wait, he or the t-rex are gorgeous? he thinks the t-rex is gorgeous?

14 How would your characters try to style their crush (if given the opportunity of course)?

Kattar has done this several times. He really has no issue getting Alicia to let him style her, because she knows she has very little fashion sense, so she usually goes to him whenever she needs to look nice for an event. Usually he picks out a dress that he thinks suits Alicia well, in a color they like, either pink or red, and a pair of heels, then he helps her pick a hair style, jewelry to go with etc. He likes her wearing skirts and dresses, rarely pants or shorts, and basically always picks something without sleeves, it's one of his preferences. Since she's so short, he never puts her in maxi dresses, because they would make her look drowned.

Alicia would have a hard time persuading Kattar to let her style him, but if he did finally consent, probably after much pleading, she'd actually not do that badly. She loves his hair an irrational amount so she'd probably want to try tying it back with a ribbon the way his mother ties hers, and she'd put him in a sweater with a pretty wide scoop neck, blue jeans and sneakers. He basically never wears blue jeans, or sneakers, especially not light-blue jeans, so he would have some strong feelings about that, but tolerate it. All and all, he'd look nice, but not particularly stylish. He'd still be happy wearing it if it made her happy tho.

(he sort of styles her in this chapter lol)

15 Your OCs at a festival or a concert?

I'll do both, but I'll start with at a festival.

Alicia and Kattar live near DC so there are a lot of festivals they can attend, and have attended, like the Cherry Blossom Festival and Fiesta DC (Latino Festival.) Alicia loves festivals and is like a bumble at events like these. she wants to look at everything and taste all the food. Kattar never orders anything himself because he knows Alicia won't finish a lot of her food and he'll be called on to finish it for her so it won't go to waste (she's tiny, you can blame her for trying to save space in her stomach.) The primary problem for both of them at festivals is the heat. Despite being basically a snake and getting cold easily, Kattar also overheats easily and he doesn't like sweating. He'll wear linen, but he's also worried about anywhere where there are heavy crowds meaning someone will touch him with dirty hands and get his clothes dirty. He's also just not a fan of crowds, and that has increased ten-fold now that he's in a wheelchair. Before he was in a wheelchair, he used to have to put Alicia up on his shoulders (not that that was that big a deal, since she's not heavy) for her to be able to see any performances taking place. she was uncomfortable with being up that high at first, but she got used to it once she realized he wasn't going to drop her.

At a concert things are way different. Alicia doesn't like them, like at all. Somehow being in a crowd at a concert is way more uncomfortable for her than it is in the open air of a festival and she hates the amount of people touching her at all times when she's in a standing area so she always has to get seats. Before Kattar was paralyzed, he loved concerts. He's been to several, usually rock concerts, throughout his teens and twenties and he almost always dragged a friend along with him, usually Alicia, and they made and night out of it, going to the concert, then for dinner, and probably staying in a hotel if the town the concert was in was far from where they lived. The concert was always the worst portion of the day for Alicia, especially because they're just so crazy loud, but she enjoyed the trip and the dinner.

Have I mentioned that Alicia is horrible to take with you on road trips?

I'll give details on that one next, and then camping XD.

16: your OCs on a road trip?

Let's establish this right away.

Alicia is a road trip demon. Do not take her on a road trip with you. Anyone who loved her any less than Kattar would have lost patience at hour two when she's asking to stop to go to the bathroom for the second time. She also buys tons of snacks at gas stations and Kattar doesn't like it when she eats in his car, but she'll beg to be allowed to eat something because she's so hungry, and she does manage to eat without spilling for anywhere between 20 minutes to 2 hours, but she WILL spill eventually lol.

She wants to talk rather than listening to music or audio books which is fine, unless you had albums or audio books you were planning to listen to, but fortunately Kattar doesn't MIND talking. Also she takes too long to eat whenever you stop to eat along the road and that makes getting back to the trip take longer than it needs to.

Once they arrive at the locations she's enough fun for Kattar to forget why he dislikes taking her on long trips every SINGLE time until it's time to get home. Basically the only annoying thing she doesn't do is ask "Are we there yet?"

