Diamond Girl

11: Nicknames

{Lily's POV}

Lily raced out of the Meditation Room and descended the Spiral Stairs before jogging through the Green Hallway and- shortcut - straight through the Mail Room to get to the Bull Pen. This was cause for a celebratory treat. Glancing over her shoulder she reached behind the 'Energy Packs' of nuts to her secret stash of fruity goodness.

When she shut the cabinet door, she let out a little scream.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" said Sarayu, the mega-watt smile replaced with mega-watt worry.

"Oh, it's fine! I just didn't see you there," Lily said, guiltily hiding the 'healthy' Fruit Roll-Up behind her back. She'd been here four years, it was okay that she hid her favorite things, right?

"I was just wanting to thank you for your map," Sarayu said with a self-conscious smile. She flashed the back of her training binder where Lily's map had been immortalized in inkjet. "It's been such a life saver! I ended up on the roof once and was so glad I was holding this!"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, I made it for me so it's not perfect. But Susan said it's the closest thing they had so-" Lily trailed off.

"Pardon, you made the DD map!?" 

Lily and Sarayu turned to see Binder Boy (or 'BB' as Lily had begun to call him since she had already forgotten his real name) duck into the room, a delighted look on his face. Lily immediately wondered if she was supposed to be the one who informed him he was working with her now, or was she supposed to leave that to Susan?

"Lily also has a 'Cheat Code' list, if you ask really, really nicely." Piped up Polly from somewhere in the adjacent room.

Both new hires' eyes went wide with interest.

"It's just a stupid little list of things I kept forgetting..." Lily could feel her face growing hot. The list included things like 'don't trip on the third step out of The Pit, AGAIN' and 'your locker isn't broken, just push hard to the right, then pull.' Polly had found it once when all her things fell out of said locker and Polly had helped her pick them up.

"Can we have a copy?" BB asked, eyes wide and guileless as a Gerber Baby.

"Um, yeah, I can print a couple off later."

"Thanks so much!" Sarayu exclaimed. "Everyone says you're the one to ask if Susan isn't busy. Oh- speaking of, do you have time to explain something to me?"

Lily wanted to say no, as she was already running behind, but Sarayu looked so nervous to ask that she found herself agreeing and moving over to a table, instead.

"May I join?" 

BB was so polite. Lily gestured for him to sit, trying to be on her best behavior. She probably shouldn't tell him they were going to work together yet, not until she got the green light. She didn't want to scare him off in the meantime, though.

Sarayu's questions were confusing at first, but after about several minutes Lily felt she had finally gotten to the root of the issue and walked her through it. Sarayu was trying to memorize every single gemstone by sight, along with their individual properties, so she knew how to clean them. There were so many easier ways to do it when you were first starting out, Lily had a 'Cheat Sheet' for that, too.

Their questions were sometimes insightful and sometimes funny, but Lily had a good time answering them.

As they were finishing up Polly came in to raid the fridge. Obviously eavesdropping, she added some commentary about the gemstones she struggled to set securely. BB's hand was flying over the lined pages that he'd added into his binder for notes, so fast Lily was worried it would cramp.