My Funny Valentine

Johnny grabbed some food from the AFW commissary once he hung up with his mother. Taylor was eating with Dixie so he was on his own for now. The food was pretty decent, all things considered, but AFW seemed to spare no expence, even on cafeteria food.

After he filled up, he made the rounds. He was hoping to find someone he knew that he could hang with but he had no luck. He decided to hit the nearby AFW hang out bar and see if he could run into anyone there. At least he could grab a brew before he met back up with Taylor.

As he stepped outside, he took in a deep breath. It was a nice night. He walked to the bar but stopped. Instead of going in, he decided that he could hit up a bar a few blocks away. He hated to waste a good night like this and he could always mingle with the local patrons instead of seeking out AFW folk.

Swish, swish, swish.

On rollerblades, earbuds in place, iPod set to play her all time favorite album, Jamie Valentine was getting down.

Gettin' down, even.

In time with the music, she swished to the left, kicked her other foot, pumped her shoulders, swished to the right, repeat. She shook her hips and threw in a little spin move. She was hot stuff on rollerblades. The other people on the sidewalk had probably never seen someone as good as her.

She glided past a bus stop and in between pedestrians, around a tree in a neat semi-circle. She was feeling great. She had had a string of days where she had made more money that she knew what to do with. Like, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEN. She had eaten the food she wanted and stayed in a motel. She was living large.

AND she was adding yet another skill to her arsenal! In addition to being a deadly, rollerblading, yo-yo ninja, who was also pretty dangerous with a sewing machine, she was teaching herself to DANCE! It was like anything, where when she really put her mind to it she started to figure it out really fast. She had a lot of time to practice, and only had to stop when her iPod ran out of battery.

While she was boogieing down, flying down the sidewalk and only half paying attention, she rounded a corner, and zipped around a streetlight. She found herself face to face with, and almost crashed into, someone she recognized immediately as THE GUY FROM THE THING WITH THE TUB AND THE GIRL. OH. MY. GOD.

During the resulting lapse in concentration, she lost her balance. She wobbled and flailed her arms, ran in place like she was on a treadmill while her skates ka-chk'd under her. She had almost recovered, though, before she hit a short ramp that accelerated her downward toward an alley. The grand finale for her spectacular wipe out was a girlish shriek, followed by a face-first collision with the side of a green, steel dumpster.

Clang!

She dropped in a heap, completely unconscious while Chali 2na continued to fill her ears with hot fire.

"We be the oasis/We show taste by making the whole place shift/We show faith to people with no patience..."

As johnny was coming up to the turn, he saw a blonde on skates zip around the corner at a furious pace. He could barely catch a good look at her but one thing was certain,he was about to get plowed into. She was tiny so Johnny braced, ready to accept his fate and hopefully keep them both from going down.

Unfortunately his efforts were in vain. Jamie had stopped before they collided, sort of. Her graceless skittering and stumbling had veered her in a different direction and Johnny watched as she crashed into a nearby dumpster.

"Oh, shit!" The silver haired Higurashi rushed over to her and was instantly knelt over her. She looked out of it and his heart began to beat faster. Hopefully she was ok. Hopefully she wasn't dead.

"Oi! Oi!" He said, nudging her. He didn't want to move her too much but he had to see if she was alright. He pulled out his phone while his hand continued to gently nudge her arm. "C'mon, dude." He said. "Wake up, man!" He urged. "I'm gonna call for help. Don't be dead and junk!"

Before he dialed he took one look, pushing away her bangs to see if there was blood or a big knot on her head where she crashed.

"Guh... wha...?"

Jamie sluggishly spluttered to life, shaking her head while her eyes struggled to open. She put a hand to her forehead and opened her eyes to see Johnny's gorgeous face hovering over hers, his strong hands delicately brushing her hair to the side. It was exactly like a dream she'd had...

"AIE!" She yelped out of shock when she realized she wasn't dreaming. She sat bolt upright, and then became dizzy and flopped back down. "Wha... what are you..." She muttered. "Mm... I think I hit my head. Jamie's not my real name, ya know..." Then her eyes suddenly focused on Johnny, and she noticed the phone in his hands. She sharply sat up again and swatted at it. "What are you doing? Who are you calling?!"

Johnny's brow continued to knit in concern even as Jamie sputtered out the first signs of life. However, when she finally show up, Johnny had to pull back to to keep from knocking heads with the blonde. She seemed like she was freaking but Johnny tried to keep calm. He was pretty good at that.

