voyager // max mayfield

THREE: THE POLLYWOG

"D'Artagnan?" Mike asks, looking at it in wonder. The thing was so different, it was a new mystery for the gang to solve.

"Dart for short," Dustin says with a huge smile on his face. He really liked the creature and was really hoping his friends - and his crush, Eve - liked it too.

"Wait... D'Artagnan as in one of the musketeers?" Eve asks, judgement clear in her voice as she stared at the creature.

"He likes nougat too!" Dustin argued, trying to lighten the mood.

"And he was in your trash?" Eve asks, feeling sick and tired from yesterday. Seeing the little creature didn't make her feel any better, in fact, she felt repulsed looking at it.

"Foraging for food," Dustin says to her, only wanting to impress her, "You wanna hold him?"

The idea of holding something that made squelching noises and was slimy was not appealing to Eve in any way. She shook her head quickly, "No, he probably has dirty trash juices on him. No way."

"He doesn't bite," Dustin tells her with a smile as he moves it closer to her. Eve sends him glare that he obviously doesn't understand - and mistakes it as a playful look of love.

"I don't want to..." too late, he put it on her hand and she immediately wanted to get it off, "Fucking hell, he's slimy!"

She passed it to Max quickly, wanting to wash her hands several times with bleach, "Oh, my god,  he is." She passes it To Lucas, who comments, "Ugh, he's like a living booger."

Lucas passes it to Will after a moment, feeling repulsed, "Ugh, oh, God!"

"We probably all have diseases now," Eve says, wiping her hand on a piece of tissue from her pocket.

Will then passes it to Mike, who just holds it, curious, "What is he?"

"My question exactly," Dustin says, before taking it and putting it on the table.

"You don't know what it is and you just let us touch it?" Eve asks with wide eyes, "Dustin!"

"You haven't dropped down and started salivating at the mouth, your fine," he laughs and gets out his books of research, "At first, I thought it was some type of pollywog."

"Pollywog?" Max asks, her eyebrows furrowing at the new word.

"It's another word for tadpole," Eve tells the girl as she leans against the table. Max does the same after a moment, accidentally putting her hand over Eve's. But neither move their hands.

It was a cliche move in a completely un-cliche moment. Plus, no one noticed anyway - they were all too focused on Dart.

"A tadpole is the larval stage of a toad," Dustin clarifies to Max.

"I know what a tadpole is," Max says, making Eve chuckle slightly. Max wasn't dumb, how was she to know what the word 'pollywog' meant?

"All right, then you know that most tadpoles are aquatic, right?" Dustin asks her, earning a nod from the redhead, "Well, Dart, he isn't. He doesn't need water."

"Yeah, but aren't there nonaquatic pollywogs?" Lucas asks him.

"Can you stop sounding smart?" Eve asks, "just say tadpoles that don't need water because it's confusing me."