Jinho is horrible on road trips because he can read or watch videos without getting dizzy so he just...does, and doesn't interact with the driver. (Read: Andrew, because he's so much better at driving than Jinho is. And no, this isn't a 'driving while asian' situation.)

a road trip actually happened in "Damsel in the Red Dress" too, several actually, but in the past, so they'll only be mentioned in retrospect, but one is pretty relevant to the third book, as it revolved around Alicia's 21st b-day

200+ yikes. My heaviest queen rn doesn't break two hundred, but she isn't a robot either. Alicia isn't even that heavy, she's just so small you can't distribute her weight well and it feels like she'll smash your leg if she sits on your knee lol.

17: how will your characters deal with their bff being in a kind of bratty/grouchy mood?

Alicia has a tendency to go from 0 to 100 and either be very sweet or very irritable with no in between. Kattar's response to this usually depends on the context. If it's his fault he used to try to brush it off, but he's learning to apologize. But if it's not his fault and she's just being a...woman who complains a lot, he usually tries to spoil her to get her to smile and not be so irritable. typically his go to method for this would be to get her to stop talking first (not an easy feat) and then offer to take her out to get something to eat or get ice cream. When you've had a female bff since Junior high you learn there are a few different kinds of angry.

1. I'm angry AT you
2. I've had a bad day
3. I'm hungry
4. It's that time of the month.

2 through 4 can be solved with food, and in Alicia's case, sometimes with cuddles.

When Kattar is having a grouchy day Alicia can sometimes get irritable herself, but when she controls that urge, she often tries to get him to smile or laugh or be playful and affectionate to get him to lighten up. Her hugging him when he was having a bad day was usually enough to ruin his bad mood, if nothing else, because he felt the need to separate her from him before he got too embarrassed, and she would stubbornly cling to him until he agreed to stop being such a pickle puss.

It's time to deliver

Your OCs while camping?

First of all Kattar has never gone camping of his own volition, period, and he's also never been 'real camping' only stayed in out of the way cabin with some of his friends when they were 19. He doesn't like the woods, he doesn't like that most standards for sanitation deplete significantly the second people get out into the wilderness. He doesn't like that he could drive HIMSELF because his hot rod cars definitely couldn't make the trip so he had to ride with his friends Ryan, Brad, Utkarsh, Lee and Alicia, and there were legit four of them (him being one of them) crammed into the back seat without the proper safety precautions like seat belts.

Then once they arrived he had to share a room with three other people, which he is also not used to being an only child who also wasn't big on sleepovers unless they took place at his own house, and that was usually two friends at a time MAX. He didn't particularly enjoy tramping through the woods, and was worried they'd get lost (they didn't.) He didn't want to go swimming in the lake (and didn't) because he doubted how clean it was.

Alicia on the other hand loves nature. She likes being away from the noise and crowds of the city. Crowds of people are often a no go for her, crowds of trees are totally fine. She went about sketching plants and leaves, and occasionally chatting with Kattar who really didn't want to leave her to wander the woods alone because he was convinced it would be way too easy for her to get kidnapped. She also got a room to herself in the cabin as the only girl present, so win win. She doesn't shower or wash her hair that often, so it wasn't a big loss to her either lol.

Dominic does okay at a farm. He can help move heavy hay bales. He'll be gentle with the horses and cows, so they'll trust him and he learns fast, so he'll probably be allowed to help groom them and braid the horse's manes. He'll also love getting to feed and be around the cute little animals like lambs and baby goats, and he'll be particularly curious about any new kinds of flowers he sees there and takes pictures so he can try to make them out of origami later.

Essence isn't a fan of the farm, just seeing it as more work, but she'll quietly participate and be happy to leave when she's done. Dominic however will be trying to get her to enjoy it. Feeding her farm fresh berries and figs and getting her to sample the ice creams that the farm makes. After visiting the farm he'll take her to a small bakery where he'll tell her to order anything she wants. She'll probably only pick one thing so he'll pick several more for the two of them to share, and they'll eat them with some of the milk they bought at the farm.

even if he knew the friend needed to be comforted or cheered up?

Essence doesn't have a crush but if she knew Dominic really wanted something she could reasonably provide for him without jeopardizing any of her previous agreements, she would probably find a way to give it to him as a tit-for-tat sort of thank you for the gifts that he's given her.

If Dominic found out that Essence really wanted something, he'd probably buy it for her if he didn't think it would make her too uncomfortable. if he was worried she'd feel bad about receiving something too expensive he'd give it to her anonymously, but he'd honestly prefer to give it to her in person so he could see her reaction. Unfortunately there isn't much like this he can do for Essence because the only thing she really wants is sleep. He could buy her a pillow i guess.