Jennifer looked over her reflection in the mirror on the back of her closet door, eyes roaming the jeans and a t-shirt under a jeans jacket. It looked comfortable and flattering.

With half a mind, she wondered why she cared. She had a boyfriend. Why did she care about what the new girl in town thought of what she looked like?

Pushing aside her wonderings, she put on another coat of lipgloss and, glancing out the window to the still empty street, wandered downstairs. She said her goodbyes and walked onto the porch to wait for Valerie...

But she was already there, lying against the maple tree in the front yard, right where Jenni couldn't see from her bedroom window. In black cargo pants and halter top with converse hi-tops and a leather jacket, matched with a ponytail and sunglasses (aviators fit over her glasses?), she pulled off 'hot and unconcerned about her apparel' better than Jen, but Jen couldn't bring herself to care. She felt for McKay, because being attracted to a Sheppard wasn't easy.

She jogged over, and could tell when Valerie noticed because she pushed herself onto her elbows and smiled.

"Sup?"

"Nothing much. You."

"Good. We good to go?"

"Yeah."

"Help me up."

Jenni reaches down and pulled the other girl up. She froze slightly at the proximity, but started moving again to turn Valerie around.

"You're covered in crap."Valerie laughed, brushing it off.

"Perv. Stop staring at my ass." Jennifer stuck her tongue out at the other girl and pulled her towards the sidewalk, and they walked arm-in-arm towards town, Valerie slinging a backpack over her shoulder.

"Why are we going to the pet store, anyway?"

"I have pets that need feeding and i need cage mulch."

"You have pets?"

"I have a snake, Dave has a tarantula."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"What kind?"

"I have a pilot snake, he has a southern baja rose."

"That sounds girly."

"Well, normally it's dark blue, but when it molts, it turns pink."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I have pictures."

When they got there, Valerie bought a dozen white mice (which she put in a traveling cage she pulled out of her bag), food for the mice, and a thousand crickets, which were in a cardboard box. She also got a bag of cage lining.

Jennifer carried the crickets for her and then left them outside Dave's room with a map to the pet shop, Valerie knocking before pushing her into her own room.

She helped set up the mouse cage and put the mice in, and she met Susan, the 80 inch pine snake. She was shiny and black on top, and milky white on bottom. She was also very nice, wrapping around Jenni's arm and letting herself be scratched on the head as Val changed the mulch in the cage.

And then they spent a few hours playing with Susan, who would play fetch with a cat toy.