tooprettytodie | For Jessica

The changing of the island to the old west had thrown off Valkyrie's date plans just a bit. She had actually planned a really cool date with Jessica only to have the entire island screw things up by changing into the American old west. It was like they were stuck in a horrible theme park.

The one saving grace was that she had been able to coax a decent looking outfit from the clothing box, where most of her friends had been stuck in some really horrid dresses.

As it was, with a few days preparation she'd been able to figure out a fairly decent substitute for the date she had originally planned. All in all, it had taken a little bit of hard work and a note to Jessica to meet her closer to 3 o'clock than to one but it was going to be worth it. If things went well, maybe she'd have to see if Jessica wanted to try her original idea once they got back home. In the mean time, she thought this would be pretty fun.

The fact that Jessica was so fun was the only thing keeping Valkyrie from being overly nervous at the moment. This was her first official date with a girl, which was kind of a big thing. Did she like girls? Did she just like Jessica? Are you there God, it's me Valkyrie?

Well, either way, whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. Unless, of course, Jessica stood her up.

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"So are you, Jessica Drew," she said, smiling at the way the other girl leaned against her. It was nice in a way that she didn't have to over think or analyze.

The rain really started to pour down, but fortunately the roof remained leak proof for the time being. Which was good, because the lightning storm off in the distance was amazing. No matter how much magic she saw, nature never ceased to amaze her.

"This is what I was hoping we could see."

The shelter can officially be called a shelter, I think, since we don't seem to be in imminent danger of being soaked. Although given the general level of sweltering heat, that wouldn't be entirely terrible.

Still, shelters in the middle of the rainstorm do have that nice coziness about them. Plus, it's a heck of a view.

"Dinner and a show," I say, watching the lightning strikes. Nature is frickin' amazing. "Did you know each of those is superheating the air around it to be hotter than the actual sun?"

"I didn't know that," Valkyrie said. It was kind of a cool fact and one that could potentially prove useful some day if she needed something that was hotter than the sun. Science was pretty cool.

"You'd think the atmosphere would burn up with that sort of heat."

Surface of, technically, but provisos kind of weaken what is still a neat fact; really, the surface of the sun is still a hell of a milestone to be beating.

"It does, a little!" I say. "Sort of. The heat expands it outwards in a supersonic shock wave, which is what's making that sexy rumbling sound we call thunder."

"So how come it's a rumble," Valkyrie asked, suddenly realizing she had all sorts of questions about lightning that she never knew she had. She felt they were safe to ask too, not common knowledge things she'd have learned if she went to school on the island. Jessica knew them because Jessica was brilliant.

"I mean, other explosions are more of a boom or like a whip breaks the sound barrier and it cracks."

"Good question," I say, warming to my subject, and the chance to drop some science to my captive audience. She seems receptive, that's cool, she even asked the question. I dig it. "Solid thinking. The whip's kind of a good starting point, because it has a tip, right? The end. The thing about lightning is that it's coming from the whole thing, it's a line stretching up to the clouds." I wave my hand in front of us, up and down, then pointing at the top of a convenient lightning strike.

Field trips are awesome. Or... dates with a dash of field trip are. "Which are further away, yeah? So you get the noise from the part closest to you first, and then the rest rolls in gradually."

"Rumble is sound coming at different times, that makes sense," Valkyrie said with a nod. Jessica seemed to be getting excited about the subject, or enjoying it at least. She guess if she heard several sonic booms slightly spaced apart it would sound like rumbling thunder.

"And can you really tell how far away lightning is by counting how long between the flash and the thunder?"

"Yup!" I say. "A perfect demonstration of the relative differences of sound and light. The flash goes at the speed of light, the thunder at the speed of sound, so the further away you are, the bigger the delay. It's not an exact metric, of course, but as on the spot calculations go it's pretty sound. Ha, sound."

"Pretty sound, I like that," she said, giving Jessica a shoulder bump of appreciation. The other girl was definitely quick with the quips, which Valkyrie definitely liked.

"You know, you give pretty good date, Jessica Drew."

"You know, so do you," I say, bumping her shoulder back in turn. There's a moment where I wonder if I should lean over and kiss her, just like a peck on the cheek or something. But I'm not sure if that's overkill or underkill or what, and there's the previously discussed situation where I don't know myself well enough to know if that's a place where I should be going. So I go with something safer and say, "We should do this again."

For Jessica

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