Saving the Doctor

Chapter 1

"...and I was like, 'Seriously? That is the oldest pick-up line in the book!'" Aunika flips her long strawberry-blond hair over her shoulder as we walk past all of the carnival-like booths.

I take a bite of my last non-custard-covered fish-finger. Auni and I had both tried the custard and decided that it was the nastiest thing we had ever tasted. I suppose it just makes Matt Smith's Doctor all the quirkier. "So how'd you get rid of him?"

She smirks almost evilly and I raise an eyebrow at her, "Aunika Saunders, what did you do to him?"

Still smirking, she throws a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "I gave him the number."

"Aunika, Jessica, Saunders." I give her an incredulous look, "You did not! You gave him the Rejection Line number?!"

She smiles proudly. "Yup."

I shove her to the side playfully, "You are terrible! I could never do that to some desperate guy!"

She laughs and kind of pushes me back, but not hard enough to actually throw my balance at all. "Maybe someday you will. A lot of these guys are just begging for it."

As I'm shaking my head at her, some guy whistles and slaps Aunika on her backside. He turns and winks, but doesn't stop to chat. Which is probably a smart move, considering that Aunika has an extremely short temper. "Jerk!" she yells after him.

After we get back into a rhythm, I decide to bring up what I know will turn into my most hated argument. "Well, to be honest, Auni, you're kinda asking for it."

"What are you talking about?" She throws another piece of popcorn in her mouth, pretending she has no idea what I'm about to say. We both know what it is, but I'm going to say it anyway.

"Really, Auni? You're dressed as Amelia Pond! What kind of attention did you expect?"

She looks down at her outfit, pretending to have forgotten that she's wearing a black super-mini miniskirt, a black tank-top with a red one over it, and tan cowgirl boots to finish off the look. She shrugs, "I guess I didn't really think about it, 'cause Amy is my favorite. Besides. I do pull the look off pretty good, right? I even have the hair!"

She steps in front of me, halting our progress, and stands there with her arms out, showing me just how much she looks like Amy. I cross my arms and take in her costume. Okay, yes. She does have the same hair, eye color and skin complextion as Amy; but one look at her face and you know she's not Karen Gillan. "Donna Noble has red hair, too, ya know."

She throws one arm up in a shrug, holding her bag of popcorn with the other, and, rolling her eyes, turns and continues walking. "Yeah, well, at least I'm dressed as someone everybody likes. Nobody likes your character except for you."

And there it is. The hated subject. Oh well, I was kinda asking for it. I hurriedly catch up to her as she pops another piece of popcorn into her mouth. "Hey! Martha is awesome!" I slap her lightly on the arm, "And I'm not the only one who likes her. Mickey married her, remember?"

Auni scoffs, "Mickey the Idiot, you mean. And don't even think about bringing up Jack. He likes everybody."

I frown and finish my fish-finger. This is one of our constant arguments. She insists that I only like Martha because no one else does, not even the Doctor. It isn't true, of course, but I always back down; I still haven't come up with an answer she'll take.

She absentmindedly looks at her watch and her eyebrows shoot upwards, "Ohmygosh! It's about to start! Hurry, we gotta go or they won't let us in!"

We take off at a run and barely make it in time, thankfully not having to test her theory of whether they would let us in or not if we were late. The usher shows us to our seats just as they start turning off the lights. The excited whispers die down as the latest Christmas Special of Doctor Who starts.

I still can't believe that we got tickets to watch the first showing of it in the U.S.!

...Okay. So, technically...Auni got the tickets. But she got two so she wouldn't have to go alone. Either way, I got to come, and that's good enough for me. The only thing about watching something with Auni, though, is that she talks. Through the entire. Thing. I don't know if she realizes it or not, but its enough to drive anyone insane.

After the credits and the crowd of talking people are gone, we finally make it out into the open air. "Good god! I have never been in a crowd like this in all my life!"

Auni grins, "Crazy, right? And just think: they're all Whovians. Just like us! You could probably walk up to anybody and be instant friends just because of it!"

I become suddenly serious as I take in the entire crowd and the fact that they all belong to the same fandom. If everyone decides to join up and do something crazy. "Oh, man...Whovians really could take over the world..."

Auni laughs, "We really could if we set our minds to it. You know, instead of collecting cards and figurines, and writing or reading fan fiction and drawing and looking for fan-art all the time. Besides watching and rewatching all of the episodes and spin-offs. And the spin-offs of the spin-offs. World domination takes a lot of time and brain power, you know."

I give her a look, "You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

She shrugs and pulls out her car keys, "Gotta do something with the time in between collecting, reading, writing, watching and drawing."

I point seriously at her. "And work."

She smiles, "And work. Can't forget that."

We laugh as we make our way towards the parking lot. We pick up some drinks along the way and soon we reach the end of the Who-fest. When we get to the lot and are about to head to Auni's car, I spot something totally awesome: People taking pictures with a life-sized replica of the Tardis. "Oh. My god, Auni. Look. We have got to go and take some pictures."

Auni seems like she wants to, but studies the line of people waiting, and then looks down at her watch. "Oh, man, Beth. I really want to, but...I have an appointment at Five A.M. tomorrow and its already getting late. I hafta get up around one, drive back to the office, then fill out some paperwork before heading over to my interview. I really just...can't. Sorry."

"No, don't be sorry! It's fine. Go. Get some rest. We can always Photoshop you in later."

"Alright. Sounds like a plan." She smiles and gives me a hug, "Have fun, kiddo."

I hug her back, "I'm older than you, you know."

She laughs as we part, "Yeah, I know. But you act younger than me, so I get to call you 'kid'." She gives me a semi-serious look as she starts to slowly take a couple of bouncing steps backwards towards her car, "We're still on for Wednesday, right?"

I give her a thumbs up as I keep a look out for cars that might decide to come speeding by, "You bet."

"Alright then, see you Wednesday!" She waves at me when she finds her car and I give a final wave as she gets in and starts it up.

"Bye!" I call, even though she probably can't hear me. I wait until she safely pulls into traffic to get in line.