"Dude, you totally wiped out and ate the dumpster." He explained. "Are you ok, dude?' He asked when she started to freak out, even knocking the phone from his hand. "You weren't movin man. I thought it was serious so I was gonna call an ambulance. I didn't want you to, like, die and junk man. Are you sure you're alright? You should be more careful man." He said, still leaning close to her with a worried look on his face as he reached over to grab his phone.

"Why don't you take it easy for now? You might still be hurt and junk. You crashed pretty hard, dude."

"A what?" Jamie squawked. That couldn't be good! They worked with cops and stuff! "No, no, no, no, no. No ambulance. I'm fine!" She started to get up to show him how fine she was.

But if she was fine, then they would just go their separate ways. That wouldn't be good either!

"Well..." She stopped short and put a finger to her lips in thought. "I don't think I need an ambulance... I just need a minute... toooooooo... feel better. Um... maybe you could just make sure that I don't die or have a seizure or a subdural hemorrhage. And my head reeaally hurts, so I think you might have to, um... help prop it up. In case I have a neck injury, it keeps the blood from getting stuck in my neck, otherwise I could suffocate!"

Genius!

"Ok, dude!" Johnny said as Jamie started to get worked up. "Like, it's cool man!" He said as he pocketed his phone. "I'm just glad you're alright man, I'll do whatever." He said, smiling at her. As he was able to look her over, she started to look familiar but Johnny couldn't quite place it.

"Uh.. yeah." Johnny said and slipped a hand behind her neck, letting her head rest on his strong hands. "I don't think this is really the best thing but, I'm not a doctor and junk. COuldn't we just, like, go somewhere where you could rest up for a little bit until you're sure there's nothing seriously wrong with you? You totally splatted, dude." Johnny added, frowning.

Johnny then titled his head. "Like, you seem familiar and junk. Have we met before?"

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

Jamie closed her eyes and leaned her head back into Johnny's hands like she was enjoying a day at the spa, not that she had ever been to one. Been serviced at one. As a customer.

She had to think of something romantic to say, about how they had met once in passing on a train, he was getting off as she was getting on and their eyes met, he turned and watched longingly as the train pulled out of the station. She was wearing a sundress and a pretty hat, and he was shipping out for the military or something.

"I saw you in the tub," she said. That wasn't a good start. "You're soooooooo hoooootttttttttt..." She cooed dizzily.

"Tub?" Johnny said, blinking. He was pretty sure he'd never been in s tub with any chicks before. Johnny narrowed his eyes, leaning in a little more closer as he scrutinized the blonde. They'd definitely never fought. He was pretty sure he'd maul Jamie in the ring. He definitely never had sex with her. Those were the only two things he could think of where a tub and a hottie could be involved.

Then, suddenly it clicked. Johnny snapped his free finger.

"Wait, I got it!" He said. "You were that chick that kept me from throttlin Talia! Man." he said, as if her cooing declaration of his hotness had gone unnoticed. "Like, you totally saved my bacon and junk. Sorry I couldn't, like, keep from crashin though."

Johnny furrowed his brow and looked around. He suddenly realized that he was in the middle of a street holding a mostly strange girl's head while she was...

Johnny looked down and blushed instantly at the placid face Jamie wore. "Um... dude? We gotta get off the street and junk..." He said. "There's a cafe just a few doors down... you could rest on the bench or somethin..." Johnny was starting to feel a creeping awkwardness at the situation. How the hell did this always happen to him!?

"Ohhhhh, it's whateverrrrr..." Jamie drawled.

She suddenly perked up, sitting upright and looking Johnny in the eye. "Cafe?" She said. "Really? You'd take me to one?"

She quickly fished around herself on the sidewalk and found her iPod, still intact and mercifully so. She would die if it broke. She wound up the thin cords of her earbuds around it and stuffed the whole thing in her satchel, and then put her hands down flat to stand up on her rollerblades.

"If you buy me something, I'll show you a magic trick!" She exclaimed, and began to fish through her satchel for her deck of cards, her tongue just sticking out between her lips. She vaguely recalled losing it when her last Three-Card Monte table went awry...

"Ha HA!" Found it! She triumphantly pulled the thing out of her satchel and held it up high, only to see that it was her stungun and not the cards. "Eheh..." She sheepishly put it back. "I know they're in here somewhere..."