the best dealers or cheaters wouldn't be able to pull a victory every single time. Slots were definitely rigged, though. It didn't even make sense for a casino to make the slots fair. She was sure they knew how to play their cards right (teehee, she was so punny). "Do they really get cheated by the dealers?" she asked out of curiosity, thinking of all the different ways there could be to rig a deal in favour of the house. Caitlyn was no expert on such matters, though. She didn't even know how to play most typical casino games, though she'd been taught most things a number of times -- she just didn't have opportunity to do it often, and it was the kind of thing that she expected would require more practise. "Nope! Is it fun? They look so shiny and nice," she said, thinking of the various casinos she'd seen before, whether in real life or in movies or TV or something like that -- always big and golden and nice, which she guessed made sense since they were supposed to give people the feeling of winning big. "Twenty-five inches is pretty big. But I don't think they make Gucci shoes for pigs," she said, laughing and thinking of the way pigs' feet were shaped. No, Gucci would be very weird if they did something like that. "Maybe Jimmy Choos?"

It was weird because they were actually the same age and Caitlyn couldn't picture herself settling down to the point of marriage yet at all, but then again Nell and Josh had been together for quite a long time at this point and after all, it wasn't like this marriage thing was total news. They'd been engaged for a pretty long time as well. She wondered about this random announcement now when they'd gone months without talking about it, but Nell seemed happy and that made Caitlyn happy and really, it didn't matter much what led up to this so long as everyone was happy and they were happy together. "And then you'll have your own kids hanging from monkey bars before you know it!" she teased, though she wasn't even sure if Nell and Josh wanted kids, but the joke was harmless anyway, right? "And then grandkids and you'll be Grandma Nelly." Then again, that was a long ways off. Cait was happy to hear that Nell would still have time for said single ladies, though, though she wouldn't have expected anything less. That would be tragic. "You'd better! Takes more than marriage for you to be able to get away from us." Sheesh, that made their friendsihp sound scary.

Cait just waved a hand in dismissal of this. "But it's your wedding!" Though she kind of understood the whole wanting to please people thing, in the end, it was definitely about whatever Nell liked... and well, Josh too, but she wasn't sure he had much of an opinion on dresses. Caitlyn did, but it was still definitely not her own special day. Relationships required more time than she was sure she had at the moment, considering the last Mr. Super Demanding she'd dated. Wedding planning, however, was something she could do, at least in the sense of helping one of her best friends pick out dresses and the like. "You'll have a huge wedding party," she said, laughing a little bit, but it made sense -- Nell was kind of a social butterfly. "But that'll be perfect! And awww, Annabel. Definitely cute!" It was a fitting choice for a maid of honour, too, considering they would then be future sisters-in-law (sister-in-laws? Caitlyn didn't know). "Awwww, Nell," she gushed for what felt like the millionth time, but there was no getting over this -- it was big news even if she'd known it was coming eventually! "Are you nervous? Are you excited?!" She really couldn't get over how exciting it was for her, so Nell's feelings as the bride-to-be had to be over the top. She hoped so, at least. It'd be kind of sad otherwise.

She made a soft squealing sound as she looked over at Nell and the huge smile on her face, probably even wider than Cait's own, which had to be very difficult to accomplish because her cheeks were starting to hurt -- but she was happy, she couldn't help it! "Aw, Nelly, I'd love that but I think you have a real life with Josh. Plus I don't want to drive all the way to Vegas," she joked, and it was just too painfully obvious that she was by the way she still couldn't stop smiling no matter what she did now. "I mean, all I can do for you is play piano! And if my hands broke one day that'd be the end of that. So I think I'm good if you don't call off the wedding but just let me be a bridesmaid," she concluded with a nod of real finality, as if this were a matter of complete seriousness. It wasn't at all, though, because she knew that Nell would never do that to Josh. Gosh, these two were so cute, and she never thought that she'd be able to describe Josh as cute, but here they were, and he was about to get married too. She was distracted from these thoughts when Nell questioned the party, however. "Yes, there's a party involved!" she said, smiling in amusement at her friend's (lack of) knowledge in this field, but it wasn't intended in a mean way at all. "You know, a bachelorette party. Like a bachelor party, only with your girl friends. And male strippers." She giggled softly. Would Nell want male strippers? Well... she wasn't sure. What would Nell want...? "Oh!" She got it now. "Unless you'd prefer clowns. I'm sure you could get clowns too."

