Speckles the Sweetheart

Lizzy is squatting, sitting on her heels so she can wrap her arms around her legs. She is staring at Speckles her rooster and he is staring back. He keeps loosing the staring contest by blinking. Lizzy understands he is a chicken and does not have the brain capacity to play the game but it makes her feel a little better just being in his presence.

"You know what?" She asks him.

He clucks out of the sheer fact that she talked.

"You may be out for blood but you are so kind to your girls. You use to take their food and I was thinking we might have to eat you but you straightened out. You show them where the food is now and you're always watching for predators." 

She reaches in the cage and strokes the feathers on his chest. He is only alright with it because if he attacks then he would hurt his hens. They are beside him pecking at some crimped corn Lizzy brought them.

"You're a good boy." She tells him closing his cage door.

He stands a little taller and starts clucking louder and strutting around. Almost as if he is proud. His hens are done eating so they follow him to the outside run they have. Lizzy barely smiles as the flock leaves.

Lizzy has been doing the same routine almost everyday since school started. Go to school, work, maybe home work and sleep. She talks to Dragon, Tate, Stephen and Hitohito still at school. Hitohito did give back the frog after he cleaned it from spilling ice cream on it. Stacy has been busy between work, school and Alex to pay Lizzy much attention. Lizzy also hasn't been working with Bob since she doesn't want to be in Alex's presence for long periods of time.

"Alright. You've been moping for too long." Karen states. As Lizzy is walking for the goat barn.

"What?" Lizzy asks confused on why Karen says she is moping.

"You're appetite has gone down by 30 percent.... 30 percent! Now you're eating the amount an average person your size and age would but your doing manual labor. So as a result your body is pulling its fat reserves and frankly hunny. You didn't have much to begin with." Karen darts her facial expression down and back up. "And I let it slide for a month. Hoping that the hours you have buried yourself in work would make you feel better. Then you proved me wrong because we are on month two."

Lizzy looks down at her now looser t-shirt and jeans. She realizes that it is fall by the leaves changing colors. The cool breeze hits her bare arms. Now she is wishing she had a sweatshirt. Lizzy is in shock from waking up from a mental fog. Karen sees Lizzy's expression change and her scans picked up Lizzy coming out of the depression she had sunk into.

"Now all that work wasn't for nothing either." Karen says. Lizzy looks up at her. "You managed to make every goat in this barn want you in some way or form."

It's not often Lizzy gets a compliment from Karen so it hit her hard. When she walked through the goat barn door all 120 goats in the barn were looking at the door hoping it was her. Some of them started talking and others start standing or jumping up on the gates and walls to see better, a handful wanted treats, some wanted scratchies, a few wanted to play and others wanted to go out for a walk. Bea just wanted everyone to go back to not liking her owner so she could get more attention.

"Hi everyone!" Lizzy is happy to see them. 

She would not have noticed she had finished earning the trust with all the goats if Karen hadn't said anything. She just had a routine of going into the pen praising the friendly ones then singling out the timid and scared ones for one on one brushing time. Turns out doing that everyday paid off.

"Hey Karen?" Lizzy asks.

"Yes?" Karen replies.

"How many hours did I work?" Lizzy asks cautiously.

"If I say the number out loud I would be reprogrammed for not intervening sooner." Karen states.

"It was over the legal amount?"

"Yep."

"Not too much right?" 

Karen gives her an "are you serious right now" face. 

"I'm so sorry." Lizzy says pathetically in Karen's opinion.

"Eh. I get to power down at school so I'm not complaining about me being overworked. Now you seem alright in the barn." Karen looks over at Lizzy buried between goats keeping warm. "But I can go retrieve a sweatshirt for you since you will be freezing leaving the barn tonight."

"That would be amazing." Lizzy replies nuzzled between the goats fighting over her.

Karen goes to leave.

"Hey Karen!" Lizzy calls out.

"Yea? What now?" Karen yells back.

"You're pretty great you know that?" Lizzy is happy to have Karen around. She isn't big on sugar coating things.

"You just now realize this!? I have known this since day one!" Karen yells. Then mockingly mumbles about kids these days while leaving. Karen keeps an eye on the camera feeds while she flies to the dorm to get Lizzy's sweatshirt.

Lizzy chuckles and starts making her way through the pens so everyone can have attention. As she goes she apologizes for not fully being there mentally.

.     .     .     .     .

It took a week but Lizzy got her stomach stretched back out to her normal eating capacity. Karen also has been storing calorie dense foods in her carrying compartment to help Lizzy gain the weight back. She not only has to eat enough to keep up with the calories she burns from work but she has to take in enough to gain the fat and muscle she lost.

Lizzy is sitting at her desk. Munching on a lemon flavored snack bar that Karen had packed for her. Drag is sitting infront of her. His head in his arms on her desk looking up at her. Stephen, Tate and Hitohito are to the desk next to her talking over a video game.

"You seem different lately." He says.

She looks at him funny. "Different?" She asks.

"Yea like happy almost." He tilt his head to the side. "Did something happen?"

"Um. I guess you can say I do feel better. I got all the goats to come around. And Karen has been packing me these yummy snack bars." Lizzy says.

