Page 14 of Mixing Drinks For Tipsy Weasels

So maybe I understand her better than I think I do. Which isn't something I've thought about Erica Stubbs for a long time.

Chapter 8

Erica

I step into the room,surprised to find the scaffolding has completely gone. The arch we've been painting for the last couple of weeks glitters, and I have to admit that it looks better than I expected it to. I worried when we were painting that it was going to end up looking a bit amateurish, but it's come out well.

Footsteps sound behind me and I turn to find Rupert arriving.

"No Sami today?" I ask.

"He wasn't in the flat this morning," he answers.

"Ah, so his attempts to get D's attention are going well then?"

"How do you know about that?" There's a hint of surprise in his voice.

"He's not very subtle about it," I respond. "Most people know."

"Ah. I didn't realise."

"That Sami was crushing on D? Or that people knew about it?"

"The latter. Sami told me about D himself." The way he says it makes it seem like there's something more to it, but he doesn't give me any indication of what that might be. "The arch looks a lot better than I thought it would."

"Mmm. We did a good job," I respond. "But now we're going to be moving on to the other stuff."

"It's a shame, I enjoyed being able to run up and down as a weasel."

I laugh. "That was a lot of fun. I think there are some streamers that need to be put up along the edges of the archy. We can be weasels for that."

He raises an eyebrow. "Are we supposed to do that?"

"Climb around an academy room in our shifted forms?" I check. "Probably not. I imagine there are several rules about it."

"You're going to suggest we do it anyway, aren't you?"

I can't help the cheeky smile on my face. "It's the quickest way." I head over to a box and pull out a couple of balls of what look like ribbons.

I throw one of them to Rupert and he catches it easily.

"I'll race you up there." Before I can even respond, he brings forth a shift, turning into his weasel form and racing for the wall.

It only takes me a moment to realise what's happening. I shove the ribbon into my pocket and call forth a shift. There's a rigging rope over to my left. I'm not sure what it's attached to, but it's going to be a good way to get to the shelf that leads around to the arch.

They should really have left the scaffolding up until we could hang these, especially if they don't want us to do something like this and run around in our weasel forms.

I get to the spot where the wall ends and the arch is a few feet away. I twitch my nose as I look around to try and work out the best way to cross the gap. On the other side of the arch, I can seeRupert doing the same, and that just makes me want to go faster so I can get there before him.

I spot a light fixing and head backwards so I can take a running jump. I reach out with my front paws and throw myself around the fixture. It swings back and forth at a slightly alarming rate and I try not to think about how far down it's going to be if I fall to the ground.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Erica!" Rupert calls.

I manage to just about twist around so I can see Rupert at the edge of the arch. He's back in his human form, standing on the platform behind it.

"Here." He has a pole of some kind and holds it out, steady so that it's right in front of me. Slowly, I reach out and take hold of it, letting go of the light and scampering down until I'm behind the arch.

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