Caitlyn would take Nell's word for it, but she doubted that she'd ever actually wind up at a casino with the intention of gambling. She didn't know any card games that typicall involved gambling these days, as a matter of fact -- they just weren't things that had come up or that she'd had time to do. "I don't even know how to play anything, though, so I guess I just shouldn't go in general," she said, thinking on this for a moment before deciding that it was fair enough. She didn't have too much of a draw towards the places anyway. "I guess if I had to run a casino I'd have to rig the slots too, though." Then again, she never would have the guts to do such a thing, because Caitlyn was just too moral for it. "Ooooh," she said, already fascinated by the idea of an adult amusement park, before she stopped. "But... but I like regular amusement parks just fine, though," she added after that, a little put-off. Would a casino be as fun? She doubted it somehow. There was such a great vibe around amusement parks, and Cait decided that at some point she and Nell would have to go to one... though probably at some time when it was actually open.

It would be pretty amazing if she could look into the future, but unfortunately this wasn't the case. This didn't stop her from playing it up, of course. She put on a quizzical expression for a second so that she could act like a legitimate fortune teller. "It's a bit hard to see the specific details," she said after a moment of serious hard thinking, "but! I have Seen! And I've Seen that you definitely have a daughter named Caitlyn. Yep." Cait smiled, obviously teasing -- she'd never expect her friends to name any kids after her, though she would think that it was an incredibly sweet thing to do. She wondered if Josh and Nell actually did have names for future children, though. If they did, then this prediction was a pretty pointless one. "Maybe not kidnapping, maybe enticing," she said, giggling a little bit. "We'll give you lots and lots of ice cream if you come iwth us." This was said with no malicious intent, obviously -- she'd never really try to take Nell away from her family if that was the place the girl wanted to be. Caitlyn just hoped that they ever had time for one another in the future, but hey... they didn't have much time these days either and they were still friends.

Anxiety and excitement tended to go together fairly well, but this was probably especially true for brides-to-be. Caitlyn knew very little about all of that, of course, having never gotten married herself -- and with no intentions of doing so for quite some time in the future, to be perfectly honest, though this was mostly because she never had time to so much as date anyway. "Of course!" she answered, still smiling broadly and giggling along when Nell did. This was too exciting for words. "You won't, you won't screw up at all! We can definitely practise! Do you have shoes or anything?" She assumed that Nell would be walking in heels, so those would of course be best to practise in. Did brides usually practise walking down the aisle? She had no idea, but she was sure many had done it. "But you won't mess up at all, you'll be fine and so pretty and -- awww, you and Josh will be so cute." She was really just so excited for both of them, and she couldn't stop smiling, and oh goodness this wasn't even healthy she was sure, but how often did her friends get married? It wasn't very often at all.

If Nell had needed it, Caitlyn might actually drive to Vegas for her, but then that was a strange situation and she never did know what she'd do when these things came up until they really did. Then those were times to make those difficult decisions in life. "I guess I can live with that," she said, heaving a long sigh. She really couldn't think of any reason for both her hands to break, but that would really be one of the most awful things in the world. She couldn't even imagine that. "And you'll be the most beautiful thing ever!" she added onto Nell's long ramble, smiling, because for all they could say about bridesmaids and all of that, it was Nell's day to shine and be lovely and everything in the end. Cait would never want to take even a tiny piece of that away, but as a bridesmaid she would love to do anything that her friend needed her to. "Generally, yeah! Or just friends or whatever, but I'm sure we can throw something together for you," she said, beaming. Parties were always fun. "You'll have to decide what you want, though. Or something. No strippers. No clowns... That's not much to work with!"