"That's it?" He asks. "Goats and food. You're a simple girl."

"Simple? I feel like that's supposed to be an insult but I for sure know if you call a girl complicated she will not be happy." Lizzy thinks out loud.

"I mean it as a compliment." He smiles at her.

"Well then, thank you." She says with a gentle smile.

"Ew. First Stacy and now you two?" Tate comments.

"It's not like that." Drag says.

"We are friends. And friends help each other out." Lizzy states. "Wait!"

Everyone looks at her in shock.

"What?! Did we forget an assignment?!" Tate frantically looks at his Soleil.

"No! We have back to back free time. You four can pass the bio-security test and come see the animals!" Lizzy looks at them excitedly.

"What?" They look at her. They know they are cornered and can't make up an excuse to get out of it.

"It's easy. It's a lot of hand washing and you can only visit animals in specific orders but I'm here to back you!" Lizzy wants to show them the progress she made.

The boys look at each other and shrug in agreement. 

"Might as well. We haven't seen you this excited before." Stephen comments.

Lizzy has a large grin on her face and is happy to help them pass their certification. The guys have seen Lizzy happy but this is the first time seeing her happy without Stacy around.

After school Lizzy drags the guys to the barns. Their Soleil's had gone and gotten them a change of clothes that they were fine with getting dirty. She first shows them Speckles and the hens. The guys gush over how soft their feathers are while holding the hens. Lizzy holds onto Speckles and strokes under his beak to keep him calm.

"Can I hold the big guy?" Asks Drag leaning down to see Speckles. 

Speckles let's out a few clucks as if to retaliate switching hands.

"Sure!" Lizzy says handing him over. Speckles didn't like being held by Dragon so he flapped his wings til he got loose.

"Ahhh!" Dragon squeals as Speckles wings hit him in the face. Speckles flaps down to the floor to make his escape.

"Stay back." Lizzy gets between them and the rooster.

"Are chickens really dangerous?!" Tate asks while holding onto Fluffy.

"No but catching him is going to be difficult." Lizzy says. She strategically tries getting him into the corner and picking him up. He keeps jumping, trying to sink his spurs into her and flapping his wings.

"Come on Speck." Lizzy says finally grabbing him. He pecks some skin off her hand. "Ow." She tells the rooster.

The guys are in a slight panic that Lizzy got hurt.

"Guys. Chill." She says. "He is scared and you're making it worse. Besides this is nothing." She says showing them her hand. 

"Would these ones do that to us?" Stephen asks holding Henrietta.

"Only if you hurt her. Roosters here are more aggressive in general to protect the flock." She sets Speckles back into the cage. He fluffs his feathers and starts calling for his hens.

"What's he doing?" Asks Hitohito.

"Strutting his stuff trying to get his girls back."

"I understand, Speckles." Tate says setting Fluffy in the cage. Hitohito sets Henrietta in the cage as well.

"Who wants to be loved on by goats?" Asks Lizzy while washing her cut out in the sink by the door. Tate shoots his hand up.

"I want to pet the one with big floppy ears!" He says excitedly.

"Ah yes Sprinkles should love you!" Lizzy says leading the way to the goat barn.

All the goats are weary of the new guys. Lizzy brings Bea out to walk around. Sprinkles was curious so Lizzy grabbed his collar and dragged him into the ally way for Tate to hold onto him. Sprinkles was alright with it because he got scratchies. 

"Alright you three!" Lizzy points to Stephen, Dragon and Hitohito. "We will experiment with you!"

"What?! Why!?" Dragon is a little scared.

"You'll be fine. All you will do is sit in a chair and hold a bucket. I want to see who is the bravest." Lizzy explains. 

The boys rise to the challenge by carrying chairs and buckets into the pen. Lizzy places them through out the pen and watch as the goats pick and choose who to go to. Once they found out that there was grain in the buckets they all began fighting over it. Non of the goats were that scared of the guys once they knew grain was on the line. The guys held onto their buckets for dear life til they were empty. Once they were out of grain the goats calmed down and started sniffing around the guys.

"This one's hair is really course!" Hitohito says stroking ones back.

"This one's a mix of course and fuzzy hair." Says Stephen.

"They all look similar though." Dragon adds.

"These one's are nubians, they are a type of dairy goat. They have different markings if you know where to look. Sprinkles has the most uniform sprinkle of white hair on his black coat. Spot there has a literal brown spot on her side. Just a whole bunch of little differences. Like the spot the difference games."

After they spend twenty minutes looking for differences the guys start spotting them a lot easier. 

"Oh so Lizzy. Who won the bravery challenge?" Asks Dragon.

"I would say the two Stephen is petting than these two here that came to find me." Lizzy says scratching some goat ears.

"You mean the challenge was for the goats?" Asks Stephen.

"Who else would it be for?" Asks Lizzy.

There was an awkward silence. The boys shrugged it off and laughed over what just happened. They are happy Lizzy dragged them all here. They keep getting nuzzled by goats looking for treats and petting them was surprisingly calming.

"Do you want me to go get a bandage for your cut from the office?" Karen asks Lizzy.

"Nah. We all can go. Gramps would like to see these goofballs." Lizzy smiles at her friends having fun.