Capítulo 15: Feeling Any Better?

Ivy's head felt a little better after a couple hours with her headphones on. She was ready to go shopping for costume supplies with Lydia after school.

Her friend planned to wear a reddish brown tee shirt with Sparrow's insignia ironed on and a white skirt with a black cape and gloves. The hero also wore an eye mask that matched her shirt so they had to find one of those too.

Brown Recluse's costume was a little easier. She wore a simple full-body brown leather jumpsuit with gun holsters on each hip and matching boots. No mask. Though her hair was dark red so Ivy would need to find a wig.

The simplest thing to do was go to a Halloween store. Since it was October temporary ones had popped up in empty storefronts all over the city.

Lydia already had the shirt and skirt she needed at home and was only here for the iron-on decal, gloves, and cape. Ivy had nothing so she looked at the Brown Recluse costumes with dismay. They all cost more than $30 and she only had $20.

Her mom had been so excited that she actually wanted to participate in a school event that she had given her money for her costume. This was definitely out of character.

Ivy wondered if she would be able to get away with wearing her headphones without looking like a total freak. Probably not. Earplugs would have to suffice. At the very least they would take the edge off. She would have to bring a whole lot of Ibuprofen with her too.

Plain brown morph suits were within her price range…but she would also have to buy a brown leather belt with the holsters to go on top of it. An idea struck her. Ethan! He had one of those somewhere from dressing as a cowboy for Halloween a few years ago. Morph suit it was.

She already owned a pair of brown leather boots so this would work. Hopefully she wouldn't look too lame.

'Which eye mask should I get? They don't sell one in the right color that isn't a part of an expensive Sparrow costume pack...' Lydia fretted from the next aisle over.

Figuring she would help her friend out, Ivy decided to search through the men's costumes on the other side of the store. Sure enough, they had what she was looking for and it only cost $6.99.

"I believe you were looking for this?" she asked nonchalantly while dangling it in front of her with two fingers.

Lydia grinned at her. "Thanks! This was the last thing I needed to find. How did you know?"

"You already had everything else; it wasn't hard to guess," Ivy lied.

Her friend didn't question things like this too much by this point. It was a common occurrence throughout their friendship. Ivy was amazed sometimes that she hadn't completely given herself away by now. Maybe Lydia was really dense.

'Ah, I really hope Adrian likes it! I did my best with my budget. I really shouldn't have blown so much on that top the other day,' Lydia lamented in her head.

Just like that, she was off in her own head again. Ivy didn't mind. Every time this happened she was able to sit back and relax a little, not being expected to respond. This was the least difficult part of being Lydia's friend. The most was being expected to try and fit into her extroverted lifestyle.

Sometimes she wondered why Lydia still seemed to like her best out of the many friends she had accrued since sixth grade. By all means, it didn't make sense. They didn't even hang out as often as the bubblier girl wanted to.

After all this time Ivy would have thought the girl would give up on trying to spend time with such a reclusive person. But no. Lydia insisted.

Once they left the store with their purchases they ended up getting cheap $1 tacos from a nearby taco chain and debating where to go to dinner with the boys before the dance. Ivy wanted to keep it cheap but Lydia didn't want to seem like bad dates.

In the end they compromised by settling on a popular hole in the wall Italian restaurant that wasn't terribly expensive. It was better than fast food but wouldn't completely deplete their wallets.

Ivy went straight home to work on homework once she had eaten. Not working on it during lunch like usual had her behind the curve. She reluctantly spent the rest of the night on it, trying to drown out her brother's raging thoughts as he played his video games next door.

===

Ivy stayed up way too late working on homework and once again was dead to the world during AP Lit. Keeping her head off of the desk took tremendous effort.

Carson noticed. 'Is this a pattern with her or what? Is she a night owl or something? Or is she still sick? She always seems so tired during first period. Maybe giving her a copy of my notes will perk her up a little.'

His concern was unusual—no one noticed her enough to care about these sorts of things—but she was oddly touched by it. Carson was a good guy. He had never thought anything truly unkind about anyone during their many years of shared classes.

Not many people were like that. Most had bad things to say about teachers, friends, parents, siblings, or classmates. Ivy had heard more than her fair share of negativity toward others throughout her life. Finding people who weren't like that was refreshing.

At the end of class she yawned and idled by her desk for a little while to give Carson a chance to catch her.

"Hey Ivy, I have those notes you asked for. Are you feeling any better?" he asked as he approached.

She smiled at him. He wasn't saying that out of habit; he genuinely was concerned for her well-being based on his thoughts earlier. Ah, he really was nice. "Yeah. It was just a headache. I get them sometimes but they pass after a couple hours of peace and quiet."

'Oh good, she isn't dying,' Carson thought. Ivy had to hold back a laugh. Did she really look so terrible? 'That sucks about the headaches though. I wonder how often they happen. Is that why she seems so out of it sometimes?'

He wasn't terribly off base; both were related to her telepathy. But it was surprising that he paid enough attention to her to make a connection like that in less than a full week. Nobody else noticed her spacing out unless the teacher busted her for it.

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