Gossip
Maru Carpenter and Penny Bibbler had been best friends ever since third grade. So naturally when Maru had exciting news, she shared it with Penny immediately.
"Dr. Harvey was joking with little Jas Maldonado when I came to work this morning," said Maru. "He told her she was a pixie, and she said, no, she wasn't, and then he said, 'Isn't that right, Nurse Carpenter?'"
"And?" Penny prompted.
"But don't you see?" said Maru. "He called me by name. That means I'm not just another body in scrubs to him. He knows who I am."
Penny groaned. She didn't want to burst her best friend's bubble, but...
"I'm not sure that Dr. Harvey is into you as much as you are into him," she cautioned. "In fact, why don't we go to San Myshuno the next time GeekCon is there. You might meet someone else."
"Why do you say Dr. Harvey isn't as much into me?" asked Maru. "You don't even know him."
"I know what he looks like," said Penny. "And I saw him with that artist woman in the park yesterday. He was holding her in his arms, like a baby."
"She might have just sprained her ankle," said Maru. And Penny agreed that indeed she might.
When Maru got to the hospital the next morning, all the gossip was about Emily Hudson's baby. She'd shown up in the middle of the night and had delivered in the small hours of the morning.
"It's pretty clear that Clint Barnhart is the father," said the nurse who had been there. "He was carrying on like he was the one with a problem."
"I didn't know they were married," said Maru.
"They're not," said the other nurse.
"Anyway, they had a little girl, and her name is Madilyn. I don't know what her last name will be."
Unfortunately for Maru, when the shift changed, there was a different subject for gossip.
"Sad news, girls," said the receptionist when she came in. "Our own Dr. Dreamy just got married."
Maru wasn't the only one who gasped. "Are you sure?" someone asked.
"I noticed a strange car parked in front of his house," said the receptionist, "so I peeked in the window just in time to see the confetti. And I think she'd been there all night because she was wearing her nightie."
This was scandalous indeed. Maru slipped away while everyone else was expressing their shock. She'd been so sure that something would develop between her and Dr. Harvey -- now she just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.
"What's the matter, honey?" Robin asked as Maru stormed into the house.
She knocked on the door that had shut in her face. "Maru?" she called. "Are you all right?"
"Go away," said Maru. "I don't want to see anybody ever again. Oh, and I'm quitting my job."
This was serious. Robin went to find Demetrius. He could always get through to Maru when she couldn't.
Unfortunately, Demetrius was in the middle of being abducted by aliens.
Maybe Maru's friend Penny knew what was going on, thought Robin.
Penny came over as soon as Robin called. It took a few hours, but finally Maru calmed down enough to agree to join the family for breakfast, or maybe lunch, the next day. "I'm not going back to the hospital though," she said firmly.
When she emerged from Maru's room, Sebastian was waiting for her. "Mom said I should make sure you get home safe," he said.
"You don't need to do that," said Penny.
Sebastian rolled his eyes. "My pleasure," he said. "Maru might not be my favorite person in the world, but when Maru's upset, my stepdad's upset, and when he's upset, Mom's upset, and pretty soon it's so noisy in the house you can't hear yourself think. Besides, I like being out at night."
By the time they reached Penny's trailer, she had learned most of Sebastian's life story -- how he'd never gone to college but had spent all his time "fiddling with" his computer, to his parents' great dismay, only to land a really good job with a tech giant.
"I wish I could go to college," said Penny.
"You can take classes online these days," said Sebastian. "Even get a degree, I think."
"That would be great, but I don't have a computer," said Penny.
"I've got an old clunker that I keep because it has some games on it I like. You're welcome to come over and use it. After all, you gotta shoot for the moon if you want to reach the stars," said Sebastian. "Or is it the other way around?"
Penny giggled. "Maybe I'll do that," she said.
Sebastian hadn't noticed before that Penny was actually kind of pretty. He felt an impulse to kiss her -- just on the cheek, of course -- but at that moment her mother Pam came outside.
"Get in the house," she ordered Penny. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"I was just thanking her for helping out with my sister," said Sebastian.
"Well, I'll thank you to keep your hands off her," said Pam. "Just because I'm a single mother and we live in a trailer, people might think she's easy, but she's not, do you hear?"
"Loud and clear," said Sebastian. He could tell that Pam had been hitting the juice bar, and he didn't want to get into an argument. He slipped away before she could get into her rant.
Even so, as he left the lot, he could hear Pam yelling at Penny.
